The manga series “Chainsaw Man” by Tatsuki Fujimoto, released in 2018, has become popular amongst manga readers within the last year. The series is often recognized for its colorful design, crude humor, gory elements, and unique characters that have abstract personalities, motives, and backstories. To fans’ delight, the series is now confirmed for an animated adaptation.

MAPPA

Upon hearing this news, we also know that the anime should be released sometime in late 2021, most likely around fall. However, fans have concerns about its production. Alongside “Attack On Titan” Season 4 part 2, the “Jujutsu Kaisen” movie, and the “Yuri! On Ice” movie, MAPPA has taken on Chainsaw Man as well. This seems quite unhealthy for such a small studio, and according to Comicbook, Mushiyo, a freelance writer in Japan, revealed disturbing news about MAPPA’s working conditions. The former worker who helped animate “Attack On Titan” stated that the company had artists continue to correct drawings over and over with little to no rest. Because of this, artists didn’t receive proper training and were correcting things more than actually drawing them. They also said that the schedules were similar to that of a factory, which makes sense considering the studio is taking on four different anime with only around 250 workers. Fans are concerned about whether the animated adaptation will do the series justice, considering the grueling work conditions and the studio’s reputation for relying on CGI.

CSM Recap

Chainsaw Man takes place in a society where devils (fears manifested into beings) are reincarnated into the human world after dying in the afterlife, and actively hunt humans to feed off of their blood. The story follows the main character, Denji, a part-time devil hunter suffering from an enormous debt to the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) after his father’s death. Denji’s best friend is a harmless, tamed devil dog named Pochita. After Denji feeds his companion some of his blood to heal the dog after it was harmed, he unintentionally signs a contract with it. After the Yakuza betrays the boy and kills him, Denji is revived by his contract, merging with Pochita to become the Chainsaw Devil. After defeating the Yakuza, Denji meets a woman named Makima, who asks him to join the Public Safety Devil Hunters, alongside Aki Hayakawa and Power. The story follows Denji’s journey to defeat the Gun Devil, one of the most powerful devils.

The author has also confirmed that they will be writing and illustrating a second part of the manga to continue the story.

Fans are excited to see their favorite on-paper characters come to life on the screen, and hope that the manga is done justice. Leaving so much into the hands of MAPPA is risky, especially because of the additional information we have about how they run their studio. However, the best we can as of now is hope that the workers will receive better treatment and the creative freedom to make sure the anime will come out as well as the manga was.