Denji is at the very bottom when the story begins. To pay off his father’s debts, he has already sold one eye, a kidney, and even a testicle, and the sum left to be given away is skyrocketing. Having no other choice, the main character earns money by killing lesser demons. He is assisted in this by a friendly chainsaw demon – Pochita, who looks like a nice pooch (with a giant blade in the center of his mouth). Their miserable lives almost come to an end when the creditor sets a trap for them. Mortally wounded Denji is saved by Pochita, who decides to give his life for his friend. In this way, a creature that the world has not seen is created – a man who can turn into a crazy beast with chainsaws sticking out of his head and hands. The hybrid’s extraordinary skills attract the attention of professional demon hunters, to whom the protagonist is forced into force. Denji thus finally gains social advancement and learns to use his abilities – anything to fulfill his greatest dream: to touch women’s breasts.
I only have one thing on my mind
If the last words of the previous paragraph made you raise your eyebrows, then I advise you to prepare for more. Unfortunately, Denji has a condition typical of many shōnen manga – he is simple and goofy by nature. In this case, it has a plot justification: the protagonist spent his entire life paying off debts, so he did not find time for school. This makes his desires basic – to eat his fill, sleep on a comfortable bed, etc. At the top of his personal Maslow’s pyramid, however, there is one position: touching. Denji is capable of risking her own life, just to be able to experience physical contact with a woman.
I have an allergic reaction to this type of fanservice – in most cases, the shaved scenes are introduced in a hopeless way and do not play any role in the plot. To this day, my disgust is caused by Fire Force , where one of the protagonists has the “superpower” of being accidentally groped by outsiders. Chainsaw Mandespite what I wrote above, it is surprisingly… subtle against this background. Well, which is extremely rare, Denji is only “strong in his mouth” – he talks a lot, but (fortunately!) He does not harass strangers. All the scenes here are based on voluntariness on the female side. What’s more, even lofty values are presented in this twisted way – when the protagonist, disappointed with his first contact, complains to his boss: they are cooler the better you know your partner. ” Watching the female characters decide about their bodies for themselves is a noveltyso praise is to be given for that. At the same time, it’s hard to shake off the impression that all of this was born in the imagination of the creator, Tatsuki Fujimoto, and that almost all of the protagonists choose to physically contact Denji to achieve their own goals.
Besides the above problem with fanservice, Chainsaw Man is a really decent manga. Although there are many humorous inserts here, they are usually contrasted with sad scenes depicting the past and present of the hunters, each of which has some sort of trauma (inner demon? Badum tss! ). It is true that Fujimoto’s work consists of elements taken from other titles, but he does it surprisingly efficiently. Demon Hunters are just another uniform-uniform organization – their suits resemble those of the agents in Men in Black.At one point, Denji is ordered to live with his squad leader, Akim Hayakawa, and after some time they are joined by the demonic Power. Their home adventures resemble the adventures of Misato, Asuka and Shinji with Evangelion too much . The first three volumes are also based on the “monster of the week” scheme – Denji learns the techniques of his new trade, fighting other monsters. And what works best is the variety of opponents. They come in all sorts of variants – from the standard-looking bat demon to such twisted concepts as the demon of eternity. It is a brilliant idea to introduce the firearms demon as the most powerful creature and main antagonist (is it surprising that it was born in the USA?).
Graphics sharp as a vein … a chainsaw
The artwork created by Fujimoto is fantastic. Starting from the appearance of the character – I decided to use this title only because of how interesting the main character is. How can you not love a boy wearing a tie who has a saw instead of a head (and a smile full of sharp teeth) and two extra blades grow out of his shoulders? And how good it looks in action scenes that are drawn in a very brutal and dynamic way. Mangaka works very well in technical drawings – it can create cities full of precision and detail in the background. However, when he comes to draw action scenes, it all takes on a more chaotic dimension. The line becomes shaky and brings to mind a sketch. This fits perfectly with the madness of the main character, whose body is taken over by a demon. It is also full of gore, but I did not expect anything else.
Brum-brum-brum-brum-brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Despite the schematic core of the plot and the goofy character and his problematic Chainsaw Man motivation, I was reading great. Fujimoto has created a strong title , in which perfectly balanced with serious topics with humorous elements. I wish more such shōnens to myself and others.
