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Chainsaw Man Episode 2 Review: The Ultimate Goal Of Life

Denji's partners Aki and Power enter the scene & they seem to be not compatible?

I get to bathe everyday, eat good food… get to hangout around a hot chick… my life is a 10/10 but it feels like something’s missing. Something that’d give me a perfect score.

I wanna touch some boobs.

It’s not everyday you see the ultimate goal of a Shonen protagonist to be so… unconventional. If you’re riding blind on the Chainsaw Man hype train, you might be expecting Shonen MCs to have some sophisticated or a noble motive.

Something like “To become the best Devil Hunter there is! To protect humans from the Devils!

What I like about Denji is because he’s different. He’s your friendly neighborhood Melon Devil Hunter who’d kill to get 3 square meals a day and a bed to nap. The Chainsaw Man has truly risen from the ditch and slashed his wretched fate by joining the Devil Hunter Association.

Denji Chainsawman

My favorite thing about this series is how it challenges convention and vividly depicts the terrifying dark side of humanity. It forces you to honestly consider whether or not you’ve found fulfilment in achieving your goals. And Episode 2 of Chainsaw Man titled “Arrival in Tokyo” captured this notion beautifully.

An intriguing aspect is how quickly it establishes the nature of Denji and Makima’s relationship. Authors generally take their time in defining character relationships but Fujimoto and the scriptwriters were like “screw it”.

Speaking of the characters, we’re introduced to Denji’s partners in crime in this episode. One of them is a Devil Hunter with three years of experience under his belt, Aki Hayakawa. From viewing the trailer, I knew Mappa would do justice to the fan favorite character and boy, let me tell you, I cannot ask for a better depiction.

Aki’s voice actor, Shogo Sakata, captured the character’s solemn tone like nobody’s business. That voice is perfect for conveying, “I’m the edge lord with a gritty backstory in this show, so I don’t have time to play about,” and it does it in every way possible. He and Kikunosuke Toya (Denji’s VA) have a great chemistry as their character personalities play off each other really well.

Their funny but grounded interactions literally and figuratively kicked some balls. Their little boxing round is, without a doubt, one of my favorite interactions between them.

With Makima pairing them, one can understand that the two musketeers are set for a rough walk in dog park. Speaking of musketeers, the 3rd team member exploded her way into the room like a bomb!

That’s right. Puh-puh-puh Power is in the house!!!

Fans absolutely adored her voice right from the trailer and I respectfully agree to the consensus. Power is known for her charismatic but child-like behavior and Fairouz Ai managed to pull that off. I’ll hold off on judging her performance until more episodes of Chainsaw Man are released.

What I liked about the episode the most is how relatively faithful it is to the source material. One could have the Manga in their hands and follow up with the Anime dialogue by dialogue. The adaption is made all the more endearing by the addition of details like Aki’s annoyance at Denji’s wasteful use of toilet paper and his “Huuhhhhhh??!!” upon learning about Makima hugging Denji, rather than the Manga’s “Say what?!”

But what made me feel a little disappointed is the fact that the entire section of the Muscle Devil’s appearance was cut off and I’ll tell you why.

Denji initially didn’t like being treated like a dog by Makima and felt she wasn’t genuinely concerned for him. He was asked to kill a Devil and if he didn’t carry out the order, he’d die instead. This was also there in the Anime but what was omitted is Denji almost acting on this dilemma.

The Muscle Devil (in the guise of an innocent girl) tricked Denji into thinking that it was harmless and pleaded with him to spare its life.

Denji recalled Makima’s threat and decided to run away with her. This was the first time Denji ever felt doubtful of the red-haired woman and decided to act accordingly.

Even though this may not bother some viewers, I felt it was missing something quite crucial, as it would have made Denji’s obsession with Makima more believable. It was here that hostility toward Devils first arose, when the Devil later revealed its true nature & attacked the Chainsaw Man. After this, Denji put his faith in Makima, reasoning that humanity would treat him better than the Devils.

It may sound nitpicky, but changing Denji’s famous “I wanna touch some boobs” to “I wanna touch HER (Makima) boobs” can undermine a monologue Denji has with himself later on after a particular interaction with Power.

Chainsaw Man Episode 2 rating: 8/10

So what do you think of Chainsaw Man Anime Episode 2? Let me know in the comments below!

CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

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