i'm not surprised really, i know how reactionary the animanga space is, as are all spaces catered to disaffected men, but it's still a little jarring to view firsthand and so so frequently. like oh, this is probably a more "normal" way to think than anything i've had to say. a sobering thought

it's been said before but man. the way some people talk about writing. "i didn't get what i thought i would get out of it so it's bad full stop. and if you claim you got something else out of it and feel differently you're obviously making things up." buddy you're thinking like a textbook fascist.

crying

in retrospect seigi akoku is so funny. "hmm he'll look exactly like agni down to the blinded eye and be named 'justice' to mirror the justice devil actually being the fire devil and he'll keep threatening to be a part of the story" mr motor was definitely kicking his feet and giggling

the more i try to explain chainsaw man to twitter people the more i understand plato's allegory of the cave

it's not all bad tbf

going, where will that pain come from? all the while, trapped within art, do you forget how human beings really live? certainly seems to happen to all too many artists of all mediums. where is the balance? can one possibly exist? when do you put down the instrument and open the door to the outside?

it's the eternal paradox of the relationship of art to suffering. the best art is so often born from experiences of acute suffering, and yet too much suffering will prevent one from making art. can't make art that resonates without real and specific pain in and behind it, but if you want to keep

farewell, chainsaw man

we're just going in circles here. fitting.

audiences, after all. the debate about what responsibility an author has toward the subject matter they choose to write about is not one i have a good answer for, but yeah. you said what you wanted to say. now what? the song takes on a life of its own. but that was what part 2 was already about, so

maybe part of the reason part 2 felt so different from previous mr motor was the amount of spite that seemed to be behind it. lots of times where he was just waving signs in frantic frustration. "why don't they understand" becomes "how dare they not understand", and yet! writers cannot exist without

yet it's still possible to find solace in their company. little acts of kindness and little bits of lives shared are still possible. live as a human, denji. keep *dreaming*.

okay i'm still a lot more disorganized mentally than i realized. still, i can't be angry. goodbye and thank you, chainsaw man

this sense of loss i feel toward certain characters or possibilities feels so intentionally crafted. not mourning their deaths so much as lives they never got to live. iirl makima won't engineer victories and defeats, a sense of progress. life just grinds on. people you knew move on, still trapped.

into boxes. Chainsaw Man, the symbol of shocking subversion, co-opted and subsumed back into the superstructure. forget dreaming, that's too much to ask for in this world. living is too much to ask for. god. fuck. denji really is the hero for our generation. this was his story, and it was ours.

over the past year. what is this feeling, then? i guess it really is just the emptiness and powerlessness and despair that permeated the entire part. people you've never heard of making plans that don't involve you except your suffering, every chance to resist beaten down and chopped back up 2/?

ok i think i've calmed down. i'm not mad, just disappointed. i wish we had more in like a billion different directions, but realistically speaking there probably wasn't another way to end things. thematically it is very cohesive, in fact it's shockingly in line with so many threads i've written 1/?

A story without catharsis about catharsis being a trap. No climax for Denji. No climax for us.

"a revolution that goes right back to where it began". it tears it all up but never escapes the "chain", the instrument that it was made for. guess that's what it means to be The Chainsaw Man

demonic ritual involving chainsaw man author tatsuki fujimoto

at least we get funny posts like these out of it

if there's a silver lining it's that the reddit and twitter crowd doesn't seem to be taking it well either. "it's rushed and anticlimactic" like yes you're sooo close. just a lil frustrating that everyone's just treating it like a jjk "author doesn't know what to do" situation. no, far more sinister

asa mitaka from chainsaw man pointing up through some railings that look like the bars of a cage

asa mitaka saying to denji, "I'll save you no matter what!" while the speech bubble covers his face

denji proclaiming that "as long as the world has grub and girls, i still have something to live for", while looking at his own reflection and completely ignoring asa

the worst part is i don't think it was her getting ignored. there are enough signs that make it seem like mr motor was doing this intentionally, which feels even more frustrating. cause, like, why? was it really necessary?

one last peace sign: the control devil says "you both belong to me". peace sign, two branches splitting off from one palm. no choices matter, they all lead back to her (institutions/culture of control and exploitation, capitalist realism)

that's the optimistic side, i suppose. still really miffed about asa in general though

"school". in the end, there is normalcy, and those excluded from normalcy, always idealizing it because at least it means proximity to power (double entendre unintentional). denji can no longer be "normal", but he still gets to idealize that dream, ignorant of what it truly entails.

FUCK

in a way part 2 has always been the academy saga. even if not in a school physically, then metaphorically through its examination of how structures of "normalcy" propagate and what effects they have on people. but not even yoshida's forbidden-ness destroying the physical building could save us from

here's all the things that make you comfortable: the girls you instrumentalized as vessels for denji's happiness, lobotomized into exactly that kind of gratification. no scary queer people (yoshida, akiangel) or themes (fumiko, kishibe, etc.) just the girls on a checklist. are you happy? are you hap

on, nothing changes because nothing can fundamentally be allowed to change if a "happy ending" is to occur within your expectations. fuck you and see you in hell

this really does feel like mr motor's final fuck you to the fans (the real villain of the part). you couldn't let chainsaw man die, you had to turn him into a contextless symbol for your own consumption, make him a vehicle for your own desires. now, are you happy? nothing is resolved, no one moves

last dialogue exchange is two slaves of the system having to rely on their superiors for food. fujimoto i see you. i'm not going insane.

yoshida panel "isn't it great that we get to go back to our normal lives" while a guy stabs another guy in the foreground NO FUCK YOU i see what you're getting at but STILL FUCK YOU