PART 2 OF CHAINSAW MAN HAS ARRIVED!
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s wild ride continues, with a new chapter of his hit manga Chainsaw Man signaling its return from hiatus. The first part of Chainsaw Man was a runaway hit, circulating millions of copies around the globe, and leaving people desperate for both new material and the upcoming anime (which as of this point does not have a firm release date).
For anyone not familiar with the plot, only aware of the series through Kobeni memes and Chainsaw Man cosplays, the series exists in a world where devils are created and grow powerful through the fear they cause in humans. Devil Hunters exist to rid Earth of these devils, and have gained their powers through the contracts they’ve made with other devils. So the series follows the life of Denji, who while trying to pay back his father’s debt to the Yakuza, ends up dying, making a contract with his devil dog Pochita, and is thrown into the world of devil hunting. I’ll stop there to avoid spoiling much else if you haven’t started the series (which I highly recommend you do…)
To say that series blew up is an understatement. The last chapter of part 1 dropped in 2020, and since then the sales and hype around Chainsaw Man have remained huge. Here’s some stats from Wikipedia breaking down the manga sales:
As of August 2020, the manga had over 3 million copies in circulation;[86][7] it had over 4.2 million copies in circulation as of October 2020;[87] over 5 million copies in circulation as of December 2020;[88][75] over 6.4 million copies in circulation as of January 2021;[89] over 9.3 million copies in circulation as of March 2021;[90] over 11 million copies in circulation as of June 2021;[91][92] over 12 million copies in circulation as of December 2021;[93] and over 13 million copies in circulation as of June 2022.[94]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainsaw_Man#Reception
The hype has continued to grow even before the new chapter dropped, with an anime series announced in 2020, currently set to drop in 2022 and to be produced by MAPPA (of Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and many others). Cosplays, fan art, and packed crowds at anime con panels have been steadily dropping over the last 2 years, with no end in site to the excitement. So a new chapter dropping today has just poured more fuel on the flame.
Once again, the new chapter can currently be read for free legally on Viz’s site, and I highly encourage you check it out if you’ve read everything up to this new school arc.
As for what I think about the new chapter? Well, first of all…HONK HONK BEEP BEEP THIS IS A SPOILER ZONE BELOW PLEASE DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEW CHAINSAW MAN CHAPTER.
OK, with that out of the way, let’s talk. We are introduced to the plucked, headless chicken devil, who will be raised up for 100 days in what feels like an every day high school class…and then killed and eaten. Starting off with this ridiculous plotline makes me realize how much I missed this world. Despite the oddity of a talking, naked chicken, a lot of the world building feels purposely standard. You’ve got your motivated teacher, your outcast student that doesn’t feel like they belong, and your class president trying to bring her into the fold. You get hints of the Chainsaw Man still being a large part of this world, and Asa Mitaka wanting him and everyone else to just disappear from it. When we finally reach the point where it feels like Mitaka is going to do the classic “join her classmates and live a happy high school life”, we immediately witness the accidental death of “Bucky” the chicken devil. With it we see Mitaka being thrown back into the role of the sad loner (at this point sadder than ever).
Cut to the scene where Mitaka’s teacher and the class president try to take her to Bucky’s grave to provide some way to deal with her grief, and we get the big reveal that the class president signed a contract with a devil. She did it to find a way to get the teacher to pay attention only to her (oh…and apparently he was sleeping with her, DAMN.) So the gruesome reveal of the mutated president occurs and she lashes out to kill Mitaka, and it looks like she is successful. During her last moments of life, Mitaka realizes the mistakes she had made and the regrets she still had. It is at that final moment a devil appears, and offers her an opportunity to live, as long as she is willing to give up her body to this devil. She accepts, and is reborn as the War Devil, and immediately makes a huge first impression. She dispatches the head and entire spinal column of her teacher, making it into an epic blade to stop her rampaging class president. She reunites the head of her teacher and the class president together for just a moment, only to blow them up with a makeshift “hand” grenade. In the process she throws in a classic “walk away from the explosion without looking” scene, and the battle is through.
The chapter ends with the new War Devil proclaiming that she’s coming for the Chainsaw Man, and the nuclear weapons he ingested long ago.
So, in my opinion, this new chapter was a fantastic reintroduction to the crazy world of Chainsaw Man. We start off with normal activities mixed up with zany characters (“Chicken Devil”?), along with their emotions being whipped back and forth until we get an epic slice of action, murder, and explosions. We knew Bucky wasn’t going to live, but the random trip-and-fall death, which also circled back around as not even being her fault? It’s that level of ridiculousness that I have missed.
It looks like the War Devil is the new antagonist that will be going after Denji. Long term, it seems like we have a Four Horsemen plotline, but with Fujimoto who knows? Nuclear war was stopped once, but it looks like it’s back on the table. All in all, a great new start to the series, and I can’t wait for new chapters.
I know that “thing that becomes popular” often gets tagged with the “overhyped” label. But sometimes you just need to watch and enjoy new things. If the discussion and hype start to turn you off, just walk away from it, right? Honestly, getting away from the fanbase is what has helped me get through series like MHA, Naruto, and Demon Slayer without feeling like I’m being forced to enjoy them. Chainsaw Man is big, and the discussions will probably get even louder once the anime drops. So brace yourself folks 🙂
