so you wanna start reading chainsaw man (minor spoilers 😶)

I remember the first time I heard about Chainsaw Man. It was Spring 2019 and I was a few months into my job at Barnes & Noble. I just started working on the sales floor and was shelving some manga we received  that day. As I was working, I noticed that I was adding volume 2 to the large quantity of volume 1’s we had on the shelf. I skimmed through the first volume and then quickly read the backs of both. At the time I felt like I would be a fan of the artwork but not the story, so I decided to put it down and move on with my shift. I was collecting other titles at the time as well, so I felt that it wasn’t that right to jump into a new series. 

And then volume 7 came out. At this point about a year has passed since I last opened CSM, and I heard a fair amount of good things from customers whenever it was brought up. And so, I decided to bite the bullet and try it out. I bought the first three volumes and read them when I got home from work. After closing volume 3, I let out a heavy sigh and wondered why I didn’t pick this series up sooner. Flash forward to today, with the Chainsaw Man anime set to release October 11th and the manga having recent restocks of Volume 1 and others in the series, I felt it necessary to highlight it so I can prepare 🫵🏻 (the reader; hi there btw! love what you did with your hair 👍🏻) on its badassness. 

Before I start the blog, I just wanna mention one thing. As much as I would love to tell you everything I find so appealing, I don’t want to completely ruin the experience that is Chainsaw Man. In my opinion, it’s world and character building are on a totally different level. Not only is it a manga that I can mentally see animated as I read, its one of the few manga I’ve come across where it truly felt episodic (more on this later 🤓). It’s artwork is raw and hellishly messy, has so many well-designed/iconic panels (many of which i can’t wait to see animated 😭), and is one of the year’s highly anticipated anime. UGH. I can talk for DAYS but I have a job to do! So anyways…

The Plot 

In case you’ve somehow missed the trailer or the hype train 🚂 these past few years, Chainsaw Man is an 11-volume series written by Tatsuki Fujimoto in 2018. This is his second major serialization, with Fire Punch being his first back in 2016. The series follows Denji, a poverty-stricken teenager who enters the world of Devil Hunting in order to make ends meet. Accompanied by his pet devil Pochita, he pines for a better life while paying back his father’s debts. Fortunately, a Devil Hunter named Makima turns up and offers him a job after his last one ended with a pile of corpses. 

Denji soon enters the world of Public Safety, tasked with collecting pieces of the Gun Devil. This particular Devil was part of a global catastrophe and disappeared without a trace. As a result, bullets with pieces of its flesh are scattered across the world, and collecting them will allow anyone with enough pieces to track the Gun Devil. So with this in mind, Denji and his fellow hunters in Division 4 are tasked with tracking the remaining fragments and the Gun Devil (or risk their lives trying ☠️).

Analysis

At first glance, CSM has that sort of Action/Adventure manga feel to it. Artifact collecting is a common trope, whether you’re looking at newer series like Jujutsu Kaisen or older series like Dragon Ball/DBZ or Inuyasha. But where CSM differentiates from these others series is the incorporation of some human elements, specifically with how Fujimoto provides glimpses of it throughout Denji’s life. 

Take for example desire. We as people naturally have the instinct to desire things, whether it’s attainable or not. It’s an ongoing theme that’s exhibited differently through the cast. Let’s look at Denji: For the first two volumes, all he cared about was being able to eat and sleep whenever he wanted and copping a feel for the first time. But once he accomplished that goal, he suddenly felt lost and wasn’t able to do or think for himself until Makima intervened. And throughout the series we see how desires influence Denji, and how his erratic behavior greatly impact what his desires become (you’ll see what I mean after reading Volume 5/midseason-ish 😅).

"Do I have a heart...?"

Another element that Fujimoto does awesomely is incorporating the human struggle onto page, especially when the more emotionally intense scenes involve few to no words. Some examples include (but restricted to fewer words due to SPOILERS; manga readers know what up tho 🤜🏻🤛🏻): getting washed ashore, the movies (and afterwards too; also why does Fujimoto love movie theaters so much??), the kicking competition, the hospital, and ✌🏻. This a recurring method throughout most of Fujimoto’s works, my personal use being in Fire Punch. It provides the reader a well-needed pause in order to digest all of the action and dialogue that took place (its something that i feel should be more common in shonen titles 😶). 

A detail Fujimoto added that I personally admire is the proper inclusion of foreign languages throughout the series. When I saw (🫢) on panel for the first time, immediate 🤯. And for Fujimoto to follow it up with 3 other countries AND quickly throw in dialect corrections really makes for awesome world building! It’s a subtle reminder of the global politics and hostility that takes place in the CSM world. And as a stickler for the small things, it’s really cool to see other cultures represented in their natural state (it adds extra flair and context to the scene; so make sure you got the Google app and camera set to translate 📱)!

Something that I have noticed when talking to people who’ve read CSM is everyone’s takes on the series’ pacing. While some found the pace of the story to be ideal, others felt that some action panels or character developments were too rushed, sloppy, or random at times. And though I can see where they’re coming from, I believe I can offer an explanation for this. CSM is one of those manga that always delivers at the end of every volume. Honestly, the best way I can put it is like that feeling you get when you find an extra McNugget in your 10 piece. There’s always that extra 🤌🏻 that Fujimoto throws into the story and make it a 5 star meal (i gotta stop making myself hungry 😭). We also have to remember that Chainsaw Man isn’t complete yet! Part 2 is currently in publication after being on hiatus (conveniently crawled out around the time the English release of Volume 11 came out 🎉), so we don’t know what tribulations Fujimoto has in store for this story and its characters.

Personal Take

When I saw the Crunchyroll trailer for CSM back in May, I instantly knew it was gonna be a major success. It had the internet imploding. I mean, this series has changed the way anime is traditionally promoted. There was a 3D billboard up in Japan, various figures and plushies released (missed out on a Pochita plush 😤), and multiple versions of the trailer have been released by Crunchyroll and MAPPA (with both having 5.5 mil. and 10 mil. views respectively; although MAPPA’s has only been out for two weeks as of writing this 🙌🏻) It has one of the more interesting Favorite Character Polls I’ve seen in a long time too (poor Kobeni 😂😭) AND NOT ONE BUT TWELVE DIFFERENT ENDING TRACKS. Shoot, even its creator is hyped, saying in a statement “It’s good with a lot of blood.” (same 🫡). The series is practically promoting itself.

Which brings me to my wishes for this adaptation! Mainly what I’m looking forward to seeing in this adaptation is how they’ll translate or invoke the spirit of the CSM panels onto screen. Fujimoto’s unique panel formatting and allusions to both Japanese and global symbols are just simply remarkable to me. There’s also an intensity that emits from the panels that Mappa has to handle with care. Don’t get me wrong, I have faith in Mappa’s ability to bring CSM to life. Despite what people say on the anime leak (of course the footage looks awful, because the camera quality is awful! 😂), Mappa can deliver results that leave both anime and manga fans can enjoy and look forward to (plus they’re producing Hell’s Paradise, and i get to obsess over that very soon 🫠). What I’m most excited to see, and in no particular order (y’all know the drill by now 😶):

💰👀👀

ribbit

⬅️👁

🎃

“🤥”

✌🏻

Normally here is when I begin to tell you about series similar to Chainsaw Man. However, I think it would be more appropriate to showcase Tatsuki Fujimoto’s other works. As mentioned before, he has a 8 volume series called Fire Punch. In a world completely devastated and covered by ice, humans with powers called Blessings are being hunted for their abilities. Our hero Agni finds himself trapped in a spiral of revenge that leads him to the depths of his rationality. I personally recommend this to customers who want a short and sweet read. While having a pretty wicked title, it also gives the reader a philosophically existential and humorous story that is unique to the dystopian future genre. Definitely worth the read, I promise! 🤙🏻

If you wanna take a break from the action, Fujimoto’s work Look Back was recently released in print as well (next on my purchase list 🙌🏻). This one-off manga is a slice-of-life/coming of age title that follows two young ladies, their shared love of creating manga, and the struggles that come alongside it. Despite being comparatively different to CSM and Fire Punch, Look Back continues to present Fujimoto’s signature of capturing the human struggle at its purest. (Kevin from the future here! After reading this manga blindly, Look Back gave me a beautifully short and bittersweet story that opened my eyes further into the tragic background behind this work 😶)

Soon to be in print are his Before Chainsaw Man works. It will be a compilation piece that will be released in two paperback volumes, titled 17-21 and 22-26 respectively. They range from sci-fi to horror, to action, and beyond! I’ll have my eyes out for these next year 👍🏻.

Thanks so much for reading this Chainsaw Man showcase! It’s being released a bit later than expected, but I found myself having trouble writing about something that I’m passionate for and without leaning too much into Spoiler Territory. I’m consider maybe writing about specific themes in Chainsaw Man as the series progresses, but I’ll just have to wait and see how things go 🤷🏻. I hope we all get to have an amazing experience October 11th, and I look forward to seeing everyone’s thoughts on the hard work Mappa’s animators have gone through to bring Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man to life! 

Let me know what y'all are looking forward to/thoughts in general about the series! Feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me on any of my socials 🤙🏻

 I’ll see y’all next weekend with another series showcase

insta:@kev.from.work
twitter: @kev_from_wrk
reddit: u/kev_from_work
discord: kev_from_work#0996