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UPDATE: Since now it has changed, I felt like I should clarify that this cover just part 1, aka, the first 97 chapters, which at the time where all there was. I don’t get what’s so great about this manga, I kept seeing how praised it was and how revolutionary it felt to a lot of people, but after finishing the first part I can only think that only newer people would say that. After you have consumed a lot of stuff this one just isn’t special. I personally think that Fire Punch was better, more intriguing and had more substance.
That’s the thing, unlike that manga, Chainsaw man doesn’t have substance, it’s all about the mindless action and being honest, straightforward, unpretentious and entertaining about it, which I can respect but I still won’t give it a positive rating just for that, I need something else for that.
After reading his two major works I can say that I don’t like Fujimoto’s works, but from I what I read about him in the extra chapters, with his ideas about consuming stuff, working on his own projects, trying to incorporate more natural dialogues to his mangas instead of what you’d usually read or listen in another works, I came to like him as an author. He basically likes mostly action and horror, and that’s what he tries to do, in a fun way, with no much more intentions than that. Again, I respect the honesty.
Anyways I was thinking about listing the positives and what people liked about it first then complain about the work later, while bringing superior examples.
THE ARTWORK
First things first, compared to Fire Punch, the overall artwork is a lot better, I was even surprised because Fire Punch ended in the same year Chainsaw man began. I guess the drawings there were a lot more rough because of the far more serious story, while here the intention is to make everything much more spectacular, since it’s a heavy action manga about cool shit and empowerment fantasy. Even so I have to say that the artwork is still not amazing, the character designs feel like rehashes of Fujimoto’s previous works with minor diferences, and outside the demons none of them are impressive. The demons are clearly inspired by Hellboy, I like that, but eventually most of them have similar heads and faces and the already little variety and refreshing factor vanishes completely. The artwork also lacks details in the brief cooldown moments and everything looks a lot worse, and there’s a noticeable lack of backgrounds during those moments.
As I was reading the manga, the extra chapters were included, with Fujimoto’s interviews and recommendations, as well as comparisons between the released chapters and the far superior volumes versions, where all that stuff was fixed, so yeah, we can say that all the minuses in the artwork are because of the weekly schedule, and at least Fujimoto bothered to improve on that with more time.
THE STYLE AND TONE
As I said Chainsaw man is just mindless action and doesn’t try to be more than that. Sure, by the end the main villain has a little monologue but it was more about their objectives, they weren’t trying to shove some themes down your throat at the last minute. I have read many saying this thing is mindless trash that doesn’t make any sense but why is that a bad thing? I mean, yes, it is indeed schlock and doesn’t make sense, demons appear around the world, kill lots of people on a daily basis and the world keeps being the same and people go on living their lives as if it was nothing the next day, but it’s a series about a horny immortal guy that turns into a walking chainsaw wasting enemies, chopping them to pieces, occasionaly eating them and then go on to try and get kisses and feels some boobs from his coworkers, why would I expect common sense from something like that? It’s unapologetic action and it’s honest about it, it’s not as if it’s trying to be serious, dramatic or inspirational. One of the more memorable moments in it is literally about referencing Sharknado for three chapters, for God’s sake.
THE ACTION
Ok so for a series like this is has to be good right? Well, it is, if you don’t mind seeing lots of innocent people dying coming off as cool, having an immortal main character which kills the tension considerably, and simple and repetitive battle choreographies for half the duration. It’s only after 40 or 50 chapters where the fights become longer, require more people, stronger enemies appear and forces the main characters to improve on what they do, also the already violent fights become far more gory by then, if you like that. They still lack tension considerably and have simple battle coreographies, but there’s an improvement as the manga goes on. Also as the manga reaches its end, Fujimoto does this things of following every action in a sequence, dedicating even whole chapters with no dialogue to that, like in One Punch Man, for example. With Mappa doing the anime adaptation I’m sure they will be crazier and more impressive there, too bad I won’t watch it since I didn’t like the manga and the only thing I care about in the adaptation is how are they going to show the 1500 victims of the gun demon.
THE PACING
Well, it’s fast, I’ll give it that, something is always happening all the time to keep the reader engaged, and for a fighting shounen the length is fairly short, so no one can feel that it drags on unnecessarily. Even the training arcs are short and have something else happening at the same time. The problem with it is that the manga is so simple and the way the events happen are so repetitive, it becomes tiresome after a while. I mean come on, the whole manga is one long mission arc. Remember when you are watching or reading a fighting shounen and in the first arc there’s this one mission about protecting someone or fighting a minor enemy later revealed to be a minion for the big bad? Chainsaw man is entirely that, it’s all about killing random demons or hunters that go after Denji until the manga reaches the final showdown, which is really not that different. If you don’t mind that, you’ll have a blast with it, me? I read the whole thing in three days because it’s an easy read and because I wanted to get over it.
THE DIALOGUES AND THE WAY THE CHARACTERS REACT
Are they as natural as people say and as the author intended? Surprisingly yes, the characters talk about irrelevant stuff in goofy ways during the relaxing moments, what they like to eat, how much they want to get a boyfriend or girlfriend, stuff like that. Nobody drops a simple, naive, childish, pretentious monologue about ethics or politics or anything like that (looking at you Naruto). It’s all about leaving the moment and appreciating the minor things in life. The problem is that it’s also very simple and childish, filled with juvenile humor. Also, unlike other fighting shounen, the characters don’t react in overly dramatic ways when hundreds of nobodies die, they don’t give a shit, it’s part of the job and it can happen to anyone at any moment, except for the main character because there’s no way he can die. But they also come off as very cold because of that, not overreacting over victims is one thing, being completely unaffected about it makes them look like assholes.
THE SUBVERSIONS
What about the moments when it subverts expectations? There can be a character talking about doing something specific in the future and die almost immediately afterwards, there can be bad guys that seem to be badass and about to do something impressive, and they are killed with extreme ease, occasionaly in absurd and over the top ways, by accident, which would come off as hilarious for some. And it doesn’t happen in the exact same way everytime to become a formula while trying to avoid a formula, nor that often so you see it coming. Also by the end it does becomes more serious and kills important characters in rather unexpected and dramatic ways, with more build up so the deaths don’t come off as random. The famous snowball fight is one of the more memorable moments in the whole manga because of it, it’s really well done, making you understand what it means for the characters and giving you an idea of what’s really happening. At the same time however, I can barely see the actual fight before the outcome, so yeah, I’m no big fan of it either.
THE LACK OF ROMANCE
For a manga about a dumb fuck in his teens that only thinks about food and sex, there are moments when he falls easily for almost every girl he encounters, yet it doesn’t come off as romantic really, because, funnily, most of the women he ecounters want him dead, as if Fujimoto was fully on incel mode when writing it. Despite all that, he actually managed to avoid the generic outcome of the main guy and the main girl in the same team falling for each other, and keeps them as frenemies throughout the whole thing, which is undoubtedly good and refreshing. Even then, Denji and Power both made the other a better person by the end, so I wouldn’t have a problem if they ended up as a couple, is one of those very rare cases where two characters have great chemistry, are not built as a couple, and yet they compliment each other well enough that it would have made sense and be satisfactory if that were to happen.
THE MAIN VILLAIN AND THE TWIST (WITHOUT SPOILERS)
The best part of the manga actually, it’s well done, it’s not really unexpected and surprising, since the main villain remains a mystery throughout the whole manga, and their behavior serves as a subtle hint throughout it, but it’s built upon nicely, with lots of characters coming after them making you think they are the bad guys, only to reveal that the main antagonist was there the whole time fooling everyone and manipulating the protagonist, Aizen and that persona 4 guy would be proud.
And now I’m done with the positives, moving on with my complains and justifications for my low rating, which has to do mostly with me having consumed better titles, starting off with the protagonist himself.
WEAK MAIN CHARACTERS BECAUSE OF WAY TOO OBVIOUS EMPOWERMENT FANTASY
So Denji is compelling at the beginning, they give him a basic but serviceable backdrop story and enough justifaction for how dumb, simple minded and much of a simp he is. The problem is that this is all he has, he doesn’t evolve beyond that, and he can become tiresome repeting the same dialogues about the same things everytime. There are moments when the manga hints that he’s feeling the pressure of what he’s doing, ponders about his identity and is shocked because of the death of other important characters, but they are short and are forgotten in a hurry because the next fight is around the corner. More of his backdrop is revealed later on, but by that point it was too late to flesh out the protagonist, that is something you have to do at the early stages to make me care about his travel, not when we are near his destination. Also, since at some point he becomes a global threat of sorts, the manga could’ve’d some consequences for a chance and make him change, but nah, this is all about empowerment fantasy, he even ends up having fangirls around the planet by the end. Despite not having the best execution, Agni in Fire Punch was all about anti empowerment fantasy and having to deal with the consequences of his actions, Denji is unapologetically an empowerment fantasy aimed at his demographic, gaining the ultimate power, becoming immortal, not giving a crap about what he does and how he does it, not facing the consequences of his actions, and becoming a desired chad at the end. Agni was far more compelling when you have passed certain age.
The other main characters have a bit of a backdrop themselves, but those are just way too simple to care about them and makes the early chapters to come off as boring and tedious, they grow to become closer friends by the end, I’ll give them that, but that’s about it. It’s when the authour realized that he can’t make a compelling character and chose to focus more on the scale of the action and the absurd events that the manga became more enjoyable.
COMPLETELY WASTED SECONDARY CHARACTERS
As for the rest of the cast, who gives a shit? The antagonists are not fleshed out in the least, the main villain remains mysterious for most of the duration and once their objective is revealed, the outcome coud have been whatever, they never cared about it. There are lots of secondary characters and they don’t matter because they are just cannon fodder that appears for a few volumes and die, or remain absent until the end, where they die, or just…don’t do anything.
AWFUL FINALE
Another issue is the outcome, which was extremely underwhelming, it has the protagonist deliberately holding back, lots of briefly and lazily explained asspulls to make a dead character reappear and help and make the mc win, and the mastermind falling for the most stupid trick and being defeated in one hit, wow they really are like Aizen. Plus the finale hints that both characters will return in part two, thus once again negating the results, what a load of crap and pointless fights.
EQUAL OR BETTER TITLES
And now for the comparisons with other products that prevents me from giving Chainsaw man a decent rating despite all of its pros.
Even the titles that are all about mindless action need to at least care a little about substance, or characterization, or good presentation to stand above the mediocrities, and Chainsaw man doesn’t do any of that. There’s absolutely no substance, even Hellsing Ultimate has more of it, with the characters struggling a lot more with rejecting humanity and becoming monsters when trying to survive, get powers, and become immortal, especially Seras Victoria, who is a better character than the whole Chainsaw man cast.
Another title that is mainly about action is Black Lagoon, where, just like in here, a bunch of psychopaths try to kill each other on a daily basis. The main difference there, is that there is a bit more substance and serious moments to interact with each other, some arcs have historical backgrounds, there is far more caracterization and even development for the main characters, and the setting is far better stablished. It all happens in a city where everybody is a criminal and enemies can be allies the next day, everyone knows what happens and is involved, and they try not to mess with anyone outside the city so the status quo is maintained. It makes sense for things to be that way in a place like that, unlike open Japan in Chainsaw man.
I dare to rate even Saint Seiya, the fighting shounen with the most repetitive fights of all time, above Chainsaw man, but only the manga version, because it doesn’t has Asgard nor as much plot armor, is not as repetitive since Poseidon is very different in the beginning, and actually lets the Golden Saints be the protagonists during the first part of the Hades arc, while fleshing out the secondary characters more, specially Kanon.
Another one on its level is Akudama Drive, also a mindless action series, with a far catchier setting, an attempt to have more substance and themes, and despite having characters with no names nor background stories, they are more fleshed out than the ones in here, plus the action scenes have more variety and there is a real lack of plot armor.
Heck I think even the beginning of Nanatsu no Taizai (the first season) is as good if not better, because the background stories of the main characters are far more tragic and better, even the secondary characters and antagonists have more to offer than the whole cast of Chainsaw man, and there are far more internal conflicts within the main group. Then the manga and anime continued and everything became way worse.
But what about the natural conversations and dialogues? Those shows lack that. Yes, do you know which titles doesn’t? Tarantino movies, which also flesh out the characters via silly conversations and are not as repetitive about it. They also lack the juvenile humor of Chainsaw man.
But some of those titles suffer from cheesy romances, Chainsaw man doesn’t have that. Ok, I’ll admit that is rare, specially within the medium. The only other example of this that I can think of was outside manganime in Pacific Rim, another simple action thing with more grounded battles.
But all of those are very typical, Chainsaw man has more unexpected outcomes at times. Aside from how unexpected doesn’t necessarily mean good, I have already seen it done far better with a much higher level of trolling in Katanagatari, which also flesh out most characters a lot more before killing them in unexpected ways. Even when a supposed big boss is defeated unexpectedly, it is to build up another and show how his companions are affected by their death. It also has far better dialogues and character development, its value doesn’t come just for the shock factor.
Even as an action series Chainsaw man suffers because it never stops to make you care about its characters and is very repetitive and bombastic, Akudama Drive also suffers from that but I already explained why it surpasses it. Chiansaw man becomes even worse when taken outside its medium and compared with straightforward action films from the eighties, which had far more suspense and characterization, even RoboCop has some interesting themes and identity crisis in it.
But none of those is as batshit crazy as Chainsaw man. Ok then, you know what other weird manga and anime has insane immortal characters fighting each other without juvenile humor, with far better characterization because of far better background stories, and it takes place in a far more creative setting? Dorohedoro.
Now I don’t want to come off as a hypocrite, since I rated almost every JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure above Chainsaw man despite also being random bullshit with asspulled things to beat the bad guys. Over there, however, I care more about the characters, it’s clearly trying to be more absurd and comical about everything, and the big bads are defeated with asspulls, yes, but only after a long battle, usually after lots of battles along the way, all of which are far more creative, tactical and with far more variety than everything you can see here.
As you can see it’s not that I have much issues with Chainsaw man itself, as much as I’ve already seen every possible positive aspect of it done far better elsewhere, or in better shows. I appreciate its positives, and it’s a good thing having all of them together, but that doesn’t make up for its negatives, and the fact that it has far too many better competitors out there. It’s an easy read and fun if all you want its a mindless and honest action series, but that’s it.
5/10
