The premiere of the first trailer for Studio MAPPA’s highly anticipated adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s iconic Chainsaw Man is about to release soon.
The announcement was made on the upcoming anime’s official Twitter account, which revealed that the trailer will drop during a special MAPPA stage event on 5 August. The event will be globally live-streamed on the studio’s YouTube channel. The announcement was accompanied by a stunning new key visual for the series that depicts the titular devil hunter standing atop rubble with blood raining from the sky and dripping down his bladed appendages.
Fujimoto first published his Chainsaw Man manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2018 until December 2020. The second part of the series premiered in the Shōnen Jump+ online magazine in July. The story follows Denji, an impoverished young man who has the power to transform parts of his body into chainsaws and is struggling to get out from under the massive debt left behind by his deceased father. After being betrayed by his Yakuza employers, Denji finds himself recruited by the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government agency that battles against monstrous threats.
Over 13 million copies of the Chainsaw Man manga have been sold around the world and the series has received near-universal praise from critics. Moreover, it has won several prestigious awards, including Best Shōnen Manga at the Shogakukan Manga Awards and Best Manga at the Harvey Awards in 2021.
Much of the information surrounding MAPPA’s adaptation of Fujimoto’s story, including its participating voice actors, has been kept secret. While the first cast details are set to be revealed during the MAPPA event alongside the trailer, some members of the creative team have been confirmed. Most notably, Ryu Nakayama, who previously worked on One Punch Man and Sword Art Online, is directing the Chainsaw Man anime. Additionally, Hiroshi Seko, one of the writers behind the Jujutsu Kaisen and Vinland Saga anime, is penning the screenplay.
It was also recently revealed that the creative team is striving to make a faithful adaptation of Fujimoto’s story and that the anime will not shy away from the manga’s explicit content. “We are not censoring anything. We want to be true to the source material,” one of the producers said.
The Chainsaw Man anime is set to debut sometime in late 2022. The manga is distributed in North America by VIZ Media, and the first chapter of the series’ second part is now available to read in English.