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The Chainsaw Man Anime's Style Feels Off


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animaters



Joined: 21 Apr 2022
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:03 am Reply with quote
the whole anime's shortcomings can be summarized as the directors' style being very unfit for a manga like chainsaw man.

extreme example: jojo first adaptations being serious
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insert name here



Joined: 27 Jul 2011
Posts: 84
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:15 am Reply with quote
I agree that the Chainsaw Man anime isn't a 1-1 translation of the original material and that's what I like about it. I appreciate the director's willingness to make choices and interpret the material differently from how it reads on the page. The style of Chainsaw Man the anime is a lot more cinematic and narratively they really emphasize the pathos in the material. The comic has this staccato pacing and deadpan delivery that is a bit lost in translation, but I think the material is multifaceted enough that you could emphasize some elements in it over others and it still works. I mean, we've already seen Fujimoto's chainsaw man, what's the point in making it again if you don't bring something different to the table?
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Nodz



Joined: 29 Dec 2013
Posts: 524
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:48 am Reply with quote
Woah, very random article just to critize the animation of an animé.
Is it the first of a series?
We never saw a complete article detailling the defaults of the Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer or Orient animation.
I understand if these points are being mention in a review but a complete article just about it seems... off !
Animation doesn't need to be a 1:1 manga adaptation.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1182
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:05 am Reply with quote
I'm watching this fresh from the anime and haven't read the manga. I think so far that is a pretty good show, although I'm still waiting for whatever it is that seems to make people go so gaga over Chainsaw Man.

I suppose one could say that means the anime hasn't succeeded so far, but I have to admit I don't find this article very convincing. "The manga does lines like this and the anime doesn't stylize its lines the same way"...frankly, that comes off as a surface level element that's just easy to spot. It's a change true of many, many manga to anime adaptations, and I'm not convinced that's the magic bullet that would conjure up the manga's spirit. The descriptions here all just sound like the general difficulty of adapting manga panels to anime.

I say this while still acknowledging maybe I could find the manga way better. But I hope my skepticism can be forgiven considering it all sounds like the default gripes manga to anime fans have, especially in the last ten years.
animaters wrote:
extreme example: jojo first adaptations being serious

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.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2213
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:09 am Reply with quote
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.
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Joker#941490



Joined: 15 Aug 2022
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:33 am Reply with quote
Nodz wrote:
Woah, very random article just to critize the animation of an animé.
Is it the first of a series?
We never saw a complete article detailling the defaults of the Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer or Orient animation.
I understand if these points are being mention in a review but a complete article just about it seems... off !
Animation doesn't need to be a 1:1 manga adaptation.


Orient's production was fairly standard with its highs and lows so it didn't need a complete article also it wasn't a bad adaptation per say and they did an article as i remember about biscuit hammer's shortcomings but it was also a decent adaptation that still have the charm of the manga.
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Theozilla



Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 136
Location: Oakland, California
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:42 am Reply with quote
I can agree that the anime comes up short in capturing the scraggly-ness of the manga and could experiment with more psychedelic colors and a dynamic palette. But I have to disagree that the anime is failing to capture the energy and “splatter” for its actions scenes and/or is not capturing the expressive faces and emotions of Fujimoto’s characters.

I also can agree the storyboarding is underutilizing the potential effectiveness of using freeze-frames for emphasis. For example, some scenes like Power’s introductory entrance and Aki’s house being blown away in his flashback are parts of the anime that I think could have greatly benefited by adding some freeze frames in them, but stuff like the character’s facial expressions and character animation I think have largely ranged from fine to great. Like Power’s move-in to Aki’s apartment I think did great with the character’s facial expressions, or the most recent episode was fantastic with Kobeni’s breakdowns and panic.

animenewsnetwork.com/this-week-in-anime/2022-11-17/.191978
Also as Chris and and Nicky highlight in their TWiA's column, the benefits of having a pretty realistic "clean" style can really emphasize the grounded cinematic aesthetic that's arguably more core to the Chainsaw Man manga than its wacky hijinks influences.

So overall I think the animation in general does a great job of emulating the chaotic action of the manga while also being its own thing. I am also surprised the author uses the Dorohedoro anime adaptation as comparison of what the Chainsaw Man anime should try to take notes from, as aside from the Dorohedoro anime’s background art/layouts, I think the Chainsaw Man anime is much more successful at faithfully replicating the aesthetic and feel of its source manga than the Dorohedoro anime has been able to so far.


Last edited by Theozilla on Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 902
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:50 am Reply with quote
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".
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1585
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:57 am Reply with quote
Honestly it kind of amazes me that Chainsaw Man can get an anime that looks like that and people will still find ways to say that it doesn't look good or isn't accurate while most anime are running off a paperclip and two pieces of string.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1217
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:12 pm Reply with quote
MagicPolly wrote:
Honestly it kind of amazes me that Chainsaw Man can get an anime that looks like that and people will still find ways to say that it doesn't look good or isn't accurate while most anime are running off a paperclip and two pieces of string.


It's just got to be its overall popularity in the public sphere right now that is getting folks to attempt to over scrutinize it. I think the manga is great. I think this adaption is great. It's definitely not 1:1 if you're like, measuring lines or something. But no one should be doing that? There are tons of shows that look like dogshit each season, but those don't get articles like this because no one cares so there will be no view count.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4447
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:22 pm Reply with quote
Some of the examples I would chalk up to differences in mediums. A close-up of a face within a panel is something that manga and comics do, but it's not much of a thing in motion since it would either be a picture-in-picture thing or a separate cut, which would look weird. The other examples, I guess I'm not seeing a big difference? At least not to a degree where I would say something was lost.
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JustMonika



Joined: 17 Jan 2022
Posts: 996
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:25 pm Reply with quote
I haven't read the manga and I'm not even really into shounen style action series but I'm absolutely loving Chainsaw Man. Zero complaints from someone who usually dumps on shounen series.
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Note



Joined: 18 Nov 2022
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:03 pm Reply with quote
I somewhat agree to the post but I do think the style could work if there were just better direction. For all the talk about how they wanna make it cinematic n like a film I fail to see how they deliver on that and instead we got a simply nice looking anime. The beauty of filmmaking is the touch of the director n the playing around with the genre, n Fujimoto captures that great in manga putting a distinct mark while playing around with different genres. The zombie feels like it's taken from Romeros n the haunted hotel captured the haunted house setting with him messing with more subjects later.

With the anime I feel none of this. I don't feel any mark from the director or appreciation for film aside from obvious visual refernences in the op or ed, I don't feel em being inspired by any films in the production. N the anime doesn't feel like they are playing around with genres either. Instead just feeling like an anime with zombies, monsters, haunted houses instead of letting those things seep in the direction.

I don't want em to do shot for shot adaptation of manga, instead go wild n play around with the medium to capture the feeling of the crews favorite directors n films.

For me the marketing feels like all talk when it comes to movies. They should have just said they wanna do the best they can as an anime.

Production wise it still looks really good. But also feels empty, a production fueled by business before art.[/code]
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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 902
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:11 pm Reply with quote
@Note

The anime absolutey feels like a film when it comes to approach. The drawn-out shots, the dynamic angles that by themselves are references to films - such as the shot in the first episode where the camera is upside down durinh the car scene -, and even the most subtle details such as character's voices being faint or loud depending on wether the camera is far away from them or completely focused on them, wether the shot is done inside the room or outside. It's not "empty" at all, it's something that Nakayama and the rest of team are activately going towards and that they are absolutely achieving.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2404
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:19 pm Reply with quote
I don't think I've read a big ANN article version of the manga elitist response that happens every time a manga gets adapted before.

Sometimes I agree with that sentiment, and sometimes I don't. Doesn't seem like it is worth a big rant article when even the article acknowledges that the anime version isn't bad. Perfectly valid opinion, but at the same time, a very common opinion when it comes to anime adapted from manga that could fit in a tweet.
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