October 23, 2024

We’re nearing Halloween, so I wanted to focus in on some spooky media towards the end of October! This week, I wanted to write about one of my favorite spooky franchises ever: Chainsaw Man. Specifically, I wanted to focus in on the series’ introduction in the first chapter, and how elements of horror are used to engross the reader in this dark, tragic world.

Introducing Chainsaw Man

Before I examine the elements of horror in the first chapter, I want to examine how this chapter introduces its characters and world. Chainsaw Man is a manga series written by Tatsuki Fujimoto. It follows Denji, a teenager who exists in a world where devils roam the Earth and prey on humans. In this universe, devils are personifications of mankind’s fears towards a subject. For example, in the first few pages, we’re introduced to the tomato devil. This serves as a great introduction point, too, as we are shown that even non-threatening objects can become devils.

Denji is a devil hunter, a profession where you are paid to slaughter devils. After this introduction, we see a bit of Denji’s youth. After the death of his parents, Denji encounters a the Chainsaw Devil (also known as Pochita), who is hurt and in the form of a dog. Denji pities Pochita, and makes a contract with it by feeding it his blood to heal it.

Devil contracts are frequently mentioned in the series. These are binding agreements between a human and a devil, where a human offers something to the devil in return for help or power from a devil (or vise versa).

Denji makes a contract with the Chainsaw Devil, and as Denji grows up, the duo scrape together money by taking Devil Hunting jobs from yakuza members. The first chapter breaks into the action from here, and starts utilizing horror elements to demonstrate how horrific the devils can be and how unforgiving Denji’s world is.

The Gore and Body Horror of Chainsaw Man

Possibly the most obvious elements of horror utilized in Chainsaw Man are gore and body horror. Chainsaw Man is violent – extremely violent. And while gore is shown earlier in this chapter, it really comes to the front when zombies kill Denji. From this point on, the series doesn’t hold back from showing its characters in brutal situations. We even see Denji’s body completely chopped up. It’s a grim sight, and really encompasses the dark tone of this series.

After Denji and Pochita return to life as Chainsaw Man, he has to fight off a swarm of zombies brought to life by the Zombie Devil. Here, we get some of the most iconic imagery from this series. Fujimoto’s art style depicts this moment so well; the way Chainsaw Man cuts his way through a swarm of zombies is gross, gory, and over-the-top.

This gore and body horror enunciates the darkness of this story and gives the violence flair and stakes. Characters in Chainsaw Man get injured a lot, and some of them even die. This violence contrasts the character focused story well, though, as it highlights the moments of levity and time characters have together. The fact that characters can die in this world makes the relationships more tragic and can parallel how many people’s lives are tragically cut short in the real world (which is especially important to consider when analyzing how some of the devils are fears of very real sources of tragedies).

Zombies!

On a lighter note, let’s talk about zombies! Zombies are obviously a staple of horror; these creatures have been frightening people in popular media for basically as long as popular media has been around. Fujimoto pays homage to this important genre of horror by having Chainsaw Man’s first fight be against the Zombie Devil.

The Zombie Devil looks really interesting, and the zombie hoard that Chainsaw Man comes up against is a great way to introduce the basics of Denji’s newfound powers.

Fujimoto is a huge fan of film, too, and chainsaws have been synonymous as devices for killing zombies on the big screen. In this sense, having Chainsaw Man clash with zombies feels like a direct tribute to zombie horror movies and media.

Jumpscares on the Page

As mentioned above, Tatsuki Fujimoto is really into movies. Today, horror movies and jumpscares are completely intertwined. As such, I think it’s interesting to consider how jumpscares can come across on the page.

I’d argue that we see a few examples jumpscares in the first chapter. One example I’ll mention is when Denji is first being chased by the zombies. There are panels of Denji getting chased and almost stabbed, and then the next page shows Denji and Potchita getting stabbed and cut up. I won’t include an image to this example here as it is a little gorier and more upsetting than the other example images I’ve used, but the pacing of these shots feels intentionally set to surprise the reader with this graphic attack.

Chainsaw Man is Horror Media

While Chainsaw Man is many things, I think it’s reasonable to consider it a piece of horror media. It synthesizes different forms and genres of horror, on top of paying tribute to famous examples of horror. As the series progress, there are plenty more examples of horror. Even in this chapter alone there are more elements of horror utilized – I didn’t even mention that chainsaws by themselves are used as devices of horror all the time!

If you’re looking for a great piece of horror media to get you in the mood for Halloween, I can definitely recommend Chainsaw Man. It won’t be for everyone, but if what I’ve brought up so far interests you, give it a try! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.