How Kensuke Ushio's Music Defined Chainsaw Man

*This article contains spoilers for the Chainsaw Man anime

Chainsaw Man was easily one of the most anticipated anime of 2022. Once Kensuke Ushio was announced as composer, along with the collaboration of a multitude of artists for each ending theme, it was clear that music would be an important contributor to the series. While Ushio is well-known for his sensitive scores on the likes of A Silent Voice, he has shown a great deal of range being able to compose for much more violent series like Devilman Crybaby and was a perfect candidate for Chainsaw Man, an anime that often whips viewers between bloody fights and delicate human moments. 

Soundscape and Instrumentation

One of the most important things as a composer is to decide on a soundscape and instrumentation when writing a score. It’s important to think about what sounds will contribute to the world that the consumer is taking part in. In Skyrim, there are grandiose choirs and soaring strings, providing not only a lush background, but reflecting the openness and possibility of a seemingly endless world. Aside from instrumentation, the flexibility of DAWs and audio editing has also allowed sound design to also become a much more active part of a score. Kensuke Ushio is no stranger to these concepts. In his score for A Silent Voice, Ushio utilizes plenty of sound design and editing that makes certain pieces sound as though they are underwater. This is to reflect the crippling social anxiety and guilt that plagues Shoya, the protagonist. He also famously samples the sounds of ping pong balls being rallied in Ping Pong the Animation. When the sound of bouncing ping pong balls is meshed with a marimba-like instrument, the score becomes a part of what is happening on screen, rather than its own entity in the background. In this way, sound design has become an incredibly important aspect of composing modern music and is a tool that is utilized heavily by Ushio. 

Using instrumentation and sound design effectively enhances the visual world that the audience takes in. Even though Chainsaw Man takes place in modern-day Tokyo, the setting itself is otherworldly in nature. Devils threaten humanity's existence and the people that roam the planet often wield their own powerful abilities. In order to represent this strange world, Ushio uses unnatural sounds. That is to say, his techno and break-core pieces often use electric drums and heavily distorted synths rather than acoustic sounds that are found more commonly in the natural world. Unlike the lush choirs and strings in something like Skyrim, Ushio approaches Chainsaw Man with a colder soundscape. Doing so reflects the violent and supernatural events occurring on screen. Even the more sensitive scores, which often use piano or keyboard, edit the sounds so that it isn’t just a simple piano sound, but a more ethereal, inquisitive sound, avoiding natural timbres. By doing this, Ushio cements that this world is not like our own, but a new, strange world to discover.

Contrast in Score

While there is music that is used for filler during conversations and exposition, Ushio’s score can be mostly broken up into two distinct halves: Dreams and Devils. The world of Chainsaw Man cuts rapidly back and forth between bloody violence and delicate moments of characterization. The score does the same. Right from episode one, the importance of the music is made clear as we move to a bassy, distorted soundtrack as Denji is led into the zombie devil’s lair. Here, he is killed mercilessly by being eaten and cut apart. The show then cuts to his dismembered body in the garbage disposal and the aggressive score we heard is contrasted with the sound of a piano-like instrument and soft distorted synth pads in the background. The music is ambient and textural in nature, making the viewer focus on Denji’s flashback and giving it importance. It’s noteworthy here that Denji’s dream is reintroduced in this scene, showcasing a very delicate and human moment against the gruesome violence the audience just witnessed. Following a heartfelt moment between Denji and Pochita, the viewers are thrown back into reality, where Denji kills all the zombies around in a fit of revenge and an act for his freedom. Here, we again get a break-core adjacent track, focused extremely heavily on electric drums and bassy synths. The violence is contrasted one last time as Makima finds Denji and offers him the dream he has always wanted. “That’s a dream come true” plays in the background, a delicate and textural piece that focuses on a repeating ascending keyboard melody. This scene is pivotal to Denji’s character development as he is finally shown a small ray of light in what has otherwise been a devastating world. 

The two contrasted parts of the score also do their part to represent the different ideas presented in Chainsaw Man. One of these themes is the idea of Denji having lost his humanity as the cost of achieving his first dream: living a normal life. This is shown metaphorically by having Pochita replace his human heart to keep him alive. Denji later reflects after Himeno’s death about his lack of empathy and emotion. Noting that she was his first real friend, but deciding that she was less important to him than living his current life suspends Denji somewhere between being human and being devil. This is also supported by his similarities to Power, who is a fiend herself. This idea seems to be reflected in the score through distortion. Having distorted melodic or harmonic ideas adds muddiness to the score. In the first few episodes where the desires of devils like Pochita or Power are displayed, a delicate score is accompanied by distorted synth pads. These pads don’t have the warmth of something like an orchestra would, but a colder, grayer feeling that is indicative of the blurry line between human and devil.

Listeners are conditioned by Ushio to expect distorted synths and techno beats when devils appear on screen. Because there is usually bloodlust and battle paired with devils, these heavy, fast-paced scores match them well. On the other hand, when we are shown human dreams and desires, we are typically provided with softer, more keyboard-focused music. There are cases, however, where they are meshed together.

As previously discussed, when Power’s backstory with Meowy is shown, it is the first time we see a devil have more human emotions. The score here is a sensitive piece but also contains light distorted synth pads in the background, which is indicative of Power being a devil. This is also the case in episode one when Denji is killed and he talks to Pochita before being taken over. A different possible interpretation of this is that distortion is symbolic of reality. We see it used heavily during fights with devils, which is representative of the harsh reality that holds every character from reaching their goals, while the more ambient and emotional scores are usually used when a character’s dream or past is shown. It is important to observe that these scores and scenes are often placed right next to each other. Emotional scenes focusing on the character’s wishes like Pochita wishing for Denji to reach his dreams, or Himeno wishing for Aki to live, are placed between violent fights. This contrast in the score helps showcase the very human dreams with the cold impossibility and antagonism of reality. 

Musical Directing and Placement

It’s worth noting that the placement of music plays an integral role in how impactful a score can be. Chainsaw Man is a relatively quiet anime that focuses much more on the sound design and atmosphere as opposed to an anime like Link Click, where there is almost constant music happening. It’s clear that the atmosphere was something that was important to the success of the show. Thus, most of the scores that play are short and played in parts where they can shine. As mentioned before, these spots are usually during fights, or when desires of characters are displayed, often in flashbacks. This usage, when flipped on its head, can provide an extremely powerful effect. 

This is exactly what happens in episode 8: “Gunfire.” In one of the most climatic parts of the season, Group 4 finds themselves on the brink of being wiped out. While Aki fights the Katana devil, the audience is greeted with the usual beat-core score; however, whilst on the brink of being defeated, Himeno decides to sacrifice herself in an attempt to save Aki’s life. Rather than the more aggressive, driving music the audience is now used to, “sweet dreams” plays in the background. This is yet another sentimental piece focusing heavily on warm synth chords with a textural keyboard floating on top. It’s a much softer piece that focuses on Himeno’s desire for Aki to live, as well as to cry for her after she dies, rather than the fight happening between the ghost devil and the Katana devil on screen. Accompanied by Himeno’s final wish monologue, both the score and voice lines contrast with the violence and point to the more important narrative that is being told underneath, making the scene much more powerful. The piece is then cut to silence as the snake devil eats Ghost right as it seems like the Katana devil will be taken down. Aki looks over to see Himeno completely erased from existence and the episode ends. The musical direction here is extremely important for pointing to the show’s underlying themes and showcasing how easily and brutally Himeno’s wish is crushed in the face of reality. It also creates a sense of shock as the both piece and Himeno’s wish are simultaneously cut out of the story. 

Musical Symbolism and Storytelling 

“That’s a Dream Come True” is one of the most important pieces in the entire show both in title and in significance. During the first episode, the audience is introduced to Denji, a young kid who was born into Yakuza debt and even after having sold several of his body parts, continues to have an impossibly large debt. He tells Pochita things that he wishes he could have. It’s here we see both how young Denji is, and how little he has had. His wishes feel so attainable it’s almost laughable; however, it is his coming of age, mixed with the bizarre, harsh world he resides in that gives significance to the dreams he has. In fact, nearly every important character has a dream that is paired with one of the more sentimental tracks, and these pieces are often contrasted by fights, which contain techno and beat-core. “That’s a dream come true” symbolically represents Denji’s reaching of his dream through an ascending, stepwise melody. Because the ascending melody reaches a peak and then repeats, it melodically represents Deni’s gradual progress toward his goals and the creation of new dreams after he has reached that peak. This is something the audience sees him do several times as each one of his simple dreams is reached, and then replaced with another, equally simple dream. It is interesting that though Denji is able to achieve many of his goals, he is usually underwhelmed by their outcome, always looking towards his next wish. 

This notion is further exemplified by the piece itself, which begins with an ascending Eb minor bassline. The minor scale in music is often associated with a sense of nostalgia, sadness, or pain. As the melody progresses, it stops focusing on the Eb minor tonality and focuses more on Db major note clusters. Major scales are more commonly used for happier, more hopeful situations. This shift in harmonic focus moves the listener from a somber feeling to a brighter, more optimistic, melody. That’s not to say that by the end of the piece, everything feels jovial, but rather that there is the notion of progressing and moving forward as a result of the change in harmonic focus. Denji’s journey also follows this sort of progression. 

Often in films and other media, a composer will present a melodic theme that remains returns over the course of the story. This theme can then be adjusted depending on the scene it sits behind and to support the notion of change throughout the story. This idea is most easily seen through “that’s a dream come true” and “the end of childhood.” The naming convention here is also important as it gives the audience a sense of what to look for while they watch the bizarre story unfold. “The end of childhood” uses the same melodic ideas presented in “that’s a dream come true” and even stays in the same key. However, what the audience hears isn’t the same, clear piano melody that was presented at the end of episode one. Instead, the melody is distorted and played by grainy, noisy synths. While the melody still feels delicate and warm, it’s now muddier and more difficult to pick out. This track also cuts out the first couple of measures of “that’s a dream come true” and jumps right into the main theme. What this does is musically showcase the characters’ coming of age and view of the world, as also suggested by the piece’s title.

Rather than the clearcut, albeit strange, view that Denji has of the world at the beginning of the show, his view is now grayer following the horrific things that have happened. Likewise, Aki continues to have his view of the world warped by rage and the urge for revenge. “The end of childhood” is played towards the end of episode twelve, when Denji is able to capture the Katana devil and offers Aki to play a game in which they torture the captive as revenge for killing Himeno. While Aki initially dismisses the game as immature, he looks at the cigarette Himeno saved for his coming of age and agrees to play with Denji. The altered version of what the audience had heard in episode one is then played over the rather comical scene of Denji and Aki torturing the captive and is accompanied at the end by Aki asking Himeno if she can hear the requiem they are playing for her. Aki’s loss of childhood is cemented at the end of the episode when he is shown smoking the cigarette saved for him after bonding with Denji and Power. Musically, the score shows character growth among two of the most important characters in the series and contrasts Denji’s original completion of his dream in episode one, with a much more grayed version of reality, displaying how people’s desires are muddied and corrupted by reality as they progress towards them. This is also shown in Aki, whose coming of age is shown more clearly through Himeno’s cigarette.

A great score can be an integral aspect of the success of an anime and holds a lot of power in separating the anime from its source manga. Part of the reason Chainsaw Man’s underlying themes are able to shine through in the anime is because of how well Ushio’s score works with each scene. Much of the music is focused on rhythm and texture rather than melody. This is common in film and TV as a means to not step on what is happening on screen. Chainsaw Man has a successful score because it is able to support the whiplash happening on screen as well as the general atmosphere of the show. There is a great amount of care taken in developing specific melodies and having deeply contrasting ideas to support the anime.  For these reasons, Kensuke Ushio makes up a huge part of Chainsaw Man’s ambiance and enjoyability. Let us know what you think in the comments below!