Chainsaw Man’s anime is hugely anticipated, but how much of the manga will we see on screen?

Few anime have been as highly anticipated as Chainsaw Man. The boundary-pushing action manga has been praised worldwide, but how much of the source material will the Chainsaw Man anime cover this season?

Right now, Chainsaw Man’s episode count is unconfirmed but is widely expected to cover two cours. Given how much investment MAPPA has made in the series and the popularity of Chainsaw Man’s source material, it would be very surprising if there weren’t also more seasons in future.

Given that, we’re going to focus for now on what fans can expect from the upcoming Fall release in terms of arcs and pacing.

Note that there are minor spoilers from the Chainsaw Man manga in this article.

Related: The Best Seinen Anime to Watch

The Chainsaw Man anime is expected to be a faithful adaptation of the award-winning manga. Therefore, the story will follow the same direction regarding events and arcs as seen in the source material.

However, it has been noted that Chainsaw Man’s manga has a very erratic pace, which is one of the series’ charms. MAPPA, the studio behind the adaptation, has mentioned that it plans to introduce new scenes to ensure the manga translates into anime effectively.

Based on some rough calculations, I’m expecting the first cour of Chainsaw Man, released this Fall, to cover the first 39 chapters of the manga, concluding with the Katana Man arc.

How did I get to this figure? See below a chart detailing the speed of manga adaptations in a selection of other highly-anticipated shounen anime, compared to what might be required for Chainsaw Man:

*Please note that all Chainsaw Man figures in this chart are an estimation and nothing has been officially confirmed at the time of writing. A 13-episode count has been used here to represent the first cour, which will air during the Fall season, but is likewise unconfirmed.

Remember that Chainsaw Man is often regarded as a more erratic series than its contemporaries, such as Jujutsu Kaisen. When it comes to the anime, some of that off-the-wall nature will likely be smoothed out, which will allow the anime to progress faster.

A good example of this three-chapter pacing is the Bat Devil arc. While that takes 8 chapters in the Chainsaw Man manga, it's very easy to imagine that playing out over two or three episodes of the anime.

Progressing at that pace also allows the anime to stop in an opportune place. The Katana Man arc is the first truly seismic moment in the series, where characters are both defined and lost. The next cour would then be free to build on this with the Bomb, Assassin and Gun Devil arcs adapted at a similar pace.

The alternative options for Chainsaw Man’s anime are not nearly as appealing. The series could be a slow adaptation, ending with the Bat Devil, but that would leave many side characters unintroduced and the series feeling incomplete.

On the other hand, adapting the Bomb arc in this cour would also mean adapting around four chapters each episode, which would be groundbreakingly fast. Reze has also not featured in any promotional material so far, making her inclusion this season unlikely – she will likely star in later promo material.

The most important thing to remember, though, is that we will see a lot of Chainsaw Man going forward. Right now, the question shouldn’t be what will Chainsaw Man adapt, but when everything will be adapted.

I would be very happy to see the adaptation go as slow as required while keeping the high energy that makes the manga so enjoyable.