Chainsaw Man

Fandom
Name:	Chainsaw Man (チェンソーマン, Chensōman?)
Abbreviation(s):	CSM
Creator:	Fujimoto Tatsuki
Date(s):	December 3, 2018 - present (manga), anime premiering October 2022
Medium:	manga, anime
Country of Origin:	Japan
External Links:
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Chainsaw Man is a Japanese manga created by Tatsuki Fujimoto about Devil Hunters in an alternate universe 1990s Japan.

Canon

The manga so far is divided into two parts; the first part ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2018-2020, while the second was serialized online in Shonen Jump+ starting in 2022. The manga was licensed in North America by Viz Media. A 12-episode anime adaptation by MAPPA aired on TV Tokyo Network and was licensed in North America by Crunchyroll.

Part 1 (aka the Public Safety Arc) follows Denji, a young man who is killed over his father's debt to the Yakuza. Denji joins the ranks of the Public Safety Devil after his friend, the devil-dog Pochita, saves his life by merging with him and turning him into the Chainsaw Man. Denji learns the ropes of Devil Hunting and is drawn into an escalating war over the powerful and widely-feared Gun Devil.

Part 2 (aka the Academy Arc) follows Asa, a high school girl who is possessed by the War Devil and attends the same school as Denji.

Characters

• Denji
• Pochita
• Makima
• Power
• Aki
• Kobeni
• Reze
• Quanxi

Fandom

The manga was highly praised by many fans and the anime was highly anticipated.

In addition to provoking interest from fans of the manga, the MAPPA anime was received with excitement by animation fans, especially when it was announced that every episode would have a different ending song with unique animation.

Shipping

The Chainsaw Man fandom involves a lot of shipping, with the most popular pairings changing over time as new characters appeared and more information was revealed about existing characters. Slash, femslash, and het are all popular among fans.

As of April 2023, the most popular pairing on AO3 by a decent margin was Aki/Angel, with Denji/Yoshida and Denji/Aki also enjoying decent popularity. The most popular non-slash pairing, apart from Aki/Reader, was Denji/Asa, followed by Aki/Himeno. There were no femslash pairings with more than 100 fics, but the most popular were Makima/Quanxi and Kobeni/Power. The most popular poly pairing is the Cosmo/Long/Quanxi/Pingtsi/Tsugihagi pairing.

Controversies

In January 2023, Brazilian voice actor Guilherme Briggs abandoned the Chainsaw Man dub team due to bullying, death threats and hacking attempts he received after refusing to legitimize a fanmade translation of some dialogues in the series as an alternative to the official translation. The fan translation contained alt-right, racist and antisemitic jokes.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfiction

• First Dates, ^{Archived version} by lilys_bananas_coven -- "Quanxi wins the date with Makima (in a somewhat peaceful world)." -- Quanxi/Makima, AU, explicit, oneshot, posted 2021
• days like television, ^{Archived version} by lovereact -- "Occasionally growing a chainsaw for a head has made him realize he can adapt to pretty much anything." --gen with hinted Aki/Angel, canon-compliant, found family, oneshot, posted 2021
• Huh????, ^{Archived version} by bluexflame -- "Power and Kobeni are dating. Everyone knows this. Except Kobeni." -- AU, Power/Kobeni, fluff, oneshot, posted 2022
• touch my heart, ^{Archived version} by PrettyKittyLuvsU -- "Aki makes a contract with the Angel Devil." -- Aki/Angel, fluff and angst, oneshot, posted 2022
• Just a Contract, ^{Archived version} by keroroppi -- "...Yoshida bribes Denji into being his boyfriend, and every single aspect of his life goes deeply downhill from there." -- Denji/Yoshida, explicit, complete, posted 2023

Fanart

• Chainsaw Man fanart, ^{Archived version} by Yuji Kaku (creator of Jigokuraku/Hell's Paradise)
• chainsaw man x american gothic, ^{Archived version} by basstual, 2021
• power and meowy 👊🐱, ^{Archived version} by riibrego, 2021
• read chainsaw man, ^{Archived version} by pixiescout, 2021
• 🐈 strays 🐈, ^{Archived version} by lightningstrikes-art, 2022

Meta

• there’s been a few instances where i’ve seen people express interest in chainsaw man but lament what they see as fetishisation of the female cast,, ^{Archived version} by evange1yne, about CSM's use of sexual and other kinds of explicitness to convey its message, posted 2022
• I’d blame @easy-revenge being an enabler, but really I just enable myself., ^{Archived version} by music-chick-13, about the ending animation for episode 8 of the anime and its depiction of grief, posted 2022
• Yoru & Yuko: The Town Mouse & The (Non-)Country Mouse, ^{Archived version} by thoushallk1ll, about the part 2 characters and how the metaphor of "country mouse vs. city mouse" introduced in part 1 applies to them, posted 2022
• you know what’s really interesting about chainsaw man?, ^{Archived version} by sword-dad-fukuzawa, about the use of humor in Chainsawman, posted 2023

Fanvids

• 呪術廻戦ED チェンソーマンver. Jujutsu Kaisen × Chainsaw Man, ^{Archived version} by てと -- fan animation of the first Jujutsu Kaisen ED, redone w/ Chainsaw Man characters, posted 2021
• my time chainsaw man fan animation, ^{Archived version} by meanvelvet -- fan animation set to "My Time" by bo en, posted 2021
• Chainsaw Man - AMV - BONES, ^{Archived version} by Aliko Fog -- AMV set to "Bones" by Imagine Dragons, posted 2022
• (MMV) CHAINSAW MAN x ONE OK ROCK, ^{Archived version} by Ninjaristic Ninja -- MMV set to "Deeper Deeper" by ONE OK ROCK, posted 2022

Other Fanworks

• Devilish Delights (Chainsaw Man cookbook) (2023)
• Jump for the Stars - cinematic-style zine featuring shounen anime series as movie posters (2022)

Archives & Fannish Links

• Chainsaw Man Wiki at Fandom.com
• Chainsaw Man Subreddit
• Chainsaw Man on MyAnimeList
• Wikipedia article
• Chainsaw Man (Manga) and Chainsaw Man (Anime) works on AO3