There have been an abundance of battle shounen in the past decade, many mediocre, some great, and some amazing! However, there is one shounen that stands above the rest, one that doesn’t feel like another clone of its peers, and that’s chainsawman, the most unique manga I have ever read!
Chainsawman has had one of the most explosive runs in shounen jump. It dominated the entirety of 2020, and its popularity has been growing at a fast pace each month in its run. However, it’s shounen jump days are over, ending its first part in only one year, yet this doesn’t spell the end of chainsawman because it’s departure to mangaplus and the new anime on its way!
If you are still indecisive on if it’s worth your time to give this amazing manga a chance, then let’s dissect why chainsawman is worth your time, shall we!
Chainsawman takes place in a modern day japan, we follow a young orphan named denji, a kid with no hopes in life, homeless, abused, and barely finding the means to eat, resorting to a smidget of pay from killing demons, from his debtors blackmailing him to pay off an impossible debt
Everything seems dire until his debtors are infected by a zombie demon, and denji gets to go wild on them freeing him from his eternal dept. “Then Makima, a devil contractor gives him the opportunity to have a normal life in exchange of being her pet. And Denji gleefully accepts with a depressing question; “what is breakfast like”. Remember this exchange people.
The theme of chainsawman is a fucked-up variation of “boy becomes a man”
At first glance chainsawman seems like your standard run of the mill shounen, where the idiot protagonist and his friends slay demons, similar to demon slayer, JJK, and bleach. However, chainsawman stands apart from the bunch of its insane wackiness and endless despair!
The basic premise of the plot, is that Denji and his pals are on a mission to hunt down the gun devils remaining limps; a Freudian like entity, who has massacred millions of civilians around the world. They are competing with other nations to gain control of the gun devil, to stop another massacre which will give the victorious country complete dominance!
If this already sounds insane, you have no idea what awaits you! The perfect label of chainsawman is “INSANITY”!
Characters
The cor structure of chainsaw man is a character centered story. It doens’t have much worldbuilding at all; it mainly focuses on Denji and a couple of other characters growth.
Denji meets a group of characters that will be very important to his growth down the line; Power, Aki, and Himeno. These 3 are very important in shaping denjis character, and showing off his mental state in various points in the story.
First, we meet power, the sexy blood devil that doesn't shower. She’s your typical tomboy, she’s loud, bombastic, and is an idiot. However, she’s also the most lovable character in the story, best girl for many including me! At first glance her and Denji seems like boyfriend and girlfriend, but their relation leans way more heavily on the brother/sister relationship, and it’s very important to their character, because they grow together, both realizing what’s it like to care about others have a family, since both of them used to live on the streets with no one to care for them.
Then we meet aki the, edgy cool handsome loner. At first glance, he seems like someone the audience would hate, because how terrible he treats Denji at first, and his jealousy of Denji stealing Makimas attention. However, he’s far more than meets the eye. Aki is the definition of tragedy, his entire story deals with him accepting his losses of his family, dealing with the consequences of his limited lifespan from his devil contract, and accepting his new family and his new role as Denji and Powers big brother.
Finally, we have Himeno, the sexy drunk that loves to vomit in people's mouths. Himeno is the standard hot badass sensei that leads the group at first. She is very conflicted in her job, debating on rather she’d rather keep working this hellish job, or retire. This correlates with Akis growth as well; Aki having a narrow-minded goal of revenge getting challenged by the person he looks up to causes internal conflict on what he wishes to do with the rest of his life. She is also the first one of the groups to bite the dust, going out in tragic death in an attempt to protect her family.
Himeno kindles the flames of the group's development; Denji having an internal conflict with himself, questioning who he actually cares for, because Himenos death didn’t really affect him, Power realizing what it mean to care for someone, and Aki losing his lust for revenge and wanting to protect his new family.
Fuji is very poetic in his writing of tragedy in chainsaw man. No death of an important character feels cheap, everyone's death had tons of buildup leading up to their unfortunate end. It’s kind of like a riddle when you realize how much a death has been foreshadowed too.
For instance, Aki’s tragic death has been long foreshadowed by the time devil; “a death so terrible that my only rule is that you allow me to see your expression on your deathbed”; correlates with his poetic battle against denji as a gun devil vassal. Aki is imagining himself in a snowball fight against his brother when he was younger, when times were simple, and when he was happy with his family. When in reality he’s massacring tons of innocent civilians while Denji, his new brother is attempting to put him down without killing him, only for Denji to be forced to eliminate Aki after the people donated their blood to assist him.
JUST WOW! If you thought that was heart wrenching, just wait until you realize that his only crush, the one he beloved the most betrays him and murders power in front of his eyes; right when power was beginning to truly accept Denji as her brother, she’s slaughtered in cold blood as makima laughs for the first time in the series. Leading to a great shock that puts Denji in a coma like state succumbing to the Chainsaw Man.
Denjis entire purpose was to be makimas dog; Bark when commanded and sit under makimas feet like a good boy.
Makima never truly cared about him, she only cared for his inner demon; chainsaw man. Denjis entire life as a demon hunter was fabricated by Makima in order to awake Chainsaw Man, so she can simp over chainsaw man like a fan girl, while she takes over the entire world to lead in her twisted vision.
However, Power does come back for a brief moment after being revived by Ponchiata, only to be brutally murdered once again, after expressing to Denji how much she loves him, everyone else loved him and that the world needs him. Thus, causing Denji to finally wake up from his slumber to finally become the true hero of his story.
And that’s only the main cast of characters. Chainsawman is full of eccentric characters, that are highly entertaining, sexy, badass, and tragic at the same time!
Plot
If you thought the characters where wild, we haven’t even got to insane plot yet!
Chainsaw man's plot is pretty by the books by shounen standards for the most part, but the intensity and stakes are turned up to the max that keeps it unique from your avid shounen!
Each arc in chainsaw man revolves around either an investigation in for a gun devil limb, or assassins targeting makima and denji. As the plot develops, Fuji introduces a large ensemble of characters to back up Denji in his efforts to secure the gun limbs. Most of the characters distrust denji at first because he’s a fiend (humans mixed with demons) but after they succeed in their missions, their bonds begin to grow and trust is established. However, all of this was wasted potential because Fuji shows no mercy to his characters. And this is very unfortunate because most of the characters in chainsaw man is very entertaining.
In most arcs starting from the bomb devil arc, fuji begins to massacre his characters in big numbers. This basically ruins any potential for character relations to grow. He killed off over 10 characters in the international assassination arc alone. So, don’t get attached to any character, because all of them have huge death flags over their head.
This is one of my few complaints with the story. I’m fine with heavy consequences, every battle shounen needs them in order for the stakes to feel real. However, Chainsaw man begins leaning in akame ga kill levels of edge near the end with the endless deaths. Now don’t get me wrong, chainsaw man is FAR above akame ga trash! But I still fear for the potential of the story getting repetitive in part 2 when Fuji inventible introduces a new cast of characters down the line.
However, on a positive note, denjis development is quite remarkable. In each arc, denji subtly changes slowly. Denji starts off as a simp who has no goals nor dreams in life, except to have sex with makima and eat food. Noble goals for some, but in denjis case this is because of his lack of life experience. Before he became a devil hunter, he lived his entire life as a slave to some scumbags, in poverty, living in a fucking dumpster.
As denji begins to succeed in his various missions, he develops strong bonds with numerous characters, all changing how denji slightly views the world; however, the cusk of his core development reigns with makima.
Denji placed all his worth on makima. He believed that all he needed was makimas approval, and nothing else mattered in his life. However, this is a one-sided relationship because denji knows literally nothing about her. The one time he had any connection with her, was in the movies. Which leads to the foundation of the Denji vs Makima battle.
Denji ask makima if she would remove all boring movies in her perfect world; and why this question is so important is because Makima plans on removing anything unfit in her image in her perfect world. Makima does not respect Denji, she loves Chainsaw Man, not the boy in charge of the demon himself. Makima would remove denji in a heartbeat in her perfect world.
This is the final conformation Denji needed to strike Makima down. Poetic moments like these are what makes Chainsaw Man special compared to your average shouen.
HOWEVER, CM still had some major flaws near the end of part 1. The story began to feel like a mess, the final battle was drawn out, Koebeni isn’t interesting enough to carry the story on her own. If Fuji kept more characters alive, we could’ve had a more interesting plot instead of Makima vs Chainsaw Man 24/7.
And this is very unfortunate, because chainsaw man is filled with bombastic high action fights! From Denji riding a fucking shark vs a giant typhoon and a bomb terrorist, to denji having an epic clash with a katana man vs his chainsaws! Seeing the final battle being reduced to a generic punch out was a massive disappointment when we know what fuji is capable of.
Page Break
Also, the worldbuilding could’ve been better but for chainsaw man part 1 it didn’t matter as much, since it was a character centered plot; however, part 2 NEEDS to invest in the worldbuilding for it to keep me invested!
Well, there is always part 2 to look forward to! Especially since the story isn’t slowing down anytime soon with its insanity considering Denji is tasked with raising the resurrected control devil.
Conclusion
Overall, I give chainsaw man an 8/10; this is by far the most unique manga I have ever read and I highly recommend it if you want something bizarre!
Chainsawman has had one of the most explosive runs in shounen jump. It dominated the entirety of 2020, and its popularity has been growing at a fast pace each month in its run. However, it’s shounen jump days are over, ending its first part in only one year, yet this doesn’t spell the end of chainsawman because it’s departure to mangaplus and the new anime on its way!
If you are still indecisive on if it’s worth your time to give this amazing manga a chance, then let’s dissect why chainsawman is worth your time, shall we!
Chainsawman takes place in a modern day japan, we follow a young orphan named denji, a kid with no hopes in life, homeless, abused, and barely finding the means to eat, resorting to a smidget of pay from killing demons, from his debtors blackmailing him to pay off an impossible debt
Everything seems dire until his debtors are infected by a zombie demon, and denji gets to go wild on them freeing him from his eternal dept. “Then Makima, a devil contractor gives him the opportunity to have a normal life in exchange of being her pet. And Denji gleefully accepts with a depressing question; “what is breakfast like”. Remember this exchange people.
The theme of chainsawman is a fucked-up variation of “boy becomes a man”
At first glance chainsawman seems like your standard run of the mill shounen, where the idiot protagonist and his friends slay demons, similar to demon slayer, JJK, and bleach. However, chainsawman stands apart from the bunch of its insane wackiness and endless despair!
The basic premise of the plot, is that Denji and his pals are on a mission to hunt down the gun devils remaining limps; a Freudian like entity, who has massacred millions of civilians around the world. They are competing with other nations to gain control of the gun devil, to stop another massacre which will give the victorious country complete dominance!
If this already sounds insane, you have no idea what awaits you! The perfect label of chainsawman is “INSANITY”!
Characters
The cor structure of chainsaw man is a character centered story. It doens’t have much worldbuilding at all; it mainly focuses on Denji and a couple of other characters growth.
Denji meets a group of characters that will be very important to his growth down the line; Power, Aki, and Himeno. These 3 are very important in shaping denjis character, and showing off his mental state in various points in the story.
First, we meet power, the sexy blood devil that doesn't shower. She’s your typical tomboy, she’s loud, bombastic, and is an idiot. However, she’s also the most lovable character in the story, best girl for many including me! At first glance her and Denji seems like boyfriend and girlfriend, but their relation leans way more heavily on the brother/sister relationship, and it’s very important to their character, because they grow together, both realizing what’s it like to care about others have a family, since both of them used to live on the streets with no one to care for them.
Then we meet aki the, edgy cool handsome loner. At first glance, he seems like someone the audience would hate, because how terrible he treats Denji at first, and his jealousy of Denji stealing Makimas attention. However, he’s far more than meets the eye. Aki is the definition of tragedy, his entire story deals with him accepting his losses of his family, dealing with the consequences of his limited lifespan from his devil contract, and accepting his new family and his new role as Denji and Powers big brother.
Finally, we have Himeno, the sexy drunk that loves to vomit in people's mouths. Himeno is the standard hot badass sensei that leads the group at first. She is very conflicted in her job, debating on rather she’d rather keep working this hellish job, or retire. This correlates with Akis growth as well; Aki having a narrow-minded goal of revenge getting challenged by the person he looks up to causes internal conflict on what he wishes to do with the rest of his life. She is also the first one of the groups to bite the dust, going out in tragic death in an attempt to protect her family.
Himeno kindles the flames of the group's development; Denji having an internal conflict with himself, questioning who he actually cares for, because Himenos death didn’t really affect him, Power realizing what it mean to care for someone, and Aki losing his lust for revenge and wanting to protect his new family.
Fuji is very poetic in his writing of tragedy in chainsaw man. No death of an important character feels cheap, everyone's death had tons of buildup leading up to their unfortunate end. It’s kind of like a riddle when you realize how much a death has been foreshadowed too.
For instance, Aki’s tragic death has been long foreshadowed by the time devil; “a death so terrible that my only rule is that you allow me to see your expression on your deathbed”; correlates with his poetic battle against denji as a gun devil vassal. Aki is imagining himself in a snowball fight against his brother when he was younger, when times were simple, and when he was happy with his family. When in reality he’s massacring tons of innocent civilians while Denji, his new brother is attempting to put him down without killing him, only for Denji to be forced to eliminate Aki after the people donated their blood to assist him.
JUST WOW! If you thought that was heart wrenching, just wait until you realize that his only crush, the one he beloved the most betrays him and murders power in front of his eyes; right when power was beginning to truly accept Denji as her brother, she’s slaughtered in cold blood as makima laughs for the first time in the series. Leading to a great shock that puts Denji in a coma like state succumbing to the Chainsaw Man.
Denjis entire purpose was to be makimas dog; Bark when commanded and sit under makimas feet like a good boy.
Makima never truly cared about him, she only cared for his inner demon; chainsaw man. Denjis entire life as a demon hunter was fabricated by Makima in order to awake Chainsaw Man, so she can simp over chainsaw man like a fan girl, while she takes over the entire world to lead in her twisted vision.
However, Power does come back for a brief moment after being revived by Ponchiata, only to be brutally murdered once again, after expressing to Denji how much she loves him, everyone else loved him and that the world needs him. Thus, causing Denji to finally wake up from his slumber to finally become the true hero of his story.
And that’s only the main cast of characters. Chainsawman is full of eccentric characters, that are highly entertaining, sexy, badass, and tragic at the same time!
Plot
If you thought the characters where wild, we haven’t even got to insane plot yet!
Chainsaw man's plot is pretty by the books by shounen standards for the most part, but the intensity and stakes are turned up to the max that keeps it unique from your avid shounen!
Each arc in chainsaw man revolves around either an investigation in for a gun devil limb, or assassins targeting makima and denji. As the plot develops, Fuji introduces a large ensemble of characters to back up Denji in his efforts to secure the gun limbs. Most of the characters distrust denji at first because he’s a fiend (humans mixed with demons) but after they succeed in their missions, their bonds begin to grow and trust is established. However, all of this was wasted potential because Fuji shows no mercy to his characters. And this is very unfortunate because most of the characters in chainsaw man is very entertaining.
In most arcs starting from the bomb devil arc, fuji begins to massacre his characters in big numbers. This basically ruins any potential for character relations to grow. He killed off over 10 characters in the international assassination arc alone. So, don’t get attached to any character, because all of them have huge death flags over their head.
This is one of my few complaints with the story. I’m fine with heavy consequences, every battle shounen needs them in order for the stakes to feel real. However, Chainsaw man begins leaning in akame ga kill levels of edge near the end with the endless deaths. Now don’t get me wrong, chainsaw man is FAR above akame ga trash! But I still fear for the potential of the story getting repetitive in part 2 when Fuji inventible introduces a new cast of characters down the line.
However, on a positive note, denjis development is quite remarkable. In each arc, denji subtly changes slowly. Denji starts off as a simp who has no goals nor dreams in life, except to have sex with makima and eat food. Noble goals for some, but in denjis case this is because of his lack of life experience. Before he became a devil hunter, he lived his entire life as a slave to some scumbags, in poverty, living in a fucking dumpster.
As denji begins to succeed in his various missions, he develops strong bonds with numerous characters, all changing how denji slightly views the world; however, the cusk of his core development reigns with makima.
Denji placed all his worth on makima. He believed that all he needed was makimas approval, and nothing else mattered in his life. However, this is a one-sided relationship because denji knows literally nothing about her. The one time he had any connection with her, was in the movies. Which leads to the foundation of the Denji vs Makima battle.
Denji ask makima if she would remove all boring movies in her perfect world; and why this question is so important is because Makima plans on removing anything unfit in her image in her perfect world. Makima does not respect Denji, she loves Chainsaw Man, not the boy in charge of the demon himself. Makima would remove denji in a heartbeat in her perfect world.
This is the final conformation Denji needed to strike Makima down. Poetic moments like these are what makes Chainsaw Man special compared to your average shouen.
HOWEVER, CM still had some major flaws near the end of part 1. The story began to feel like a mess, the final battle was drawn out, Koebeni isn’t interesting enough to carry the story on her own. If Fuji kept more characters alive, we could’ve had a more interesting plot instead of Makima vs Chainsaw Man 24/7.
And this is very unfortunate, because chainsaw man is filled with bombastic high action fights! From Denji riding a fucking shark vs a giant typhoon and a bomb terrorist, to denji having an epic clash with a katana man vs his chainsaws! Seeing the final battle being reduced to a generic punch out was a massive disappointment when we know what fuji is capable of.
Page Break
Also, the worldbuilding could’ve been better but for chainsaw man part 1 it didn’t matter as much, since it was a character centered plot; however, part 2 NEEDS to invest in the worldbuilding for it to keep me invested!
Well, there is always part 2 to look forward to! Especially since the story isn’t slowing down anytime soon with its insanity considering Denji is tasked with raising the resurrected control devil.
Conclusion
Overall, I give chainsaw man an 8/10; this is by far the most unique manga I have ever read and I highly recommend it if you want something bizarre!
But yeah, Chainsaw Man is probably the greatest creation out there.
