I have never seen anything quite like Chainsaw Man.

I’m not talking about the show itself, to be clear. I’ve seen plenty of anime, manga, shows, movies, and video games that share similar DNA with Tatsuki Fujimoto’s breakout smash hit. What I mean is, I have never seen anything take over the anime community in the way that Chainsaw Man has. This manga was so staggeringly popular that it shot straight to the top of Anilist’s most popular manga rankings and stays there to this day. Most of the time an anime adaptation brings new attention to its source material, but Chainsaw Man was already the biggest goddamn thing in the otaku community before we even got a single teaser trailer for the anime. Everyone was talking about it, everyone (well, mostly everyone) was praising it, everyone was discussing it to such an extent that for once, waiting for the anime to release before checking it out felt like the hipster choice. As long as I’ve been a part of this community, nothing, and I mean nothing, has reached the silver screen with as much pre-release hype and anticipation as Chainsaw Man. No other anime has made its way into a world where its presence already casts so long a shadow.

And that’s kind of a problem.

See, I’ve been an anime fan long enough to know that a lot of times, anime fans are the fucking worst. Either they’re overly critical of every little detail because they’re looking for excuses to hate a show, or they blind themselves so utterly to a show’s faults that they steamroll over everyone else’s attempts to criticize it with blind fanboyism. And the colossal pedigree of Chainsaw Man was going to make the anime a lightningrod for both of those extremes on a scale we’ve never seen before. On the one hand you’ll have the blind zealots who hype the show up to an absurd degree that nothing could possibly live up to. On the other hand you’ll have the people so turned off by the first people that they’ll look for any excuse to call the show terrible- or even worse: mid. And on yet another hand, you’ll have the fanboys who are so slavishly devoted to the manga and Fujimoto’s vision specifically that they’ll pick apart every last change the anime makes with the kind of noxious incel entitlement rarely seen outside the Snydercut weirdos. And finally, you’ll have the newcomers, the people who haven’t read the manga and are coming to the anime with fresh eyes, who will be so exhausted by the shit-flinging that their opinion on the show itself will be lost amid the toxic sludge of the discourse surrounding it. How can anyone manage to just watch the damn show and appreciate it on its own merits with all that going on around them?

But when all is said and done, none of that nonsense matters. The discourse doesn’t matter, the toxicity of certain fans and haters doesn’t matter, and most of all- and I don’t care how angry this makes you- the manga doesn’t matter. Chainsaw Man the anime is not an advertisement for its source material or a greatest hits compilation that only exists to pander to fanboys; it’s a wholly complete work in and of itself. It’s a show you should be able to pick up and watch without engaging in any of the madness surrounding it. And that’s why I’m here today: to cut through all the noise and take this anime entirely on its own terms. I haven’t read the manga, and I’m mostly unspoiled, so I think my perspective will be clearer than most people who’ve already spend upwards of two years marinating in Denji’s Bizarre Adventure and the culture surrounding it. All I care about is whether or not Chainsaw Man, the anime, is an engaging, entertaining, and worthwhile experience all on its own. Because at the end of the day, that will determine its success, not how well it copies its source material or jerks off the already converted.

Cool? Cool. Let’s dive in.

Our story is set in the modern day, mostly the same as our world except for the fact that devils are real and walk among us, threatening humanity. Times are tough, most people live in fear, and the Public Safety Bureau tasked with keeping the threat of devils at bay can only do so much. And then there’s Denji, one of no doubt countless young people lost and adrift in this confusing, terrifying world, doing dirty jobs and selling his organs just to get by. At age sixteen, Denji has never had any semblance of a normal, comfortable life, to the point that something as simple as jam on toast feels like a luxury to him. But all that changes when an unexpected betrayal ends up with him dead… only to come back to life with the power of the Chainsaw Devil fused into his heart. Yes, just like the show’s title says, Denji can transform into a man made of chainsaws, a cackling maniac capable of ripping through flesh and bone like a one-man industrial slaughterhouse. And that power puts him on the radar of Public Safety, who see great potential in his ability to take on a devil’s powers without becoming a devil himself. Thus, he’s drafted into the front lines of those who track down and slaughter the infernal beasts, tasked with using his power to fight back against devilkind without going so out of control that he needs to be put down himself. And if he behaves himself like a good little boy, he might just get that life of plenty that always seemed so far out of his reach.

Is it the most unique premise in the world? Not really. But in execution, there are so many specific details that make this world and these characters come alive. You can practically feel the existential ennui dripping off everyone, the knowledge that they’ve living in a fucked-up world and just gotta do their best to make it day to day with the simple pleasures they can afford. For as raucous and chaotic as the action gets, the most powerful moments in this show are often the quietest. A character goes about his morning in the silence of a sky barely lit with dawn. Two characters in the same car speak volumes in the space between their words. Some of the most heartbreaking sequences involve characters just… sinking into the quiet of night, trying to go about their business unruffled while the weight of their regrets and trauma weighs invisibly down on them. In a world where so many big action shows are allergic to just letting moments breathe, Chainsaw Man is a soothing balm that remembers even the biggest, loudest fireworks showers are nothing without the calm before the storm.

But it’s certainly not only doom and gloom. In fact, one of the biggest delights I had with Chainsaw Man is just how uproariously funny it can be. The off-kilter cast of characters all have such distinct personalities, and watching everyone’s unique flavor of fucked-up bounce off each other leads to some moments that left me cackling. And Fujimoto has a real knack for drawing laughs with an unexpected moment of ultraviolence or gross-out humor right when you least expect it. The world of Chainsaw Man is more than a little bit unhinged, and that’s just as capable of being piss-your-pants funny as it is bleak and uncompromising. Life, after all, is composed of multitudes, sometimes barely separated by a moment’s notice before peace breaks into war or war gets smacked on the cheek for being a bad boy and cowed back into peace. That unpredictability ensures that even in its slower moments, this show is never boring to watch. And it makes every victory, however small, hit that much harder, knowing just how much the slightest step up means in a world this uncompromising.

But if you asked me to define the core of Chainsaw Man? The thing that makes it so interesting to think about and separates it from all its similar peers? Well, I have one idea. An idea that so few of the people I’ve seen discussing this show seem to really notice, but lies at the heart of basically everything this show is trying to say:

Chainsaw Man has some thoughts about sex.

See, Denji’s lived such a deprived life that he’s only just now started considering what would leave him fulfilled on every level, not just physically. Now that he’s finally got a regular source of food and water and shelter, his brain’s finally free to start climbing up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and start thinking about what else would make his life feel complete. And because he’s a repressed teenage boy, his first line of thinking is that he wants to touch some titty. Something that he achieves pretty speedily thanks to a bargain with the show’s best character (Bow before Power, mortals, you do not deserve her), only to find out that, well… it’s just boobs. That’s literally all it is. Which isn’t just hilarious because it sends him into a brief manic spiral, but also because it prods at one of anime’s longest and most infamous traditions of fanservice. Anime puts so much stock in boobs, spends so much effort getting its audience to drool over fictional bazongas, that it becomes easy to attach a near religious significance to them. But at the end of they day? They’re literally just boobs. Just sacks of yellow fat attached to a person’s chest. And while it might be fun or pleasurable to cop a feel or two, your life won’t suddenly turn itself around just because of it. Cheap sexual gratification the likes of which anime so often indulges in, Chainsaw Man seems to say, is nothing but an empty distraction from what’s actually making you unhappy. And if you want to actually find happiness, then you’re gonna have to put a lot more work in that a couple squeezes of some random mammary glands.

And that’s far from the only way Denji’s relationships with women and femininity are charged with deeper meaning. He actually has a very interesting relationship with sexuality, one that he doesn’t really seem aware of himself. He’s surrounded by women he considers attractive and lusts after them, but he’s got enough emotional intelligence to keep his hornier thoughts to himself and not be gross about it. Yet the promise of sexual favors from his female co-workers is often the biggest motivator in getting him off his ass and into the fray. And it’s… deeply uncomfortable, watching this sixteen-year-old throw himself into pursuing adult women who, even at the best of times, don’t have his best interests at heart. Like, let’s be clear here, Denji is a kid. A kid on the older side who was probably forced to grow up too fast, but a kid nonetheless. And it’s clear he doesn’t have anywhere near the maturity to be comfortably involved with anyone, let alone someone close to twice his age. But because most of the adults surrounding him aren’t exactly stable themselves, there’s no one around to tell him how badly he’s risking getting seriously hurt- or worse- by putting so much stock in sex. And because he’s too much of a dumb teenager to recognize the warning signs, he has no idea just how dangerous his relationship with his mommy dommy boss Makima is becoming.

The thing is, though… I don’t know how to feel about all this. Sure, the story knows Makima is bad news, at least, and it doesn’t shy away from how predatory her actions toward Denji are (side note, Makima is fucking terrifying and I can’t wait to find out what her deal is). But what about Himeno? You know, the adult woman who tries to have sex with Denji while he’s drunk? Because unlike Makina, Himeno’s resolutely in the good guys’ camp, and nothing really much comes of her- and I cannot stress enough- trying to fuck a child. They acknowledge it in a throwaway line the morning after (”You can get thrown in jail for doing something like that.”) and then everyone moves on. And I can’t help but feel like the show’s trying to have its cake and eat it too. Like it’s trying to tell a genuinely affecting story about a stunted teenager grappling with unhealthy sexuality but also indulge in the fantasy of hot dommy mommies being all hot and dommy at the same time. And when I think about how absurdly popular this series has already become, I worry that this kind of wink-wink pandering is part of the reason why. Like it’s selling a kink with juuuust enough plausible deniability to pretend it’s actually “subverting” it so its fanbase can pretend it’s totally smarter and more mature than other shonen when it’s really just selling the same shit with an air of superiority. Or maybe all the barking Makima simps just completely missed the point and everything will make sense down the line. We’ll have to wait and see.

What I don’t have to wait and see, thankfully, is just how goddamn motherfucking amazing this show looks.

Yes, you don’t need me to tell you that Chainsaw Man is one of the most astounding feats of animation ever put to television. But I’m saying it anyway, because it cannot be overstated enough. This. Show. Looks. Fucking. INSANE. Not just the sheer level of detail in the animation, but the cinematic sweep of the camera, the precision of every edit, the orgasmic fluidity of the bone-crunching action and subtle character moments alike. Bodies shred and rip apart with raucous glee, characters barrel through the city with enough velocity to tear the skin off your face, a subtle shift of a hand or change of expression conveys fathoms of meaning, and the camera draws you into these spaces until you feel like you can taste the blood on the walls and feel the muggy air rustle through your sweat-soaked undershirt. A single episode of Chainsaw Man has more animation and cinematic verve than most TV anime manage in their entire runs. It genuinely feels like you’re watching a movie, that’s how high quality it is. And no, not even the occasionally awkward CG modeling on the devils and the man of saws and chains himself takes away from that sense of awe. Hell, most of the time the CG is fantastically integrated with the 2D elements! What, you’re gonna complain that your divinely blessed shonen adaptation looks like a goddamn movie only 99% of the time? While most non-shonen and non-isekai are lucky to get even a tenth as much? Do you entitled fucking babies even realize how lucky you are? Or what, do you want Mappa’s animators to work themselves even more to death to fulfill your perfect vision? Some people don’t deserve good adaptations, I swear to god.

So, is Chainsaw Man the second coming of Jesus? Of course not. But it IS a gloriously gruesome splatterhouse spectacle with some of the most jaw-dropping action ever put to screen and some of the most impeccable care put into making its smaller, simpler moments feel just as momentous as every severed limb and shower of blood. It’s a show that swept me away with sheer confidence the likes of which you almost never see, confidence only matched by the raw passion and talent of the artists bringing its incredible sights and sounds to life. Time will tell if the story truly is as incredible as manga readers have hyped it up to be, or if it’s merely a very good foundation upon which all this deliriously entertaining carnage can be built. But you know what? Even if it’s the latter, it can still hold its head up proudly as one of the finest pieces of sheer entertainment this year in anime had to offer- and considering the competition, that’s saying a lot.