Comic Thoughts: Chainsaw Man
In my efforts to relax a bit on my holidays and not work, I picked up my trusty e-reader and one-shot the entirety of Chainsaw Man over the course of 10 hours. I watched the anime when it came out so the first chunk wasn't anything new, but I was excited to see where it went.
As an aside, I really wish I could read a book for 10 hours straight, but apparently my attention span has rotted to the point where only videogames and manga can hold my attention for this long.
Anyways, Chainsaw man is interesting. It's some good old-fashioned hyper-violent hyper-sexy bizarre media only Japan could pull off (though the hyper-sexiness is very different than what we would have seen if this debuted in the 80s/90s). There's a world of devils with powers that scale with how scared people are of them, and there's devil hunters that kill them. Due to reasons revealed later in the series the devils do eventually resurrect, so there's never a shortage of work.
-What's interesting about Chainsaw man is the storytelling. While the manga shows up in Shonen Jump, it certainly feels a little more mature than its peers in the publication (think Naruto, Bleach). Critical characters regularly die abruptly and in upsetting ways and there's some serious topics tackled between the crude and often stupid humour. It definitely feels like something more likely to be published somewhere intended for slightly more mature audiences.
The series is awkwardly horny at times, but in ways that I think are more an exploration of suppressed sexuality than just there-for-no-reason sexyness. As awkward as it can be I honestly preferred it to the blatant fanservice you'll see in other manga. This is something that's directly addressed in the storyline and character development as opposed to just boob ogling. There's definitely also some more typical fanservice going on with some of the weapon characters later on that's clearly for the author/audience as well, but it's almost always in action sequences which makes it more of a spectacle than anything else. The author's own awkwardness around the topic, or at least their interpretation of how this topic is approached by young men is very present here, as what often begins to be a serious look at the subject will always get laughed off or joked about a couple panels later.
While I don't know much about the author and I'm making some guesses here, I feel like they are very present in Chainsaw man. There's stuff that happens here that feels like it could only be assembled by someone who's been hurt badly and tries to laugh it off. The second arc even has a period where Chainsaw Man (within the story) becomes famous and Denji grapples with this as Chainsaw Man mech is sold and an entire religion is built around him. This feels like a direct interpretation of the author's own critical success with the series' first half -- though I could be significantly off the mark
For all it's cool monsters and gore and silliness, the through-line of the story is aspirations. Having them, meeting them, and how they seem to always be growing and moving. Denji starts with his goal of having toast with jam one day, and once he has it, he soon reaches for more. I do wonder how far he'll end up reaching by the end of the series, assuming it keeps it's original vision through it's meteoric and clearly self-aware rise in popularity.
I love a good dark manga, and I love a good funny manga. You get both of those here if you can stomach some of the more upsetting scenes. It's worlds away from heavier stuff like Berserk or Goodnight Punpun, while taking some of the better bits from both and staying cheeky all the while. I'm going to try to keep up with it as new chapters release.