After his father’s death left him with a pile of debt, Denji and his pet devil Pochita struggle to pay it off. However, after the yakuza kills him, Pochita fuses himself with Denji’s corpse and he awakens as a Chainsaw Devil.
Found by government devil hunters, Denji is brought in to hunt other devils on an experimental squad where he is finally able to pursue his simple teenage dreams of eating good food and spending time with a cute girl.
It is hard to find unique anime that isn’t of an experimental sort. While Chainsaw Man’s overall guiding plot isn’t so new, its terrible yet amazing characters certainly are a breath of fresh air. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Chainsaw Man, head on down below.
Anime Like Chainsaw Man
For Fans of Devils Hunting Devils
Jujutsu Kaisen
In order to gain more power, demons search for fragments of the legendary demon Sukuna to consume them.
One day, Yuuji Itadori, who just lost his grandfather, learns of this as he saves his school friends from being consumed by demons after they break the seal on one of the body parts of Sukuna that was at their school.
In order to stand a chance, he eats it, revealing himself as a rare vessel that can utilize and control the curse of Sukuna, meaning when he dies, Sukuna’s curse dies with him.
Both series have very similar set ups of a random guy combining with a devil, getting a ton of power from it, and joining an organization that hunts those beings.
There is one very notable difference – the gore.
Make no mistake that Jujutsu Kaisen is a pretty dark series, but it isn’t the same sort of splatter spectacle that Chainsaw Man is.
Its characters are also more angled at being shounen style heroes whereas Chainsaw Man and its characters are a big mixed bag of morality.
Devilman Crybaby
Akira has always been a little weak and blends into the background, so when his childhood friend asks for help uncovering devils, he agrees. The pair head to Sabbath where many gather for debauchery and to be possessed by devils.
When the devils begin to wreck havoc in their new living hosts, Akira agrees to merge bodies with a devil in order to save his friend. Though he now has a voracious devil inside him, he still has the heart of a crybaby.
Both Devilman Crybaby and Chainsaw Man are about young men who, after an event, find themselves merged with a devil while maintaining control over their personality.
They also happen to both be anime series that appreciate a good spectacle of gore with the Chainsaw Man creator taking inspiration from the original Devilman when creating their characters.
However, Devilman is a rather compact series with minimal superfluous fights as it explores it plot compared to Chainsaw Man.
Ajin
Immortal humans known as Ajin first appeared in Africa 17 years ago. While they were labeled a threat to mankind, to many they were just an infrequent news item.
However, for Kei Nagai, a high schooler studying hard to be a doctor, he discovers he is an Ajin after being fatally hit by a car. Now on the run from the government that wants to imprison him, Kei must find a way to survive.
Both series are about characters who one day realize that they are essentially demons, whether it be them being made demons or realizing they were one all along. This makes them targeted by government organizations, but the big difference in Ajin is that he tries to evade them.
Both series are pretty graphic with the violence, but they really excel by creating main characters that are not your normal anime protagonists.
Kemono Jihen
A boy nicknamed Dorotabo lives with his aunt in a rural Japanese inn after being abandoned by his parents. One day, a detective that specializes in the occult named Kohachi Inugami arrives from Tokyo.
He is there to investigate mysterious livestock deaths and takes an interest in Dorotabo. The boy ends up helping Inugami and discovers that he is only half human.
Possessing skill at dispatching beast-like entities known as Kemono, Inugami takes him back to work at his agency in Tokyo.
While Kemono Jihen definitely looks a bit younger with its art style, it isn’t afraid of a gore like other series matching its shounen art style.
Like Chainsaw Man, it also features a demon from a rural area who is found and recruited into an organization in the city that also fights demons.
While Kemono Jihen can be graphic, the characters themselves are a bit more stereotypically shounen.
Claymore
The world is overcome with demons called Yoma that constantly plague humanity.
After Raki’s parents were killed by Yoma, he teams up with Claire, a Claymore, an order of powerful half-human, half-Yoma women that are shunned by society but fight to rid the world of Yoma.
Together, each learns more about the each other and work towards their own goals.
Both series feature those infused with demons that are charged with then hunting those demons down.
However, Claymore is a bit more melancholic about it since the slayers are all female and will all someday turn into demons that they next generation of Claymores will have to go kill.
While Chainsaw Man breaks things up with its comical characters, Claymore just lets the tone be heavy throughout.
Parasyte
One night, sixteen-year-old Shinichi Izumi was peacefully sleeping when a race of parasitic aliens descended on Earth.
One parasite infects Shinichi, trying to get to his brain to take over his body, but ends up getting stuck in his right hand. Unable to relocate to the brain, the alien, named Migi, now has no choice but to learn to coexist with Shinichi in his body in order to stay alive.
Unfortunately, the other parasitic aliens are not so friendly with humans or to parasites that failed to complete their mission.
While not about merging with a demon, Parasyte features a character merging with an alien to form a mutually beneficial relationship.
Like Denji and Pochita, the alien inside Shinichi can also change and shape his body to fight and uses it to fight others of his species.
For Fans of Splatter and Gore
Gantz
Kei Kurono is an apathetic young man that, while waiting for his train, runs into a childhood friend. When a homeless man falls onto a track, his friend coaxes him into helping save his life.
Unfortunately, the train comes in and they both die.
When they both wake up, they are in a strange room with other recently deceased people and a big black ball that tells them to kill aliens in order to gain their freedom.
Both Chainsaw Man and Gantz are the series you think of when you think of vicious, graphic death and violence.
However, the Gantz anime, after a certain point, blunders up the plot of its source material. Even though it goes off script, it is still about a large amount of characters fighting and often getting dismembered for their efforts.
Gleipnir
One morning, Shuichi Kagaya woke up as a monster.
Complete with brute strength, a strong sense of smell, and big fluffy paws, he struggles to hold onto his humanity.
Soon he meets a sadistic girl named Claire Aoki by saving her life. She holds his secret over her head and forces him to help her look for her sister that has also turned into a monster.
Both series focus on characters that just one day became monsters. As such, they are pulled into a violent world, and while this is a benefit to Denji in many ways, the Shuichi is less happy about it.
However, outside of the gory battles, what Chainsaw Man and Gleipnir have most in common is their manipulative female characters.
Hellsing Ultimate
In this world, there are monsters that lurk in the darkness. Ones waiting to devour everything you are and hold dear.
To stem the tide of this darkness is the Hellsing Organization. Commanded by Integra Hellsing, the organization’s powerful military force dedicate their lives to fighting monsters.
However, their most powerful weapon is the vampire, Alucard, who turned against his own kind in service to Hellsing. Now with his new vampire assistant Seres at his side, he must battle not only monsters, but anyone that stands in Hellsing’s way.
Both series do violence really well, really graphically, and really frequently.
Furthermore, the characters are all either pretty twisted or are supernatural creatures themselves.
Both series also have plot brewing often out of sight from what we are seeing on the screen.
Golden Kamuy
After surviving the brutal Russo-Japanese war, Sugimoto gained the nickname “the immortal”. However, he now seeks the promise of gold to the north in Hokkaido in order to provide for the blind wife and infant son of his comrade who died in the war.
Yet, during his hunt, he hears the tale of a hidden stash of gold belonging to criminals with a map made out of human skin. Dismissing it as a tale at first, he soon finds that the man who told him the story has those very same map-like tattoos.
Now on a race with a native Ainu girl whose father was murdered for the gold, they try to make it to the stash before the criminals.
Golden Kamuy doesn’t look like it, but it is also a pretty graphic series, but it is just a little lower key about it. If you were interested in Chainsaw Man for its unanticipated plot progression, interesting characters, and great fights – that is all applicable to Golden Kamuy as well.
While its plot is kept realistic, it isn’t afraid of brutality as well as being really unexpectedly funny.
For Fans of Dark Comedy (Without Actually Being Comedies)
Dorohedoro
Hole is a disorderly district where death and mutilation are common. The residents of Hole are the dregs of society and the test subjects of the magic users that live separate from it. As such, these residents are constantly tested on or just murdered by these mages.
In Hole is Kaiman, a man with a head cursed to be that of a lizard, but with an immunity to magic. He spends his time set on hunting down these magic users in one small bit of justice for the people that live in Hole.
Dorohedoro was Chainsaw Man before Chainsaw Man. Dorohedoro just was unfortunately MAPPA’s CGI practice series in many ways.
Regardless, both series take place in a violent world and feature characters that are fine with murdering people one minute and eating gyoza the next.
Furthermore, they both also excel in creating villains that are unlike the villains in most other anime series.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Scraping by a living in the rough technologically augmented society of Night City, David’s mother managed to send him to a prestigious school in hopes he could become a Corpo and climb the ladder of the business world.
However, after his mother dies suddenly in a car accident and due to lack of appropriate care, David embraces a cybernetic implant for power and that decision intersects him with a crew of Edgerunners, a group of mercenaries filled with cybernetic implants that do any job and every job to make a living.
While vastly different in setting, both Chainsaw Man and Cyberpunk Edgerunners like to switch between action, comedy, and well-animated gore.
As they are both packed with so much blood, much of the jokes are either dark humor or punctuated by violence.
The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace
800 years ago, as terrifying demons pushed mankind to the brink, they prayed to the gods and called for their aid. Emerging from these prayers, battle deities called Idaten came forth.
With great strength and endurance, they defeated the demons, sealing many of them away. Now, in a long era of peace, the present generation of Idaten have grown soft, save for a spare few that endure the brutal training of Rin, the last Idaten from the demon war.
However, the Zoble Empire seeks to resurrect the demons and it seems these peaceful Idaten must remember their original purpose.
While at a glance Idaten looks like your standard mid-tier action show that is quickly forgotten about, it is deceptive.
Like Chainsaw Man, it likes off-handed casual extreme violence and sex. It also enjoys characters being either apathetic or flippant with their various situations.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Chainsaw Man? Let fans know in the comments section below.
