MAPPA bit off more than it could chew with this. The definition of "doing too much" in terms of direction, CSM had a new ending theme each week, which made none of them memorable like the opening was. Many of the scenes were filled to the brim with movement, which came across as visually jumbled and the animation itself looking just downright odd because it was so smooth. There was an attempt to blend CGI with animation in a way where the transition wouldn't be visually jarring, but the effort to do that was misguided, the anime's style generic and pretty when it needed to be gorier and harder. The style was just non-existent and CGI scenes are just a point where MAPPA remains weak. The sunset, dreamy color palette was a miss, muting the show in a way that seemed to mimic Netflix lighting rather than the dynamic older horror movies CSM pays homage to. I was expecting Hellsing Ultimate or even Dorohedoro, but this just feels like a very corporate and dated approach to animation.
The story and characters are all fine. Right now, nothing seems to reinvent the wheel and big plot beats are rather predictable. If you've seen enough shonen, you've seen this show no matter how off-centered and crazy things get. The most intriguing was Denji's very subtle shift from selfishness to almost self-consciousness, desiring to fit in and perhaps desiring to be loved and known by people around him. He has a lot of room to grow as a person and a character because his start is a very ugly person. I'm curious to see where he goes, but in a 12 episode seasonal, we didn't get that far, we barely got the overarching plot. Just as an FYI, I haven't read the manga.
There is no reason someone shouldn't watch the show and there really isn't a reason someone should either. Perhaps future seasons will change my thoughts on this, but the product as it currently is can best be encapsulated as fine.
