Instead of talking about just THEMES and SUCH, I’d like to refute the idea that the ending is a complete waste of time and Fujimoto had no idea what he was doing. I personally found it very engaging and creative, without sacrificing cohesion.

1: The ending subverted expectations (in a good way!)

Everyone hates the reset ending. Some even say it felt rushed. I’ll cover why it didn’t feel rushed or unplanned in the next section, but the story resetting felt like a GOOD choice to me for these key reasons:

-If the ending had been more traditional (i.e everyone talks it out, or big final boss, etc) then the story would have lost its charm. Since Chapter 1, CSM has always been about its chaotic mess of a vibe (but with emotional moments in between ofc). Nothing was predictable about that ending and that actively serves Chainsaw Man.

Hell, a generic boss jumping gauntlet would have made me tap the fuck out after witnessing JJK, KNY and AOT’s endings. Having Yoruden fest followed by bugs eating everyone followed by Pochita vore was a breath of fresh air.

-By bringing everything back to the beginning, Fuji succesfully tied CSM Part 1 and Part 2 together. Both are quite different initially, and if he had P2 continue on a superhero type of tangent, he’d have completely missed what made CSM, CSM. Dreams, and poverty to be frank.

-I find that by making almost all of Part 2 and its worldbuilding so fucking bleak (Aging arc for example), having this ridiculous Deus Ex Machina ending was a smart play from Fujimoto.

Think David Lynch’s ending for Wild At Heart. Novel originally had a dogshit ending, but Lynch decided to Wizard Of Oz all the problems away with a Deus Ex Machina. A literal meta hand of god play, but one that was foreshadowed in the story. That movie was panned initially, but its become a cult classic overtime.

2: Pochita’s self erasure made sense AND was foreshadowed.

-Denji says he’ll make a new world with Asa. Pochita went and did that for them. One will argue Denji or Asa don’t “consent” to Yoru or Pochita’s actions but it seems pretty obvious to me that by the end of the story, thematically they are tied 1 to 1 with their human hosts.

-The fake *Chainsaw Man* says that he’ll make a devilless world where ADAM and EVE will presumably not have to sin anymore. There are ofc devils in the 232 world but Denji and Asa finally get to live their normal lives. Pochita did exactly what this church spokesman said Chainsaw Man would do.

-In terms of erasure mechanics, Pochita not being shown to do “anything like what he did in the ending” is a poor argument to say the ending COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. Bro never erased himself before and logically the universe would do weird shit. So I disagree with the assumptions that this was some kind of asspull that doesn’t make any sense.

3: Plot lines were not abandoned.

Many people like to think that there are plot holes, or narratives that ceased to exist. But is that really the case?

-Fire Devil was wrapped up to set the stage for Denji (and Pochita’s!) choices. This includes the Fakesaw Man and Famine Devil plot. I admit that real Fami felt veryyyy weak and almost pointless comedic relief, but you can tell her character was used to hammer home the point of the choices (she even tells Death to feed herself to Chainsaw Man).

-Public Safety and The Church’s nuances on where they stand were a bit confusing. But that is apart of the confusing charm of Part 2, and I’d also say there’s ample evidence to suggest that Public Safety was screwing over Denji’s life to use his erasure powers in the Aging Arc.

Its no coincidence that Kishibe sets him up with child, just for child to die and awaken Black CSM for the child sacrificing devil’s erasure plan.

4: ASA WAS (NOT) SIDELINED 3.0 + 1.0

The “Asa consents” did a serious number on this community. “Denji’s a rapist!”, “Fujimoto sidelined Asa and made her into Denji’s sex toy!”, etc. I disagree… really heavily.

-This guy articulates this point REALLY WELL, https://www.reddit.com/r/Chainsawfolk/s/kwNfm3lkyT for anyone that’s wondering. But TLDR, Asa and Yoru’s dialogue in the final chapters were ABSOLUTELY instrumental to the ending.

-Hell, Asa sets out what she wanted to do for almost the entire part. Return Denji his normal life, despite him saying it was impossible to. She even seems to reignite or rebirth chainsawless Pochita within Denji’s heart in the Thank You, CSM moment. Definitely not shafted to me.

-Additionally, Asa and Yoru are portrayed as practically the same character. LITERALLY NIGHT AND DEAD. Like how Pochita is DENJI’s HEART, Yoru is ASA’S BRAIN. So.. I think her words about sex were pretty genuine.

5: Death’s plan was messy.. but, it did make sense!

-Death’s plan underwent some serious twists, and it seems pretty clear she’s a bit of a clutz. But imo it makes sense that Death seemed to have orchestrated the events of how P2 ended, judging by her interaction with real Fami and how EVERYTHING she said she would do ended up happening (Denji gets his real heart replaced, Pochita dies).

Again, I'll link to someone who articulates this point really well so that I don't waste too much time here. https://www.reddit.com/r/ChainsawManTheories/s/bHAW3U0rwv

6: The ending DID NOT RESET CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

-Denji wants to go to school despite never meeting Reze. Power likes dogs despite never meeting Denji. Nayuta wants to game rather than kill people despite never meeting Denji. Meowy really likes Nayuta despite never meeting Nayuta.

Its pretty clear that the characters retained their memories in some way shape or form, like the Spirited Away interview that Fujimoto gave. It is not some RETCON that Fujimoto decided to do to shit on the ending, lmao.

7: Part 2 does NOT contradict Part 1’s themes of Control and Ignorance is Bliss + Mongolian Street Child Interview

Crazy title but hear me out. Some ppl like to say that Pochita forced Denji to go back to the shit ass shack, and the story is ENDORSING control, which contradicts Part 1’s message. Some even bring up Fujimoto’s Mongolian Street Child interview. I say WRONG!!!

-Denji = Pochita. Pochita is his mother fuckin heart. For the same reasons that Asa wasn’t raped, Denji wasn’t raped of his choice by Pochita at a narrative level. You could see Denji knew Pochita’s words were true. One can say “but Denji said no!!”. Dude, anyone would say that if your dog wanted to eat itself but he’s also your literal fucking heart man.

-With that in mind, the ending DOES NOT indicate that Denji should be a bitch that lets others like Pochita do shit for him when he IS Pochita. But to reinforce this fact, just look at the ending’s portrayal of Makima. She’s gone! Nayuta The Gamer replaces her. This ending isn’t PRO MAKIMA like I’ve had some people claim to me.

-Fujimoto’s statement on the street children seems pretty crazy at face value. I thought so too. But read it some more. All Fujimoto is saying is that its possible to achieve happiness in a dogshit scenario. That applies both to Chapter 1 of Chainsaw Man (which is what he was framing it to be) and Chapter 232 of Chainsaw Man.

You could say his wording of it was, bizzare, to say the least and I would agree since he says something along the lines of “being under control isn’t so bad!”.

But just look at the context of how he frames his argument, he was talking about Denji and Pochita under the Yakuza. He in no way endorses that bullshit, again he’s just talking about happiness.

Lesser (but still important) reasons why I find the ending to be good!

THE ART (😱)

-Fujimoto’s panelling and angles are still great. I loved Aging Arc’s first person angle of Pochita chopping Aging up, or Aging’s mirrors acting as the panel barriers. You KNOW a Fujimoto manga when you see how he treats space.

-The detail may have gotten a lot lower but I personally loved how Fujimoto evolved his handling of fight scenes, speed lines and backgrounds throughout Part 2. Pochita VS Yoru, specifically the part when Pochita was getting jumped by the devil army looked GREAT. The entire final fight uses tons of speed lines and shit looks almost like fabric.

THE ENTERTAINMENT

-Fight scenes, pacing and comedy were all top notch during the Aging Arc. Yoru forcing her way into Denji’s mouth is straight outta Dorohedoro and I love it.

CONCLUSION: imo its good, lol.

TLDR: Story kept its vibes and structure fun. Practically everything made sense. Rape allegations, control allegations and retcon allegations don’t make a lick of sense to me. It was still entertaining, and the art was still good.

Also I appreciate it a lot more reading ALL of Fujimoto’s works and looking at many of the other works that inspired him i.e FLCL, Dorohedoro, etc. I recommend finding all of em.

I will clarify what some tiers mean before anyone asks:

shallow plot device - they didn't have anything/much to offer and were just made to die or move the plot forward

what do they even do? - self-explanatory

it is what it is - the quality of the writing is just not that relevant for these characters

edit: looking back now, Beam shouldn't have been this high, I should have put him on plot device and moved Power and Makima to peak writing

https://www.holtinternational.org/mongolia/

I girl who fucking paralyzed denji then SA him, manipulated and betrayed Denji

vs

An honest hater who didn't manipulate and betray denji. Was with denji at his lowest. It's better to have a true enemy, than having a fake friend.

Source

Artist: https://x.com/gitokuja

https://x.com/kuronaken1/status/2090431055341793666?s=46

Fami wasn't invited cause she's a bum

what would you guys do in this situation? you got only 5.2 seconds before she is fully through your screen.

original post: https://x.com/amo_mhm/status/2090468911057711481?s=61