Title: Chainsaw Man Vol. 18
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 187
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: May 6, 2025
The Story
The city is in a panic as everyone continues to turn into their own version of Chainsaw Man. Nayuta ends up getting cornered, and suddenly, we are taken to Denji waking up in what appears to be a hospital bed; however, we soon learn that it’s a maximum-security detention center for devils. Public safety has captured him and is planning to dissect him! Throughout it all, he only wonders where Nayuta is.
Meanwhile, Asa and Fami are outside. They are planning on breaking into the detention center to get him out of there. While the infiltration goes well at first, public safety has eyes all over them. Suddenly, Samurai and Nail show up and confront Asa and Fumi; however, after they convince them that they are there to fight Chainsaw Man, they turn on public safety and join them!
When they find Denji, he’s been dismembered and placed into carefully-sorted boxes… which they conveniently knock over! After putting the Denji puzzle back together, the only thing he can think of is finding Nayuta. Meanwhile, Asa is trying to get him to turn into Chainsaw Man to fight her, but he won’t. Figuring that he won’t do it because he’s hungry, it brings us to the most gripping cliffhanger ending the series has ever seen… will Asa cave and eat sushi when she hates it!? Stay tuned, folks…
Characters
There wasn’t much in the way of development in this volume.
If anything, we learned that even with one arm, Asa’s powers have grown, and she can now turn things into weapons without even touching them. That’s convenient. Plus, she is a bit conflicted every time someone asks if Chainsaw Man is her boyfriend.
Nayuta received a bit of development. In her flashback, she is aware that she used to be someone named Makima, but doesn’t quite understand what that means. She also revealed her true intentions when it comes to Denji, but it also wasn’t clear if she ever changed her mind or if she still intends to go through with it.
Final Thoughts
Despite the story moving forward with the search and rescue (and possible fight with) of Chainsaw Man, this felt more like a transitional volume, or at least a detour from the main path that we were on. Getting Denji to transform into Chainsaw Man is getting harder and harder these days; however, it appears that we will have to wait, as the Nayuta search and rescue mission is just beginning. Denji even made it clear throughout this volume that finding her is his top concern, so I wouldn’t expect any fighting to happen until this is completed. Looks like Samurai and Nail are going to have to wait to get their revenge (and maybe Asa, too, but we all know that this is just a ruse to get them to help.)
What I do like is that not even the reader knows what happened to Nayuta. This means we will (hopefully) discover what happened to her alongside Denji… unless Tatsuki Fujimoto just does a “Meanwhile…” chapter and shows what happened to her. I hope he doesn’t. I want to unravel the mystery alongside our main character. I think it would be more fun that way.
Regardless, we have the world’s biggest question to answer. Will Denji get treated to sushi, and will Asa eat some!? These are the burning questions that keep me up at night.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
