The first part was brilliant, the second part is just a mistake...

After part 1 finshed, it was like a high note for the manga. However after ztarting part 2, its has dropped significantly in quality, the best way to read this is just read part 1 then wait for part 2 to finish so you do not get blue balled every chapter

I like gore and fanservice but not the protagonist. He's a depressed version of Giricco from Soul Eater. Art is inconsistent, drawn by a trembling hand. Probably appeals to the younger audience so they can just sit there crying oh woe is meeee and never improve their own situation and just cry harder and play the victim. And on to of that, the story just goes on and ooon without a plan or ending in sight, a terrible trait that a lot of manga have in modern times. 10 volumes done perfectly beat 100 done poorly and with filler.

... Last updated on June 11th, 2024, 2:18am

The first part is pretty good, maybe at times moves too quickly and I would have liked to have seen a little more character development. Its sometimes harsh on characters and nobody really gets out alive or continues to live with all their body parts intact which is as it should be when fighting devils or making contracts with them. The art was sometimes ok, sometimes weak. The characters though were memorable and their interactions really made the series shine. Overall, the first part of Chainsaw Man was fun and entertaining.

Then the second half began and these last 4 volumes have been trash. Where the first part moved too quickly at times, this second part drags and is bad at explaining what's going on. I'm actually bored during the fights. None of the characters are interesting. In the first half Power was a load of fun and her and Denji's relationship was cool. Makima was mysterious and frightening, Aki was tragic, Himeno was an awesome and sexy one-eyed lady, and Kobeni was the punch monkey of the group. Nothing like those characters exists in the second part and as a result it gives nobody for Denji (the MC) to bounce off of. Denji by himself is kind of boring without other interesting characters. So far it feels like the writer is phoning it in, like they don't have a very good idea where they want to go with this second story or they don't really care. The first part took a couple of chapters to hit its stride, we are already 4 volumes in for the second part and it really hasn't done the same. This used to be 8/10 manga for me, dropping it to 6/10 now and maybe someday I'll come back and pick it up again or maybe not.

... Last updated on July 20th, 2023, 5:54am

Edit : looks like it's piking up pace again (ch 170+-).

The first part is engaging and coherent, even though the MC is portrayed as simple and a bit crazy. The plot happening all around him is constantly advancing and explained, along with all the conspiracies and lore. Most of the questions are answered before the end of the first part and not given to us on a silver platter as most shounens do, so you can enjoy the MC's simple, crazy journey towards a better life along with the development of the rest of the main cast and Makima's plan.

On the other hand, the second part is not going so well... The old MC is in the spotlight too much, so the story is moving slower. The most disappointing part is how the old MC has barely matured. I mean, I didn't expect a 360º, but him still being extremely poor and still having the emotional intelligence of a toddler is nonsense. At the very least, not actively working toward his objective is disappointing; he's completely passive and even duller than in the first part.



Edit (rant about part 2):
I'm just dropping it until the second part ends. Male MC's fight is no different from his initial fights; with this, they've undone all of Denjin's progress in every way. In Fire punch the author really managed to keep the tension even after the characters had reached their peak in power. But in the second part, they could've introduced a character to fill in Dejin's role (they just use him to keep readers interested since the author/editor wasn't confident in a female MC?). They could've also started the story before part1's ending; that would give the new MC room to grow or at least change her setting (Denjin started as a yakuza handyman or weak devilhunter before getting his powers). I mean, they're pitting her (a girl bad at sports) against the final bosses just after getting powers...

... Last updated on July 23rd, 2024, 2:29pm

enjoyable enough, good art, and sometimes intellectually engaging but with one fatal (heh) flaw:

Having picked this up after the hype around the anime (that i haven't watched, nor at this point intend to), I was dragged in initially by.. while not overly complex, what seemed to be the premise of a good story. Characters that were introduced were not boring clones of each other and seemed to have their own things going for them. I would say that if I just read the first 80 chapters. It would still be fine (you can draw a line somewhere around 50 as well but sure).

But boy does it go downhill. Plotlines that seem more than surface level appear to be non existant, characters that seemed to have interesting things, growth, reasoning to them.. turn out to be just one dimensional and non existant. Even the most relevant characters to the plot, have nothing going for them anymore. To the point where, in my opinion, the MC commits character suicide. Where.. any resemblance of growth.. of development, is just thrown away for.. I don't even know what.

What we're left with is a manga which had gold, and now is a (literal) bloody mess that honestly, isn't even worth picking up anymore if you just want to keep going/reading. Only reason it still has a 'positive' score is because it's for Shonen Jump. So it doesn't have to be complex, and there's nothing wrong with that. But other than gore/visuals at times, it has no outstanding qualities.

Very much like 20th Century Boys this story is waaay too much over rated and I don't understand why.
The art is bad, the story is mediocre, the action is unexciting, the fanservice is... where??
Maybe in Japan there's some lucky drawn contest a manga might win to get popular without any real merits or creativity.

... Last updated on October 16th, 2022, 2:27pm

I thought Chainsaw Man was just okay. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it wasn’t bad either. If the story had been twice as long, it would have had more time to be fleshed out.

The things it does well:

- The story is fast-paced and hits the ground running from the first chapter.
- The banter between Denji, Power, and Aki is endearing.
- Aki’s character. Loved his character. He was one of the few who had deeper motivations and some development. He was one of the few I actually cared about and honestly wanted to see more of him.

The things I didn’t like:
- Way too much fanservice…
- Most of these characters seem so two-dimensional. Even Makima, who is supposed to be a mystery figure. We don’t get to see her backstory or deeper motivations, just that she’s a simp like Denji.
- Speaking of Denji…oh man. His one true goal in life is to touch some boobs and get laid. That’s it. And by the end (chapter 97), he’s still the same one-dimensional, horny character. There was some light in the middle where I thought he would change for the greater good and worry more about the world around him, but alas…I was fooling myself 😂
- I very much love characters who I can root for. There were few here that I actually cared for. I couldn’t establish a semblance of sympathy for most of them and I wonder if it had been longer, would they have been more fleshed out? I guess it doesn’t matter, as a lot of them died anyways ☠️

... Last updated on October 9th, 2022, 11:07am