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.