An anime adaptation might be the best way to promote a manga, but those always require a long list of collaborators and a sizeable budget. Even so, there does exist another way for publishers to promote their manga all by themselves without using too much money - animated PVs, which the editorial team over at Weekly Shonen Jump is particularly fond of. When it comes to the recently released Chainsaw Man animated PV, however, they’ve really gone above and beyond.

This new Chainsaw Man animated PV was released back on August 19 to celebrate Fujimoto Tatsuki’s series winning second prize in the print manga category of the Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Award 2019, as well as to promote the release of the series’ third collected volume.

In this sense, the PV has done its job. It captures the unhinged madness of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s series perfectly, as panels of violent, bloody carnage warp and bend in a psychedelic background to “animated” scenes of Denji cutting up Devils, all while a catchy yet disturbing song chants “Chainsaw Man” faster and faster.

There are even some moments where the carnage is clearly too much, as the PV inserts some tongue-in-cheek “censorship warnings.” It even uses stock footage of a waterfall at one point, which radiates the same energy as the infamous “nice boat” moment in anime history.

If you’ve checked out the series as it releases in Weekly Shonen Jump, then I’m sure you’ll join me in saying that this Chainsaw Man animated PV is not just a well-constructed advertisement, but one that accurately reflects the appeal of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s majorly unhinged series.

That should, in turn, get more people interested in the series and drive up sales - which is, after all, the whole reason why Shueisha made this PV. Who knows - we might be looking at an anime adaptation pretty soon with how things are going. This “animated” PV is, however, the closest thing we’re going to get in the meantime.

However, the fact that Weekly Shonen Jump is not only aware of Chainsaw Man’s violent and mad appeal but willing to promote it as such in this animated PV is quite surprising. This is, after all, a magazine meant for children - even if the “shonen” demographic does try to push the boundaries every now and again.