**premise**
the premise of chainsaw man actually interested me a lot. Though the concept of "man turns into chainsaw to fight monsters" seems kind of silly on the surface, the show really is able to create a world where denji's abilities not only make sense, but aren't absurdly silly. All of the lore about devils, how their power scales, and how the emergence of devils impacted the laws of the world, news, etc. was extremely interesting, and raised a lot of moral questions about censorship of media in a world like this. Unfortunately, I found that a lot of the interesting questions I have about the world were only tangentially touched upon by the show in its 12 episode run time, and left me wanting a little more. It's clear the author thought about these things when designing the world, but im worried these cool aspects of worldbuilding might get lost in the shows need to constantly deliver action. Hopefully these things get touched on a little more in the future, because the world is SUPER COOL and it feels like we're only scratching the surface.
**characters**
the cast honestly felt like a mixed bag for me. Starting with the positives, I'm very impressed with how unique each member of the roster seems comparable to each other, and I loved their interactions in the *second* half of the show. Specifically Denji's relationship with Power (kind of gave me sibling vibes) and Himeno. That said, I find a lot of the character motivations extremely surface level and weak. I understand that it makes sense for denji, but the other characters just didn't sell me on why they were willing to go so far fighting devils. Truth be told, everything feels sort of like a half-baked revenge plot for most of the characters, and I don't really vibe with it. Specifically with Himeno, I really wish they dug a little deeper into her backstory. Everything just kind of felt ...hollow.
though I understand there's only so much time in a season, I was left wanting something a little more strong in terms of character motivation specifically in the 12 episode run. None of the characters really feel complex yet. Im hoping with time I feel differently.
**plot**
This is the weakest part of chainsaw man for me. I think the world is cool. I think the characters have potential, and I think (so far) the plot is, generally speaking, filled way too much with horny/angsty-teen targeted nonsense ...at least for the first 8 episodes. These episodes suffered immensely, in my opinion, from darling in the franxx syndrome, where horniness simply detracted from the show in a major way. Though I understand the themes of Denji discovering long-term goals and fulfillment instead of short-term self-gratification are important, I think there had to be a better way of doing that then sabotaging his relationships with the female cast. I really think that the horniness could have been dialed back a bit in favor of more conversations (like one specific conversation Denji had with Himeno) that gave a little more depth to the characters.
Episodes 9 onwards, however, when the plot was less driven by Denji's lust and more by meaningful character interaction and self-discovery, plus a sick set of villains, were great. Though I'm not going to spoil anything, these episodes brought my enjoyment of the series up a whole point (out of 10) and really started delivering on what I thought I was going to be getting myself into when I started watching. I think that if the show keeps this up going into season 2, it will definitely be worth continuing. I'm super excited to see how they develop the main villain of the series and his motivations, and I really hope his development isn't put on the backburner in future seasons.
**visuals**
The visuals in chainsaw man were, for the most part, incredible. Though I loved the dynamic camera during the action scenes, what stood out to me the most was, weirdly, the scenes of characters going about their day-to-day lives. The depth of field, camera distortion and focus, and attention to detail with the character movements during these scenes were incredible. The camera work felt like I was watching something directed like a live-action show with the attention to detail and deliberateness of an animated one.
My primary complaints with the visuals come primarily from the color pallets used by the show and some of the CGI. Though I think the dark and gritty colors have their place in the show, maybe even for a lot of the run time, I still think the world needed a little more color. In the down time between everything before everything starts to fall apart. Maybe even in scenes with cute character interactions. I needed something a little more vibrant at points so the grittiness of the fights and sad scenes hit a little harder with that sweet visual distinction. As for the CGI, a lot of it was surprisingly good. The character animation was pretty solid when they swapped to CG models. The big problems came from the CG backgrounds used most often in sweeping camera shots. Stuff moved just a bit too smoothly at points compared to the hand-drawn characters and it really took me out of the action. I think, however, this show is definitely proof of slow (very slow) but sure progress toward better CG in shows. Even if it still wasn't great.
**sound**
Though it doesn't have the level of detail in sound design compared to something like weathering with you, none of the sound effects in CSM detracted from the viewing experience or felt out of place. All of the hitsounds, blade swings, clinks, clanks, and even chainsaw sounds felt pretty good, well-mixed, and added solid weight to the fights.
Where CSM excels in sound, however, is in it's ambient OST. The songs that play during the slice of life, downbeat, and emotional moments of the show not only did their job, but stood out to me as exceptional in the same way the OST of Call of the Night did. Though I may be biased due to my music taste/preference, I was really blown away at how well scored these moments were, even if I can't say the same thing about the fight scenes (those weren't badly scored, mind you, just not as well as some of the other moments of the show)
**conclusion!**
the first season of csm had some really solid moments, and delivers a lot of cool action, even if sometimes it's character writing and plot points are a little weak. That said, I think the show has a lot of room to grow into it's cool world and, if the writing continues down the path it did in the last 4 episodes, I'm excited to see more. But that is only if it can get its act together and stop relying on horny characters to push its narrative forward. That's all for future seasons, though.
As just the first 12 episodes, I think CSM deserves a **low 7/10 (good)**
I would probably recommend other 7/10 shows more, but I think CSM still deserves to fit into the 7/10 bracket, mainly because of the last 4 episodes which bumped it up a point.
