| I've been told by friends and observed in the community the claim that CSM had solid execution using a short amount of time. People were able to sympathize with Denji’s whole situation and the episode had the right atmosphere. Many think it couldn’t have been done better if the episode was longer and despite the controversy surrounding the CGI, many claim it didn't look that bad. All in all, most of the fans' verdict for CSM is that it was solid, amazing even, for the amount of time it got. I guess as far as setting up the introduction goes, it sticks to how it should be done well. We learn about Denji, a bit of his past, as well as Pochita. We also got the introduction to Makima who will take the helm in Denji's life henceforth. This is something we can all observe but I also think it's important to look at how an anime is written from the author's perspective and the studio's perspective. Look at it from Fujimoto's perspective. We had the setup of the most prominent characters, which doesn't include the characters interacting with Denji. The Debt Collector for example, let us look at this character from Fujimoto's perspective and see why he gave the role of being an absolute prick to this character. The man kept calling Denji a dog. He visited Denji's father's funeral, not to give him condolences but to have him pay up for his father's debt. He gives him scraps and Denji lives like shit and barely eats anything. Conclusion? I feel like Fujimoto, from a writing perspective, was trying really hard to force us to sympathize with Denji. To me, it's something I expect to see in anime. Do I think it's bad, no. But do I think Fujimoto overdid it? Yes, a little. I mean Denji had 1 testicle, he had 1 eye, he works a life threatening job for scraps, lives in a shed with no family left alive, shows signs of his mother's heart disease and coughs up blood. He gets used as a tool by the mob and is called a dog constantly. He was even made to eat a cigarette for lolz and got torn to pieces by zombies. I mean calling this edgy or overdoing it is not a far-fetched thing to say. I mean one of the things that could be left out for example is his mother's heart disease symptoms. If anyone is going to call it edgy, I'm just saying don't be surprised. It's also important to look at the show from the studio's perspective. How are they adapting it. I noticed that Mappa prioritized the trivial stuff regarding animation quality. Next to a good portion of the action scene, they chose to animate stuff like twigs, grass, eye blood vessels, tombstone, dust clouds,... on the highest level! But when it came to some of the action scene they used CGI for the approaching zombie horde? Look back at the scene where Denji runs past those zombies. They were in CGI as he was running past them. Why pour that high quality animation in twigs and raindrops, instead of an action scene that is supposed to stand out more? It was a bit of a waste where they poured the high animation quality into. The CGI wasn't that bad unless you pause and observe the still shots of the zombie horde. Other than that, the animation for the action scene overall was fluid enough. Conclusion: I feel a bit indifferent to the episode. Outside those animation quality decisions and Fujimoto trying too hard to have us sympathize with Denji, the introduction phase setup for the next episode was done decently and the skill of the animators is apparent. For me, episode 1 is a 5/10. What do you guys think? |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
| You could always write this on the episode discussion thread for ep. 1 No need to make a new thread just for this. |
 |
| It was okay, CSM is pretty style over substance with a not-so-deep themes here and then. But I can definitely where the hype is coming from since people also like KNY or JJK |
MadanielFL said: You could always write this on the episode discussion thread for ep. 1 No need to make a new thread just for this. Literally this, I am so sick of seeing several copies of the same thread topics for chainsaw man, how hard is it to look if a thread already exists before creating one? |
Call me Ren  |
| 5 seems about right. I dropped the manga after about 50 chapters(just lost interest) figured I'd watch the first couple episodes just to see how it looked animated. It was alright I guess, certainly not the best show this season but not the worst either |
| Hey Dio, Nice write up. I agree that the anime did not live up to the hype too. In all honesty, the visuals, including the CGI is the best part about it and I think you hit the nail on the head with Chainsaw Man. Fujimoto was a fish out of water when writing this, as a seinen mangaka and in many ways it shows. It goes for the Mahou Shoujo Site route of edge equating to quality, which is simply not the case. Thus, in the manga Fujimoto was carried by his art and the same is reflected by the anime. I hope things improve, but I am not so sure that they will. |
| It’s only the first episode, I don’t know what you’re all complaining about |
 |
MadanielFL said: You could always write this on the episode discussion thread for ep. 1 No need to make a new thread just for this. Thanks for letting me know. My apologies guys, it's my first ever post in the MAL Forum. After reading the comment of Albetross95, looks like my post would have gotten buried amongst all the praise under the existing thread tho. But you guys are right and if I knew, I would have done it differently. For future posts, I will make sure to post it in the right thread if there is already one for episode discussions. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
Albetross95 said: Finally!! Someone I can agree with. I was seeing all these posts saying the 1st ep was amazing, and here I was thinking it was just alright. I feel the hype it somehow got was actually its bane, since now we have too high of expectations from CSM. But overall I still felt it was nothing special, the overall episode and story felt a bit predictable and not that noteworthy. Let's hope it gets better in the coming episodes. Thank you! I say always have low expectations, especially when everyone else is hyping it up. This is to prevent you from getting disappointed and prevents you from being influenced by other people's opinion. I'm not sure what your standards are to understand what you'd like to see in the coming episodes, but if you want to talk about it with someone, feel free to reach out. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
billybub said: 5 seems about right. I dropped the manga after about 50 chapters(just lost interest) figured I'd watch the first couple episodes just to see how it looked animated. It was alright I guess, certainly not the best show this season but not the worst either Understandable. I read the manga as well and completed it. From Fujimoto's works, I preferred his short story called Goodbye, Eri. Perhaps that one is more your cup of tea. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
Pages_Pages said: Hey Dio, Nice write up. I agree that the anime did not live up to the hype too. In all honesty, the visuals, including the CGI is the best part about it and I think you hit the nail on the head with Chainsaw Man. Fujimoto was a fish out of water when writing this, as a seinen mangaka and in many ways it shows. It goes for the Mahou Shoujo Site route of edge equating to quality, which is simply not the case. Thus, in the manga Fujimoto was carried by his art and the same is reflected by the anime. I hope things improve, but I am not so sure that they will. Thank you Page. If they could at least make better decisions where to pour animation quality in the following episodes, that would be a good start. When it comes to the source material, well... I'm not going to blame Mappa if they adapt this faithfully. Which I think they will. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
Marknnz said: I agree 100% people are copium so hard because everything besides the fight looked good so their brain automatically said the fight is also good, and i keep saying,if wasn't chainsaw man, if was an unknown anime, people would still watch, but wouldn't pretend that is a masterpiece. Agreed. If you ask me, fans that hyped this up asked for it. Saying things like CSM will blow everyone away with the level of animation it will receive or they will animate CSM better than they did to JJK. The JJK fans for one must be some of those that are paying them back as we speak lol. I guess the copium you're talking about is them defending what they were claiming all this time. This is why I never allow myself to get influenced by hype. |
PhaethonnOct 12, 2022 8:18 AM
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
| To be honest beginning of Chainsaw Man manga wasn't good too. It was a pain to get through some of early chapters, but it gets pretty crazy and interesting later on. Sadly, I don't rly think this season will blow anyone's mind as it's only 12 eps. |
 |
| I found it a bit dull in places, as an anime only. Cyberpunk:Edgerunners episode 1 did everything this episode did: set up the world, where our MC is in terms of standing in the world, seeding another important character, and finished more or less in the same place with them getting a power. They also share a gory action sequence and this is one of the biggest differences for me Edgerunners comes right at the start, boom your pumped (there was more action in general), CM's comes right at the end which just left me with the feeling of why waste all that time? Also the cg stuff, whilst isn't the worst I've seen, just felt off. Trigger needed none of that and it shows, I guess one being ONA and the other a TV series is a bit of unfair comparison, but MAPPA didn't use it much in JJK so I don't know why here! TL;DR Cyberpunk:Edgerunners did everything this episode does, but better in its first episode. |
| Nice little essay you got there. I appreciate how you analyzed it from Fujimoto's perspective. His writing helps give little details that makes us sympathize with Denji. I could feel the heavy burden from Denji as he tries to repay back his father's debt. It was executed so well. Honestly I thought the first episode was amazing and it did meet the hype. But I can understand why people did not think so. There was just too much high expectations considering the fans were on high copium praising this anime. And trying to get everyone to ride the bandwagon train. But it is what it is. I'm glad Mappa was able to adapt it to the best of their abilities. It's not perfect ofc but not terrible either. They can always improve their craft in the next episodes. |
 |
| The most normal thing about csm or lazy if you want to call it, is the beginning, most of us agree with that, the difference here is that manga only scales more and more. On the other hand, the same fans have been saying that CSM is not for everyone, especially fans of the typical shonen structure and that will continue until the end of the first part since the second part is a little more shonen so to speak, adding what fujimoto crazy. Regarding the animation, that is at the discretion of each one, it seemed good to me, the issue that worries me is that later the fights escalate and I don't know how mappa is going to cope, if he will fill everything with cgi or what Those of us who read the manga know. |
| ~~ |
Marknnz said: DiogenesMAL said: It's pretty much this, i always try to be impartial when it's about animes, to me the hype isn't created before it streams, it's created while we watch, that feeling of "i can't wait till next episode" not because im already a fan but because the currently ongoing things made me a fan. Unfortunately after Saturday with all that new or even not so new presentations that were super good I can't say that CSM was special or a blow. But let's see, i hope it gets better but with so many great shows this season i won't really care that much if doesn't. Btw, glad that you didn't know about threads because i really liked yours and i wouldn't find in the general discussion.Agreed. If you ask me, fans that hyped this up asked for it. Saying things like CSM will blow everyone away with the level of animation it will receive or they will animate CSM better than they did to JJK. The JJK fans for one must be some of those that are paying them back as we speak lol. I guess the copium you're talking about is them defending what they were claiming all this time. This is why I never allow myself to get influenced by hype. Absolutely! A big portion of the hype is coming from people that profit from it. Think content creators with thousands of followers. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts Mark. It was nice talking to you |
PhaethonnOct 12, 2022 2:24 PM
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
Rhaegar0 said: To be honest beginning of Chainsaw Man manga wasn't good too. It was a pain to get through some of early chapters, but it gets pretty crazy and interesting later on. Sadly, I don't rly think this season will blow anyone's mind as it's only 12 eps. I can see why it was a chore for you at the start. I read through all of it pretty quickly despite rolling my eyes on Denji's characterization at the start. If you read it, you know what I mean. And yeah, funny that you mentioned it, me and a friend were saying the same thing. What these 12 episodes will cover is not the part that the CSM fan praise so much. But then again, the aniticipation of the manga readers for what's to come is likely going to influence their opinion on this 1st season anyway. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
D1tchd1gger said: I found it a bit dull in places, as an anime only. Cyberpunk:Edgerunners episode 1 did everything this episode did: set up the world, where our MC is in terms of standing in the world, seeding another important character, and finished more or less in the same place with them getting a power. They also share a gory action sequence and this is one of the biggest differences for me Edgerunners comes right at the start, boom your pumped (there was more action in general), CM's comes right at the end which just left me with the feeling of why waste all that time? Also the cg stuff, whilst isn't the worst I've seen, just felt off. Trigger needed none of that and it shows, I guess one being ONA and the other a TV series is a bit of unfair comparison, but MAPPA didn't use it much in JJK so I don't know why here! TL;DR Cyberpunk:Edgerunners did everything this episode does, but better in its first episode. I see, interesting comparison you made there. The comparison I heard the most was Devilman, but I have to give it to the ones that compared CSM to the videogame No More Heroes. I am at ep. 7 with Edgerunners, I wished there was more explanation on the world also I found myself lost at some points in the dialogues at the start. Still processing it as I go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate! |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
Naroomaki said: Nice little essay you got there. I appreciate how you analyzed it from Fujimoto's perspective. His writing helps give little details that makes us sympathize with Denji. I could feel the heavy burden from Denji as he tries to repay back his father's debt. It was executed so well. Honestly I thought the first episode was amazing and it did meet the hype. But I can understand why people did not think so. There was just too much high expectations considering the fans were on high copium praising this anime. And trying to get everyone to ride the bandwagon train. But it is what it is. I'm glad Mappa was able to adapt it to the best of their abilities. It's not perfect ofc but not terrible either. They can always improve their craft in the next episodes. Absolutely, looking at a show from multiple perspectives is key to grasping what the show is going for. But I have to disagree with the details you mentioned. Those little details were too much details. I'm not saying he shouldn't have written Denji to make us sympathize with him, I'm saying he overdid it with the details. Take away the heart disease symptoms for example and we still would have a character we could sympathize with. Then again, CSM is explicit with all of that, so yeah I think we can expect more of this in the following episodes. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
DiogenesMAL said: D1tchd1gger said: I found it a bit dull in places, as an anime only. Cyberpunk:Edgerunners episode 1 did everything this episode did: set up the world, where our MC is in terms of standing in the world, seeding another important character, and finished more or less in the same place with them getting a power. They also share a gory action sequence and this is one of the biggest differences for me Edgerunners comes right at the start, boom your pumped (there was more action in general), CM's comes right at the end which just left me with the feeling of why waste all that time? Also the cg stuff, whilst isn't the worst I've seen, just felt off. Trigger needed none of that and it shows, I guess one being ONA and the other a TV series is a bit of unfair comparison, but MAPPA didn't use it much in JJK so I don't know why here! TL;DR Cyberpunk:Edgerunners did everything this episode does, but better in its first episode. I see, interesting comparison you made there. The comparison I heard the most was Devilman, but I have to give it to the ones that compared CSM to the videogame No More Heroes. I am at ep. 7 with Edgerunners, I wished there was more explanation on the world also I found myself lost at some points in the dialogues at the start. Still processing it as I go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate! I suppose that's my own bias, as I did play the game so the language and the locations used in the show are from the game, so I have that grounding. Most of the hype for CM, initially, will obviously be coming from the manga readers as they know what's coming and thus might overlook stuff. I did think of Devilman Crybaby after I posted. Nice kid merges with a devil to fight other devils. |
thunderkitten13 said: Ya, I think the writing so far is pretty average. It kinda is weak how Denji decided to sell his eyeball and testicule, yet still is able to have such an amazing body despite supposedly living on bread. That seems like a power fantasy or “cool factor” to me; it is needlessly edgy just to make the audience think it’s cool. Also, I am pretty sure living in that dusty shed is going to give him so many eye infections. I consider JJK’s start a lot more interesting and engaging, it really made you feel invested in Yuji’a life despite only being a short while we get to know him. And idk about anyone else, but I’m kinda dissaponted he never had any other interactions with his old schoolmates again after he saved them. Anyways, ya the CGI was really bad in some areas. It was jarring in a weird way how noticeable it was when they tried to pair excellent animation with terrible CGI, like when Denji runs away but the zombies seem to be moving at half speed lol. I wouldn’t call it a 5 but the more I think about it, it probably is a hard 8.65 just for what it does right, but if it maintains this quality of storytelling and CGI then probably drops to a 8.55. The more you watch and learn about anime, the more strict you'll become with rating usually. I'm still improving, but I'm strict by nature when it comes to anime I guess. I think 5/10 is a fair score for what it provided so far, regardless of me being strict. Your score is pretty specific and quite generous. Looks like you're more forgiving. I understand that, I checked out your profile and noticed you are not that long into anime. Thank you for sharing your thoughts thunderkitten13! |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
JaVzD said: The most normal thing about csm or lazy if you want to call it, is the beginning, most of us agree with that, the difference here is that manga only scales more and more. On the other hand, the same fans have been saying that CSM is not for everyone, especially fans of the typical shonen structure and that will continue until the end of the first part since the second part is a little more shonen so to speak, adding what fujimoto crazy. Regarding the animation, that is at the discretion of each one, it seemed good to me, the issue that worries me is that later the fights escalate and I don't know how mappa is going to cope, if he will fill everything with cgi or what Those of us who read the manga know. I have read the manga too, I'm being careful not to talk about it tho to avoid spoiling anyone. If they continue to make poor decisions with animation quality and the action suffers for it, the fans won't take it kindly. I imagine that the rotating chainsaw chains are difficult and too time-consuming to animate with hand-drawn animation. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
| Forgot about Denji's dream. "I want to embrace a girl once" this is the Japanese equivalent of saying "I want to get laid once" by Denji based on his living circumstances. >.> |
| MALoween✟Mansion (2024) Candy Basket 🎃: |
thunderkitten13 said: DiogenesMAL said: The more you watch and learn about anime, the more strict you'll become with rating usually. I'm still improving, but I'm strict by nature when it comes to anime I guess. I think 5/10 is a fair score for what it provided so far, regardless of me being strict. Your score is pretty specific and quite generous. Looks like you're more forgiving. I understand that, I checked out your profile and noticed you are not that long into anime. Thank you for sharing your thoughts thunderkitten13! Ahh well I am new to MAL, so my list is full of recent stuff I watched. To me, the “epitome” of anime is Princess Mononoke. I think it blends symbolism with dialogue perfectly, while keeping the animation fluid and visuals stunning. That movie has so many wallpaper worthy shots. The characters are memorable and have really deep character development that is tied directly to the events in the story, I find this to be the textbook example of good character development. I just wrote all of this as a little insight as to how I judge stories/anime. I am trying to be objective with chainsaw man, but so far it just seems to be an anime with really good character designs and visuals with average depth of storytelling; I really hope it gets better. Thank you, it was fun talking to you. I loved Princess Mononoke too. Definitely agree with you. Sounds like you would love Mushishi if you haven't seen it yet. It does everything you just described in Princess Mononoke, the only difference is that Mushishi isn't violent, very tranquil and it's episodic. If you want another anime with fantastic art and a big focus on yokai, watch Mononoke (2010). You can't go wrong with either of these. I loved talking to you too. Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to chat. I'm on discord as well, link is in my profile. |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
xkazutox said: Forgot about Denji's dream. "I want to embrace a girl once" this is the Japanese equivalent of saying "I want to get laid once" by Denji based on his living circumstances. >.> How does that refute anything I said? |
| "In this world we are all transient guests!" - Vampire Hunter D |
More topics from this board
Poll: » Chainsaw Man Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )anime-prime - Dec 6, 2022 |
588 |
by aryptr
»»
5 hours ago |
|
» just rewatched s1JSimpson2000 - Yesterday |
15 |
by AakBan_Pochi29
»»
7 hours ago |
|
Poll: » Chainsaw Man Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )anime-prime - Dec 13, 2022 |
322 |
by TheStarscream759
»»
Yesterday, 12:57 PM |
|
Poll: » Chainsaw Man Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )anime-prime - Nov 1, 2022 |
793 |
by SplinkoPlinko
»»
Oct 8, 9:18 PM |
|
Poll: » Chainsaw Man Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )anime-prime - Nov 29, 2022 |
1033 |
by TheStarscream759
»»
Oct 8, 10:08 AM |