Chainsaw Man (2018)

What do you fear most? War? Guns? Darkness? Nazis? In Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man, the scariest thing is chainsaws. 

The manga series follows 16-year-old Denji, who strikes an unlikely pact with the chainsaw devil to replace his human heart and become a form that is neither fully human nor devil—Chainsaw Man! With a chainsaw as his head and even more chainsaws sprouting from his limbs, Chainsaw Man looks nothing like a hero. However, sometimes it takes a monster to defeat a monster.  

The world of Chainsaw Man is terrorized by devils, physical and monstrous manifestations of people’s fears. The stronger the fear, the stronger the devil. Chainsaw Man, powered by unbridled fear of chainsaws, is an unstoppable force. But is he a good guy or a bad guy? The fight between good and evil in Chainsaw Man is split between man and monster: the human devil hunters are on the side of good, while the monstrous devils who kill humans are on the side of evil. Denji falls under neither category and only chooses to work as a devil hunter for the pay and the possibility of getting a girlfriend. He is an unlikely protagonist not only in his unheroic motivations but his monstrous form. But as Chainsaw Man, he can fight against even the worst of devils. The question of Chainsaw Man is not whether Denji is a man (good) or a monster (evil), but can he save the world? He might be able to, as long as he doesn’t destroy it first!  

Chainsaw Man is currently on Part 2 with a 2022 anime adaptation. The series intersects the manga shōnen genre with American horror, and Fujimoto has confirmed that Texas Chainsaw Massacre was an initial inspiration when writing the series. However, rather than a monster to be exorcised on screen, Chainsaw Man positions the monster as the main character. With overwhelming gore and a main character who wants a girlfriend more than he wants to save the world, Chainsaw Man is the perfectly imperfect coming-of-age story no one saw coming. 5 out of 5 sacs of blood.

—Haley Nguyen