ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES PROGRAM

A
CRITI
QUE
ABOU
T

CHAINSAW MAN
VOLUME 1
 A Critique
In
English for Academic Purposes
Program (EAPP)

CHAINSAW MAN Vol. 1

By Tatsuki Fujimoto

Submitted by:
Almeck R. Paceno
11 - STEM

Submitted to:
Mrs. Rhea A. Cayabyab
 SYNOPSIS

Set in a world where ‘devils’ lurk among the living, feeding and growing
stronger off of human fears, our hero Denji is a youngster. Having been raised in
poverty by the Yakuza following his father’s death, Denji lives a very malnourished
life, deprived of the simple pleasures of friends and family or even a promised meal
each day. Luckily, he isn’t completely alone. Denji fancies himself as a bit of a rogue
devil hunter, battling fiends with his own devilish companion: a small dog named
Pochita with a chainsaw protruding from its head.

Denji gets into Devil Hunter’s business to help pay off Denji’s father’s debt.
And as you can infer from the job title, a Devil Hunter kills devils that plague their
world. Unfortunately on one of their jobs, they were deceived by their mob boss and
ambushed by a strong zombie devil. Cut into mangled pieces together, Pochita
decides to repay Denji’s good deed by making a new contract with Denji. By having
Pochita as his heart in exchange for seeing Denji’s dreams come true, Denji
continued to live fused together with Pochita as his heart possessing chainsaw
abilities. This turns the perpetually hungry and horny Denji into the titular Chainsaw
Man, who ends up hunting other Devils for the enigmatic Makima, a woman who
works for a governmental bureau of Devil Hunters, and strings Denji along with
vague promises of sex and fortune, even as she treats him as little more than a dog
himself.
 SUMMARY

Denji is a poor young man who will do anything for money, including selling
organs and taking on odd, dangerous jobs hunting down devils with his pet dog,
Pochita.

What makes Chainsaw Man Volume 1 interesting is that it immediately

complicates its protagonist’s life by tying this make-shift devil hunter to a devil, his
dog. Pochita is adorable and deadly, with a chainsaw coming out of his head. It’s
that chainsaw that lets Denji take on all types of nasty devils but their bond isn’t just
made up of slashing through bad guys. Instead, it’s a caring relationship, and it’s
clear that Pochita is the only thing Denji has in the world and the only thing that
cares about him.

Overall, Denji is a simple man with simple dreams, and despite their
seemingly mundane status, they can’t be achieved because he is drowning in a
mountain of debt. In the first chapter it’s clear that Denji is just trying to survive and
while it isn’t easy, Pochita helps him keep living and moving forward. But his already
sad life gets sadder when it turned upside down. Betrayed by someone he trusted,
Denji becomes imbued with the power of a devil and when he unleashes it, he
becomes Chainsaw Man. Part human, part devil, Denji is taken in by a task force
and told to work with them or be killed like the devil he has become.

Chainsaw Man Volume 1 is filled with action, body horror, and surprisingly, a
lot of emotion. As a more graphic title under the Shonen Jump banner, it would have
been easy for Fujimoto to rely on his top-tier creature designs and violent panels.
Instead, we get a story that is balanced with humor and heart. While the gore has its
place, it’s used more to highlight the atmosphere of the story. That said, the action
sequences in this volume are not only graphically violent but imaginative as well. The
ability to create devils based on particular traits is a skill that Fujimoto flexes with
unique character and creature designs.

Additionally, the humor that accompanies the horror in the story is both
illustrated and written. It’s heavy-handed in places in the way that only shonen can
be – Denji just really likes boobs – but it also doesn’t come close to landing fully on
the fanservice side of things. While Denji is a young man looking for a girl to hug, he
is also processing his own problems and trauma. Over the course of this debut
volume, Fujimoto does an excellent job of showcasing Denji’s age and the priorities
that stem from it while also highlighting the more adult and intense issues he is
dealing with as well. This helps make Denji relatable, someone to root for, and a
humourous shonen protagonist at the same time.

All in all, Chainsaw Man Volume 1 sets a wonderful foundation in just seven
chapters. Fujimoto is able to drop readers into a new world, establish how it works,
and knock an emotional moment out of the park. With 86 chapters currently available
on VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump app, you’re going not going to be able to stop yourself
from diving directly into the next chapters of Denji’s story.
HISTORY

Chainsaw Man is written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The series' first
part, "Public Safety arc" ( 公 安 編 , Kōan-hen), ran in Shueisha's shōnen manga
anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 3, 2018, to December 14, 2020;
following the series' conclusion in Weekly Shōnen Jump, a second part was
announced to start on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ online magazine. On December
19, 2020, it was announced that the second part, "School arc" (学校編, Gakkō-hen),
would feature Denji going to school.[15] The second part began serialization on July
13, 2022. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The
first volume was released on March 4, 2019. As of October 4, 2022, twelve volumes
have been released.

In North America, Viz Media published the series' first two chapters on their
Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine for its "Jump Start" initiative. The series was
then published on the Shonen Jump digital platform after the cancellation of Weekly
Shonen Jump. Shueisha also simulpublished the series in English on the app and
website Manga Plus starting in January 2019. In February 2020, Viz Media
announced the digital and print release of the manga. Viz Media posted an official
trailer for the manga, featuring high-octane opera vocals as its soundtrack. The first
volume was released on October 6, 2020. As of June 7, 2022, eleven volumes have
been released.

The manga is also licensed in France by Kazé, in Italy, Mexico, and Brazil by
Panini in Spain by Norma Editorial, in Thailand by Siam Inter Comics, in Poland by
Waneko in Germany by Egmont Manga, in Argentina by Editorial Ivrea, in Taiwan by
Tong Li Publishing, in South Korea by Haksan Publishing, in Russia by Azbooka-
Atticus, and in Vietnam by Tre Publishing House.

As of October 2022, the manga had over 18 million copies in circulation. In

2021, it won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category and won
the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category in 2021 and 2022. Chainsaw Man
has been overall well received by critics, who have commended its storytelling and
characters, and have particularly highlighted its violent scenes within the context of
the story.
 CHAINSAW MAN Volume 1
By Tatsuki Fujimoto
A brutal manga to read, disgusting (in a good way). In terms of limiting their
action scenes or having the simple aim of building a better world for the main
character, this manga doesn't care about any other plot. A  manga where the
characters choose to keep their mouths shut and fight nonstop.
CRITIQUE
Volume 1 of Chainsaw Man is evidence that something can be more than the
sum of its parts because the world and story that Fujimoto is tinkering with have a
surprising amount of weight, a sense of real emotions, and stakes that give all of the
gruesome and insane happenings in Denji's new life a sense of reality, however,
exaggerated they may be. Denji is a great main character, he is relatable in his
struggles both with the ladies and financially along with having a tough yet humorous
personality. Throughout the manga, there is some sexual humor, but it is well done.
The early chapters show Denji's life as a comically impoverished and debt-
ridden twentysomething carry a distinct mark of bitter satire, and they give
meaningful context to his decidedly base urges and motivations. A creature who has
only ever known the urge to survive to the very next day, and the moment Makima
grants him even the smallest morsel of stability, he's suddenly without purpose. What
does someone who has spent his entire life consumed with the singular desire of
“not starving” do once he has regular access to food?
The answer, for Denji, is “touch boobs”, and though his new life goal doesn't
play as sleazy or aggressive as you might imagine, it's worth remembering that all of
Chainsaw Man's surprisingly compelling world building and character development is
wrapped up in a story that's a mishmash of raunchy teen sex comedies. Chainsaw
Man gleefully revels in the cornucopia of meat and fluids that Denji's appendages rip
and tear their way through on his quest to touch literally any consenting woman's
breasts, and this is where Fujimoto's artwork shines the most.
His character designs and general linework can come across as a bit generic
at first glance, but when the carnage comes flooding in, Chainsaw Man has a clarity
of style and consistency of vision that can be wondrous to behold. Fujimoto makes
excellent use of contrasting white and black spaces in his panels, and he has a real
penchant for laying out even the most chaotic bloodbaths with impact and lucidity.
One early scene, in particular, sees Denji sawing his way through a warehouse full of
Devils and Corpses, and though it eventually becomes impossible to make out
individual entities in the sea of viscera that Chainsaw Man leaves in his wake, you
never lose track of the action, and its momentum never falters. That takes real talent,
and I am eager to see where Fujimoto's artistic ambitions take him from here.
That's exactly the kind of mindset a first volume ought to leave its readers in.
Granted, it does take a while to get through all of the exposition and bricklaying that
comes after Makima first inducts Denji as her pet Devil Hunter, but the story picks up
quite a bit as we meet other cast members, like the antagonistic agent aki and the
wildcard demoness simply called Power. While we're only just beginning to catch on
to what Denji's dynamic with this begrudging new family will be like, and what
potential mysteries behind the nature of Devils will end up being explored, Volume 1
of Chainsaw Man earns plenty of goodwill by committing to its surprisingly earnest
and charming brand of ferocious bloodletting. Chainsaw Man might just be in it for
the grub, and the chance to get to second base with Makima (or, really, literally every
living person with breasts — he doesn't seem terribly picky), but he's also willing to
help his scary new Devil partner rescue her pet cat from a giant evil bat monster.
Who wouldn't want to see where a story like that goes next?
Overall this manga is a great mix of humor, action, and storytelling. While it
comes off as a novelty with the somewhat cheesy name and covers it is more than
that, it has sustenance and a future. I would definitely recommend this manga to
someone who loves shonen and doesn't mind a little sexual humor and gore

Type of Approach Used:

Reader's Response - a criticism that ignores both the author and the text's
contents. Mainly focusing on the reader's understanding and reaction in constructing
textual meaning.
 REFERENCES
Chainsaw Man GN 1 Review by James Beckett (2022, September 9)
ANIMENEWSNETWORK. Retrieved October 31, 2022, from
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/chainsaw-man-gn-1/.163451
CHAINSAW MAN MANGA VOLUME 1 REVIEW Written by: Devlen & Kelly
Rightstuf. © 1997 - 2021 Right Stuf, Inc. (800) 338-6827. All Rights Reserved.
Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://www.rightstufanime.com/post/Chainsaw-
Man-Manga-Volume-1-Review
Chainsaw Man Wiki Volume 1 Chainsaw Man Wiki is a FANDOM Anime Community.
Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://chainsaw-man.fandom.com/wiki/Volume_1

Manga Review: Chainsaw Man (Tatsuki Fujimoto) MAY 6, 2022 BY MORNING,

ROO
Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://morningroo.com/2022/05/06/chainsaw-
man-review/

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