It is undeniable that Chainsaw Man has gained a significant amount of popularity in recent years, with many hailing it as a masterpiece of the shounen genre. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that this praise is largely undeserved, and that Chainsaw Man is, in fact, an incredibly mediocre and over-hyped series.

One of the primary reasons for this hype is the high production value of the series, which is often cited as a standout aspect of the show. While it is true that the animation and visuals of Chainsaw Man are impressive, with high-quality action sequences and background design, these elements do not completely make up for the numerous awkward-looking scenes and the heavy reliance on CGI. It seems that much of the show's notoriously high budget was poured into the explosive and visually impressive endings as well as hiring twelve different popular artists to make them, rather than the overall quality of the show itself.

Furthermore, the story and characters of Chainsaw Man are completely bland and generic, lacking any depth or originality. Most characters fall into very common tropes that have been beaten to death, like Aki, who is the shounen genre’s twentieth Sasuke copy. The plot follows the typical shounen formula of a goofy, a semi-charismatic protagonist fighting against increasingly powerful enemies (with poor and incomprehensible power scaling). But the twist for csm is that this mc’s most stand-out feature is being horny instead of being hungry. With shallow and surface-level character development, the characters themselves are one-dimensional and fail to leave a lasting impression, with most of the side characters simply serving as vehicles for the plot and "huge twists" when side character A & B die an inconsequential death to show how strong the antagonist is.

To further expand on the lackluster character writing, let's break down a few specific characters. First, Makima, the most beloved character in csm. She is commonly touted as a remarkable and incredibly well-written villain, but in reality, the biggest twist she brings to the table is her gender. If an antagonist was exactly like her, and manipulated Denji in a way that wasn't sexual, then the character would just be incredibly average, and nobody would care about them. Makima isn’t the only character carried on the back of horny anime fans, but Kobeni is too. To be frank, she’s just incredibly unlikable. She only cries and screams and proceeds to make the wrong decision at almost every opportunity. She did only one thing right in this entire season, but she was crying while doing it, and did a half-assed job of it too. For the rest of the main cast, Power and Denji are fine, they serve a decent job as comic relief type characters, but they still aren’t that stand-out in that regard either. I will not elaborate further on Aki being a Sasuke clone, that is the plain and simple truth.

With all the criticism out of the way, none of that is to say that Chainsaw Man is a horrible show, it is just remarkably average. The high-production value and the one-note characters are enough to derive enjoyment from when watching this anime, at least to the point of not being bored, but this series is nowhere near the masterpiece it is claimed to be. It’s as bland as demon slayer but has a little more gore and more mature aspects but they aren’t handled maturely they’re just used in gross excess that detracts all meaning. But the series possessing those aspects is enough for fans to convince themselves that csm is a profound, deep, and mature work.

In conclusion, while Chainsaw Man may have impressive production values and action sequences, it is ultimately a mediocre and over-hyped series that fails to deliver in terms of storytelling and character development. Its relatively good fight-scenes and twelve unique endings cannot make up for its shallow and generic narrative, making it just an average to slightly enjoyable watch.