So when will this pop off? According to the studio, sometime later this year. Their teaser material simply promised a 2022 release window, but Crunchyroll did recently announce that they licensed the anime. They’ll be streaming it with both English subs and dubs as the episodes release in Japan. The anime will be airing one episode a week, so don’t expect to be able to binge the whole thing at once. But going off the manga, something big happens chapter after chapter, and builds into a tremendously complex narrative. It’ll be a slow burn that will surely spread until it’s everywhere. The series tells the story of Denji, a young devil hunter with an unusual power who is willing to do just about anything to live a comfortable life. On its face, it seems like a typical battle series that leans into shocking visuals, but the story is surprisingly rich. Through and around heart-pounding fights, Denji confronts an increasingly disturbed world with just the right amount of crazy. It’s both funny and tragic, exciting and meditative. The losses he suffers, the horrors he sees, the horrors he creates, everything pushes Denji to appreciate the precious brevity of life. The scenes without bloodshed are cathartic and infectiously funny, but have the potential to be soul-crushingly bleak. And likewise, the battle-heavy scenes are both over-the-top funny and tremendously upsetting. One concern is the manga’s current hiatus. It was a surprise when the seemingly final chapter announced a forthcoming arc that would continue Denji’s story. But that arc has yet to materialize. It’s not clear how much of the story this first season will cover, but the franchise could easily lose momentum if it takes years to produce the next undoubtedly great chapter in Chainsaw Man. (UPDATE: Shonen Jump has announced that the manga will return on July 12 after a year and a half hiatus). And just one last thing Chainsaw Man has going for it: its vibrant fandom. There’s the subreddit with over 100,000 memelords and fan artists, the YouTube boosters who analyze the manga for hundreds of thousands of views, and the cosplayers garnering billions of views on TikTok, anime or no anime. This is all but certain to intensify once the anime begins… sometime in 2022 .
