Chainsaw Man (Japanese: チェンソーマン, Hepburn: Chensō Man) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2018 to December 2020, with its chapters collected in eleven tankōbon volumes. It follows the story of Denji, an impoverished young man who after making a contract with a dog-like devil named Pochita, he fuses with Denji, 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 the world.

A second part of the manga began serialization in Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ online magazine starting in July 2022. 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 is set to premiere in 2022.

As of June 2022, the manga had over 13 million copies in circulation. In 2021, it won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category, as well as the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category. 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.

Setting

The story is set in a world where Devils are born from human fears. Devils are usually dangerous and malevolent, their power proportional to the fear they incite. However, humans can form contracts with them to use their power, and there are individuals specializing in hunting and employing them, called Devil Hunters. Devils originate from Hell, and exist in a cycle between Earth and Hell: they migrate to Earth when killed in Hell, and vice-versa.

A Devil may, in certain conditions, inhabit the body of a dead human, gaining some of their memories and personality; such a creature is called a Fiend. Devils who naturally have a humanoid form are said to be benevolent to humans.

The events of the story take place in 1997, in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union still exists, and many events such as the Holocaust appear to have not occurred.

Plot

spoiler

When his father died, Denji was stuck with a huge debt and no way to pay it back. Thanks to a Devil dog he saved named Pochita, he's able to survive through odd jobs and killing Devils for the Yakuza. Pochita's chainsaw powers come in handy against these powerful demons. When the Yakuza betrays him and he's killed by the Zombie Devil, Pochita sacrifices himself to save his former master. Now Denji has been reborn as some kind of weird Devil-Human hybrid. He is now a Chainsaw Man!

After his transformation, he's quickly recruited by Makima to join the Public Safety Devil Hunters under threat of extermination now that he's technically a Devil. Now that he's living comfortably for the first time in his life, Denji struggles to determine his dreams and form meaningful relationships while killing Devils and working alongside other eccentric Devil Hunters.

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  • drinkinglakewater [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Yep, he's AFAB and drawn like a typical anime woman, but in the story the character has been clear he's a man. The cowards on the wiki have been using she/her because there's some discrepancies in some of the side material

    • Traveler [fae/faer]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I just looked up art of his character and he's fucking kick-ass. I had no idea one piece had trans characters like him, that's tight. Does he sometimes use binders at all or does he not give a fuck? I'm so curious how he's handled as a character.

      • drinkinglakewater [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        He's a relatively new addition to the main cast and hasn't shown to use any binders so far. Seems like he's pretty unabashed about how his body looks because he's trying to emulate his hero and be a cool strong guy

        There's also a bunch of queer side characters that, while drawn kinda offensively for comedy, are all extremely based

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          kiku was added around the same time (or in the same arc at least, think they were 2 years apart), and she's pretty well done iirc

          • drinkinglakewater [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yeah Kiku is cool and done respectfully, I was thinking more about the Newkamas and how they're initially portrayed, specifically with Sanji on Kamabakka Island, but Ivankov and Bon Clay are awesome

            • Cromalin [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              yeah, sanji's timeskip training is the only thing in one piece that i don't think is excusable. (regarding depiction of queer characters. there's a bunch of stuff regarding the female characters that's less relevant)