Chainsaw Man

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EDIT 06/28: As CSM is a very intense story which deals with a lot of graphic violence and difficult themes, I feel it's appropriate to provide some content warnings. Please be aware that Chainsaw Man features child neglect/abuse, gore, vomiting, grooming/psychological manipulation, and pedophilia (there's nothing explicit, but there are two adult female characters who frequently make sexual advances on Denji). If any of these things upset you or are triggers for you, then please tread carefully. With that said, here's my review! <3

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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 most effectively in its subversion of shounen tropes which gives the story a far greater effect. 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 perverted protagonist, accept Denji's tragic backstory as only setting the scene for the start of the manga, accept the lack of culpability put on Makima for her actions in endangering a minor. Because all shounen protagonists are teenagers who go through horrible things, so who cares?

Fujimoto does. Fujimoto cares. And he wants *you* to care, too, as he deconstructs tropes left and right, crafts beautiful, complex characters, 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 Shounen Tropes)

At the core of Chainsaw Man is its protagonist, Denji: a destitute, highly impoverished teen, who every day struggles to survive as he tries to pay off his late father's insurmountable debt to the yakuza. At his side is Pochita, his pet chainsaw devil. Denji is willing to do most anything to make a pretty penny, as is quickly established: cutting down trees, killing 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 shounen protagonists, his past 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 merely established "hows" and "whys". It is not immediately forgotten as soon as he acquires his powers and gets the plot rolling. Instead, the lessons Denji has learned stick with him, in a way that is infinitely more authentic.

When Denji joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, it is not out of some higher mission. He frankly doesn't give a shit about killing devils to save people, or to prevent damage, or anything like that (at least, not at the beginning). It's a do or die situation: after being attacked by a devil, his devil dog, Pochita, saves his life by fusing with him, thus giving him chainsaw powers. When the local Public Safety force which protects Japan from devils arrive on the scene, Denji is faced with a choice: to die at their hands as a devil, or to live as a human and work with them, using his unique powers to become a devil hunter. Denji accepts, 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 life of tragedy 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 actual real-world impact of severe trauma (especially childhood trauma). Every single one of his goals -- 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 reflection of the loneliness and isolation he grew up in. 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 life of abject poverty and his role as a devil hunter are actively questioned and challenged. There are no other child or teenage Devil Hunters (Denji is 16 for the majority of the first part of the manga) who are "talented" or "smart" or whatever. It just isn't done. Denji is a special case, because he is a half-devil. He isn't treated like a normal teenager by the majority of the cast. But there is one character, halfway through the first part, who sees Denji for who he is. They sneak into a school together in the middle of the night to hang out. Partway through, Denji's new friend sombers, as they think more about Denji's circumstances.

"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 and angst tropes have their place in shounen. 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.) 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. They crack jokes and fight brutally, complain about paperwork and worry about the safety of themselves and their friends, act rationally and then pull the dumbest shit in the universe. Ironically, their absurd traits only make them feel more authentic.

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 dumb! Usually, a dumb female character is a cutesy airhead, and there's always this super creepy undertone of surrounding male characters "taking advantage of" her innocence (usually by making passes at her that she is cheerfully oblivious to). 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. Power is loud, abrasive, forgets to flush the toilet, and only cares about her cat. It's really, really refreshing to see a female character who is unapologetically stupid and mean in the same way that male characters are allowed to be! It's also really refreshing to see a 100% platonic dynamic between the two, which only serves to strengthen their bond. (Power is also a very compelling character herself, which I won't get into because Spoilers.)

The characters also have incredibly compelling bonds and relationships, which are all the more powerful for how understated they are. Most characters in Chainsaw Man aren't the type to go on pages-long monologues describing exactly how they feel, or how they interpret their relationships with each other. It's through their actions that you can understand character dynamics, which really makes them shine.

Again, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, I won't get into specifics. But I will say that the dynamic between Denji and Makima is one of the most crucial and compelling parts of the manga, and that reducing Denji to a simp really does a great disservice to both of their characters.

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 all the perks of the medium, and does so beautifully. (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 the somewhat simplistic designs and uniforms they all wear. (This series is also a goldmine of reaction pics, especially when Kobeni's on the page.)

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 -- about how it can change and shape a person in a way that can't be erased, but *can* be dealt with. It's a story about a kid who's never had anything struggling to carry the weight of caring for others and being cared about in turn. It's a story about legacy, and it's a story about hope.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a deconstruction, but if you're a shounen 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!)

Don't be fooled: 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 this. 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.

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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.

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Chainsaw man, It always had style but it took freaking ages for its plot to come together. Nothing safe to assume about this manga, But one thing is safe to say for sure, Explosive Events and Hype =/= Good Writing. I can't blame people who came for action it's all a fast read but coming for an actual story. SORRY you're fooling yourself.

The action and setting are alright, the story and characters are forgettable and nothing more than a modern fan service for teens to relate to. Like" I want to touch some boobs"

Will Power finally freaking do something? Denji fights are getting repetitive. It's the same thing over again.

Hands down. Best character development is Power's, if you only consider becoming more and more useless a development. Then sure that's the only development we saw and was displayed.

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(TLDR review at the bottom, as always, thanks in advance for reading)
(Major edit at the bottom lol)

If you told me to describe Chainsaw Man in one word I would grab the nearest megaphone and microphone, place the megaphone in between my mouth and the microphone, switch both devices on, and start screaming,
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Yes. There the word 'madness' or 'chaos' doesn't even fit. The sound does a better job of explaining it. Chainsaw Man is mostly made up of death metal screaming moments and having not read anything close to this other than watching Dorohedoro and maybe reading some of Berserk, Attack on Titan, Akame ga Kill if you count those. I can say that Chainsaw Man is one story you won't forget. This isn't your average Shounen Jump manga.


Narrative:
As mentioned before, Chainsaw Man is the embodiment of death metal screaming, though, I guess I am stretching it a little too far, it isn't entirely like that, there is a calm nature when it is needed.

At the start, the pacing makes this somewhat weird to get at first glance. You see, the story begins with what happens to be this disheartening atmosphere Denji emits off, he is living the lowest point in his life but when he makes a contract to become the Chainsaw Man, things get crazy, and things only get crazier from then on. This aspect of the story is the good thing about Chainsaw Man, you know things are crazy, and indeed will get crazier, but the constant gaining of knowledge to new information still makes you think about what else could get more insane than what just happened. Read it out for yourself. See what you will find out about this world in which, on the surface is chaotic, but further down the line is just… dark, and deep too. You see, the story isn't just madness, the story also offers how the current world operates, with various devil users from all over the world trying to take Denji for their own uses, what uses exactly? They range quite a bit. But I feel like with the use of different devil users around the world having the same objective of getting Denji, there is a strange tie to politics, conspiracies and countries trying to become the absolute superpower. It is a nice add-on to the story which enforces the original atmosphere of the chaotic world the story has. People will do anything for power and stand on top of others. It's a crazy story, but there has been some thinking done on top of this hell of a world to bring out what is the worst people can do. The true madness awaiting beneath the surface.

Getting into the fundamentals, something to touch on is plot poison. Usually, plot poison destroys what writers try to convey because they are a flimsy way of emphasising a situation, I don't really recall a time when it has worked so effectively. With Chainsaw Man, however, the excessive amounts of deaths could be viewed as general plot poison if it weren't for the three reasons of:
1. The world is borderline hell
2. People don't die in the story for the sake of some dramatic way to go out, or for the sake of making things look scary
3. Most deaths are unnamed background characters, of course, serving no relevance.

To be fair, I haven't actually seen a ton of stories with plot poison. But from what I have seen it is mostly used in a way to make the story look more dramatic when it is used in the action genre. With the horror genre, it is made to create terror to some atmosphere. Though even so Chainsaw Man is straight to the point with such an action. When death happens, it isn't used as a way to make everything look dramatic or scary, as I have said, this is madness, no bumpy road to get to what it wants to convey. Straight to the point, full stop. I must say such a technique really gives the story its ground to stand on. Even with thousands of irrelevant characters that get totally wiped off the face of the world within seconds, it may do feel as if the story has become more dramatic, or terrifying, or, well, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH. Though I feel as if it were like a signature blessed specifically for a story of its kind. You could argue that method would be a cheap way of emphasising the mood Chainsaw Man wishes to bring and to be honest, I would agree... to an extent. Having a vast amount of deaths in a world full of chaos is obviously going to make the setting look cataclysmic, but concurrently, it isn't like killing off every single importance character is going to bring for a better story anyway, not that there is excessive plot armour to be mentioned in the story anyway. It is disheartening, but that is what the story aims to be amidst the frantic hell of a world.

The characters tie in well with the story, they are practically on an equal level. Denji and Power are both dumb characters, not because of story writing, but they are generally stupid people personality-wise. They do dumb things now and then and probably have the mindset of your average high schooler, but they are a good representation of how clueless they are in the face of madness they go through day in, day out. As said before, there is a strange thread of a connection with politics and conspiracies, no one is quite sure of what people are doing behind the scenes or what the final goal is for said people. With clueless, but strong characters like Denji doing nothing but trying his hardest to get an award he was allowed to have from Makima, and Power who has to stay and work for the agency or she will face death. It makes for the perfect combo for the questionable stability of the way of maintaining world order in the story. It is more or less exploitation of the unintelligent, in other words, exploitation. The same can't be said for Aki since he is actually smart, but he too is left in the dark with all the shady business that goes on behind the scenes, his life, however, is more so just depressing in that matter. He isn't silly as Denji and Power are, and has a good grasp of the things that go around him, even so, he can't do much, he is trapped in the madness that comes with his job. No one is safe in this corrupted hierarchy.

Another character to touch on is Makima, she is part of the, "Hey, what the hell does she want" questions that may come to mind when reading. Nothing about her is as clear as day about her, but further on, you begin to see what she hides from those she works with. She clearly has some beef with people, but no one takes her head on considering her ludicrous strength which bounces onto the reader in later chapters. All the while not knowing her true intentions. She is an interesting one. The kind of character you want to dive into more simply because there are too many shadows covering someone with such an important status in society. Again, going back to the conspiracies she may have on her mind to try to execute.

I won't get into spoilers, but the ending is quite disappointing. I felt as if it was pushed to go onto top speeds especially with how fast the pacing of this story is. It may leave you with an unsatisfactory taste to savour. In saying this the ending is nothing disastrous, it was just too fast which didn't allow for a proper finish as one may have liked to see with such intense build-up that has happened just before.


Art:
The art fits well with the entire concept of Chainsaw Man, the character designs looked great with the addition of what seems to be frantically scratched detail into the design, I honestly don't know why but it's like something you would get out of Adult Swim, or Robot Chicken if I am using the correct show. Not something I've seen before, but it was a nice first interaction with art of its kind and made for a good conveyance in the chaotic nature of the story. Speaking of which, the art when there is a fight of some kind doesn't hold back with all the details relating to blood and gore it has to offer, every action moment happens in detail. Other sceneries like background spaces are pretty much the same as the characters, not exactly the most exciting detail but nothing that I would say is bad.


Enjoyment:
I personally enjoyed Chainsaw Man a lot. For a shounen with a ton of action, however, I can't exactly say it performs the best in action. Sometimes the action scenes feel like a gag fight rather than a real fight taking place. Stiff movements contribute to this, but given the world, this is set in, it is to be expected. That doesn't mean I find the action better because of where it is set, it still gets negative points for that pillar of enjoyment. Nothing bad, but nothing I would have quite wanted.

A good point to focus on though is that maybe I am being an uncultured swine, or just downright incorrect, but I feel as if Chainsaw Man really feels like something from the "Dark Age of Comics", everything about its style yells unsettling in the sense that these corrupted images of heroes pay off well with the current age. There are "good guys'' in the stories but can you really class them with your typical 60s heroes. Again, I may be completely off but I feel as if Chainsaw Man is probably one of the best things to relate to such a time period. It makes for incredible enjoyment and insight, since there is a marriage of Shounen Jump, American style comics, and just madness brought together to bring to you the Chainsaw Man you know of today. Honestly, I haven't seen a fusion of culture as good since Pop Team Epic.


Overall - 7.75 (8)



TLDR Review:
Story - 8: The story is the embodiment of crazy, and has a deep underlying goal to it. As well as being straight-up depressing at times.
Art - 8: Character designs looked a little bit scrappy in a good way. Reminded me of something from Adult Swim or Robot Chicken.
Characters - 8: The dumb characters are a good representation of the mystery in their world. Other smarter characters are still left in the dark but question what goes on.
Enjoyment - 7: Action is wack at times. Feels like something from the "Dark Age of Comics". Combination of Shounen Jump, American style comics, and just madness makes for a pleasant story.

Overall - 7.75 (8)



Well, having never read any of Fujimoto's works aside for CSM, I can say that the other popular title made by Fujimoto, "Fire Punch" is certainly something that will come under my radar. With CSM 2 coming along as well I am looking forward to what next Fujimoto has to give. Apparently, Fujimoto is known for killing off characters and depressing stories, so I might be in for a good story and sequel. Would I recommend CSM? Yep, any day of the week. Though that is assuming that you are into the madness, chao(s/tic), craz(y/ier) that story gives. Three (five) words I have used 8 + 5 + 6 times respectively (excluding the latest) throughout this review. Is it THAT MAD? Probably not. But it's still pretty mad. Go. Give it a try.

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Edit: 2nd March 2021, tldr at the bottom

Ok so I had just finish re-reading CSM and I thought that some points are made here aren't the best so I am just going to edit over that here.

With narrative, most of my opinion is still the same, same chaos, some conspiracies, no one what the hell is going on, but you can be sure of hell along the road of the reality of CSM.

I noticed that I explained a lot of the later parts of the story in which I say, that that is where the real grit of CSM revolves off of if you get what I mean. Earlier parts really just set the story in for what is to be, later on, it does a good job at that, you can get a good understanding of the characters introduced and why they work in this hell of a job. I won't say I give it a 9/10 because to some extent, CSM has a lot of doing stuff with no meaning attached to it until the end. For those actions with meaning, such as the different things Denji does with the girls he meets, they tend to add to his origin and how that sucked instead of his future character. The dude doesn't really change despite it, is that a bad thing? I wouldn't say so. But it sure would be nice to see something from him that wasn't too static, something out of character whilst concurrently not.

With Art, I gave it an 8/10 because I was a weekly viewer towards the end of the manga (~80 chapters in or so was the latest). The quality of art for sure felt as if it had decreased over the course of the manga. Not a lot, but slightly. Looking back, there are some incredibly good moments that need to be spoken about. Most of the manga has incredibly good art. I had most of the newer chapters affect my score for the category. I was in and out of this manga, only sticking around until the aforementioned ~80 chapters in.
Art: 8 --> 9

With the enjoyment factor, I mean, if I went and reread this, it obviously means that I liked this a lot. Though I would recommend that anyone reading this also do the same as I have as towards the end of the manga (from International Assassasins arc onwards) things do get incredibly confusing with new characters joining, reveals of everyone's true motives and intents, and devils, fiends, humans doing things we had no clarification about beforehand. On that note, my brain having a hard time comprehending that, I still have to comprehend it some more, but it isn't as bad as before, though I have quite a few questions now too in exchange, that was the reason why I lowered enjoyment factor. Things get confusing, very quickly. Idk why I didn't mention that prior to this edit. I'm going to add that despite a hard time in understanding the story, in which I was close to giving this an 8/10 for enjoyment—still a very good score—I do have to admit that this is very funny to read too, the humour seems like what I proposed before this edit, i.e. the American style. I am not sure how the hell this ran on Shounen Jump, but it did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Enjoyment: 7 --> 9


TLDR: Reread Chainsaw Man when you can.

Overall - 8.5 (9)

I sure hope I haven't messed anything up.

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“Chainsaw Man” immediately starts out with a disappointment. In “Fire Punch”, the author’s other work, you have a protagonist who fuses with fire and essentially burns permanently. A protagonist who fuses with a chainsaw and fights with it like a sword sounds less captivating in comparison.

Now this is only a minor issue as it’s not necessarily bad. What ultimately matters is if the whole package is worth it and able to provide unique qualities.

This work's strongest aspect is certainly its interesting and playful concept that becomes fairly clear early on: Humans versus fears. Anything that can plant a sense of fear in the human mind can manifest in the form of a Devil. That's why, as implied early on, even a "Car Devil" could be a thing as stressing over being run over is a valid concern. The greater the fear of something is, the more power the Devil receives. In the circumstance of a crisis the relevant Devil will become more powerful and daunting.

This premise showed much potential for an immersive ride that needed to deliver on the other aspects. Unfortunately, it failed to do so. Not only is it not gripping and accompanied by shallow characters, but the story is also an overwhelming wave of unrefined and sporadic ideas.

The manga feels somewhat directionless at the start until we're introduced to the Gun Devil and the process to reach him. The main conflict at first features only two groups. It's straightforward and remains that for the most part (and I’ll get to that later). The problem lies with the structure. The manga going on for dozens of chapters with such a linear plot that progresses slowly is a downside. Though It does try to compensate or justify that.

It’s an action manga which is mostly about fighting. And while creating a manga that relies solely on action can be solid, the execution has to fulfill some basic properties. You see, in a manga like "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", which is all about the action, the battles themselves are thought-out, imaginative, strategic, surreal and sometimes hilariously absurd. In "Chainsaw Man" you don't really get any of that as the battles mostly boil down to characters inflicting damage on each other mindlessly with powers we've all seen before. It definitely doesn’t help that the action sequences are filled with dense artwork that makes it hard to comprehend what you're witnessing.

While what I’ve touched upon now is my biggest issue with this, I want to go a little deeper and put into perspective how flawed this manga really is.

There comes a point after 60 chapters where the plot tries to expand by subsuming international conflicts. And that’s also where the madness arrives. I generally have an issue with how chaotic and unclarified this whole section is, but I liked it slightly more than the previous chapters. Specifically because of the Darkness Devil confrontation in hell. I liked that battle. With that out of the way, let’s talk about some nonsensical things. In this section the Puppet Devil had a big role. I guess you have to assume the Puppet Devil’s objective didn’t align with the objective of the nations which hired her to get the Chainsaw Devil’s heart since she was willing to give it to the Darkness Devil instead in order to kill Makima. Her objective isn’t explained and that’s confusing (and it gets even more confusing when you later understand that the nations want Makima dead). There is a contradiction that bothers me too: I’m pretty sure it was established that Devils can’t form contracts with one another, but somehow the Puppet Devil is capable of doing so with the Darkness Devil (yes, she did that through her puppet, but she was the one who got a fraction of the Darkness Devil’s power). Not only her mind being connected to all the puppets in the world isn’t a solution, but it also makes it even less reasonable. So is that woman the Puppet Devil or not? Who knows. At this point I thought the author was a little off the rails. But then I had thought about it more, and yeah, the line between a Fiend and someone like Denji is blurry when the Fiends have the memories of the humans they possess. It’s pretty questionable. But you know what’s more questionable? The cycle of life and hell that Devils go through. Sometimes the Devils are immortal, and other times we’re led to believe they actually aren’t when they are supposed to be reborn in hell. It’s a mindless action manga. But as I’ve mentioned before, the action here is uncompromising to the point where it becomes null. So all you have left are the elements surrounding it. In this case they involve some nonsensical things. The bigger problem though is that they continue to appear without pulling back.

The assassins served as an excuse to bring action that feels more meaningful because it gives the illusion that it revolves around distinguishable circumstances. However, these chapters didn’t offer much progression and ultimately barely mattered.

And so now we’re back to square one with the Gun Devil. As the confinement of its essence is being lifted, we come to understand it. We were hinted at its origins as it was explained in the beginning that it gained enormous power due to the global gun manufacturing which was conducted in a lot of countries in order to annihilate the Devils and has emitted fear. Since it is beneficial to them to manufacture and distribute weapons as it increases the strength of the Gun Devil, a lot of nations hold bits of its power, and the nation that holds the highest percent is the US. Along with firepower, there is another dimension to their rule as it also depicts control. And so there is a Control Devil who is revealed to be Makima. It seems she has rebelled against these nations which gave her a strong form. Accordingly, the US sent their bit of the Gun Devil after her since they’re aware of her overwhelming power. I honestly liked this neat concept of these fears being represented by nations that claim control. I thought Makima’s power was a little shallow; in addition to controlling beings, she has the ability to hold any Devil’s ability. Really? But that is besides the point.

This section showcases how the 70 chapters that led up to it barely had any significance. After we learned about the fact that the Gun Devil is with the nations, the main idea becomes as clear as “nations chase after the Chainsaw Devil’s power; Denji and company rise against them”. This really solidified it for me how stretched out this work is. It’s especially bad considering it reached a subtle and anticlimactic conclusion.

You have to piece it yourself and assume that Makima knew from the beginning about the Gun Devi's location and deceived the nations' spies into thinking the Devil Hunters organization just found out about its location, so that the nations will send their Gun Devil. Finally, Makima defeated it, took control over it and made it possess Aki so that Denji will kill him. All of that for her grand plan. Who are the spies? No one cares. Shouldn't have the nations known about Makima's info? Yes, and they just waited for some reason. Couldn't have Makima just spread the info among the Devil Hunters organization without revealing her true self? Probably. Am I running in circles? Maybe, and I blame it on this manga being a mess.

It turns out Denji was manipulated by Makima and became her desired weapon after blaming himself for Power and Aki’s death (as well as his father’s, but I will get to that later). In its full form, the Chainsaw Devil has the power to erase individuals’ memories of things by eating Devils of events and conceptions (pretty random considering it’s just a chainsaw). But a bit later it’s conveyed that it completely erases the events and conceptions along with the awareness. Now that is where I have an issue. WWII is gone, okay, but what replaces it? What happens instead to all the factors that were involved in it? Maybe the solution is it being a time paradox, so you might want to start theorizing there are multiple timelines in this manga. I wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this if it was just a random ability that was given to some forgettable character, but it plays a big role in Makima’s plan to create an ideal world. In addition to other things, she wants to eradicate the concept of death. Considering it affects the past as well, every living being that died will resurrect. Go figure how the evolution of human civilization will work that way. And surely there will be enough space for everyone on earth too.

The motivations are aggravating and nonsensical. I hate them as much as I hate the supposition that the author thought it was a unique and smart idea. Her plan desperately needed to be on a smaller scale and not blown out of proportions. You want to make your audience think by introducing the final boss’ master plan, but her plan is just filled with intricacies that go nowhere. No clarifications; contradictions; untamed nature – it isn’t as stable and riveting as it should be. Also, it isn't clear why she developed this mindset of trying to create a pure world and how it relates to her being the Control Devil, and thus it makes her character feel unfinished.

In the whole section of Makima vs. Chainsaw Devil it’s explained that she has died numerous times. According to the life and death cycle of Devils, the Domination Devil is supposed to be reborn in hell. And that is really just one example. You clearly can’t escape from inconsistencies in this manga. Anyway, Denji comes back to his senses due to convenient stuff with Power and the strength of the Chainsaw Devil subsiding. You get a stupid final battle between Denji and Makima (the fake Denji who’s made out of the plushy chainsaw and the chainsaw made out of Power’s blood – who buys this?). It appears Makima recognized and remembered people based on their smell and that’s why Denji won. Sure. It seems she somehow, after several attempts, managed to die and go through the cycle of life and hell as the Control Devil has taken the form of another human. Sure. She actually wanted a family all along. Sure.

By the end I was sure the author was the Insanity Devil. I’m looking forward to him in the sequel. But seriously, aren’t a lot of the details throughout the whole manga scream how messy and senseless it is? Does the author genuinely believe it all makes sense? To me it clearly doesn’t.

So Makima is appalling. What about the other important characters?

Well, let’s talk about Denji. To put it bluntly, he’s pretty bad. His selfish and negligible desires aren’t funny; they’re an annoying gimmick. They shape him as an anti-hero with a lustful urge. But why is he like that? Probably because the author thinks it's funny and unconventional for a Battle Shonen manga. Unlike him, I would prefer a protagonist that isn’t annoyingly comedic, even if they're somewhat generic. Just a bit before Makima took full control over Denji, it’s mentioned he suppressed his memories of killing his father. It’s also said that it was revised as a suicide. Additionally, his father was abusive. What? All of this had no foreshadowing as far as I’m concerned. Apparently because he killed Aki (not really), Power (not really) and his father, he can’t live a normal life. Except no shit you can’t, you are literally a chainsaw that brutally slaughters monsters until blood sprinkles off the screen. Though it feels like a stretch to me, maybe this makes more sense in the context of his changed perspective later. He comes to the realization that he was just a tool and only obeyed others, and he embraces the notion that he’s not normal. And finally, he wants to be Chainsaw Man under his own terms. I liked that, too bad he’s still Denji though.

Power's initial objective to save her abducted cat doesn't make sense as her first priority was to join the Devil Hunters organization. All she needed to do was to provide a human to the bat, so obviously she could've done that without applying as a Devil Hunter. Not clarified, but you already know there isn’t a real answer to this. Besides that, I've been more troubled by her character being very blank. We saw her being dedicated to a cat, but then it becomes irrelevant quickly, and she remains an apathetic individual who adds nothing but comic relief moments along with the protagonist. The more I think about the pairing of those two and their dynamic, the more I hate them. They're not funny nor interesting. Most of the time she’s not doing anything remarkable. And while at least the author tries to add some nuance to her character, I can’t help but think it’s only to add to her relationship with Denji which turns out to be all about him in the end. Her death isn’t impactful; it feels empty.

The girl with the eye patch (the first one, why are there 3 characters with an eye patch?) – I would've loved to see more of her struggle with not being "insane" enough to be a Devil Hunter and trying to get Aki to quit. I can only see it as something left to be resolved through Aki. Was her character's purpose to enhance his character? Well, not really worth it if his character is all about vengeance. And yeah, ironically it might be cliché to say it's a tiring trope at this point, but really, what is there to him? A Devil killed his family, he wants to get revenge. He’s not strong enough, so he’s willing to sacrifice himself in order to get stronger. I struggle to care. I mean, even the author seemed to poke fun at it when the annoying duo implied it’s lame. Eventually he realizes he can’t escape from his humane nature and his conscience is telling him to stop pursuing the Gun Devil. He would rather protect the ones close to him. While I did like him growing out of his edgy phase, it still felt tasteless. It comes after an event in which Power and Denji were hurt immensely. But what individualizes this as the “red alert” to stop trying to chase something meaningless? If anything it holds less reasoning than Himeno’s death. And even more abrupt is his contrived death whose sole purpose is to advance the plot.

But if you thought the deaths stop there: Beware, there is no reluctance.

The Devil Hunters organization’s portrayal is all over the place. Just like the plot, the organization feels too thin to get excited over its full scope. The higher-ups don’t have any presence as they only serve as an authoritative body with no real impact on the occurrences. For some reason they let Devils into their ranks and give them the option to roam around freely. It's said that some changes are implemented on the special divisions, but all we see are members coming in and out. Some of them die, but there is no reason to care since they barely had a character. And some of them form a bond with the members without prior build-up (like the Shark Fiend). We are introduced to members of other divisions, and suddenly they die or quit. Notice how a lot of the deaths are of members of the organization who were introduced periodically and never had a prominent role until their death.

I can’t point out one character who was overall good. Maybe if you stop killing every character, you would be able to write one that’s actually compelling.

Which gets us to my final point. As much as it seemed to me at first that the manga tries to incorporate Battle Shonen tropes, it actually tried to deviate from them as much as possible. Although it’s admirable on some level, it can come off as forced, cheesy and unpolished when it tries hard not to blend in with the mediocre and oversaturated realm of Battle Shonen. The main protagonist's eccentricity, instantaneous tonal shifts, overblown plot, tiring shock value moments and frequent weightless deaths are indicative of that. So the manga doesn’t really offer you a better experience than its bland contemporaries. And once you think about more of its attributes, it only becomes apparent that, despite some solid ideas here and there, “Chainsaw Man” is devoid of substantial content and concise narrative.

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I've heard alot of good things about this manga and now that it has finally ended I sat down and read it all in one sitting, surprisingly this did not take much time even though there are 97 chapters the majority of the work is textless whereas some chapters of manga can take upwards of 10 minutes to read due to how dense they are CSM is the complete opposite.

The art and concept are very cool, never saw anything like it before. The problem with this manga is it does not at all live up to the hype I do not understand why its so widely regarded as good.

The story meanders and is all over the place. I was finally getting into the arc with Reze and then I got completely lost, it's incredibly difficult to piece together what is going on and follow along, the writing is just all over the place it feels like entire chapters are skipped with how much the story jumps around. The conclusion of a massive arc with all the build up is done in the course of one chapter, nothing is ever appropriately explained, characters completely change motivations and attitude the rules set up prior are completely broken. One of the arcs has an idea and villain introduced in one chapter only to never be brought up again, if you removed the chapter from the series the it would have no effect on the work as a whole.

There was never a power dynamic set up or explained, there are no ways to judge the strength of any of the devils, and there aren't enough battles to even have the kind of growth Denji has in power. Above all else there are no stakes, there is no fear of Denji dying at any point in the series because he just always wins. Why? Just cause. Even bleach had some kind of hamfisted explanation for a random powerup, this manga doesn't even attempt to do that.

Ok so the art is great, maybe that is why people like it. Despite the art being at a high level, the design and layout of the manga make it difficult to even tell what is going on, there is barely any variation in the design of the devils so the fighting scenes are actually the worst part of this manga, its like trying to extract meaning from modern art which is some squidward looking chick bleeding and shitting on an easel. Couple this bizarre artistic direction with the continual skips and paradigm shifts in the story and it really doesn't become worth reading when you have the option to do something else with your time.

In the end, CSM is okay, its not a 10 and its certainly not a 1. It's just ok. I probably would have dropped it had it not been so widely regarded as good. Even memekina isn't that great of a character or even fleshed out in the story. Maybe part 2 will be more coherent, I will not be going on that journey though thanks.

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Story:

Begins with the most generic and stupid moment when devil decides to /for the sake of spoilers lets say/ help MC because he want's to see more of MC dreams (aka wants to see MC achieve his goals/dreams). And what does MC does after that? He decides to make his goal to touch a female. Seriously?

Art:

Character art is meh. Devil art is good. Battle scenes are also drawn pretty good.

Character:

Terrible and unlikeable characters fill this manga. Let's start from MC who is a simp for any type of physical contact with female and would do anything for it. Not only that he is overly edgy and lacks any positive/likeable traits. Next we have Power who is as edgy as they come. Her personality can be summarized with "What!? You want to kill me!? No, I'll kill you, idiot! Blood, blood, blood."

Enjoyment:

The only enjoyment you can get from this are the battles, which are pleasent to look at and are pretty interesting.

Overall:

Pretty overrated manga with a bunch of over the top edgy characters, poor excuse for a plot and dope fights.

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*This is a spoiler free review*

Let's start with the story/worldbuilding:
While I did find the world they were in interesting at first the author doesn't really tell you anything about how it ended up that way other a few comments here or there slipped in waaay too late into the manga. I was able to piece it together simply, for newer readers it may have been confusing.

Characters:
I don't like Denji. That's it honestly. It's not because he is a pervert, I don't care too much about perverted characters. But it would have been better if he were just a pervert. A character that lets himself be taken advantage of like a dog, and that constantly risks himself just for the cheap goal of being able to touch women doesn't entertain me.

The only characters I actually like is Aki and that's because he was the only relatable character. I don't even care for character relatability most of the time but it was only this character that genuinely made me crack a smile or laugh whenever he did something stupid. He feels more grounded and fleshed out than Denji which makes it easier to like him.

Power is okay. She reminds me of a rabid dog only there to please the simp community. It feels as though she gets weaker and weaker throughout the story and is only there as plot point for Denji. So much so, in fact, that she isn't even her own character anymore. How does the author makes his own character feel OOC? I don't know how he did it but that is what Power felt like to me.

Makima. I never got the hype around her. I liked her design but she never felt like a character. She felt like the shadow of a character instead. As if she wasn't quite ready to leave the drawing board. She is the personification of life hacks and it starts getting annoying later in the story

Art: It's good. The sketchiness kind of reminds me of Jujutsu. Though, there are some scenes where it is hard to tell who is who due to similar faces but it's not too bad, so that's about it. I liked the art.

Overall thoughts and extra's:

The women in this show. Either they are kickass and sexy/raunchy or not as sexually appealing and useless. There is no in between. The fact that there was an actual orgy of girls and nobody in the comments complained but once we got a small speck of tension between Angel and Aki people were quick to get homophobic in the comments really showed me just exactly who this manga appeals to.

Kobeni: I don't hate her. She is pathetic but she didn't have much of a choice so I can spare her my annoyance.

I just wish that the plot brought itself together quicker. It took over 30 chapter for it to really start moving and even the fights in this manga have quite a repetitive nature.

*minor spoiler*

Denji kind of feels like a major Gary Sue with how he just never dies. The fights become repetitive because of this and they never excite me or make me hold my breath.

*spoiler end*

All in all. The show is severely overhyped.

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Chainsaw Man is a breath of fresh air in the realm of shounen manga, the premise is wonderfully executed with its wonderful story, characters, atmosphere and overall tone. It is such a fun manga to read and experience through as it grasps your attention and keeps you thrilled throughout.

The characters are one of this manga's main attractions, all of them feel like real people with their own personalities, growth and ambitions. The main cast have the seemingly virtuous duty of killing the powerful and dangerous monsters that are devils, but they are never portrayed as the "good guys," like so many other shounen do. This also applies to the antagonists of the stories, they all have their own ambitions, and are not shallow plot devices to be bad for the sake of being bad.

The art is unique and charming, it appears to be more on the rough side but fits the story and world so well. There are many panels within the manga with great detail to behold, even more so when Chainsaw Man shows off it's grand and spectacular fights which are honestly some of the best that Jump has had to offer in recent times. They feel badass and exhilarating to read through in all of it's stylish detail.

Chainsaw Man is a manga that certainly deserves the praises it receives, it's managed to stand out in a great way in the midst of the most brutal publisher that is Shounen Jump. It gets a 10 from me and I for sure recommend this manga.

Edit: Chainsaw Man is getting an anime adaptation by studio MAPPA, as it rightfully deserves.

This thrilling manga has come towards it's thrilling conclusion, at least for its first part, as a sequel is soon to be published. If you haven't already then I highly recommend people to pick up this manga, this masterful work is honestly one of the best things that has come out of Shounen Jump in a while, standing above the rest of its competition.

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With less than 1,000 members and only one other review at the time of posting this, I thought I should write this so that more people will hopefully read it. This is my first review by the way!

Story - 8
The story is pretty simple so far, but that is not a bad thing! It's a shounen jump manga so fight scenes are frequent and there are comedic elements as well. What sets this manga apart though is the characters and the monsters. I'll elaborate on the characters in the "Character" section, but the monsters are really great. Because of the premise, there are pretty much endless possibilities for the bad guys in this manga. There are only 9 chapters out so far, and the story is still in the set-up phase, but I'm very excited to see where it goes.

Art - 8

Some people may not like the art style, but I love it. The more simplistic design allows the creative powers/monsters do be clearly drawn. You'll see early on what I'm talking about, and when Denji does use his powers, the art gets slightly more detailed and defined, and it looks really good. This manga is pretty much never visually boring, while still being easy to follow.

Characters - 9

Denji (the MC) is certainly unique for a shounen jump manga. He doesn't have any superficial ideals or an idol or hero he looks up to, but that didn't stop me from liking or caring about him. Not a jab at MHA or Naruto btw, but it's nice to see something different. The characters are great across the board, and blends some standard shounen tropes with a bit more realism. Like a lot of shounen protagonists, Denji has an unfortunate backstory, but it is addressed in a realistic manner that isn't superficial or character defining. He is completely his own person, and his character does not rely on him having a tough childhood or being poor. I initially thought that Power would be a nami clone of some sort, but this is quickly subverted as well.

Enjoyment - 9

I wish this had more chapters I could read. This manga is lots of fun to consume, and it has a perfect mix of realistic characters, great action scenes, and true originality. I can't wait to read more as it comes out!

Final score - 9

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Plot
Where to start? It's nonsensical.
Pretty much all of it boils down to one thing: The author wanted to progress through the story at Mach speed. Never did he take his time to write compelling plot points or at least some interesting dialogue. Everything about this manga feels like mindless and soulless action fodder. It is just so irritating because the concept behind Chainsaw Man had a lot of potential to be great.
At its core, CSM is an action manga, but the fights are weak. They are over way too fast, every single one of them boiled down to having a one-shot kill conclusion. That is not a bad thing per se, look at One Punch Man for example, but CSM handled it poorly. At least the fights are accompanied by some decently drawn panels from time to time.
I just wish the action would feel more impactful and engaging, but it follows the same formula every single time. Humans are mostly red shirts and the whole power dynamic between devils is convoluted. But who cares, because Denji only has to rev up his chainsaw and the mind-numbing slaughter can commence.
Furthermore, the manga is stuffed with suggestive scenes and fetish moments because you need at least one thing to get the blood pumping for all the horny teens. At some point, it is just plain annoying, mainly the whole barking shtick.
At least it was a very fast read.

Characters
The characters are a disaster. At least in my opinion, not a single one was likeable or left a positive impression. Two characters were bearable, Kishibe and Quanxi.
My main gripe with all the characters is that they are just as shallow as a puddle. No development, no meaningful interactions and why would I care about them if they just get thrown into the meat grinder after a few chapters anyway.
Let's talk about a selected few characters in more detail.
Kobeni was a throwaway character. I think she is supposed to be cute and a bit hopeless, maybe even a bit of a comedic relief. For me, she just appeared to be irritating and laughable, especially in the hotel arc.
Now, Denji, the star of the whole ordeal. Well, he is terribly written. His main motivation was always inspired by sex, that's it. To be fair, Denji is a hormone-driven teenager, which is also probably the target audience. Thankfully, he realized at one point that sex alone might not be the greatest goal ever.
As the main character, he just had nothing going on for him that would make me like or even just tolerate him. No personality whatsoever, though, at least the author tried to introduce more character depth for Denji in the last few chapters with the help of Power but that just felt rushed and forced.
Talking about Power, what's the point of her character? What did she bring to the table besides acting as a wish fulfiller for Denji? She got my interest at first because she showed a bit more depth but that was scrapped real fast and she turned into another useless side character.
Last but not least, Makima. I already mentioned the whole barking shtick but it was just so tiresome. Her seeing Denji as nothing more than a dog got tiring real quick. Besides that, I don't have any strong feelings or opinions about her. I mainly was confused. I don't understand her motivation, it makes no sense to me, and her power level was way too high compared to everyone else. Her ruthlessness was the one trait that kept her somewhat interesting.

Art
Most of the art is below average. Nothing stood out in a major way and it sometimes felt like flipping through a sketchbook. I don't need perfect and polished art on every page but give it at least some sort of uniqueness or "spice". Some fighting panels were drawn with a solid style, but those were used only once every blue moon.
Although, I actually give credit to the author for the devil designs. Most of them were pretty solid and didn't get repetitive.

Overall opinion
I can't mention anything positive about this manga, therefore I'll keep this part short. I don't get the massive hype around CSM. It's not the worst manga I've ever read, but it disappoints in so many areas. The writing is subpar and the art is, for the most part, uninspired.
Still, I'll check out the anime because it is made by MAPPA. The CSM anime will probably be like a Michael Bay movie. Solid visuals while everything else is a dumpster fire.

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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..

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I've heard of this manga series a good few times by Joey (The Anime Man) and also, people who like No Guns Life. At first it was a pretty good start because we got to explore how our main character, Denji got around to being a chainsaw dude in the first place. I really liked his attitude of being laid back and always saying funny remarks with some of the characters. I did considerably get a few chuckles out of the comedy sides of things involved in this manga. I mean , this manga isn't THAT terrible but I think the boob jokes were rather childish and pretty much boring. As well, I felt the other characters weren't really taken seriously with character development.

One minute they are there and next, they are gone. It's pretty much worse as the GOT last episode with killing potential characters who needed more screen time.....

The fighting scenes were rather a hit/miss like I was pretty underwhelmed by them. Normally if I'm reading fight scenes on any manga I read, I always cheer on the people involved in the fight. Unfortunately not with the MC here which is a pity. Ah well, at least I gave it a long shot for 46 chapters and realised it ain't for me chief!

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Vague spoilers will be mentioned
Chainsaw man is a huge waste of time. Had it been written by someone who can write I feel it would have potential. The plot is messy, inconsistent, and confusing and most characters have no real purpose.

The story:
Even if it makes an attempt to deviate from the norm, Chainsaw Man is just another run of the mill “beat em up” shounen manga. It’s very clear that the story was there to accompany the fight scenes and not the other way around. It comes off as lazy, thoughtless, and messy. There were attempts at plot twists and foreshadowing, but almost none had much, if any at all, impact on the story, making them ultimately pointless. Had the story been properly thought out, maybe it could have gone somewhere and been an interesting manga. The pacing is inconsistent, flipping between being too fast or too slow, and the plot leads nowhere. Fujimoto tries to shoehorn “symbolic” moments in during random scenes to feel like he was writing something deep and important, but they never made sense and didn’t add anything to the story for the reader to interpret. Things that should have been answered were left unanswered, which I am assuming because the answer was overlooked and forgotten about. Fujimoto also handles characters and their deaths extremely poorly. Apart from the few main characters, almost every other character introduced will die in the following chapters after their introduction. Their deaths don’t leave much impact on the readers even when you can tell they were intended to because there just was not enough time to begin to like the characters. The story was riddled with tons of plot holes that also give an unsatisfying story. The ending of the story (or at least the “arc”) was also extremely underwhelming, confusing, and disappointing. I will not spoil the ending, but don’t go in expecting much. Overall, you can tell that Chainsaw Man was written because some guy wanted to draw gore and fight scenes and was forced to add a story to it.

The Characters:
Most characters in csm are unlikable, boring, or just annoying. There were few I cared about at all, which is saying something because I tend to like most characters from series I get into. They are all riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions which can get annoying because of how often they appear in the story. Denji tries too hard to divert from the typical shounen protag, but he winds up just being a different protag cliche. We’ve all seen too many perverted teen boy characters whose only goals are to have sex or something of the likes. Most characters weren’t able to get proper development because they just died soon after they were introduced. After about the midpoint of the series characters began getting crammed into the story with motives that come out of nowhere and don’t make sense and then all of a sudden, they’re main characters that we should care about. Ultimately almost every character is not there to be their own character, but instead to progress Denji’s story in some way or another.

The art:
I can see the idea Fujimoto had for the art, but because of how he executed it, it comes off as messy and amateur. I read a bit from one of his previous works “Fire Punch” and the art there is infinitely better than the art seen in csm. If there wasn’t a small blurb about his previous works at the start of each volume, I would have thought csm was Fujimoto’s first manga. Although the art does improve over time, the character art generally has sloppy lines and inconsistent proportions, which I think is generally a bad look. I will say he is pretty amazing at drawing backgrounds, but with the clash between how he draws backgrounds with clash between how he draws characters makes the characters seem very out of place. They do not merge well at all which makes his bg skills feel wasted. Onto the devil designs, they are either trying too hard to be unsettling or they are way too simple. Every human who has the ability to turn into a devil will usually just have their head and arms as their devil’s weapon’s name, which gets boring after you’ve seen it ten times. On the other hand, the regular devil designs usually wind up also looking extremely similar, but they try to be disturbing and way too over detailed. I think the art had potential, but Fujimoto fell through with the execution.

I think it can be enjoyed casually, but all in all, Chainsaw Man is a mediocre story that tired too hard to deviate from the norm, carried entirely by the hype surrounding it (which to this day I’m still confused on how it got that hype in the first place). Don’t waste your time on Chainsaw Man, read Dorohedoro instead, this was just a rip off of it anyway. RIP ANGEL🙏

This isn’t directly related to the story but I would like to mention you can tell pretty clearly that Fujimoto has a vomit fetish and he enjoys drawing it in detail. He only does it a few times but it’s generally just off putting and was almost always unnecessary to the story. You can argue he’s doing it for shock value, but it’s overdone and off putting. I tried to give him that benefit of the doubt, but he just kept putting it into the story. This part is a spoiler but near the end of the series Makima mentions that in the csm universe World War 2 and Nazis don’t exist because the chainsaw devil ate them (when he eats something its existence is erased entirely including memories of others). This just left a bad taste in my mouth because it comes off as holocaust denier ideology. You can claim he mentioned it so that the readers could relate to the scene but there are plenty of tragedies to mention so it just comes off as extremely odd to me that he picked nazis and WW2. Neither affect the story much, but they are something to keep in mind.

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I really don't even know where to start with this as I've never felt compelled to write a review until now.

I've been told for months that Chainsaw Man was the next "big thing" so I figured hey why not read it, I've never felt so mislead in my entire life.

Story -
I actually love the idea of the story, but it's executed extremely poorly.

The story is generic and moves at a snails pace for the most part, there are random spurts where the pace just flings you through as if you're going through a time skip but you aren't. The last 20 or so chapters fly by at light speed trying to wrap everything up and none of it makes sense, it felt incredibly rushed.

Characters -
Most of the characters are forgettable, or unlikeable, they have absolutely zero character development throughout the entire series. (unless you count the MC not mentioning boobs for quite a few chapters development)

I personally really liked the main big bad, but the rushed "story" and lack of real reasons for the plot really killed them at the end, which is a shame.

Art -
It's alright, didn't dislike it.

Overall it's fan service with no plot, very few interesting characters, fight scenes that all look the same, topped off with characters puking being the only thing I can even remember at this point because it happens more than anything else.

Do yourself a favor, and spend your time doing anything but reading this.

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***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS***

Disclaimer "I might get some hate for this"
I heard it alot that Chainsaw man is the best new generation shounen
Was excited? Yeah but in the end
Seriously...
I cant emphasize enough on how flawed that statement was...
It feels as though that the author wanted to show that he could write something different and "adult" when in reality it feels like a story written by a 12 year old with a pathetic attempt to break "common shounen tropes"
Hilariously it does fall into that and i would address that later
CSM is ridiculously dumb and not in a good way(dumb series do end up being entertaining in alot of cases)

Synopsis is there so not going to bother with that..
What makes CSM literally horrendous apart from the fandom is the storyline itself. And that's where the cliches start as well. Devils? yeah they exist. Devil slaying organisations? Yeah they exist. OP unkillable main character fused with an all powerful being? Yeah .. SO what is different or unique about it? Literally the fact that the MC is a pervert who is motivated by female anatomy and wants to live a normal life? Ah no, done a lot of times and the execution done in this was one was particularly bland
The plot twist which you could see from a mile? Or was it the chaotic atmosphere which was created to kill characters we know nothing about for emotional impact? Or to show that this manga isn't afraid to kill characters when the main characters are literally unkillable one way or another?
I don't get what the writer was trying to pull by killing every character of the organisation with little intros...With an exception of 2. Because frankly its even worse then killing no characters at all..
Its like this A new character is introduced, then an action scene..turns out its too powerful and then they die. Rinse and repeat..

And whats the formula to defeat the big bads?
Dont think..you just need to be crazy..Why? because dumb people don't have fear
Lets just forget that the big bad of the series manipulated and got this far because that character could think but still idiots are>>>
Incredible....Honestly Its laughable on how dumb the story is....Maybe it makes you lose braincells because thats the only reason why the majority loves it.

Considering its also praised by how Denji wants to live a normal life of a teenager lets address that as well.
He doesn't have a home, nor a family, nor education...Perfectly normal things a teenager would love to have
but once he gets a bit better, what does he want? Nothing normal except fondling some boobs??? And lets just forget the fact that he has literally no concern of the fact that he could be killed and was put in a very dangerous situation? Even the family subplot is ridiculous because it seemed too forced.
Its FAAAAAAR from normal or relatable. Even in the end considering he got some braincells, the changes are far from significant apart from him feeling some value on being the "chainsaw" man since he is still the same..
The adult jokes in short are this "puking on each other" and "not cleaning your toilet" after taking a dump...

Now the main problem aren't the tropes or cliches since no story is devoid of those, but it depends on how u utilize them.. the word tropes has become synonymous with "bland" which is entirely wrong since tropes by definition means things specific to a genre so even though they might be repetitive, the execution can make a tropy series a great one...
However in case of CSM considering it is praised for how different it is made me mention all that stuff.. And the reason why its thought to be different is particularly due to the fact that, the tropes are utilized so poorly that it feels as though, its not a trope at all..and in some cases its just a reverse card..
Cliches can be bad but an underutilized trope is even worse..Especially when a writer fails at either deconstructing it or does not utilize it to a satisfactory extent..
And CSM is the biggest offender of this
Did i mention the pacing yet which can make you forget about all the characters with no personality getting killed? As you might have guessed..the manga kinda competes in a sprint race to prove how fast it is...

The only great part about this whole manga are the last 20 chapters because they actually had some development but that to was ruined by the execution...
If nothing else CSM can give u a good laugh on how ridiculously horrendous it is..

If you read this far, thankyou and have a great day

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Chainsaw Man ends at its peak of popularity and quality and will be missed, as its reading is exclusive among manga. Who knew that Weekly Shounen Jump would hit so well this time, even more with a title above what is expected.

Obviously, everyone who reads the name laughs instantly about what the manga is about, but they are surprised by the boldness that Tatsuki Fujimoto took in building mature and spontaneous content at the same time.

For those who don't know him, he also created Fire Punch, another well-known title. But, what is Chainsaw Man about? Are your fame and positive mentions a complete exaggeration? Or is the manga really worth it?

Chainsaw Man tells the story of Denji, a young man in debt because of the death of his father and who does everything to get small amounts of money. One day, he encounters a creature that resembles a dog, Pochita. Pochita is a demon that Denji found. It has an overwhelming power: a chainsaw in its snout. The young man then decides to hunt the demons that plague this world, to get some money and try to achieve his only dream: to have a happy and peaceful life. However, the joy is short lived. Yakuza, the institution where Denji was hired, betrayed him and left him in a state of near death, being saved by his only friend, Pochita. It is mentioned that the two agreed to save each other's life and that it would be Pochita's turn to save him if necessary. From there our Chainsaw Man is born.
Denji, already in the state of man and demon, joins the public security organization, at the behest of Makima, one of its leaders. Denji, having nothing to do, accepts and begins to hunt demon in his new group, with Aki and Power being the most prominent.

The premise of Chainsaw Man is no different than what we are used to in animes of demons and powers that combine different creatures in the same being, but the manga stands out in the way it tells the story. The title does not require a complex world, nor does it explain the misfortunes that caused the situation in a world where two races constantly fight. Chainsaw Man works the characters and brings an incredibly good and nosy comedy. In fact, I must say that the author does not hesitate to write offensive words, nor does he hide the most animalistic desires that the characters may have, especially Denji, who lived such a bad life, that he did not even have a decent education.

And speaking of Denji, he gets better every day, every chapter. Not only is he a walking laugh box, he is one-sided butchery. He develops an interesting duality when it comes to being a caring human being and being an aberration. All tense and funny moments have some connection with Denji. The manga knows how to use jokes in very well choreographed fights, besides having a very beautiful art!

Another point worth mentioning is the relationship between humans and demons that develops over time. In the beginning we had a group that killed demons at any cost. And this is more than expected, after all, some characters even have traumas because of that, in some past event. But much of the manga explores an attempt to unite these two highly different positions. And Denji and Power are examples of a man / demon combination that worked. The manga offers us unimaginable creativity about the powers of the most uncomfortable creatures we have ever seen. From a giant bat to small demons, Chainsaw Man likes to use every chance to create a whole world for himself, exclusive, dirty and corrupt, in addition to working the mind of each character, even if the moment is intimate for some prosperous couple .

In conclusion, Chainsaw Man is a work that features recurring elements in manga and anime, but has a content never seen before. I must congratulate Jump for bringing us a very pleasant and dense series to see. It was certainly one of the craziest experiences I had the pleasure to read.

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It is a very mediocre series that i think is mainly ruined by the hype people have been feeding into it these past few years.

Story 4/10: Its a very generic story that has been done before with very slight variations on what has been done a million times with a very predictable twist in regards to the antagonist.

Art 7/10: The art was very good in terms of composition and detail however what keeps this from being any higher is that as a series focused on battles the fights are very lackluster as the power system is so basic especially in regards to the main character who just slashes things till they stop moving, its just not engaging in the slightest when compared to for example hunter x hunter, FMA, Naruto, etc. where the fights are more fluid and tactics exist outside punching harder.

Characters 3/10: The characters are i think the weakest part of the series as a whole, the main character is praised by many by being different but hes probably the weakest character outside of the boring self insert characters in generic battle shounen. His motivation of interacting with women is so one note and played for laughs so many times its boring, its obvious when they try to pretend to subvert expectations by making it seem like he is being altruistic but end up being for his one and only goal it is so predictable it just lacks all comedic value as they were obviously going for that gag over and over. Also there are characters in the series that are killed off with so little development, people praise it for being subversive however with little to no development with some sudden deaths how can i care for these copy paste characters who seem to be tailor made so hard to be subversive of tropes they go full circle and end up oddly generic.

Enjoyment 4/10: The only reason i kept reading was all the hype and i figured i was missing something or haven't reached the good part yet till i reached the very end and i never got the slightest view of anything anyone was praising. I can see the anime improving at the very least the issue with the fights as Mappa can make some really good fight scenes with fluid animations but overall i felt like my time reading this manga was wasted and should have read anything else.

Overall 5/10: It wasn't bad overall but it was so boring i would have preferred reading a straight out bad manga over this or one that was actually good. It is so forgettable im mainly writing this as my first review as a way to organize my thoughts as otherwise i might just forget this series exists otherwise and keep this as a cautionary tale to ignore over hyping in the future.

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After a series of 10's, I decided the public deserves a review by someone who is over the age of 14.

Story (3/10)
The beautiful thing about this manga is that the 95% of it can be explained in the following paragraph.

Me main character. Me like boobs. Me use chainsaw to kill demons. Vroom Vroom. Me have other friends who help me kill demons.

That's it. The ending throws an expected twist that really added nothing to the story, which is a shame considering the Gun Demon and Hell Arc are 1000 times better than that ending.

Art (8/10)
I'd say it was really good. Couple of panels were really messy, it was hard to tell what was what. But other than that, important moments are done well.

Character (1/10)
Easily the worst part of it. As I said, main guy likes tits and sweets, and that's the end of his depth. Supporting cast was done weak and shallow. Makima is a poor mans Aizen. And I mean, really poor mans.

Overall (5/10)
This manga is essentially the same as Kimetsu no Yaiba. Are you 14, is this your first manga, and do you think tits, blood and characters screaming and transforming is the coolest thing ever? You'll like it. No? Then you won't.

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TL;DR Chainsaw Man is a one of a lifetime experience. Even though the story at it's core is very simple, it certainly is not generic nor cliché. The plot may surprise even the veterans, yet it does not feel forced thanks to the world's unique atmosphere. Characters are believable, relatable and first and foremost, human. Artstyle is not objectively good, but the character designs are fresh and simply delicious. Humour is edgy and immature, but in those respective categories the comedy is very well delivered.

The Story - It is a simple one, but it serves astoundingly well as a tool to explore the characters. It takes place in a corrupt, pseudo post apocalyptic world. Humans can seem more monstrous than the devils themselves. It is not an exacly new premise, but the series shows it from an angle not yet explored in manga. In this story, a human life is a fragile thing. A mortal threat should not be taken lightly, as the plot armour is scarce.

The Characters - They are the reason this whole thing works. There is barely any exposition, as personalities are conveyed through actions, expressions and behaviours. A character won't act in a way necessary to further the plot. The plot is but a byproduct of actions taken. Thanks to that everyone stays true to themselves and feel like geniune human beings.

The Art - There is a certian degree of bueaty in there, but honestly speaking it is not splendid. Having said that, i am a huge fan of overall designs and creativity oozing from pages. There is a lot of gore, and everything seems dirty and ugly, which works perfectly with the setting.

Author does not hold back his horses, and you as a reader will be taken for a wild ride. I will stand for my point, that this series is created to be the purest, most primal and raw form of entertainment, and should be viewd as such. It works astonishingly well, delivers exactly what is supposed to and even exceeds expectations. So far, it is without a doubt a ten and I sincerely recommend it.

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