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This is a surreal, sometimes uncannily terrifying, but also hilarious anime about two twins trying to win over a boy's love. It's subtextually about recovery from psychological trauma through connection and comedy. It's ambitious and unhinged with its humor and its narrative structure is highly versatile, going from a school romcom to a large-scale circus infiltration/rescue mission. The characters are eccentric yet complex, and are utilized to help Yuusuke overcome his traumatic past and fear of women. What seems like an indulgent, light-hearted comedy is actually a heartfelt message about trauma recovery. Absolute kino that changed my life, highly recommend.

Introduction

Chainsaw Man is quite literally the worst manga I've ever read. Apparently this trash heap is supposed to be a subversion of shounen tropes by adding this mature gory theme and horny protagonist to the "Demon MC" premise that we've seen 500 times. Now, this premise is never executed well and gets worse the more it's tried, so a deconstruction of it might've been refreshing and entertaining to an extent - but Chainsaw Man isn't a deconstruction of this genre. It just ends up being the exact same premise with absolutely no nuance other than the fact that the protagonist is horny, and there's somewhat ... gory art. The "comedy" completely falls flat and there is virtually no tension in intense life-or-death moments, because nothing in this manga is meant to be taken seriously anyway. There's a completely unfunny and immersion-killing joke every twelve seconds. But what'd I expect? It's the same garbage about someone becoming a demon, or part-demon, and joining some organization to fight other demons. The side-characters are all completely bland, boring, uninteresting, and one-dimensional, just tropes whose only purpose is comic relief and to be in Denji's harem. By the way, Denji is literally just a reskin of Hyodo Issei. In fact Chainsaw Man in its entirety is a reskin of High School DxD and Blue Exorcist, yet somehow it's worse than both of these. But what about the story of Chainsaw Man? It's again, literally just Blue Exorcist and High School DxD. This guy who's part-demon, joins an organization to fight demons. The story is just him going around fighting demons, with no nuance other than how bad it is. And what about Denji's motivations? Literally just something about him being horny, wanting to feel titties or something. Notice any similarities between this and the aforementioned series? Any and all character interactions here are purposely outlandish and comedic and try to be unpredicatable in some way, but they're all completely pointless and unnecessary, like this manga even existing. Just go watch High School DxD, it's practically the same premise but executed better in every way. The characters are more interesting, memorable, and the story and writing is don't get me wrong, complete garbage, but it's a masterpiece of our times compared to Chainsaw Man. The writer didn't even know what he was trying to do while writing Chainsaw Man. He tried to establish this really mature, gory, intense setting, and incorporated these comedic relief characters who make jokes every two seconds to accompany the setting. As you can see, these two ideas blatantly contradict each other and just make you think, "Am I supposed to be taking this seriously, or am I supposed to be laughing at how retarded the characters are?" And that's most definitely what sums up Chainsaw Man, it doesn't know what it's even doing with itself. Chainsaw Man takes an already terrible premise, and makes it worse than I ever could've imaged it to be.

Problem 1 - The Characters

Denji

One of the biggest problems in Chainsaw Man is the main character, known as Denji. He is absolutely a cookie-cutter, bland, and cliched shounen protagonist other than the one nuance he has which is being horny. This trait of horniness is completely exaggerated because it is quite literally the only thing he has going for him. The writer purely emphasized on the fact that he's horny or something, he has no personality traits other than this. He is also completely overpowered from the start, just an edgelord who's really strong because he merged with a demon or something.

The Side Characters

Another one of the most prevalent problems present here is the supporting cast. They're completely uninteresting, bland, and tropy, yet they're also outlandish and just generally insane. Now, these guys really remind you you're reading a battle shounen, as they can't take anything remotely seriously for more than 4 panels, and ruin any tense tones or writing that are supposed to be serious for them to be true to their trope. There are a few emotionless edgelords, and they feel completely bland and lifeless, just as disposable as the other ones. And I mean, essentially all the characters here just feel like they're from a Cookie Crisp box, with no lifeblood that honestly differentiates them from each other. They're completely forgettable, one-dimensional, and uninteresting.

The Antagonists/Villains

Chainsaw Man features some of the worst antagonists in the history of writing, they're evil just for the sake of being evil, have no interesting or thought-provoking motivations, they're completely overpowered with no explanation as to why or just an extremely vague one, and they're unnecessarily edgy. They feel like they're straight from a western comic book or something. It's just these copy-and-paste (insert word) Devil antagonists.

Problem 2 - The Writing

The General Story

Chainsaw Man features possibly one of the most uninteresting stories which never picks up, generic garbage about an organization who hunts demons. Never is there some thought provoking interaction or theme, it's completely mindless fighting which you'd expect to see in a battle shounen like this. It's edgy for the sake of being edgy and everything which they intended to be tense, deep, or serious is completely ruined by misplaced comedic relief. There's really nothing else to say about it, because you've seen it about 50 times already anyway.

The Characters' Abilites / Power System

The abilities of everyone here are left extremely vague, with no further explanation, because the writer didn't care enough about the trash he was writing to flesh out the logic of the characters' abilities. This includes the supporting cast as well as the antagonists.

Dialogue/Exposition

The dialogue and character interactions are repetitive, boring, and generally uninteresting. This entire manga feels like a time-waste, as nothing remotely meaningful comes out of it. Essentially all of the dialogue just boils down to some unfunny joke, something ab titties, or something edgy. The one thing this manga could have possibly done right is portray creepy images, but again any underlying horrifiying or tense themes are ruined by the constant comedic relief immersion-killing moments.

Pacing Issues

Every interaction and exposition is unnecessarily dragged out, the story is already predictable enough, it only gets worse as it's dragged on more and more. I'm too tired to elaborate on this more, so on to problem 3.

Problem 3 - Lack of Originality

I just want to get this review finished, so what I mean by this is that absolutely nothing Chainsaw Man does is original or thought-provoking in any way. It is effectively a worse version of series that already suck, like Blue Exorcist, Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Ghoul, or High School DxD. Every chapter feels like a copy-and-paste of each other, with practically no nuance throughout the manga.

In conclusion, if you're a degenerate who likes titties and dudes fighting, maybe you could enjoy this. But I'd recommend High School DxD over this in all areas, so go watch that.

Akame ga Kill is and will always be my favorite anime of all time. I see a multitude of reviews here calling it generic edgy shounen garbage, and I can't help but think those people have missed the entire point of the story. Akame ga Kill isn't good because it kills characters, or because it tries to be dark, Akame ga Kill is a masterpiece because it delves into the beautiful and unique tales of the characters who come from utterly saddening backgrounds, and who ultimately band together under the group which is Night Raid.

Akame ga Kill does everything it tries to do correctly, the ... end of the first episode completely illustrates the utter depravity of the Imperial Capital, which was hinted at throughout the first episode but never really established to Tatsumi, or to the viewer. It then goes on to develop the characters who make up Night Raid, and shows the characters opening up and having extremely entertaining dialogues, while also developing Tatsumi's physical prowess as he assassinates evil, depraved, and corrupt individuals who plague the Imperial Capital - his ultimate goal being the assassination of the Minister.

Each of the fights, assassinations, and journeys the characters go on are some of the most hype and intense, but ultimately enjoyable moments of fiction in general I've witnessed. A few episodes in we're also introduced into the villain that is Seryu, possibly one of the most entertaining yet utterly depraved characters in the show. Seryu is just so over the top with an inexplicably insane and misplaced yet genuinely respectable and intriguing sense of honor and justice. Combined with one of the most insane Imperial Arms, which are weapons in the masterpiece of a world Akame ga Kill conjured, Seryu manages to become even more entertaining and unique, and goes to literally any extent conceivable to utterly annihilate Night Raid.

Seryu and virtually all of the villains interactions with each other and Night Raid are possibly some of the most genuinely intriguing and entertaining dialogues in fiction. In fact, all of the character interactions in Akame ga Kill in general are entertaining. This anime is never boring or predictable, it's constantly changing, constantly introducing new villains, new abilities, constantly fleshing out the significant cast it has and establishing their backstories. There is so much depravity, yet so much justice to supplement it.

Characters do die in this story, which may lead people to believe characters are unnecessarily introduced to be unnecessarily killed. This couldn't be further from the truth. The deceased characters philosophies and personalities remain alive during the show, as the living characters carry the burden of the dead ones. And killing characters isn't necessarily a bad thing, it further illustrates how realistic the war within this fictional universe is. This story doesn't lie to you.

By the end of this beautiful story you'll honestly feel a hole in your heart, reflecting on the sacrifices Night Raid made during their time.

The soundtracks are quite possibly some of the best in anime, namely Le Chant de Roma, which is undoubtedly phenomenal, and even people who dislike Akame ga Kill acknowledge this.

So basically, Akame ga Kill! is pretty good.