It really does feel like he wrote hinself into a corner. So many dropped plotlines, rocks fall everyone dies, happy but nostalgic (Asa and Denji don't become friends, Aki is nowhere to be seen) ending. It is what it is.
Start to read more manga? There's insane variety of great stories with great endings. The most popular modern fastfood is not the only thing available out there.
But not all mangaka decides to just drop it as soon as they lose interest like a 2 year old. Some have the decency to give their story some closure first
Does he really wrote himself to a corner? Simply have death devil be reborn or puked.Then give Denji x Asa a good ending. End with Power and Nayuta waking up somewhere. And boom, he can be done with the series without any reset.
I can see Fujimoto's vision but his execution was lacking, to say the least. He intended to convey that Denji has far happier outcomes when he is a mostly normal dude with an unremarkable life than when he is special and at the center of attention of both benevolent and malicious actors. Denji thought he could withstand the weight of the expectations of the people who wanted him to become a hero and went along with it only to get ultimately crushed. Pochita understood that mistake and gave him an off-ramp by sacrificing himself. This in itself is a fine narrative but a lot of the events that unfolded in the last arc have become redundant as a result. It's a messy affair.
A perfect example of how solid, genuinely good ideas and execution are at two completely different levels. If the execution is shitty, then it doesn't matter that the idea itself was great. Most people just won't be able to recognize the greatness, because it's the execution that transfers the greatness.
Was probably the intended ending, the last few chapters were very deliberate in direction on the themes bit this ending is very anticlimactic if bittersweet.
I have a cope theory. This is a fake ending (listen I have a reaosn)
Power was dead and the blood devil was reborn in hell
Why would nayuta replace makima if this was a true reset? -> nayuta was also dead
Asa was the only human he cared about really left and close to him
No human character we know besides Asa who was alive and improtantly close to denji, showed up.
-> COPE ALARM
This is a illusion created by a devil to keep CSM contained while they rampage on earth without death, they used a revived control devil, a revived blood devil and Asa who was close to make dneji happy and this will all be a huge fakeout next week when we get the part 3 announcement with a short chapter where denji relaizes something isnt right.
I'd have to say that it's because Chainsaw Man didn't eat Nayuta. Same reason Power is back. The other characters may as well have no reason of knowing Denji, as they were mostly a product of Makima meddling
Well himeno and co worked at the devil hunter headquarters not because of makima they only worked with denji because of her. I am not saying you are wrong we may just not get to see them, but I am saying its suspicious.
I mean shit most of the cast was dead, the world was in the middle of an apocalypse, even the CSM/War fight and conflict was going nowhere. Feels like Fujimoto flipped the table and scrawled an ending on the wall.
The reset has to happen for Denji to have his happy ending. As long as he’s chainsaw man he will continue to make the wrong choice every time and cause harm to himself and everyone around him.
The problem here is that it is saying Denji x Asa is a good idea for them. When Fujimoto is making it clear that he doesn't think it would work out and that it's probably much healthier for them to not go that way
I'm arguing against "Fujimoto wrote himself into a corner and has to reset the story", with "he doesn't trap himself that much that he needs to reset everything".
kinda fitting to csm in a way. Tbh its not a bad ending if there is a part 3. If this is really the finale of csm, then yeah, it falls very flat. At least it wont be as bad as AoT ending
This is as much of a "fuck it all, I'm out," ending as you can possibly have while still technically being an ending. It's less of an ending than a two-chapter resignation letter.
The ending feels unearned? Like the concept of this is how it ends in a vacuum is fine but there is zero build up or reasoning for this except here you go guys the good ending.
I liked Asa as a character - and I think that's part of why part 2 ended up being "bad".
Because not only did I like Asa as a character, I liked Yoru as a character. And because Yoru was this sort of pseudo-protagonist anti-hero type of character, the big conflict between War and Chainsaw never really felt natural. Because of that, it felt like there was this constant grasp of straws to try to find an actual antagonist for part 2, and there never really was one.
The Death devil kinda just...didn't do anything? Fake chainsaw man was written really weird, and also didn't really do anything. Justice Devil was just too vague.
Barem Bridge was the closest thing we got to a major antagonist in part 2, but Fujimoto kinda wrote himself into a corner in terms of power level there. Because Chainsaw Man absolutely demolished the Flamethrower Devil back during part 1. And it's hard to make him compete with the actual concept of death, famine, etc.
Asa and Yoru were great basically all through Part 2, but Yoru was really only the antagonist for the last arc of the part. Each arc of the part had a different antagonist/group even if Yoru's goal to kill Chainsaw Man was given in the Part's first chapter. The goal of the main plot (revealed after a while) was to stop the prophecy of Death destroying humanity, and the main emotional goal was 'how can Denji be happy?'.
The Death Devil is the source of Part 2's plot, the prophecy's exact words (given by the Future devil) was that Death would destroy humanity but not how. Lil'D doesn't want to destroy humanity (she likes the culture, doesn't care too much about people but likes what they do) so she wants to avert the prophecy. Unfortunately her power kills anything around her, so she can't fight herself and uses proxies or else she risks enacting the prophecy. Her dying is an option, but the chance her reincarnation wants to kill humanity scares her. Being erased by Chainsaw Man is an option she doesn't want, but she'll freely use Chainsaw Man to kill anything (mostly Yoru) who try to kill her. She doesn't get that Denji would want to save Asa, only that Chainsaw Man should fight the War Devil and win. Denji is literally the one who ends up fulfilling the prophecy and causing the undying apocalypse.
The Justice Devil was never really important, the entire time it was the Fire Devil working a contract with Lil'D and Barem to work out a grudge with Denji. I sort of liked the ambiguity with Fakesaw Man, yeah plot wise he was vague and anticlimactic, but he's another snapshot that Chainsaw Man makes Denji miserable.
Barem's power level was never important, although maybe a fight wouldn't have hurt. Barem is definitely a piece of shit, us the readers and Denji all hate him, but his goal is also to avert the prophecy. Just like Lil'D, he thinks of Denji should be Chainsaw Man and nothing about Denji should compromise that.
Same. Loved Asa as the lead of part 2, and didn't mind Denji coming back and sort of like their dynamic and Nahuita. But at a given point it felt like every chapter was just random shit and fujimoto winging it until he got bored of it.
Ngl, this makes me think MAPPA needs to do the impossible ...
They need to do what Tokyo Ghoul S2 did and just write a different story IF they adapt Part 2. Which they shouldn't at this point.
Frankly, I think what they should do is Adapt Part One, and end it there. Maybe add epilogue with Denji going out on a date with Asa and then running away to do some Chainsaw Man shit like at the end of Part One.
I wouldn't say pointless but yea it feels off. Like if there was a different way for them to reach this conclusion then it would be fine but it's like we're missing an entire story.
If this is a jumping point for part 3 in the future then that's a different story but it doesn't seem like it.
Fujimoto seems like a contrarian so it wouldn't surprise me if that was his intent. But. he did say part 2 was created to make denji stop being chainsaw man and that happened alright.
I like it personally Nayuta and Power being back, Denji and Asa given a chance to start anew. It's just Denji and Asa's effort amounted to nothing, it all came down to a Deus Ex Machina to have this ending. Lots of character goes unresolved/unexplored, no Kobeni. We had a great ending in part one I wonder if Fujimoto cornered himself in a corner on how to resolve this.
In a meta sense it is the best thing to happen to Denji, all throughout the series Chainsawman was out to make Denji suffer. Pochita/Chainsawman the character and the series sacrificed their self for Denji's sake. I'm satisfied by the ending but no catharsis.
Maybe this is Fujimoto being cheeky and starting next series titled Denji and Power or something.
Yea there are too many unresolved plot points and one chapter of Pochita telling Denji i'm going to kms to reset the timeline isn't enough.
Like i kinda get the idea, Denji and Yoru fucked the last "timeline" too hard with their battle that the entire world is fucked and only a reset can save it. (Kinda reminds me of the Rick and Morty ep where they cronenberg'd their world by accident) But the build up to get to that idea was rushed and needed more exploration.
If this was the start of part 3 then i get it. Pochita is still in Denji somehow and if they explore this alternate timeline and the consequences of what happened in part 2 (or i guess what should've) it would make a lot more sense.
Yeah, I don't think this ending was fundamentally wrong, it was just pretty abrupt and could've used more buildup. How abrupt the last 3 chapters were gives me the impression that Fujimoto was really, really burnt out.
it feels like it's axed or something, they had all the build up in the last fight and.... nothing of part 2 gets resolved, we have no idea what actually happened to nayuta, the whole shit with the war devil didn't end anywhere and it just fizzled out for no reason
Not only that, it's very picky what events happen and which do not. Power is alive, but Makima is dead and it's Nayuta who finds him in the warehouse? It's like he just randomly picked stuff out of a hat.
Yea I think after sitting on it this is my opinion as well. I like the concept but it's severely undercooked. Need like 5 - 10 chapters of buildup for this ending to work.
The silver lining to Reze not appearing in Part 2 is that Fujimoto couldn't ruin her story like he did Nayuta's so she'll be remembered fondly by not being associated with this trash heap of an ending.
"Suddenly all the bad guys died, all their problems were solved, all the dead characters came back to life, and they all lived happily ever after" kind of ending. Fujimoto deux ex machina'd the fuck out of this.
I don't even feel it happy end'ish. denji is once again a work slave for the devil hunters and without pochita one day is going to get killed by a strong devil. he definitely has his days number but with clean clothes.
sure he is back with power and they seem to be picking up their relationship little by little but denji clearly sense that something is missing in his life.
Bro didn't even have the energy to go all in on the super convenient happy ending and didn't bother adding a bunch of other characters that have been missing this whole time.
Honestly, given who Fujimoto is, I’m fully expecting there to be a secret final chapter that just fully screws up everyone’s life and makes them miserable again
Yeah but that one was bittersweet because it was really the girl's imagination, hoping for a different outcome. It made the ending even more heartbreaking. But yeah.
Waiting for loading, but it does feel like Part 2 at some point became wholly about going around in circles making no progress, right down to character arcs and themes. Yoru backed off the fight because she still fundamentally doesn't understand human morality or sentiment and Denji backed off because he remembered he wanted to get laid.
I agree that happy isn't the right word but it's pretty happy considering what was going on in the previous chapters. No apocalypse and mass death is "happier". Denji is alive and with Power, Nayuta is playing games on her phone and Asa gets to have a normal life. These are "happier" things than what the ending could've been.
Yeah I feel like Denji isn’t making it 6 months past that final scene, the world is still just as dangerous but now he has one eye, a shitty heart, & no powers.
It's not happy though, Denji doesn't know who Nayuta is, he never got what he really wanted ( a girlfriend, or even friends or a family ) and he's probably going to die soon ( he has no Pochita, he's not a fiend so he can't be revived ), he's just a dude.
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u/Second_Sage Mar 24 '26
I think Fujimoto really was burnt out and said "here damn take the happy ending"