In years past, the shonen anime demographic was dominated by the legendary "Big Three." Now, in a newer generation, fans have a "Dark Trio" to think about instead. All three series in that trio are bloody, dark shonen action series, and they have plenty of thematic overlap. They all have monsters and graphic action sequences, but they're hardly identical. These three series also have plenty of unique ideas, including Chainsaw Man.
Based on Tatsuki Fujumoto's ongoing Chainsaw Man manga, this anime is a subversive and twisted adventure that shonen and horror fans can't get enough of. Like Jujutsu Kaisen and Hell's Paradise, the Chainsaw Man anime stars a deadly male lead and his strong female friend as they battle supernatural creatures, but Chainsaw Man has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve, giving it a voice of its own.
10 Chainsaw Man Has a Sadistic Protagonist
All three Dark Trio anime series feature a battle-capable male lead who's never afraid to tangle with monsters like curses and devils, but among them, only Denji actually enjoys it. Denji can be calm and act relatively normal in between missions, but when devils show up, he can't wait to shred them to gory bits.
Denji becomes Chainsaw Man when the fighting starts, and he's known to laugh with bloodlust and glee the entire time. This is doubly true if Denji is promised a reward for a job well done, from getting intimate with Power to earning Makima's approval.
9 Chainsaw Man Takes Place In An Alternate Timeline
The Dark Trio anime series sometimes experiment with time, such as Hell's Paradise being set in a historical setting before cars and radios ever existed. Meanwhile, Chainsaw Man has a somewhat modern setting, but it's not a world any anime fans have ever lived in; this anime takes place in an alternate timeline.
Chainsaw Man's main events occur in an alternate mid-to-late 1990s, where the Soviet Union never fell and devils exist all over the world. That makes the anime feel both comfortingly familiar and vaguely unsettling at the same time, a trick that Jujutsu Kaisen and Hell's Paradise never even thought to try in their own anime series.
8 Chainsaw Man Subverts Its Major Female Characters
Many modern shonen titles present powerful and richly developed female characters, a recent trend for the better. Hell's Paradise has Sagiri and Jujutsu Kaisen features Nobara Kugisaki the jujutsu sorcerer, while Chainsaw Man goes in a slightly different direction with Power.
Unlike Sagiri and Nobara, the fiend Power is an intentionally crude, bizarre, and juvenile person, a whole new approach with strong female characters in shonen. Power is an aggressively un-feminine character, but that's actually what makes her so interesting, and most importantly, Chainsaw Man isn't making a joke of her in the process.
7 Chainsaw Man Focuses On Pets
A charming subtheme of Chainsaw Man focuses on pets, and the Chainsaw Devil dog Pochita almost like a brutal Pokémon in the first episode. Neither Hell's Paradise nor Jujutsu Kaisen gave their main characters any pets, but Denji and Power each have one, and it meant a lot.
Denji had Pochita as his pet-friend when he was otherwise all alone, and that helped sustain him during his difficult childhood. Meanwhile, Power had an ordinary pet cat named Meowy, which contrasted with her brutish personality and gave her something to fight for in early story arcs against the Bat Devil and Leech Devil.
6 Chainsaw Man Shows the Pursuit Of Love
Even the most violent shonen action series may feature a romantic subplot, but the Dark Trio rarely explores this genre. Yuji Itadori isn't looking for love in Jujutsu Kaisen, and in Hell's Paradise, the ninja antihero Gabimaru already has a wife to return home to. That leaves Chainsaw Man to depict the pursuit of romance.
Protagonist Denji openly pined for a girlfriend to ease his loneliness, a sentiment plenty of teenage boys can relate to. Denji's desperation for a romantic connection is actually what prompted him to follow Makima's orders and do his best to please her, though it will end in disaster rather than wedding bells.
5 Chainsaw Man Explores Hell Itself
Eventually, the Chainsaw Man anime may catch up to the manga and send Denji and the others right into hell itself. Despite its name Hell's Paradise, that anime didn't literally send its characters to hell, but rather, to a remote island of supernatural plants and magic.
Chainsaw Man is the only Dark Trio franchise to properly visit hell, and it's a bizarre place. The sky is an endless array of closed doors over a grassy field, and in this chilling realm, the mighty darkness devil can be found, heralded by an array of praying astronaut suits. Not even Yuji Itadori or Gabimaru would be prepared to visit such a place, and for that matter, neither was Denji.
4 Chainsaw Man Killed Its Protagonist In Episode 1
It's true that Jujutsu Kaisen briefly killed off its own protagonist a few episodes in with Ryomen Sukuna's power, but Chainsaw Man didn't even wait that long to kill Denji. Chainsaw Man's first episode depicted Denji getting himself killed fighting the zombie devil, and only with Pochita's aid did Denji return to life as Chainsaw Man.
Denji was reborn in more ways than one in that anime's explosive first episode, including his new career as a devil hunter. Meanwhile,Yuji felt largely the same after returning to life, and Gabimaru actually cannot die at all. Unlike Denji, Gabimaru can survive multiple attempts to hack off his head.
3 Chainsaw Man Has "Found Family" Themes
Some modern anime explore the heartwarming found family theme, such as Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man. Yuji Itadori may get along with his classmates, but they're not a true found family—just friends. Denji, meanwhile, has a serious need for a found family, and he got quite a wacky one.
Denji and Power soon learned to get along and became like foster brother and sister, something they both needed more than they realized. That left the tsundere Aki Hayakawa as the found family's responsible big brother figure, and as the younger ones, Denji and Power made sure to pester and annoy him whenever they could.
2 Chainsaw Man Gave Its Hero An Official Job
Some anime series focus on the main character's job, such as Fire Force, whose main characters are professional fire soldiers, or My Hero Academia, where costumed pro heroes are government workers rather than vigilantes. In the dark trio, only Chainsaw Man followed that trend.
Gabimaru is simply going on a mission, and Yuji is a student, so that leaves Denji as the working man between them. Denji may be a novice, but he's still an official devil hunter on the job, along with Aki and Power. Denji rarely, if ever, acts like a professional, but he still manages to get the job done.
1 Chainsaw Man Rapidly Kills Off Likable Characters
Hell's Paradise did kill off a whole swath of criminals early on before Gabimaru's main squad took shape, but Chainsaw Man had another approach. Chainsaw Man featured a relatively large cast of likable characters, including plenty of crude antiheroes, and the anime and manga started killing them off just as quickly.
A heartbreaking example was Himeno, who grew closer to Denji just before she gave her life fighting enemies like Katana Man. Manga readers saw even more characters die off, from Aki to Power herself, and even Makima died before she was eventually reborn in her Nayuta form. Meanwhile, Jujutsu Kaisen's anime seems highly reluctant to kill off any of its heroes, despite the constant danger they face.
