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Chainsaw Man Japanese: チェンソーマン, Hepburn: Chensō Man is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Its first arc was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2018 to December 2020; its second arc began serialization in Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website in July 2022. Its chapters have been collected in 17 tankōbon volumes as of April 2024.
Chainsaw Man follows the story of Denji, an impoverished teenager who makes a contract that fuses his body with that of a dog-like Devil named Pochita, granting him the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Denji eventually joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government agency focused on fighting against Devils whenever they become a threat to Japan. The second arc of the story focuses on Asa Mitaka, a high school student who enters into a contract with Yoru, the War Devil, who forces her to hunt down Chainsaw Man in order to reclaim what he had stolen from her.
In North America, the manga is licensed in English by Viz Media, for both print and digital release, and it is also published by Shueisha on the Manga Plus online platform. An anime television series adaptation produced by MAPPA was broadcast from October to December 2022. An anime film, titled Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, has been announced.
By May 2024, the manga had over 27 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. In 2021, it won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category and won the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category from 2021 to 2023. Chainsaw Man has been overall well received by critics, who have commended its storytelling, characters, dark humor, and have particularly highlighted its violent scenes within the context of the story.
Synopsis
Setting
The story is set in a world where Devils 悪魔, Akuma are born from human fears. However, individuals called Devil Hunters デビルハンター, Debiru Hantā specialize in hunting and employing them. The events take place in 1997, in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union still exists, and many events such as the Holocaust, AIDS and nuclear weapons have been erased from history due to the consumption of their respective Devils by the Chainsaw Devil, with only four powerful Devils known as the Horsemen Control, War, Famine, and Death remembering the events. Humans can make contracts with Devils via a sacrifice, allowing them to use the Devil's power. Devils can also become Fiends by possessing a human's dead body. When a Devil is killed on Earth, it reappears in Hell, and if it is killed in Hell, it reincarnates in a new body on Earth.
Plot
Further information: List of Chainsaw Man characters
Part 1 – Public Safety Arc
Denji is a teenager trapped in poverty, working off his deceased father's debt to the yakuza by working as a Devil Hunter, aided by Pochita, his canine companion and Chainsaw Devil. Denji is betrayed by the yakuza, who kill him for a contract with the Zombie Devil. Pochita makes a contract with Denji, merging with him as a Devil-human hybrid, under the condition that Denji live out his modest dreams of living a basic life such as having bread with jam, or falling in love with a woman and being intimate with one. By pulling on a cord in his chest, Denji then becomes Chainsaw Man and massacres the yakuza.
In the aftermath, Denji joins a team of governmental Devil Hunters, the Public Safety Division, led by Makima, who assigns him to kill the Gun Devil. After being paired with a more experienced Devil Hunter named Aki Hayakawa, Denji begins training with his partner, Power the Blood Fiend, under the veteran Devil Hunter Kishibe. Together, they fight several enemies who seek Denji's power, including the yakuza, other Devils, and assassins sent by various countries.
Makima is later revealed to be the Control Devil, who is ultimately seeking to control Pochita, as he has the power to erase evil concepts from the world by consuming their Devils. The Gun Devil whose body had secretly been divided among several countries as a superweapon is sent by the United States to kill Makima, but she defeats it, forcing it to enter Aki's body as the Gun Fiend, whom Denji kills in self-defense. Makima later kills Power in front of Denji, rendering him catatonic and forcing Pochita to take over his body.
Kishibe organizes a raid to rescue Denji alongside cowardly Public Safety operative Kobeni Higashiyama. With their help and the last of Power's blood, Denji kills Makima. Some time later, Kishibe places the reborn Control Devil—a little girl named Nayuta—in Denji's care. In a dream, Pochita thanks Denji for showing him his dreams, and encourages him to live his life to the fullest. Denji begins attending high school while also fighting Devils as a vigilante.
Part 2 – School Arc
Asa Mitaka is an introverted high school student attending Fourth East High School, who has trouble finding her place in society following her mother's death to the Typhoon Devil. One day, after accidentally killing her class's pet Chicken Devil Bucky, she is confronted by the Class President who has made a contract with the Justice Devil. She attempts to kill Asa, but Yoru, the War Devil appears in the form of a bird and makes a contract with Asa, inhabiting her body and making her a living Fiend host, under the condition that she kill Chainsaw Man. After her quick vengeance, Asa seeks to find Chainsaw Man, though she and Yoru have differing goals: Asa wants Yoru to leave her body, while Yoru wants to reclaim the Nuclear Weapons Devil that was consumed by Pochita.
Meanwhile, Denji has adapted to his new life as a normal high school student, also attending Fourth East, while trying to raise Nayuta and use his newfound fame as Chainsaw Man to attract women. However, Hirofumi Yoshida, a classmate and Devil Hunter himself, keeps blocking Denji's attempts to reveal his alter-ego while keeping tabs on him for the government. Trying to prove a point, Yoshida introduces Asa to Denji, who outright admits to being Chainsaw Man, but Asa does not believe him. Even so, Yoru pushes Asa to become Denji's girlfriend, as Yoru thinks she can use him to create a weapon capable of killing Chainsaw Man. Meanwhile, a mysterious impostor Chainsaw Man stalks the streets, killing Asa's friend Yuko.
After surviving a trap set for them by the Famine Devil, Fami, at an aquarium, Yoru tries to transform Denji into a weapon through Asa's body, but fails. As Asa feels rejected by different boys she trusted, the Falling Devil appears, trying to cook her into a meal. Denji, as Chainsaw Man, along with the impostor, appears and helps her escape, with Fami and Nayuta manipulating events in the background. Asa becomes attracted to Chainsaw Man after realizing he has saved her life multiple times. Fami wants Yoru to survive for the sake of changing the Prophecy of Nostradamus and protecting humanity from the appearance of Death Devil, but Nayuta is more concerned with childish things like wanting to attend school and eat snacks. During the aftermath of Falling Devil's attack, Denji, Nayuta, and their dogs are captured by Yoshida's organization, as the supporters of Chainsaw Man form the Chainsaw Man Society for World Peace led by Haruka Iseumi of the Devil Hunter Club. Yoshida threatens to kill Nayuta if Denji ever transforms into Chainsaw Man again, since the conflict between the supporters and critics of Chainsaw Man is escalating.
Production
Despite the series' violence and dark humor, Tatsuki Fujimoto always wanted to serialize in Weekly Shōnen Jump, but he had the feeling that his work would be "buried" if he had made a "Jump-like manga," so he tried to retain much of his individuality as a creator while making only the structure and characters Jump-like. Fujimoto also said that, despite its success in the magazine, he wanted to write the second part of the series on Shōnen Jump+, because he wanted to do a completely different series from the first part. According to him, there is not much of a difference in working between Weekly Shōnen Jump and Shōnen Jump+, explaining that there were a few depictions that got stopped during the rough draft stage, but he was allowed to do anything he wanted regarding the logic of the story.
Fujimoto said that he took inspiration from various works. During the serialization of Chainsaw Man, Fujimoto said that he was too busy, but he watched as many new things as he could and borrowed various elements from what he saw. On Twitter, he stated that he was a fan of the 2016 film trilogy Kizumonogatari, and that the trilogy's final battle, shown in Part 3: Reiketsu, inspired the final battle of the first part of Chainsaw Man. He also described the series as a "wicked FLCL" and a "pop Abara." Fujimoto had various elements from the series planned from the beginning, while other things were added as it progressed. He did not have specific plans to bring payoff to the meaningful-sounding words and things that felt "off," adding that he left various things vague to make the series' second part easier to do.
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