The most anticipated anime of 2022 for many people does not live up to the hype. Why? Let's start at the beginning.

The first episode is a very solid introduction to both the story and our main character. We immediately get to know Denji's struggles and how they affect his day-to-day life and emotional state. Him becoming the Chainsaw Man is exciting and entertaining. After that, the show slowly starts going downhill. Let's talk about the characters. First, we're introduced to Makima and Aki. Makima is a very cryptic character that could be much fun in the future, but in this season we don't get to see a lot of her apart from her comforting and encouraging Denji. We do get to see some of her amazing powers towards the end, which is appreciated. Aki is a grumpy badass with strong motivations for doing what he does. Apart from Denji, he's given more attention than any other character in the show. I'm not sure if that's warranted considering that most of his backstory also involves the most annoying character in the show - Himeno. Her character is given much more screen time than she deserves and that time is spent not on building her up as a character, but rather on dumb sex jokes and just her being a pervert and a groomer. If the show wanted us to feel bad for her, it massively failed in its intent. The lack of focus on what this show tries to accomplish is my biggest problem with it. Sometimes it tries to be emotional, but we're not given time to care that much about the characters and it simply doesn't hit the spot. Sometimes it tries to be funny, but the comedy revolves mostly around Denji being completely obsessed with discovering female body parts. And this is not a criticism of his character, I get why he'd be like that. I am however critical of how much time is spent on this, especially given that it's really not funny at all. And then, what I believe is the main course of the show - the action. It's not bad by any means, but it also isn't very flashy or exciting just yet. There isn't a lot of tension built up in these fights, you know which characters can't possibly die and which are not that important to the narrative. And while the animation is pretty good, it doesn't come close to any of Ufotable's recent works, Attack on Titan or One Punch Man. I do realize that I'm comparing the action to some of the all-time greats, but isn't this what Chainsaw Man is aiming to be? And if the action isn't what grabs you and truly immerses you in, the other parts of the show just aren't good enough to do that. I haven't talked about Power yet and all I'll say is... she's definitely an anime character. Not very remarkable or interesting, a comic relief character that doesn't do its job very well in such a role. The season finale is also very unremarkable. Everything gets resolved very quickly and I can't say that anything interesting happens, other than the introduction of some other half-devils that work for the special force. The premise is interesting enough that it could get better in the next few seasons and if more interesting demons are introduced, it could be fun. But the first season of Chainsaw Man is a massive failure in my eyes. The pacing is strange, the focus is all over the place, most of the characters are not that interesting, and it doesn't hit any highs other than in animation. Let's hope for a better season 2.