Title: Chainsawman Vol. 1
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
The Story
Devils are running rampant and only Devil Hunters can stop them. Denji is a Devil Hunter but not by choice. He had inherited his family’s debt to the Yakuza and is being used to kill devils for them in order to pay back that debt. Along the way, Denji met a devil named Pochita, a small pig-like devil with a chainsaw blade for a horn. Together, they hunted devils in order to earn money; however, doing so isn’t giving either one of them a glorious life.
Denji lives in complete and total poverty. After killing a devil for 400,000 yen, he is only left with 1,800 yen to live off of for the rest of the month. His dinner ends up being a single slice of bread as a result. Denji’s dream is to eat good food and fall in love with a woman. He would be satisfied with just receiving a hug from a girl before he died.
Denji is called out to a new case by the Yakuza but it ends up being a betrayal. The Zombie Devil manipulated them and Denji ends up getting killed in the process. It was at that moment that Pochita becomes Denji’s new heart, transforming him into a half-devil/half-human. Denji can grow chainsaws from his arms and head and use them to slaughter devils. After he kills the Zombie Devil, he is discovered by Makima, a Devil Hunter from the Public Safety division. She takes Denji in but treats him like a dog… much like the Yakuza did.
Denji gets paired up with another Devil Hunter named Aki Hayakawa and the two hit it off superbly well!! (That’s sarcasm, by the way.) Denji becomes a part of Aki’s squad and even gets partnered with a Fiend… a devil that has taken over a human’s body! While on his first missions with the Fiend, named Power, he buys her story of a devil kidnapping her cat. He agrees to help Power get her cat back in exchange for touching her boobs. Of course, Denji learns that you should never trust a Fiend!
I didn’t know what to expect from this manga but the story surprised me in a good way. While I do think it moved from plot point to plot point a little too quickly, the fast pace kept the pages turning and made things interesting. That was one thing that I noticed when reading through the book was that I got to the end of it really quickly. It is a really fast-paced story but it’s done so in a way where you don’t feel rushed. That’s a pretty hard balance to pull off but it works pretty well here.
Characters
Denji is pretty interesting as a main character. You have a dueling sense of emotions with him. On one hand, you feel sympathetic to Denji because he just wants to lead a normal life. He wants to eat good food, fall in love, and just live happily and peacefully. On the other hand, he’s not all sugar and spice because he doesn’t really take things seriously at all. That’s because he’s used to just doing as he’s told and getting the job done. He doesn’t really care for much else as long as the results produce the life he desires. His desired life isn’t even that lofty, either. He was supremely satisfied with just some udon and a hot dog, which shows how rare even basic foods were in his life.
Denji is also a bit of a pervert. His desire to touch boobs, whether they are Makima’s or Power’s, is pretty high. What happened to just being hugged by a girl? I suppose he got that when Makima discovered him so I guess boob groping is the natural progression of things here? Despite that, you can tell that there are quite a few dimensions of Denji as a character and that makes him pretty interesting and unique. I love how he is being portrayed so far but, sadly, he is the one and only interesting character in the bunch.
Makima, on the other hand, seems pretty straight-forward. Her job is to “raise dogs” for the Public Safety Division and Denji is just one of those dogs to her. She claims to like Denji but it’s clear she’s only saying what she needs to in order to get people to do as she says. She’s actually pretty cold-hearted and only cares about results… at least, that’s how she comes off. Whether or not she actually cares for Denji remains to be seen but with the way she has been portrayed thus far, I highly doubt it. I also doubt this because Denji has been used quite a lot by both the Yakuza and Makima. Their commonality suggests that Denji is just getting the short end of the stick here once again, as has been the case with this life thus far. We’ll have to see if Makima grows as a character but she just seems like your typical manipulative type.
Then we have Aki Hayakawa who is another tropish character. He reminds me of a more reserved Bakugo from My Hero Academia. He immediately states that he hates Denji and even tries to convince him to leave the Public Safety Division. He is extremely annoyed by his presence and thinks his goals are a complete waste of time. In other words, we have a male tsundere on our hands here. I’ve seen plenty of spiteful and bossy “senpai” characters before and either two things will happen… they will either have an eternal rivalry like Bakugo and Deku, or they will come around and learn to respect one another. I have never seen any middle ground with this character type so we’ll have to see which path Aki walks. Until then, he just seems like a typical trope character.
Finally, we have Power who is a bit out of control and on the wild side. You would expect that of a devil who took over a human’s body, though. How many times have we’ve seen crazed female characters in these types of stories, though? They can either be extremely fun characters or just downright annoying. Thankfully, Power doesn’t seem annoying at all. She certainly has some interesting parts to her so it’ll be interesting to see how she grows as the series goes on.
Final Thoughts
So far, this was a pretty interesting first volume. The faster pace works well but it does suffer a bit in the character department. Denji is the best character out of the bunch thus far and when you’re in the main character slot, standing out is the best way to go. I feel the other characters can improve with some development but this is only the first volume so there is plenty of time for all of that to happen.
As for the story… it’s pretty simple. There are Devils. There are Devil Hunters. Devil Hunters kill Devils and Denji is a unique hybrid between human and devil who just does what he’s told. What he’s told to do is be a Devil Hunter. There you go. That’s the story.
I always like to say that keeping things simple can always work out and for Chainsawman, simple works best. It’s really telling Denji’s story while mixing in some devil slaying in between everything. At first glance, you would think there would be more senseless killing and violence in this series but that is definitely not the case here. The series starts off with getting you invested in a unique main character and then using the action to prop up his story. I honestly cannot lie… I’m not a horror fan by any means and this first volume convinced me that this could, very well be a good series.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
