by: Gen/Esis

Chainsaw Man continues with the endless commotion of the endless floor 8, but this time, there is hope in sight. A violent one. With an ending like the one in episode 6, episode 7, “THE TASTE OF A KISS”, came with the promise of some blood and action—and this episode delivers just that.

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This episode begins by letting Denji shine. While the downside of his powers lies in the fact it drains his blood, it just so happens that the enemy he’s facing has a bottomless supply, leading to one of my personal favorite fights in the chainsaw man anime.

As he put it, Denji became a perpetual motion machine.

The mixture of music, choreography, blood, and the revving of the chainsaws gave the scene a really powerful feeling. So much so that I could ignore all the CGI that has bothered me every other time before.

It truly embodies a fact that this episode wanted to convey—Denji is insane.

However, while the fight was good, it was also noticeably shorter. This is not a problem personally, especially since the rest of the episode dealt with character-related matters, but it would’ve been nice if we could’ve really felt Denji having spent 3 whole days fighting the Eternity Devil. In the end, there wasn’t a full sense of time that made you feel like letting out a long breath of relief after exiting their never-ending nightmare.

As for the rest of the episode, we get some more tidbits of information revealed about the rookies of the group. Their age and some hobbies for the most part. But it’s also hammered home how often people like them die. Kobeni, of course, doesn’t seem too happy about that fact.

Makima gets brought into the spotlight for a brief moment, but that brief moment is enough to start bringing some suspicion to the forefront. Although we weren’t told before, it’s revealed that she’d been acting out of the ordinary ever since she found Denji. Even some of the devils have had more parts of the Gun Devil than before. Everything is pointing to something big happening, but Makima doesn’t seem willing to share any information—unless they beat her at drinking, that is.

But as expected, by the end, whatever big mysteries may lie in that brain of hers continues to be a mystery. What else is new?

And it wouldn’t be a Chainsaw Man episode without Denji being exploited for his weaknesses again, but that’s part of the charm(?). However, he also gets an interesting first experience which is the reason for the title of the episode.

One thing’s for sure, he won’t be forgetting the taste of his first kiss.

All in all, this episode is about as good as the other. MAPPA has had a good streak going, adapting the manga in an enjoyable way that many other studios could’ve easily mishandled. The ending theme this time around was good, but the visuals are what really stood out to me. Overall, another solid episode.