Chainsaw Man

So, I finally read Chainsaw Man a while back after being recommended by a lot of my friends about it. In most cases, I would usually wouldn't bother diving into the latest Shonen Jump megahit, as a lot of what is put onto it's pages and what appeal most to it's readers never really grabs me the same way. Chainsaw Man had a very specific feel though. Something about it's rough artwork, intense character expression and frankly obscenely bloody action scenes grabbed me enough to give it a shot. To preface what I say next, I usually take a lot of time to read manga, due to a lack of attention span making it hard for me to stay sitting and reading and being invested. I read all of Chainsaw Man in 3 days.

So, yeah, I also think Chainsaw Man is incredible. Big shock. It's scratchy art and grungy, dirty aesthetics appealed to me a lot, every single character is incredibly compelling and interesting, all in unique ways. Every plot point is built up to and executed on beautifully, setting itself up for a grander mystery and reveal in a way that doesn't feel like it's blatantly speaking to you. In terms of shonen, it's ideas aren't too original (I'm sure there's a lot of things you could point out were almost ripped from Devilman!) but the way it frames itself, works within it's medium, and tell's it's story from a very drawn-in and almost uncomfortably close perspective makes for a story I couldn't peel myself away from, and would always be thinking about whenever I put down the pages.

One of my biggest pet peeves in manga are the ones that are so dense with information, so filled with speech bubbles and boxes of words on every page that you might as well just be reading a novel. In most of these cases, the art that is served by these word-rich manga, albeit detailed and nice to look at, doesn't convey information that couldn't be described in words, so like, what's the point? In stark contrast to this, Chainsaw Man was a very easy read for me. It's pretty light on hard info to give to you, and in it's place, many large swathes of panels or even multiple pages are taken up by quiet, wordless scenes meant to set a scene, let a specific tone set in, or show a character's current feelings. It feels very intimate, and is the sort of feeling that could never be properly described in words the same way they're drawn on the page.

Another note on how well Chainsaw Man works within the medium of manga is through the "things living behind the panels". One of my favourite things comics and manga can do uniquely to it is reaching through its panels to disorient the viewer, or distort the feeling of grounded reality, or just for the sake of a gag. In Chainsaw Man, it reaches beyond the panels to show the power of certain devils. Those such as the Curse Devil, or the Hell Devil, only truly show themselves as omniscient hands reaching into the panels as a way to show them as these beings living outside of observable reality, only reaching in to take something or fulfill a contract. This feeling of devils who can transcend the panels the world "exists inside of" even serves itself to reveal specific things in the latter half of the story I would never spoil here (maybe. Or maybe I'm just insane and looking too deep into it lol).

As a final note on the things I found particularly great with Chainsaw Man, I want to talk about the Gun Devil, the idea of how Devils exist in this story, and Makima. Devils in this world all represent specific items, concepts, events, or whatever else, that someone may fear. The amount of fear people around the world feel about something, the stronger it's associated devil becomes. As explained in the manga, coffee doesn't have a strong devil associated with it, as the image of coffee wouldn't be something to fear in the mind of most people. However, a car would have a strong devil to pair it, as cars can conjure images of being run over by one, or being in a fatal car accident. This power fluctuates with the fear a devil's associated concept sparks within people, and leads to some very interesting ways to scale the power of characters and enemies. I really love this concept, because it can so naturally explain away the power of devils within the narrative. "Man, this Bomb Devil is really powerful!" Of course it is, aren't you afraid of bombs? There's a massive worldwide precedent to be fearful of bombs, after all.

The Gun Devil is set up pretty early on as the main antagonistic force, and it's threat is palpably felt. Through lenient easing on gun control as the world relied on guns as a measure to fight Devils, many crimes committed using guns occurred worldwide, increasing the fear in them, only further being spurred by international media coverage of these crimes. This fear reached its climax once a large-scale terrorist attack involving guns occurred, awakening the Gun Devil to mercilessly kill over a million people worldwide in five minutes before disappearing. Clearly, this is being set up as one of the strongest devils in the world, putting a lot into awaiting the eventual encounter against it. This buildup results in a very impactful and hard to read arc, but in the grand scheme of the story only ends up only serving as a means to reveal the true main antagonist, Makima.

Makima is one of the central characters moving the story forward, and is the source of it's greatest mystery. In the beginning, she's set up as the head of a division of Devil Hunters, someone who is morally dubious but ultimately has good intentions for the other main characters. As the story progresses, questions arise about her powers and true intentions, up until the point where the Gun Devil is unleashed in an attempt to kill her, and she is revealed as the incredibly powerful Control Devil, someone who can and has been subliminally controlling everyone around her to reach her own ends. Every single character associated with her was seen only as tools to her, ways to keep herself alive and further her goal to dominate and reshape the world in her image with the power of the Chainsaw Devil. This moment works so well to both show her power, her purely evil outlook and intentions, and immediately reshape how both she and the people around her are viewed throughout the story.

If you read this far, thanks! This became much longer and more rambly than I thought it'd be. I wanted to speak more on my thoughts on the whole story but enough people have done that already, so it's probably more valuable for me to pinpoint the things I loved most. Chainsaw Man was a read I very clearly loved and I believe is incredible. It's certainly not for everyone, but it sure absolutely is for me!

P.S: Yes, I have read Look Back and Goodbye Eri, which I both loved for very different reasons than why I loved Chainsaw Man. I would have to reread them before I started forming more thoughts on it. I also have not yet read Fire Punch. I want to!! But after getting through 3 chapters I realized pretty quick that I'm not in a good enough mental spot to read something as heavy as it is. Oops!