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The Chainsaw Man Anime's Style Feels Off

I'm amazed someone immediately brought up an example that came to mind: The original Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA is not like the manga in a lot of ways, but it wrings something that is definitely there from it to create a unique cinematic version of Jojo that could only have been done in anime of the time.

It was disappointing to see people go back and scoff at it for not being exactly the same as the manga, like people seem to think the newer anime is. That sort of reaction admittedly makes me all the more wary of stuff like this.

It's a shame that the comparisons to action scenes in the anime don't include gifs; those would make it easier for the audience to draw their own comparisons and conclusions.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the gory action feels less impactful—the movement is animated spectacularly, but the splatter (both of blood and kinetic linework) is missing. Take Power's introduction and first fight: scenes that are full of energy and life in the manga, but lack that kinetic buzz in the anime. Sure, things move smoothly, but Power introducing herself has significantly less oomph, and her falling hammer attack lacks the feeling of cutting through the air that Fujimoto's art exudes. In the anime, the vibe of the fight scenes generally feel the same as the vibe of the dialogue scenes—Denji's fight with the Bat Devil illustrates this as well—so they don't hit like the manga does.

I don't know what to tell you. Each scene described here is chock-full of energy and fun in the anime, and I've watched so many reaction videos of people getting pumped up by Power's introduction, grossed out by the visceral mess that is the Bat/Leech Devil fight (James wrote up a great review about it here in ANN) and simply feeling the things that these scenes supposedly don't convey according to this article.

Lol this is like the time Paste Magazine published a rant from some guy who was like "I'm DONE with Final Fantasy man!" Like this belongs on reddit not a legit website that publishes news.

This kinda attitude toward adaptation is the reason I never read manga.

I get that some readers see the author as being too critical. That’s fair. But it’s also fair to say the anime just hasn’t popped like the manga. It’s not bad at all, it’s quite enjoyable, but I think manga readers thought this anime would put Chainsaw Man in the same buzz stratosphere as early AOT.

I don’t really care about the buzz, but I will say the anime is too….clean? Plain? It feels like a really fun anime, but it doesn’t feel like Chainsaw Man if that makes sense.

Gotta pad out the front page somehow!

Weird logic tho, people’s opinions on adapted work means you… won’t engage with source material? Even if, I dunno, said source material might be entertaining/meaningful on its own merits? Ahhh maybe you’re exaggerating! I hope so, anyway.

So..... are rants just a thing in this website now? Because frankly the way this article was written just feels like one of those super long Twitter threads where it's just "the anime is not the manga, therefore it is bad".