Chainsaw Man Chapter 103, Denji Dream Review: Chainsaw Meets Octopus.

After two weeks of waiting, Tatsuki Fujimoto delivered what feels like the shortest chapter of Chainsaw Man Part Two yet, Chapter 103, “Denji Dream.”
However, “Denji Dream” being a short chapter does not mean it was uneventful.
Far from it because we finally got to see Denji in his human form, interacting with other characters.
In previous reviews, I theorized that we would only be seeing him as Chainsaw Man for a while, until Asa eventually meets Denji at school.
This chapter proved that theory wrong, with the opening scene building up to Denji’s reintroduction quite well.
Chapter 103 begins by showing the impact Chainsaw Man has had on the world.
The first few panels show off people wearing T-Shirts of him, using his likeness as a mascot for second-hand clothing, and there is even a blimp attempting to warn people about him by stating, “Chainsaw Man is a Man-Eating Devil.”
This conflicting public perception of seeing Denji as a saviour and a monster is reflected in the following TV interview panels, where numerous people give their opinions on Chainsaw Man.
Among these are some pretty humorous takes, like one man who believes Chainsaw Man is just American propaganda, a teenage girl who wants Chainsaw-Man’s number, and finally an elderly woman who believes he ate the cat that he saved in the previous chapter.
So, of course, the first panel on the following page is Denji looking offended at this old woman’s claim.
He then proceeds to defend his secret identity, before attempting to give Chainsaw Man’s number so the girl who spoke earlier would call him.
However, he is cut off by the cameraman who says he can’t give his phone number on television.
It’s funny that this cameraman is smart enough to know Denji is giving his own number so the girl will call him, yet is completley unaware of him being Chainsaw Man.
Next, the TV reporter has a crowd of Chainsaw Man supporters stand togethor and chant his name in support for the cameras, which Denji looks on at in pride, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest.
Way to be subtle about being Chainsaw Man, Denji.
Thankfully, before Denji can expose his identity, Yoshida shows up and we get our first encounter between Chainsaw Man and the contractor of the Octopus Devil since the International Assassins Arc… which Denji humourously acts like he does not remember.
Yoshida treats him anyway, taking him to a cafe where Denji orders an absurd amount of food.
Yoshida acts as if meeting Denji was a coincidence but Denji quickly deduces that he has been following him.
It’s interesting that, even though Denji is an idiot, he has quite a few moments of brilliance.
Yoshida comes clean, confessing that he is part of an organization that wants to keep an eye on Denji, who does not seem too bothered about his identity potentially being discovered.
Realizing this, Yoshida attempts to blackmail Denji into keeping his identity secret, threatening to withhold the utensils Denji needs to eat his cake.
Cue Denji having another moment of genius idiocy, as he uses his hand as a knife to cut the cake and then eat it.
Yoshida then attempts to use logic to dissuade Denji from risking his secret identity as Chainsaw Man by continuing to fight Devils, saying he does not seem the altruistic type, but Denji says he actually wants people to learn he is Chainsaw Man.
After this statement, the waitress comes back with the drinks the two ordered, and comedically seems to falter when she notices Denji eating with his hands, although Fujimoto does not show their face, so this is a subtle bit of humor.
When the waitress leaves, Yoshida questions why Denji wants his identity discovered and Denji declares that it is because then the ladies will be all over him.
Classic Denji.
Yoshida attempts to argue with this but stops mid-sentence, as if he realized Denji is sort of right about this.
The final panel then shows Yoshida staring at Denji, stumped at how to proceed, with Denji just continuing to eat his cake, a photo of a caged bird hung between them.
What the caged bird symbolises, I can only guess.
Usually, it would be some kind of representation for how the characters are trapped.
I am not sure how this would apply to Yoshida but maybe Fujimoto means to suggest that Denji is somehow caged by his antics as Chainsaw Man?
Or maybe the bird is symbolising Asa and Yoru, with Yoru’s devil form being that of a bird before she possessed Asa?
This could be hinting at them coming into Denji’s life.
Or maybe the photo of a bird is just a photo of a bird and I am reading too much into this?
As for Asa, however, I do think this chapter opens up a chance for her and Yoru to meet Denji.
Yoshida now knows Denji is looking for a girlfriend and Yoru did proposition him as Asa in Chapter 99, so maybe he could try to set the two up to get a leash on Denji?
Although, Yoshida seemed to notice that Asa was possessed by a devil when they met, so I don’t know why he would want to try and get her and Denji togethor, when he wants Denji far away from devils so he doesn’t expose his identity.
As for the unnamed secret organization Yoshida now works with, maybe this could be how we meet other characters who survived Part One, like Kishibe and Kobeni?
With Denji back, we also might see Nayuta soon as well and learn what their relationship is like.
Either way, it is good to have Denji back and I look forward to seeing how he will eventually meet and undoubtedly come into conflict with Asa and Yoru.
We might have to wait a bit though because it seems that Fujimoto is now sticking to a two week release schedule for Part Two, which makes sense, since he should not overwork himself.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 102, Save the Cat Review: A Darker Spider-Man.

Tatsuki Fujimoto has made it no secret that he is a massive fan of movies.
Refrences to both films and the filmmaking process litter his works.
Thus, it makes it quite easy to believe that Fujimoto was inspired to name Chapter 102 of Chainsaw Man, “Save the Cat”, after Save the Cat! The last Book on Screen Writing You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder.
Only the act of saving the cat is much more literal in Fujimoto’s case.
The chapter begins with Asa and Yuko running for their lives from the Bat Devil, who quickly knocks the two of them down, along with another passerby.
Unlucky for the passerby beause this results in the Bat Devil devouring them but it does give Asa enough time to plan her next move, after seeing Yuko’s leg has been impaled and that she has been knocked unconcious.
Typically, Yoru jumps right on the “kill her” option, wanting Asa to turn Yuko into a weapon to save themselves.
Although, I’m not sure if Asa could do this since in the last chapter it was revealed that Yoru cannot take control of her body when her host is terrified, which she should still be.
Regardless, Yoru continues in her attempts to goad Asa into killing her new friend, revealing that Asa did not feel sorry for killing Bucky but felt sorry that other people saw her, leading to her further isolation.
Yoru assures her that no one is watching and reminds her of how she promised to live her life more selfishly before Yoru revived her.
A succession of panels follow where Fujimoto shows us Asa’s flashbacks of Bucky’s death, her being isolated because of it, the class president and teacher being reported dead and Yuko befriending her.
Intermingled with these panels are ones of the Bat Devil approaching and Asa reaching for her axe, seemingly considering Yoru’s proposal to kill Yuko to save herself.
In the end, however, Asa chooses to save Yuko, much to Yoru’s dismay, carrying her friend in her arms as she flees from the Bat Devil, only to trip, much like Kobeni would in this situation.
This causes Asa to recall all the times she has tripped in her life, from at a Birthday party, to a race, to the day her parents died.
It is revealed that her parents were killed in an attack by the Typhoon Devil.
At first, I thought this confirmed my prior theory that Asa’s parents were killed in Denji’s fight with the Typhoon Devil and Reze, giving her reason to want Chainsaw Man dead.
However, upon closer inspection, the Typhoon Devil is clearly different from the one in the Bomb Girl Arc, since the new one has a moustache while the old one did not.
So, it is clear that the Typhoon Devil killed Asa’s parents after it reincarnated, meaning Asa hates Chainsaw Man just by association for him being a Devil.
However, while the Typhoon Devil may have been responsible for the death of Asa’s parents, she certainly does not entirely see it that way.
No, she blames herself the most for their deaths because of a decision she made on that day.
While fleeing from the Devil, Asa saw an injured cat and bent down to save it while running for her life.
This caused her to trip and her mother then pushed her out of the way from a flying car, sacrificing herself for her.
The owner of the cat then arrived and thanked Asa for saving it, making the whole situation worse because it causes her to blame herself, since had she never saved it then her mother might still be alive.
This flows into the next flashback, where Yuko gave Asa her shoes but Asa initially refuses, saying Yuko should not try to save her, seemingly harkening back to her parents’ death but under the guise of being dismissive of Yuko.
Yuko, however, quickly dismisses these protests, saying that even if she makes mistakes then her heart will be in the right place.
Back in the present, Asa connects with this, deciding to keep her heart in the right place and save Yuko.
Yet, this resolve is not enough to save them, as the Bat Devil quickly catches up and swallows them.
What is enough to save them is Chainsaw Man himself, as Denji arrives on the scene, lauching the Cockroach Devil he was fighting into the Bat Devil, killing it and saving Asa and Yuko.
This was one of the possibilities I suggested for how Asa and Yuko would be rescued in my review for the previous chapter.
In that review, I stated a theory that in Part Two we would intially see Chainsaw Man before Asa meets him as Denji.
Well, this theory has been proven correct, as Chainsaw Man unintentionally saves Asa and Yuko, before fighting the Cockroach Devil in some gloriously gory full page spreads from Fujimoto.
The super hero influences are obvious, with even the Cockroach Devil calling them out, and giving Denji the option of saving a car full of elderly people or a young highschool student.
This seems to be a clear homage to the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin gave Peter Parker the choice to save a group of children or Mary-Jane.
However, while Spider-Man managed to save both Mary-Jane and the children in the movie, Denji saves none of the hostages when killing the Cockroach Devil.
Instead, much like Asa, he saves a cat.
Along with being darkly hilarious, this moment also once again points to the parrallels between Denji and Asa, much like the first chapter did.
While Asa saved a cat and regretted it because it lead to her mother dying, Denji let people die to save a cat and is praised for it by the media at the end of the chapter.
It’s kind of morbidly humorous that they don’t mention the people Denji did not save.
However, this may be a tactic to make people fear Devils less, resulting in less deaths as a result.
As for Denji himself, it was great to see him back again, and him saving the cat honestly reminded me of Power looking after her cat.
I wonder if Denji purposefully saved the cat in rememberance of her?
Like I have stated earlier, though, I do not expect to see Denji himself for a little while.
We will probably just keep seeing him as Chainsaw Man before Asa meets Denji.
Overall, “Save the Cat” is a fantastic chapter and one of the best of Part Two so far, along with the first one.
It had amazing character devlopment for Asa, reintroduced Chainsaw Man in a classically gory fashion, and had some darkly humorous homages to both Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screen Writing You’ll Ever Need.
The next chapter drops on August 31st.

Chainsaw Man Trailer 2 Reaction: Gore Galore.

Chainsaw Man fans are really eating good right now.
Not only has Part Two of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga been great so far but Mappa also recently released a second trailer for the upcoming Chainsaw Man anime adaptation.
This trailer does a great job of hyping up the anime, gifting us with a good look at the animation we can expect, and revealing the voice actors and release date.
Releasing in October of 2022, the adaptation has Kikunosuke Toya as Denji, Tomori Kusunoki as Makima, Fairouz Ai as Power, and Shogo Sakata as Aki.
I cannot claim to to be familiar with many of these voice actors, with Tomori Kusunoki being the only one I remember, having voiced Neiru in Wonder Egg Priority.
Despite my lack of knowledge about them, I would say that, from the brief look we get of their performances in the trailer, they look to be the right choices.
Fairouz Ai, in particular, sounds like a perfect match for Power.
I am particularly interested in the choice to cast Kikunosuke Toya as Denji, since it appears that the only prior voice acting roles he has are background ones.
So, Denji will be his first time voicing a main character and this will come with added pressure since Chainsaw Man is so popular.
Still, it shows how much faith Mappa must have in him, to cast him as Denji, despite having only prior minor roles, and he sounds great in the trailer.
This could very well be his break out role.
Along with the voice acting, the trailer also provides us with a look at the quality of animation we can expect from the anime.
Once more, it looks like Mappa has knocked it out of the park, animating even small details, like how the blood stays on Denji’s chainsaw head after it bursts out of his skull.
Speaking of, wow, was this trailer gory.
I had heard that the Chainsaw Man adaptation would not be censored, like other anime such as Attack on Titan, but I still had my doubts.
Well, this trailer killed those doubts, with various brutal shots, like the already mentioned moment when the chainsaw bursts out from Denji’s head, followed by him eviserating the Bat and Leech Devils, along with the opening shot of the countless dead zombies Denji killed.
And all of these are just shots from the first ten chapters, so you have to wonder what amazing shots Mappa has in store for us going forward with the anime?
I am curious to see how far they will actually adapt the manga.
Will they adapt all 97 chapters of Part One in a single long season, or will they split it up into multiple seasons?
If they do decide to do all 97 chapters in one go, however, they would need a lot of episodes to do so, at least 30, I would think.
Then, there’s the matter of the opening.
I think it would be awesome if Mappa could get SiM to do it, just like they did “Rumbling” for Attack on Titan.
They already have a perfect song for it, with “Devil in Your Heart”, after all.
Although, this song being the opening is not a necessity.
It’s just something I’m hoping for but will probably not happen.
In the end, no matter what opening we get and no matter how far Mappa decides pace their adaptation, this trailer made me even more excited for the Chainsaw Man anime.
The animation looks stellar, the voice acting seems great, and there will be gore galore with apparently much less censorship than seen in other manga adaptations.
I am eagerly anticipating seeing the final product in October.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 101, Afterschool Devil Hunters Review: Na na na na na na na na Bat Devil!

Tatsuki Fujimoto is still going strong with his fourth chapter of Chainsaw Man Part Two, Chapter 101, “Afterschool Devil Hunters.”
The chapter begins the day after Yuko gifted Asa with her shoes because bullies covered her old ones in raw meat.
Despite Yuko’s kindness, Asa is still uncertain about this new friendship, as proven by her refusing to look Yuko in the eye and her giving the shoes back, her excuse being that they were too small.
Yuko is undeterred, however, and suggests the two of them go Devil hunting after school which, again, I am not sure why the school allows.
Later that day, as the two are eating togethor on a bench, Yuko brings up how Yoshida was not at school, wondering if he is serious about joining the Devil hunting club.
Little does she know that Yoshida is already a Devil hunter, meaning he probably did not attend because he has an important job.
Or maybe he is tailing them in secret to keep a closer eye on Asa, since he probably suspects her after seeing the War Devil take control of her body in Chapter 99.
Yuko wondering where Yoshida is then leads Asa into asking why she joined the club and Yuko replies that she wants to become a Devil hunter to earn money and also to avenge her parents, who were killed by a Devil, like Asa’s.
Yuko’s parents being killed by a Devil could earn credence to the theory that she is Kusakabe’s daughter, since she looks quite similar to him.
Either way, both of their parents being killed by Devils creates a stronger connection between Asa and Yuko, with Yuko saying they should become Devil Hunters and partner up as buddies because they are, “kinda like manga main characters.”
Well, Yuko, to be the main character of a manga, you kind of have to live a while and, given that you are in a story written by Tatsuki Fujimoto, I am not sure how long you’ll actually last.
This worry of mine increased when Yuko left to go to the toilet, only for the War Devil to appear before Asa again and suggest killing Yuko.
As an aside, I really liked how Fujimoto went about paneling Asa realizing the War Devil was there.
First we get a panel of her watching Yuko leave, a rare smile on her face, which is followed by a few small panels of her eating, then the last panel of the page, where Asa looks beside her and the smile vanishes.
On the next page we then see the War Devil sitting next to Asa, announcing in bold that they should kill Yuko.
The War Devil explains that the guiltier Asa feels about killing someone, the more powerful that person’s body will be as a weapon.
This gives off a frightening visual, since the War Devil was already quite powerful when it used the teacher’s body in Chapter 98, so imagine how powerful it could be if it used Yuko, who is actually friends with Asa?
It presents quite a morbid usage of the power of friendship trope.
Asa is, of course, disgusted with the idea of killing Yuko, and this causes an argument between her and the War Devil, resulting in multiple people and a cat staring at them.
Asa and the War Devil are not too bright at keeping their identity a secret.
First the War Devil foolishly exposes itself to Yoshida and now Asa is shouting at the War Devil, which is invisible to everyone else, and even calls it by name in public.
Way to be subtle, girls.
Speaking of which, Asa has grown tired of the War Devil referring to her as “girl” so, in the hopes of changing the subject from killing Yuko, tells the War Devil to call her Asa instead.
The War Devil hits back by telling Asa that she never uses its name either, and Asa responds that War Devil is a weird name to use.
This causes the War Devil to relent, despite knowing that Asa is trying to change the subject, since it knows her every thought.
The War Devil then tells Asa to call it Yoru, which is interesting because it means night, the exact opposite of Asa’s name, which means morning.
The two then seem to come to an agreement, now calling each other by their names.
Asa also finally seems happy, as she admits to herself while walking with Yoku that she does not care about killing Chainsaw Man now that she is having fun with her friend, which she has not felt in forever.
So, now that Asa is happy, of course something has to go wrong.
The scene cuts to a street preacher, who is ranting to the passing populace about the dangers Devils pose, stating that out of a random twenty people, seven will be killed by Devils.
If this is an accurate number then it presents a horrifying reality that the people of the Chainsaw Man world live in, made even scarier by the following page, which shows Asa and Yuko running into the Bat Devil, which is currently killing a bunch of people.
The Bat Devil actually appeared in Part One, being one of the first big Devils Denji fought and killed.
So, it seems that the Bat Devil was eventually killed in hell and has now reincarnated on Earth again to wreck havoc, and in a disturbingly artistic way, at that, because Fujimoto appears to have drawn the Bat Devil eating a man to resemble the 1800s painting Saturn Devouring his son by Fransisco Goya.
As Asa looks on in terror, Yoru appears before her again and humorously tells her she has bad news and more bad news.
The first bit of bad news is that they are not strong enough to defeat the Bat Devil the way they are.
The second, and most important, bit of bad news is that Yoru has just found out that she cannot take over Asa’s body when her vessel is scared, making them essentially powerless in this situation.
The way Fujimoto colours the panel revealing this is also great, with it being much brighter than the other, darker panels, highlighting this reveal’s importance and the terror it holds for Asa.
Yoru advises that Asa slowly back away from the Bat Devil, only for her and Yuko to bolt, causing Yoru to call her an idiot, bringing an end to the chapter.
So, how are Asa, Yoru and Yuko going to get out of this one?
Well, I see three possibilities.
The first is that Asa manages to overcome her fear so Yoru can take over her body, kill Yuko, and use her body as a weapon to kill the Bat Devil.
However, I think this theory is the least likely because we have only just met Yuko and I feel that if Fujimoto is going to kill her off he would want to give her more page time so her death will hurt us more.
The second possibility is that Yoshida shows up to save them.
As I said earlier, he could be tailing them because he is suspicious of Asa, so this could be a good time to reveal him as a Devil Hunter to Asa, Yoru and Yuko.
The final possibility is that Denji shows up as Chainsaw Man to kill the Bat Devil.
Along with serving as the return of Denji, this happening could also be used for comedic purporses, as the Bat Devil could cry out “Not again!” before it gets killed by Denji and sent back to hell.
This could lead to us seeing Chainsaw Man a few more times before Asa meets him officially as Denji at school, while potentially being unaware that he is Chainsaw Man.
Knowing Fujimoto’s writing style, however, I would not be surprised if Asa and Yuko are saved in a different way, which none of us have thought of.
It will be interesting to see what he does in Chapter 102, which will be released in two weeks time, since Fujimoto is taking his first break for Part Two.
“Afterschool Devil Hunters” is another great Chainsaw Man chapter, which has me excited for what will unfold next.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 100, How to Walk Shoeless Review: Short, Slice of Life.

Going into Chapter 100 of Chainsaw Man, “How to Walk Shoeless”, I wondered if Tatsuki Fujimoto would commerate his 100th chapter with a big event, like other mangakas do when they reach such a milestone.
Instead, Fujimoto opted for a short, slice of life chapter that works perfectly well by building up relationships between the characters, specifically the growing friendship of Asa Mitaka and Yuko, the girl who was placed in Asa and Yoshida’s devil hunting group at the end of the last chapter.
Picking up from where “Two Birds” left off, Chapter 100 begins with the three of them walking the halls at their school, searching for devils, weapons in hand.
That last detail makes me think the devil hunting club really is serious about sending potential members after dangerous devils, and I am still wondering how the teachers feel about it?
This is not relevant to the chapter, however, which sees Asa, Yoshida and Yuko introduce themselves to one another as they walk the halls.
Yoshida and Yuko both confess to being fans of Chainsaw Man, but Asa dodges the subject by saying she likes him “as much as the average person”, all the while stewing in embarrassment over being paired up with Yoshida, after the War Devil failed in asking him out.
And it certainly does not help that Asa is now in a group with two people who say they are fans of Chainsaw Man, who she dislikes.
Unfortunately, things get more uncomfortable for Asa, as she passes some of her classmates, who begin to talk bad about her behind her back, being disgusted by the War Devil asking Yoshida out after Asa accidentally killed Bucky.
At first, this had me disappointed in Yoshida because I thought he had told everyone about Asa asking him to be her boyfriend but his confusion at what they are talking about made me remember that the War Devil was not exactly quiet when she propositioned him.
So, it makes sense that these students overheard and now have further motive to hate Asa, sadly leading to bullying, where Asa finds they have stuffed raw meat in her locker when she runs away from Yoshida and Yuko.
How messed up would it be if that raw meat was chicken?
An insult to Bucky’s memory is what it is.
Joking aside, Asa then leaves the school where the War Devil surprisingly offers to take care of Asa’s bullies.
Asa refuses and this is probably for the best considering that the War Devil’s way of helping things would probably be to blow them up with hand grenades made of literal hands.
Although, Asa would need friends in order for the War Devil to transform them, so they could be used as weapons.
Fortunately for Asa and unfortunately for Yuko (if the War Devil plans to use her as a weapon), the latter shows up to support Asa, offering her one of her shoes, since walking without shoes must make her feet hurt.
Asa is reluctant, so Yuko leaves the shoe with her, forcing Asa to chase her home, the two of them in constant, humorous, minor pain as their bare feet race across the sidewalk.
Upon reaching Yuko’s home, she gifts Asa with the other shoe, allowing her new friend to walk home with shoes.
Yuko really is proving herself to be a good friend, which is exactly what Asa needs, now more than ever.
However, as I have stated, this may not turn out to be a good thing in the end because then the War Devil could end up killing her and using her body parts as weapons to take on Chainsaw Man.
Speaking of Denji, I have heard a really weird theory that Yuko is actually him in disguise.
At first, I thought this theory was a joke but it seems there are some readers who buy it somewhat.
Personally, I think this theory is incredibly unlikely to be the case.
I mean, I do kind of think there would be a resemblance if Yuko took off her glasses, but not enough to convince me.
Along with this, given what we know about Denji’s character from Part One, I highly doubt he would work well undercover.
There are also plenty of general plot holes with this theory, like why Yoshida would allow Denji near Asa, who he probably suspects of being a devil at this point, and, most obviously, why would Denji be pretending to be a girl in the first place?
So, safe to say that the Yuko being a disguised Denji theory is as dead as Bucky.
Too soon, I know.
Let Yuko stay her own character who slowly becomes Asa’s friend, breaking down her walls until the War Devil literally breaks her body to make a weapon out of it.
I’m joking about wanting that last thing to happen.
Back to Chapter 100, after Yuko gives Asa her shoes, we get the cliffhanger, which is a simple yet comedic exchange between Asa and the War Devil.
When Yuko gives Asa the shoes, she suggests Asa sell them if she does not want to wear them, to which the War Devil concurs when they are alone, only for Asa to ask if they are an idiot.
This brings the relationship building Chapter 100 to a close.
Overall, “How to Walk Shoeless” is a good chapter that plays off well with the first two.
Since we did not see Denji in this chapter, it is most likely we will not see him for a while.
We may even get an entire arc without him.
But, as I said in my previous review, I actually like this.
Denji being absent for a while will give us more time to become attached to Asa, the War Devil, Yuko and Yoshida.
A long absense will also make Denji’s return more epic when it happens.
Although, Fujimoto being Fujimoto, he could also introduce Denji in the simplest way imagineable, like just having him randomly bump into Asa.
Either way, I am looking forward to the next chapter.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 99, Two Birds Review: Return of the Octopus.

Last week, Chainsaw Man returned with a bang, as Chapter 98, “Bird and War”, introduced us to a brand new and interesting character, Asa Mitaka.
“Bird and War” then ended with a typically Fujimoto style of crazy, as Asa was taken over by the War Devil, who intends to make Chainsaw Man vomit back up nuclear weapons.
Chapter 99, “Two Birds” is a great follow-up to this ending, opening by highlighting the situation Asa is in, as she wakes up wondering if the horrific events of the night before were just a dream, only for the War Devil to appear before her.
Rather than the strange owl form, which many theorized was based off the owls of the Greek Godess Athena, the War Devil has taken the form of Asa, only with the scars the Justice Devil left on her, along with the Makima-like eyes.
After some comedic moments of Asa constantly pinching herself to see if she is dreaming, the War Devil informs her that it took over half of her brain so it can control her, allowing Asa to see it as a hallucination when it is not in control.
As Asa walks to school, the War Devil informs Asa, and the reader, that it took over her body so that it could go to her school because it knows Chainsaw Man goes there, since a devil he killed was clutching a button from the school’s uniform.
The reason the War Devil left half of Asa’s brain in her control is because it does not know how to blend into human society, so it needs her to do that.
I do think this is partially true but I also think there is more to it than this.
The contract the War Devil laid out to Asa in the last chapter was, “If you want to live, you’re body will be mine.”
Part of their contract was allowing Asa to survive, thus it left half of her brain for her to exist in.
This is why I think the War Devil’s constant threats to kill her are also a bluff because this would break their contract, and Himeno informed us in Part One that if a Devil breaks a contract then they die.
Therefore, the War Devil’s threats to kill Asa are solely used to convince her to cooperate.
However, this does not exactly turn out in the War Devil’s favor because Asa is still so isolated at school, due to the Class President making her kill Bucky, that she says she would rather die than go to school.
This embarassing isolation is made even worse by the following interaction she and the War Devil have with a certain someone, this being Hirofumi Yoshida.
It is understandable if people who have read Part One of Chainsaw Man do not remember this character, especially if they read it a while ago.
Yoshida had a very brief stay in the manga before, only appearing in the International Assassins Arc, where he was tasked with protecting Denji with his Octopus Devil, and proved himself to be stronger than most, when he was able to go toe to toe with Quanxi in a fist fight for a while.
After this arc, he went back to high school and did not appear for the rest of Part One.
His sudden disappearance and Fujimoto making a point to mention that he was in school, made many theorize that he would be a big part of Part Two because high school is where Denji would be next.
Well, that theory has seemingly been confirmed with Yoshida’s arrival, as he approaches Asa to ask if she is okay, clearly noticing her hunched over and talking to herself.
After he approaches, the War Devil quickly proves that it was telling the truth to Asa when it said that it did not know how to blend into human society because it chooses that moment to take control of her body, making the scars abruptly appear on Asa’s body and even more abruptly asking Yoshida if he knows anything about Chainsaw Man being at school.
Yoshida clearly notices the suddenly appearing scars, yet brushes them off quickly, and explains that since he just transferred here, he doesn’t know anything about Chainsaw Man being at school for certain.
However, he did hear a rumor that he was attending a devil hunting club.
The War Devil take this at face value but Yoshida is clearly playing it like a fiddle.
For one thing, we know from the International Assassins Arc that Yoshida is an exceptionally attentive person, having quickly discovered one of the assassins and killing them, along with deducing that one of the assassins was innocent because he puked after seeing a dead body.
Sure, he was wrong about the last one because he did not know that last assassin was new to the job, but his reasoning was still sound.
Therefore, the idea that he would see scars suddenly appear on a girl’s body out of nowhere and just immediately dismiss this is not in character, so he clearly suspects that Asa is a devil.
Him just having transferred to the High School is also probably to protect Denji again because of the Justice Devil’s involvement in the deaths of both the Class President and Mr Tanaka.
Since he is probably protecting Denji and also most likely noticed Asa is a devil, he would want to keep her as far away from Denji as possible, so he lied about Chainsaw Man being in the devil hunting club to isolate her.
Honestly, I see Denji being in something like the cooking club more than the devil hunting club.
Yoshida’s suspicions of Asa are also probably one of the main reasons why he turns down the War Devil’s offer to be her boyfriend, which also again confirms the War Devil’s inneptitude when it comes to interacting with humans, as it only adds to Asa’s embarassment.
After Yoshida leaves, Asa demands to know why the War Devil would ask him out and the War Devil explains that it has, “the power to turn what’s mine into weapons”, so was aiming to do that with Yoshida.
This explains why the War Devil was able to turn Tanaka’s head into a sword last chapter because he was planning to groom Asa, so his gross lust for her made him the War Devil’s weapon when it took over her body.
The War Devil having this power also causes problems for Asa’s future because, when the Justice Devil killed her last chapter, her last thoughts were of wishing she had lived more selfishly, having friends and maybe a boyfriend.
However, if Asa were to make friends and get a boyfriend, then this would mean the War Devil could turn them into weapons, robbing her of them.
This clearly does not matter to the War Devil at the moment, however, as it explains to Asa that it wants to obtain as many weapons as possible to go to war with Chainsaw Man.
Asa appears to be slightly swayed by the notion of fighting Chainsaw Man, as her fists unclench but she quickly goes back to being concerned about her dire situation, wanting to contact a Devil Hunter, only for the War Devil to threaten her again since it can read her thoughts.
The War Devil says it will return Asa’s body when they have defeated Chainsaw Man, demanding that Asa sign up for the devil hunting club, where they now believe Denji is.
Upon arriving at the club, the leaders tell all of the attendees that only those who kill a devil can join.
I found this to be a rather strange detail, since devils can be notoriously dangerous.
Would the teachers at the school really be okay with the students risking their lives like this?
Or maybe the students are deliberately sent after harmless devils like Bucky?
Guess we’ll have to wait for the next chapter to find out.
In any case, the leaders split everyone into groups of three to go devil hunting, putting Asa in a group with Yoshida, much to her embarassment, and a cheerful girl with glasses, who many readers have pointed out looks a lot like Kusakabe.
He was a character who first appeared and then died in the International Assassins Arc, so it would be interesting if she were related to him.
Although, it could be a little too convenient to have someone related to Kusakabe be randomly placed in the same group with Yoshida, who worked with Kusakabe before his death.
Maybe she’s just a character who happens to look similar to him?
Either way, it will be interesting to see if she is a character who will become important or is just canon fodder for the devils.
If she befriends Asa, I can’t see it ending well for her, though, considering the War Devil’s abilities.
It clearly would not have a problem with killing any of the friends Asa makes, so long they can be used as a weapon against Chainsaw Man.
Speaking of which, when are we going to see Denji again?
Fujimoto appears to have made a joke about his absence at the the beginning of the chapter when a news reporter says, “Chainsaw Man has yet to appear this week.”
Well, we might just see him next week because the following chapter will be Chainsaw Man‘s 100th chapter and big things tend to happen in a manga’s 100th chapter.
Although, this is not a must.
If Denji does not appear in the next chapter, then I honestly don’t see him showing up for a while.
In fact, I think this may actually be for the best because it could allow us to get more aquainted with Asa, Yoshida and potentially the new girl so, when Denji finally does show up, we are able to care about these new characters as much as him.
One thing I think could be interesting is introducing Chainsaw Man before Denji, meaning that Asa could see him fighting in his Devil Hybrid form, before officially meeting him at school.
As for Denji’s location at the school, as I said, he is almost definitley not in the devil hunting club.
That was probably just a ploy for Yoshida to keep a close eye on Asa, since he probably suspects her of being a devil.
He may be a bit out of depth, though, considering that the War Devil is one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, up there with Death, Famine and Conquest, who many people consider to be Makima, now Nayuta.
It will be interesting to see if we go on to meet the Death and Famine Devils in Part Two.
As for Chapter 99, “Two Birds”, it a good follow-up chapter to the previous one, setting up the high school setting well, along with the War Devil’s connection with Asa, and the return of Yoshida.
I am eagerly anticipating to see where all of this goes.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 98, Bird and War Review: Chainsaw Man is Backaw!

Chainsaw Man is one of my favourite mangas and is written by my favourite mangaka, Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Therefore, I am obviously very excited for its anime adaptation and was even more excited for Part 2 of the manga, the first chapter of which just dropped.
Chapter 98, “Bird and War” was honestly not how I expected Chainsaw Man’s second part to begin but, given that this is Fujimoto we’re talking about here, I definitley should have.
A headless Chicken Devil named Bucky, who constantly makes terrible chicken puns, being used as an experiment to teach a highschool class about the sanctity of life is classic Fujimoto craziness.
The concept alone had me laughing hysterically right from the get go, and this was certainly not the last time I would be doing so when reading Chapter 98.
While every student in the class seems excited about spending time with Bucky, there is one exception, a loner girl named Asa Mitaka, the protaganist of the chapter.
Mitaka seems to despise everyone at her school, only tolerating the class president who makes an effort to befriend her.
It is when the two talk for the first time in the chapter that Fujimoto gives us a little bit of worldbuilding for the area they live in.
First, there is the bun the class president is eating, with the packaging it comes in reading, “Chainsaw Curry Man.”
This is a good bit of worldbuilding, showing the impact Denji’s popularity as Chainsaw Man has had an effect on Japan’s marketing companies.
The next bit of worldbuilding comes from Mitaka herself, who describes the city they live in as corrupt, with buildings being constructed illegally, a mayor with a DUI, along with Chainsaw Man himself.
This exposition is a little ham-fisted, since Mitaka is saying things that the class president would already know but it gets the information across to us readers well enough.
At the end of their conversation, the class president attempts to comfort Mitaka by saying that Bucky will be killed in 100 days, yet Mitaka wishes that both the Chicken Devil and Chainsaw Man would die sooner.
Mitaka’s hatred for Chainsaw Man is interesting when you look back and see the class talking about her parents being killed by a devil.
Does she hate Denji just by the assosciation of him being a devil, or does she hate him because her parents were killed in one of his big city fights?
Maybe her parents died in the fight with Reze and the Typhoon Devil, for example?
That’s just a theory for now, though.
Following the conversation between Mitaka and the class president, Fujimoto then delivers a montage of the 100 days the class spends with Bucky, growing closer and closer with him, while somehow tolerating his awful chicken puns.
Although, I suppose I did make just such a pun in the title of this review, so I shouldn’t be one to judge.
By the end of the 100 days, Mitaka is ready for Bucky to be killed, sporting a smug little grin, only for the class president to announce that everyone in the class has become attatched to Bucky and they now want him to live.
The teacher, Mr Tanaka, is overjoyed for his students, as he was hoping that they would come to this conclusion, now declaring that Bucky can live with their class and cancelling math so they can all go play soccer.
The entire class takes part, except for Mitaka, who Mr Tanaka and the class president attempt to coax into playing.
Surprisingly, it is Bucky who convinces Mitaka, jumping into her arms and asking her to come and play, by name.
This is the first time we hear Mitaka’s name in the story and it was a good call from Fujimoto to have this be the case, because it helped isolate us readers from her somewhat, until we learn with Mitaka that, despite her self isolation, she was jealous of the friendships everyone has.
Now feeling hopeful thanks to Bucky’s help, Mitaka holds him in her arms and walks towards her classmates, ready to come out of her shell and begin a new future at the school by making friends… only for her to trip and crush Bucky so hard that his intestines burst from his stomach, killing him.
Cue another burst of laughter from me at this classic use of dark comedy from Fujimoto.
Unfortunately, Mitaka accidentally crushing Bucky to death leads to her being isolated, only this isolation is no longer self-imposed.
Things start to look up, however, when Mr Tanaka and the class president come to take her to Bucky’s Grave to apologize for what happened togethor.
Clearly, Mr Tanaka and the class president are good people who will stand by Mitaka through thick and thin… right?
Well, actually, no, because it turns out that the class president is responsible for tripping Mitaka, causing her to kill Bucky, and has made a deal with the Justice Devil to kill her.
Why did she do this?
Because she was having sex with Tanaka but he wanted to pursue Mitaka, so she got jealous.
Yep, Mr Tanaka is a groomer and the class president only made friends with Mitaka because he asked her to so he could get close and, since then, she has become a devil possessed psycho.
I really like the way this creepy truth is exposed, with Tanaka agreeing with Mitaka that they should stop at red lights, clearly an attempt to begin grooming her in retrospect, and this causes the class president’s jealousy to explode, causing her to finally decide to kill Mitaka.
It is interesting to that the Justice Devil of all devils is the one to make a contract with the class president, since, in her mind, Mitaka deserves a punishment for “stealing” Tanaka away from her, when, in reality, Tanaka is at fault for being a creepy groomer.
However, despite liking the logic of the Justice Devil being the one to attack Mitaka, I will say that I think that its design is a little lacking.
This is not to say that it is badly drawn but most of the devils in Chainsaw Man have designs that perfectly reflect their name, like the Darkness Devil, for example.
The Justice Devil’s form doesn’t really seem to resemble justice in any way that I can see.
Although, maybe there is some meaning behind it that I’m not getting and, even if there isn’t, this is still a very minor gripe, nothing major.
One thing I can highly praise, though, is the amount of thought Fujimoto clearly put into the reveals of the class president and Tanaka because, if you go back and look at a lot of their actions earlier in the chapter, it takes a sinister turn.
The panel right before Mitaka trips obscures the class president from view and in the next panel she is standing right beside the fallen Mitaka, making it clear on rereads that it was in the prior panel where she was obscured when she tripped Mitaka.
Back to the present, as a mere human, Mitaka obviously stands no chance against the Justice Devil but, before she dies, we get a brief look at her thoughts on her life, as she realizes that she is not the only one who is jealous.
Everyone holds some jealously towards another person and, if she had just realized that sooner, she could have had a happy life, making friends and maybe even getting a boyfriend.
Oh, and accompanying these tragic thoughts is some of the most brutal gore we have seen in Chainsaw Man.
Seeing Mitaka’s face get torn apart in slow motion and the horrific aftermath was absolutley brutal.
Almost as brutal as what comes next as, in the instant before she dies, Mitaka sees a strange bird-like devil with the eyes of Makima watching over her from a stop sign.
The devil says that if she wants to live then her body is now its own.
Seemingly in an instant, Mitaka arises from death, now sporting a cool scar and marches over to Tanaka, deservedly decpitating him and sprouting a sword from his head, calling it the “Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword.”
There is already so much gore in Chainsaw Man‘s second part and I am all for it.
It only gets more brutal, as Mitaka announces herself as the War Devil, taking on the Justice Devil, cutting off its arm and transforming it into a hand grenade.
She then slices the Justice Devil in half, before throwing her Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword at her, prompting the class president still inside the Justice Devil to make out with the decapitated head.
I wonder if that’s an Attack on Titan reference?
In any case Mitaka declares this “a happy ending”, throwing the grenade over her shoulder, where it explodes, killing the Justice Devil, as Mitaka walks away in apparent slow motion in what is a clear omage to Fujimoto’s oneshot Goodbye Eri.
Speaking of which, Goodbye Eri is also amazing and if you have not read it yet then you definitley should.
“Bird and War” then ends with Mitaka seeing a poster for a Chainsaw Man Calling Party, and then, resting on the Justice Devil’s corpse, declaring, “Just you wait, Chainsaw Man! I’ll make you vomit nuclear weapons back up!”
This crazy final line from the War Devil controlling Mitaka perfectly spells out its motives, in my opinion.
During the final arc of Chainsaw Man Part One, Makima revealed that whenever the Chainsaw Devil eats another devil, it erases the memory of whatever that devil represented from everyone’s minds.
One of these devils that was killed, wiping its memory from humanity’s existance, was the Nuclear Weapons Devil.
Today, nuclear weapons are the thing we most fear when it comes to the terrible prospect of World War Three.
However, if nuclear weapons never existed, there would be less fear of war.
Not saying the fear would completley vanish, that would be stupid as war should always be feared, but it would be significantly less scary than it is now because without nuclear weapons there would not be a risk of destroying the entire world.
So, imagine the impact removing the memory of nuclear weapons would have had on the War Devil, knowing that devils are only as strong as humanity’s fear of what they represent.
It would have made the War Devil signficantly weaker.
This makes the War Devil’s motives abundantly clear, I think.
I believe that he deliberately took over Mitaka because of her hatred for Chainsaw Man, hoping to use her to kill him, potentially causing all of humanity to remember the fears that he killed, including nuclear weapons, thus returning the War Devil to its original power.
It will be interesting to see, if this theory is correct, how willing Mitaka is to go along with this plan.
We know she hates Chainsaw Man but there are some questions about why, as I have mentioned.
Not only this but we have to wonder how in control Mitaka was of her body when she made a contract with the War Devil.
It seems like the War Devil was completley in control when Mitaka killed the Justice Devil, so will she remember what happened when or if she takes control back and what will she think about her situation?
Would she be willing to kill Chainsaw Man if she knew it would increase the War Devil’s power and bring the world ending threat of nuclear weapons back?
I am intrigued to learn what she will think of all this in the coming chapters.
Another thing I am certain of though, along with the War Devil’s plan, is how Mitaka will attempt to track Chainsaw Man down.
She will do so by attending the Chainsaw Man Calling Party on the fifth of December, as the poster she looks at states.
We also know she and Denji will be at odds because of the promotional material we have got, with one piece showing Denji chainsawing Mitaka’s head open, while she glares at him in defiance.
Speaking of Denji himself, it is interesting to see that he is seemingly not the main character of Part Two.
I wonder what he has been up to, along with the other surviving character from Part One, like Kobeni, Kishibe, Nayuta and Yoshida?
Overall, Chapter 98 of Chainsaw Man “Bird and War” was an eggcelent start to Part Two… I know, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist the dumb chicken puns.
In all seriousness, I am incredibly impressed about how Fujimoto made me invested in Mitaka and her story in just a single chapter and I am excited to see where she goes as a character, whether as a protaganist or antaganist or anti-hero.
The chapter was so good that the only criticisms I have of it, those being some of the exposition delivery and the Justice Devil’s design, are so minor that they are barely an issue, showing how great this start was.
The future of Chainsaw Man is looking bright and I am looking forward to more crazy, gory and introspective scenes from Fujimoto

Fire Punch Review: WTF Did I Just Read?

Around halfway through reading Fire Punch for the first time, I decided that Tatsuki Fujimoto is my favourite mangaka.
This is not to say that I think Fire Punch is his best work.
If anything, reading it showed me just how much he has improved since writing this manga, going on to write and illustrate my second favourite manga, Chainsaw Man, and the fantastic one shots Look Back and Goodbye Eri.
One thing that has stayed the same across all of Fujimoto’s works, though, is his undoubtable creativity, present in Fire Punch from the beginning, all the way to the very end.
Another constant throughout my first read through of Fire Punch was me repeatedly saying, “what the f**k am I reading?”

It felt like every chapter had its own wtf moment.

I don’t think I am exagerrating when I say that Fire Punch is the craziest work of fiction that I have ever read.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue reading after the first ten chapters because of how completely grim everything was, but I pushed forward and found a flawed yet rewarding story that is, of course, f****d up on every conceivable level.
Fire Punch is set in a world where super powered people, known as the Blessed, started a new Ice Age that is slowly leading to humanity’s extinction.
Agni is a young blessed with the power of regeneration, who lives with his little sister Luna in a small village, where he cuts off his arm daily to feed everyone, since there is no food.
Oh, and Agni’s sister wants to have his babies.
So, yeah… that’s a thing.
However, Agni’s life is disrupted when a blessed named Doma arrives in his village, looking for soldiers, only to be disgusted by the cannibalism going on there, leading to him using his flame powers to burn the village to ash.
Everyone in the village dies, except Agni, who is kept alive by his regineration power, although he is left in a constant state of burning agony.
In her last, horrifying moments, Luna urges Agni to live, and so Agni does, persevering to eventually get his revenge on Doma, beginning the story of Fire Punch.

The manga starts off as a revenge story but later becomes much more.

The story only gets crazier from here, with plenty of weird characters, many of whom have disturbing ideologies, and, of course, plenty of movie references.
It would not be a Fujimoto story without at least one, after all.
Fujimoto embodies these movie references in my favourite character in Fire Punch, Togata, the reginerative blessed who is a movie fan, nut job.
Togata is initially characterized as someone who will do anything to make a movie starring Agni, yet, as the story goes on, Fujimoto pulls back the layers on his character to reveal the vulnerabilities, creating an extremely sympathetic side to him.
It also helps that he’s incredibly funny.
Seriously, one Togata segment during a truck chase had me laughing so hard my sides hurt for a couple of minutes afterwards.

I was amazed at how Togata went from a comedic relief character to having one of the most emotional arcs in the story.

Fujimoto absolutely nails dark humor.
He also nails the themes of the story, with Agni’s and Togata’s arcs being especially hard hitting.
However, I did say near the beginning of this review that Fire Punch had flaws and there are quite a few.
Probably the two biggest of these are the characters and the pacing.
As I said, there are a lot of wacky characters in Fire Punch, but it does not seem like Fujimoto knew what to do with many of them.
Some just show up, look cool for a while with very little characterisation and then are killed off shortly after, sometimes off screen.
The pacing can be just as problematic at times, with some important events happening way too fast or even off screen.
Then there’s the constant incest theme with Agni’s character, which is obviously uncomfortable.

To be fair to Fujimoto, though, he does often show how creepy Agni’s feelings for his sister are.

Some of these flaws even have a positive side to them, at least if you have read Fujimoto’s more recent works first.
The flaws of Fire Punch make for an interesting comparison, as any reader can see how much he grew as a writer from his first long-running manga to Chainsaw Man.
As well as this, despite the issues, Fire Punch builds up to a great and expectedly crazy ending that closes off the story’s theme about living on no matter what well.
Overall, Fire Punch is a flawed yet meaningful story that is well worth it by the end.
Just be prepared to constantly say or think “what the f**k?” when you read it.

Goodbye Eri Review: Blurring the Line Between Fact and Fiction.

Tatsuki Fujimoto has had a stellar career as a mangaka.
Chainsaw Man is my second favourite manga behind Attack on Titan and his one shot Look Back is an emotional rollercoaster.
I have also just started reading his first serialized manga, Fire Punch, which so far is already turning out to be one of the most insane manga I have read.
Well, Fujimoto recently released a new one shot Goodbye Eri, which, at first, looked like it was going to be a simple, emotional story, much like Look Back, before the story goes completley off the rails and explodes.
Ordinarily, me saying that would be a way of me dissing this story but no, this time I mean it as a compliment.
It leaves a lot up to the reader and this is what makes it so great.
Goodbye Eri begins at the 12th Birthday of Yuta, whose parents have bought him a smart phone.
This pleasant Birthday gift quickly turns grim, however, as it is revealed that Yuta’s mother is dying from a terminal illness and she bought Yuta the smart phone to film her life all the way up to her final moments.
One bit of foreshadowing for what will be revealed about Yuta’s mother can be seen with the dad’s reaction to her request; how he looks between his wife and son, as if he wants to say something but then stops himself.
From here, the one shot proceeds pretty expectantly, with Yuta filming his mother’s life, their time togethor, and her degrading health.
Eventually, Yuta’s mother is dying in the hostpital, so his father takes him to film her final moments.
However, at the last second, Yuta gets cold feet and runs away from the hostpital as it suddenly explodes, leaving Yuta’s fellow students who are watching his movie in a state of shock.
Yep, Yuta created a film of his mother’s struggle with her terminal illness, only to add an explosion at the end, as if it was supposed to be an action movie.
His school mates take it about how you would expect, with many condemning and laughing at the movie.
One of Yuta’s teachers even pulls him aside to tell him off for “making a mockery” of his mother’s death with the explosion.
Yuta’s only response?
“That was awesome right?”
The teacher naturally does not take this well.
Yuta then interviews a bunch of other students about his movie, all of which criticize him for it, most potently one girl whose mother also died, who says she can’t forgive Yuta for adding the explosion at the end.
All of this leads to Yuta deciding to commit suicide, heading to the roof of the hostpital where his mother’s died to leap from it.
However, before he can, he is interrupted by a girl named Eri, who recognises him as the director of Dead Explosion Mother, and drags him to an abandoned building where she watches some movies with him.
Afterwards, the two talk, and Eri is the first person who speaks positively of Yuta’s movie, saying that she liked, “the way it blurred the line between fact and fiction,” something that will be very important later.
Eri goes on to state that Yuta’s movie was awesome and convinces him that he should make another movie next year to make everyone who laughed at his previous movie cry.
From here, we see the progression of Eri and Yuta’s friendship, just like we saw the progression of Yuta’s mother’s illness, only instead of the illness building, it’s the two friends watching movies togethor and making plans for Yuta’s next film.
There are multiple great moments of humor spliced in here, like when Eri pulls a peace sign whenever the heroes win and Yuta says “aww yeah,” every time there are nipples on screen.
We also get another key moment, this time between Yuta and his father, where the dad says that Yuta has always “sprinkled a pinch of fantasy on everything,” which explains part of the reason why Yuta added the explosion when his mother died in his original movie.
After this conversation, Yuta meets with Eri again and pitches her his new movie about himself meeting a dying vampire (Eri) after his movie is criticized.
Like his mother, the vampire is also dying, and the main character has to film her death to overcome the death of his mother.
Eri agrees to this film being the one Yuta will make and the conversation concludes with Yuta asking Eri to meet his father.
However, this meeting does not go over well because Yuta’s father is angry that they are making a movie, thinking it will hurt Yuta more, yelling at Eri to get out.
“And cut!” Eri cries out, revealing this argument to have been a part of their movie, since Yuta’s father has prior theater experience.
Then we get an interesting line from Yuta’s father, “To quote a friend of mine… creation is all about getting into the audience’s problems to make them laugh and cry, right? Well it wouldn’t be fair if the creators didn’t get hurt too, would it?”
The three of them then agree to reshoot the scene with that line in it.
I think this line may be a moment of Fujimoto speaking through the character of Yuta’s father.
Perhaps the “to quote a friend of mine” part of the line means that this is something Fujimoto thinks or something one of Fujimoto’s friends said to him, which he then decided to put into the oneshot.
Whatever the meaning of this scene is, it does lead into the moment where Yuta is hurt again, as he learns that Eri is also suffering from a terminal illness, after she collapses on a beach while filming.
In the hostpital, Eri asks Yuta to film her final moments, just like his mother wanted to do for him, causing Yuta to flee in a panic.
Yuta is then met by his father, who decides to show him his mother’s final moments on film, where we get one of the big bombshells of the one shot.
While Yuta’s mother lay dying in the hospital bed, Yuta’s father explained to her that Yuta would not come out of the car to see her, so he will be filming her final moments.
This causes Yuta’s mother to claim that her son was always useless, and we then get a bunch of panels showing her being abusive to Yuta and forcing him to film her life, revealing that Yuta made his mother look good in the film he made, having the power as the director to decide how she would be remembered.
Along with this moment being shocking and emotional, it also brings Eri’s comment about Yuta’s film blurring the line between fact and fiction to the forefront.
In that film, we see Yuta running away from the hostpital before it explodes, yet in the video of his mother’s final moments, his father says he is staying in the car rather than running away.
So how much of what we are shown before the explosion is real, if it was not just the explosion and his mother’s personality that were manipulated?
Is what we are seeing here fact or fiction in this story?
That is a question that the reader will ask a lot going forward.
Following Yuta’s talk with his father, he goes to see Eri and reconciles with her, agreeing to film her until her death, which he does so, all the way up until Eri is on her death bed, where she says to create a movie that will make everyone bawl their eyes out.
Cut to the school auditorium again after Eri’s death where, this time, the audience are all bawling their eyes out as they watch Yuta’s movie, to which Yuta pulls Eri’s peace sign at the hero’s victory.
An indeterminable amount of time later, Yuta is approached by the girl who said she could not forgive him for adding the explosion.
She reveals that Eri actually wore glasses, had a dental retainer, never dated Yuta, and actually had a massive temper to the point that this girl and Yuta were her only friends.
The girl then thanks Yuta for depicting Eri in such a positive light.
Taking her words into account, though, this means that every single moment we have seen between Eri and Yuta was either staged or recreated for their movie, again blurring the line between fact and fiction.
Then we get the biggest mind screw of all, as the one shot supposedly jumps forward decades later, as Yuta narrates that he eventually got married and had a daughter, but could never stop recutting Eri’s movie.
We then see the older Yuta, looking just like his father, only without the facial hair, and he says to his phone that his entire family, including his father, were killed in a car accident.
Not wanting to endure any more deaths, Yuta decides to take his own life, apparently going to the abandoned building where he and Eri watched movies to do so.
It is here that the mind screw part comes in, as Yuta walks into the abandoned building and finds Eri, somehow still alive and watching his movie.
She comments that his movie is on track but something about it is not quite there, as films ending with the love interest’s death are overdone.
“It’s missing a pinch of fantasy, don’t you think?” She says.
Yuta says the film has fantasy because he turned Eri into a vampire, but Eri says that is fact because she really is a vampire, but one whose body dies every 200 years due to her overflowing memories.
When she died in front of Yuta, she revived three days later, without her memory.
Only the movie he made told her things about herself.
Although, given that it has been established that the version of Eri Yuka showed was idealized, she may have the wrong picture.
Eri then comments on the beauty of his movie, and how people can be immortalized through them (much like a vampire, I would say), to which Yuka agrees, before saying his titular goodbye to Eri.
Now, after much struggle, Yuta finally knows why he spent so long recutting his movie.
As Eri said, it was missing a pinch of fantasy, and that fantasy comes when the building explodes as Yuta walks away triumphant, bringing the one shot to an end.
Okay, so what the hell does this all mean?
Is Eri really a vampire?
How much of the film is real?
Well, the beauty of this one shot is that it is subjective.
Eri says at one point that stories which blur the line between fact and fiction, “make for a good puzzle.”
Allow me to state my own interpretation of this puzzle then.
I think that the parts with Yuta’s mother and Eri dying are real, although they are both depicted as idealized versions of themselves.
During the filming of Eri’s portion of the story, the two decided that there was something missing about the movie, as it “needed a pinch of fantasy.”
So, the two decided to get Yuta’s dad to play a future version of Yuta, shaving his facial hair to pull it off.
They then filmed the entire ending vampire scene with the building exploding at the end.
After this, they filmed the rest of the movie up until Eri’s death, whereupon Yuta compiled all of his footage into the film we are now seeing in the oneshot.
Or who knows, the entire thing could be a fictional movie, if you want to think of it that way.
There really are so many different ways to interpret Goodbye Eri.
But, no matter what you may think happened in this story, I think we can all agree, as Yuta says after his film Dead Explosion Mother debuts, “That was awesome, right?”
Tatsuki Fujimoto has done it again, delivering another amazing one shot that I will not forget for some time.

Look Back, Oneshot Review: Tatsuki Fujimoto is Brilliant.

Ever since Tatsuki Fujimoto released his one shot manga Look Back weeks ago, I have found myself returning to it time and time again, finding new meaning in it every time.
It’s funny because, even though Fujimoto is the author of one of my favourite mangas, Chainsaw Man, I honestly wasn’t expecting Look Back to be all that much.
Just a fun little story to read once and then move on from.
Boy, was I wrong.
I came out of Look Back an emotional wreck and I have felt just as impacted every time I have reread it since then.
It’s clearly not just me either because I have seen so many other people who feel the same way and come out of reading it with different interpretations of what it all means.
Look Back begins with a simple, single page panel of a room with an empty desk and chair, the importance of which will be realized by the ending.
We then meet our main character, Fujino, through the four panel manga strip she entered as homework for her school’s newspaper.
Fujimoto does an excellent job presenting her to us, as first we see the teacher giving his class the newspaper, then them passing it down and laughing with and appreciating Fujino’s art, and next we actually see the comedic strip before we are finally introduced to Fujino herself.
However, despite the class’ praise of her artwork, Fujino is actually not too receptive to the idea of becoming a manga artist when she grows up, perferring the idea of becoming an athlete instead.
It is on the following page where we first hear of the character who will change all of this for her, Kyomoto, when her teacher asks her to give up one of school paper manga slots to her, since Kyomoto is a recluse who doesn’t come to school but wants to explore her own artwork.
This news causes Fujino to cockily wonder how someone who is afraid of coming to school could draw manga well.
Her arrogant claim made it all the funnier when I turned the page and saw her horrified reaction when she saw Kyomoto’s artwork next to hers and realized it was much better than hers.
Fujimoto is really good at drawing hilarious character reactions and he doesn’t disappoint with Fujino’s.
It is not just her who realizes that Kyomoto’s artwork is better because everyone in her class does as well.
Remembering how everyone first praised her, wanting more of that, and realizing that Kyomoto is so good because she practices all the time at home, Fujino decides to devote even more time than the “five minutes” she spent on her earlier manga strip.
Following this moment, we get the first of many montage panels where time passes as Fujino practices her drawing at her home, school, the library, the park, and other places, along with buying various different guide books to help teach her.
At least a year passes during this montage, with the snow on the roof being in one panel then gone the next highlighting this.
We then get confirmation on how much time has passed, when one of Fujino’s friends says they will be middle schoolers next year and rhen asks if Fujino thinks that she herself is too old for drawing because she doesn’t want to be thought of as a creepy otaku at her age.
This, her sister’s discouragement and urging to try karate instead, and her seeing that Kyomoto’s background art is still better than hers, causes Fujino to give up.
There even seems to be a slight tear when she does so, showing how much this decision hurts, but she turns this emotion away to instead join up with her friends and spend time with family.
She even has her old drawing guide books thrown out.
It would seem that she is distancing herself from the passion of drawing forever but fate has other plans, as Fujino’s teacher again asks her to go to Kyomoto and deliver her graduation certificate to her.
No one answers the door, so Fujino goes inside and finds the walls outside of Kyomoto’s room lined with journals for drawing.
Seeing one bare manga strip, a moment of cruel inspiration strikes Fujino, as she draws Kyomoto winning the shut-in world championship because she is dead.
Epic foreshadowing (only kidding).
Just as she is wondering what she is doing, she drops the strip, which slides under Kyomoto’s door, causing Fujino to flee in panic, only for a disheveled and awkward Kyomoto to pursue her outside.
The symbolism of this first meeting is pretty great, as Fujino’s feet are in the light and Kyomoto’s are in the shade of her house, showing their different standings in life, with Fujino currently being outgoing and Kyomoto an introvert.
It is then that Kyomoto nervously admits to being a fan of Fujino’s, followed by another great reaction shot of Fujino.
Although, while the previous reaction shot of her was comedic, this one is dramatic, as her face is bathed in light, the only panel in the entire page where a character’s face is not in the shade.
This shows the importance of Kyomoto’s confession to her, as it resparks her passion for drawing manga, only this time not to gain praise which I will explain later.
Kyomoto follows this up by getting Fujino to autograph the back of her shirt, and then asks why she stopped drawing manga after sixth grade, causing Fujino to expertly lie, highlighted by her refusing to look at Kyomoto.
Fujino claims that she hasn’t been drawing as much because she is preparing to create a story, which she will submit for a manga award and promises to show Kyomoto once she is done.
She then leaves as it starts to rain and begins to skip and dance, no longer having to lie to herself about lacking the passion to draw anymore.
The full page spread where she skips and dances through the rain in a way that is somehow both awkward and triumphant is excellently drawn by Fujimoto and one of my favourite moments in the one-shot.
Que another, much longer montage of panels, as the years pass and Fujino and Kyomoto grow closer, beginning to work togethor and inspire each other it their own artwork.
After a day out on the town, spending the money they earned from their manga, Kyomoto admits that, just like Fujino starting to draw manga because of the praise she got from others, she began drawing manga not for fun but because otherwise she was bored, thanking Fujino for bringing her outside.
Eventually, the two become successful enough to become seralized, however, Kyomoto cannot help Fujino with the new manga series because she wants to go to art school to hone her craft.
Fujino does not take this news well, using Kyomoto’s earlier confession to try and manipulate her into staying and helping her, saying she will become bored at art school.
This argument seems to cause a seperation between the two because, as time passes in the next montage, with Fujino becoming successful with her manga, Shark Attack, which is then set to get an anime adaptation, we don’t see them interact, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when it happens.
Fujino looks at the news one day and sees that an attack has happened at Kyomoto’s art school and unfortunately she did not make it.
This is clearly a representation of the tragic Kyoto Animation arson attack in 2019, which claimed 36 lives.
It is particuarly sad to then notice in hindsight that the first part of Kyomoto’s name is also the beginning of the name of the animation studio where the real life attack took place.
This all goes to show just how devestating the attack on Kyoto Animation and the loss of life was for many creators out there who had been inspired by their work, seemingly Tatsuki Fujimoto among them.
Kyomoto’s death affects Fujino especially hard, as she goes on a highatus afterwards, claiming an illness to be responsible.
She then visits her old friend’s house where she finds the manga strip she wrote which accidentally drew Kyomoto out of her room.
This causes Fujino to blame herself for Kyomoto’s death because, as she sees it, if she had never drawn that manga strip then Kyomoto never would have come out of her room and thus never would have died.
It is then that we see what appears to be a fantasy of Fujino’s of what Kyomoto’s life would have been like had they never met.
In this fantasy alternate universe, only the torn part of Fujino’s manga strip where the onlookers tell Kyomoto to not come out of her room slips under her door.
So, Kyomoto never overcomes her insecurities to interact with others but still gets into art school.
Then, the attack happens, only this time there is a hero to save the day.
It is none other than Fujino who, in this alternate universe, focused on karate like her sister asked, so was able to thwart the attacker and save Kyomoto’s life.
This leads the two to become friends in this fantasy as well, with Fujino offering Kyomoto a place as her assistant, inspiring Kyomoto to go home and draw more manga strips, one of which blows away in the wind and under Kyomoto’s door to meet Fujino, the fantasy ending.
Fujino reads the strip, which has the titular title Look Back, and is a comedic version of her saving Kyomoto, possibly something the shy girl imagined back when she was Funjino’s biggest fan.
Entering Kyomoto’s room, Fujino sees that Kyomoto indeed still was a fan of Fujino, as she had all of the volumes of her manga and still kept the shirt she signed with a place of honour on the hook of her door.
This all causes Fujino to admit to herself that she never really enjoyed drawing manga because of how unfulling it was and wonders why she did it all?
The answer comes in a flashback to Fujino gifting Kyomoto with the manga she promised back when they first met, resulting in an overjoyed expression from Kyomoto, along with all the times they inspired one another.
This all shows how Fujino’s passion for writing manga changed from first being to get the praise of her peers to then making her readers happy once she saw how happy it made Kyomoto.
And right there came the tears from me because this broke me the first time I read it.
If this is not a direct message from Fujimoto to his readers then I don’t know what is.
Especially considering the characters’ names of Fujino and Kyomoto, which makes up his name.
Looking at her Shark Attack manga, eerily similar to Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man, and realizing what it all meant to Kyomoto, Fujino goes back home to continue her serialization.
The one-shot then ends on another single paged panel of Fujino sitting in her chair at her desk, continuing to write her manga, directly paralleling the beginning of the one shot where we saw Fujino’s chair and desk but no one was sitting in it.
Look Back seems to be detailing Fujimoto’s experience as a mangaka primarily through Fujino, as she starts off writing it for praise and to beat a rival but then starts doing it for the experience of the readers, as seen through how Kyomoto inspires her.
It’s also neat to note how the Oasis song “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is shown to be an inspiration through how it is placed by Fujimoto throughout the one-shot, with the opening black board saying “Don’t”, Kyomoto’s manga strip of Fujino saving her being titled “Look Back” and one of the books Fujino has on the final page being titled “In Anger.”
There are a lot of other subtle details to this one-shot, like the infamous Chainsaw Man door at one point.
It can take multiple read throughs to find many of these and some of them had to be pointed out by others for me to get, like the already mentioned “Don’t Look Back in Anger” reference.
Along with these details, there is the emotional power of Don’t Look Back, which hit me with the weight of a truck when I first read it.
It is a fantastic one-shot and I have the exact same thought every time I finish: Tatsuki Fujimoto is brilliant.