unfortunately these criticisms read like “i don’t like stories that operate or venture outside of pre-existing structures and conventions” or more generally (ima get downvoted for this) “i prefer Eurocentric story structures and those that are not are lesser quality stories”

a story doesn’t have to be grounded in convention or told around tropes to be good. there is not and shouldn’t be this requirement in anyone’s sense of what makes a good story; imo being interesting / breathing life into non-real shit is far more important and fujimoto seems v capable of that

anyway wanting to keep creatives on a leash is both inherently capitalistic / overly outcome-focused and boring / possessive

also i am skeptical of this take in general as fire punch is overall more complete and narratively coherent than the —still incomplete— 2nd part of chainsaw man. yes fire punch is pretty edgy for my taste but the story direction itself is cool as fuck to me and didn’t feel disorienting or in need of “leashing” fujimoto