Chicken Puns & Intestine Hand Grenades – Chainsaw Man Part 2 First Impressions

The long awaited second part of the Chainsaw Man manga is finally out, and it’s just as gruesome and depressing as where it was left off, here are our first impressions on part 2.

After the major success of the Chainsaw Man manga, even garnering up an anime adaption by Studio MAPPA, the second part of the Chainsaw Man manga is extremely anticipated amongst the community.

But with great success, comes with great expectations. Fortunately enough, Chainsaw Man part 2 had exceeded my expectations just like how Kobeni exceeded Denji’s expectations during her Dance-dance revolution session.

The War on Birds

Chapter 98 starts off in a high-school setting, where we are introduced to Asa Mitaka, who dreads her school life and wishes that everyone around her would just drop dead. So pretty much just like your average high-schooler.

Part 2 also stars a feathery character who is loved by the characters in the manga was well as the Internet with memes and fan-art filling up the Chainsaw Man twitter sphere.

That’s right, I’m talking about our pun-loving Chicken Devil named Bucky. Bucky also plays a huge part in the story in this Chapter. How does this headless and flightless chicken contributes to the story, you might ask? Well, it’s just because it’s Chainsaw Man of course!

It’s also a funny coincidence that the first chapters of  both parts of the manga, we were introduced to Food Devils; Part 1 Chapter 1 with the Tomato Devil.

I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not, but I think introducing a weak devil in the early parts of the first chapter is to show a bit of exposition on the Devils without letting viewers dive straight into them immediately.

Because strength of Devils in the Chainsaw Man are based off the fears of humanity. The more a person fears something, the stronger the Devil is.

We are also given some tiny bits of information on Asa’s backstory and her hatred for the Devils, which is presumably due to her parents being eaten by one of them.

Up until this part of the story, it pretty much sets up the characters as well as the situation going on with the world, after the events that happened back in part 1 where Chainsaw Man became a world-owned super hero even to the point of him having his own food brand.

A slower pace than what people might think, but I personally enjoy the little things going around. I’m a huge fan of how Tatsuki Fujimoto does in Chainsaw Man, so I’m glad that they are taking their time with it. Not to mention the art direction is always such a pleasure to look at.

What goes up, must always come down

Fast forward to next few panels, Asa was finally able to come to terms with resentment to her fellow classmates after a heartfelt moment.

Ready to break out of her shell and let go of all of that weight that she had carried throughout her high-school life, to take the first steps in being an overall better person.

But just like in your usual Chainsaw Man fashion, things immediately goes south for Asa.

Hitting way too close to home, Asa falls into a spiral of depression and self deprecation, as her chances of trying to live a normal school life is immediately sawed into bits and pieces.

Albeit depressing, this is also one of Tatsuki’s greatest charms of Chainsaw Man. The way he is able to portray out such despairing emotions without a single word of text goes to show how masterful Tatsuki is with his craft.

Some might argue that all of these despair is unnecessary and overly dramatic. To which, I would normally agree as well, but for Asa’s case I think it’s justifiable for her character’s drive and motive, as well as development in the upcoming panels.

Make A Contract with Me and become…

The overall situation has taken a full 180, summersault, backflip turn. All of the previous build up was for this moment. At the deepest pits of despair and at the face of danger, Asa was given a second chance at life by a mysterious familiar, a certain contract.

With Devils running amok in Chainsaw Man being a common occurrence, we might forget some Devils are manifested by forming contracts. Similar to how Denji became the Chainsaw Man Devil by forging a contract with the Chainsaw Devil – Pochi.

Accepting its offer, Asa awakens to new found powers, an ironic twist of events some might say. But in order to fight fire, you’ll need some fire of your own. More specifically, firepower in this case.

It’s also worthy noting that Asa’s “Awakened form” shares a striking resemblance to Makima from the way her eyes have those inner rings. While there is no concrete evidence stating it, the resemblance may be more thematic rather than it being a direct relation to her.

Fans who enjoy Chainsaw Man for its mind-numbing and over the top violence will definitely enjoy the next few panels showcasing Asa’s new abilities. From turning heads into blades and internal organs into hand grenades, Asa seems to get her powers by turning human parts into deadly weapons of war.

These last few panels were filled with action pack shots of really well coordinated scenes where it’s both filled with a lot of details and gore. Even with so many detail filling up the scene, it doesn’t take away the impact of the panel.

The chapter also successfully sets up a solid plot point for Asa and the direction of where this part of the manga will move forward to. I’m also glad that Tatsuki kept in the unnecessarily violent action scenes, which is the main charm of Chainsaw Man. I’m extremely excited for the next chapter which will be released in a weekly format.

For fans who are interested in reading Chainsaw Man part 2 legally, you can do so here.

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