The holidays have come and gone, so there is one last thing to do before the new year comes. Now, the time has arrived for geeks far and wide to celebrate the best of pop culture in 2022. From television to film, there was plenty to enjoy, and anime surged as always to new heights. But when it comes to the top anime series of 2022, well – there was only one man who could take first place and that is Denji.
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Yes, you read right. The winner of the 2022 Golden Issue Award for Best Anime Series is Chainsaw Man. Woof woof.
If you have managed to avoid the series so far, you are one of only a few. Back in October, the fall anime season kicked off with Chainsaw Man at the helm. The team at Studio MAPPA went on a limb with the anime as the company chose to forego any sort of production committee to bolster its budget. The financial risk was huge, but in the end, Chainsaw Man turned out to be a runaway hit.
The show itself took over social media, and given the popularity of the Chainsaw Man manga, that is hardly a surprise. Creator Tatsuki Fujimoto helped bring Denji to life with gorgeous animation, and their oversight on the show was invaluable. His work combined with Studio MAPPA’s crew of talented animators all but assured Chainsaw Man would be a success. Plus, the voice acting in the Japanese dub is second to none.
For those unfamiliar with Chainsaw Man, the title does undersell just how complex Fujimoto’s gory series is. The anime is set in a world where humanity’s worst fears manifest as violent devils. We meet our hero Denji as a poor child desperate to survive, and he makes his way through life with help from a devil dog named Pochita. However, when our hero is double crossed in high school and killed, Pochita merges himself with Denji to turn him into a hybrid devil. This is what births Chainsaw Man, and Denji finds himself thrust into a dark world of betrayal and blood after assuming his role as the half-human, half-devil.
If you want to catch up on Chainsaw Man, the anime is streaming in the United States through Crunchyroll and Hulu. The manga is also ongoing under Fujimoto, and new chapters can be read weekly thanks to the Shonen Jump app.
We send a huge congrats to everyone who helped turn Chainsaw Man into the hit we know it!
The nominees for Best Anime Series are:
- Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War
- Chainsaw Man – WINNER
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
- Lycoris Recoil
- Ranking of Kings
