Chainsaw Man: Why you shouldn’t miss it!

After the success of the animated adaptation of  Chainsaw Man , the manga resumes publication in France with its part 2 from April 5. Back to this phenomenon.

This is an article published as part of a partnership. But what is a Large Screen partnership?

It’s not a secret (or a badly kept one): within Large Screen, several members are not indifferent to the name of  Tatsuki Fujimoto . We had an infinite pleasure in defending his one-shot works such as the brilliant Look Back or the sublime Adieu Eri . Little marvels that already say so much about his talent. But if a manga has made Tatsuki Fujimoto well known in recent years and has raised him to the rank of essential author of his generation , it is obviously  Chainsaw Man available on Crunchyroll in France .

After completing Fire Punch , his first eight-volume series (we will also have to come back to it one day as it is so colossal), Fujimoto is transported to the most famous manga pre-publication magazine: Shōnen  Jump . He was then only twenty-six when he started the story of Denji, a young demon hunter riddled with debts who had never known anything but misery before tragic events pushed him to question what he desires in life. From the first chapter, readers have found  Chainsaw Man  to be incredibly charming.

We recognize a world very close to ours (except that it is plagued by demons) and the tone used to describe it is brutal, satirical and uncompromising. However, we do not find the same feverish madness of the beginning of Fire Punch , but nothing abnormal: Fujimoto is now in the Jump and he must contain himself. To survive there, he must create a story that suits the standards of shonen… And it is thanks to this constraint in particular that he begins to deploy in  Chainsaw Man all the essence of his genius.

A true generational hero CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

CHAINSAW, BLOODY CHAINSAW

Before going back to the elements that make Chainsaw Man a great work, let’s take a look at its history. Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga therefore began its pre-publication on December 3, 2018 in Japan and then continued without major interruption until December 14, 2020. The date on which its first part (that is to say its first major story arc). If Fire Punch fans were there from the first chapters, Chainsaw Man ‘s notoriety was built slowly during the first months of its publication… before it exploded.

And over time, the title has gone from a little Jump UFO to one of the magazine’s superstars , alongside Jujutsu Kaisen or My Hero Academia . Sales of the bound volumes are booming in Japan, to such an extent that Fujimoto’s work has become the best-selling shonen without animated adaptation in the Oricon rankings. The number of fans increases constantly and Chainsaw Man becomes a real phenomenon, and this before Mappa studios gets down to its animated adaptation. However, as the manga grew in popularity, it already strayed further and further from Jump’s standards, becoming its most startling anomaly.

The Chainsaw Man anime by Mappa

Since then, readers have been raving about trying to describe what makes Chainsaw Man Part 1 such an achievement and something so different from other Jump manga . Punk, parodic, uninhibited, gore, original, subversive, daring, experimental  : all of that is pretty fair. The most widespread comments on the manga are not misleading and it is for all these qualities evoked that more and more curious people have tried the adventure of Chainsaw Man  and have hung on to it for a long time. However, we will not stop there.

If Fujimoto’s manga is a very explosive, funny and effective entertainment, this is by no means its main value. Many appreciate how Chainsaw Man ‘s early arcs seem to poke fun at classic shonen codes or how its regressive, uninhibited humor comes to unceremoniously surprise the reader (especially at first). However, if we stopped at these aspects of the manga, we would barely scratch the surface. There are many things that could be addressed more precisely in the manga. But the first step not to miss to explore a title of Tatsuki Fujimoto is above all in one thing: cinema.

Excellent CHAINSAW MAN program © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

BETWEEN THE SEVENTH AND THE NINTH ART

Some of the general public discovered Fujimoto’s legendary cinephilia with the recent anime series. Indeed, its very good opening credits are stuffed with movie references ( Reservoir Dogs , The Big Lebowski , Texas Chainsaw Massacre , Pulp Fiction , etc.). Many threads on Twitter have also highlighted them, which amused more than one. Then others noticed Mappa Studios’ ambition to give its series a more movie-like realization (giving cohesive physicality and movement to the characters or playing with the camera as if it were present in the movie). diegetic space of the anime) than of a classic anime.

This bias of Mappa is not insignificant. For Fujimoto, the seventh art holds an absolutely vital place in his art and in his philosophy. It’s a theme that we had also developed on this site, about Adieu Eri . Each of the works of this author breathes the air of cinema and wishes to turn his gaze in its direction. A devouring passion embodied by an unforgettable character in  Fire Punch and who is not absent from any page of Chainsaw Man .

The cast of CHAINSAW MAN when theatres reopen

Like the credits of the series, the manga therefore constantly quotes works from the seventh art and in such a broad prism that it would make a certain site with an orange and white logo blush. This ranges from an ultra-pyrotechnic and exhilarating chapter that invokes the imagination of the nanar Sharknado to a moving outing in dark rooms that offers us some shots of Chukhrai Grigory’s Ballad of the Soldier . Fujimoto also relies on these horror classics ( Evil Dead , Heredity ) or superheroics ( Spider-Man 2 , Hellboy ) to feed all the aesthetics and the narration of his manga. But beware, these are not stupid paraphrases.

The mangaka uses each of his inspirations as so many detonators to explode his story in exhilarating and unpredictable trajectories. In the same way as a Quentin Tarantino (director to whom he has sometimes been compared), he only draws from his film library very specific elements to build his imagination , such as ingredients collected from the right and left to cook puts him on. more surprising. In addition to creating multiple bridges between his medium and that of cinema, Fujimoto proves with Chainsaw Man that each art is capable of reinventing itself, of transcending itself, drawing its strength from another.

Some demons appear out of boxes to enhance their supernatural natures CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

Now that we have carefully focused on the cinematic aspect of Fujimoto’s works, it is time to explain how this one is directly linked to his greatest talent as a designer: cutting . A technical dimension often too little commented on in comics when it is the sinews of war in this medium in terms of pacing the action and structuring the narration. And it turns out that Tatsuki Fujimoto is perhaps one of the greatest masters of die-cutting right now.

Why that ? Well, because everything in his way of cutting the narrative tends to approach a storyboard carried out with a master hand. For example, when he controls the temporality of his action by successions of static shots or when with double-page spreads he makes us jump from our chair as if facing a screamer. When he summons the off-screen and the invisible by using the space between the cases. Everything refers to a staging extremely focused on the image rather than the text. “Show, don’t tell” is the manga’s major instruction and on its pure form, Chainsaw Man is a work of cinematography on every page.

Makima’s hypnotic character will have you revising Hobbes and Freud CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

POETRY AND CHAINSAW

But if we talked a lot about the inspirations of the manga, its technical strengths and its most recognized qualities, what about the scenario? Has Fujimoto produced a small masterpiece of gore but stimulating stupidity that justifies its reading by its staging and its marginal character? Absolutely not. Beyond its form, Chainsaw Man ‘s true strength lies in its immense depth. At first glance low-headed and nag, the work hides in itself  a beating heart and a tumultuous brain.

Moreover, each rereading of Chainsaw Man opens an additional door beyond its first interpretation, towards a plurality of limitless themes. A first journey in the manga (from the beginning to the end of part 1) will be experienced as a real emotional roller coaster, oscillating between brainless punk and staggering tragicomic. A colder second reading will make the story appear much more melancholy and wry . And it is only after a few more readings that we will discern the immense tenderness hidden behind the demons and the chainsaws. It will indeed take a little digging to find the true meaning of Chainsaw Man . And it’s worth it.

Makima’s hypnotic character will have you revising Hobbes and Freud CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

Through an unforgettable cast (Denji, Aki, Himeno, Power… Makima!) where each character is irreplaceable – perfectly designed to constitute the overall subject of the work – Chainsaw Man will strike each reader in a way that is always a little different. and with astonishing accuracy. All his apparent bullshit is ultimately only there to make us lower our guard as the manga progresses. We take great pleasure in seeing our charismatic, but rather naive chainsaw man kill terrifying creatures – when suddenly, complex existential issues come to grab us by the throat, with a dramatic simplicity that touches on grace.

In bulk (and without spoilers), we are confronted with subjects such as, among others, the dilemma of freedom, the legitimate violence of the State, the initiatory journey towards love, the renunciation of rights through the loss of consent , etc. So many angles from which one could write many manga exegeses . All of them are condensed and perfectly distilled through the few explosive arcs of Chainsaw Man Part 1 , which devours in a very short time. A work already complete in itself… which continues with an equally promising part 2!

After the chaos… we can enjoy the calm and beauty of silence CHAINSAW MAN © 2018 by Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.

This part 2 began in Japan on July 13, 2022 and its publication begins in France on April 5, 2023 with volume 12 of the manga. This is a continuation of the first part, but upsets from its first chapters everything that has been installed so far. By introducing a new main character (high school student Asa Mitaka, who is already one of the best in manga at the time of writing), Fujimoto is blasting the entire Chainsaw Man universe again. This part 2 is in progress and only two volumes (soon three) are published in Japan. The best is still to come.

With an author who is never where expected, but constantly manages to surpass himself technically and narratively (and he is still only at the beginning of his rich career),  Chainsaw Man is currently the one of the most essential manga of the moment and will mark the history of its medium (if it hasn’t already been done). And whether you like manga, cinema or are simply looking for a title that shakes you up, it is urgent to read (and reread!)  Chainsaw Man .

Volume 12 of Chainsaw Man  will be available from April 5, 2023.