A new trailer for the highly anticipated anime adaptation of Chainsaw Man dropped this weekend, and it looks like the series could take the anime community by storm next year.
During the annual Jump Festa anime and manga expo in Japan, a brief trailer for the highly anticipated Chainsaw Man anime–based on the popular manga of the same name–was revealed. The trailer is filled with trippy glitch effects of the manga’s most iconic panels paired with unnerving music, and while it doesn’t offer fans any new glimpse of what the anime will look like in action (unlike the teaser trailer back in June), it’s nonetheless exciting for the energy and vibe it communicates. It does give us a brief look at the mesmerizing eyes of Makima in front of a projected image of Denji mowing down goons, before she smiles and walks away into the darkness. The anime is being produced by Mappa and is set to premiere sometime in 2022, and given Mappa’s track record and the excellence of the source material, there’s plenty of reason to be excited.
Chainsaw Man, created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the mangaka (writer and artist) behind Fire Punch, follows Denji who, in layman’s terms, is an incel protagonist living in poverty, who survives by taking odd jobs from the local yakuza to kill devils alongside his cute dog-like companion, Pochita. After a near-death incident, Denji finds himself with the power to turn into a chainsaw devil, and takes on killing other devils under the employ of the enigmatic and entrancing Makima. While he initially just wants to touch a boob, his aspirations gradually develop as he navigates life with his newfound powers and finds his place in the supernatural world of Chainsaw Man.
Chainsaw Man is a pulp fiction-esque, ultraviolent fantasy manga that balances its gory, high-octane imagery with a profoundly introspective coming-of-age-story. There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic that all the manga’s crackling energy will make a successful transition to the screen, considering that Mappa has been hitting it out of the park with its anime adaptations, which have put it on the map as one of the best animation production studios of all time.
And in the manga it’s based on, Chainsaw Man has some critically acclaimed source material to draw from. Since debuting in December of 2018, CSM has won Best Manga award at The Harvey Awards in October, Best Shōnen Manga at the 66th Shogakukan Manga Awards in January, and was nominated for the 13th Manga Taisho awards in 2019, and ranked fourth at the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! in 2020, according to the Anime News Network.
Anime fans won’t be the only ones eating good with Mappa’s CSM adaptation. Manga readers will also be partaking in more of the high-octane ultraviolence and introspective character studies that the series is known for with the second arc of the manga, School Arc, when it’s serialized in Shonen Jump+ in Summer 2022.