Chainsaw Man cast at NYCC on ‘emotional’ journey from manga to anime

One of Denji’s greatest aspirations is to have jam on his bread. This is the poor little boy who lives in the centre of Chainsaw ManHe has to sell his kidney, testicles, and eye to make ends meet. When he can’t sell his organs, he has to hunt for devils with the aid of his devil pooch, Pochita, with two irresistible eyes and chainsaw blade jutted out of its face.

Chainsaw Man Tatsuki Fumoto has adapted the Shonen Jump. This macabre adaptation adds a supernatural dimension to the tale of the boy and his dog in a 1997 alternate world plagued with devils. Animated with MAPPAJujutsu Kaisen Attack on Titan), the anime adaptation of Chainsaw ManCrunchyroll’s Oct. 11 premiere. In a unique move for MAPPA the adaptation chose not to involve a committee. Instead, they decided to do all of their work at the studio.

New York Comic Con 2022 saw English voice actors gather for the celebration of the show’s premiere. In attendance were Ryan Colt Levy (Denji), Suzie Yeung (Public Safety Devil Hunter Makima), Reagan Murdock (Aki), Sarah Wiedenheft (Power), and Dragon Ball Z voice actor Mike McFarland, who serves as the series’ ADR director. Prior to the panel, the English-dub exclusive premiere of Chainsaw ManThe panelists gave their insight on their characters.

This is the setup Chainsaw ManPure shonen. Denji, a young mercenary with a little hope and tired by the world is determined to repay his debts. What makes him stand-out from other devil hunters is his lack of qualms in transporting the devil’s body, not to mention that the yakuza see him as obedient as a dog. After a disastrous showdown with Denji’s employers and a supposed death for Denji, the human and devil dog enact a pact to merge into a chainsaw-devil-man-hybrid. A professional agency for devil hunters notices his transformational abilities and offers him more work. So Denji, in his new form, agrees to be recruited — to avoid getting executed by them and hopefully get some really good breakfast.

Chainsaw Man’s fanged glowy eyed head snarls with tongue out as the chainsaw rips open an offscreen body, erupting with blood

Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll

In the moderator’s words, Chainsaw ManIt’s about the family. Levy had the unexpected pleasure of winning the role of the loser protagonist that he was so close to in the manga pages: “I thought I was too emotionally close to it. After I received the slide [at the audition], I knew what page this was from.”

Young was drawn to the crypticness of Makima, the Public Safety Devil Hunter, who sniffs out Denji’s hybrid human-devil nature and recruits him into the agency as her “pet.” “I have seen Makima on Twitter, so she was prevalent. This was who? I was drawn to her charm and mystery.”

Wiedenheft’s curiosity of her character, Power, an employee under Makima, was also sparked by seeing her on Twitter. She mused, “[Power] seemed like a degenerate and I’m into that. I’m into characters with a gremlin feel to them.” Wiedenheft’s wish is that the characters become closer. “I want to see Power start to like humans, a little at some point.”

Murdock said of the no-nonsense Aki, another employee of Makima: “I’m drawn to characters with that quiet internal passion. He’s a very caring person, even if sometimes he’s very unkind.” He hopes Aki gets “a little more joy in his life.”

Chainsaw Man characters dressed in suits and ties standing in front of a gray marble wall

Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll

The anime’s director Ryū Nakayama sent in a video greeting the fans. A fan of Fujimoto’s work, he especially loved the Chainsaw Man manga because of its “hard-to-predict twists.” Nakayama shared that mangaka Fujimoto “told us that we were free to approach the adaptation as we liked and expressed his support for the anime while providing his oversight.” This is the first series Nakayama is headlining as a director.

The ending of the anime premiere pairs Denji’s dream coming “true” with the camera lingering on a long-shot of his exhausted and bloodied body surrounded by the carnage of mangled zombie corpses as he accepts Makima’s offer to be her pet. To an extent, it’s his wish to escape the grimey cycle of exploitation and poverty— even as he is coerced into a relatively better conditional contract. Levy hopes that Denji will “get more than just plain bread, nutrition.”

Chainsaw ManCrunchyroll’s Oct. 11 premiere will be the first. Every Tuesday, new episodes will be released.

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