Chainsaw Man Review

I thought this anime was pretty good, definitely above average. I'll keep this spoiler free.

I think that the non-Denji characters are pretty interesting. I like how we are kept in secret of Makima's powers and how she keeps control of her power even within the organization (she blindfolds even devil hunters): very in line with her controlling personality. Power is also just very funny—the way she talks cracks me up so much. It's also wholesome to see her bond with Denji form so well (even despite the sus beginning impression). Maybe it's just because I find Kobeni cute, but I found her character interesting. Her motivations are very noble and realistic. I hope season 2 will explore it more. Now onto Denji. He is down bad, down horrendous, down astronomical barely captures his downness. His horniness permeates the whole show and is very off-putting. IG this provides a bias in the third person limited POV we get, as the main source of thinking we get is filtered through him. I do see a direction to his horniness though—it'd be interesting if season 2 continues to develop the trend of his desperation for females being exploited.

This anime also handles death very well. They kill an important character which was actually developed (like before their death) and important. That's pretty bold to kill a character we care about. This contrasts a lot with AOT, where deaths happen very often and with little development (except for a memory after/while dying, which I find very cringy and not bold) and to fodder characters. It's also realistic in that the death wasn't that impactful on the plot—it wasn't some grand sacrifice/deux ex machina that ultimately made good triumph over evil and demonstrated the power of friendship. Realistically, important characters can die without saving the day.

Some other things I didn't like about the anime was the cliches and how battles were just unsatisfactory/mostly-consequence-free. Towards the end of the show, there are some pretty big cliches: there is the trope of the master training the pupil and the sword fighting. The scenes where that master appear felt very boring and overdone. The blades in this anime are very cliche: characters move so fast you don't see the swing, the cuts land at the same time and land after a whole ass conversation, random flashes of light, attacks doing little damage until the final blow. It's just very lame. Finally, maybe it's just the realism, but battles (which are a big part of this show) don't have much tension to me. They simply feel consequence free—Denji rarely seems in pain, and even after the "hard fought" victory it's just followed by another L.

Now that I'm writing this review, I'm seeing more similarities to AOT. Makima is like Erwin, both calculating people who are willing to make sacrifices to win. Though with the former, we don't know her intentions yet while we know Erwin's (from an anime only perspective). Both also try to be realistic, with victories being very rare and very unrewarding.
Also my "eye" for animation isn't good, so my opinion isn't very valid, but the animation seemed merely alright (I also thought this of One Punch's first season).

I've seen good remarks of the future material for Chainsaw Man, so maybe I'll read the manga.

Rankings:
One Punch Man
Death Note
Komi Can't Communicate
AOT
Chainsaw Man
Science Fell in Love
Dr. Stone