Note: This article contains spoilers for the Chainsaw Man manga.
The manga Chainsaw Man, created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, ended just last month, after starting in December of 2018. The series was an instant hit, gaining a rapidly growing fanbase. Due to its success, it received its own anime and movie. With the manga running its course, many are upset, saying the ending felt incomplete and rushed.
To recap, Chainsaw Man is about Denji, a young man who merges with his pet chainsaw devil, Pochita, to become a hybrid that has chainsaws for limbs. Recruited by public safety, he hunts devils with the promise that he will eventually be given a normal life to live.
The action-packed story goes through betrayal, loss, and a society built upon fear. The story was split into two parts, with almost all of them featuring entirely different characters, aside from Denji. The second part deals with Denji going up against the War Devil, who wants to control the world. She is also a hybrid like Denji. Long story short, the story ends with a battle between the Death Devil, Chainsaw Man, and the War Devil. It’s an ultimate battle that essentially puts the whole world at risk.
The controversial part comes at the very end, where Denji and the War Devil are both seemingly being defeated. Now, towards the end of the series, the concept was introduced that if Pochita ate another devil, they would cease to exist. For example, if Pochita eats the Ear Devil, ears would no longer exist, and people would forget life with ears.
In the series, Denji experiences many of his close comrades dying. He is constantly betrayed as people want Pochita, which has taken the form of his heart. Pochita then realizes that Denji will never be able to live a normal life as long as he exists, so Pochita eats himself, being erased from existence. Due to Pochita’s sacrifice, the world essentially gets rebooted, and the course of history changes, including the revivals of all characters that were dead previously.
The most prominent reason why this ending has sparked so much controversy is that it is extremely abrupt. In one chapter, there is a huge battle, and in the next, everything is rebooted There is a huge build-up only for nothing we read to have actually mattered. Additionally, the ending leaves many plot holes, as in order for this reboot to occur, many events need to be explained, like the fate of other characters and their experiences, and if they were influenced by Pochita’s existence.
I feel like the biggest issue, though, is the approach of giving Denji a happy life. I’m all for the ending in a sense. I do believe that ultimately, for Denji to live a happy and normal life, Chainsaw Man could not exist. No one would truly befriend him or love him unless he was freed of the burden that name carried. In that case, I think the ending is great, as it ultimately gives Denji his main goal of the whole story, which is a normal life.
I believe it falls short, though, with the presentation of his life without Pochita. In this new life he has, characters are resurrected, and they are placed into Denji’s life in different places than they were previously. Without explanation, it just seems like Fujimoto just decided the ending would be something like let’s just bring everyone back from the dead and call it a day. Happy ending!
Although it is a nice ending on paper, the execution is poor. There is no buildup to this, and no explanation as to why things are the way they are. They just jump from Denji nearly dying, to Pochita making this choice. There are no stakes. Denji does not really argue heavily with Pochita, which is weird since he has been tied with Pochita since a young age. If my best friend or dog wanted to cease to exist in my life, I would argue with him for hours. Then, before you know it, Pochita does what he does, and the world changes. There is no emotion or touching moment in the end. It just happens. It’s a shame that the ending is the way it is, but it seems like that is a very common issue with manga these days.
Overall, I believe that the idea of the ending was good, but the buildup was poor, leaving much more to be desired. If there had been more development to this ending, it would have been perfect. Although it is not the end we hoped for, or rather the pacing to the end, I do hope that the anime will fix the problem and improve the story once it releases.