Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - ChainsawED Man
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2710 |
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The disappointment of CSM part 2 as a whole and especially its latter half made me forget about its initial freshness and fun at the start. spoiler[You can pinpoint the exact moment where editorial took command when Denji gets boxed, making a prime opportunity for sustained Asa focus, and then a chapter later she goes to unbox him. The extended cast was frankly inferior as well. Yoshida never reached Aki's level or fulfilled his potential as Denji's friend, let alone other characters like Death, Sword, or Fumiko. Nayuta was excellent, but her waste of a death was the death knell for the quality of the series, consigning it to mere viral social media memes. It's frustrating, presumably by design, that CSM goes from part 1 rewarding Denji for pursuing freedom and fulfillment to punishing him for it at every turn in part 2. Even when he decides to compromise, he still gets punished by hate sink Barem. It's tempting to say that part 2 is Fujimoto throwing up his hands at writing more because Chainsaw Man is by definition constantly striving for but never achieving his goals and that gets old.] Whatever meaning I ascribe to CSM at the end of the day out of all of the thoughts rattling around my head, it inevitably gets tinged by disappointment.
At least War was best girl. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2689 |
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The ending reminded me of Spiderman One More Day spoiler[but with the payment to reset the world being Pochita rather than a love interest. Still, the whole Denji vs Yoru final fight lasted months enough to destroy the world but we never got to swallow the negative consequences of such battle.]
Last edited by tintor2 on Tue Mar 31, 2026 11:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1415 |
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The first half or so of Part 2 is terrific. The second-ish half feels directionless, lashing around for something useful to say until it just kinda gives up.
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PilotPayback
 Posts: 137 |
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i've never seen such a justified amount of disappointment towards a manga's ending since like oshi no ko or jujutsu kaisen or...attack on titan...or the last of us part 2 (well, maybe just controversy for the latter)...
geez, manga endings have had rough endings, in it? part of me doesn't even know what went wrong with pretty much any of the other series i've mentioned, but yeah..., |
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Everlasting Coconut
 Posts: 344 |
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Totally agree with Sylvia that Asa should've been given more focus. In an ideal world, Asa would've been the protagonist of Part 2 and then both she and Denji would've been the protagonists of Part 3.
But what we got instead was still great. Yoru freeing Asa from her guilt was beautiful, and so was Pochita sacrificing himself to give Denji a chance at a happy life. Really my only major complaint with the ending is that Yoru should've been in the final chapter. Not phisically, but in spirit just like Pochita. Either way, it remains one of my favourite manga, and I'm gonna miss it dearly. But at least we still have the anime to look forward to. Last edited by Everlasting Coconut on Tue Mar 31, 2026 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1512 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada |
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Part 2 wasn't perfect(and neither was Part 1), but I enjoyed it every week and felt a weird, somewhat baffling, somewhat heartfelt ending is exactly what it was always going for.
People will remember this ending forever; it's all the dogshit takes about this ending that are forgettable. Thank you, Chainsaw Man |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 529 |
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(I write with the assumption that we don' have to keep the content in spoilers since that's the point of the conversation. If you think I should, please tell me and I'll hide the relevant stuff)
The perspective on a series is never going to be the same once you finished reading it, where the gut reaction and the possibilities of where could have been instead of this is still lingering VS when you let it rest and accept that the work is at it is so now make sense of the whole. Kinda like watching someone paint, when you see the freshly put color in a portrait, because it's recent, fresh and shiny, you see it differently than after it dried, it's unchangable and you can focus better on the bigger picture. So who knows what we'll think once we digest it, it's too fresh now, and my perspective on endings such as Jujutsu have changed quite a bit since I saw it weekly. With that said, I've never been a Fujimoto stan (I hate Fire Punch, I quite like the 1st CSM part but that's it, I like his oneshots [Goodbye Eri really is his masterwork] and while I enjoyed the 2nd CSM part at first it ultimately became a chore), his way of characterizing gets on my nerves, his cheap shock value masked in cynic detachment bothers me to no end, and any supposed social commentary I find ridiculous (seriously, USAns are the only people who self-indulge in any minimal jab at USA from foreigners like it's a dare stance instead of something we say as often and uncontroversially as you often do about other countries like Mexico or something, only we are punching up instead of down and you can't do that) and the least I talk about his female character writing and depiction the better (or the time he pretended to be his ficticious little sister, ugh. Anyway). And with that, I really thought the second half of this 2nd part was a mess where a lot of chaos happened with lots of characters in the middle but without any gravitas to care nor particular nuance to any character that isn't Denji or Asa (all the others are/become quirkly plot devices, the first part knew to handle better); at the end it becomes Denji's show but in a repetitive cycle of happenstance where the series' approach to uncommited character shifting becomes a liability, and the series can only call your attention by random weird shit it shows and your lingering attachment to Denji and Asa (and which honestly, Asa and Yoru's malhandling afterwards was so bad it made me stop caring about her). When I try to look back, there are the few character moments that linger, but 95% is just jumbled in my mind, so even from a "the journey and its silver linings are what counts" mindset, this part barely holds water to me. And with the ending, I mostly just thought it was a lazy cliche wrapup where you have no idea of how to bring a minimal happy ending, the retcon-ending-that-rewrites-everything-we-saw-to-a-nice-and-less-conflict-but-shifting-things-conveniently-to-make-the-characters-meet-again ending is a spineless one that 1-you can do everytime you want, 2-it didn't feel like all the series we watched was building up to it, and 3-shows a fear for consequences that is hard to earn. There are a few instances where I've been ok with this ending (but can't say which ones to not spoil xD) but here? No, and honestly it' so conventional I don't even think it's that memorable or gotcha. The only thing it has going for it is that in a series where you stop caring about anything but a few characters, you want to see them happy at the end no matter the convoluted reasons to it (a clear case for me is Tokyo Ghoul; at the end the only characters I cared about where the remaining ones of the half-ghouls unit, and the white-haired soldier that started as a psycho kid but got way better). In that regard that ending does its job in that regard, yeah I'm glad Denji is better, but that doesn't make the ending any less lazy and disingenuous. But probably what bothered me the most about the ending was Pochita's claim that Denji was only happy when he was on the shit before the series started because he's only happy on misery and signaling it as a personal trait of his. This specificity made me the angriest by misreading the different ups and downs we've seen in Denji's life up to now, and breaks the "it's a jab at toxic masculinity where nothing masculine he gains makes him happy" argument (nothing about the ending suggest anything different about it aside of not being Chainsawman, since the conditions are the same [he's always being malhandled by different women], only with nicer femme fatales that won't ruin his life this time I guess) that I've seen to defend this point. That's why I lean to the "it's just the author speaking for itself and has boycotted the character to bring a point that doesn't work for him" a' la End of Eva where they turn Shinji into the most toxic of its fanbase, because it's the only thing that makes sense and the commentary on fame is by far the most consistent thing about the whole series. But I certainly don't think that's an appropiate read on the character and left me with a really bad pre-last taste. Anyway, as I said we are still hot on it so we'll see when we are more cool and see the series as a whole; and even if my opininon doesn't change I never reduce a series to a diffuse image of the whole, at the end a series leaves more prints than a simple "good, bad, funny, sad, cool" summary (it would cheapen the medium as an art form). But that's my gut reaction now. P.S.: If you want to hate-read Drama Queen but feel weird to justify an entire column on it, maybe do it about "inmigration in Japan, aliens as allegory and recent manga", that way you can also include series like Jujutsu Modulo or the new Mashne Project, it will allow you more material and some contrast. |
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Connor Dino
Posts: 426 Location: Anywhere. Because "hacked." |
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See this opinion, to me, proves that CSM's ending is fine. The fact that you list a series of Manga ending's whose "awfulness" was (broadly) overhyped by the manga readers to such an extent that a majority of the anime-onlys clowned on them once the anime caught up...makes me think that this is, once again, manga fandom doing the exact same thing. Boy I cannot wait for 2030, when the anime finally catches up for anime-onlys online to go..."That's what people were so upset about?" This is not the say the ending was perfect. But my god, how many times are we going to go through the same song and dance with manga fandoms? |
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FireballDragon
 Posts: 740 |
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I personally thought the ending was rushed and felt sort of like a cop-out, but I guess Dennis...
You know what? No. Denji (And Fujimoto) deserved a well-earned break after going through so much. I was just expecting it to be a bit more longer and showy. Maybe I'm not exactly annoyed by how it ended, but rather, how it was presented, if anything. Honestly? Part 1's ending came across so much better than this one. But what's done is done. GG, Fujimoto. Goodbye, Denji. |
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EmeraldSaucer
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I think a core problem with the ending is that, because of much it is defined by Fujimoto rushing to get to any sort of conclusion, it isn't actually a well-earned break for Denji (despite wanting to superficially present a veneer of that by distracting the reader with cameos). Denji is back to being a dog under somebody's ownership and stuck in a (literally, given the sheer mortality rate and (maybe, since Denji still has the heart for some reason) lack of Pochita) dead-end job that is only marginally excusable because Nayuta post-living with Denji is here instead of Makima for no particular reason. But I guess this is supposed to be a good thing because Denji can't handle any degree of happiness and is in his element when he is miserable and destitute? And if that's the kind of bitterness Fujimoto wanted to express that's fine, but it runs counter to what the ending seems to make the reader want to feel - not that this is nearly the only thing that contradicts itself or makes little sense within the ending Last edited by EmeraldSaucer on Tue Mar 31, 2026 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 7166 |
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Like how people remember Fist Of The North Star 2nd part as being inferior to it’s first? |
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NeverHypeForAnythingAgain
Posts: 1 |
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spoiler[Considering Fujimoto wanted Chainsaw man end to have the same feeling of The Big Lebowski,a giant pile of events that never got resolution or meaning to them but leaving this feeling of things that happened, story progressed and the main character developed can be observed now except on the story and main character part.
Everything Denji had to endure, suffer and probably learn never existed, any decision that he could finally do on HIS own instead of being denied or controlled by forces beyond his will were erased and even Pochita's death felt like "in the end, you never had free will", all for the sake of a rushed and lazy ending where everyone is happy, except Denji who is still empty inside is mindboggling bad. Every interaction, every moment, every struggle, all deleted, and it was all intentional. A great part 1 so that its part 2 could be its undoing on purpose. I hate this ending with every fiber of my being and i sincerely have a hard time understanding why the reactions to this ending were Mixed instead of mostly Negative. ] |
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tintor2
Posts: 2689 |
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Honestly, this is a common type of ending. Shin Megami Tensei, Demon Lord Dante, Evangelion and even Mortal Kombat spoiler[often hit the reboot button] An exception to this type of ending is the Fate route from Fate stay night where spoiler[Saber's and Shirou's greatest wish is undoing their biggest nightmares by winning the war but they decide not to hit the reset button because it would mean undoing their lives and relationships]
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oogenesis
Posts: 27 |
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you feel me. i almost feel weird for finding the ending thematically satisfying. but i rarely—if ever—agree with fandom-at-large takes. and not for want of trying; i just can't relate. i think the mixed response can be chalked up to a spectrum of sorts between narrative realism and escapism. people want different things out of their entertainment, and i can't fault anyone for wanting wish fulfillment: tidy closure for everyone, happily-ever-after endings, or just more time with characters they've grown to love. real life doesn't often give us these things. the fans upset with chainsaw man's ending wanted one closer to the escapist end of that spectrum, it seems to me. (i also wonder how much willful ignorance there's been of fujimoto-sensei being the most gleeful of trolls. he's been honest about his love for flouting audience expectations the whole time, y'all...) but stories that hit me the hardest end... like this. they give me so much more to chew on, and they linger longer: the difficulty of personal change; the importance of fully accepting what is before meaningful change can occur; the culmination of too many unexamined bad choices and too much denial; the realization that sometimes the best you can do with what life gave you still isn't enough, and that others' good intentions may actually be enabling lack of growth? all on display in part 2's conclusion. i want life mirrored like this in my fiction. never before have i enjoyed being trolled this hard. bravo, fujimoto-sensei. can i have some more? |
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justsomeaccount
Posts: 529 |
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... given this ending is the most escapist of escapists endings (rewrite reality so nothing bad ever happened, everybody is more or less happy, return to a status quo like the beginning of the series only without transformation but the good characters meet each other just because) I sure don't see your point. If anything it's the safest thing the author has ever done not to commit to the situation he put on and wrap it up quick so people get happy with these last characters' fates and stop. As tintor2 said, it's an extremely common ending. |
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