#i could go on for AGES about the way fujimoto draws and positions makima

[cocksuki2]

Please, do rant about how chainsaw man is a masterpiece and it's going to have an impact on modern shounen

thank you so much for prompting me to talk about this. i have so much to say about it. im about to write an essay. manga spoilers are a given but here's the warning just in case.

firstly, fujimoto has such a strong grasp of visual storytelling. i know that this seems like a pretty baseline statement for a mangaka but i genuinely think his grasp on it in particular is spectacular. he works so much into his panels and even the placing of the characters in the frame is important.

it's a really obvious element of his work and it's both plot-driven and comedically driven, which makes it all the more compelling. oftentimes in chainsaw man, comedic scenes are indicative of a greater power hierarchy present within interactions (especially with regards to denji and makima).

makima plays a maternal role in the story and is, undoubtedly, a character fujimoto took a lot of care in writing and drawing. she's always in positions of power and almost always the focal point of panels and scenes she's present in. her sexuality as a woman is used as a weapon knowingly and she's presented as both mother, lover, and leader to denji and within the art of the series (which serves to highlight denji's deep-seated need for affection of all forms).

in fact, a lot of her positioning in the series is very maternal. even when she tears pochita from chainsaw man's chest, she is cradling his head as a mother would a babe. her chains come from her womb and diaphragm, often thought to be the location of the solar plexus chakra which dictates personality, ego, identity, personal freedom, choice, and authenticity. which is fitting considering her position as the control devil and her attempt to rob denji of his personhood. (honestly i could go on about makima and motherhood forever. i saw a tiktok about it a little while ago and ended up diving down a rabbit hole of thought).

it's also really interesting to me that denji serves as both comedic relief and a tragic character, as well as being the main protagonist of his story. it's not unheard of, but it is unique and it makes the story stand out within the shonen genre (naruto did something similar but with an entirely different message and theme). it makes denji compelling and incredibly human. 

that trope within itself is nothing new. it's somewhat common. however, what I've noticed about chainsaw man is that denji's comedic relief is almost always indicative of a greater theme. his motivations being purely sexual and romantic are, originally, presented as a comedic aspect of the series meant to introduce you to the type of person denji is. however, after reading the series, it quickly becomes an ominous indication of his ability to be easily manipulated, as well as the extortion of those qualities that lead to his (and makima's) eventual downfall and the climax of the story.

a lot of popular shonen media contains some levels of deeper analysis, but chainsaw man does it in a way in which the plot is actively dependent on that further analysis. i think csm kind of took the shonen genre and introduced a deeper level of thought to it I've only seen in a few other examples (jjk being one of them) and i think that what will come out of it is shonen manga with deeper symbolism and heavier themes.

i think chainsaw man's popularity in particular is gonna end up contributing to a greater shift in shonen and action manga towards more deliberate placement of themes and underlying messages.

that's not to say that other shonen mangas LACK those underlying messages, but i am saying that chainsaw man's popularity is largely OWED to that when it is usually the other way around. and chainsaw man, even in the first week of its anime release, is already HUGELY popular for those reasons.

i think that sometimes there is a belief with popular shonen animanga (and action media in general) that in order for it to be popular, you need these cash-grab scenes and characters. it seems to me that a lot of shonen maintains this idea of serving the palpable and blatantly obvious first and the darker second, whereas chainsaw man absolutely does NOT do that. chainsaw man puts the ugly (and somewhat comedic) aspect of tragedy in your face and then asks you to analyze it to find something even uglier and more meaningful underneath, which is a breath of fresh air in the shonen genre to me.

so all this to say: i think that chainsaw man's popularity is gonna lead to a greater shift in the shonen genre that brings analyzable media and themes to the forefront of what's considered "marketable". im really excited to see the works that come after this and what inspiration they take from it.

i realize that im not saying anything new about chainsaw man. all of these things have probably been said before and in greater detail, but from my perspective (as someone who really values composition in manga panels) this is how i see it. and NONE of this is to say that other shonen genres lack this deep of messaging. chainsaw man is, however, where i have noticed it the most of the shonen i have read.