Chainsaw Man

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EDIT: Chainsaw Man is really intense, and not for everyone. This manga features child neglect/abuse, gore, vomiting, grooming/psychological manipulation, and pedophilia. If any of that is upsetting for you, tread carefully!

This review was written after the ending of Part 1.

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I hate reviews that start off with unnecessary prose, so let's skip all that and get to the meat of things!

Chainsaw Man is a story which thrives in its unexpectedness. It's a story that takes you for twists and turns in its plot and characterization, but mostly through its simultaneous homage to and subversion of shonen tropes. It's a story that looks dumb as hell, with ... a protagonist who acts dumb as hell, with a goal that seems dumb as hell (touch some booooooooobs). But where Chainsaw Man gets you is that it anticipates your exhaustion with these tropes. It anticipates that you'll accept the meathead perverted protagonist at face value and shrug off the lack of culpability put on Makima for her actions in endangering a minor. Because all shonen protagonists are teenagers who go through terrible things and are burdened with the fate of the world on their shoulders, so who cares?

Fujimoto does. And he wants *you* to care, too. And so he deconstructs common, unquestioned tropes left and right, creates characters whose complexity extends beyond convoluted backstories, and constantly ups the ante, all without creating a story so large it self destructs.

PART 1: Don't Open the Door (Denji, the Plot, and Subverting Shonen Tropes)

At the core of Chainsaw Man is its protagonist, Denji: a destitute, impoverished teen, who struggles daily to survive a cruel and uncaring world in order to pay off his late father's insurmountable debts to the yakuza. By his side is Pochita, his pet chainsaw devil. Denji is willing to do most anything to make a pretty penny: cutting down trees, hunting devils (which is highly dangerous), even selling body parts on the black market. Denji's life is tragic, but it is not meaningless. Unlike many shonen protagonists, his life of barely surviving on a piece of bread a day with his father's impossible debt looming over his head, is not a set piece to get the plot rolling, and quickly be forgotten. Nor does his backstory encompass the entirety of his character and limit his development. Denji's difficult past deeply influences his worldview and personality, but he is still treated as a highly impressionable teenager. He is both naive about the ways of the world and intimately familiar with the worst humanity has to offer.

When Denji joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, he doesn't have much of a higher calling. He frankly doesn't care much about killing devils to save people or anything like that (at least, not at the beginning). It's a do or die situation: after being attacked by a devil, Pochita, saves his life by giving him his chainsaw devil powers. In exchange, he asks Denji to chase his dreams. When the local Public Safety force which protects Japan from devils arrive on the scene, Denji is given an ultimatum: to die at their hands as a devil, or to sacrifice his freedom to work for them, using his unique powers to become a devil hunter. Denji accepts the latter, of course. But Denji does not hate Makima, the devil hunter who put him in this situation. Instead, he is grateful to her, because she hugged him and promised to feed him breakfast.

Denji's tragic backstory doesn't exist just to make him easier to root for. It is a *core component* of who he is in a way that is incredibly compelling, as well as being more authentic to the real-world impact of severe trauma (especially childhood trauma). His easy acceptance of the dilemma Makima presents him with is rooted in the fact that he has never really been free. He's used to being used. At least he knows Public Safety will feed him. Throughout the story, every single one of Denji's dreams -- to eat good food, to have a friend to play video games with, to touch a girl's boobs, to have sex with a girl -- is a painful reminder of his deprived childhood. Denji is blunt, and Denji is simple. The only things he wants are safety, a home, and a person who cares about him.

In an incredibly refreshing twist, Denji's history of abject poverty and his role as a devil hunter is not passed off as 'normal,' and is instead actively questioned and challenged. The most overt example of this takes place halfway through the first part, when Denji makes a friend his age who truly sees him for who he is. Together, the two of them sneak into a high school to goof around and hang out. But, partway through the evening, Denji's new friend says this:

"At 16, you're still just a kid, you know? It's when most kids are studying to get into college, throwing themselves into a club or a sport, hanging out with friends.... But *you're* killing devils, almost getting killed yourself... Is this Public Safety place you're with right now really a good place?"
"Yeah, they're super great! I get three meals a day and I get to sleep in a bed."
"That's, like, the *bare minimum* standard of living in Japan... It's *not* something amazing."

Ah! How refreshing!! Another character acknowledging that Denji's situation is irrevocably fucked, and *specifically* because of his age!!! Of course, hurt/comfort tropes have their place in shonen. But I've never seen a conversation like this, where a character tells the protagonist that not just one thing that happened is sad or fucked up -- that their whole situation sucks, actually, and why isn't anyone doing anything about it? (I love Fullmetal Alchemist dearly. I spent the entire manga and both anime waiting for ONE (1) person to acknowledge that being a child soldier at age 12 is Kinda Bad instead of impressive.) There are no other teenage devil hunters who are thrown into combat because they are "talented" or "smart" or whatever. It just isn't done. Denji is a special case, because he is a devil hybrid, and is explicitly treated as inhuman by most of the cast. In a genre populated by underage protagonists tackling world-destroying threats, it's very refreshing to see this questioned.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'll refrain from going further into Denji's character and development. But just know that Denji is not a static protagonist, and his ridiculous quest in the first dozen or so chapters to touch a girl's boobs is not his defining trait. Generally speaking, I hate perverted protagonists! I think they're annoying as hell. But Denji isn't a pervert. He's a traumatized kid looking for connection with someone, anyone. And that, to me, is compelling.

PART 2: Connections and Supporting Characters

The supporting cast in Chainsaw Man is great, because they are all batshit crazy.

One character acknowledges that you have to have a few screws loose to survive as a devil hunter. These characters -- many of whom aren't human -- act entirely outside the boundaries of normal behavior to survive as devil hunters. And yet they're all still realistic and compelling, with their own goals, relationships, personalities, and traits. There's a sort of impulsivity about their actions, which only adds to the sense that these are characters who are just trying to survive a chaotic and cruel world. In so doing, Fujimoto enhances the complexity of his characterization, while also lending to the frantic pacing of the plot.

Chainsaw Man features a *lot* of character death. Will your favorite survive to the end? Chances are, probably not! But despite that, somehow Fujimoto avoids exhausting readers with deaths. You know you shouldn't care, because there's no guarantee they'll live to the next chapter, but you still do. Some deaths are foreshadowed for entire chapters, while others happen entirely out of the blue. But regardless, each serves a purpose, and each is genuinely upsetting.

Beyond that, each character develops and progresses naturally, where even your least favorites start to grow on you. (I hated Kobeni when I started reading Chainsaw Man. Now I would die for her.) They don't all progress in a positive way, but they are constantly changing.

A true standout character in my eyes is Power. She's a fiend -- a devil possessing a human corpse -- who is a fellow devil hunter, and becomes one of Denji's closest friends. She's also a total bastard.

Power is very unique in my eyes, because, yes, she's really cute and funny, but she's also an absolute moron. That's not very common in anime and manga, for female characters to just be stupid! Usually, a dumb female character is a cutesy airhead whose obliviousness is played for laughs and/or ecchi scenes. But Power is just as much of a jerk as Denji, if not more. They get up to antics together, prank their housemate Aki, riff off each other, and generally have an incredibly strong dynamic. As a female anime fan, it's really, really refreshing to see a female character whose gender doesn't limit her personality traits to only 'cutesy' feminine stuff! It's also really refreshing to see a 100% platonic dynamic between her and Denji. (Power is also a very compelling character herself, which I won't get into because Spoilers.)

Chainsaw Man doesn't shy away from depicting unhealthy relationships, either. The relationship between Denji and Makima is one of the most crucial and compelling things about the manga, and it is laden with emotional manipulation and abuse tactics. Depicting grooming is difficult enough, and doubly so when the groomer is a beautiful woman. However, Fujimoto manages to capture the duality of such a relationship: both the kindness which draws a victim into an abusive relationship, and the cruelty which keeps them there. Again, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'll stop here. But I will say that reducing Denji to a simp does a great disservice to both characters, and also perpetuates the toxic idea that men can't be victims.

I really wish I could ramble about all the characters in Chainsaw Man, because I love literally all of them (except Santa Claus and Makima. All my homies hate Santa Claus and Makima). But much of what makes them amazing can't be summed up in brief personality descriptions, and instead has to be read through their relationships with each other. For all the brashness and bluntness of the manga, there is a beautiful subtlety to the character development, which is best experienced, rather than told.

PART 3: Art

The art of Chainsaw Man seems to be a point of contention for many! Personally, I've always liked it. I find that Fujimoto's sketchy style lends to the feeling of urgency and dread as you're waiting for the next Big Thing to happen. Also, his expressions and grasp of anatomy is godlike. But the art *is* very sketchy, and sometimes his characters fall a bit out of proportion (especially on profile views). Where Fujimoto's art truly shines is in Chainsaw Man's many gory fight scenes and eye-grabbing panels. In general, Fujimoto's panel construction is incredible. You can definitely see that he's a huge film fan, with how he uses all sorts of different angles and layouts in an attempt to emulate famous cinematography. Chainsaw Man is not a story that happens to be a manga -- it takes advantage of the medium to lay itself out as a storyboard, and lets the reader fill in the gaps. (God, it's going to look so good animated. Hype.)

Although Chainsaw Man loves blood and guts, it's not super intense / detailed -- squeamish folks may want to tread carefully, but most people will probably be fine. The gore isn't gross, but it is fun and flashy. Character design-wise, Fujimoto really shines with designing the various devils, fiends, and half-devil hybrids, as well as making all the members of Public Safety stand out despite their simple designs.

Overall, you can tell that Fujimoto believes in the ten-second principle -- most people spend only ten seconds looking at a panel before moving on. But his artistic chops can't be denied, especially when you're looking at the full-page or spread panels.

PART 4: In Summary

To finish this off, I want to say that Chainsaw Man is good as hell. It's a smart manga that is gory, painful, frequently hilarious, and will make you feel despair like you've never felt before. But beyond the blood, guts, gore, and sex, Chainsaw Man is at its core a story about trauma, chasing your dreams, personal growth, and the connections you make with other people (for better or for worse). I wouldn't go so far as to call it a deconstruction, but if you're a shonen fan who's become a bit disillusioned with the genre, Chainsaw Man is a breath of fresh air. (Especially since as of December 14, 2020, when this review is being posted, the announcement for an anime AND a "part two" of the manga just dropped a few days ago. And part 2... oh boy howdy does it look good!)

While the pacing is quite fast, I think it suits the tone of the story quite well; after all, this isn't exactly a forgiving world, and the characters themselves are rarely given any downtime. The rapid pacing doesn't mean that Fujimoto overlooks his characters for the sake of keeping the plot moving; on the contrary, it allows him to write more subtle, easily overlooked moments of setup and characterization, keeping up the hype while also ensuring that future developments aren't cheap or jarring. It adds a lot of reread value, which I find most manga to be lacking in. Once you know how things end, looking back to analyze in depth how things got to that point in the first place is really interesting!

I want to be clear: this story *hurts*. It's immensely tragic. One chapter was so sad and stressful that another mangaka had to take a week-long mental health break. I was basically comatose for an entire day after binge reading it, and I'm still unpacking all that I read. But, if you've got the time and energy to devote to it, Chainsaw Man is an incredibly unique experience that won't let you down.

While rating this I've pulled out my shounen wow-those-fights-are-so-cool heart in order to review this as fair as possible for the mangaka. Still couldn't give this a high mark.

Story:
The story and worldbuilding are so incredibly weak. The mangaka pushes you straight into action and from that point on you're in a rollercoaster that's only going hard downwards with no rest, meaning that there's no time to rest and therefore no time to enjoy the hype (no light without darkness yknow).

Towards the end, the story underwent an acceleration. The story that didn't even have anything to offer, underwent a goddamn acceleration. I couldn't even believe ... the plot twist. I thought that there must've been something behind it, but guess, what, that was it. I wouldn't have know that I finished the manga today if I didn't add it on MAL.
Thinking about it now, maybe the manga was already going at the speed of light from ch 1.

At a certain point, the only bait was the question of who the protagonist is going to bang.


Art:
The fights aren't even that cool either. They're just normal. Sure, if this is your first action-gore and you discovered your action-gore kink with it, then I understand. But there are loads of other manga's out there with much better and more original fights and gore. Chainsaw man has nothing special to offer. The only things worthy of mentioning are the details and the originality to make monsters out of objects (though personally, that was really childish, but that's really subjective).


Characters:
The simpleness of the protagonist in the beginning should be praised. It fits perfectly in a feel-good/cool-fight shounen. But then it got too simple. Until the end, we had almost no insight into the protagonist's past. Not that that should be necessary, but there was also no character development. Nobody had character development.

Chainsaw Man is a fun read to tag along which I found very, very promising when I first started reading it, seriously, you read the dialogue, which feels contemporary and no-nonsense, you see the AWESOME art behind it, and it does feel like a big time manga, but as you get near the ending.. It first starts sagging, then just slowly descends into an unorganized mess..Please do hear me out, don't just flag me as a "hater" for giving it a low score, I have some things to say; As I was saying, it quickly becomes apparent that there is no 'substance' ... behind the story. It's a manga made up just a bunch of 'cool' events ordered one after another with no philosophy to justify them, no moral, no meaning - not a story, but simply a narrative.

I'm sorry to break it down to you, but there is no point to Chainsaw Man; There are no philosophical beliefs explored and no parallels to compare the characters based on; The characters themselves are then in no way, shape or form informed by common themes, thus they have no substantial engine to drive emotion for the audience or development for themselves based on; THERE IS NO WAY TO GET A PROBLEM FIXED IS THE NARRATIVE ISN'T EXAMINING A PROBLEM.

That's why we read stories in the first place! To get some use out of them! We don't just enjoy sitting in front of some pages or whatever looking at cool art, cool lines or what not, no, a story is a way to convey MEANING, experience, life lessons (that's what a theme is if you dk). Would you enjoy listening to nonsensical pretty words being told to you in no particular order? Hell nO! And that's precisely what Chainsaw Man is, a bunch of pretty pages. It's supposed story is only a justification for the author to illustrate all these cool things he's envisioned in his head; A guy turning into a chainsaw monster? No problem; Giant fox busting out of a building, it's possible! And it is really fucking cool alright, but it just misses the point of a story and does it in this extremely superficial way!

The times when the characters do experience a touching moment it is always due to a new impactful theme being introduced in the very same scene (only to be forgotten as the scene ends), in other words, the only memorable-ish bits in Chainsaw Man are technically filler, since they deal with ideas which are irrelevant to the rest of the narrative, they are tangents in a nonsensical conversation. That's how it is with ALL the meaning you can find in this manga, it all consists in little bits scuffed here and there. It says it's a story about dreams here, then it goes to being a story about perfection v.s. imperfection, but before that tried being about trauma, then friendship maybe, dk?!?! That's what the author was probably thinking! Which leads me to my next point:

IT PRETENDS TO BE DEEP! By far, Chainsaw Man's biggest offense is that not only is it unfocused, to say the very least, but it draws attention to aforementioned philosophical particles here and there.. I'm not spoiling here, but the problem of 'the city mouse v.s. the country mouse' is a great idea, it could be the backbone of a whole story, but here, it's only mentioned superficially. It has a vague connection to Denji, but no other characters to be corelated with and people buy it alright; Most readers just glance and bounce off of it with the impression that it is in fact saying something profound and write it off as deep, but all the dilema ultimately is amounting to is some dialogue! No actions, no choices, no consequences. And it really upsets me, that people do buy into it. This mess that sprinkles in molecules of meaning is able to masquerade as a quote on quote "masterpiece" when all it's doing is using long words to sound smart! And it's working! Long fucking words landed it a spot in MAPPA studio productions!

Looking at Fire Punch, it does make sense, the state in which Chainsaw Man is; That's just the stage in which the guy is at in his writing journey; That of a fucking elementary student. Really, that's what children think of writing, even drawing - put cool stuff on the page! And you know what, that's fine. It's fine to be a beginner author, obviously, but it's not fine for so many people to be swayed by the hype train in favor of such a useless piece of work and get it all the way on the first page on this site; It's just not ok. Well. only time will tell, if I'm right, it will eventually be forgotten in the coming years..