MAPPA CEO Compares Impact of Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen

Season 1 of Chainsaw Man is a fantastic adaptation of one of the most popular Mangas of the last few years that not only does justice to the source material but actively adds to it with cinema-inspired visuals that make this absurd, bloody, dumb, and hilarious world feel incredibly real and relatable.

It is undoubtedly worth watching, especially if you’re looking for something fresh that doesn’t require too much of an investment. The series may easily be called one of the finest anime of 2022, with fantastic animation, good music, and amazing voice acting.

On the outside, it seems like anime was a super hit, but is it really true? Let’s find out.

One of the most significant characteristics of the ‘Chainsaw Man’ anime was that the production studio MAPPA invested the entirety of their production costs. CEO Manabu Ohtsuka spoke frankly about the situation in an interview with Tokyo Keizai on Wednesday. “As far as investment goes, one could say it was a complete success,” he remarked.

“It didn’t, however, have the same effect as Jujutsu Kaisen, which we worked on shortly before ‘Chainsaw Man’. This leaves me dissatisfied.”

While the ‘Chainsaw Man’ manga was more popular than Jujutsu Kaisen, it didn’t perform like the latter anime, even though the same company produced them.

Another thing that didn’t go as expected was the sales of DVDs and Blu-rays. Ohtsuka wanted it to reach more audience that pays for home video releases.

MAPPA has little expertise in managing, licensing, merchandise planning, and other such areas. Working on Chainsaw Man was, therefore, a good learning experience for the company.

Finally, Ohtsuka stated that Mappa is still a medium-sized company and that he does not intend to invest 100% of his company’s profits in all anime titles in the future, but he seeks to change the perception of studios not gaining large profits with anime production through MAPPA’s example.

About Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Man is a manga series by Tatsuki Fujimoto that was serialized from December 2018-2020 and returned in July 2022 with a second part. The series also received an anime series by MAPPA.

The manga’s plot revolves around Denji, an orphaned boy who has to work as a devil hunter to make a living and pay off his father’s debt.

However, his pet devil, Pochita is killed on a mission. Denji wakes up to realize he and Pochita have become a single being, Chainsaw Man. If he does not want to get killed, he has to join the government and continue hunting demons.