Chainsaw Man Recap

If you're someone who has never seen Chainsaw Man but don't want to read the manga(at least not yet), watch this. If you want a fun recap before the sequel movie, watch this. MOST IMPORTANTLY if you are someone who hated the original broadcast due to creative directional decisions that hampered your experience immensely, whether it be cause it was executed poorly & or due to presentation, tone, & pace of the work being an ill-fit for the intended narrative by the source, WATCH THIS. At it's heart this is still overall the 1st season that its director foolishly pushed for however this isn't simplya compilation of scenes for money. In many ways it has been heavily reworked. The editing of scenes is the biggest thing as pointless additions that while technically impressive(in an animation standpoint), added nothing & more importantly broke the intended structure as well as pace of what is known to be regularly frenetic, frantic, frenzied & manic in pace/tone with a few small calmer, retrospective, introspective, even "still"(but not literally long & drawn-out) moments of reprieve, growing kinship, & (at times dreadful) anticipation have been entirely removed. This very clearly wasn't done for lack of space as this isn't a movie or TV release but an online one(ONA). It's clearly done to address the heavy criticism a large & loud many in the audience gave the og broadcast. It's kept only to scenes that actually adapt the manga which does naturally make the overall experience shorter too which imo is preferred & leaves things less disjointed & more like the source. I believe there's other things but I'll leave that part there. Overall the tempo is raised to better fit the intended & necessary experience. Voice lines throughout are re-recorded so not only do performances better fit the characters they're supposed to be in sheer delivery(they mumbled to the point of being indecipherable at points before) but the actual script is revised so they say the things they're actually supposed to say & you truly get a proper feel & understanding of their personalities & desires, & not the unnecessarily butchered & botched lies that were served before. Scenes that felt dead are more humorous/high energy while the depth of the characters & their relationships/intentions is returned quite a bit. It feels more unrestrained as it should. These can come off subtle to the point you might miss them entirely, nonetheless they're still distinct. There're 2 big examples people love to point out. Near the start with the MC & another somewhere closer to the end of S1 where a new & silly character is introduced for an important *future* development, so returnees should definitely look out for em. The sound design is also altered a bit however this is harder for me to go over so I won't go into it like the other stuff but, sound effects have been messed around with. In addition new BGM is added in a number of places such as gags where I believe priorly such a thing was absent to keep the consistent "serious" & "film-like" tone & direction. I believe some parts may have even been redrawn outright though it's hard for me to say. This (depending on how you view it) is all well & good but it isn't the main thing you'd come to watch this for. The real reason is the adapted Omake from the manga so I will just say if you watch it for none of the reasons I brought up. Watch it for this. THEY'RE GOLD! The direction is immediately entirely different from the 1st season as they fit the direction of a much more typical comedy anime but regardless of your opinion on the main series this isn't in any way a "bad" thing here since it helps sell the point of this which is short yet sweet comedic skits of the characters hanging out in mundane situations to learn certain quirks about them & unique ways they spend their time alone or together. The animation is clearly not as "pristine"(if that's a word I can use here) as the main series but it doesn't need to be as it's not only still mostly good but actually the "perfect" fit for these. The color pallet is completely different as in the 1st season they were aggressively dull & muted in all the main content(including most of the OP). You would only find more color in the eds(I'll get back to this btw). The characters are also drawn much flatter whereas the 1st season absolutely needed every character to look almost completely 3D nearly every frame of every scene & thinned the outlines to reach that effect as much as possible. However the omake section is overall much closer to something befitting of the manga as it all pops out so much more like say the manga covers. I'm not saying this is the look the entire anime needs to strive for, I'm simply saying it's refreshing & leaves me more excited for the look of the series going forward. The whole thing is loveable & hilarious throughout despite [or maybe more so because of] the short runtime(you even sorta get some sexier bits too lol). As a whole they're a fun way to wind down after the credits of each ep in this comp & I highly recommend them if you like these characters & want something that actually fits the series direction wise(also this was actually directed by the same person who did the omake adaptation for Dorohedoro which is also by MAPPA & those were fun as well). The 1st season originally felt as though it was an oddly "pompous" hexagon trying to fit into an oval or semicircle just trying to live lol. As I've stated it's still that adaptation at it's core but it really shows how much you can do if you put effort into a number of tweaks & light additions here & there. I really appreciate the effort that went in here & I'd like if hatred towards this work finally quelled a bit with this version. I can't say I love it but I might be able to come back to this if I ever think of wanting to experience this section of the story again via anime. I will also make this my go to rec if someone starts CSM in anime form for the 1st time. A marked improvement in pretty much every way... EXCEPT 1 thing. This recap comp is structured partly like its 2 movies(1st 6 eps encompass the 1st recap ep & ofc the 2nd ep is the last half/6eps). This means outside the very beginning where both eps start with the OP made from the 1st season the entire thing is edited so you go scene to scene with no cutaways or brakes as though they were movies & not TV eps. So that means you only get the credits at the end as with any movie. But the 1st season has 12 eps each coupled with their own individual ed visuals & song. The recap ONA can't do that for obv reasons(well technically it could but no matter how it's executed there's a huge problem only avoided by not adding them at all). This naturally means you miss out on MOST(you still get 2 as per the credits) of the ed themes & pretty much all the ed's visuals aren't included. This in the grand scheme is not a big deal at all as you can just look these up online but the ed's [especially & even specifically cause of each's unique, experimental & very CSM like visuals] is 1 of 2 [maybe 3-ish] things *everybody* unequivocally & unanimously adored. So you may feel the absence on return but to me more importantly, the newcomer will just miss them entirely cause they likely weren't privy to this info. It is what it is though. I can't think of a true solution & we're lucky to get this much. I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say now. I've never done this & probably never will again but it kept nagging at me especially since nobody else seems to appreciate this here like at all. Sry it's so long(& potentially confusing) & thx for reading it & considering anything I've brought up.

Soooo I went to watch this because I’m catching the Chainsaw Man movie tomorrow 👀✨ And OMG… this compilation is SO GOOD. Like, shockingly good. This is coming from someone who actually sat through Season 1 weekly, episode by episode, and only gave it a 6/10. But this cut? Solid 9/10. Same content, but the way it’s re-edited totally changed the vibe. I realised why it worked so much better for me: (1) No more patience-killing filler The weekly run was about five hours, and honestly some parts felt like “why am I watching this random nothingness??”. This new cut trims it down to roughly three hours – everythingis tighter, snappier, and there’s no “ugh get on with it” drag. I was actually glued to the screen. (2) Makima finally feels terrifyingly sexy (in the best way) With all the fluff gone, her eerie charm really shines. She’s beautiful, yes, but there’s this cold, unsettling power underneath that hits SO differently when the pacing doesn’t break her scenes. My brain went: “Oh no… she’s hot, but also I should run.” (3) Expectations – already accepted the bad, so I could just enjoy the good First time watching weekly, I expected clever fight logic… and kept getting disappointed. This time I already knew the fights aren’t about tactical genius – so I just enjoyed the vibes, the shock, the gore, the weirdness. And wow, without waiting for something that would never show up, it suddenly clicked and felt amazing. Overall, it felt like rediscovering Chainsaw Man in the best way – creepy, stylish, chaotic, and way more satisfying than I remembered. OMG I can’t wait for the movie… but hey, keeping my expectations low – remember point (3): expect no fight logic, keep the bar low, and hopefully there would be a high return.

I ended up watching this instead of the original show, in preparation for the Reze movie - I ended up really enjoying it! I watched the first 3-4 episodes back when the show originally aired, but aside from that, I have no knowledge of Chainsaw Man (other than some small whispers here and there). I was very endeared by the characters, more than I expected to be: Power's shenanigans are fun, Aki's sense of justice is compelling, Himeno adds a humanising depth to the team, Kobeni is a surprise standout considering how little she actually stars in it, Makima is endlessly fascinating and terrifying at the sametime, and Denji is a great, albeit (I assume purposefully) dense, protagonist. The animation of the show is great and serves to really show the impact of both the action and the emotional moments. Speaking of, the second part of this compilation is CRAZY - so much happens in so little time, and while I do wish the scenes had a little more time to breathe, I can't complain all too much. I wasn't quite sold by the action scenes most of the time, but action has never really been my forte or my main reason for watching something, so I don't really mind - and the action scenes that do stand out are pretty cool. In general, I would say the narrative is Chainsaw Man's strong suite: the premise is immediately interesting and manages to stand the landing by consistently introducing new characters, plot lines and themes that peak your interest. I feel like I would be able to really dig deep into this show if given the time and effort; even on the surface, there are so many elements that beg for deeper analysis and I really look forward to seeing where the story goes from here and how the characters develop. On to Reze!

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