It’s no secret that Chainsaw Man was the dominating force for this past season. I tend to try and keep my thoughts on anime condensed down to the final review article for every season, however when something releases that needs more attention than normal (either for a positive or negative reason) I can’t help but dedicate a full article when it’s appropriate. And today, I can’t think of something more appropriate than Chainsaw Man’s mature approach to storytelling. When I say mature, I don’t mean in terms of raw content. In case you aren't watching, the MC’s main goals comprise of kissing, feeling boobs, and having sex. Sure there’s also a ton of blood and guts going around, but I don’t consider gore or sexual themes to be mature purely based on their own connotations.
Chainsaw Man is mature because it treats its audience like adults. How so? By not explaining shit. This anime is the most “show and don’t tell” project I’ve seen in a minute. As we all know from our Pokemon childhoods, anime often have a problem with over explaining. Squirtle will use Water Gun on a Geodude for the fifth time, and Brock will loudly chime in with a “HEY KIDS, did you see that? Thanks to Ash’s water Pokemon doing a super effective move on that rock Pokemon, which is weak to water, that means the Geodude took a massive hit!”. Yeah dog, I could see that. Obviously Pokemon is meant for kids so that’s completely plausible in that case, but sadly many anime keep that style of explanation going on even with older target audiences. I mean how many fucking occassions have you witnessed an anime character going fast, and then somebody says “He’s fast!”. Yeah bitch, I can see that. In a recent episode of Chainsaw Man, the character Makima uses her power to kill some folks. The power is not explained in any way, but if you pay attention to what’s being shown to you on the screen you can sort of figure out how it works at a baseline. There’s no My Hero Academia announcer to hop on the mic and say “Makima, The Bad Bitch Hero! Using her Dump Truck power, she can kill anyone in the area up to a five mile radius thanks to the enormous sound of her ass cheeks clapping! This power only works on Mondays and Thursdays, and will not work on anyone under 120 lbs!”
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy many anime that explain a lot like My Hero Academia, but it’s so refreshing to have a different experience with Chainsaw Man. And it’s not like NOTHING is ever explained (which is excellent because I hate a lack of information just as much if not more so than an excess of information). In fact most questions that arise in one episode are addressed or foreshadowed in the following episode or so. Yet it’s done tastefully so that you’re always on the edge of your seat trying to learn more, analyze scenes, and theory craft to understand the rules of the world and powers within it. You don’t need to sit through boring flashbacks that repeat basic information or listen to monologues where a character spits out every damn thought they’ve had in the past 24 hours. Behind the guise of huge amounts of gore and sexual undertones, at the heart of this series lies an author who is willing to let you figure out the smaller details yourself as you experience this journey week to week. Are you watching Chainsaw Man? Do you appreciate when anime calm down on the telling, or is it nice to keep the explanations around? Scroll down, grab your mouse, type on your keyboard, leave a comment, check the comment to make sure it says what you want, post the comment, make sure it posted, and think “wow, that was fast” in the comments below!
