katharine_opal 's review for:

チェンソーマン 13 by Tatsuki Fujimoto

3.0

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I'm so mixed about this volume. I do genuinely like Asa and Denji's interactions, and I'm curious how that relationship (not as in shipping, as in two people who interact) will develop over arc two. But the rest...it's right back to stereotypical Shonen tropes. Also, Denji's current goal is so stupid, and it makes me actually aggravated every time it's brought up. Asa having to run around in her underwear also pissed me off. Like, come the hell on, was it necessary for the TEENAGE GIRL to be running about in her damn drawers?! This series has an annoying problem was sexualizing the bejesus out of the teenage characters, and it's been grating. I excused it at first since it was originally from Denji's viewpoint, and he is a "dumb horny teenager". But now that it's not, it's so goddamn irritating.

Spoiler

Also, was the Famine devil meant to look like Makima? I saw her eyes and hair and thought it was Makima reincarnated or that Makima wasn't actually dead. But, no, it's the Famine devil. So now I'm not sure if her design was a purposeful jumpscare or just a sloppy character design. Also seeing as Asa is contracted with the War devil, I assume we're going to see all of the Four Horsemen as devils. Which I'm unsure how to feel about. The only thing I find interesting is so far two of the horsemen are depicted as women and not men. Unless that's only because War took Asa's image, so she only looks female because Asa is. I have no idea.

The "twist" was pretty sad, but again, so god damn cliche. Oh, and I forget to mention it in my review of the previous volume, but. The little fourth wall breaks are really annoying and need to stop. Doing the "it's not like we're in a manga!" or "It's like we're manga characters!" thing is cutely cheeky once or twice, but multiple times in a single volume? Stop. Once was enough.