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krotchstak 's review for:
Chainsaw Man, Vol. 11: Go Get 'Em, Chainsaw Man
by Tatsuki Fujimoto
This review is for the Public Safety arc of the series, not for this volume alone.
Chainsaw Man is a strange beast, at turns frustrating, awesome, undercooked, melancholy, and even sometimes poignant. Ultimately, though, it’s a work I’d call unpolished above all else. Even as it’s clear what Fujimoto is going for thematically, even as his frankly incredible imagination is put on display in ways that are outright refreshing in how they are allowed to speak for themselves (the endless exposition that punctuates most Shonen fight scenes is almost entirely absent), the ultimate manifestation on the page only occasionally hits as it seems to want to.
Aside from a few choice moments towards the end of fighting against the Gun and Control Devils, the series is at its strongest in its earlier volumes, up through the end of facing the Eternity Devil. Later stories are bogged down by characters increasingly feeling one-note and rote, things happening without the buildup needed to affect the reader like they should, or - in the case of the conceptually-awesome International Assassins chapters - Fujimoto’s struggles with drawing coherent action set pieces.
So, this is a series worth giving a read. But ultimately it falls short of what it could be with non-trivial elements of its execution getting in its own way.
Chainsaw Man is a strange beast, at turns frustrating, awesome, undercooked, melancholy, and even sometimes poignant. Ultimately, though, it’s a work I’d call unpolished above all else. Even as it’s clear what Fujimoto is going for thematically, even as his frankly incredible imagination is put on display in ways that are outright refreshing in how they are allowed to speak for themselves (the endless exposition that punctuates most Shonen fight scenes is almost entirely absent), the ultimate manifestation on the page only occasionally hits as it seems to want to.
Aside from a few choice moments towards the end of fighting against the Gun and Control Devils, the series is at its strongest in its earlier volumes, up through the end of facing the Eternity Devil. Later stories are bogged down by characters increasingly feeling one-note and rote, things happening without the buildup needed to affect the reader like they should, or - in the case of the conceptually-awesome International Assassins chapters - Fujimoto’s struggles with drawing coherent action set pieces.
So, this is a series worth giving a read. But ultimately it falls short of what it could be with non-trivial elements of its execution getting in its own way.