MAPPA just gave us our clearest look yet at where Denji goes next. During the studio's 15th Anniversary Lineup Reveal livestream on June 19, MAPPA dropped a brand-new teaser for Chainsaw Man: Assassins Arc, the next chapter of its hit anime, and confirmed that the team behind the Reze Arc movie is staying on board.
As Anime News Network reports, Tatsuya Yoshihara returns to direct, picking up right where last year's Reze Arc movie left off. MAPPA is back as the studio, and the rest of the core staff is stacked with returning talent. The project was first teased at Jump Festa 2026, and this is the follow-up that finally put names to the production.
The Team Behind It
Here's the confirmed staff lineup MAPPA revealed alongside the teaser:
- Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Series scripts: Hiroshi Seko
- Character design: Kazutaka Sugiyama
- Music: Kensuke Ushio
- Devil design: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- Sound director: Yasushi Nagura
Those names should look familiar to fans. Keeping Ushio on music and Oshiyama on the devil designs means the unsettling, off-kilter atmosphere that made the first season and the Reze film stand out so much isn't going anywhere.
So what did the teaser actually show? It teases the story's shift from a personal fight to a worldwide one. Assassins from around the globe start closing in on Denji, and we get glimpses of fan-favorite newcomers including Quanxi, billed as the first devil hunter, alongside an American trio of killers. I'll keep it spoiler-light, but anyone who's read the manga knows the Assassins arc is where this story goes gloriously off the rails.
There's A Mobile Game Too
The teaser wasn't the only Chainsaw Man news out of the anniversary stream. MAPPA also announced the franchise's first official mobile game, and it arrives with a MAPPA-animated opening set to Maximum the Hormone's "All the Lynch!! All the Mince!!". If you remember that band's wild contributions to the first season's soundtrack, you already know the kind of chaotic energy they bring to the table.
For anyone just catching up, it's wild to think how far this series has come in a few short years. MAPPA's Chainsaw Man TV anime landed in 2022 and instantly became one of the most talked-about shows of its season, helped along by that unforgettable Kenshi Yonezu opening, "Kick Back," and a different ending theme for nearly every episode. The production was divisive in places, but nobody argued with the ambition. Then the Reze Arc movie took the story theatrical in 2025 and pulled in serious numbers worldwide. Assassins Arc is the next logical escalation, and the fact that MAPPA is treating it like a flagship tells you how much the studio still believes in Tatsuki Fujimoto's chaos.
What We Still Don't Know
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, MAPPA has not confirmed whether Assassins Arc is a full TV season or another movie, even though plenty of outlets are already calling it "Season 2." There's also no release date yet. Some sites have floated late 2027 or early 2028 windows, but that's outlet speculation, not anything official. For now, what we have locked down is the project, the staff, and this teaser.
It's been a massive stretch for the series. The manga's Part 2 recently wrapped, and we broke down how Volume 24's cover signaled a possible series finale. On the anime side, the Reze Arc movie was a worldwide hit in 2025, so seeing the same director carry that momentum straight into the Assassins arc is exactly what fans were hoping for.
Put it all together and Chainsaw Man's future looks loud and bloody in the best possible way. We've got a returning director, a killer staff, a first look at Quanxi and the international assassins, and a mobile game on top. Now we just need a date and an answer on whether it's a series or a film. Which would you rather it be, a full TV season or another theatrical swing? Drop your pick in the comments.
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