Have you heard of Chainsaw Man?
If you’ve watched anime in the past few years, you almost certainly know the name. The opening song “KICK BACK” by Kenshi Yonezu became a worldwide hit. The studio MAPPA was already famous from Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen.
But what most Western fans never realized — was that Chainsaw Man broke nearly every rule of how modern Japanese anime gets made.
After 30 years writing for Japanese television, I want to share five things about Chainsaw Man that almost no Western viewer knows. Five business and creative decisions that, taken together, made this one of the most extraordinary productions in recent Japanese animation history.
The anime aired for 12 episodes on TV Tokyo from October to December 2022. The original manga, by Tatsuki Fujimoto, was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2019 to 2021. The anime adaptation was directed by Ryu Nakayama and produced by MAPPA.
Those are the facts you can find on Wikipedia.
The five things you probably did not know:
1. MAPPA produced Chainsaw Man entirely by themselves. No production committee. They took on all the financial risk — unprecedented for a major modern anime.
2. The original manga creator Tatsuki Fujimoto is, in Japan, considered the most extraordinary young manga artist working today — with multiple acclaimed works produced in just six years.
3. MAPPA gave the project to Ryu Nakayama, a first-time TV anime director. Most studios would never bet a billion-yen production on a debut director.
4. Twelve episodes used twelve different ending songs — from twelve of Japan’s most important contemporary musicians, including Aimer, Vaundy, Eve, ano, and many more. No other modern anime has done this.
5. Director Ryu Nakayama deliberately rejected traditional anime visual conventions, choosing instead a “live-action film” aesthetic — a polarizing artistic choice that defined the show.
In this video, I walk through each of these five hidden stories, and explain why Chainsaw Man could only have been made the way it was — and why every fan, lover and critic alike, was responding to a project that broke nearly every rule.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Chainsaw Man: the anime that divided fans
0:50 The 5 things you didn’t know
1:30 Story 1: MAPPA’s solo production gamble
2:50 Story 2: Tatsuki Fujimoto’s generational talent
4:00 Story 3: The first-time director’s billion-yen bet
5:15 Story 4: 12 episodes, 12 ending songs
6:30 Story 5: The “live-action film” aesthetic
7:30 Why you should watch Chainsaw Man
8:00 Closing
This is part 2 of KEIZO TV’s anime analysis series. Previous episode covered Attack on Titan — the show that defined a generation of Japanese animation exports.
Earlier episodes covered Japanese TV format analysis:
Takeshi’s Castle (159 countries)
SASUKE (American Ninja Warrior’s origin)
Iron Chef (cooking became a sport)
And five more episodes about Japanese TV inventions the world hasn’t caught up to.
Subscribe for weekly breakdowns of Japanese animation and television from someone who spent 30 years inside the industry.
#ChainsawMan #チェンソーマン #MAPPA #TatsukiFujimoto #Anime #JapaneseAnime #AnimeIndustry #KenshiYonezu #RyuNakayama #JapaneseCulture #MangaToAnime #BehindTheScenes #AnimeRecommendation #JapanGoesGlobal #AnimeFans