Yeah idk

Continuing from the previous post

That being said i loved pretty much almost everything else in chapter 5, and one of the reasons i was kinda surprised in how shaky asgore's writing was is that the writting of all the flowers was kinda fire.

I'll come out and say it: Flowery is the absolute goat and by far my favorite of the chapter bosses so far, he's such a perfect execution of the "mr. perfect that annoys everyone by being so good at everything" (not to mention the tumblr sexyman parody that he clearly is) the way the story slowly conveys that he actually doesn't really dislike or is antagonistic towards kris or even ralsei and is genuinelly trying to help out both of then is aces and not only him but this chapter as a whole managed to do something that i think none of the others chapters sans maybe chapter 1 managed to do and that is have a fully realized cast that is memorable.

Now don't get me wrong, i love chapters 2-4 but you can't deny that the actual characters that leave a impression in those chapters are only the main boss and one or maybe 2-3 characters while the rest are either generic enemies that, while charming, lack a lot of impact but chapter 5 with the other 6 flowers really made the whole world feel fully realized and not make everything revolve around the main boss and a couple extras.

Also i was not joking or being hyperbolic, mew mew is a goated secret boss and if she's not stupid popular like the others i will know where you allegiances lie.

Okay fun posts over time for actual analysis,

So i had a couple days to sit with chapter 5 and not only that see the opinions folks have on it (mostly how it's probably the most divisive chapter so far).

So killing the suspense: I fucking loved this chapter and it's tied with chapter 4 for my favorite BUT i can totally see why some people are making complaints (especially since some mirror my own).

My main complain has to do with both the stakes of the story and the formulaic structure of all the chapters so far and the key point is that from the end of chapter 3 onwards the stakes get raised a lot and for me personally i think they where raised a bit too much too early.

And by that i mean even in chapter 4 it was kinda awkward seeing the group do their usual shenanigans seemingly with no care in the world while in the back of my head i was thinking "UNDYNE IS KIDNAPPED AND MAYBE IN MORTAL PERIL AND THE KNIGHT IS ACTIVELY TRYING TO DESTROY THE WORLD GUYS MAYBE LOCK IN A LITTLE HARDER?" and a lot of that probably comes from the episodic nature of deltarune's release and the fact that toby can't really make the chapters too dependent on each other if they might release up to a couple years apart (imagine if say chapter 2 ended in the middle of a boss fight or a dark world and you had to wait the amount of years it took for chapter 3 to come out to resume).

But even so the hard structure of new dark world -> main boss that is the main treat and driving force that constantly pester the heroes is kinda starting to lose it's luster a bit, i feel like one of the reasons chapter 4 is considered by so many to be the best one yet is that it does shake up that formula, there's no main boss character, really and even tough it suffers from the aforementioned problem of ignoring the stakes, for the most part it does a good job of addressing then better than say chapter 5.

And i can see why someone would be disappointed going from the most action packed, lore focused chapter to seemingly another usual romp with 5, also i am kinda disappointed in asgore's use in the chapter (not as much as i was with toriel being wasted in chapter 3), we don't get the whole picture of what the "incident" was but even so his change in the chapter felt way too sudden without proper breathing time, especially the moment where he just shoves kris and susie out of the dark world, for as much i understand that this is supposed to be asgore going full back into his worst self post accident, i still don't see him doing something so drastic with the little time they gave us to see him repress.

Instead of the predicted edglord tumblr sexyman boss fight we got a trans girl magical girl mad mew mew fight complete with selfcest yuri, tobias "tricky tony" fox i knell

I've let the last chapter simmer a little bit and now i feel like i can share my thoughts on the finale of part 2 and chainsaw man as whole but for now I'll focus on the finale:

First things out the way: I did not enjoy this finale as both a end to part 2 or chainsaw man period, mind you that when the second to last chapter hit and we got the notice that the series was ending i immediately tempered my expectations heavily.

But oooh boy, first off, the timeline reset. I'm not entirely opposed to the idea nor am i'm reacting as heavily as other people that imply the series pulled a "it was all a dream" but man do i feel like the story did not earn that at all, we simply smash cut from a fight into the afterlife? jjk style where pochita gives a very rushed final speech before eating himself.

To which i'm genuinely asking, how did that give pochita seemingly the power to control the timeline? If all that happened was that pochita and chainsaws got erased and we got to see all the effects that had on the world it would be one thing but not only do chainsaws still exist so does pochita? And he's still denji's heart?? He does say that he has no clue what will happen once he eats himself and people are taking that as confirmation that pochita was never the chainsaw devil but honestly i'm taking that more as a cop out answer of "well ANYTHING can happen".

but we're here denji is back in the shack with only one eye and completely alone and we cut to the zombie devil fight where instead of denji becoming chainsaw man power saves him and then nayuta instead of makima shows up and forces then into the public safety which ok, i'm not gonna lie i was really happy seeing nayuta and especially power again but it immediately downed on me how hollow it felt, it wasn't a catharsis of a arc being completed, or a good twist, it felt more like a cameo, a "hey look your faves are here for one last time!" which does nothing for me in the terms of the narrative that was being formed.

And then we cut to denji meeting asa again and saving her from killing bucky which segues into my thoughts about asa in the finale and her role in the story as a whole.

That is to say i'm so, so disappointed in how asa was handled in like the entire last stretch of part 2, she went from no joke, a contender for one of the best, if not, THE best female character in a shonen ever (and easily the best teenager one) to essentially getting sidelined for yoru, which, speaking of yoru we didn't even got to see her and asa's last moments together and the very last moments of asa in the story where given to us from denji's pov not hers which is.. urgh.

and then we end with power and denji walking off wondering what they're gonna eat which is not at all a bad last panel for chainsaw man as a whole and not even a bad send off to denji but it's preceded by all that came right before which makes it feel like another nothing ball.

and so part 2 ends with denji never learning to confront his hyper sexuality, never growing past basic needs and asa never coming to terms with well, literally anything that was set up as a struggle for her character, everything including part 1 gets completely erased and is rendered null and void.

And this as a whole makes all of part 2 feel so much worse for me, which aside the obvious "literally none of this even mattered and it was all erased" i was a staunch believer in fujimoto's vision and was sure he had a point he was trying to reach with everything in part 2.

The problems that people had and that i felt too, of the plot feeling meandering and aimless, the endless repetition of hammering the point that denji is sex obsessed, the downright misery porn that him and asa got submitted to constantly, i always believed that would all serve a point narrative and even tough it might not stick the landing, it would at least come full circle and we would see the necessity of all of it.

I did not get that, i did not get that at all, not only was the plot just genuinely aimless, not only was denji's hyper sexuality just being reinstated on scenes where he humiliates himself over and over, not only do both him and asa get put through the wringer for seemingly no reason other than to reinstate the already stated cruelty of the world they live in. It was all for literally no reason since once again it all gets reset and wiped away at the end so what was even the point of both of them as characters?

And regarding what i said in my previous post, i still think chainsaw man's female cast overall is way better than the average shonen's (not that that is high praise or a impressive achievement) but i still feel very disappointed with their use (or non use) in part 2 overall.

Asa like i said, started wonderfully before getting sidelined (on all honesty she started getting sidelined once denji became the focus again) , Nayuta got actually unironically fridged (as in the actual definition of the trope) halfway through part 2 which i'm honestly still shocked fujimoto did that, i, like almost everyone else, was convinced she wasn't dead or would be revived somehow, quanxi showed up mostly for, i don't know, part 1 fanservice? She then got shoved into a meat locker and was never seen or mentioned again, reze never even showed up which. I'm not asking for reze to come in be a major part of the story, have a romantic rivalry with asa yada yada. But she is alive in part 2 and all the other hybrids show up so why did just she got omitted and relegated to one flashback from denji? And i don't even want to comment on fumiko because i straight up don't know what fujimoto was trying with her man.

And that's not even bringing up characters like death who was the prominent active threat of the entire part only to be quickly disposed off so that yoru could be the final big bad and true famine was barely even a character and more of a gag.

but on all honestly that disappointment is not just contained to the female characters, like genuinely what was yoshida's whole deal? We where constantly teased with him being more than he seemed, him having more knowledgeable than he should have or at the very least him having conflicting feelings about what he is doing to denji and asa but we never get a resolution for that instead he is just killed off in a almost mirror of how nayuta was in a way that was almost downright comedic in it's execution.

I could got on about other things like kishibe not even getting the honor of a single mention or aki not showing up in the finale but this post is as big as it is already so my closing thoughts:

It really felt to me that fujimoto was just completely burned out on the series as a whole not only from the honestly nonsensical way the plot was going to how almost bitter this finale felt, also a personal opinion of mine is that fujimoto never really got adjusted to the weekly release schedule (which to be fair is absolute hellish oh my god japan needs to get it's shit together) and that was felt in both the writing and the art.

And so part 2 ends with honestly no real feeling of conclusion or satisfaction to me just a slap dash "happy ending" that closes off or wraps up pretty much nothing that was set up in the entire series other than denji and power being together again.

Okay first off, the start of part 2 to the end of the aquarium arc is my favorite part of chainsaw man as a whole, everything, the story, the art, the characters all hit perfectly but afterwards especifically after the introduction of the fire devil and the church it felt like fuji lost the major plot, everything felt i don't know "floaty"? the cast (by cast i mean honestly just denji and asa) would just go from place to place before another major devil started a fight and oops the fight ended with a ackward transition to the next arc and that would happen constantly.

Mind you, the manga even to this point was still masterfull at the small secluded moments.Asa and denji at the aquarium, the alley moment, etc, i'll continue to defend those moments as amazing but when you look at the big picture there is so much left to be desired.

There where so many major overarching plotlines that ended with me dissapointed: yoshida's entire character, the fire devil, the hybrids and barem, nayuta just to name a few.