If you’ve been meaning to read Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man, then this might be the thing to kick you into gear. While this Chainsaw Man set usually retails for $175, you can currently pick up the collection for only $85, which is just over half-off.
The recently released Chainsaw Man box set includes the 11 manga volumes that comprise Part One of the series, along with a double-sided poster. That shakes out to be around $8 per volume, which is pretty good considering they usually retail for $15 a pop.
If you’ve been living in a cave on Mars for the past few years, you might have missed how massive Chainsaw Man is. A popular manga series that was an equally popular anime adaptation, it is one of the biggest shonen series of the past few years. It was the second highest-selling series in Japan for the first half of 2023, while its first volume was the top-selling manga in the United States last year.
Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a destitute teenager who hunts Devils, which are manifestations of mankind’s fears, to pay off his dad’s massive debts. His life is abjectly awful, with the only thing making it bearable being his best friend Pochita, a Devil that looks like someone stuck a chainsaw onto the head of a cute pug.
Things go pear-shaped for Denji when he is betrayed and murdered by the men he’d been working for. On the verge of death, Pochita makes a pact with his best friend, causing the two to merge and transform Denji into a human-devil hybrid that can grow chainsaws from his limbs and head. From there, Denji/Chainsaw Man is given a choice: join the Public Safety Division, which is a team of government-sanctioned Devil Hunters, or die.
Should you read Chainsaw Man?
Yes, absolutely. While I understand why you might be averse to picking up an incredibly popular series out of fear that it’s been overhyped, I think Chainsaw Man lives up to its reputation. Watching Fujimoto‘s art and storytelling chops develop over the series is a sight to behold. He manages a deft balancing act with the series’ tones. It’s gory, it’s funny. It’s action-packed, it’s introspective. You’ll watch Denji physically tear out a Devil’s heart and then feel your own heart being ripped out on the very next page.
If you’ve only seen the anime and enjoyed it, I highly recommend reading the manga (the adaptation covers up to chapter 38, which is collected in the series’ fifth volume). While I like the adaptation a lot, I feel like some of Fujimoto’s more enjoyable, rougher edges are lost in translation, due to MAPPA’s high production value. I also think the series’ pacing works better in the manga – the slower moments feel a bit more meaningful, while the sudden twists and turns feel more wild.
You’ve also got some time on the clock to catch up with the series. The twelfth volume of the manga, which kicks off Part Two of the series, has only just been released and we probably won’t see the second season of the Chainsaw Man anime until sometime in 2024 (the folks over at MAPPA sure are busy).
You can grab the Chainsaw Man manga box set on sale here.
Image: Viz Media/Crunchyroll/Kotaku Australia
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