Chainsaw Man Episode 8 & 9 Review: Enters The Heart Of The Season With A Decisive Change Of Pace
Cast: Kikunosuke Toya, Shiori Izawa, Tomori Kusunoki
Director: Hiroshi Seko
Streaming Platform: Crunchyroll
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
If in the past episodes of Chainsaw Man (retrieve the review of Chainsaw Man Episode 7) the great ability of Tatsuki Fujimoto and Studio MAPPA to conceive and give life to an extremely ductile and intrinsically metamorphic, changeable and always credible in every form and genre assumed, the eighth episode reminds us that the author of the atypical shonen is also a master in managing the rhythm of the narrative. The ninth, on the other hand, reiterates it and establishes a decisive turning point, projecting us toward the season finale.
Episode 8 of Chainsaw Man was extraordinary. The episode took a sharp turn midway, turning all emotions upside down. Once done, it will take a moment to process everything that happened. This in my opinion was the best episode of the anime so far, and it reveals why the manga is so popular. Chainsaw Man Episode 9, “From Kyoto,” was the perfect follow-up to last week’s episode. Last week turned everything upside down, and this week’s episode dealt with the aftermath. We saw intense fight scenes, shocking revelations and unexpected character development, all in one episode. Once again, the anime is revealing why the manga is so popular. The star of this week’s episode was Makima. The animation of her scenes provided a compelling mystery that deepened her character.
Chainsaw Man Episode 8 & 9 Review: The Story Plot
The perfect division of the episodes, thanks also to pacing always accurate and measured by MAPPA, the systematic and almost temporally symmetrical alternation between exciting moments (action and horror) and more relaxed moments that lend themselves well to the slice of life, has hitherto contributed to making the narration both dispatched and weighted, the information well dosed, the 360-degree characterization of the characters effective (of which we receive snapshots in different experiences and situations, diametrically opposite, of tension and calm).
A cadence repeated in the eighth episode which returns to the sensual scene with Denji and Himeno, takes a step back to tell the background and a step forward to show the outcome of the advances of the blindfolded devil hunter: for Denji, who had longed for a such an opportunity, rejection awaits. It is the thought of Makima that distances him from his first time. A quiet breakfast on the balcony of the Himeno house is followed by a lunch for Denji, Power, Aki, and the same senpai sees that peace upset by the unexpected attack of a mysterious man who is said to aim at Denji’s heart on behalf of the Devil Gun. The enemy, a hybrid with nature not unlike that of the chainsaw-man, knocks out Denji and Power and engages in a duel with an Aki who is immediately ready to act and willing to do anything to stop him.
Failed the attempt to annihilate the threat through the intervention of Kon, the Devil Fox, does not hesitate to draw his katana to take advantage of the (harmful) power of the Devil Curse (whose effects we know for the first time), apparently succeeding to stop the enemy. The arrival of a formidable accomplice, who puts the recently massacred comrade back on his feet, forces Himeno to desperate intervention and heroic sacrifice. With Denji and Power out of the picture, it’s up to the devil hunter to counter the huge snake summoned by the mysterious woman, buying time for allies but losing everything.
Meanwhile, Makima also seems to have fallen under the blows of the enemy and a similar fate befalls Kobeni and Arai: it is an attack on Public Security. Chainsaw Man comes alive and does it with death, it does it with an episode, the eighth, unsettling and uncomfortable, almost unacceptable in its results, surreal in the so evident rendering of the tragedy. Difficult from the beginning to believe the fate of Makima, Arai and Kobeni are irreversible (the first still gave too little to be eliminated so soon, and we don’t know about the recruits; the ninth episode, finally, definitively clarifies the scenario), easy accept Himeno’s sacrifice as plausible and definitive (the focus on the character in the last few episodes proves to be significant in this sense), even more, natural to conclude the exceptional nature of an eighth episode that shatters certainties and forces us to swallow a bitter pill, with a death that appears premature but reminds us of the brutality of the world conceived by Fujimoto.
In which the jovial, light and almost tender atmosphere of the previous episodes can only be inexorably broken by the devils who they inhabit. Everything happens quickly, evil does not allow time and, without the frills of the most typical shonen, shatters what has been built, leaving the good in trouble, gasping without the possibility of recomposing, and the viewer halfway between shocked and exalted, between ‘interdicted and pleased, certainly naïve and invited to metabolize.
Chainsaw Man Episode 8 & 9 Review and Analysis
The ninth episode sees Denji go into action in a battle on equal terms with Katana Man, who exploits the ingenuity of the chainsaw man (the protagonist mistakenly believes that the enemy has humanity) to sever him in two and knock him out. To thwart the plans of the stormtroopers we think of a revived Makima (who finally shows all the terrifying power of her), assisted by the unexpected help of a shocked but incredibly effective Kobeni. Beyond a fight (Chainsaw Man vs Katana Man) of great intensity, fomented and peppered with a latent sense of revenge after the tragic events of the previous episode (which had made us wait with trepidation for a violent reaction and the resolving intervention of Denji), to steal the show is a Makima finally revealed in all its lethality.
Inexplicably unscathed after the attack on the shinkansen, he carries out his massacre: he annihilates the enemies, crushes them, compresses them reducing them to a mass of blood, in what is the most gore and disturbing scene of the series so far, deeply horror in the terror of enemies who know they are doomed, close to a terribly illogical and visually terrifying death. The delirious trance of an invulnerable Kobeni then gives the ninth episode a moment of healthy adrenaline followed by the usual melancholy that distinguishes Chainsaw Man, in which every death, every extremely violent act, is seen as a natural (but unbearable) consequence of the absurdity of a diabolical world.
Episodes 8 and 9 are then children of an excellent technical realization, here really at the maximum in every component. There is an animation that perfectly combines CGI (apart from a slight abuse during the clash between Denji and the Katana man) and traditional technique, reserving for the former a cel shading that almost makes it transparent and indistinguishable from the latter which, on the other hand, his, expresses its full potential in sequences that appear extremely fluid and clear in every frame. In this sense, the first part of the eighth episode deserves a mention, which sees Himeno and Denji protagonists of a sequence with a deeply erotic atmosphere, with sensuality spoiled as always, with once again inspired direction, which proves to be even more fanciful in the “static” than in the livelier ones (where, however, the absolute added value remains) and truly responsible for the spectacular nature of the fights).
And then, again, the scenes in the home reveal a truly hypnotic aesthetic beauty. The direction allows us to peer from the next room at a dazed Himeno who throws the sleeping Denji on the bed in his room. She then lingers on the furniture and the corners of the house while the rush of the water from the shower and the dim light creates an almost ghostly atmosphere. From the bathroom mirror, we see Himeno undressing, the one in the bedroom then frames her intent on tickling Denji’s desire. And yet particular perspectives and subjective (from the shot from inside the refrigerator to Himeno’s masterful POV which restores an astonishing three-dimensionality to the scene), drawings that are surpassed and a character acting that reaches a quality that has so far only been touched upon.
A driving soundtrack and excitement are the icing on the cake for two qualitatively impeccable episodes, real extra gear for the fights that are consumed in Kensuke Ushio’s overwhelming metal. In short, Chainsaw Man reaches its climax, it does so first by bringing Denji to the maximum of sexual tension, then by hurling everything towards the maximum of narrative tension, offering us the best of both worlds, of the two souls of the work (the intimate one and the action-terrific one), then abandoning ourselves to ourselves in moments when all seems lost for the protagonists and urging us to want more.
Chainsaw Man Episode 8 & 9 Review: The Last Words
Chainsaw Man veers decisively toward important upheavals, giving us two surprising episodes from every point of view: episode 8 is as shocking and terrible in its developments as it is technically sensational, and episode 9 is the worthy response to the previous trauma, with Denji’s unfinished revenge and the disturbing and crazy one of Makima and Kobeni. Not only animations and characters acting at their best but also a direction that oozes personality and helps to raise the level of staging. The work reaches its climax and leaves us eagerly awaiting new developments.
