Chapter 231 of Chainsaw Man left me concerned.
Instead of continuing the story naturally, it felt like author Tatsuki Fujimoto had just decided to abruptly end the story.
I started reading Chapter 232, “Thank You, Chainsaw Man,” with my fingers crossed that this would only be the conclusion of Part 2 and not the entire story.
Unfortunately, my fears were warranted.
Fujimoto really did get burned out and decided to end the story here.
I am not surprised, considering how aimless Part Two felt in comparison to Part One.
That is not to say Part Two did not have fantastic moments.
Asa and Yoru are great characters, I enjoyed their bond with Denji, and the Death Devil Twist was brilliant.
But Part One just felt way more cohesive because Fujimoto had a clear end goal.
If he had an end goal for Part Two, he definitely decided to abruptly scrap it.
The chapter begins with Denji, after Pochita reset the timeline, dying of the blood disease and being attacked by the Yakuza.
Pochita really did not think the whole eating himself thing through because of what it would mean for Denji.
Luckily for him, Power shows up to save Deni’s life for some reason, making the contract with him instead of Pochita.
The Control Devil then arrives to recruit them but, fortunately for Denji and Power, it is Nayuta not Makima.
How Nayuta is the current Control Devil, I do not know.
What makes even less sense is that she is supposedly a good Devil in this timeline, despite being taken in by Public Safety instead of Denji.
The entire reason Nayuta had good qualities was because Denji raised her like his little sister.
Public Safety would not do that, so it makes zero sense
What also makes little sense is Denji using a chainsaw to kill a Devil, but I suppose you could explain that away as humanity reinventing chainsaws, the same way they did nuclear weapons in the old timeline.
The Devil Denji kills is at Asa’s school, and it also kills her teacher, so at least we know he will not try to groom her in the future or anything.
In a moment that admittedly does bring Part Two full circle a little, Denji saves Asa from tripping and crushing Bucky.
The full page spread of him doing this is oddly touching for the last time we see the two interact, although their following conversation is brief.
Asa calls Denji “Chainsaw Man” because he fights with a chainsaw, making Denji’s heart flutter as we realize a part of Pochita is still in there.
Power misinterprets this as Denji’s disease, promising to cure him of it, and the two go to grab a meal… or at least go to scam some people for a snack.
And so, Chainsaw Man ends with a somewhat happy ending.
Denji has reunited with Power and Nayuta in a new timeline (although we do not know where Aki is), and Asa was saved from crushing Bucky, meaning she can make friends in her class.
Therefore, the ending is good, right?
Nope.
While this ending is happy, it is just way too abrupt.
Fujimoto probably sat down one day and decided he was too burned out to continue the story, so decided to end it early and quickly to potentially move onto other things.
What makes this obvious is how many unanswered questions Part Two leaves us with.
What happened to Yoru, Kishibe, Kobeni, and Reze?
What exactly was Public Safety’s plan for the entirety of Part Two?
Not to mention that the resetting of the storyline all the way to Part One makes Part Two feel pretty pointless in retrospect.
If I had to sum up my feelings about Chainsaw Man’s ending with one word, it would be “disappointment.”
The story ended out of nowhere, left so many questions unanswered, and reset the timeline to make a lot of things pointless.
If there is any consolation, it is that at least Denji and Asa got a happy ending.
And regardless of my frustration with Chainsaw Man‘s abrupt ending, I will still read whatever Fujimoto does next.
I just hope that whatever he goes on to write it will be in a way that avoids burnout.
Maybe give him the Sui Ishida treatment, where he can release a chapter on his own schedule, rather than weekly.
If that happens, then a well-executed ending for his next work will hopefully be assured.
As for Chainsaw Man as a whole, I still love this series, even though it suddenly ended out of nowhere.