I may have said this before, but Haikyuu has some consistent pacing. I know it's a sports manga and I'm not sure if I could compare it to CSM, but the series gives depth to both the main and side characters, even to characters who you wouldn't have expected of. Mob Psycho also has great pacing.
@@notationmusical I believe you have but please continue to bring it up. I haven’t read it yet so I welcome helpful insight like yours. And that’s a good point. I don’t think you shouldn’t be able to compare stories just because they’re different genres. Good pacing is good pacing.
To me Magi, Black Clover for the most part, Sakamoto Days, Dorohedoro, Alice in Borderland and Haikyu medley mentioned has some very nice pacing plus rereading Haikyu rn and feels awesome
Good pacing overall it does seem a little fast when characters die so shortly after meeting them but i believe this give the characters interactions have meaning. (Many anime and manga do not have character death making many characters actions meaningless). Mushoku Tensei has the best pacing so much character development and interaction you could spend hours on each interaction that happens. And yet we only see a small slice of the whole story. What I mean by this is pacing doesn't make or breaking the story but the world and how they interact with it does, Thanks for a great video, hope you read this.
Fujimoto is a master at storytelling..he doesn't provide needless details that are not important..he only focuses on what's required for the plot. While most mangaka provide too much details. I find fujimoto's writing style fascinating and beautiful. Also he doesn't spoon feed his readers..he said the readers are intelligent enough to understand his writing.
@@architectsxiii5379 You can absolutely have too much detail. As an aspiring writer myself, I can't tell you just how frustrating it is when I read or watch something and the writer just gives soo many details that does not contribute to the plot or the characters and it ends up slowing the story down, making it worse (one piece for example, even though its still one of my favourite animanga) . One thing I've learned over the years is focusing on only giving the audience information that will advance the plot and build character development. And whatever information I want to convey, I try to convey visually (show don't tell) I guess its one of the reasons why I love breaking bad and avatar: tla so much
@@H432-v6w You are confusing detail with being convoluted. Issues with OP and other Shonen is there is too much of the same and boring dragging out. There are a tons of series out there with a large amount of detail and it is not an issue. It is only an issue when forcefully dragging things out. Again, I'm talking in a case of being used right, there can never be too much. You are giving examples of people doing it badly. You can have a ton of detail and it not impact the story, or make it better when used correctly. You can never have too much detail if it is used correctly. And most popular media uses it correctly, unless it's been milked for years, or is purposely meant to be drawn out. I will say sometimes it depends on genre as well. Like psychlogical, mystery etc the less is better.
@@architectsxiii5379 the chimera ant arc in HxH had awful pacing. In the first half, there were a few fights that literally added nothing to the narrative whatsoever. The second half constantly explained the most irrelevant details I’ve ever seen to any story and it made the actual pacing of the narrative horrendous. There are details you can add to the plot and details you can add to the narrative. If you spend time adding details to the narrative then it feels like time well spent. But if you add details to the plot that don’t affect the story whatsoever, then that’s where issues come in. Personally, the only time I’m okay with that is for humor. I don’t care about fights or slice of life elements so I hate when stuff is dragged out for that reason. But unfortunately anime and manga are usually really unfunny so even when it’s dragged out for jokes I get mad. Chainsaw Man is by far the funniest anime or manga I’ve ever seen so I’m okay with sitting through some random nonsense for that one.
Himeno was one of my favorites. I had never heard of chainsaw man until episode 1 dropped and I watched the first 3 episodes weekly before I finally decided to just read the manga. I was already hooked since the beginning but when everything started speeding up and getting so chaotic that probably is what really made me LOVE this series. Like one of the comments said I was at the edge of my seat. Of course there are some characters I wish hadn’t died but like you said all the deaths had purpose so I can’t really complain about it when you look at the end result.
I think Tatsuki Fujimoto does a great job with the pacing because he knows when scenes need to breathe. While Chainsaw Man does have tense action scenes, there are also many wholesome moments. In one scene, Denji could be using his chainsaws, and in another, the main trio may just be having a nice meal. This is when we get the character's thoughts and interactions with one another. I also disagree that the series has "no world building." Although Tokyo is a real life place, you can still have world building there. Heck, literally the Prime Minister and the White House are involved at one point. I remember after one fight, Denji had to fill out paper work for the damage done to the buildings. Each devil is unique and creative. Even fans have made their own devils because fear is such a cool concept. And like you said, there are tense relations with the government.
Exactly. He doesn’t spend a bunch of time writing slice of life arcs, but we see the characters in chill environments and he knows exactly when to break from the gore and intensity.
Also, you don't need to do as much worldbuilding if you're story is set in the "real world" or a world similar to our world. (And, like, a world with devils wouldn't really be much like our world, you wouldn't have dense cities with buildings that could easily be nocked down, tons of technological development would go into fighting devils, not cellphones, etc)
Tatsuki Fujimoto's pacing is basically every single panel matter He didn't waste any single panels for the story. Basically no filler but balanced dialogue amount. And it's pretty expressive and a lot of raw emotional. If you read Fire Punch, yea you can see how much Fujimoto has improved in story, especially the pacing
I agree that the manga pacing is perfect for the story in that medium, but I feel like another interesting conversation to have is the anime-pacing, and how, while different, is equally perfect for the story in this medium. The slower, more deliberate pacing allows for people to actually process what’s happening, and also allows for scenes that most people didn’t even remember happening in the manga pack more of a punch. Also, since Tatsuki Fujimoto is a massive movie-nerd, he is more than happy with the cinematic pacing of the anime. It’s not even like the anime is moving slowly, it’s actually moving pretty fast, but even then, the extra time spent on lingering shots and allowing the situations these characters find themselves in to actually sink in. The best example I can think of is the latest episode. I felt a sense of dread and horror in that episode that not many anime have ever been able to make me feel, and not even the manga was able to make me feel. And then the slow build-up to the explosion at the end of the episode when everything is going crazy and everyone except Aki is turning against Denji had SO MUCH MORE impact than in the manga. Seriously, I’ve seen several manga-readers that thought the Aki getting stabbed scene was anime-original because it wasn’t very focused on in the manga, and most people forgot about it. So, I think that either way is absolutely God Tier. TL;DR:Both the manga and anime-pacing for this story are amazing and perfect for the atmosphere and story they’re trying to tell in their respective mediums.
I've read a lot of great manga like, 20th century boys, monster, real, etc....while i agree chainsawman isn't the best manga of all time but it's the only manga that make me sit and read all of 97 chapters in one sitting.....the pacing is so fascinating, and easier to read through compared to the other manga that i mentioned before
I believe its never been confirmed but its a pretty well known theory, Arai (4:50, the guy that protects Kobeni from death) and the Violence fiend are the same person. As in, the violence devil has taken Arai´s body. There´s a few interactions that support this theory, like Violence being one of the only devils to actually retain some of his memories (like him liking candy apples). At the same time we see that he goes out of his way to make Kobeni happy (like buying her said apples) since Arai certainly knew she wasnt big on money, the violence fiend looks out for her. Also his design is very cool and his personality is even cooler 10/10
Each chapter is so packed with content it feels fast even in part two the justice girl she was introduced like 7 chapters ago but you know her character and a twist was there with her character in that much chapter. It shows that even tho they are short but packed and for people including me it felt really fast paced but looking it it now it really if fine at least for me bc that’s just the pacing and I read fire punch too so I guess it kinda makes you used to it
The pacing is absolutely chaotic and fast but ngl, it's absolutely perfect considering the story that Fujimoto wants to tell. It's all killer, zero filler and everything has something to do with the main story, while also providing development where absolutely needed for characters. The story also always remembers that Denji is the main character and never forgets it. There is quite an ungodly amount of world building in CSM. It's just done so subtlely and non-expositioney that it works so damn well. I'm a little surprised that people aren't really noticing it. I think the main problem is that people are looking at this like it's a normal shonen, when in reality it's more of a heavily character-driven story like some seinen are. Heck, when I first read CSM I didn't even know that it was classified as a shonen lol. I just really enjoyed it for what it was, and that is Denji's story. Part 2's also a banger so far imo
People are definitely noticing it. But what I’m beginning to understand is that people wish they had more time to invest in characters before they die. At least that’s what I’m being told.
@@ShonenOuji i think that’s part of what makes it great tho the whole point of the fast pacing where characters die with out time to feel it shows how they have to keep going
People seem to forget that Fujimoto likes movies, it kinda obvious that he's using it as inspiration for how he paces his story. If you think of csm s1 as a 3 hour movie made as a series, then people can appreciate it more.
My biggest, the only, complaint of CSM is that, if you miss ONE panel, you will miss something crucial. If you read too fast and not deep enough? You will only get WHAT the story is about, not HOW the story is. If you miss one line of CSM's dialogue, sorry, Fujimoto ain't going to repeat that line unless it's transformed into action or plot line. He will do exposition, but you have to read very carefully because in my opinion, Fujimoto's expectations are probably his readers are going to RE-read the chapter within the week. Or at least, it what I do when I finally catch up to serialization of part 2. I think, CSM works like Mad Max: Fury Road. The movie version of Fury road and the storyboard version aren't that different. Fujimoto's story is like storyboarding a manga. He has an ideal movie version in his head, and this kind of styles will require detail-accurate tempo. And Fujimoto will follow those requirements diligently: every action has its setup, every setup has its payoff, and setup-less and payoff-less actions will have specific points to offer to the story. You can see CSM as a double beats dance. For example, CSM anime ep 4, Bat devil got butcher, but his girlfriend leach devil is pissed. Denji wasted too much blood, lose to leach devil. The chaos has attracted official attention, Aki saved the day. Aki saw the bond between Denji and Power and their works, he saved them from punishment. Aki's peaceful morning, ruined by Power who is dumped into his house by Makima because Aki has shown he can be a big brother to them. It's a little complicated, but if you outline every single plot point, you will see the two beat pacing. In manga form, the length is much shorter than this, but it works with basically the same way. Another big thing is, Fujimoto is writing a manga, in Japanese anime culture. And anime stories often don't do cuts on action sequences. They cut on IMPACT, on EMOTIONS. They usually don't try to convey a history(before, after and context), but they're doing DRAMA(AOT ep 1 Eren complaining about people being cows, then cuts to fish get chopped). It can makes you feel chaotic, but they have their own logic to their arrangements, and under this premise, Fujimoto has his own style and twist of those arrangements. If Fujimoto wants us to binge CSM, he probably would post it like Goodbye Eri, which is very binge-able. But the fact is, it's not published that way. Part 1 and part 2 are serialized as normal magazine does. If you watch read-along videos on YT, you will see it: people will miss something crucial or even the core meaning/adventure of this story, because they're binging CSM. I will argue that CSM's pacing is much better than Fire Punch, or the former is more balanced than latter. It's more interesting, it's more relatable, it's more flashy and intricate choreographed. And if you complain about its pacing? I will blame the volumn you hold in your hands aren't the weekly serialized form.
Interesting take. I think most people would prefer the binge but I definitely like what you’re saying about the week to week experience. I generally prefer that with any anime or manga because it gives me time to absorb the material before I move through to the next part. Thank you for sharing your take.
I just finished the anime recently (haven’t started on the manga yet) and I needed to hear this take. I enjoyed the anime but had qualms about the pacing. I like feeling emotional after character deaths but with this one, a lot of it made me feel “okay but why should I care about these characters” because it felt like we didn’t have them be fleshed out enough. I felt like there were a lot of holes and gaps left after watching the anime because it moved along so quickly and even with fights that seemed like there was a lot on the line, it finished really quickly. It’s interesting to hear the other side of the coin and I’m excited to start getting into the manga as well!
@@SamTheGumMan117 yeah they put like 2 seasons worth of material into a single one. They could have at least make a cliff hanger season then a movie to finish it off but nah they clicked 2x speed
I feel like chainsaw man and spyxfamily have the best pacing in anime this year. For a moment I forgot I was watching "anime" and saw it as just a series or a great novel.
I totally agree with you on this. I think people also complains that fast pace of the books didn't got translated in the film, like.. what? The film style pacing and more turned down 'more realistic' expressions on general characters only enhance over the top characters like power and kobeni which the anime didn't turn down. And for the 'slowed down' pace of the story currently also gives breathing room to the more chaotic shit in the future.
Its even funnier when you notice the same people who say meaningless stuff and pacing too fast, also say the pacing is too slow in part 2 and their diving into characters and not taking enough out and their is no plot. I think people just like to complain and compare stories to long runners that had the time to do the things they want. One piece wano arc is the length of all of chainsawman in perspective. I dont get the point of wanting one piece levels of story in 1/10 of the time without it feeling rushed and exposition heavy.
Chainsaw man's pacing is just perfect. having a frenetic story does not mean there's no world building or enough character development, i stopped reading one piece sometimes because it was just too slow, almost boring, but chainsaw man never is boring, every chapter has something cool happening or building up for it
And this is why Chainsaw Man is so addicting. Fujimoto keeps throwing just the right amount of stuff in to keep you hooked. One Piece almost throws in too much stuff at times to the point where you often feel lost.
I agree I caught up to the 108 chapters in 3 days at the time I started this series. Edge of my seat the entire time never got boring it was SO hard to put down!
So good I could compare the pacing the Arcane. Had a similar comfortable ‘pacing’ that let me binge all 6 episodes without a break for more than a few hours.
Oh boy with that phrasing now I wanna know what you think about the animes adaptation of the pacing. Personally I've been enjoying it, I like that every episode gets more or less of a nice cliffhanger to rope you into next weeks episode. Similarly to the manga.
If I had to use one word to describe chainsaw man’s pacing I would say it’s “intentional”. The story’s pacing feels very intentional and purposeful in what it decides to show the audience. Often skipping past meaningless fluff and taking its time on relevant information. That’s not to say the relevant information is just action, sometimes the relevant information can feel (to some people) like meaningless fluff, but everything in chainsaw man appears to have a purpose. It’s straightforward in this way. And I love that honestly. I can tell why some people are quick to shut down chainsaw man for its pacing though. People are very used to being told stories in very conventional ways. A character MUST be introduced in a specific way and developed in a specific way before they’re allowed to die in a specific way. Chainsaw man is unconventional in the sense that it does not follow this formula, which I understand for a lot of people feels very off putting. I love it though. I think it’s fresh, interesting, a bit weird, but in a good way.
A good example is Rent a Girlfriend. I binged it for a while, then came back and finished it - there was a long arc set at a resort over a couple of days. I thought it was pretty good, but people who read it week to week seemed to hate it. Then I went back and realized it was, like, 90 chapters or something - so nearly two years week to week, whereas I read it in a few hours. Makes a huge difference, obviously. A lot of stuff happens in Chainsaw man, but that really just means it doesn't have a lot of filler to take up time and pages while you're waiting for something to happen. It would be great if they were publishing 100 pages a week and you could have a 'binge' experience while staying up to date, but that's never going to happen, lol.
I do like how part 2 is taking more time with the story and with the slowerish pacing its letting the story breathe after all the chaotic shit that happened in part 1
In my opinion, the pacing feels perfectly natural and I think it works with the world building as well. Since devils in the world of chainsaw man are among the strongest or THE strongest things in the world, it makes sense for everyone in the main cast to deal with them as fast as possible. Forgoing the need of methodical planning. Especially to people like Denji and Kobeni (people who are relatively new to the Devil Hunting business) to experience all of the happenings of the world as a whole. One of the best examples of this is the International Assassins arc and Katana Man. For me, the pacing of a show can be slow or fast depending on the situation, only if it can carefully balance out character dynamics, character building and the more hype elements of the fight scene and conflict. I'm a person that doesn't mind spoilers, hell I even skipped over to chapter 80-90 of the manga. But whenever I watch the show, I just can't help but be hyped for what is going to happen next.
So I want to start with your first point, I think it's perfectly sensible to enjoy a story without being in love with the pacing. For example, I feel a lot of my monthly series inherently feel slower based on release schedule. Some series are better than others at making each chapter feel worth the wait. But many ultimately feel like a small portion of the story. Doesn't change the fact that I like the story and look forward to reading more. Also there some many elements of a story to enjoy outside of the pacing. A really fast series may not fleshout thing as much as a reader wants but usually compensates with action or progression of the story that draws you in. A slow series makes you wait for payoff but allows you to really appreciate the details of the setting. Individual preferences and temperaments play a big role too. Obviously extremes of either will hurt a story, but finding a perfectly paced series won't be universal. Second, character death is a big I want to bring up here. Especially with the newest chapter. Without spoilers I came to a realization that character deaths in part 2 have hit much harder for me. I noticed I wasn't the only one who thought that. Maybe our expectation our different since the beginning. But I honestly feel Fujimoto has just genuinely improved as a writer. The shock value of character deaths early on probably helped with what he was trying to do back then. But he no longer needs to do that. We aren't getting a bunch of named characters to toss aside to show how chaotic the world is because we know this fact by now. Also the series is so successful that getting the series to stand out is no longer a focus (especially with Jump plus). Now I will say you did make some good points here. Not every story needs high levels of world building. Fujimoto's style fits the story he wanted to tell and that is the most important thing. So I think a lot of the distaste comes from two places: expectations & preferences. In many ways I don't think Fujimoto expected his series to blow up the way it did. His series is so big people will compare it to the major series out there. Most of which are longer, more established, and slow their pacing down to flesh out the story telling. Even other fast series like Black Clover do way more with how they handle lore & world building. So this is just what people have come to expect. Additionally I think others just have different preferences. Personally I can't call it perfect but suitable is fine. However I will say the last point you bring up was really good. CSM does work as a binge and weekly read. Fujimoto does understand how to write modern manga stories. tl;dr Liking a story and it's pacing don't have to go hand in hand. There are plenty of elements to enjoy outside of pacing. The pacing just places emphasis on different things. Plus release schedule plays a part in it as well. People may find a story they like but the pacing may not be to their taste. With the newest arc, I feel we see Fujimoto has gotten better with doing character death. I'm not saying he didn't have intentions with the previous deaths, but they feel better handled. So I think they still stand as an issue of earlier CSM when the story was trying to establish itself. You are right that CSM does not need One Piece level world building but the comparisons will come with how popular CSM is. Most major series do a lot more with their lore. Your last point of CSM being good for a binge or weekly read was the best argument presented here. (As a last point you did bring up people's perceptions of One Piece and Spy x Family to support your argument which was great. But at the same time I think that means you can't ignore the common perception of CSM for similar reasons)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts as always! I absolutely think you can like a story and not the pacing. I love One Piece and Dr. STONE and the pacing in both stories is touch and go. My point in this video that I tried to explain is that CSM’s pacing is such a fundamental element of its unique appeal that it’s hard to not like it to some extent. Chainsaw is generally easier to binge for people because of the pacing. Even if you think it should be slowed down, I think everyone has to acknowledge that the story is so addicting because of how it’s paced. Of course, this doesn’t mean other elements like characters and themes don’t contribute to it as well.
the pacing is honestly great. nothing extra and over the top is shown it only shows what it needs to show. so much happens but it all makes sense. also crazy how people care about character deaths but it’s supposed to hurt like it’s not supposed to feel good it was meaningless and it’s supposed to suck
I think that because chainsaw man is so fast paced (most of the time) and has awesome fights it has attracted a lot of people who only likes it for that like any other mediocre shonen series, but they can't see the deeper meanings, and subtle storytelling that fujimoto provides, and makes it truly special: it's really deep and accessible at the same time but you need to work your brain a little if you wanna understand everything it has to offer, beyond superficial
Great video! I would argue and say that Chainsaw Man’s world building is irrelevant and meaningless to the narrative, its not a battle shonen where the world matters is significant enough that it affects the story and themes like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto, etc. CSM is character driven there’s no main plot/goal or objective in the series outside of Denji attaining happiness, all the characters have different goals, some have no goals. I don’t think the world building has to be extremely good for Denji’s goal of achieving happiness or the themes of the story (love/relationships, ignorance, etc.) to be expanded upon or make sense. There is no journey to become the pirate king which needs significant world building and lore in order to make sense, or an Attack on Titan where it’s significant enough to effectively showcase it’s themes of the cycle of hatred, prejudice, etc. For the character part, I disagree with the characters having no depth. A big part of Chainsaw Man is its realism, from how it handles common tropes, the dialogue/interactions, character progression, etc. It goes to show how fragile life really is, no matter how significant you think someone is to your life(the story), they can literally just die anytime like its nothing. The same time I agree with what you said about the deaths, CSM and Fujimoto stories in general are very enclosed stories about a few characters, thats why only a few have significant depth, the main point of most of the side characters is to flesh out the personality and traits of the main characters, like what I said in my first point, Chainsaw Man is character driven, the side characters depth/story is as insignificant to the narrative as the world building. Their existence is to literally just be plot devices, the deaths are used to flesh out our main characters to show how they would react to their deaths, which gives us more information to what kind of people they are and gives them a clear room for growth, which is extremely significant to the themes and the narrative in general.
That’s is exactly what I like about CSM. Their well written characters! Instead of being one sided these characters have multiple sides to them that contribute to their overall personality and thus motivations. It reminds me a bit about Arcane which also happens to be character driven. Also through the cleverly integrated character flashbacks and moments: when Himeno gets slapped for letting a teammate die or Aki telling Denji to leave. These moments are somewhat unexpected and contribute showing a different side to these characters.
I actually liked Chainsaw Man's pacing. It blew my mind when I got to the end of Part 1 and realized a complete story had been told in under 100 chapters where other series that I also love took that many chapters just to get into the main thrust of the plot.
I think the "no worldbuilding" comment is way off the mark. The world building is there, its just subtler because of the scope of the story. It exists in the background details like the Soviet Union still existing, there being regulations and procedures for devil hunting that Power breaks when she kills the Sea Cucumber devil, and the fact that Yakuza are keeping the carcasses of devils, presumably to sell. Just because neither the show nor the manga grind to a halt everytime a hint at the kind of world the characters inhabit is dropped to give a paragraph of explanation doesn't mean that those moments dont count as worldbuilding. If anything it would be so much weirder if the show did that as it would feel like it was treating the audience like dumb children and having characters remark about stuff that would just be normal or commonplace to them would make them feel less believable.
I think the anime knocked the pacing right out of the park with this one. If there is an example of how to create perfect pacing, this is the one to look for. They really nailed the timing of certain scenes and the overall vibe that the show was going for is just mwah.
i love the breakneck speed of the manga, but i love the anime's slower take on everything - especially the character moments being given so much room to breathe, and the cool fights with expanded action
I think anyone that says the world building is bad but also said that the deaths were meaningless misses that the deaths are part of the world building
As a chaotic person, that also writes and creates manga art, I want to say that I can completly see when ppl say the pacing is to fast and stuff, but I personally would take this pacing over every other pacing I saw before. Not only is it just showing how unpredictable the show is, it actually is one of the few shows where I wasnt able to predict the end after the first chapter. And yeah... lets just say most of the shows today are too easy to predict. And I exactly love this about chainsawman.
the example part stood out to me but csm would be more of a chess game in my opinion : like we all know what is it but we actually dont, theres always multiple ways to play out or explore ( and its addicting ) i dont know how to actually put but when i first read csm i didnt had any expectation but it got me get back on it and everytime i went back to read it,i found out that i missed a lot of things, there always things that you missed out on the first time you will pick a lot things as you read it more and more and it will make a lot of sense, ive read it three time now It doesnt get bored infact its the opposite Fujimoto has revolutionized manga industry as a whole and his influence will pass on to the upcoming creative endeavors, the shounen jump future is looking bright forsure Even i got inspired by him i am back on the grind because of him Honestly man, i cant praise him enough his world building style is amazing i dont like comparing but unlike the normal, usual shounens where the protagonist will chase a dream that hell never give up on ( unrealstic goals in short ) and overcome every obstacles in his path along the way and what awaits is always utopia but his works are different its realistic very much seinen like ), plays with human psychology, and there is no such things as side characters he treats everyone as much as the maincharacter, we still dont know what denji goals are nor where the story is leading still unsure and that what makes it interesting and gives off very mysterious feeling... it messes with your perception most of the time not to mention every week is a banger too like i said i cant praise him enough ( sorry if my sentences were a bit wonky and out of place its my second language )
I used to think the pacing of the anime is just a little slow, haha but after this video i think i biased, i read chainsaw manga after it has 100 chapter out, so i can binge read it for like few hours a day, but i have to wait 1 week to another episode relased. But despite all of it, the chainsaw man manga and anime is amazing, i really love it, i never feel so hype over an anime or manga.
When I was growing up, I got assigned as a homework to read a book and make a report of "Doña Barbara", in my home country Venezuela, it's one of the most famous books as it portrays the beauty of our country with it's extensive depictions of the countryside, fully developed characters (both good and dark) and humor, I mean there is literally a guy called Mr. Danger who is Alaskan and represents the cultural hatred and distrust that we had at the time for the foreigners. Like the actual dictator at the time was given the book as a tip that it had ideas against his government by promoting freedom, and after reading it the MF said "This book can't be used against me, it's just too good" and wanted to promote the author to governor... And I absolutely hated it for decades. The plot, the conversations, the dark humor, the context are all great, but the unstoppable poetic descriptions of how every god damn leaf in this lush forest is beauty incarnate that represents the innate potential of our nation to go past this period of violence and barbarism makes me to this day to skip over any description of a scene. I have mentally remind myself to not gloss over that information even though I feel it's wasting my time with unnecessary bullshit as I want the actual plot and story to move fowards. To put it more in context with this video, I love Oda's work, One Piece is a masterpiece and I think it's amazing that little details on an early chapter, will become a major and important point for the plot 400 chapters later. But (and this is mainly on the anime) sometimes the plot feels like it slows to a crawl to introduce all new geopolitical issues, plots, backstories, reactions, and it took until I started to think of the progress of the series as "self contained plots within each island that gives hints to the future" to pull out this damn chip of mine that screams "OK I GET IT, TRAGIC BACKSTORY OF A MINOR CHARACTER, COOL, LET'S GET ON WITH THE ACTUAL MAIN PLOT MAN PLEASE". So for my taste specifically, Chainsaman is great. It give you the information that it will be using in the next 20 chapters while dropping hints of the future; flashbacks are concise, short and relevant to the current situation, all while doing the worldbuilding in a utilitarian sense, meaning that if they talk about the shotgun devil, is because somebody will be getting shot and it will be shocking, relevant and probably funny. AND, each panel feels like it has a purpose, even the "setting up the scene" ones. So while I understand wanting even more information and sidestories of for example, Denji adapting itself to "normal" society and being housetrained by Aki. I believe that it has the perfect pacing for the story it wanted to provide., and cuts anything that would slowdown the story.
I dont think CSM's pacing can be classified as "good" or "bad" because its simply a complete subversion of what is expected from any form of pacing. I do believe in pacing being a skill, however and that most stories can either do it well or badly, but i think CSM is just a different case. When a lot of ppl say the pacing "ruins" character deaths and making them "meaningless," i think what many of them mean is that they want to be forced to cry and weep over their loss because thats what anime sorta accustoms the viewer to getting. They want all of the characters to have those center-stage type dramatic deaths which satisfyingly complete some arc of theirs. They want the flashbacks, the monologuing, the slow mo, the anime-crying... they want the characters life to feel complete. They want to mourn for these characters. As for me, i just dont think that is Fujimoto's goal in the slightest. The one who got the most "anime-death" of deaths was Aki, and to GREAT effect. Id argue Power as well after her last blaze of glory to save Denji, but essentially, what i think Fujimoto's goal is is to make life feel overwhelming. Those "fast deaths" for the assasins, characters in the Darkness devil scene, and Power going bang dont happen to make death scary or sad, they happen to make life feel scary. To make life just feel absolutely ruthless and cutthroat. Meaningless. And eventually tiring after it just happens enough times despite also feeling hurt by the losses too.. It is through being saved by Powers sacrifice that Denji finds meaning again after all, but until then, everything coming before was specifically meant to feel like a mad rush to drive Denji and the reader to insanity and/or numbness. For how much of a joke chapter that was where Pochita takes Kobeni for the "date" after murdering her coworkers, i still think even that services the theme by having Pochita just behead each of them one by one as they continually chant their slogan, skipping over that one dead persons line... that person just doesnt matter. None of them do because all we focus on is Pochita wanting a hamburger for Denjis sake. We are Denji. We just kinda sit back, unable to have any say. Ofc the only difference is we laugh with Fujimoto at the scene. Denji is just simply too done and tired to do anything in that scene. To Denji, the hamburger just feels meaningless. We sorta feel that too. All we can do is laugh at the absurdity instead of rejoicing at Denji getting the chance to eat a burger or watch a cute girl dance. Even though this portion is somewhat of a comedic relief and a breather, its also basically just not. Again, we are Denji. So after Makima comes and when he soon gets saved by Power, we feel saved too and allowed to feel again. Or at least i did. After a long binge I fucking had to just weep to let it all out after finishing that chapter cuz apparently a lot of emotions had just built up inside me over that time 😅😂
As a manga reader, the only thing I've never understood is when and why devils began appearing. Cuz in some cases, these devils represent fundamental concepts of the universe and the human condition, so I thought that devils must have been appearing for as long as humans existed. But then when explaining the origin of the Gun Devil, Makima says that people were profiteering off of guns as a weapon against devils. But how would that work? That seems to imply that either devils only just started appearing a little over 13 years ago, or guns were just invented 13 years ago. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a surge in the market like Makima implies. I remember seeing someone in a video say there is no way that modern infrastructure would ever be built if it was basically guaranteed that it would swiftly be destroyed in a fight against devils, and that's where I see some problems with the world building. It feels like a world where devils only just started appearing a few decades ago, but the story we're being told implies that devils existed forever, and humans should be accustomed to them by now.
@MitoseNorikoFan a reminder that WW2 probably never happened due to nazi's no longer existing and nukes also being gone, its timeline could be very different then ours. the surge could just imply that guns could just be seeing a high rise in the stock of them in recent years, and since no WW2 gun development probably was delayed. honestly with all the supernatural things and alteration to the timeline is rather hard to view the world.
I disagree a show’s problem can be slow despite it being good because of it, arcane is a great example of it being slow despite that being one of its strong suits
personally i like that part 1 is short, i hate waiting forever just for nothing to happen in the next episode. i also hate long stories cause after a while i lose interest in the story but it just keeps going and its like just finish the story already, stop milking it cause ur just ruining it.
Chainsaw Man's pacing is literally the best I've ever seen in an anime/manga, and if it was truly as bad as some people claim, I would NOT have binged it on my first reading. I think some people just prefer a story that they can be engrossed in for a long time, and that's fine. But that doesn't really have much to do with pacing, just how much content you want out of it. Some of the best stories are shorter ones. And like they say, quality over quantity.
Yeah cool story bro. Aki growing as person is so important, because it's not at all like he too also just dies a few chapters later. So meaningful. Fuck it, everyone dies. Who needs characters for a story?
I'm an anime-only, and I didn't think of *SPOILER*'s death in ep 8 as poor pacing, just loss of a potential recurring character (it also smacked of the trope that kills off mentor or elder characters, or manipulating the audience by getting them engaged in a character just in time to kill them off). I'm glad to hear the death has lasting impact in the story, at least. Think you're also right about Spy Family; it's been way more episodic lately.
Thanks for the info, this was very insightful. The only comment if I may add is to include in the caption “Spoiler Alert”. I’m currently reading Chainsaw man and now I know a couple of important points that happenen ahead of time in the story 😅. Just some friendly advice for your content. Keep up the good work!
Bro the manga pacing is prefect for Chainsaw Man because Fujimoto doesn’t waste time on things he deems unimportant. But the anime pace is fucking horrible IMO.
@@ShonenOuji I can’t exactly put my finger on it but I think it has to do with the anime’s overall more serious tone and scenes just going in for way more than they’re supposed to. Everything should be lightning fast ESPECIALLY on these first episodes where everything’s getting set up and watchers might get bored. It’s not always bad to go slower tho, the sequence where Aki wakes up in his apartment and makes coffee is beautiful and fits within the episode, but a lot of other parts should’ve been made shorter. Also episodes end at weird points for me, I feel there are way better scenes to end episodes on than the ones we got, that would also help making the episodes not feel as slow.
I think some of the things people are unhappy with are actually KEY to why Chainsaw Man handles death better than 99% of other series. Most series struggle with uncompelling loss and unimpactful characters deaths. They seem like they don't want to "waste" good characters and writing, so characters end up being sorted into 2 bins: 1 bin with compelling, well-written characters who have plot armor, and 2) a second bin with poorly-written characters who pop in for only an episode or two and whose only purpose is to immediately die, and who only get as much screen-time and development as needed to try to make a dramatic death. You can smell the deaths a mile away. It makes it feel like the characters who die are throw-away pity-party-of-the-week type of things, and main characters are too precious to lose, hence the plot armor. But Chainsaw Man is different. With both their plot threads AND their characters, imo the reason their deaths TO ME feel more meaningful, is because they often feel like stories and characters who were interesting enough to stick around. I was interested enough in Himeno and the Violence Fiend to see them stick around for the entire series. I was excited to see how Himeno and Denji were going to team up to be each other's wingmen. I was interested to see the friendship develop between Kobeni and the Violence Fiend. IMO this is what made their deaths surprising and meaningful---because they COULD have kept them around, and they would have made great characters & great plot points. But they didn't. Maybe this is undermined later down the road where like 99% of the characters die, but early on it really impressed me. I couldn't predict who would live and who would die, because they're so good at writing plots & characters that they can afford to kill off many of them. I can see why it sucks to lose your faves, but that's kind of the point. The deaths are supposed to be sad, the job is supposed to be dangerous, and the characters are supposed to struggle with loss, right??? What would be worse, a story written so well YOU yourself have to struggle with the loss of beloved characters, or a story so poorly written that the stakes never feel real?
I would just slow down pace of killing off characters. Like it should let us get connected more to them so death has some meaning not only to other characters but also to us. Otherwise we are getting put into mindset of Denji like ,,Why I don't feel anothing about their death?". Unless author wanted us to feel like Denji by killing off characters before we build connection to them BUT for Denji to feel that way feels more understanding because he doesn't build connections easy and doesn't have much social skills so of course feeling sad about someones death isn't easy. On the other side readers aren't traumatized like Denji and have more understanding about social things and connections. Ripping it out before we fully build connection feels more frustrating than anything else. We don't feel sad. We feel either nothing or be angry. Chainsawman deaths at some point just lose the strength of them. We stop being surprised at some point. Many moments are also sudden in random way without much build up to it.
@@ShonenOuji I would say there was emotional connection but then her great attack was pretty much pointless so yeah still more frustration with her death like that even if I liked her a lot. Aki also kinda died off screen I would say. He was pretty much there, contract, break chapter and he is a Fiend like boom just happened. If he was on his way to death anyway then it should have been seen by people close to him but no he just died and that's it. People just needed to switch thinking fast that he was a dangerous Fiend after. Ehh it's kinda hard for me to explain properly all of this. I would say I actually like being emotional about events in manga/anime but Chainsaw man does deaths in way that even if I want to feel sad, frustration overdrives my potential sadness like ,,That's it? This is how it happens?". Of course I still like it but I guess some methods that author used for this story just doesn't fully hit my enjoyment. Well but that's ok. People are allowed to feel different about series. I still like to check out opinions from other people. It doesn't affect me really to enjoy anime as I want and if it's close then I kinda take step back from fandom XD
@@MegiMoon I couldn’t agree more. This is why I made this video because I obviously love the pacing but really wanted to better understand the other side. Reading this definitely helped me understand it more.
hell the deaths in chainsawman work better to surprise the reader in meaningful and interesting ways that affect the characters and story....comapred to say one major character's death in Attack on Titan that happened entirely offscreen and whose only purpose was to empower a completely different character who wasn't as important or interesting, if memory serves. the deaths in Chainsawman make you quetion the status quo, make you see that not every character's gonna make it through in a tidy manner and sometimes shit happens. But it makes it WORK. (also a few deaths also serve to highlight Makima's deal too) (also some of the characters who died are Devils so they have the possbility of coming back sometime down the line anyway) also I don't thin character death equates to pacing. Yeah you cna dislike how certian charactrs died, but that doesn't mean the pacing's bad. Those are different arguements. Chainsawman's pacing is briks. Not too fast, not too slow. Each arc is fairly short, but they're long enough to tell the story they want to tell. That's my take.
4:19 should probably specify whether its anime spoilers or manga spoilers, cus im up to date on the anime but im not risking any manga spoilers and therefore forced to click off the video.
One Piece at times can be a real overkill in terms of slow pacing but I think that's the case because Toei Animation drags 2 minutes clips to an over 10 minutes long scene just so they won't catch up to the manga.
Yet people keep saying this is peak, and read the manga...the manga of wano arc is size of all of CM and people keep saying that's good pacing? Point is it works for one piece its an oddessy, were not supposed to get that in all stories. Also one piece benefits from all locations being islands. Its like a story where people go to new planets each arc of course the world building will be better.
@@ShonenOuji no, cuz out of all the episodes, it felt like the one that went by faster, too much happened too fast, which i understand after watching EP 3, they wanted to do that arc in a single episode and it paid off imo.
I think the pacing works so well because it was broken into parts . If CSM ended at part one then I would 100% say that the pacing is shit. That being said, the story could have still been richer if a couple chapters were added here and there.
Ya know….I absolutely loved the chainsaw man anime. Didn’t read the manga until two days ago so I’m only at chapter 17 or so….and I’m gonna get a lot of crap for this but, the anime is actually a massive improvement. The scenes are fleshed out beautifully that seem pretty lacking in the manga tbh. I do think that the characters and story ideas are amazingly unique and it was a great piece of source material. Also, in terms of world building, one example of how some of CM seems “meaningless” is by including the Soviet Union. Like, why? It’s not really useful effort to be a quirky little footnote. As for pacing, both the manga and anime are absolutely some of the best work I’ve ever read/watched in that regard. This is coming from a decade+ Berserk reader so I’m used to getting the slowest drip feed of content humanly possible. But that aside, the chapters in Chainsaw man seem absolutely perfect in terms of how much new story is given, how self contained most of the chapters are, and how the anime was able to work that with every episode being almost like a mini-arc with a perfect cliffhanger ending. I’ve never felt time fly by so fast as it did watching that anime. And at first I just thought it was because it’s just so much fun to watch, which of course it is. But you’re totally correct in that it’s the pacing. I can see why people might think it goes too fast, but I think it might be the single piece of media most perfectly tailored to the Info overload, ADD mentality of the 21st century. While I was always bummed out because each episode flew by, I was still feeling far more satisfied because of how much I enjoyed the show. I think slowing it down would have been a huge mistake, because who the hell wants more filler?? The results were dynamic and exciting and I hope other media will actually follow the lead of CM. It’s very easy to tell when something is wasting your time with filler content and doing so doesn’t help us appreciate a major death or something like that any more. Timing is crucial but doesn’t mean I want to read 3 pages of bloat for every page of plot progressing material.
No, just because something is great doesn't everything about it is great, tho ppl might not say that but they really mean it does something whether its the overarching story, character development, or dialogue so good that it's other flaws might not matter.
The Chainsaw Man manga is lots of fun, but the fandom is toxic, it has some of the worst stans I’ve ever seen. I would mildly criticise CM on a number of videos where I’d start by saying “I really enjoyed the manga” and then go on to state a few things I didn’t like, mostly it’s lack of heroes. And I’d have stans going nuts, claiming the “reason I hate it is because I simply can’t understand the nuances in the story” haha. They’d totally ignore that I said I really liked it and start claiming I hated it haha. I had endless comments like that.
You're not wrong in saying that there are no heroes in CSM. There are minor and major devils. There are corrupt politicians who want to use devils, which wouldn't exactly go well for them. It's a dark story, to be sure.
Am I the only one who actually really, really disagrees? I loved chainsaw man, but legit my only problem with it was the pacing. You had something super important like the gun devil appear, and then 2 chapters later its gone, and then two chapters later the fiend is gone too. It was way too fast for me, and I feel like if only the manga took its time more and spread the chapters in a way that grants more time to important parts and less to the less important parts (I loved reze, but the fact that the bomb girl arc is longer than the gun devil arc is just not sitting right with me) it could've been perfect
You're not the only one lol. People are just hyping this shit up because it's the popular thing to do. The story all the way up through the first part is all over the place with random events that make no sense for shock value. It's one thing to say he enjoys the anime and that he liked the pacing but to say its PERFECT is just inflated hype in the sea of underserved praise this anime and manga gets.
*spoiler* imo there isn't NEED for huge story building as the world is literaly like the one we live, plus the devils, the part where the gun devil kills are shown around the world, and america's call of the gun devil is all I needed and wanted, Chainsaw man revolves around denji, the chainsaw man, we came to see how he interacts with the world, we should know mostly only what he knows so we can understand his actions
Exactly lol. Do people want shonen to go back to the days of nothing happening, melodramatic deaths and long drawn out battles just to say this is hype this is peak.
The pacing is what makes CSM great, but it doesn't mean it's great all around. Some things felt heavily rushed like the Gun Devil's appearance, lasting only around about 2 chapters, which the entire manga had built up to. It's not perfect and that's why people complain about it. The pacing at many points are unbearable, but there are certainly times it works great like in Katana Man Arc
@@tencs IDK I kind of like what they did with gun devil, i actually really liked how they portray the gun devil as a natural disaster, and we didn't really see aki fight it.
Ok but spy family seriously has weak pacing because the release schedule is all over and some weeks we just get a 2 page spread or a side story. We want to main story! If it was a solid weekly manga it wouldn’t hurt so bad, but it comes out every 2-4 weeks, which suckkkssss
Havent yet watched the video except the first minute or so. My issue with the pacing was that it all just felt short. Imo there should have been more inbetween. Some chapters of just daily life and getting to know them better. Just tidbits here and there to make them feel more alive. And some smaller events that lasts a few chapters that doesnt change much.
Chainsawman's pacing is way too fast. Also pacing isn't all that makes something good, so saying its great and criticizing it's pacing in no world is a contradiction or something you "can't do."
Episode 6 to me was plot-wise the weakest episode thus far. For the first time it felt like it could've been any lazy shounen padding runtime with nothing really happening. Naruto filler arc flashbacks.
@@tencs I assumed it was source material that was weak. Eyepatch girl had very nasty character failure. Annoying girl had breakdown, bringing all female characters to total breakdown while two of three male characters were doing super, even though prior characterization seemed to suggest totally different story. Also the buildup was extremely poor in character development front, the first time I could watch some character on screen for minutes without feeling like I learned anything new about them. Eternity devil also had interesting potential for twists it could do, absolutely none of which materialized, leading to very cookie cutter "big monster with big mouth" ending to such an intriguing concept. To me ep 6 is by far the weakest thus far, like, there's no contest. Earlier show made me feel like it's something I've never seen before. Ep 6 felt like I had seen that sorta mediocre filler thousands of times before. Vaguely entertaining and that's it.
@@gJonii to each their own. The eternity devil arc is when I got hooked to Chainsaw Man, but I know a lot of people who aren't big fans of the initial arcs. Hopefully the next one will get you hooked, because I personally like it a lot more than the Eternity Devil arc.
@@tencs To me, the first episode is one of the best anime episodes I've ever seen. Even after that, the next few episodes kept surprising me. But the pace has been winding down, episode by episode. Every episode has less standout things to it than the last. It's concerning.
@@gJonii Lucky for you, I guess, because CSM is notorious for the often quick and unpredictable pacing (the video we're commenting on is a direct response to many of the complaints fans have about how fast the pacing is). The next arc and after season 1 going forward, everything is going to happen so quick that you wish it would slow down at times. That's when imo the "real" CSM starts
bro with the new anime you should expect new people, give a spoiler warning for anime watchers i got fucking spoiled the death of my favorite character without warning, i hope someone does the same to you
How would you rate Chainsaw Man's pacing? What are some other examples of manga/anime with great pacing?
I may have said this before, but Haikyuu has some consistent pacing.
I know it's a sports manga and I'm not sure if I could compare it to CSM, but the series gives depth to both the main and side characters, even to characters who you wouldn't have expected of.
Mob Psycho also has great pacing.
@@notationmusical I believe you have but please continue to bring it up. I haven’t read it yet so I welcome helpful insight like yours.
And that’s a good point. I don’t think you shouldn’t be able to compare stories just because they’re different genres. Good pacing is good pacing.
To me Magi, Black Clover for the most part, Sakamoto Days, Dorohedoro, Alice in Borderland and Haikyu medley mentioned has some very nice pacing plus rereading Haikyu rn and feels awesome
@@SamTheGumMan117 This was a well needed reminder to read Magi.
Good pacing overall it does seem a little fast when characters die so shortly after meeting them but i believe this give the characters interactions have meaning. (Many anime and manga do not have character death making many characters actions meaningless). Mushoku Tensei has the best pacing so much character development and interaction you could spend hours on each interaction that happens. And yet we only see a small slice of the whole story. What I mean by this is pacing doesn't make or breaking the story but the world and how they interact with it does, Thanks for a great video, hope you read this.
It is actually the best pacing i’ve ever witnessed, people are just used to boring mangas where nothing ever happens and they take it as the norm.
Then actual efficient pacing is too fast for them
You call 20 mins in a random hotel just listening to Kobeni scream good pacing?
@@Reduxem yes
@@Reduxem Yes.
@@Reduxem Yes.
Fujimoto is a master at storytelling..he doesn't provide needless details that are not important..he only focuses on what's required for the plot. While most mangaka provide too much details.
I find fujimoto's writing style fascinating and beautiful. Also he doesn't spoon feed his readers..he said the readers are intelligent enough to understand his writing.
Most readers anyway. I had to read the story a few times to figure out what was going on.
This does not make sense. Detail isn't needless. You can never have too much detail. You can have a lack of detail though.
@@architectsxiii5379 You can absolutely have too much detail. As an aspiring writer myself, I can't tell you just how frustrating it is when I read or watch something and the writer just gives soo many details that does not contribute to the plot or the characters and it ends up slowing the story down, making it worse (one piece for example, even though its still one of my favourite animanga) . One thing I've learned over the years is focusing on only giving the audience information that will advance the plot and build character development. And whatever information I want to convey, I try to convey visually (show don't tell) I guess its one of the reasons why I love breaking bad and avatar: tla so much
@@H432-v6w You are confusing detail with being convoluted. Issues with OP and other Shonen is there is too much of the same and boring dragging out. There are a tons of series out there with a large amount of detail and it is not an issue. It is only an issue when forcefully dragging things out.
Again, I'm talking in a case of being used right, there can never be too much. You are giving examples of people doing it badly. You can have a ton of detail and it not impact the story, or make it better when used correctly. You can never have too much detail if it is used correctly. And most popular media uses it correctly, unless it's been milked for years, or is purposely meant to be drawn out.
I will say sometimes it depends on genre as well. Like psychlogical, mystery etc the less is better.
@@architectsxiii5379 the chimera ant arc in HxH had awful pacing. In the first half, there were a few fights that literally added nothing to the narrative whatsoever. The second half constantly explained the most irrelevant details I’ve ever seen to any story and it made the actual pacing of the narrative horrendous. There are details you can add to the plot and details you can add to the narrative. If you spend time adding details to the narrative then it feels like time well spent. But if you add details to the plot that don’t affect the story whatsoever, then that’s where issues come in. Personally, the only time I’m okay with that is for humor. I don’t care about fights or slice of life elements so I hate when stuff is dragged out for that reason. But unfortunately anime and manga are usually really unfunny so even when it’s dragged out for jokes I get mad. Chainsaw Man is by far the funniest anime or manga I’ve ever seen so I’m okay with sitting through some random nonsense for that one.
Himeno was one of my favorites. I had never heard of chainsaw man until episode 1 dropped and I watched the first 3 episodes weekly before I finally decided to just read the manga. I was already hooked since the beginning but when everything started speeding up and getting so chaotic that probably is what really made me LOVE this series. Like one of the comments said I was at the edge of my seat. Of course there are some characters I wish hadn’t died but like you said all the deaths had purpose so I can’t really complain about it when you look at the end result.
Couldn’t agree more.
I fell like characters dying suddenly and quick is world building
I think Tatsuki Fujimoto does a great job with the pacing because he knows when scenes need to breathe. While Chainsaw Man does have tense action scenes, there are also many wholesome moments. In one scene, Denji could be using his chainsaws, and in another, the main trio may just be having a nice meal. This is when we get the character's thoughts and interactions with one another.
I also disagree that the series has "no world building." Although Tokyo is a real life place, you can still have world building there. Heck, literally the Prime Minister and the White House are involved at one point.
I remember after one fight, Denji had to fill out paper work for the damage done to the buildings. Each devil is unique and creative. Even fans have made their own devils because fear is such a cool concept. And like you said, there are tense relations with the government.
Exactly. He doesn’t spend a bunch of time writing slice of life arcs, but we see the characters in chill environments and he knows exactly when to break from the gore and intensity.
Also, you don't need to do as much worldbuilding if you're story is set in the "real world" or a world similar to our world. (And, like, a world with devils wouldn't really be much like our world, you wouldn't have dense cities with buildings that could easily be nocked down, tons of technological development would go into fighting devils, not cellphones, etc)
Tatsuki Fujimoto's pacing is basically
every single panel matter
He didn't waste any single panels for the story. Basically no filler but balanced dialogue amount. And it's pretty expressive and a lot of raw emotional.
If you read Fire Punch, yea you can see how much Fujimoto has improved in story, especially the pacing
"There's no world building
Characters die too fast after their introduction."
Well characters dying early IS the world building.
I agree that the manga pacing is perfect for the story in that medium, but I feel like another interesting conversation to have is the anime-pacing, and how, while different, is equally perfect for the story in this medium.
The slower, more deliberate pacing allows for people to actually process what’s happening, and also allows for scenes that most people didn’t even remember happening in the manga pack more of a punch.
Also, since Tatsuki Fujimoto is a massive movie-nerd, he is more than happy with the cinematic pacing of the anime.
It’s not even like the anime is moving slowly, it’s actually moving pretty fast, but even then, the extra time spent on lingering shots and allowing the situations these characters find themselves in to actually sink in.
The best example I can think of is the latest episode.
I felt a sense of dread and horror in that episode that not many anime have ever been able to make me feel, and not even the manga was able to make me feel. And then the slow build-up to the explosion at the end of the episode when everything is going crazy and everyone except Aki is turning against Denji had SO MUCH MORE impact than in the manga.
Seriously, I’ve seen several manga-readers that thought the Aki getting stabbed scene was anime-original because it wasn’t very focused on in the manga, and most people forgot about it.
So, I think that either way is absolutely God Tier.
TL;DR:Both the manga and anime-pacing for this story are amazing and perfect for the atmosphere and story they’re trying to tell in their respective mediums.
I've read a lot of great manga like, 20th century boys, monster, real, etc....while i agree chainsawman isn't the best manga of all time but it's the only manga that make me sit and read all of 97 chapters in one sitting.....the pacing is so fascinating, and easier to read through compared to the other manga that i mentioned before
I believe its never been confirmed but its a pretty well known theory, Arai (4:50, the guy that protects Kobeni from death) and the Violence fiend are the same person. As in, the violence devil has taken Arai´s body.
There´s a few interactions that support this theory, like Violence being one of the only devils to actually retain some of his memories (like him liking candy apples). At the same time we see that he goes out of his way to make Kobeni happy (like buying her said apples) since Arai certainly knew she wasnt big on money, the violence fiend looks out for her.
Also his design is very cool and his personality is even cooler 10/10
Each chapter is so packed with content it feels fast even in part two the justice girl she was introduced like 7 chapters ago but you know her character and a twist was there with her character in that much chapter. It shows that even tho they are short but packed and for people including me it felt really fast paced but looking it it now it really if fine at least for me bc that’s just the pacing and I read fire punch too so I guess it kinda makes you used to it
I will say I definitely like Chainsaw Man better. Fire Punch is really good but it just didn’t hit for me the same way Chainsaw Man did.
The pacing is absolutely chaotic and fast but ngl, it's absolutely perfect considering the story that Fujimoto wants to tell.
It's all killer, zero filler and everything has something to do with the main story, while also providing development where absolutely needed for characters.
The story also always remembers that Denji is the main character and never forgets it.
There is quite an ungodly amount of world building in CSM. It's just done so subtlely and non-expositioney that it works so damn well. I'm a little surprised that people aren't really noticing it.
I think the main problem is that people are looking at this like it's a normal shonen, when in reality it's more of a heavily character-driven story like some seinen are.
Heck, when I first read CSM I didn't even know that it was classified as a shonen lol. I just really enjoyed it for what it was, and that is Denji's story. Part 2's also a banger so far imo
People are definitely noticing it. But what I’m beginning to understand is that people wish they had more time to invest in characters before they die. At least that’s what I’m being told.
@@ShonenOuji i think that’s part of what makes it great tho the whole point of the fast pacing where characters die with out time to feel it shows how they have to keep going
@@ShonenOuji And then when anime takes a "slower" approach to spend more time with characters, people also complain.
People seem to forget that Fujimoto likes movies, it kinda obvious that he's using it as inspiration for how he paces his story. If you think of csm s1 as a 3 hour movie made as a series, then people can appreciate it more.
I really like CSM's pacing it goes real fast for the most part then slows it down right at the moment
My biggest, the only, complaint of CSM is that, if you miss ONE panel, you will miss something crucial. If you read too fast and not deep enough? You will only get WHAT the story is about, not HOW the story is.
If you miss one line of CSM's dialogue, sorry, Fujimoto ain't going to repeat that line unless it's transformed into action or plot line. He will do exposition, but you have to read very carefully because in my opinion, Fujimoto's expectations are probably his readers are going to RE-read the chapter within the week.
Or at least, it what I do when I finally catch up to serialization of part 2.
I think, CSM works like Mad Max: Fury Road. The movie version of Fury road and the storyboard version aren't that different. Fujimoto's story is like storyboarding a manga. He has an ideal movie version in his head, and this kind of styles will require detail-accurate tempo. And Fujimoto will follow those requirements diligently: every action has its setup, every setup has its payoff, and setup-less and payoff-less actions will have specific points to offer to the story.
You can see CSM as a double beats dance.
For example, CSM anime ep 4, Bat devil got butcher, but his girlfriend leach devil is pissed. Denji wasted too much blood, lose to leach devil. The chaos has attracted official attention, Aki saved the day. Aki saw the bond between Denji and Power and their works, he saved them from punishment. Aki's peaceful morning, ruined by Power who is dumped into his house by Makima because Aki has shown he can be a big brother to them. It's a little complicated, but if you outline every single plot point, you will see the two beat pacing.
In manga form, the length is much shorter than this, but it works with basically the same way.
Another big thing is, Fujimoto is writing a manga, in Japanese anime culture. And anime stories often don't do cuts on action sequences. They cut on IMPACT, on EMOTIONS. They usually don't try to convey a history(before, after and context), but they're doing DRAMA(AOT ep 1 Eren complaining about people being cows, then cuts to fish get chopped). It can makes you feel chaotic, but they have their own logic to their arrangements, and under this premise, Fujimoto has his own style and twist of those arrangements.
If Fujimoto wants us to binge CSM, he probably would post it like Goodbye Eri, which is very binge-able. But the fact is, it's not published that way. Part 1 and part 2 are serialized as normal magazine does. If you watch read-along videos on YT, you will see it: people will miss something crucial or even the core meaning/adventure of this story, because they're binging CSM.
I will argue that CSM's pacing is much better than Fire Punch, or the former is more balanced than latter. It's more interesting, it's more relatable, it's more flashy and intricate choreographed. And if you complain about its pacing? I will blame the volumn you hold in your hands aren't the weekly serialized form.
Interesting take. I think most people would prefer the binge but I definitely like what you’re saying about the week to week experience. I generally prefer that with any anime or manga because it gives me time to absorb the material before I move through to the next part. Thank you for sharing your take.
I just finished the anime recently (haven’t started on the manga yet) and I needed to hear this take. I enjoyed the anime but had qualms about the pacing. I like feeling emotional after character deaths but with this one, a lot of it made me feel “okay but why should I care about these characters” because it felt like we didn’t have them be fleshed out enough. I felt like there were a lot of holes and gaps left after watching the anime because it moved along so quickly and even with fights that seemed like there was a lot on the line, it finished really quickly. It’s interesting to hear the other side of the coin and I’m excited to start getting into the manga as well!
Thank you! I was never bored and that’s what’s really important at the end of the day.
After I watched Index season 3 I can proudly say Chainsawman has a good pacing.
I've never heard of it. How is it?
@@ShonenOuji To are majutsu no index season 3? Oof. It has to be experienced.
@@JustsomeSpaceG1 Enough said I guess haha
I agree Index after S3 had me scratching my head a lot xD
@@SamTheGumMan117 yeah they put like 2 seasons worth of material into a single one. They could have at least make a cliff hanger season then a movie to finish it off but nah they clicked 2x speed
I feel like chainsaw man and spyxfamily have the best pacing in anime this year. For a moment I forgot I was watching "anime" and saw it as just a series or a great novel.
I totally agree with you on this. I think people also complains that fast pace of the books didn't got translated in the film, like.. what? The film style pacing and more turned down 'more realistic' expressions on general characters only enhance over the top characters like power and kobeni which the anime didn't turn down. And for the 'slowed down' pace of the story currently also gives breathing room to the more chaotic shit in the future.
Its even funnier when you notice the same people who say meaningless stuff and pacing too fast, also say the pacing is too slow in part 2 and their diving into characters and not taking enough out and their is no plot. I think people just like to complain and compare stories to long runners that had the time to do the things they want. One piece wano arc is the length of all of chainsawman in perspective. I dont get the point of wanting one piece levels of story in 1/10 of the time without it feeling rushed and exposition heavy.
Chainsaw man's pacing is just perfect. having a frenetic story does not mean there's no world building or enough character development, i stopped reading one piece sometimes because it was just too slow, almost boring, but chainsaw man never is boring, every chapter has something cool happening or building up for it
And this is why Chainsaw Man is so addicting. Fujimoto keeps throwing just the right amount of stuff in to keep you hooked. One Piece almost throws in too much stuff at times to the point where you often feel lost.
I agree I caught up to the 108 chapters in 3 days at the time I started this series. Edge of my seat the entire time never got boring it was SO hard to put down!
@@Benzlisting It was the fastest I ever binged any series.
I take one piece over weird fetish shit anyday
So good I could compare the pacing the Arcane. Had a similar comfortable ‘pacing’ that let me binge all 6 episodes without a break for more than a few hours.
Oh boy with that phrasing now I wanna know what you think about the animes adaptation of the pacing. Personally I've been enjoying it, I like that every episode gets more or less of a nice cliffhanger to rope you into next weeks episode. Similarly to the manga.
I agree. I think they’re doing a really good job with the anime so far.
If I had to use one word to describe chainsaw man’s pacing I would say it’s “intentional”. The story’s pacing feels very intentional and purposeful in what it decides to show the audience. Often skipping past meaningless fluff and taking its time on relevant information. That’s not to say the relevant information is just action, sometimes the relevant information can feel (to some people) like meaningless fluff, but everything in chainsaw man appears to have a purpose. It’s straightforward in this way. And I love that honestly.
I can tell why some people are quick to shut down chainsaw man for its pacing though. People are very used to being told stories in very conventional ways. A character MUST be introduced in a specific way and developed in a specific way before they’re allowed to die in a specific way. Chainsaw man is unconventional in the sense that it does not follow this formula, which I understand for a lot of people feels very off putting. I love it though. I think it’s fresh, interesting, a bit weird, but in a good way.
A good example is Rent a Girlfriend. I binged it for a while, then came back and finished it - there was a long arc set at a resort over a couple of days. I thought it was pretty good, but people who read it week to week seemed to hate it. Then I went back and realized it was, like, 90 chapters or something - so nearly two years week to week, whereas I read it in a few hours. Makes a huge difference, obviously. A lot of stuff happens in Chainsaw man, but that really just means it doesn't have a lot of filler to take up time and pages while you're waiting for something to happen. It would be great if they were publishing 100 pages a week and you could have a 'binge' experience while staying up to date, but that's never going to happen, lol.
That resort arc made me drop it lmao
Here's am idea for a video. Why chainsawman is able to work despite the lack of denji
That’s something I would definitely like to try and do a video on.
I binged all of part 1 in a single night.
I do like how part 2 is taking more time with the story and with the slowerish pacing its letting the story breathe after all the chaotic shit that happened in part 1
In my opinion, the pacing feels perfectly natural and I think it works with the world building as well. Since devils in the world of chainsaw man are among the strongest or THE strongest things in the world, it makes sense for everyone in the main cast to deal with them as fast as possible. Forgoing the need of methodical planning. Especially to people like Denji and Kobeni (people who are relatively new to the Devil Hunting business) to experience all of the happenings of the world as a whole. One of the best examples of this is the International Assassins arc and Katana Man.
For me, the pacing of a show can be slow or fast depending on the situation, only if it can carefully balance out character dynamics, character building and the more hype elements of the fight scene and conflict.
I'm a person that doesn't mind spoilers, hell I even skipped over to chapter 80-90 of the manga. But whenever I watch the show, I just can't help but be hyped for what is going to happen next.
"It has no world building" did we read the same series? Are people just naturally uncurious about things they aren't hand-held through?
The manga pacing was even faster that the anime slowed it down at first
So I want to start with your first point, I think it's perfectly sensible to enjoy a story without being in love with the pacing. For example, I feel a lot of my monthly series inherently feel slower based on release schedule. Some series are better than others at making each chapter feel worth the wait. But many ultimately feel like a small portion of the story. Doesn't change the fact that I like the story and look forward to reading more. Also there some many elements of a story to enjoy outside of the pacing. A really fast series may not fleshout thing as much as a reader wants but usually compensates with action or progression of the story that draws you in. A slow series makes you wait for payoff but allows you to really appreciate the details of the setting. Individual preferences and temperaments play a big role too. Obviously extremes of either will hurt a story, but finding a perfectly paced series won't be universal.
Second, character death is a big I want to bring up here. Especially with the newest chapter. Without spoilers I came to a realization that character deaths in part 2 have hit much harder for me. I noticed I wasn't the only one who thought that. Maybe our expectation our different since the beginning. But I honestly feel Fujimoto has just genuinely improved as a writer. The shock value of character deaths early on probably helped with what he was trying to do back then. But he no longer needs to do that. We aren't getting a bunch of named characters to toss aside to show how chaotic the world is because we know this fact by now. Also the series is so successful that getting the series to stand out is no longer a focus (especially with Jump plus).
Now I will say you did make some good points here. Not every story needs high levels of world building. Fujimoto's style fits the story he wanted to tell and that is the most important thing. So I think a lot of the distaste comes from two places: expectations & preferences. In many ways I don't think Fujimoto expected his series to blow up the way it did. His series is so big people will compare it to the major series out there. Most of which are longer, more established, and slow their pacing down to flesh out the story telling. Even other fast series like Black Clover do way more with how they handle lore & world building. So this is just what people have come to expect. Additionally I think others just have different preferences. Personally I can't call it perfect but suitable is fine. However I will say the last point you bring up was really good. CSM does work as a binge and weekly read. Fujimoto does understand how to write modern manga stories.
tl;dr Liking a story and it's pacing don't have to go hand in hand. There are plenty of elements to enjoy outside of pacing. The pacing just places emphasis on different things. Plus release schedule plays a part in it as well. People may find a story they like but the pacing may not be to their taste. With the newest arc, I feel we see Fujimoto has gotten better with doing character death. I'm not saying he didn't have intentions with the previous deaths, but they feel better handled. So I think they still stand as an issue of earlier CSM when the story was trying to establish itself. You are right that CSM does not need One Piece level world building but the comparisons will come with how popular CSM is. Most major series do a lot more with their lore. Your last point of CSM being good for a binge or weekly read was the best argument presented here. (As a last point you did bring up people's perceptions of One Piece and Spy x Family to support your argument which was great. But at the same time I think that means you can't ignore the common perception of CSM for similar reasons)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts as always! I absolutely think you can like a story and not the pacing. I love One Piece and Dr. STONE and the pacing in both stories is touch and go. My point in this video that I tried to explain is that CSM’s pacing is such a fundamental element of its unique appeal that it’s hard to not like it to some extent. Chainsaw is generally easier to binge for people because of the pacing. Even if you think it should be slowed down, I think everyone has to acknowledge that the story is so addicting because of how it’s paced. Of course, this doesn’t mean other elements like characters and themes don’t contribute to it as well.
the pacing is honestly great. nothing extra and over the top is shown it only shows what it needs to show. so much happens but it all makes sense. also crazy how people care about character deaths but it’s supposed to hurt like it’s not supposed to feel good it was meaningless and it’s supposed to suck
I think that because chainsaw man is so fast paced (most of the time) and has awesome fights it has attracted a lot of people who only likes it for that like any other mediocre shonen series, but they can't see the deeper meanings, and subtle storytelling that fujimoto provides, and makes it truly special: it's really deep and accessible at the same time but you need to work your brain a little if you wanna understand everything it has to offer, beyond superficial
Great video! I would argue and say that Chainsaw Man’s world building is irrelevant and meaningless to the narrative, its not a battle shonen where the world matters is significant enough that it affects the story and themes like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto, etc. CSM is character driven there’s no main plot/goal or objective in the series outside of Denji attaining happiness, all the characters have different goals, some have no goals. I don’t think the world building has to be extremely good for Denji’s goal of achieving happiness or the themes of the story (love/relationships, ignorance, etc.) to be expanded upon or make sense. There is no journey to become the pirate king which needs significant world building and lore in order to make sense, or an Attack on Titan where it’s significant enough to effectively showcase it’s themes of the cycle of hatred, prejudice, etc.
For the character part, I disagree with the characters having no depth. A big part of Chainsaw Man is its realism, from how it handles common tropes, the dialogue/interactions, character progression, etc. It goes to show how fragile life really is, no matter how significant you think someone is to your life(the story), they can literally just die anytime like its nothing. The same time I agree with what you said about the deaths, CSM and Fujimoto stories in general are very enclosed stories about a few characters, thats why only a few have significant depth, the main point of most of the side characters is to flesh out the personality and traits of the main characters, like what I said in my first point, Chainsaw Man is character driven, the side characters depth/story is as insignificant to the narrative as the world building. Their existence is to literally just be plot devices, the deaths are used to flesh out our main characters to show how they would react to their deaths, which gives us more information to what kind of people they are and gives them a clear room for growth, which is extremely significant to the themes and the narrative in general.
Thank you so much! Really glad to see you enjoyed it.
That’s is exactly what I like about CSM.
Their well written characters!
Instead of being one sided these characters have multiple sides to them that contribute to their overall personality and thus motivations. It reminds me a bit about Arcane which also happens to be character driven.
Also through the cleverly integrated character flashbacks and moments: when Himeno gets slapped for letting a teammate die or Aki telling Denji to leave. These moments are somewhat unexpected and contribute showing a different side to these characters.
I actually liked Chainsaw Man's pacing. It blew my mind when I got to the end of Part 1 and realized a complete story had been told in under 100 chapters where other series that I also love took that many chapters just to get into the main thrust of the plot.
I think the "no worldbuilding" comment is way off the mark. The world building is there, its just subtler because of the scope of the story. It exists in the background details like the Soviet Union still existing, there being regulations and procedures for devil hunting that Power breaks when she kills the Sea Cucumber devil, and the fact that Yakuza are keeping the carcasses of devils, presumably to sell. Just because neither the show nor the manga grind to a halt everytime a hint at the kind of world the characters inhabit is dropped to give a paragraph of explanation doesn't mean that those moments dont count as worldbuilding.
If anything it would be so much weirder if the show did that as it would feel like it was treating the audience like dumb children and having characters remark about stuff that would just be normal or commonplace to them would make them feel less believable.
i hope you review Goodbye Eri and Look Back one shots by fujimoto
I think the anime knocked the pacing right out of the park with this one. If there is an example of how to create perfect pacing, this is the one to look for. They really nailed the timing of certain scenes and the overall vibe that the show was going for is just mwah.
You have a good point about the manga pacing cause I read CSM at least 4 times
Chainsaw man pacing and story are so good that I re-read it up to 4 times
Nice taste in music been a fan of leaky since 2018
i love the breakneck speed of the manga, but i love the anime's slower take on everything - especially the character moments being given so much room to breathe, and the cool fights with expanded action
I think anyone that says the world building is bad but also said that the deaths were meaningless misses that the deaths are part of the world building
As a chaotic person, that also writes and creates manga art, I want to say that I can completly see when ppl say the pacing is to fast and stuff, but I personally would take this pacing over every other pacing I saw before. Not only is it just showing how unpredictable the show is, it actually is one of the few shows where I wasnt able to predict the end after the first chapter. And yeah... lets just say most of the shows today are too easy to predict. And I exactly love this about chainsawman.
the example part stood out to me but csm would be more of a chess game in my opinion
: like we all know what is it but we actually dont, theres always multiple ways to play out or explore ( and its addicting ) i dont know how to actually put but when i first read csm i didnt had any expectation but it got me get back on it
and everytime i went back to read it,i found out that i missed a lot of things, there always things that you missed out on the first time you will pick a lot things as you read it more and more and it will make a lot of sense, ive read it three time now It doesnt get bored infact its the opposite
Fujimoto has revolutionized manga industry as a whole
and his influence will pass on to the upcoming creative endeavors, the shounen jump future is looking bright forsure
Even i got inspired by him i am back on the grind because of him
Honestly man, i cant praise him enough his world building style is amazing
i dont like comparing but unlike the normal, usual shounens
where the protagonist will chase a dream that hell never give up on ( unrealstic goals in short ) and overcome every obstacles in his path along the way and what awaits is always utopia
but his works are different its realistic very much seinen like ), plays with human psychology, and there is no such things as side characters he treats everyone as much as the maincharacter, we still dont know what denji goals are nor where the story is leading still unsure and that what makes it interesting and gives off very mysterious feeling... it messes with your perception most of the time
not to mention every week is a banger too
like i said i cant praise him enough
( sorry if my sentences were a bit wonky and out of place its my second language )
2:36 Kon (One Piece Ver.)
Even tho its my 2nd manga i have read. I really like the fast pacing and it never annoyed me.
I like the pacing, I just wish that there were a few more chapters here an there.
I used to think the pacing of the anime is just a little slow, haha but after this video i think i biased, i read chainsaw manga after it has 100 chapter out, so i can binge read it for like few hours a day, but i have to wait 1 week to another episode relased. But despite all of it, the chainsaw man manga and anime is amazing, i really love it, i never feel so hype over an anime or manga.
When I was growing up, I got assigned as a homework to read a book and make a report of "Doña Barbara", in my home country Venezuela, it's one of the most famous books as it portrays the beauty of our country with it's extensive depictions of the countryside, fully developed characters (both good and dark) and humor, I mean there is literally a guy called Mr. Danger who is Alaskan and represents the cultural hatred and distrust that we had at the time for the foreigners.
Like the actual dictator at the time was given the book as a tip that it had ideas against his government by promoting freedom, and after reading it the MF said "This book can't be used against me, it's just too good" and wanted to promote the author to governor... And I absolutely hated it for decades.
The plot, the conversations, the dark humor, the context are all great, but the unstoppable poetic descriptions of how every god damn leaf in this lush forest is beauty incarnate that represents the innate potential of our nation to go past this period of violence and barbarism makes me to this day to skip over any description of a scene. I have mentally remind myself to not gloss over that information even though I feel it's wasting my time with unnecessary bullshit as I want the actual plot and story to move fowards.
To put it more in context with this video, I love Oda's work, One Piece is a masterpiece and I think it's amazing that little details on an early chapter, will become a major and important point for the plot 400 chapters later. But (and this is mainly on the anime) sometimes the plot feels like it slows to a crawl to introduce all new geopolitical issues, plots, backstories, reactions, and it took until I started to think of the progress of the series as "self contained plots within each island that gives hints to the future" to pull out this damn chip of mine that screams "OK I GET IT, TRAGIC BACKSTORY OF A MINOR CHARACTER, COOL, LET'S GET ON WITH THE ACTUAL MAIN PLOT MAN PLEASE".
So for my taste specifically, Chainsaman is great. It give you the information that it will be using in the next 20 chapters while dropping hints of the future; flashbacks are concise, short and relevant to the current situation, all while doing the worldbuilding in a utilitarian sense, meaning that if they talk about the shotgun devil, is because somebody will be getting shot and it will be shocking, relevant and probably funny. AND, each panel feels like it has a purpose, even the "setting up the scene" ones.
So while I understand wanting even more information and sidestories of for example, Denji adapting itself to "normal" society and being housetrained by Aki. I believe that it has the perfect pacing for the story it wanted to provide., and cuts anything that would slowdown the story.
Well said 👏
I dont think CSM's pacing can be classified as "good" or "bad" because its simply a complete subversion of what is expected from any form of pacing. I do believe in pacing being a skill, however and that most stories can either do it well or badly, but i think CSM is just a different case.
When a lot of ppl say the pacing "ruins" character deaths and making them "meaningless," i think what many of them mean is that they want to be forced to cry and weep over their loss because thats what anime sorta accustoms the viewer to getting. They want all of the characters to have those center-stage type dramatic deaths which satisfyingly complete some arc of theirs. They want the flashbacks, the monologuing, the slow mo, the anime-crying... they want the characters life to feel complete. They want to mourn for these characters.
As for me, i just dont think that is Fujimoto's goal in the slightest. The one who got the most "anime-death" of deaths was Aki, and to GREAT effect. Id argue Power as well after her last blaze of glory to save Denji, but essentially, what i think Fujimoto's goal is is to make life feel overwhelming. Those "fast deaths" for the assasins, characters in the Darkness devil scene, and Power going bang dont happen to make death scary or sad, they happen to make life feel scary. To make life just feel absolutely ruthless and cutthroat. Meaningless. And eventually tiring after it just happens enough times despite also feeling hurt by the losses too..
It is through being saved by Powers sacrifice that Denji finds meaning again after all, but until then, everything coming before was specifically meant to feel like a mad rush to drive Denji and the reader to insanity and/or numbness. For how much of a joke chapter that was where Pochita takes Kobeni for the "date" after murdering her coworkers, i still think even that services the theme by having Pochita just behead each of them one by one as they continually chant their slogan, skipping over that one dead persons line... that person just doesnt matter. None of them do because all we focus on is Pochita wanting a hamburger for Denjis sake.
We are Denji. We just kinda sit back, unable to have any say. Ofc the only difference is we laugh with Fujimoto at the scene. Denji is just simply too done and tired to do anything in that scene. To Denji, the hamburger just feels meaningless. We sorta feel that too. All we can do is laugh at the absurdity instead of rejoicing at Denji getting the chance to eat a burger or watch a cute girl dance. Even though this portion is somewhat of a comedic relief and a breather, its also basically just not.
Again, we are Denji. So after Makima comes and when he soon gets saved by Power, we feel saved too and allowed to feel again.
Or at least i did. After a long binge I fucking had to just weep to let it all out after finishing that chapter cuz apparently a lot of emotions had just built up inside me over that time 😅😂
As a manga reader, the only thing I've never understood is when and why devils began appearing. Cuz in some cases, these devils represent fundamental concepts of the universe and the human condition, so I thought that devils must have been appearing for as long as humans existed. But then when explaining the origin of the Gun Devil, Makima says that people were profiteering off of guns as a weapon against devils. But how would that work? That seems to imply that either devils only just started appearing a little over 13 years ago, or guns were just invented 13 years ago. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a surge in the market like Makima implies.
I remember seeing someone in a video say there is no way that modern infrastructure would ever be built if it was basically guaranteed that it would swiftly be destroyed in a fight against devils, and that's where I see some problems with the world building. It feels like a world where devils only just started appearing a few decades ago, but the story we're being told implies that devils existed forever, and humans should be accustomed to them by now.
@MitoseNorikoFan
a reminder that WW2 probably never happened due to nazi's no longer existing and nukes also being gone, its timeline could be very different then ours.
the surge could just imply that guns could just be seeing a high rise in the stock of them in recent years, and since no WW2 gun development probably was delayed.
honestly with all the supernatural things and alteration to the timeline is rather hard to view the world.
I disagree a show’s problem can be slow despite it being good because of it, arcane is a great example of it being slow despite that being one of its strong suits
personally i like that part 1 is short, i hate waiting forever just for nothing to happen in the next episode. i also hate long stories cause after a while i lose interest in the story but it just keeps going and its like just finish the story already, stop milking it cause ur just ruining it.
Chainsaw man pacing is fast but not rushed there is a difference between pacing because of forced deadlines and pacing because it's the main intention
this video legitimately sounds better at 1.5x times speed
Got my subscribe for being able to understand CSM.
I only had to read it 3 or 4 times before I could. And thank you!
Chainsaw Man's pacing is literally the best I've ever seen in an anime/manga, and if it was truly as bad as some people claim, I would NOT have binged it on my first reading. I think some people just prefer a story that they can be engrossed in for a long time, and that's fine. But that doesn't really have much to do with pacing, just how much content you want out of it. Some of the best stories are shorter ones. And like they say, quality over quantity.
Yeah cool story bro. Aki growing as person is so important, because it's not at all like he too also just dies a few chapters later. So meaningful. Fuck it, everyone dies. Who needs characters for a story?
I'm an anime-only, and I didn't think of *SPOILER*'s death in ep 8 as poor pacing, just loss of a potential recurring character (it also smacked of the trope that kills off mentor or elder characters, or manipulating the audience by getting them engaged in a character just in time to kill them off). I'm glad to hear the death has lasting impact in the story, at least.
Think you're also right about Spy Family; it's been way more episodic lately.
Thanks for the info, this was very insightful. The only comment if I may add is to include in the caption “Spoiler Alert”. I’m currently reading Chainsaw man and now I know a couple of important points that happenen ahead of time in the story 😅. Just some friendly advice for your content. Keep up the good work!
Sorry about that. And thank you! Glad you still enjoyed the video.
attack on titan had awesome pacing
Bro the manga pacing is prefect for Chainsaw Man because Fujimoto doesn’t waste time on things he deems unimportant. But the anime pace is fucking horrible IMO.
What don’t you like about the anime pacing?
"manga pacing is perfect"
chapter 2:
@@ShonenOuji I can’t exactly put my finger on it but I think it has to do with the anime’s overall more serious tone and scenes just going in for way more than they’re supposed to. Everything should be lightning fast ESPECIALLY on these first episodes where everything’s getting set up and watchers might get bored. It’s not always bad to go slower tho, the sequence where Aki wakes up in his apartment and makes coffee is beautiful and fits within the episode, but a lot of other parts should’ve been made shorter. Also episodes end at weird points for me, I feel there are way better scenes to end episodes on than the ones we got, that would also help making the episodes not feel as slow.
I think some of the things people are unhappy with are actually KEY to why Chainsaw Man handles death better than 99% of other series. Most series struggle with uncompelling loss and unimpactful characters deaths. They seem like they don't want to "waste" good characters and writing, so characters end up being sorted into 2 bins: 1 bin with compelling, well-written characters who have plot armor, and 2) a second bin with poorly-written characters who pop in for only an episode or two and whose only purpose is to immediately die, and who only get as much screen-time and development as needed to try to make a dramatic death. You can smell the deaths a mile away. It makes it feel like the characters who die are throw-away pity-party-of-the-week type of things, and main characters are too precious to lose, hence the plot armor. But Chainsaw Man is different. With both their plot threads AND their characters, imo the reason their deaths TO ME feel more meaningful, is because they often feel like stories and characters who were interesting enough to stick around. I was interested enough in Himeno and the Violence Fiend to see them stick around for the entire series. I was excited to see how Himeno and Denji were going to team up to be each other's wingmen. I was interested to see the friendship develop between Kobeni and the Violence Fiend. IMO this is what made their deaths surprising and meaningful---because they COULD have kept them around, and they would have made great characters & great plot points. But they didn't.
Maybe this is undermined later down the road where like 99% of the characters die, but early on it really impressed me. I couldn't predict who would live and who would die, because they're so good at writing plots & characters that they can afford to kill off many of them. I can see why it sucks to lose your faves, but that's kind of the point. The deaths are supposed to be sad, the job is supposed to be dangerous, and the characters are supposed to struggle with loss, right??? What would be worse, a story written so well YOU yourself have to struggle with the loss of beloved characters, or a story so poorly written that the stakes never feel real?
I would just slow down pace of killing off characters. Like it should let us get connected more to them so death has some meaning not only to other characters but also to us. Otherwise we are getting put into mindset of Denji like ,,Why I don't feel anothing about their death?". Unless author wanted us to feel like Denji by killing off characters before we build connection to them BUT for Denji to feel that way feels more understanding because he doesn't build connections easy and doesn't have much social skills so of course feeling sad about someones death isn't easy. On the other side readers aren't traumatized like Denji and have more understanding about social things and connections. Ripping it out before we fully build connection feels more frustrating than anything else. We don't feel sad. We feel either nothing or be angry. Chainsawman deaths at some point just lose the strength of them. We stop being surprised at some point. Many moments are also sudden in random way without much build up to it.
Would you say you didn’t have any emotional connection to Himeno?
@@ShonenOuji I would say there was emotional connection but then her great attack was pretty much pointless so yeah still more frustration with her death like that even if I liked her a lot. Aki also kinda died off screen I would say. He was pretty much there, contract, break chapter and he is a Fiend like boom just happened. If he was on his way to death anyway then it should have been seen by people close to him but no he just died and that's it. People just needed to switch thinking fast that he was a dangerous Fiend after. Ehh it's kinda hard for me to explain properly all of this. I would say I actually like being emotional about events in manga/anime but Chainsaw man does deaths in way that even if I want to feel sad, frustration overdrives my potential sadness like ,,That's it? This is how it happens?". Of course I still like it but I guess some methods that author used for this story just doesn't fully hit my enjoyment. Well but that's ok. People are allowed to feel different about series. I still like to check out opinions from other people. It doesn't affect me really to enjoy anime as I want and if it's close then I kinda take step back from fandom XD
@@MegiMoon I couldn’t agree more. This is why I made this video because I obviously love the pacing but really wanted to better understand the other side. Reading this definitely helped me understand it more.
Lol i did not knew there would be spoilers o.o
hell the deaths in chainsawman work better to surprise the reader in meaningful and interesting ways that affect the characters and story....comapred to say one major character's death in Attack on Titan that happened entirely offscreen and whose only purpose was to empower a completely different character who wasn't as important or interesting, if memory serves.
the deaths in Chainsawman make you quetion the status quo, make you see that not every character's gonna make it through in a tidy manner and sometimes shit happens. But it makes it WORK.
(also a few deaths also serve to highlight Makima's deal too)
(also some of the characters who died are Devils so they have the possbility of coming back sometime down the line anyway)
also I don't thin character death equates to pacing. Yeah you cna dislike how certian charactrs died, but that doesn't mean the pacing's bad. Those are different arguements.
Chainsawman's pacing is briks. Not too fast, not too slow. Each arc is fairly short, but they're long enough to tell the story they want to tell. That's my take.
4:19 should probably specify whether its anime spoilers or manga spoilers, cus im up to date on the anime but im not risking any manga spoilers and therefore forced to click off the video.
0:34 the pacing isn’t what makes chainsaw man great
One Piece at times can be a real overkill in terms of slow pacing but I think that's the case because Toei Animation drags 2 minutes clips to an over 10 minutes long scene just so they won't catch up to the manga.
Yet people keep saying this is peak, and read the manga...the manga of wano arc is size of all of CM and people keep saying that's good pacing? Point is it works for one piece its an oddessy, were not supposed to get that in all stories. Also one piece benefits from all locations being islands. Its like a story where people go to new planets each arc of course the world building will be better.
The only pacing i would complain about is EP 2, the rest has just been perfect
Because of what they cut?
@@ShonenOuji no, cuz out of all the episodes, it felt like the one that went by faster, too much happened too fast, which i understand after watching EP 3, they wanted to do that arc in a single episode and it paid off imo.
I think the pacing works so well because it was broken into parts . If CSM ended at part one then I would 100% say that the pacing is shit. That being said, the story could have still been richer if a couple chapters were added here and there.
I liked the anime but some things just felt like they came out of nowhere, but i dont feel like thats a big issue
Ya know….I absolutely loved the chainsaw man anime. Didn’t read the manga until two days ago so I’m only at chapter 17 or so….and I’m gonna get a lot of crap for this but, the anime is actually a massive improvement. The scenes are fleshed out beautifully that seem pretty lacking in the manga tbh. I do think that the characters and story ideas are amazingly unique and it was a great piece of source material. Also, in terms of world building, one example of how some of CM seems “meaningless” is by including the Soviet Union. Like, why? It’s not really useful effort to be a quirky little footnote. As for pacing, both the manga and anime are absolutely some of the best work I’ve ever read/watched in that regard. This is coming from a decade+ Berserk reader so I’m used to getting the slowest drip feed of content humanly possible. But that aside, the chapters in Chainsaw man seem absolutely perfect in terms of how much new story is given, how self contained most of the chapters are, and how the anime was able to work that with every episode being almost like a mini-arc with a perfect cliffhanger ending. I’ve never felt time fly by so fast as it did watching that anime. And at first I just thought it was because it’s just so much fun to watch, which of course it is. But you’re totally correct in that it’s the pacing. I can see why people might think it goes too fast, but I think it might be the single piece of media most perfectly tailored to the Info overload, ADD mentality of the 21st century. While I was always bummed out because each episode flew by, I was still feeling far more satisfied because of how much I enjoyed the show. I think slowing it down would have been a huge mistake, because who the hell wants more filler?? The results were dynamic and exciting and I hope other media will actually follow the lead of CM. It’s very easy to tell when something is wasting your time with filler content and doing so doesn’t help us appreciate a major death or something like that any more. Timing is crucial but doesn’t mean I want to read 3 pages of bloat for every page of plot progressing material.
No, just because something is great doesn't everything about it is great, tho ppl might not say that but they really mean it does something whether its the overarching story, character development, or dialogue so good that it's other flaws might not matter.
The Chainsaw Man manga is lots of fun, but the fandom is toxic, it has some of the worst stans I’ve ever seen. I would mildly criticise CM on a number of videos where I’d start by saying “I really enjoyed the manga” and then go on to state a few things I didn’t like, mostly it’s lack of heroes. And I’d have stans going nuts, claiming the “reason I hate it is because I simply can’t understand the nuances in the story” haha. They’d totally ignore that I said I really liked it and start claiming I hated it haha. I had endless comments like that.
You're not wrong in saying that there are no heroes in CSM. There are minor and major devils. There are corrupt politicians who want to use devils, which wouldn't exactly go well for them. It's a dark story, to be sure.
Am I the only one who actually really, really disagrees? I loved chainsaw man, but legit my only problem with it was the pacing. You had something super important like the gun devil appear, and then 2 chapters later its gone, and then two chapters later the fiend is gone too. It was way too fast for me, and I feel like if only the manga took its time more and spread the chapters in a way that grants more time to important parts and less to the less important parts (I loved reze, but the fact that the bomb girl arc is longer than the gun devil arc is just not sitting right with me) it could've been perfect
You're not the only one lol. People are just hyping this shit up because it's the popular thing to do. The story all the way up through the first part is all over the place with random events that make no sense for shock value. It's one thing to say he enjoys the anime and that he liked the pacing but to say its PERFECT is just inflated hype in the sea of underserved praise this anime and manga gets.
I prefer the manga's faster pacing, over the slower anime. Still enjoying the anime but the manga's faster pace is better for the humor.
*spoiler*
imo there isn't NEED for huge story building as the world is literaly like the one we live, plus the devils, the part where the gun devil kills are shown around the world, and america's call of the gun devil is all I needed and wanted, Chainsaw man revolves around denji, the chainsaw man, we came to see how he interacts with the world, we should know mostly only what he knows so we can understand his actions
"It keeps you on the edge of your seat" but "its pacing sucks". 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦♂️🤦♀️
Exactly lol. Do people want shonen to go back to the days of nothing happening, melodramatic deaths and long drawn out battles just to say this is hype this is peak.
The pacing is great people are spoiled for other animes
The pacing is good enough I guess but a little fast. I couldn't really get attached to Aki and Himeno before, y'know, and only liked Power a little.
The pacing is what makes CSM great, but it doesn't mean it's great all around. Some things felt heavily rushed like the Gun Devil's appearance, lasting only around about 2 chapters, which the entire manga had built up to. It's not perfect and that's why people complain about it. The pacing at many points are unbearable, but there are certainly times it works great like in Katana Man Arc
The pacing is definitely better than Fire Punch's though, so there is improvement there
@@tencs
IDK I kind of like what they did with gun devil, i actually really liked how they portray the gun devil as a natural disaster, and we didn't really see aki fight it.
Manga pacing is awesome, anime it kinda drags but the story push the interest of the viewer fpward
On piece ark climaxes are the worst because you just want to see the main fight but have to wait 40 chapters for it
Everything else is fine to me
Ok but spy family seriously has weak pacing because the release schedule is all over and some weeks we just get a 2 page spread or a side story. We want to main story! If it was a solid weekly manga it wouldn’t hurt so bad, but it comes out every 2-4 weeks, which suckkkssss
Facts
Love this show. Power is stupid
its way too fast wtf, can't enjoy the present moment of the characters at all then one dies immediately after
Havent yet watched the video except the first minute or so. My issue with the pacing was that it all just felt short. Imo there should have been more inbetween. Some chapters of just daily life and getting to know them better. Just tidbits here and there to make them feel more alive. And some smaller events that lasts a few chapters that doesnt change much.
the mangas pacing is perfect, not the anime. But the manga pacing kind of gets ehh further in. Like, too fast.
For me, Chainsaw Man is better than Girls Bravo.
Chainsawman's pacing is way too fast. Also pacing isn't all that makes something good, so saying its great and criticizing it's pacing in no world is a contradiction or something you "can't do."
Nah perfect pacing is jojo part 2
What makes it perfect?
Common Brandon L
Ppl are just illiterate
Episode 6 to me was plot-wise the weakest episode thus far. For the first time it felt like it could've been any lazy shounen padding runtime with nothing really happening. Naruto filler arc flashbacks.
Episode 6 is 2.5 chapters adapted. It's not filler at all and imo the best episode to date.
@@tencs I assumed it was source material that was weak. Eyepatch girl had very nasty character failure. Annoying girl had breakdown, bringing all female characters to total breakdown while two of three male characters were doing super, even though prior characterization seemed to suggest totally different story. Also the buildup was extremely poor in character development front, the first time I could watch some character on screen for minutes without feeling like I learned anything new about them. Eternity devil also had interesting potential for twists it could do, absolutely none of which materialized, leading to very cookie cutter "big monster with big mouth" ending to such an intriguing concept.
To me ep 6 is by far the weakest thus far, like, there's no contest. Earlier show made me feel like it's something I've never seen before. Ep 6 felt like I had seen that sorta mediocre filler thousands of times before. Vaguely entertaining and that's it.
@@gJonii to each their own. The eternity devil arc is when I got hooked to Chainsaw Man, but I know a lot of people who aren't big fans of the initial arcs. Hopefully the next one will get you hooked, because I personally like it a lot more than the Eternity Devil arc.
@@tencs To me, the first episode is one of the best anime episodes I've ever seen. Even after that, the next few episodes kept surprising me.
But the pace has been winding down, episode by episode. Every episode has less standout things to it than the last. It's concerning.
@@gJonii Lucky for you, I guess, because CSM is notorious for the often quick and unpredictable pacing (the video we're commenting on is a direct response to many of the complaints fans have about how fast the pacing is). The next arc and after season 1 going forward, everything is going to happen so quick that you wish it would slow down at times. That's when imo the "real" CSM starts
bro with the new anime you should expect new people, give a spoiler warning for anime watchers i got fucking spoiled the death of my favorite character without warning, i hope someone does the same to you
There was a huge spoiler warning in the video
@@ShonenOuji damn, if so, sorry for being so aggressive but i sure missed it, can you tell me where it is please?
@@minidialga64 It’s all good. It’s at 4:16.
Pacing is boring in csm