Chainsaw Man (TV series)

• 1. Introduction

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  Chainsaw Man, the anime television series, began its public life with a joke from the man who created the story. Tatsuki Fujimoto, author of the manga it adapts, greeted the news of the adaptation with mock disbelief. His words were: "Chainsaw Man is like a copycat of Dorohedoro and Jujutsu Kaisen, and the studio of Dorohedoro and Jujutsu Kaisen will produce its anime!?" Then he added: "I have nothing to say! Please do it!" That reaction raises the questions this documentary follows. Who actually made the series, and how much say did Fujimoto keep over it? How did the voices and the music come together around such a strange story? And how did critics and award juries respond once it reached the screen?

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• 2. Debt and Devils

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  Denji, a young man, shares his life with Pochita, a chainsaw devil. His father died and left him a debt. To pay it off, Denji kills devils and sells their parts. Hardship has been the only constant in his days, until a fatal betrayal ends his life. Then Pochita does something unexpected. The chainsaw devil makes a pact with him, and Denji is resurrected as Chainsaw Man, a hybrid being with the heart of a demon.

  Kikunosuke Toya voices Denji in Japanese, and Ryan Colt Levy plays him in English. Power is voiced by Fairouz Ai in Japanese and Sarah Wiedenheft in English. Aki Hayakawa is played by Shogo Sakata, and by Reagan Murdock in English, with Bryson Baugus voicing the young Aki. Makima is voiced by Tomori Kusunoki and, in English, by Suzie Yeung. Pochita has two voices as well, Shiori Izawa and Lindsay Seidel. Kobeni Higashiyama is voiced by Karin Takahashi and Bryn Apprill. One more character, Reze, is played by Reina Ueda and Alexis Tipton, and her story would later carry the franchise into the cinema.

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• 3. A Studio Without a Committee

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  Most anime television series come from a production committee, a group of several companies that together oversee how the work is made. Chainsaw Man broke from that habit. The animation studio MAPPA produced the series entirely on its own. Ryū Nakayama directed it, and Hiroshi Seko handled series composition and scripts. Makoto Nakazono served as chief episode director, while Tatsuya Yoshihara was action director. Kazutaka Sugiyama designed the characters, Kiyotaka Oshiyama designed the demons, and Kensuke Ushio composed the music.

  Shueisha, the manga's publisher, received the pitch from MAPPA, which approached it with the plan to adapt the story. Fujimoto said that he spoke with the people handling the adaptation and felt comfortable leaving things to them. His editor, Shihei Lin, described a much closer role. Lin said: "Fujimoto-san has seen all the Chainsaw Mans pitch documents, story structure, scripts, and even the storyboards." In the same remark he said: "He has continued to be in close contact with MAPPA's anime team."

  MAPPA producer Makoto Kimura added that Fujimoto's involvement reached casting, planning and music. The staff wanted the anime to capture as much of the manga's original vision as possible, violence and gore included. The first public word of that plan came through a festival stage presentation.

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• 4. On Air and Abroad

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  In December 2020, it was announced that MAPPA would adapt the manga. A theatrical presentation at Jump Festa '21, part of the online theatrical presentations of Jump Studio, ran from the 19th to the 20th of that month. The first trailer followed on the 27th of June 2021, at an event called "MAPPA Stage 2021" that marked the studio's 10th anniversary.

  Broadcast began on the 12th of October 2022 on TV Tokyo and its TXN affiliates, and it ran until the 28th of December. Several non-affiliate networks picked the series up weeks later. Outside Japan, Crunchyroll licensed the series for worldwide streaming outside East Asia, while Medialink obtained the license for Southeast Asia. While the episodes aired, the soundtrack was arriving in pieces of its own.

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• 5. Music in Installments

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  The first soundtrack EP, covering episodes 1-3, came out on the 26th of October 2022, while the broadcast was still in its early weeks. The second EP, for episodes 4-7, followed on the 23rd of November. The third, for episodes 8-12, was released on the 28th of December, the last day of the broadcast run. Listeners who wanted everything in one place had to wait until the 23rd of January 2023. That was the release date of the full album, titled Chainsaw Man Original Soundtrack Complete Edition: Chainsaw Edge Fragments.

  The opening theme was "Kick Back", performed by Kenshi Yonezu. Endings worked differently, because each episode carried its own ending theme song. One of them was "Hawatari Ni-Oku Centi" by Maximum the Hormone. Polygon singled out the result for praise, saying it admired the twelve different ending scenes.

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• 6. What Critics Saw

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  A 97 percent approval rating, drawn from 89 reviews, is what the series holds on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The average rating there is 8 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Distinguished by its rip-roaring animation and serrated sense of humor, Chainsaw Man is an action anime with teeth."

  Mónica Marie Zorrilla of Inverse called the series the standout of "demon-fighting anime" in 2022. She also liked how Denji differs from other shōnen protagonists, because his motives are simpler, centered on "girls and food". Rafael Motamayor of IGN praised the cinematography, the character dynamics and the handling of emotional moments. He described a successful mix of "workplace comedy, horror, and action series", which he contrasted with most shōnen.

  IGN and Polygon both praised the action scenes. They also noted how abruptly the tone could swerve from emotional scenes to "juvenile, 2000s sex comedy humor".

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• 7. The Awards Record

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  The 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, in 2024, account for the longest stretch of the series' awards record. Chainsaw Man appears there under Anime of the Year, Best Animation, Best Action and Best New Series. Individual entries include Best Main Character for Denji, Best Supporting Character for Power, and a "Must Protect at All Costs" Character category for Pochita. Behind the camera, Ryū Nakayama appears for Best Director, Kazutaka Sugiyama for Best Character Design, Teppei Itō for Best Cinematography, Yusuke Takeda for Best Art Direction and Kensuke Ushio for Best Score. The opening and ending sequences, and the opening song, appear in their own categories.

  Voice performances were honored language by language. The list includes Japanese, English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Castilian and Italian categories. Among the names are Emilio Trevino as Denji in Spanish, Zina Khakhoulia as Power in French and Franziska Trunte as Power in German. Luisa Viotti is listed as Makima in Portuguese, while Benedetta Ponticelli and Mosè Singh appear for Makima and Denji in Italian. The Castilian entries name Joel Gomez Jimenez for Denji and Maria Luisa Marciel for Power.

  Earlier recognition came in 2022 from the Billboard Japan Music Awards, which listed "Kick Back" under Hot Animation. The Reiwa Anisong Awards covered Best Work, Best Anime Song, and Lyrics for "Chu, Tayōsei" by Ano. "Kick Back" appeared there for composition and arrangement as well. In 2023 the Annecy International Animation Film Festival listed the first episode, "Dog & Chainsaw", under Best TV Films Production. Japan Expo's Daruma awards named the series for Best Anime, Best Director, Best Action Anime and Best Original Soundtrack, plus opening and ending categories. The 45th Anime Grand Prix listed "Kick Back" for Best Theme Song. At the 13th Newtype Anime Awards, Aki Hayakawa appears for Best Character (Male) and Pochita for Best Mascot Character. The 29th Manga Barcelona Awards listed the series for Best Anime Series Premiere.

  Billboard Japan Music Awards returned in 2023 with entries for Hot 100, Most Streaming Songs, Most Downloaded Songs, Hot Animation and Top User Generated Songs. In 2024 the 51st Saturn Awards listed the series for Best Animated Television Series or Special. The Music Awards Japan listed "Kick Back" in 2025 as Top Japanese Song in Europe and in North America. The most recent entry is the 20th AnimaniA Awards category Best TV Series: Disc.

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• 8. The Sequels

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  In December 2023, the Jump Festa '24 event announced an anime film titled Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc. Most of the staff and cast reprised their roles. Tatsuya Yoshihara, however, replaced Ryū Nakayama as director. The film is a direct sequel to the television series and covers the events of the "Reze" arc from the manga. Toho distributed it, and it premiered in Japan on the 19th of September 2025.

  The next announcement came at Jump Festa '26, in December 2025. That event revealed an anime sequel titled Chainsaw Man - Assassins Arc. Its release format was not revealed, so for now the only thing announced is a name and a place in the manga's story.

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