Did the Chainsaw Man anime fail to live up to the hype? Explained

With the Chainsaw Man anime finally coming to an end in the Fall 2022 anime season, fans were left hoping for a possible sequel season announcement. Instead, they were left astonished as a petition to remake the anime with a new director began circulating online. The petition has already received over 2000 signatures.

For fans who are yet to watch Chainsaw Man, this would feel like a bad sign if they were planning to watch it. Is the anime adaptation by MAPPA actually bad? If not, why have people been signing the petition to remake it with another director? Did the anime adaptation fail to live up to the hype and expectations?

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author's opinion.

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Did MAPPA live up to fans' hype for the Chainsaw Man anime?

Chainsaw Man vs Katana Man as seen in the anime (Image via MAPPA)

While Chainsaw Man anime premiered in October 2022, the hype around the same has been there for a few years now. Back when only the manga was out, Mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto had managed to amass a huge audience through his art, story, and especially, the characters, catering to both male and female audiences.

However, with time, it was pretty evident that the male audience was more inclined towards Chainsaw Man due to its female cast, including the likes of Power, Himeno, Kobeni, Reze, Quanxi, but mainly Makima. This was reflected on social media as cosplays for the same kept getting pretty popular with time.

Makima as seen in the anime (Image via MAPPA)

If that wasn't enough, fans of the manga were aware of Makima and her dominatrix personality, which caused people enticed by her to act like dogs, often commenting "bark" or "woof" on any Makima-related content online.

Even MAPPA was aware of the hype over Makima, as they even named the Chainsaw Man anime's official website chainsawman.dog. In addition to this, the head of MAPPA even declared how he would one day want to have all of Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga adapted by MAPPA.

Aki Hayakawa as seen in the anime (Image via MAPPA)

MAPPA even added in their own anime-original scenes to give more depth to the characters, along with insane fight choreography and unique ending themes for each episode.

Unfortunately, the hype around the series was just too much, as the manga readers had read the whole thing and were aware of what was set to happen in the series.

However, the anime only had 12 episodes, which only adapted till the end of the Katana Man Arc. If the anime was to match the hype around it, MAPPA should have made the cour or the season a bit longer, adapting the Bomb Girl Arc as well, which is where the story gets intense.

Katana Man as seen in the anime (Image via MAPPA)

Thus, it can be said that the MAPPA failed to match the hype around the Chainsaw Man anime. However, it wasn't their fault, but the hype around the anime was just a bit too much.

Nevertheless, the hate around the anime, singing a petition for a remake, is all baseless, as the comments and reasoning around the same are regarding the little changes the studio made. Such minor changes can always be expected by a studio, given the creative liberty the director possesses.