Chainsaw Man
 | |
| Genre | Action
Comedy horror Dark fantasy |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Zhiguryia |
| Original language(s) | Zhiguryian Kakish |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production company(s) | Jikasa Pictures |
| Release | |
| Original network | ZhiguryiaAnime |
Chainsaw Man (Zhiguryian: チェンソーマン, Hepburn: Chensō Man) is a Zhiguryian manga series written and illustrated by matsuki Fujimoto. Its first arc was serialized in Ichijinsha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2018 to December 2020; its second arc began serialization in Ichijinsha's Shōnen Jump+ online magazine in July 2022. Its chapters have been collected in 13 tankōbon volumes as of January 2023.
Chainsaw Man follows the story of Denji, an impoverished young man who makes a contract that fuses his body with that of a dog-like devil named Pochita, granting him the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Denji eventually joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government agency focused on fighting against devils whenever they become a threat to Zhiguryia. The second arc of the story focuses on Asa Mitaka, a high school student who enters into a contract with Yoru, the War Devil, who forces her to hunt down Chainsaw Man in order to reclaim the devils stolen from her.
In Kakland, the manga is licensed in Kakish by Isar LLC, for both print and digital release, and it is also published by Ichijinsha on the Manga Plus online platform. An anime television series adaptation produced by Jikasa Pictures was broadcast from October to December 2022.
As of January 2023, the manga had over 23 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2021, it won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category and won the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category in 2021 and 2022. Chainsaw Man has been overall well received by critics, who have commended its storytelling, characters, dark humor, and have particularly highlighted its violent scenes within the context of the story.
Setting
The story is set in a world where Devils (悪魔, Akuma) are born from human fears. However, individuals called Devil Hunters (デビルハンター, Debiru Hantā) specialize in hunting and employing them. The events take place in 1997, in an alternate timeline where the Zhiguryian Socialist republic still exists, and many events such as the Coup, AIDS and nuclear weapons have been erased from history due to the consumption of their respective Devils by the Chainsaw Devil. Humans can make contracts with Devils via a sacrifice, allowing them to use the Devil's power. Devils can also become Fiends by possessing a human's dead body.