New York Comic-Con 2022

Chainsaw Man Anime's U.S. Premiere

ANN's coverage of NYCC sponsored by Ize Press, the new Korean content imprint from Yen Press! From screen to print, K-Comics materialized!

It's finally here everybody! I got to see probably one of the most anticipated anime premieres of the year, and I can't think of a better way to watch it than by being in a packed theater filled to the brim with excited fans (get COVID tested everyone). Unsurprisingly, the energy and atmosphere in the venue were completely on point for a show of this nature. Before we get to the main event, the dub cast for the series came onstage to join in our excitement. We were joined by ADR Director Mike McFarland, Ryan Colt Levy as Denji, Suzie Yeung as Makima, Reagan Murdock as Aki, and Sarah Wiedenheft as everyone's favorite waifu gremlin Power. Massive props to them for dressing exactly like the demon hunters in the show!

The voice actors were then asked simple questions about how they became involved in the project and what they were most looking forward to. Everyone's story was more or less the same: they heard about the project, and then auditioned as a fan of the source material with absolute confidence…that there was no way they would get cast. When they got the call, they completely lost their mind regardless of time or place. My favorite story was probably Reagan's, who got the call at his day job and walked right to his car to scream excitedly. Following those questions, we got a nice little video response from the director of the anime, Ryū Nakayama, who thanked everybody and shared his excitement for working on this production. Interestingly, he noted that Tatsuki Fujimoto, the original creator of Chainsaw Man, was largely hands-off throughout the production and told the staff to adapt the series in a way that they best saw fit. It adds another layer of anticipation to future episodes, as it'll be interesting to see how some of the more memorable scenes from the manga are extrapolated and expanded upon.

Speaking of, let's talk about the premiere episode, which perfectly captured the quiet buildup and visceral rawness of the original source material. If there was any doubt in your mind that this adaptation wasn't going to match the body count and bloodiness of the original manga, this episode should very quickly put those fears to bed. Adapting the first chapter of the manga, the episode was very well-paced, with plenty of somber, melancholic moments that steadily build up towards a spectacularly violent climax. The episode got three massive cheers from the audience toward the second half, but the sadder scenes were also received with audible sympathy. Unfortunately, I can't speak to the overall quality of the dub performances for the actors that we just met on stage, since most of the characters they played barely talked in this first episode. The focus of this episode was overwhelmingly on Denji, and I will say that I am so happy for Ryan. He's been slowly making a name for himself during the past two years and it's about time he got a main role like this to really show off his range. He sounded sympathetic and innocent but my god that man can SCREAM when he needs to both in pleasure and in pain. I get the feeling that this is going to be one of those roles that would define his career moving forward, and if he manages to keep up this level of quality, then it will absolutely be well deserved.

Once the episode was over, the Crunchyroll staff announced the October 11 streaming date for episode one and shared some special hashtags to use when talking about the film on social media (#chainsawman, #pochita, #denji, #makima). We won't have to wait long before we can all share in that hype together!