In one of the fantasy stories I've had aspirations to write, guns and magic go hand in hand so much that one of my characters figured that he could repurpose a lightning potion into being a battery for a handheld railgun. Because nothing says screw you to an uppity wizard/mage/warlock who thinks it's _oh so cool_ he can shoot fireballs from his fingertips when his head is suddenly gone after having been hit by a .50 cal slug moving at ten thousand feet a second.
the fact that there’s still such a passionate fanbase for part 2 proves that CSM subverted the hype. everyone knows that part 2 was a slow burn in the beginning, and with how impatient shonen fans are you’d expect them to dislike dialogue-centric chapters but no, everyone stuck around to see Fujimoto’s story through to the end. its a testament to how skilled he is as a writer, and currently in the manga us fans are having the time of our lives
By the time this happens, you already know Makima can be terrifying. But after this scene, to the audience, she is "other". No longer a character playing by the same rules as the rest of the cast, no longer considered normal by the laws of this universe. No scene with her going forward would have been the same without this one.
I wish I really slowed down when I read this part of the manga. She breaks the rules twice, once by standing up after getting killed, once by going straight up death note on antagonists that we considered major threats considering that they killed some major characters in a completely unexpected sneak attack. It gives the feeling of: these antagonists are a threat. They’re dangerous. But Makima makes them look like children.
Though, what i like more about this scene is that, "the overarching figure" makima can still have her guard down like any other person and die in one gunshot. What makes Makima scary is that all the shown fact and implication that she's highly competent and she covers all her weaknesses with just that.
@@chuunikyou557 It's heavily implied that she planned the incident. In a conversation with Kishibe, he asks her "You knew this was going to happen, but you didn't try to stop it, did you?" Makima coldly responds, as if she feels attacked, but with a smile on her face, "I came under attack too, remember?" Kishibe responds without acknowledging that, because he's so emotionally separated from so much loss that he doesn't care how many of his "hunting dogs" die. But he also implies that he is uncertain of Makima's motives, and that she gets a pass as long as she's on the side of humanity. She gives another reasonable excuse, but Kishibe almost playfully calls her a liar. Only now does Makima's expression drop into a frown, but it quickly recovers. I find it very clear that Makima used her getting shot as an excuse to remove suspicion from herself. She wasn't caught off guard, she simply doesn't need to care about any attacks upon her person, especially not one that she *planned*. That makes her even scarier.
SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE MANGA ARC I GUESS I like to think Makima frowns at Kishibe because she's so pissed he's one of the few people to actively resist her control
I think the biggest problem with firearms is that realistic combat distances are against the laws of drama. With swords, you can have dramatic face-to-face dialogue, but with firearms, that's exactly what soldiers try to avoid at all costs. In real life, soldiers would rather just demolish a building than clean it room by room, the only time soldiers do this is if there is a strict order from above to leave the building intact, and even then many disobey orders.
Same reason why space battles are unrealistic. The most likely way it would actually happen isn't bright flashy lasers and missiles at WW1-level airplane dogfight distances, but with tiny bullets magnetically accelerated to near-relativistic speeds, from a distance of thousands of kilometers.
As much as people don’t like it I love how SAO: Gun Gale handles the face to face drama with guns. The red trace lines make the fight seem much closer and the moments much more intense.
Fujimoto is such a good writer. Even beyond what is shown in the anime, the manga does an EXCELLENT job of portraying the threat of guns to the point that it's nearly anxiety-inducing and heartbreaking.
If you’ve ever been shot-and I sincerely hope that you don’t-you will learn about how “normal life” ending a gunshot wound is. A gunshot wound is a nightmare that most people *NEVER* fully recover from. Unless it’s a small slow moving projectile that doesn’t tumble or deform, it’s not even remotely like a puncture wound; it’s more like being attacked by a hammer and a spear at the same time: bones shattered, organs punctured, sometimes flesh is practically liquefied and has to be cut out. Worse, bullets often fragment, and have to be pulled out piece by piece, doing more damage in the process. Sometimes, it’s too dangerous to remove a fragment and then it’s left in, which can be a problem if the bullet is lead. Guns are way scarier than people think.
Thank you! Finally someone who understands that bullet =/= hole size of bullet. The damn things carry so much kinetic force that, like you said, it’s more akin to getting smashed by a spiked hammer.
That very much depends on the type of bullet. In the case of a rifle round, it would likely just go through and through without causing much damage aside from a hole. In the case of a shotgun slug, that would perform like you explained. Just make sure that you know that all guns are not created equal, and to portray them as such is slightly misleading.
@@fakename2926 ive seen some slowmos where the bullet sucks all the air in the wound and then compresses it making it explode and its like the area of a human torso. no way your surviving something like that.
@@astr0868 I mean, you are objectively wrong by any actual metric and measure unless you are basing that on 1-off stories and ballistic gel experiments on youtube.
One of my favorite use of guns in anime was Fate Zero. The story follows a magical competition that repeats over generations, and one of the protaginists just breaks the mage's laws and conventions and uses modern weapons to shift the rules of the conflict in a way that terrifies and offends the other mages.
I was just about to comment on that. Congrats on being able to convey just how groundbreaking and deadly guns are in that context without spoiling anything about the show. Yeah, go watch Fate/Zero peeps. It's pretty great.
Guns are mostly effective, but you still got servants who can easily deflect bullets and bs like Kirei wolverining a machine gun. Urobuchi had to give Kirei buffs because guns are so effective.
One of the things that made Fate Zero so great was that the character who used firearms did things with a logical and pragmatic approach. They used the tools they had with the situations they found themselves in and couldn't call on magical bs to save themselves. They had to outsmart their opponents or come at them from a non-linear angle.
Glad i am not the only one who thinks about that as an anime watcher , its not that guns are important in the story , its that literally any character at any time could be in danger from a weak side character
are they important without the gun devil? everybody else in this show has superpowers. you might never see an anime where all the characters just use guns. real guns, not blasters and magic cannons
I love that Chainsaw man was overhyped, because it completely subverted everyone's expections, yet somehow it was as good if not better than the hype made it out to be. I'm fairly sure no one who hadn't read the manga could have expected what Chainsaw man was going to be, but I'm happy so many people seemed pleasantly surprised.
I refrained from reading the manga for a long time because I couldn't imagine where a shonen with a protagonist who just had chainsaw for hands and face could even go. I was always going to read it eventually, but the anime gave me the necessary kick and it's one of my favourite ongoing shonen, and especially my favourite relatively new ongoing shonen. Even if MHA and JJK are now over, they never engaged me like this. There's an even newer generation than those with some very good stuff going on apparently, and I haven't started reading them yet. But I'm expecting to find out gems amongst them too, it's exciting!
Even before consuming Chainsaw Man, I just... had a feeling. Just from the way the excited manga readers were cracking jokes about it... I got the vibes that it subverted expectations much in the same way that I'd already seen other shows. I was very satisfied to see that I was not wrong.
I watched the first episode when it came out cause it sounded badass, I loved it so much I bought the whole manga because I was too impatient to wait for the weekly eps
I had never read the manga nor did i know the details of it but when it was getting hyped my best friend told me to watch it too so i finally caved and it was even better than the hype. Its very rare for a show to do that
Honestly, that's a decent topic to explore. Zoltraak is basically Frieren's analog to a rifle. A weapon that became so good that it dominated the battlefield and became a dominant strategy. Its use is so widespread that it became ordinary.
Another brilliant part of Chainsaw Man's worldbuilding/magic system is how various the devils abilities and drawbacks are. The Gun devil was so powerful and pervasive that it couldn't be fully destroyed. So, the absence of guns in this world is fully explained, and we don't think about it. However, we know that powerful devils that haven't reincarnated as fiends can still make contracts. That includes the Gun devil. The reveal was so perfectly timed and executed.
May also be worth noting that from a Japanese law POV guns are far more controlled than in some other place like some parts of the U.S. with it being very difficult to acquire any firearm unless you are military or law enforcement. Meaning the rarity of guns could somewhat track with irl law when combined with how using guns probably only makes the gun devil even stronger and thus they are not used often if at all. Fitting then (and honestly deliciously ironic that the Chainsaw man anime also came out not too far from fears of school shootings) that the gun devil emerges in the U.S.
The only thing that I want to know is that do the separate parts of the gun devil have their own consciousness like obviously the ones owned by the eternity devil and such don't but what about the ones owned by the countries
@@dudesayshi2191 I mean by the latest chapter and the shit that is going down with the statue of liberty, maybe they have consciousness to some degree. Enough to make contracts but not sufficient for functioning like a living devil.
Fiends can make contracts with humans still, won't spoil anything, but ALL devils can make contracts, they just can't make them with other devils, this includes devils, fiends and hybrids, neither of which can make contracts with the other, but all can make them with humans
As a world building hobbyist, guns are f***ing annoying. It really is hard to make a magical setting that is decently advanced but doesn’t have a weapon that’s so good it’s meta. Sidenote, Stormtrooper syndrome: when someone can’t hit water even if they fell out of a boat. Edit: tldr: it’s hard to completely justify a decently advanced civilization having guns good enough to use but not good enough to be meta. I am specifically doing a somewhat realistic magic system, as in it’s not absolute rules but more rpg/dnd style, with realistic physics mixed in. As in I’m making a litrpg. Obviously in actual games a bullet can’t one tap a guy ‘cause that’s no fun, but it doesn’t really feel like a gun if it doesn’t do so. Basically, I want people to fight with swords in a world with magic and guns, but it’s kinda hard to balance guns being good enough to use but not good enough to be realistic and meta. Can’t just make them useless, can’t just make them one shot, can’t just make them another bow, can’t have my cake and eat it too without sacrificing some kind of logic.
There should always be a meta though, it's a constant. Be that guns or a fireball spell. That doesn't mean it can't have flaws (a gun is only good so long as it has bullets to be shot), just that everyone knows this is the starting line.
Tbh I feel like a world building context, introducing guns would be a good device for marking the end of an era for swords and armor. Some shows detailing feudal Japan use this trope.
I personally take issues with worlds that just combine guns and magic with no explanation. Either magic is an established system (which it needs to be 99% of the time because it's a learned skill 99% of the time) which would completely alter the path of technological progress, or guns are the established norm and magic/psychic powers are an errant phenomenon. But it's the same thing as when a world tries to establish intelligent monsters like dragons but people still build regular medieval style cities. But the dragons don't destroy them because of the powerful mages you say? How on earth did humanity progress to the point that they can compete with dragons without being wiped out unless the dragons are just stupid? And in this scenario where humanity is capable of competing with dragons, you need a pretty damn good reason not to have a war of extermination between the two powers.
@@upg5147 How would the technology around production/advancement even be established without being squashed? Plus the multiple highly skilled trades needed to produce even a rudimentary firearm (chemical manipulation, metallurgy, smithing, engineering, large mining operations for several unique materials). Where is the incentive to develop the industries around the technology if magic is a thing? If fireballs are a thing that are common at the army level then it'd be stupid to even develop your typical massive formation army. You might have small squads and possibly a main force made up mostly of cavalry (assuming magic doesn't have an easy answer to that) but then you run into the issues of the powers in charge (presuming mages) simply controlling the breeding and rearing of horses.
@@demacry You're assuming I think the meta would be a gun, I'm just saying there is always a meta be that a gun or something else. I think you are right, most of the time, a gun would not be made in a fantasy setting unless the magic is rather hard to use or not very powerful and or those in power want to make guns for one reason or another.
@@OneColdRepublican personly I hated fire punch. It just felt stupid edgy and inconsistent in a lot of ways. Kept making me go "yikes" until I gave up. The start was really cool tho
You can actually broaden this to any projectile. Arrows, kunai, grenades, none of these are ever an issue and the reason is simple, they are something that can be used to show the character's competency. It's the same reason we need fodder in series even when in reality, no one can take down a hoard of people regardless of how weak or strong they are, let alone "special agents" or "elite soldiers". If neither of these things are done, the characters don't have a lot of screen time to really show you their skill level and more importantly, the massive gap between them and the norm.
Not to mention how projectiles are thought of thematically. The sniper was almost an exclusive evil coward in early movies. Nu 13, and Justice are the main villans of their fighting games, and also oppressive zoners because it's a frustrating thing to deal with, and makes the average player want to run in and just beat them to death. Normally when a hero is a ranged character, their weapon is either weak, or obstinate, requiring them to play smart or take risks to get enough shots/the big shot off. In fact, the zoner is often pretty smart, the two villans I just talked about are both semi-robotic. Sasuke, who uses the weak shuriken, and long range aoe fireballs a lot, is pretty smart compared to most of the cast. (Most of his actual good hits still come in with his close range chidori and it's derivatives though.) Because risk and investment only comes when both sides seem somewhat even. Even if the hero is fighting fodder, typically they're also having to protect something, or leave the area quickly, adding an outside force for the audience to worry about. It's not coincidence that I mentioned fighting game characters during this, because just like how tge cast is roughly balanced against eachother, the protagonist is usually treated the same way against the situation at hand.
Here's the thing: Guns being scary are a big part of the recent chapters, but also how they can be disregarded in the face of something more overbearing. It's the existential question of is immediate known but only possible terror, scarier than the inevitable terror that will strike from anywhere with no warning or in some cases years of warning. How the hell is Fujimoto making PT2 even better than PT1, it just honestly surprises me the lengths he can show emotions in this story
Part 2 better than part 1? Either the recent chapters are popping off like CRAZY or you're capping, I was holding out hope for part 2 and thinking it could still be good even after a myriad of dissapointing chapters until the alley doujin chapter happened, that's when the illusion broke
@@Dumbsourplum an example of what's happening "Statue of liberty (in New York) fires at a primal devil in Tokyo, and the devil disintegrates the attack just with his finger". It's really popping off, but apparently there's another one of those chaps you don't like recently
@@anonymous112 The alleyway jerkoff chapter was just kindaa the straw that broke the camels back tbh, anyways seems people online are saying it's a bubble, as in soon bubble will pop and quality will get lower again, either people have really lost faith and I don't blame them or there are warning signs...are there?.
Terry Pratchet introduced guns in one of the Discworld Watch novels, the gun featured was demonstrated to be almost supernatural, It rarely missed and when it hit it was very fatal, i think the story was supposed to be a warning about how such easy to acquire and use power could warp the mind.
The characters holding a gun told it was not them who killed, But a gun. Like, This implies how easy it is to kill with a gun in comparison with for example a knife. Almost like you have no moral drawback.
@@Ozorosochiit's not something you train, it's not something you need to put strength into it, it's just something you do, you pull, they fall and the damage is way more brutal than of any other weapon so far.
@@Ozorosochi That's not true and completely asinine... how come the gun only killed someone once it was in a persons hands? It certainly has a moral drawback as well, since you'd be killing someone wwhich is morally wrong
Except that isn't true and isn't how reality works. Propaganda. Over 100,000,000 people in the US have rifles, weapons capable of mowing down crowds, and yet less than a thousandth of a single % of the rounds fired annually make their way into any sort of flesh, human or otherwise. Clearly that power isn't all that mind-warping.
Wait this is not Frieren! xD Guess Mappa knew how to make guns scary because the animators are being held at gunpoint... For legal reasons this is a joke🤣🤣
This reminds me of one of my favorite shonen manga: Gachiakuta. One of the main characters, Riyo, is fighting this other girl, and Riyo is getting trashed the entire fight until, right when we think she's about to be killed, she pulls out a gun and in 2 shots the fight is over, she won. And that simultaneously felt real, hilarious, and scary.
I really liked Chainsaw man from the jump, it has film level composition and production value which makes sense with what its adapting and Fujimotos influences, but you're right episode 8-9 takes you by surprise, and that's when you realise what kind of roller-coaster you've sat down in, and how deadly it can really be. ps. It was so good in fact that it was one of the first anime that got me to read the manga, and by god it's worth it, I'm so excited for when the anime returns.
I hate doing this to people, but, there is a previous series Fujimoto did. Fire Punch. Is like CSM, just for adults. Yes, even darker, sadder and more overwhelming. Top tier story with pain that makes most dramas a joyride.
Your whole bit about the audience not even recognizing that their expectations were being subverted until they were... is a perfect summary of what made me fall in love with Chainsaw Man in the first place when I finished the manga. No spoilers, but the same sentiment can be applied to a LOT of it's plot! Not just in regards to Makima, but definitely a lot towards Makima.
I wouldn't say they got less deadly. Guns in AoT first show up as desperate boomstick to blind the titans since it pose zero threat to the enemy, then the anti personel uses guns that honestly has piss poor design and accuracy, depending entirely on the user. Then we shift to Marley and get back to what we know, guns and turrets being used in wars. And how both sides used various guns to kill one another. It just seem less impactful on the surface since the main threat at any exact moment either are the ones using guns (Kenny's squad, Marley), but the targets are genuinely horrible aiming target (3-D maneuverability vs 19th century fire arms), or just plain out unfaze by guns (the titans)
@@Nguyen763_Zack to add onto this i loved how in Marley the reality of how lethal guns are was emphasized through Gabi. all it takes is a skilled marksman and one well-placed shot to take out the enemy, and she showcased that with Sasha and Eren. the absurdity of a small child with a gun having the power to kill/defeat badasses like Floch just proves that ranged weaponry is not to be taken lightly. characters can get splattered, domed, 1-tapped, and quickscoped in an instant, and those stakes are what keeps us on our toes throughout the story
@@Nguyen763_ZackI mean in AoT guns were emphasized to be strong. Very big ones. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3-4. We get to see Anti Titan artillery used by the Mid-East alliance against marley and later used by marley. It straight up shot through armored titan armor like it was made of wet tissue paper.
@Z5-XB well when the premise was about the remnant of humanity vs giant man eating monster from season 1-early3, guns does jackshit since the enemy for that time was the titan. Then we shifted to the enemy bring other humans, then ofc guns would be stronger, as seen with Kenny's squad and Marley. And anti-titan cannon/thunderspear is a step up as both a balancing force for the non-titan having forces, as well as a drive to make Marley invade Paradis even quicker
Unironically I want a story to treat guns like a magic system and go full autism with the complexity and limits of an entire magic system that is actually just people with guns.
@@Wyi-the-rogue Gun nut? What does that mean? Why do you think you can just create a category like that out of thin air and determine, solely of your own accord, who is in this group? I get that you live in a good area, and have a button you can press to summon super-soldiers to protect you at a moments notice, but most people on earth, and most people throughout human history, have *not* had that privilege. Being interested in firearms and passionate about them does not make someone a "gun nut", a pejorative we should really stop using... It's like saying a bandaid nut or a scissor-nut. A bandaid nut? Am I a nut for keeping bandaids in case I get a cut, or a nut for keeping scissors in case I need to cut something? Ya this is a long ass comment.. soz
@@AR15andGOD A: I didn't make the term, it's pretty damn old B: Wtf is that about super soldiers C: Gun nut refers to people who just really really really like guns beyond practical usage: Everyone should be able to cook themselves a meal in theory, but not everyone should be a chef.
Fujimoto is really out here doing it unlike anyone else. I'm enjoying part 2 of the manga, but honestly part 1 is so so so strong on its own. I can't wait to see the rest of it get animated!!! Makima is an all-time character for me and rewatching the anime from the beginning after being caught up with the manga is so scary and devastating. If you know what's going to happen, it's so easy to see it all from the moment she lays eyes on Denji
It's really impressive how you tie the show into your analysis. Creates a sort of feedback loop where I not only understand the show better, but have an easier/more indepth understanding of the topics discussed (ie; the problem of writings guns into your media). Great work!
I felt the same way when I read the manga. It was fine but I wasn't excited about the series until I read those chapters then I suddenly had to binge it in a single night! I love how Fujimoto continues to escalated the story, the characters and the world even more past this point! Can't wait for season 2
sadly the original director who was the whole reason for the cinematic style has been fired. alot of Japanese idiots boycotted the CSM blu ray cuz they wanted a generic anime direction style and not the cinematic one
@@DestructiveDan1 Which is a shame, considering Fujimoto is a big cinemaphile and a lot of references to movies were there because of that. Hell, even some character designs are references (see: Kishibe, Barem)
the opening was chalk full of them aswell, I loved the style of chainsaw man's first season so much it shot upto my number one anime of all time solely for the production quality@@emiliapawny4746
It's not just about guns. Protagonists in stories tend to have this plot armor about them. People in wars or violent situations died bloodily and easily before we had guns. A random sword strike from behind, or a truncheon to the leg, you're dead or crippled for life. We like to imagine that a sufficiently skilled person, a protagonist, would be able to ward off blows and keep themselves alive even in a dangerous close quarters combat situation, but it generally just isn't true. Emperors get stabbed, generals die from an infected wound, soldiers are struck and die. it's not just guns that get nerfed in action stories, it's weapons in general. The gun scares us because it shatters the delusion, we can pretend a super skilled fighter can keep himself _reliably_ safe from sword blows (it's not true) but it's far harder to keep up with the make-believe in the case of a gun.
I had no desire to watch chainsaw man - I had watched the first episode and it sat with me weird so I didn’t return - and I have also never left a video at a spoiler warning but in just 6 minutes you convinced me to start what I truly believe will be one of the best shows I will ever watch. You are a master and I thank you in advance
Love your channel and I ALSO love Chainsaw Man. So seeing you and CSM together ks fantastic. Lots of analysis on CSM out there, but you still find ways to talk about topics still not discussed on the show. Would love more, but enjoy everything you post. Keep up the videos and remember to take care also.
Idk if you'd count high card. His "magic" is pretty much just spawning a gun. Same goes for Darwins Game I suppose. Though that's more of a battle royal
Your videos are so immersive and your way of explaining things is so neat!! I have a passion for storytelling, and I find your videos really nice to watch since I'm struggling with plotlines and twists myself, so your descriptions on different pieces of media is very helpful! Thank you!!
As a manga reader, the hype revolves around the next 2 arcs, not the first season. If this blew you away, be prepared for a rollercoaster of absolute peak fiction. If they animate it well, what's called the "International Assassins' Arc" can be Shibuya Arc-level of good
I watched 2 of your video and you immediately jump into one of my favorite documentary youtuber. Your calming voice with amazing analyzing is just... SO GOOD
I don't know I feel like that scene really isn't as much at all about the guns (outside of framing with the gun devil) but more about the sudden loss of life on the public sec side. The scenes themselves barely even use guns anymore effectively that they'd use a knife or a devil's contract to attack. They don't use the range of a gun, their capability of mass production, or even the speed of a bullet all that well (several characters dodge bullets make no mistake guns are nerfed in chainsawman) to create the loss of life. The main thing that's used is the nature of the attack as a suprise attack with strong coordination. The real suprise isn't that guns are dangerous but that the cast sorrounding Denji isn't protected by the narrative and can suffer massive losses in quick succession. I never really thought 'oh shit guns are dangerous' from these scenes but more If anything I would say the weapon that actually feels scary in its implementation is what happens after the initial attack when Makima remotely kills several of the attackers.
Probably the best response I've read to this video. It could've been poison for all that anyone cares, but the sudden implementation was ultimately what was the threat
I think guns do add a little more than knives or other methods. We specifically see what looks to be an old grandma pull a gun. The fear with guns is that anybody could go from stranger to killing you in like 1 second, even a child or cripple. Knives require at least some physical ability to use and you have to get a lot closer. I know the guns long range wasn't used but even 10 feet vs 1 foot is a big difference in shows like these. The real fear is other people and guns make you fear more of them than knives. Of course, devil powers or any other magic could be just as if not more scary and thats exactly what happens right afterwards with makima's counterattack. The fear shifts from "I need to be afraid of other people" to "I need to always be afraid".
Yeah, I feel the same way. The weapons weren't the fear - especially since the attack was immediately followed by an overwhelming magic counterattack - it was the sudden mass loss of characters I had gotten to know over 8 episodes. Another fear was actually Makima overshadowing any weapon used thus far - that even shot through the head, she came back and calmly killed everyone. It's like experiencing the Red Wedding and realizing that many favorite characters could die just like that. It's like reaching Bezerk's Eclipse and finding out that all that loss was caused by one person's ulterior motives.
Very very soon I will be buying patreon specifically for your channels sir. Your content is so lovely and I greatly appreciate and enjoy your videos so much❤
Reminds me of the way JJK S2 completely baits you into thinking the first few episodes are concluding happily before Toji shoots the poor girl through the head during a melancholy music cutaway.
remember in the last john wick movie john is like "no matter what I do, they´ll find me" and then proceeds to go to the only place on the whole planet where they would look for him and at the same time one of the only places where the guards are incapable of using guns and rely on bows so a blind guy can survive
People who don’t do more than shoot at a random pile of crap in the closed quarry won’t get how much work goes into (and how fun) safe and regular training at a range can be. 🤷 but it’s not the point of the video I guess.
They’re easy to use, but difficult to master. You can teach anyone with even middling physical and mental fitness to operate a modern firearm with 5 minutes of basic instruction. It is highly unlikely that they will be able to use it effectively with only 5 minutes of instruction, but they can use it.
psycho-pass also uses guns to *excellent* effect; an archaic object that can no longer be used by police, having been replaced by a system that can identify criminals before they commit a crime... until it can't it's a brilliant exploration of morality with a conflict that has no clear "good side" (shame it ended with one season after which no pieces of media were created in the franchise)
I love how we all thought Riko was gonna live, maybe show up in a later arc, only for Toji to pull the trigger Another decent example of guns being scary, as they should be
I feel like ODDTAXI also makes guns very scary. This comes mostly from it's realistic gritty setting, but simply having a gun can make any character a story warping threat. There is one gun in the whole story (well, the story at least has you believe that) and it's treated like an ultra powerful cursed artifact would in a fantasy setting.
reminds me how i wrote a thing about a kinda video game like world with a respawn system so i could play around with guns being able to actually kill protagonists but also allow magic to be extremely destructive without the consequences dragging down the "story" (this is much less of a serious story and more just an excuse to depict interesting anime fight scenarios which would normally never happen for fun)
this is why i adore gate. sure its on the surface a generic isekai, like literally in the sense of the word an isekai in that the story takes place in another world and that world being a fantasy one. for as much bad as the anime and story does it also does something no other anime has done, made modern weaponry terrifying to anything but literal gods. dragons pose no challenge when fighting f4's, witches are a joke when your opponent can end your lives from out of sight, cavalry on horseback dont stand a chance against tanks and mg positions. its an anime that took the realistic approach to guns in fantasy and it worked great in showing a interesting idea, i think more shows should follow that approach. the cold brutal reality about modern weaponry is that its terrifyingly effective, as it should be since combat evolved from clubs swords hand to hand into what we use today.
Totally agreed. It wasn't a 100% curbstomp because we see things like dragons with tough hides resist small arms and be a menace to infantry, and you know, that makes total sense. But heavier equipment like jets or choppers destroy them, so it was just like a 95-99% curbstomp. Also it did a good job of portraying just how lethal modern weaponry is and how terrifying that can be.
"I've yet to meet one that can out smart bullet" -Heavy Weapons Guy. He might sound silly but he highlight how quite terrifying and destructive a bullet can be
Since the day saw your vids about frieren, I am always watching your uploads. The way you make vids and the way you narrate each of the detail you've noticed/aprreciate/realized is really great. Thank you for another wonderful upload.
@@AnActuallyUsefulGoddessDefinitely not hand drawn animation like Princess Mononoke. The background is blurry as well, which means that this anime didn't have enough budget or time to focus on background detail
I really like the use that guns have in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. They are a tool that is still useful and a weapon of assistance, and both powered individuals and normal people can use them to even out the battle field, without making them either useless or overpowered
It is true though. I remember going through the experience thinking "wow, all that strength, these powers, the situations and monsters they fought though... a piece of metal weighing ounces..."
How on Earth is your amazing work not getting sponsored yet is beyond me. Here's hoping the Chainsaw Man movie drops soon so we can listen you talk about its explosive reveals!
That's basically the consensus on CSM, sure the infinity arc is interesting and gives insight in some of the characters, but it's not particularly impactful to the overall story, specially if you understand the tone of this world from the get go, then there is the reunion and the shenanigans with Himeno, it's all great, but there is CSM before chapter 23 and CSM after chapter 23, it goes from great to incredible really fast.
I think the infinity arc was used specifically to characterize our group, especially aki, himeno, and denji. I couldn't imagine the story without it too, especially because of how crazy the eternity devils design is, especially in the manga
Read the manga! It gets crazier, if you can believe that. Makima is a terrifying, disturbing, and well written-character. I know you’ll appreciate it and I would love to see you do a video about it.
This reminds of when I was reading the hokkaido arc of Samurai X, and there was a group of swordsmen whose whole deal was essentially "guns are too easy to use and lame", and had weird swords designed to fight guns. And I remember thinking "This was the most anime thing ever!"
0:52 real quick nit-pic the stormtroopers clones and droids didnt use bullets they used blaster bolts which travel slower than bullets, mandalorians specifically chose bullets to kill jedi because the bullets were too fast for jedi to block/deflect
Its great how these near superhuman devil hunters who can do incredible feats of human strength but theyre still humam And all it takes is one unlucky shot
At 00:20 talking about guns being less deadly being the standard of shounen anime for storytelling, while showing a clip of Misato on end of evangelion .... she dies from bloodloss because of a gun shot from a "henchmen that can't aim" on that same movie, following that sequence.
Great video! Love the breakdown I managed to watch Chainsaw Man last year without seeing any of the hype and so I didn't know what to expect except from what I'd seen in a trailer and it was damn fantastic. 5/5 right up there with the rest of my favorites
Since the Gun Devil and it's appearance is heavily implied, it will be a jaw dropping moment for quite many. It was for me when I read it. I can't wait to see how they make the scene work in animation.
Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress, it’s a really cool anime with good concepts, although the worst bad is that this 13 year old girl, one of the mcs is shipped with the 17 (i think?) year old mc, they even kiss in one of the movies iirc, other than that, it’s pretty good!
There is an old fighting manga, that has its fiction but at the same time a taste of realism, Its called tekkenden Tough with its sequel Tough. Well specifically in the first there is a short arc on which the protagonist has to fight a pretty imponent guy, being the protagonist really small but with technique he was able to overcome, pretty good fight and you feel that the opponent its a bit amazing however a couple of chapters after this same opponent is killed by a simple drug addict in a dangerous area in USA, the drug addict simply wanted money and this guy refused and suddenly he just simply got killed. It left me overwhelmed for a moment since I was not expecting something so lame to happen to him and what was the point, even the protagonist could not believe it when he heard the news but his father told him that this happened because of arrogancy and believing oneself invincible while in fact we may be able to get tough we are not bulletproof. Even one of the main antagonist or villains of the second part was barely able to survive a sniper gunshot. So that manga always left myself in the perspective that if a gun is into play, things are serious.
The problem I have with most media involving firearms, is that they don’t understand just how much a bullet can mess you up. I wanna take care of door “shields” for example. That would never work in real life, cars are paper thin compared to most rounds, and you should never use them as cover. That’s why police officers are trained that if they need to use their car as cover they should take cover behind the engine block. Bullets don’t just get stopped by anything metal, and body armor can only do so much against certain rounds.
@@Dr.SwagPHDinDrip In training they call the cop car a "coffin" because if you stay in it during a fire fight it's where they'll find your body. Your best defense is to get out and run to the side of the vehicle furthest from the shooter.
I just wish for a show to actually consult a reliable firearms team for when they want to depict them. I think that a large obstacle to firearms being depicted well is just how inconsistent they are. The human body is simultaneously way more and way less durable than people think. Handguns, in actuality, kind of suck at dropping people, yet they retain the capability of dropping an assailant in a single shot if well placed. That, combined with temporary wound cavity, make depicting ballistics in a satisfying way challenging.
the more complex a magic system, the funnier it is when somebody pulls out a gun
In one of the fantasy stories I've had aspirations to write, guns and magic go hand in hand so much that one of my characters figured that he could repurpose a lightning potion into being a battery for a handheld railgun. Because nothing says screw you to an uppity wizard/mage/warlock who thinks it's _oh so cool_ he can shoot fireballs from his fingertips when his head is suddenly gone after having been hit by a .50 cal slug moving at ten thousand feet a second.
That's why the RWBY world has a aura magic system that makes guns non lethal to the auta users. Exactly like a shieldbar until its depleted.
@@Elysium4there's also tactical breach wizards where you have wands that are guns and there are also Navy Seers. Or so was the demo.
the fact that there’s still such a passionate fanbase for part 2 proves that CSM subverted the hype. everyone knows that part 2 was a slow burn in the beginning, and with how impatient shonen fans are you’d expect them to dislike dialogue-centric chapters but no, everyone stuck around to see Fujimoto’s story through to the end. its a testament to how skilled he is as a writer, and currently in the manga us fans are having the time of our lives
Why did Toji pull out a glock
By the time this happens, you already know Makima can be terrifying. But after this scene, to the audience, she is "other". No longer a character playing by the same rules as the rest of the cast, no longer considered normal by the laws of this universe. No scene with her going forward would have been the same without this one.
I wish I really slowed down when I read this part of the manga. She breaks the rules twice, once by standing up after getting killed, once by going straight up death note on antagonists that we considered major threats considering that they killed some major characters in a completely unexpected sneak attack. It gives the feeling of: these antagonists are a threat. They’re dangerous. But Makima makes them look like children.
@@henrychen310 it's death note if the paper was voodoo dolls, and the voodoo dolls were real people
Though, what i like more about this scene is that, "the overarching figure" makima can still have her guard down like any other person and die in one gunshot. What makes Makima scary is that all the shown fact and implication that she's highly competent and she covers all her weaknesses with just that.
@@chuunikyou557 It's heavily implied that she planned the incident. In a conversation with Kishibe, he asks her "You knew this was going to happen, but you didn't try to stop it, did you?" Makima coldly responds, as if she feels attacked, but with a smile on her face, "I came under attack too, remember?"
Kishibe responds without acknowledging that, because he's so emotionally separated from so much loss that he doesn't care how many of his "hunting dogs" die. But he also implies that he is uncertain of Makima's motives, and that she gets a pass as long as she's on the side of humanity. She gives another reasonable excuse, but Kishibe almost playfully calls her a liar. Only now does Makima's expression drop into a frown, but it quickly recovers.
I find it very clear that Makima used her getting shot as an excuse to remove suspicion from herself. She wasn't caught off guard, she simply doesn't need to care about any attacks upon her person, especially not one that she *planned*. That makes her even scarier.
SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE MANGA ARC I GUESS
I like to think Makima frowns at Kishibe because she's so pissed he's one of the few people to actively resist her control
I think the biggest problem with firearms is that realistic combat distances are against the laws of drama. With swords, you can have dramatic face-to-face dialogue, but with firearms, that's exactly what soldiers try to avoid at all costs. In real life, soldiers would rather just demolish a building than clean it room by room, the only time soldiers do this is if there is a strict order from above to leave the building intact, and even then many disobey orders.
Nobody likes to die, it's way too easy to be surprised in a building and how fast and dangerous guns are that's no surprise...
Well you can have face to face dialogue if you are in that one naked gun scene
Same reason why space battles are unrealistic. The most likely way it would actually happen isn't bright flashy lasers and missiles at WW1-level airplane dogfight distances, but with tiny bullets magnetically accelerated to near-relativistic speeds, from a distance of thousands of kilometers.
every room rates a frag
As much as people don’t like it I love how SAO: Gun Gale handles the face to face drama with guns. The red trace lines make the fight seem much closer and the moments much more intense.
Fujimoto is such a good writer. Even beyond what is shown in the anime, the manga does an EXCELLENT job of portraying the threat of guns to the point that it's nearly anxiety-inducing and heartbreaking.
that and snowballs
@@Jaykeduzthings and birthday cakes 😔
@@alexc1 and sushi
And the statue of liberty 🗽
And doors
If you’ve ever been shot-and I sincerely hope that you don’t-you will learn about how “normal life” ending a gunshot wound is. A gunshot wound is a nightmare that most people *NEVER* fully recover from. Unless it’s a small slow moving projectile that doesn’t tumble or deform, it’s not even remotely like a puncture wound; it’s more like being attacked by a hammer and a spear at the same time: bones shattered, organs punctured, sometimes flesh is practically liquefied and has to be cut out. Worse, bullets often fragment, and have to be pulled out piece by piece, doing more damage in the process. Sometimes, it’s too dangerous to remove a fragment and then it’s left in, which can be a problem if the bullet is lead. Guns are way scarier than people think.
Thank you! Finally someone who understands that bullet =/= hole size of bullet.
The damn things carry so much kinetic force that, like you said, it’s more akin to getting smashed by a spiked hammer.
That very much depends on the type of bullet. In the case of a rifle round, it would likely just go through and through without causing much damage aside from a hole. In the case of a shotgun slug, that would perform like you explained. Just make sure that you know that all guns are not created equal, and to portray them as such is slightly misleading.
@@fakename2926 ive seen some slowmos where the bullet sucks all the air in the wound and then compresses it making it explode and its like the area of a human torso. no way your surviving something like that.
@@astr0868 I mean, you are objectively wrong by any actual metric and measure unless you are basing that on 1-off stories and ballistic gel experiments on youtube.
@@fakename2926 spiked hammer is literally called war hammer and we used it for centuries in war.
Highly lethal too
One of my favorite use of guns in anime was Fate Zero. The story follows a magical competition that repeats over generations, and one of the protaginists just breaks the mage's laws and conventions and uses modern weapons to shift the rules of the conflict in a way that terrifies and offends the other mages.
I was just about to comment on that. Congrats on being able to convey just how groundbreaking and deadly guns are in that context without spoiling anything about the show. Yeah, go watch Fate/Zero peeps. It's pretty great.
Guns are mostly effective, but you still got servants who can easily deflect bullets and bs like Kirei wolverining a machine gun. Urobuchi had to give Kirei buffs because guns are so effective.
One of the things that made Fate Zero so great was that the character who used firearms did things with a logical and pragmatic approach. They used the tools they had with the situations they found themselves in and couldn't call on magical bs to save themselves. They had to outsmart their opponents or come at them from a non-linear angle.
Gachiakuta does it too when (kinda spoilery) during a fancy-power fight one girls is just like fuck it and bring out the gun
"You spent your time studying magic while i studied the gun"
i love how guns in chainsaw are important
Glad i am not the only one who thinks about that as an anime watcher , its not that guns are important in the story , its that literally any character at any time could be in danger from a weak side character
Me remembering THAT chapter... "Bang"
@@alilweeb7684 which one the one in part one or part two
😂
are they important without the gun devil? everybody else in this show has superpowers. you might never see an anime where all the characters just use guns. real guns, not blasters and magic cannons
You know what, I have a day off tomorrow. I'mma watch Chainsaw man for the first time. Thank you for convincing me.
I promise you won't regret it.
....until season 3 comes out 💀
also I recommend to read the manga after, you,ll probably find the anime a lil too short.
Just remember that Denji is a hyper-realistically cringe character
@@zanthe_ at the rate that it's going that will be in ten years
and then read it
I love that Chainsaw man was overhyped, because it completely subverted everyone's expections, yet somehow it was as good if not better than the hype made it out to be. I'm fairly sure no one who hadn't read the manga could have expected what Chainsaw man was going to be, but I'm happy so many people seemed pleasantly surprised.
I refrained from reading the manga for a long time because I couldn't imagine where a shonen with a protagonist who just had chainsaw for hands and face could even go. I was always going to read it eventually, but the anime gave me the necessary kick and it's one of my favourite ongoing shonen, and especially my favourite relatively new ongoing shonen. Even if MHA and JJK are now over, they never engaged me like this.
There's an even newer generation than those with some very good stuff going on apparently, and I haven't started reading them yet. But I'm expecting to find out gems amongst them too, it's exciting!
Even before consuming Chainsaw Man, I just... had a feeling. Just from the way the excited manga readers were cracking jokes about it... I got the vibes that it subverted expectations much in the same way that I'd already seen other shows. I was very satisfied to see that I was not wrong.
I watched the first episode when it came out cause it sounded badass, I loved it so much I bought the whole manga because I was too impatient to wait for the weekly eps
It definitely caught me off guard
I had never read the manga nor did i know the details of it but when it was getting hyped my best friend told me to watch it too so i finally caved and it was even better than the hype. Its very rare for a show to do that
Saw the title before the thumbnail loaded and immediately thought, "when tf were there guns in Frieren. Is this a metaphor for Zoltraak?"
Honestly, that's a decent topic to explore. Zoltraak is basically Frieren's analog to a rifle. A weapon that became so good that it dominated the battlefield and became a dominant strategy. Its use is so widespread that it became ordinary.
The Zoltraak 47
Zoltraak 1911
Zoltrak minigun
@@schoolboyartist7926 that's just called Fern
Another brilliant part of Chainsaw Man's worldbuilding/magic system is how various the devils abilities and drawbacks are. The Gun devil was so powerful and pervasive that it couldn't be fully destroyed. So, the absence of guns in this world is fully explained, and we don't think about it. However, we know that powerful devils that haven't reincarnated as fiends can still make contracts. That includes the Gun devil. The reveal was so perfectly timed and executed.
May also be worth noting that from a Japanese law POV guns are far more controlled than in some other place like some parts of the U.S. with it being very difficult to acquire any firearm unless you are military or law enforcement. Meaning the rarity of guns could somewhat track with irl law when combined with how using guns probably only makes the gun devil even stronger and thus they are not used often if at all.
Fitting then (and honestly deliciously ironic that the Chainsaw man anime also came out not too far from fears of school shootings) that the gun devil emerges in the U.S.
The only thing that I want to know is that do the separate parts of the gun devil have their own consciousness like obviously the ones owned by the eternity devil and such don't but what about the ones owned by the countries
@@dudesayshi2191 I mean by the latest chapter and the shit that is going down with the statue of liberty, maybe they have consciousness to some degree. Enough to make contracts but not sufficient for functioning like a living devil.
Fiends can make contracts with humans still, won't spoil anything, but ALL devils can make contracts, they just can't make them with other devils, this includes devils, fiends and hybrids, neither of which can make contracts with the other, but all can make them with humans
@@nugget6820 power made a contract with denji as the blood devil though not the blood feind
As a world building hobbyist, guns are f***ing annoying. It really is hard to make a magical setting that is decently advanced but doesn’t have a weapon that’s so good it’s meta.
Sidenote, Stormtrooper syndrome: when someone can’t hit water even if they fell out of a boat.
Edit:
tldr: it’s hard to completely justify a decently advanced civilization having guns good enough to use but not good enough to be meta.
I am specifically doing a somewhat realistic magic system, as in it’s not absolute rules but more rpg/dnd style, with realistic physics mixed in. As in I’m making a litrpg.
Obviously in actual games a bullet can’t one tap a guy ‘cause that’s no fun, but it doesn’t really feel like a gun if it doesn’t do so.
Basically, I want people to fight with swords in a world with magic and guns, but it’s kinda hard to balance guns being good enough to use but not good enough to be realistic and meta.
Can’t just make them useless, can’t just make them one shot, can’t just make them another bow, can’t have my cake and eat it too without sacrificing some kind of logic.
There should always be a meta though, it's a constant. Be that guns or a fireball spell. That doesn't mean it can't have flaws (a gun is only good so long as it has bullets to be shot), just that everyone knows this is the starting line.
Tbh I feel like a world building context, introducing guns would be a good device for marking the end of an era for swords and armor. Some shows detailing feudal Japan use this trope.
I personally take issues with worlds that just combine guns and magic with no explanation. Either magic is an established system (which it needs to be 99% of the time because it's a learned skill 99% of the time) which would completely alter the path of technological progress, or guns are the established norm and magic/psychic powers are an errant phenomenon.
But it's the same thing as when a world tries to establish intelligent monsters like dragons but people still build regular medieval style cities. But the dragons don't destroy them because of the powerful mages you say? How on earth did humanity progress to the point that they can compete with dragons without being wiped out unless the dragons are just stupid? And in this scenario where humanity is capable of competing with dragons, you need a pretty damn good reason not to have a war of extermination between the two powers.
@@upg5147 How would the technology around production/advancement even be established without being squashed? Plus the multiple highly skilled trades needed to produce even a rudimentary firearm (chemical manipulation, metallurgy, smithing, engineering, large mining operations for several unique materials). Where is the incentive to develop the industries around the technology if magic is a thing?
If fireballs are a thing that are common at the army level then it'd be stupid to even develop your typical massive formation army. You might have small squads and possibly a main force made up mostly of cavalry (assuming magic doesn't have an easy answer to that) but then you run into the issues of the powers in charge (presuming mages) simply controlling the breeding and rearing of horses.
@@demacry You're assuming I think the meta would be a gun, I'm just saying there is always a meta be that a gun or something else. I think you are right, most of the time, a gun would not be made in a fantasy setting unless the magic is rather hard to use or not very powerful and or those in power want to make guns for one reason or another.
Fujimoto feels like a movie director, but in manga format.
Right on! Have you read his One-Shot "Goodbye Eri!"?
@@idiotpai3758
Yes. And also Fire Punch
And CSM opening
Fujimoto is basically Araki if he was a movie nerd instead of fashion and music nerd😂
@@OneColdRepublican personly I hated fire punch. It just felt stupid edgy and inconsistent in a lot of ways. Kept making me go "yikes" until I gave up. The start was really cool tho
You can actually broaden this to any projectile. Arrows, kunai, grenades, none of these are ever an issue and the reason is simple, they are something that can be used to show the character's competency. It's the same reason we need fodder in series even when in reality, no one can take down a hoard of people regardless of how weak or strong they are, let alone "special agents" or "elite soldiers". If neither of these things are done, the characters don't have a lot of screen time to really show you their skill level and more importantly, the massive gap between them and the norm.
Not to mention how projectiles are thought of thematically. The sniper was almost an exclusive evil coward in early movies. Nu 13, and Justice are the main villans of their fighting games, and also oppressive zoners because it's a frustrating thing to deal with, and makes the average player want to run in and just beat them to death. Normally when a hero is a ranged character, their weapon is either weak, or obstinate, requiring them to play smart or take risks to get enough shots/the big shot off. In fact, the zoner is often pretty smart, the two villans I just talked about are both semi-robotic. Sasuke, who uses the weak shuriken, and long range aoe fireballs a lot, is pretty smart compared to most of the cast. (Most of his actual good hits still come in with his close range chidori and it's derivatives though.) Because risk and investment only comes when both sides seem somewhat even. Even if the hero is fighting fodder, typically they're also having to protect something, or leave the area quickly, adding an outside force for the audience to worry about. It's not coincidence that I mentioned fighting game characters during this, because just like how tge cast is roughly balanced against eachother, the protagonist is usually treated the same way against the situation at hand.
@@jordanguelbert7754 I won't lie, you lost me for a lot of this, but I think I get the gist lol
@@jordanguelbert7754 actually quite interesting, huh
Nobody can take down a horde of people alone?
Mounted Machine guns:
@@Spino-hx2mr 'Nobody' as in 'living organism'.
ohhh boy you're going to LOVE when the gun devil intro is made, it's quite frankly chilling in the manga.
The fact that it has a longer range when attacking children is so fucking chilling
Whats crazy is that the one that we see at the gun devil arc is just only 20% of him
My first introduction to Chainsaw Man was a video comic of that part of the manga. I don't think I'd like the series, but I respect the series.
Here's the thing: Guns being scary are a big part of the recent chapters, but also how they can be disregarded in the face of something more overbearing. It's the existential question of is immediate known but only possible terror, scarier than the inevitable terror that will strike from anywhere with no warning or in some cases years of warning. How the hell is Fujimoto making PT2 even better than PT1, it just honestly surprises me the lengths he can show emotions in this story
Fujimoto really said, "you thought guns were scary? How about eldritch horrors that make the Gun Devil look like a bitch."
It really feels like history is being used to create characters correctly and dear god it seems like women are meant to be the enemy of chainsawman
Part 2 better than part 1? Either the recent chapters are popping off like CRAZY or you're capping, I was holding out hope for part 2 and thinking it could still be good even after a myriad of dissapointing chapters until the alley doujin chapter happened, that's when the illusion broke
@@Dumbsourplum an example of what's happening "Statue of liberty (in New York) fires at a primal devil in Tokyo, and the devil disintegrates the attack just with his finger". It's really popping off, but apparently there's another one of those chaps you don't like recently
@@anonymous112 The alleyway jerkoff chapter was just kindaa the straw that broke the camels back tbh, anyways seems people online are saying it's a bubble, as in soon bubble will pop and quality will get lower again, either people have really lost faith and I don't blame them or there are warning signs...are there?.
Terry Pratchet introduced guns in one of the Discworld Watch novels, the gun featured was demonstrated to be almost supernatural, It rarely missed and when it hit it was very fatal, i think the story was supposed to be a warning about how such easy to acquire and use power could warp the mind.
The characters holding a gun told it was not them who killed, But a gun. Like, This implies how easy it is to kill with a gun in comparison with for example a knife. Almost like you have no moral drawback.
@@Ozorosochiit's not something you train, it's not something you need to put strength into it, it's just something you do, you pull, they fall and the damage is way more brutal than of any other weapon so far.
I believe it's the second book in the city watch saga. Good read as always, tackles racism as well
@@Ozorosochi That's not true and completely asinine... how come the gun only killed someone once it was in a persons hands? It certainly has a moral drawback as well, since you'd be killing someone wwhich is morally wrong
Except that isn't true and isn't how reality works. Propaganda. Over 100,000,000 people in the US have rifles, weapons capable of mowing down crowds, and yet less than a thousandth of a single % of the rounds fired annually make their way into any sort of flesh, human or otherwise. Clearly that power isn't all that mind-warping.
Pey talks.
I listen.
amen
Amen brother
hardest gut punch this ep was that chainsaw man aired 2 year ago
Shit 😮
Wait this is not Frieren! xD
Guess Mappa knew how to make guns scary because the animators are being held at gunpoint...
For legal reasons this is a joke🤣🤣
well it has demons. take it or leave it
Supposedly a joke
This reminds me of one of my favorite shonen manga: Gachiakuta. One of the main characters, Riyo, is fighting this other girl, and Riyo is getting trashed the entire fight until, right when we think she's about to be killed, she pulls out a gun and in 2 shots the fight is over, she won. And that simultaneously felt real, hilarious, and scary.
GACHIAKUTA FAN SPOTTED!!
Parry this you filthy casual.
I really liked Chainsaw man from the jump, it has film level composition and production value which makes sense with what its adapting and Fujimotos influences, but you're right episode 8-9 takes you by surprise, and that's when you realise what kind of roller-coaster you've sat down in, and how deadly it can really be.
ps. It was so good in fact that it was one of the first anime that got me to read the manga, and by god it's worth it, I'm so excited for when the anime returns.
I hate doing this to people, but, there is a previous series Fujimoto did. Fire Punch. Is like CSM, just for adults. Yes, even darker, sadder and more overwhelming. Top tier story with pain that makes most dramas a joyride.
@clgr1323 No worries I read that after and loved it. (All the content warnings for anyone who might stumble across this)
Your whole bit about the audience not even recognizing that their expectations were being subverted until they were... is a perfect summary of what made me fall in love with Chainsaw Man in the first place when I finished the manga. No spoilers, but the same sentiment can be applied to a LOT of it's plot! Not just in regards to Makima, but definitely a lot towards Makima.
it was scary, when anti-personel gear was introduced in attack on titan when i was reading manga. but kinda fell off later
I wouldn't say they got less deadly. Guns in AoT first show up as desperate boomstick to blind the titans since it pose zero threat to the enemy, then the anti personel uses guns that honestly has piss poor design and accuracy, depending entirely on the user.
Then we shift to Marley and get back to what we know, guns and turrets being used in wars. And how both sides used various guns to kill one another.
It just seem less impactful on the surface since the main threat at any exact moment either are the ones using guns (Kenny's squad, Marley), but the targets are genuinely horrible aiming target (3-D maneuverability vs 19th century fire arms), or just plain out unfaze by guns (the titans)
I feel like the thunder spears overshadowed them
@@Nguyen763_Zack to add onto this i loved how in Marley the reality of how lethal guns are was emphasized through Gabi. all it takes is a skilled marksman and one well-placed shot to take out the enemy, and she showcased that with Sasha and Eren. the absurdity of a small child with a gun having the power to kill/defeat badasses like Floch just proves that ranged weaponry is not to be taken lightly. characters can get splattered, domed, 1-tapped, and quickscoped in an instant, and those stakes are what keeps us on our toes throughout the story
@@Nguyen763_ZackI mean in AoT guns were emphasized to be strong. Very big ones. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3-4. We get to see Anti Titan artillery used by the Mid-East alliance against marley and later used by marley. It straight up shot through armored titan armor like it was made of wet tissue paper.
@Z5-XB well when the premise was about the remnant of humanity vs giant man eating monster from season 1-early3, guns does jackshit since the enemy for that time was the titan.
Then we shifted to the enemy bring other humans, then ofc guns would be stronger, as seen with Kenny's squad and Marley. And anti-titan cannon/thunderspear is a step up as both a balancing force for the non-titan having forces, as well as a drive to make Marley invade Paradis even quicker
Unironically I want a story to treat guns like a magic system and go full autism with the complexity and limits of an entire magic system that is actually just people with guns.
Arknights, partially, is just that
true, i mean firearms in that universe are just glorified magic wands@@ohthatswild1755
… this is.. just any story written by a gun nut isn’t it
@@Wyi-the-rogue Gun nut? What does that mean? Why do you think you can just create a category like that out of thin air and determine, solely of your own accord, who is in this group?
I get that you live in a good area, and have a button you can press to summon super-soldiers to protect you at a moments notice, but most people on earth, and most people throughout human history, have *not* had that privilege. Being interested in firearms and passionate about them does not make someone a "gun nut", a pejorative we should really stop using...
It's like saying a bandaid nut or a scissor-nut. A bandaid nut? Am I a nut for keeping bandaids in case I get a cut, or a nut for keeping scissors in case I need to cut something? Ya this is a long ass comment.. soz
@@AR15andGOD A: I didn't make the term, it's pretty damn old
B: Wtf is that about super soldiers
C: Gun nut refers to people who just really really really like guns beyond practical usage:
Everyone should be able to cook themselves a meal in theory, but not everyone should be a chef.
I can summarize this video with "until episode eight"
gosso kino
Fujimoto is really out here doing it unlike anyone else. I'm enjoying part 2 of the manga, but honestly part 1 is so so so strong on its own. I can't wait to see the rest of it get animated!!!
Makima is an all-time character for me and rewatching the anime from the beginning after being caught up with the manga is so scary and devastating. If you know what's going to happen, it's so easy to see it all from the moment she lays eyes on Denji
What anime is at 0:13 when they enect the bullet and catch it?
Spriggan
Berserk
@@CowbellCultist man thats crazy ahahahahahah
@@ARandomPersonNr64 Dude, seriously? first dude already got it right.. Spriggan (The 98 movie, not the remake)
@@KVROACEGG Mb gang
It's really impressive how you tie the show into your analysis. Creates a sort of feedback loop where I not only understand the show better, but have an easier/more indepth understanding of the topics discussed (ie; the problem of writings guns into your media). Great work!
I felt the same way when I read the manga. It was fine but I wasn't excited about the series until I read those chapters then I suddenly had to binge it in a single night! I love how Fujimoto continues to escalated the story, the characters and the world even more past this point! Can't wait for season 2
The next season of chainsaw man is gonna be so peak
I know right! Can’t wait to see the Reze arc animated
sadly the original director who was the whole reason for the cinematic style has been fired. alot of Japanese idiots boycotted the CSM blu ray cuz they wanted a generic anime direction style and not the cinematic one
@@DestructiveDan1 Which is a shame, considering Fujimoto is a big cinemaphile and a lot of references to movies were there because of that. Hell, even some character designs are references (see: Kishibe, Barem)
the opening was chalk full of them aswell, I loved the style of chainsaw man's first season so much it shot upto my number one anime of all time solely for the production quality@@emiliapawny4746
It's not just about guns. Protagonists in stories tend to have this plot armor about them. People in wars or violent situations died bloodily and easily before we had guns. A random sword strike from behind, or a truncheon to the leg, you're dead or crippled for life. We like to imagine that a sufficiently skilled person, a protagonist, would be able to ward off blows and keep themselves alive even in a dangerous close quarters combat situation, but it generally just isn't true. Emperors get stabbed, generals die from an infected wound, soldiers are struck and die. it's not just guns that get nerfed in action stories, it's weapons in general. The gun scares us because it shatters the delusion, we can pretend a super skilled fighter can keep himself _reliably_ safe from sword blows (it's not true) but it's far harder to keep up with the make-believe in the case of a gun.
Hell, not just weapons, even bare fists are way more scary in real life than in media. One punch to the back of the head could ruin your entire life.
I had no desire to watch chainsaw man - I had watched the first episode and it sat with me weird so I didn’t return - and I have also never left a video at a spoiler warning but in just 6 minutes you convinced me to start what I truly believe will be one of the best shows I will ever watch. You are a master and I thank you in advance
I was the same way. I saw a few clips on TH-cam and that's probably the only reason I kept watching long enough to be blown away by it.
Love your channel and I ALSO love Chainsaw Man. So seeing you and CSM together ks fantastic. Lots of analysis on CSM out there, but you still find ways to talk about topics still not discussed on the show. Would love more, but enjoy everything you post. Keep up the videos and remember to take care also.
Damn, it's been 2 years since chainsaw man season 1 😩
Reze! Where are you?!?!
Unfortunately, it's only gonna happen in 2026.
brandon sanderson getting some love in this video is sick, but also you very simply explained his idea of brackets, and the video is well done thx
Someone needs to make a ""Magic & gun" anime, like the student can't use magic he just brings a gun or something, using only gadgets, explosives..
Omg, he goes to a magic school but he's the only one who can't do it, so he just uses guns... That's amazing. Please someone make this a thing! 😂
This isn't exactly what you're describing but Tanya the evil has a magic system with a WW1 coat of paint, they buf guns with spells iirc
Idk if you'd count high card. His "magic" is pretty much just spawning a gun. Same goes for Darwins Game I suppose. Though that's more of a battle royal
It's not an anime, but Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School is a fun read
"I cast Fireball" "I cast Ice Storm" "I cast Chain Lightning" Oh yeah I cast 5.56 thirty times in a row
Guns are diabolical. One of my all time fav quotes is “God didn’t make man equal, Mr Colt did”
Idk man...in End of Evangelion, when main characters are wiped out by militants, guns were pretty scary
I'm sorry, what was that at 1:34? "Contruding"? Not often I hear a new word, and Google isn't helping me with a definition
Contrude: to motive, to influence.
Or to crowd or push together
He said contributing, just fast
Contributing haha
@@michaeldwhelchelhaha no only contruding.
the way you’ve portrayed the entire thing, i got chills, man. i loved your video essay.
Your videos are so immersive and your way of explaining things is so neat!! I have a passion for storytelling, and I find your videos really nice to watch since I'm struggling with plotlines and twists myself, so your descriptions on different pieces of media is very helpful! Thank you!!
As a manga reader, the hype revolves around the next 2 arcs, not the first season. If this blew you away, be prepared for a rollercoaster of absolute peak fiction. If they animate it well, what's called the "International Assassins' Arc" can be Shibuya Arc-level of good
I’m always impressed in Cowboy Bebop how Spike gets shot in the shoulder by a henchman in the cathedral encounter with Vicious.
Okay fine! I'll watch chainsaw man
Then read it if you can
I watched 2 of your video and you immediately jump into one of my favorite documentary youtuber. Your calming voice with amazing analyzing is just... SO GOOD
My jaw was on the floor the entire episode 8 after Makima got shot. Incredible lead up and one of the best twists I've seen in an anime
I don't know I feel like that scene really isn't as much at all about the guns (outside of framing with the gun devil) but more about the sudden loss of life on the public sec side.
The scenes themselves barely even use guns anymore effectively that they'd use a knife or a devil's contract to attack.
They don't use the range of a gun, their capability of mass production, or even the speed of a bullet all that well (several characters dodge bullets make no mistake guns are nerfed in chainsawman) to create the loss of life.
The main thing that's used is the nature of the attack as a suprise attack with strong coordination.
The real suprise isn't that guns are dangerous but that the cast sorrounding Denji isn't protected by the narrative and can suffer massive losses in quick succession.
I never really thought 'oh shit guns are dangerous' from these scenes but more
If anything I would say the weapon that actually feels scary in its implementation is what happens after the initial attack when Makima remotely kills several of the attackers.
Probably the best response I've read to this video. It could've been poison for all that anyone cares, but the sudden implementation was ultimately what was the threat
yeah same, the point never really seemed like the guns
I think guns do add a little more than knives or other methods. We specifically see what looks to be an old grandma pull a gun. The fear with guns is that anybody could go from stranger to killing you in like 1 second, even a child or cripple. Knives require at least some physical ability to use and you have to get a lot closer. I know the guns long range wasn't used but even 10 feet vs 1 foot is a big difference in shows like these.
The real fear is other people and guns make you fear more of them than knives. Of course, devil powers or any other magic could be just as if not more scary and thats exactly what happens right afterwards with makima's counterattack. The fear shifts from "I need to be afraid of other people" to "I need to always be afraid".
Guns will be scary when Gun Devils enters the scene. No further spoilers
Yeah, I feel the same way. The weapons weren't the fear - especially since the attack was immediately followed by an overwhelming magic counterattack - it was the sudden mass loss of characters I had gotten to know over 8 episodes. Another fear was actually Makima overshadowing any weapon used thus far - that even shot through the head, she came back and calmly killed everyone.
It's like experiencing the Red Wedding and realizing that many favorite characters could die just like that. It's like reaching Bezerk's Eclipse and finding out that all that loss was caused by one person's ulterior motives.
When you said two years I was shocked
Time dialation gets weird sometimes (I feel like the lockdowns and re-opens exagerated it all too)
Getting flashbanged by Pey introducing himself, the algo just showed me this
LMAO hey goldenfightinglink :wave:
Very very soon I will be buying patreon specifically for your channels sir. Your content is so lovely and I greatly appreciate and enjoy your videos so much❤
Reminds me of the way JJK S2 completely baits you into thinking the first few episodes are concluding happily before Toji shoots the poor girl through the head during a melancholy music cutaway.
I just love how fujimoto breaks certain rules in creating a manga but does it extremely well
remember in the last john wick movie john is like "no matter what I do, they´ll find me" and then proceeds to go to the only place on the whole planet where they would look for him and at the same time one of the only places where the guards are incapable of using guns and rely on bows so a blind guy can survive
2:58 Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson mentioned, I’m happy
THE STORLIGHT ARCHIVE ????!!
In Magicka you can get one secret weapon named... M60
This little boy annihilates everything in game
0:10 no guns are not easy to use, unless you mean the good old shoot somewhere in that general direction.
Suppressive fire is easy, kill shots are not by any means
People who don’t do more than shoot at a random pile of crap in the closed quarry won’t get how much work goes into (and how fun) safe and regular training at a range can be. 🤷 but it’s not the point of the video I guess.
They are easy to learn, and are easy to shoot if you have no problems with eyes
@@Piece-Of-Time you'd be surprised, without drilling things can get hectic fast
They’re easy to use, but difficult to master.
You can teach anyone with even middling physical and mental fitness to operate a modern firearm with 5 minutes of basic instruction. It is highly unlikely that they will be able to use it effectively with only 5 minutes of instruction, but they can use it.
psycho-pass also uses guns to *excellent* effect; an archaic object that can no longer be used by police, having been replaced by a system that can identify criminals before they commit a crime... until it can't
it's a brilliant exploration of morality with a conflict that has no clear "good side"
(shame it ended with one season after which no pieces of media were created in the franchise)
It has further seasons, wtf?
Another great example is when Toji used a fucking gun at the end of the Star Plasma Vessel arc in Jujutsu Kaisen
I love how we all thought Riko was gonna live, maybe show up in a later arc, only for Toji to pull the trigger
Another decent example of guns being scary, as they should be
I feel like ODDTAXI also makes guns very scary. This comes mostly from it's realistic gritty setting, but simply having a gun can make any character a story warping threat. There is one gun in the whole story (well, the story at least has you believe that) and it's treated like an ultra powerful cursed artifact would in a fantasy setting.
Didn't expect Chainsaw Man to get discussed here, but nice surprise.
What other Anime besides Frieren would like to talk about?
reminds me how i wrote a thing about a kinda video game like world with a respawn system so i could play around with guns being able to actually kill protagonists but also allow magic to be extremely destructive without the consequences dragging down the "story" (this is much less of a serious story and more just an excuse to depict interesting anime fight scenarios which would normally never happen for fun)
this is why i adore gate. sure its on the surface a generic isekai, like literally in the sense of the word an isekai in that the story takes place in another world and that world being a fantasy one. for as much bad as the anime and story does it also does something no other anime has done, made modern weaponry terrifying to anything but literal gods. dragons pose no challenge when fighting f4's, witches are a joke when your opponent can end your lives from out of sight, cavalry on horseback dont stand a chance against tanks and mg positions.
its an anime that took the realistic approach to guns in fantasy and it worked great in showing a interesting idea, i think more shows should follow that approach. the cold brutal reality about modern weaponry is that its terrifyingly effective, as it should be since combat evolved from clubs swords hand to hand into what we use today.
Totally agreed. It wasn't a 100% curbstomp because we see things like dragons with tough hides resist small arms and be a menace to infantry, and you know, that makes total sense. But heavier equipment like jets or choppers destroy them, so it was just like a 95-99% curbstomp. Also it did a good job of portraying just how lethal modern weaponry is and how terrifying that can be.
The introduction is superb, youve earned yourself a subscriber!
Wow, I'm early.
I no fear gun. But gingers... I fear them.
I have been summoned
"I've yet to meet one that can out smart bullet"
-Heavy Weapons Guy.
He might sound silly but he highlight how quite terrifying and destructive a bullet can be
He also meets the Medic sometime later…..
3:45 that red eye has appeared in another anime 10 years ago
Since the day saw your vids about frieren, I am always watching your uploads. The way you make vids and the way you narrate each of the detail you've noticed/aprreciate/realized is really great. Thank you for another wonderful upload.
Red hair-ing you saying❓🤔 2:47
GET OUT! 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Pey your videos are so well written, and I love how you use clips and music to bring out emotions. I’m always sad I watched all your videos already
I really liked your channel until you reminded me of time passing at 9:16
"revisited 2 years later" gave me a startling realization that chainsawman was 2 years ago
1:03 what anime is this? The animation looks flawless.
Kabaneri of the iron fortress
It started off pretty good but got mid fast
@@SuperKendomani thought it was Princess Mononoke 💀
@@AnActuallyUsefulGoddessDefinitely not hand drawn animation like Princess Mononoke. The background is blurry as well, which means that this anime didn't have enough budget or time to focus on background detail
I really like the use that guns have in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. They are a tool that is still useful and a weapon of assistance, and both powered individuals and normal people can use them to even out the battle field, without making them either useless or overpowered
Love what you're doing on here, man. Keep it up.
It was a gun that took down adult Goku in a single hit, remember that
It is like seeing the Indiana Jones scene. Some dumbass spent years training with the blade and *click*. Next scene.
did not think i would randomly come across the best atrioc musician making dope anime vids
0:18 which anime is this.
Redline
@@Marky-Mark1337that dont look like redline
@Darkmagerblx yep, definitely redline, watched it a few days ago, and those 2 participate at the last race
I write novels as hobby and dammmm ma man opened my mind to an entirely different world thank u
"They make guns scary, but they make Makima scarier" This 100%. She is one of the scariest chars I can even think of in general.
It is true though. I remember going through the experience thinking "wow, all that strength, these powers, the situations and monsters they fought though... a piece of metal weighing ounces..."
How on Earth is your amazing work not getting sponsored yet is beyond me. Here's hoping the Chainsaw Man movie drops soon so we can listen you talk about its explosive reveals!
Monster is a great example of guns being scary in Anime too
That's basically the consensus on CSM, sure the infinity arc is interesting and gives insight in some of the characters, but it's not particularly impactful to the overall story, specially if you understand the tone of this world from the get go, then there is the reunion and the shenanigans with Himeno, it's all great, but there is CSM before chapter 23 and CSM after chapter 23, it goes from great to incredible really fast.
I think the infinity arc was used specifically to characterize our group, especially aki, himeno, and denji. I couldn't imagine the story without it too, especially because of how crazy the eternity devils design is, especially in the manga
Read the manga! It gets crazier, if you can believe that. Makima is a terrifying, disturbing, and well written-character. I know you’ll appreciate it and I would love to see you do a video about it.
2 years? damn, time flies
This reminds of when I was reading the hokkaido arc of Samurai X, and there was a group of swordsmen whose whole deal was essentially "guns are too easy to use and lame", and had weird swords designed to fight guns.
And I remember thinking "This was the most anime thing ever!"
0:52 real quick nit-pic the stormtroopers clones and droids didnt use bullets they used blaster bolts which travel slower than bullets, mandalorians specifically chose bullets to kill jedi because the bullets were too fast for jedi to block/deflect
Its great how these near superhuman devil hunters who can do incredible feats of human strength but theyre still humam
And all it takes is one unlucky shot
4:50 ITS DA GUY FROM LO-FI CHILL MUSIK!!!!111
At 00:20 talking about guns being less deadly being the standard of shounen anime for storytelling, while showing a clip of Misato on end of evangelion .... she dies from bloodloss because of a gun shot from a "henchmen that can't aim" on that same movie, following that sequence.
never thought of chainsaw man this way
Great video! Love the breakdown
I managed to watch Chainsaw Man last year without seeing any of the hype and so I didn't know what to expect except from what I'd seen in a trailer and it was damn fantastic. 5/5 right up there with the rest of my favorites
you cant call something overhyped if it delivers
Since the Gun Devil and it's appearance is heavily implied, it will be a jaw dropping moment for quite many. It was for me when I read it. I can't wait to see how they make the scene work in animation.
1:03 what anime is that?
Jojo
kabaneri of the iron fortress
Omg I wasn't the only one
Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress, it’s a really cool anime with good concepts, although the worst bad is that this 13 year old girl, one of the mcs is shipped with the 17 (i think?) year old mc, they even kiss in one of the movies iirc, other than that, it’s pretty good!
It's Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Battle of Unato movie. Watch the show first and then the movie.
There is an old fighting manga, that has its fiction but at the same time a taste of realism,
Its called tekkenden Tough with its sequel Tough.
Well specifically in the first there is a short arc on which the protagonist has to fight a pretty imponent guy, being the protagonist really small but with technique he was able to overcome, pretty good fight and you feel that the opponent its a bit amazing however a couple of chapters after this same opponent is killed by a simple drug addict in a dangerous area in USA, the drug addict simply wanted money and this guy refused and suddenly he just simply got killed.
It left me overwhelmed for a moment since I was not expecting something so lame to happen to him and what was the point, even the protagonist could not believe it when he heard the news but his father told him that this happened because of arrogancy and believing oneself invincible while in fact we may be able to get tough we are not bulletproof.
Even one of the main antagonist or villains of the second part was barely able to survive a sniper gunshot.
So that manga always left myself in the perspective that if a gun is into play, things are serious.
The problem I have with most media involving firearms, is that they don’t understand just how much a bullet can mess you up. I wanna take care of door “shields” for example. That would never work in real life, cars are paper thin compared to most rounds, and you should never use them as cover. That’s why police officers are trained that if they need to use their car as cover they should take cover behind the engine block. Bullets don’t just get stopped by anything metal, and body armor can only do so much against certain rounds.
Eh, concealment's better than nothing...
@@Dr.SwagPHDinDrip In training they call the cop car a "coffin" because if you stay in it during a fire fight it's where they'll find your body.
Your best defense is to get out and run to the side of the vehicle furthest from the shooter.
I just wish for a show to actually consult a reliable firearms team for when they want to depict them. I think that a large obstacle to firearms being depicted well is just how inconsistent they are.
The human body is simultaneously way more and way less durable than people think. Handguns, in actuality, kind of suck at dropping people, yet they retain the capability of dropping an assailant in a single shot if well placed.
That, combined with temporary wound cavity, make depicting ballistics in a satisfying way challenging.