One of the manga that I'm most hooked on right now is Chainsaw Man, a manga created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, mangaka creator of Fire Punch, another manga that I haven't read completely yet, but the few chapters that I've been able to read his previous work, you can see the pattern that and the characteristics that this mangaka uses for his works. Really for the standards that the Shonen Jump has accustomed us, Chainsaw Man breaks all the paradigms that this magazine had accustomed us, being this manga a totally unexpected turn that brings freshness and variety to the typical shonen that we know.
Chainsaw Man focuses on the life of Denji, an orphan who unfortunately owes a lot of money to the mafia, because his father left that debt before he died, so he has been selling body parts and also works as a demon hunter. But as depressing as that might sound, Denji does not show the reader any kind of pity, since despite his situation he remains very positive and eager to continue living. Despite having been orphaned at a very young age, Denji is not completely alone, as at some point in his life he meets a small demon with a chainsaw for a snout, so that Denji uses it as a weapon to defeat other demons, these two being great friends.
But one day things would change when the mobsters to whom Denji owed money attacked them in their house, killing both Denji and Pochita on the spot, but with the little strength the little demon had left, he joined Denji, bringing him back to life and giving him the power of the chainsaw, turning him into half a demon.
In spite of this beginning that for many may sound quite typical, the truth is that this manga is slowly showing that it is nothing that the Shonen Jump has got us used to, showing us a quite violent manga, that is not afraid of killing characters that we thought were important, with a quite characteristic style and a not so conventional way of telling the story. Denji is one of the most "real" characters, so to speak, that we have seen in this magazine, because he has desires that a person could want in real life, so it is easy to identify with him. This manga is not over, so you can't give a 100% opinion yet.
Chainsaw Man is a manga with enough potential, with plot twists and quite tense moments, with a minimalist drawing style, but great and excellent details when needed, which throughout its chapters makes references and tributes, both to other mangas, literary works or even previous works of its creator. Without any doubt it is one of the best new mangas of the Shonen Jump, which I hope it still keeps the strength, the rarity and the extraordinary of its plot along the time, but also that it doesn't ruin it by extending it like other mangas.
As I said before this manga has quite a few references to other manga works, movies or literary works these are some of them, some of them are quite obvious and I could discover them by myself, but others I had to investigate and luckily I found a twitter thread where they list some of these references:
- Clear reference to the movie Sharknado, considering that on Denji's side, there's a half shark demon.
- Another reference to one of Berserk's most epic moments
- This reference is so obvious that it goes without saying that it is a parody.
In this Twitter thread they make a compilation of more references:
As final words, Chainsaw Man is a manga that breaks the paradigms of Shonen Jump, a quite promising manga, original, but also with a quite violent and cruel plot, an excellent manga.
