Fujimoto Tatsuki’s exceedingly successful gorefest, Chainsaw Man, began publication in December 2018 and continues to reel in monthly readers in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. The shōnen manga follows Denji, a young man born into poverty who fuses with a dog-like devil, Pochita, then gains the ability to transform body parts into chainsaws. Eventually, he joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government task force assembled to fight against devils that invade Earth.
Taking place in 1997, Chainsaw Man is set in an alternate timeline in which the Soviet Union exists but monumental events such as the Holocaust did not occur. Malevolent and dangerous devils migrate between Earth and Hell, either hunted and destroyed or enlisted to grant humans unthinkable supernatural powers.
It has been announced by numerous sources that the upcoming Chainsaw Man anime — which will be directed by Ryū Nakayama — has received an October 11, 2022 release date. Penned by Hiroshi Seko, the screenwriter behind Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100, Dorohedoro, and Jujutsu Kaisen, it appears that Chainsaw Man will be distributed on TV Tokyo and licensed by Crunchyroll outside of Japan. TV Tokyo lists the premiere at 24:00 on October 11, 2022, which is effectively October 12 at midnight JST.
As of August 2022, Chainsaw Man had over 15 million copies in circulation. Additionally, it won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category and the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category. While well-received overall, Chainsaw Man has been primarily praised for its storytelling, well-crafted characters and violent imagery within the context of the plot.
Obviously, this is huge for the anime community, who have been itching to see a Chainsaw Man anime adaptation for years. Hopefully, if Chainsaw Man stays faithful to its manga roots, we’ll have plenty of senseless gore to digest.