Country: Japan
Genre: Action-horror anime
Director: Ryū Nakayama, Masato Nakasono
Cast: Kikunosuke Toya, Tomori Kusunoki
Everyone’s talking about Chainsaw Man, the man with a chainsaw for a head! But “Chainsaw Man” is more than a wild Mad Lib that you and your friends came up with one drunken night.
Based on the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, this wacky and innovative action-horror anime is the latest work from MAPPA, the premiere anime studio behind such works as “Attack on Titan,” “Jujutsu Kaisen,” “Dororo,” and more. So the series not only looks gorgeous, it manages to live up to the absurdity of its title while telling a heartfelt story in a truly singular and strange world. In this world, “Devils” are born from human fears (which means you can see something like a body-horror take on a tomato), taking sentient form and wreaking havoc until they’re killed by Devil Hunters. One such Devil Hunter is the impoverished Denji, who with the help of an adorable Chainsaw Devil that he befriended as a child, works to kill Devils to pay off his father’s debt to the mob. But a betrayal results in him getting killed, only to be revived by the Chainsaw Devil, fusing with his body to make him — you guessed it — Chainsaw Man. “Chainsaw Man” is uber-violent, absurd, and surprisingly sweet, the kind of strange and gross concoction that can only happen in anime.
Watch This If You Like: Boys and their dogs, except the dog is a chainsaw.