THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS FOR BOTH ANIME AND MANGA: Reading discretion is advised

Pre-Thoughts:
When this show first came out and the unfortunate Twitter community got a hand on it I hated the very name of the series. When your timeline is flooded with dog fucking memes and fatasses of a redhead, and the “hes just like me fr fr” and among us everywhere It became really tiresome and i didn't like the name of the show at that point , merely mentioning it would put you as an outlier to me . So when my contractor gave me the anime I was honestly expecting the worst . I was expecting it to be an over-hyped anime that had mediocre everything , like the voicing the action the violence and maybe even the story . But i took some time, cleared my head, and tried to look at this through an open mind with no bias . And I found out to be corrected about this show, in fact I was completely corrected as this is Became one of my favorite shows

Story:
Most of the time I'm not really a fan of the morbid “end is nigh” and “everything is gloomy '' settings . But if done right or presented well could still grab my attention just like anything else. Here I think it did a really good job setting the situation's out for Denji . A small child whose father seemingly committed suicide because of a crippling debt and now he's inherited it and ever since then has lived the life of dangerous tasks just to get by . And I mean just getting by, He can only buy a loaf of bread at some points. White bread to add in fact , not even wheat bread . It's really tough to see it.
At some point he actually dies and not in a good way either , more like “i got diced up into pieces and dumped into a trash bin” bad. It's sad to say but this is probably one of the few times I've ever actually sympathized with a character in a really messed up situation. Raised with a crippling debt of constant danger and all he wanted was to live a normal life , enjoy the things that most people take for granted everyday. And that kind of setting sticks to me like crazy glue , really gives you a reminder just how good most people have it.

Another thing I liked or rather peaked my interest in is the concept of both the devils and humans capable of forming contracts with each other. But understandably we're talking about humans so it's more of a mutual interest to benefit off of one another. And the concept of a devil growing more powerful the more they're feared . So when you got people like the boogeyman or Freddy Krueger they would just be unstoppable but that also could mean you could get some ridiculous stuff like the toaster devil being scary to people who are afraid of water and electricity or something . It also has a downside where if people don't fear the devil or in fact even cheer it on they also become weaker . So you could have situations where if a devil is cheered on and less feared it would have the same effect and kill them . A sweet bitter fate
And lastly the concept that humans and devils can merge together to become “Mans(?)” Of those devils . At first we only see it with chainsaw man but then we figure out about Katana-man and then past the anime we learn more about an bomb one and then countless other types. It's nutty to think about that but could also be a little funny if you consider the thought that somebody could become the “toaster man” haha
I haven't seen anything try an approach like this but I think it did it pretty well. It's pretty simple and straightforward but a lot of under the hood functions.

Characters:
I think there's a general lack of empathy around most of the characters that reside with and around Denji . It's sort of given me this narcissistic lack of human care sort of vibe. Callous and abrasive. Kind of like their soul is drained and what was left are the negatives but they're still resilient enough so they don't really look like bad people. But some of these people are just downright abhorrent and fully deserve the hate that they generate . There are few characters in all of the forms of Japanese media that I've consumed where I hated characters with a passion, but surprisingly a lot of them come from here . Which is really saying something about how well written most of these people are , written in such a way where presented to people well flat out hate them. There are quite a lot of them where at first I got the impression they would be insufferable or someone I really wouldn't pay attention to down the road, but as time always tells you, once you get to know something you start changing your perspective.

Characters like Aki first gave me a sour impression because of how cold they were. But I Start learning about his purpose, his cause, his reasoning and I start to appreciate a guy like that . Just so many things messed up in that world and he was a great example to showcase it. I think it ain't too far to say that he was originally one of my most disliked characters and he quickly jumped up to my favorite .

Anime:
Since I was told to do the anime but I went ahead and continued through the manga. This will be about the anime itself . The anime surprisingly wasn't that bad in terms of its animation . It has a hybrid of traditional digital art and CGI mixed into certain situations like a gory bloody fight where there's a bunch of intestines or choreographed combat . I think they did a pretty good job with it , though it is kind of hard to copy anime styles with 3D well making it look out of place but they did do their best to make it nice . They have a few up close shots that really show the expressions of characters with CGI so I was happy about that . I would say that for everything except for certain types of devils who just look ugly and out of place sometimes . Like the bat and the Leech devil just looks so awkward in that form . But I guess with having it a few moments at a time rather than every time like Berserk 2016 did it mixed pretty well..
I also think they did a really good job catching the spirit of the violence that was depicted in the manga, and I dare say they might have made it slightly better in certain moments. When somebody loses an arm you could feel the impact of the damage and the exaggerated momentum of it flying off the sockets .

Overall I think they did a really good job capturing the spirit of what the manga was trying to convey with the action and violence

Manga:
After I was done with the anime I was highly recommended to continue forward with the manga where it left off and so I did . At first it kind of felt out of place and lackluster with all the action and change of art style . Perhaps I was a little over spoiled when it came to the anime. I was kind of hoping the art style would be similar but as we know in the past the anime tends to change art style to make it easier to draw or easier to model. With time I got used to it and even preferred the manga art style at some points.

It's almost pretty much a 1:1 When it comes to The story . You're not missing out much if you watch the anime and then go to the manga. It's pretty much all there . There might be a few translation problems depending on which team you read the translation of the manga from but most of them seem to have a pretty good eye on what was said.

I am anticipating the upcoming second season of the anime. They did a really good job the first time. I have high hopes that if they keep the same stuff from before it'll be just as good in retaining all the necessary information. It's a very nice read overall

Conclusion:
I said it before, but When I first got this contract I came here with a sense of doubt that I would remotely enjoy it because of my sour experiences with the masses on social media tarnishing it with memes and whatnot . I was Expecting this to be a lackluster overrated anime and it turned out to be one of my favorites . It caught my attention with a likable character with a messed up background and a messed up situation who was literally dead but gave it a second chance to turn it around , which was the stepping stone for him to be in the most convoluted situation the world has ever seen . It's a high octane roller coaster once it sets everything down . And it's a series I'm hoping to see the end of cause I'll be waiting for the show and the finale of the manga

9/10
Fuck you, Makina