Board 8 > I just caught up with Chainsaw Man (manga) *No spoilers in first post*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I am not a hardcore anime-ista, especially these days, I will sometimes keep up with whatever the big series that year is like a Demon Slayer or whatever but I checked out the Chainsaw Man anime on a whim and something quite unusual happened: I felt compelled to read the manga. And I have to say

This may be one of the most remarkable things Ive ever read?

Like, its not technically perfect, but the fact that such insane events and tonal shifts can happen while also feeling like theres a consistent story with some clear things its trying to say is amazing. Wacky semi-parodic shonen adventures to extreme brutality to comedy to managing to make me think about my own life sometimes within the space of a chapter or two. The whole thing is basically a writer not just walking the finest tightrope youve ever seen but doing backflips on it and landing every time. All this while being a battle shonen that doesnt really care about the battles at all, its using that format to sort of trojan horse in an incredibly weird story. It is basically punk rock in manga form, raging against society and conventions while also managing to be great art in its own right.

I also find the obvious love of cinema and the film references to be pretty fun and I usually bristle at that stuff. Never thought Id see references to Hereditary or The Menu in a shonen manga but here we are. In many ways this is a very Kojima-like project though without the longwindedness and sometimes questionable command of tone Kojima has.

Anyway this has all been a very rambling way of saying that Chainsaw Man is great and you should read Chainsaw Man.

I havent read Fujmotos previous work Fire Punch so I cant recommend it (people say its good at least), but check out his one-shots from the past few years. Look Back and Goodbye, Eri are all timers. Just Listen to the Song is good too, but not at the level of those two.

Chainsaw Man is an exquisite series.

It gets tons of haters now that it's super popular, but those peope are idiots and never have anything of substance to complain about.

I would highly advise seeking out Fujimoto's other content as well.

That's funny, I'm in the same exact boat as you. Haven't watched anime in years, have never even read a manga in my life but I randomly just read CSM bored at work and I'm in love now. It's definitely remarkable and I'm all aboard the CSM train. I have been enjoying part 2 as well because I have seen some distaste for it online but I think people forget the first arc also started pretty slow.

Yes great way of putting it!

First season was underwhelming (compared to hype) but they don't know what's coming...!

It's amazing yeah. Funnily enough I followed along when it first debuted but dropped it after a little bit cause I couldn't really get behind horny all the time Denji. My friends then got me to read it again with the anime coming out so I caught up before it started and yeah...dropped it just before it picked up and got crazy good haha.

Yeah, Chainsaw Man is great. I can also recommend Fire Punch. Its not quite as weird as CSM for most of it, but it gets there by the end.

Also recommend Dandadan, which was made by one of his assistants and is equally as phenomenal.

Ill definitely read the one-shots. Might get the physical of Goodbye, Eri when it releases actually. Im less sure about Fire Punch, everything Ive heard makes it sound a bit too edgelord in a way Chainsaw Man always manages to avoid. I saw the Star Wars page though and that was pretty great.

And yeah the haters are wild. In particular the complaint of the anime using a live action cinematic style which is just like this whole series is drawing its aesthetic and storytelling style from live-action movies, come on. It is not subtle about these influences! Also I was looking at some old discussion threads on the subreddit and since the series exploded in popularity the number of 1s each chapter gets in the polls has increased, implying that there are people just rating every chapter as a 1/5. Its honestly quite pathetic and a lot of anime fandom never got past the console war mindset.

_stingers_ posted...

That's funny, I'm in the same exact boat as you. Haven't watched anime in years, have never even read a manga in my life but I randomly just read CSM bored at work and I'm in love now. It's definitely remarkable and I'm all aboard the CSM train. I have been enjoying part 2 as well because I have seen some distaste for it online but I think people forget the first arc also started pretty slow.

Part 2 is great! I love how Denji is basically no longer the lead protagonist, and Asa manages to be even better. She feels more relatable and stands more on her own while Denji really needs other characters with him to shine.

MysteriousStan posted...

It's amazing yeah. Funnily enough I followed along when it first debuted but dropped it after a little bit cause I couldn't really get behind horny all the time Denji. My friends then got me to read it again with the anime coming out so I caught up before it started and yeah...dropped it just before it picked up and got crazy good haha.

What they do with how horny Denji is actually manages to justify it which is quite incredible!

Actually that reminds me of another thing that I forgot to mention. Unlike a lot of other shonen Ive seen Chainsaw Man has humour that is actually funny. Ive laughed multiple times which is fairly rare for reading anything.

Fujimoto is a master of comedic timing, he really knows how to make a punchline work visually and he's totally willing to do drastic tonal shifts as a joke. The hamburber chapter is perfection. And the current stuff with Falling Devil is honestly really funny too.

I also have been around fandoms to understand why there are Part 2 haters but it could not be me. I've only had Asa for a few dozen chapters but if anything happens to her, I'll [meme redacted]

Fire Punch > Chainsaw Man

Both are good stuff tho.

In my experience, the Asa haters are the Chainsaw Man fans who didn't actually understand Chainsaw Man and just want it to be radical gory action schlock. They see Denji as The Doom Guy.

Asa is such a loser she's great

literally wow cool chainsaws, huh.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

In my experience, the Asa haters are the Chainsaw Man fans who didn't actually understand Chainsaw Man and just want it to be radical gory action schlock. They see Denji as The Doom Guy.

people can like series for different reasons

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Asa is such a loser she's great

She's just like me fr fr

Asa is indeed the best.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

literally wow cool chainsaws, huh.

Series: Abusive relationships are bad

Reader: Wow cool chainsaws

JackMan posted...

Its not quite as weird as CSM for most of it,

what I think it starts off far weirder, it hits you right out the gate with incest, and then other stuff after

I thought the first half of Chainsaw Man was just okay, but the second half (and Part 2) were very good. First half is necessary for the second half though.

Fire Punch is a trip. I don't think I can give it an objective analysis because it just goes...everywhere. Definitely worth reading for the experience alone if you can handle it.

Yeah Fire Punch is like a fever dream. But I can definitely see how Fujimoto grew as an author from his experience with Fire Punch, so it's interesting to read from that angle too.

Part 2 is great, though I'm slightly annoyed at the recent development that made Asa forgot about his time with Denji, and thus a big stepback to her motivation of finding a way to kill Chainsaw Man to get rid of Yoru. But I hope the eventual pay-off will be worth it!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/1/AAeolZAAEcMT.jpg

Read Goodbye, Eri.

That was great! Just a lovely meditation on storytelling and the power of movies to capture the human experience as well as the things they leave out. It definitely felt like Fujimoto laying out his method similar to how Nolan does in Inception right down to the ambiguous ending.

Raka_Putra posted...

Yeah Fire Punch is like a fever dream. But I can definitely see how Fujimoto grew as an author from his experience with Fire Punch, so it's interesting to read from that angle too.

Part 2 is great, though I'm slightly annoyed at the recent development that made Asa forgot about his time with Denji, and thus a big stepback to her motivation of finding a way to kill Chainsaw Man to get rid of Yoru. But I hope the eventual pay-off will be worth it!

Well, she only forgot the second date, she still remembers all the other stuff. Denji will definitely blab about it and tell her though. He does not have the self-control!

Incidentally on Asa I feel like I related to the Aquarium scene a little TOO much

Most one shots I read feel like pilots to a series that will never be, so I was very impressed by fujimoto's. It makes me appreciate how short and complete a story can be.

keeping this series saved for a rainy day. i will absolutely like it, at the very least, but i feel like if i watch/read it when i'm feeling in the mood i will absolutely love it

THATS MY BIKE?!

Haha.