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- [Isaiah] It's Isaiah
Colbert, the otaku of "Kotaku."

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I love myself a found-family story.

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I especially love when anime
makes its trio of heroes have

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whatever the dynamic we're
seeing in "Chainsaw Man" is.

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You know the trope.

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There's one parent friend

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and two feral creatures
who share a brain cell.

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Think "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Naruto,"

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though the jury is still
out on which character

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of Team 7 is a defacto
parent of that group.

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But lately, I've been feeling
that the anime trio formula

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in "Chainsaw Man" might be
the one to rule them all.

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Right off the bat, Aki
is the parent friend.

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He cooks, he cleans, he pays rent.

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He's always got those snacks on deck

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to keep the children in line.

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Our sweet boy Denji is
the weird, horny teenager

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you try your best to avoid
at the family get-togethers.

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Sure, he means well, but he
says some out-of-pocket things

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and generally just exudes a weird vibe.

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- Cough up the tits.

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Those are mine.

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- [Isaiah] Power is the
bratty little sister,

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the DW from "Arthur," if you will.

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She refuses to eat her veggies,

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is a pathological liar,
and an awful one at that,

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and she routinely abandon
her housemates in battle

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if things start looking unwinnable.

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On paper, the "Chainsaw
Man" trio shouldn't work.

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They're basically what would happen

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if you leave three betta male fish

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in the same tank overnight.

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Somebody ain't seein' the light of dawn.

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But the genius behind their dynamic

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is the slow-burn friendship

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and the age-old show-don't-tell
method of storytelling.

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We all know that Naruto loves Sasuke.

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When he's not reminding
us of his nepo-baby dream

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of becoming Hokage, my man
is always talkin' Uchiha.

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But we never truly see
what made them so close

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in the anime or the manga to begin with.

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I'm convinced their friendship
was the result of genjutsu.

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In "Chainsaw Man," We repeatedly
see how Aki is a parent

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to the others, thanks to
the amount of care he takes

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while cutting little
bunny apples for Denji

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or getting Meowy a vet appointment

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despite him saying he'll
never help a devil.

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After Denji's perilous
boob-touching quest,

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the distance between him and
Power becomes non-existent.

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Somewhere down the line,
anime realized what we want

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in Trios isn't an incessant shipping war

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amongst its members, but a
little, messed-up found family.

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This change isn't just refreshing

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in the case of "Chainsaw Man."

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It's also necessary given how
much of an occupational hazard

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being a devil hunter is.

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At the end of the day,

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no matter how cool the Hayakawa
family is individually,

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they're still just lost
children trying to make sense

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of the hellscape they're living in.

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Being able to butt heads with one another

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and finding common ground in the downtime

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between dust-ups allows them to push back

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against how their world
forced them to grow up

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far too quickly.

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They get to act their age

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or at least figure out what
their age is, in Power's case.

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I think she still believes
she's in the the ye-olde times.

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Bless her heart.

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And thus concludes my anime TED Talk.

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Let us know in the comments section below

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if you agree that the Hayakawa
family deserves the world,

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and be sure not to if you disagree.

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'Kay, thanks. Bye.