If you have watched most of the well-made animes of the year 2022, the chances are, you also have watched the anime Chainsaw Man, and if you haven’t read the manga yet, you could be thinking about how much Chainsaw Man anime follows its manga? Let us find the answer here.
Let me tell you in advance.
Most of the episodes of the anime Chainsaw Man remain faithful to the manga of Chainsaw Man, while it does some tweaking to keep the story more interesting overall.
As for what are the points that set the anime apart from the manga but also prove the prior faithful to the latter, we will discuss below.
Table of Contents
The Art Style Difference Between The Manga And The Anime Of Chainsaw Man
Those who have seen the anime but didn’t have the chance to read the manga might find that both are too far apart in their artwork.
The art style of manga is rough in its artwork, where most of the character drawings are not very detailed, and their faces are mostly drawn like rough sketches, to some this approach may seem incomplete.
However, this approach doesn’t restrict the flow of the story but captures the dark, gritty environment, dry humor, and grotesque characters, accordingly.
On the other hand, the anime presents a vivid art style, which in its way, captures the grotesque, and the pleasing-to-eye scenes, both in their peak form.
For example, in the first episode of Chainsaw Man, in the fight with the zombie devil, when Denji cuts open a hoard of zombies, that scene is quite real and grotesque, but also the color contrast, the camera angle, and the art style make it more dynamic and interesting to follow with eyes.
In another fight scene in the last episode, Denji with the Samurai Sword on the moving train, and their fight scene was memorable, for the dynamic approach, and awesome choreography.
Until Which Part Of The Manga The Chainsaw Man Anime Covers?
The anime covers up to some parts of the 38th chapter of the manga, with its 12 episodes.
The anime focuses a bit more on the metamorphosis of Denji into Chainsaw Man than in the manga.
However, there is an event, that is missing from the anime, which is in the manga.
In episode 2, when Makima and Denji stop for udon on the way to Tokyo, Denji passes out, of exhaustion and wakes up to find his noodles soggy.
There is an event before he passes out, that may not be of much importance but could have added a bit of flavor to episode 2.
The event is when Denji and Makima ordered their udon, a panicked father interrupted them and asked for their help to save his daughter who was abducted by a devil.
Makima ordered a reluctant Denji to save that child and take out that devil and intimidated him by saying a disobedient dog would be euthanized(put down), in anime this dialogue was much before they stopped for the udon.
Denji had no choice but to go find that girl, and upon finding her he was pushed into a dilemma since that girl was protecting the devil and she said that it saved her from her abusive father.
Since Denji was also being treated like a dog by Makima, he proposed to the girl to run away together, instead of killing that good-hearted devil whom he was quick to compare with his past pet devil Pochita.
But, that devil then showed its true color, and attacked him, and Denji managed to kill it and rescued the child, came to Makima, passed out, and woke up to a bowl of soggy udon.
The manga moves at a quicker pace than the anime even though the anime follows the manga’s plot very closely.
The main reason for this is the quick transition of the scenes in manga, since all action scenes or scenes to set up the overall mood of the story, are concluded very quickly, like just in one or two panels.
On the other hand, anime takes its sweet time to explore every mood and action with much detail.
For example, in episode 9, Kurose and Tendo assist Makima in eliminating the gunmen in Tokyo, who were trying to capture Denji and Killed quite a lot of public safety devil hunters in the process.
They brought 30 of the convicts to a shrine and used her secret power to kill the gunmen in Tokyo by killing those convicts.
Whereas the manga directly shows the scene of killing the convicts and the gunmen, the anime takes a different approach by foreshadowing the slaughter by showing the convicts having their last meal.
There is another instance in episode 11, where another small shot was added.
In the corresponding manga chapter, where Aki battles with Sawatari, there are introductions of many other characters, like the shark fiend, the violence fiend, the spider devil, and the angel devil, but readers wouldn’t be able to find where Denji and Power go until they emerge from an elevator after some chapter.
In a later chapter, Kobeni also comes to help Aki.
With all these unclear details, nobody could be certain about their whereabouts until the last moment, however, this lack of detail was handled by the anime with the use of a short scene of Aki, Denji, Power, and Kobeni entering the building and then split up.
Aki also gets more screen time with Makima in the anime.
In the manga after Denji fights with the Bat Devil, and the Leech Devil, getting thrashed by them, thrashing them, destroying public property, and while finally lying in the hospital bead, Aki told him that he won’t pursue this matter, then he releases Power from his handcups since Denji didn’t ratted her out for her betrayal, after that the scene cuts to Power moving into Aki’s house.
However, in the anime, after releasing Power, Aki meets with Makima and speaks for Denji and Power to prove their innocence, and Maki told him that, he has grown softer since he had been living with Denji, after that Power moves in to Aki’s house.
Even all those minor different, the Chainsaw Man anime does it’s best to keep up with the mood of the manga if not makes it even better, and follows the plot very closely.
Placing Of Humourous Element In The Chainsaw Man Anime Vs Manga
The humor makes its place among all the blood, gore, and violence of Chainsaw Man manga.
Especially, at the end of some chapters, after very serious events, always comes a humorous moment like some punchline.
However, the anime portrayes it in different way, by putting the humour in between serious, like some characters saying silly things or do silly things.
Like, in the fist half of the second episode of the anime, when Denji was getting thrashed by Aki for repeatedly asking if Makima has a boyfriend during their petrol, he retaliated by kicking Aki in the nuts, and when he took a staggering Aki to Makima, Denji told that Nut Devil wounded Aki.
In the Manga at the end if the third chapter when Aki was being serious and telling Denji, how he owe Makima his life, Denji remembering his first meeting with Makima commented “I want to hug her again” listening which Aki loses his cool totally.
There is some dark humor also, like in the second episode, while on their way to Tokyo on the car, Makima told Denji that he is a dog she will keep, and she heard from a veterinarian friend that disobedient dogs are meant to be put down, this same event happens much later in chapter two of the manga when they stopped on the way to Tokyo to get some udon.
In the chapter 35, when Aki was just about to defeat Swatari but was about to surprise attacked by her, Kobeni appeared out of nowhere to hold Sawatari captive under a knife, so when Aki asked that, despite being afraid of the profession why didn’t she gave up, she told that she will get bonus soon.
this may look like some light humor, but actually if we keep in mind Kobeni’s condition in which he is the only earning member of the family and had to juggle between handling her brother’s tuition fee and all the cost of her family, this will seem like some sort of dry humor.
So, even though some of the humorous event’s placement were different in anime from the manga but the anime didn’t failed to keep up with the humorous tone of the manga.
Portrayal Of Some Character Are A Bit Different In Anime Compared To The Manga
Makima is one mysterious character who shifts from s friendly one to a ruthles one in the blink of an eye.
She may be the one to give Denji the perpous in life, and a shelter, she also threats him time to time to kill him if not obay her and most of the time she treated Denji like a dog.
To get a more clear perspective of Makima’s character as it displayed in the anime, we need to discuss the episode 9 where she uses the death of 30 convicts to kill the gunmen in Tokyo who were killing a lot of public safety devil hunters to kidnap Denji, it was portrayed in a raw way, with screams and gore, while displaying twisted smile on Makima’s face.
However, in the manga her expression and actions are shown a lot more neutral and less impactful, maybe because there wee no sound, for that reasons the actions taken by her, didn’t left any mark.
Another interesting character is the Time Devil, who was helpful to public safety devil hunters, and he was among those devils, with whom hunters make contract to gain the power to hunt devils.
After Hayakawa Aki losses the trust of Fox Devil, and used up most of his lifespan by the katana or stake he used to curse the Samurai Sword, he had to make a contract with another devil,and Future Devil was set up for that by Kurose and Tendo in episode 11 or the Chapter 32 in the manga.
That devil’s funny and quirky dance while saying “Future Rules” can’t be enjoyed from the page of the manga, nor the part where Aki had to shove his head into the devil’s stomach and while viewing his future the devil was dancing and teirling in funny way.
The Episode 12 Is A Bit Different From Its Corresponding Manga Chapter
Final episode of the season 1, as Aki, kills the ghost devill, captures Sawatari, Denji defeats Samurai Sword and captures him, kick him around in the balls with Aki as a tribute to dead Himeno, Sawatari gets killed by a devil on the way, everything was just happening randomly but the complexity of the story seemed to come to an end.
Since they got a large amount of the Gun Devil’s flesh this time it became possible to track him, according to Makima, Aki finally gets to relax and smoke the last and the first cigerrate left by Himeno written Easy Revange on it.
The last scene shows Aki, Denji, and Power, spending something like sweet family time, going grocery shopping, having dinner, etc.
However, the manga chapter corresponding the final episode shows something different, something more serious, a nightmare of locked door, which Pochita was forbading him to open, which Denji saw at the very beginning of the season.
However, We have to understand that the corresponding chapter to the last episode isn’t suppose to only show what is in the episode, since the episode ends just at the beginning part of the chapter with inclusion of some extra scene.
Final Thought
After going through all the points and observing the minute details that are different in between manga and anime, it seems like, anime tries to cement the mood of the manga with some extra scene which are not out of context.
Whereas manga tells the story in a straight forward way, the anime tends to explore the story in broader detail, not deviating from the main storyline.
So it can be said for sure, though adding some extra scene, the Chainsaw Man anime overall remains faithful to the manga.
