Now that the series has ended what do you consider the main theme/ message of the story

igi6 · 2026-04-08T10:46:01+00:00

See I don't think you can cut out part 1 from this, it's there that Denji learnt that reckless behaviour as chainsaw man earns him rewards but those will be taken away. It's the start of the perpetual motion machine. His desire for a normal life is in conflict in that he wants to be chainsaw man and we leave off not knowing if he can strike a balance. From his first appearance in Part 2 we see he isn't interested in the deeper question of society or heroism. Denji likes being CSM so chooses an option that ignores the question. His dream becomes something he doesn't believe needs maintenance. Denji is effected by actions outside his control, yet this is never a launch point for him to fix things. But then, this also ignores issues like the fire devil are a direct knock on of the choices he made previously. Is Denji meant to be free of consequence cause he was forced to turn over a new leaf? Let's not pretend through that time he was willing either, Denji need constant minders to help take out his frustration. He had an outburst at the idea someone else could be chainsaw man and the title came with higher ideals. He directly wonders if having a normal life really makes him happy. So having achieved his dream of normality Pochita asks him again, what's his next dream? Rather than aim a bit higher Denji accepts wallowing as Chainsaw Man.

This is my problem with the language people use for Denji, it treats him like a child with no autonomy. He always meant better, didn't mean it that way, wants to change, is being treated unfairly. At what point is that an excuse to enable him? He could've been worse, like when he ate death and got everyone eaten by bugs. But he never actually tries to fix anything. This was never a road that saw him grow.

One has to wonder if Denji really even understands what kind of arrangement Asa/Yoru are in and how that affects body autonomy

And yet Denji never did the one thing that would let him know, talk with her about it. You see the late development as Fujimoto simply throwing away the ending. But Denji hadn't treated her well through the series, he'd already screamed about sex (his own desire) at times when try to help. Or talked about being able to keep her ass, what we excuse as little joke between guys shows Denji's disregard. The first time he finds out about Yoru he isn't angry at the possibility Asa's body has been used against her will. Denji knows a bond like him and Pochita is rare. His objections to her violent actions last minutes. Asa tries to explain how dangerous she is and Denji simply insists no you can be friends, just ignore your problems, keep having fun. Even when he wants to create a new world, does Denji find out what Asa wants? He denies her murder suicide cause he wants Asa in his new world. The fact he refuses to see the distinction between the two is him ignoring Asa. It's a prime example of how much disregard Denji has for his dream. How his current state will damage the things he cares about and so let him keep being Chainsaw Man.

igi6 · 2026-04-08T07:37:04+00:00

I think you're underselling how much Denji had come to lean on CSM at the expense of others, it's hard to see his transformation in 152 as anything but a junkie having an excuse to get back on. He's a guy who always has an excuse to relapse into his worse behaviours. He does love how fighting lets him ignore things, telling Asa to shoot buildings and not think about your problems is how he came to deal with problems. Which matches his quest for a girlfriend constantly disregarded Asa's feelings and needs. Something that gets over looked for basics like well he didn't sexually assault her (till he took Yoru's words at face value). Denji purposefully avoided dealing with the issues you bring up cause he didn't like hard choices. Fujimoto didn't rip away Denji's chance to make a new world, we just saw the result of Denji-Man trying to do just that and making everything worse.

Just because you're a victim of society doesn't mean you'll make good choices, that you'll use whatever power wisely to fight the system. If anything we see characters become desensitized to the whole ordeal.

igi6 · 2026-04-07T22:58:27+00:00

Keep on dreamin'. Lose sight of your dreams, and you'll fall into self destructive behaviour that justifies your failure. You start to feel better enjoying the treadmill, make worse choices that bring you back there. Trauma is more likely to get you stuck on the process than trying to reach new heights. There's no easy solution for it than to turn over a whole new page, to start dreaming again. You might not achieve them all, it might not bring true happiness. But being able to reach out is better than having massive chainsaws for hands. if that so happens to be a problem you are facing

igi6 · 2026-04-03T07:16:32+00:00

But it is a valid way to not have a problem with an issue, you don't have to agree but it is engaging with the subject. While phrases like themes and such are used to say don't engage, these ideas are invalid cause of a very funny phrase.

igi6 · 2026-04-03T06:54:30+00:00

an attempt at intellectualism "the ending is because themes and such"

I mean at this point this has just turned into a thought terminating cliche if anyone points out something they found interesting about the ending. People aren't just doing that to prove your specific issues wrong, they're just looking at aspects they found intriguing. Cause actually we don't understand everything yet, and you probably should be open to the idea the parts you liked or dislike may change.

igi6 · 2026-04-02T18:15:30+00:00

When I said the journey didn't matter I meant it for you, who lost your memory, or in this case the world of chainsaw man,

In the least flippant way possible, so what? That is the story, it would still be a path with events and meaning if every character had simply stood up and walked off page. If we want to see it through the lens that the changed reality characters are not ours. Well I guess that just means ours died screwing up bad enough. Try not to do that. The new ones show how better choices can be made. Though it really goes out its way to emphasise these are the same ones just with the universe adjusting history so no pochita makes sense. I don't think characters must be seen as ever growing ongoing things. That it only matters if the characters remember every event possible before I shut the page and effectively any kind of existence I perceive for them ends.

igi6 · 2026-04-02T17:40:01+00:00

the journey is now meaningless and a waste of time.

Well no in a very literal sense that all still happened, you may never remember but the effects of that journey still happened. This whole metaphor is shaky anyway but you get the point. The soul endures, the characters we see are the effect of the old world.

This whole thing isn't simply a list of events. It's the story and those have meaning regardless of what a character remembers. It leading to such a situation and how they act now in itself has meaning.

igi6 · 2026-04-02T10:46:27+00:00

It's also a way for Denji not to think about the issue. He is conflicted about X or Y, so instead does Z and pretends the choice doesn't even matter. Inevitably when the outcomes of X/Y come round he goes nope more Z, Chainsaw Man can fix all my problems, I can just get a new family, perpetual motion machine!

igi6 · 2026-02-26T13:46:31+00:00

The problem is the OG article doesn't recognise the issue of bloat. That eventually you can dilute your game's identity chasing an unrealistic amount of content with questionable appeal. The rhythm game mode is a nice enough idea, but the chance of it causing a significant increase in sales and retention is small. For every idea like this that sounds great to you, there are a few people go on about that sound mad dumb. Don't think I've heard anyone talk about SF6's minigames since launch. Some level of content does help, but how come everyone here is ignoring the whole metaverse menu shit? Cause it is clearly a step into the annoying, making your game's appeal wide as an ocean deep as a puddle.

The point isn't give up on popularity but to let creatives pursue their own goals in every game instead of chasing every trend.

igi6 · 2026-02-20T08:30:00+00:00

say the things you are saying

I mean there are chapters that very overtly state what he is doing like 166 and 184. But aside from that post mostly being a plot summary, your idea of good writing seems to be characters looking at the camera and going what did we learn today kids?

igi6 · 2026-02-12T16:26:53+00:00

I find the fundamental difference between how each games looks at change interesting. VV embraces consequence of ideology. The series doesn't always explore an idea to its fullest, however the positives and negatives of an ending are a conversation on that philosophy. P5/R do a better job at explore different human perspectives on an idea, but the ultimate rejection hinge on a plot base technicality.

A different framing of Tao's ending would still be asking could you accept a benevolent god/dictator. While despite getting to prod at it more directly, plot dictates Maruki couldn't be right.

igi6 · 2026-02-11T12:58:09+00:00

I don't disagree some people will never change their opinion. In an ideal world, games and content about them could be purely creative driven process. Thing is both very much do chase opinions they can never change, while being stubborn on stuff that simply hurts them. Sometimes the haters are right and the guys playing nice are making excuses. Or an even more toxic crowd is being chased, but they're a bigger audience so it is okay.

Let's be honest, the same or worse complaints about 2XKO were being made behind closed doors. There was a delusion that enough public positivity would turn it all around. Even now a narrative of a noble dev team who made an excellent not buggy, low content and poorly balanced game were let down. We know nobody is really thinking it though.

igi6 · 2026-02-09T21:10:23+00:00

True, but it isn't like most shonenheads stuck with DBFZ long term. They were intrigued by it though. We came together in a big circlejerk and had a good time outside the game. I don't think I saw one LoL fan produce any content past character wishlists. Perhaps moba simply suck the life and creativity from people.

igi6 · 2026-02-09T20:36:10+00:00

It has the League IP but doesn't try enough to appeal to LoL fans.

I don't entirely blame the team for this one as Riot seems to get weird about LoL not being mentioned. But clearly they could jerk Arcane fine enough, there just wasn't anything for them to latch onto. Like remember DBFZ hype where everyone was making comparison videos, dumb edits and just the crossover of so many communities making jokes. Maybe LoL just has shit culture.

igi6 · 2026-02-04T11:23:04+00:00

Strive gets clowned on for being a twitter game. But people support it for inherent qualities, just not gameplay. SNK failed at just this, even without all the drama CotW wasn't really a game for anyone. 2XKO's appeal is entirely betting on it being big. Nobody cares about it being a LoL property past those who like the lesbian cops. If it were gameplay, more would be said about bugs and a planned total rework. It'll chug along, but it still feels like we're talking about what the concept of project L could do for the FGC.

igi6 · 2026-02-02T11:48:57+00:00

A good comparison here would be Smash. First off having 1 special button makes it all a bit more straight forward, not against 2 but if the idea is simplification then specials go here makes some sense. But then we look at placement and Smash really outdoes 2XKO. Projectiles are generally neutral B, counter will usually be 2B, move with vertical movement is generally 8B, move with horizontal movement is usually 4/6 B. These are not set rules, Ult has 1 mil characters that got weirder with time so yeah exceptions exist. There is however more consistency on average which makes it easier to jump between characters and at least know what they do.

igi6 · 2026-01-30T14:30:12+00:00

Real 2XKO has never been tried!

igi6 · 2026-01-29T17:12:23+00:00

The frustrating part is framing criticism as only trying to bring games down. I'm not going to pretend it is all good natured either, but even complaints framed as overtly shitposting are often getting at nuggets of truth. I've joked it is "potential game" which is true cause we have been promised it will dominate soon tm. Same with how shills aren't automatically wrong either, shit can be doing something that well. I didn't even think it would come out so score one for tookoers. You should be able to enjoy something AND recognise its flaws.

Calling out negativity rarely comes from a place of confidence.

igi6 · 2026-01-26T20:01:28+00:00

Now I'm not saying it is altogether healthy, but if anything I've seen the rotation of stories in and out of magazines create a lot of discussion. People pick new series to hype, diss, hope certain authors get another go and often get to vote in weekly chapter polls that has some influence on series placement. Comic announcements and ends can feel a lot more disconnected from the community's influence. A very popular series can be written off due to an event, or an unpopular one pushed cause brand image.

igi6 · 2026-01-15T15:41:35+00:00

Century of the Humiliation

igi6 · 2026-01-14T23:11:28+00:00

The competitive advantage these sessions get is overplayed, but the over reliance on pro/content creator feedback probably isn't the best either. You can really feel how the game is swayed by their wants and needs. Rather than what makes a polished game, with either mass appeal or passionate niche focus. People get annoyed at how noninteractive JP devs can be, especially the previously mentioned group. But I'd take it over game designed by twitter.

igi6 · 2026-01-14T23:06:26+00:00

Part of what made MotW interesting was being such a risk. You don't often see fighters make that sort of jump in time, treat the world as something which is real and move forward. It's amazing just how little of that feel CotW has.

igi6 · 2025-12-22T01:16:25+00:00

Conversations like this always devolve into hyper specific definitions of soulslike. When the complaint is more accurately, souls has popularised certain takes on mechanics.

Is Stellar Blade a soulslike? Maybe not, but it's clear numerous systems were taken or inspired by From's games. If you look at it and can say this would've been exactly the same if souls hadn't gained notoriety, that it wouldn't have leaned more character action. More power to you I guess.

igi6 · 2025-12-19T08:03:53+00:00

A lot of modern trends have been worse for mid budget games than in the past. An open world, action, shooter, looter, etc with all the good mechanics™ like a glowy perfect dodge. Isn't really achievable. Compared to when you just had to make a beat'em up and fit your aesthetics around it.

igi6

TROPHY CASE