r/ChainsawMan

I was discussing on another forum about Part 2's fall from grace, and obtained some inspiration on why such a rich story fell off so hard.

The idea behind this post is to open a discussion/communal therapy session on the narrative trainwreck, and hear different points on the sad issue.

-There is no real villain in part 2.

At the beginning of the story we get introduced to Asa and the war devil, and while there is conflict between them, the longer the run goes the more it seems like they are bonding into a "enemies to friends" kind of deal, that gets sabotaged when Fujimoto needs conflict to occur with the introduction of Temu Chainsaw man.

The issue seemed to me that it was too soon for Asa to find out who Denji was, but the author needed conflict so he conjured a new character out of nowhere, establishing a pattern that summons new villain like characters smearing through the whole thing, from Temu chainsaw man to Locust devil.

I firmly believe that Villains make or break the story, Makina performing the role astoundly well in the first part.

-Fujimoto's pre-part 2 reputation hid a lot of the ongoing flaws under his previous success.

Most readers of the manga just brushed off the story's issues under the expectation that it would pay off handsomely later, like the end of part 1 did, tying up most plots and leaving the audience unquestioning grave issues like how the later fights in the manga devolved into poorly colored blotches of black characters on black backgrounds that were barely legible.

If anyone wants to add, rebuke or deny these points I'm here for it, I crave literary discussion and don't mind being wrong.

PD: Now that I think about it, Fujimoto didn't seem to know how to write another villain, so he defaulted to Makina's behind the scenes schemes again in part 2, but there wasn't a real puppet master to tie up the random conflicts like with makina in part 1.