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With the arrival of its anime adaptation earlier this week, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man series has become one of the most popular of the season. While the series’ original manga format has slowly made a name for itself since its initial serialization, the anime adaptation’s arrival has made the series almost a household name.
As a result, many fans of the Chainsaw Man series are looking into other works of Fujimoto’s, curious to see what else he’s written and illustrated before his current series. While there is only one other serialized work, a plethora of one-shots awaits any who wants to explore Fujimoto’s beginnings as a mangaka.
Here are three hidden manga gems from Chainsaw Man’s creator Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Fujimoto’s past provides clear connections to Chainsaw Man as fans know it
1) Fire Punch
Fire Punch is Fujimoto’s first serialized work, which he started and completed before publishing the very first issue of Chainsaw Man. The series takes place on an Earth that has become frozen and barren due to someone called the Ice Witch. The Ice Witch is one of the few who possess special abilities called “blessings.”
Protagonist Agni is a boy “blessed” with regenerative powers, living in a village with his sister, Luna, and providing for the village elders by feeding them meat from Agni’s severed arms. A blessed named Doma visits the village one day, initially offering to take Agni away before realizing and being disgusted by their practice of cannibalism.
Thus, he uses his inextinguishable flames to immolate the inhabitants, including Agni and his sister, who resultantly dies due to her slower regeneration. However, she tells Agni to “live” before succumbing to the pain, which he does, constantly on fire, and breaking down and regenerating as he searches for Doma to exact his revenge.
The series is incredibly well-received by its small audience, with many readers retroactively discovering the series thanks to Chainsaw Man’s popularity. The series’ writing, unflinching approach to violence and gore, and overall themes and messages receive heavy praise from critics and fans alike. Many who read this manga often express enjoying it as much, if not more than Chainsaw Man.
2) Goodbye, Eri
Goodbye, Eri is the most recent one-shot from Fujimoto, also being one of his most popular works. This is likely thanks to its release well after the first part of Chainsaw Man ended, coming out just months before the second part’s premiere. Some of the most praised aspects are the overall story, characters, and the paneling, which is incredibly beautiful and a piece of art in itself.
The series follows protagonist Yuta Ito, who, upon receiving a smartphone for his birthday, was asked by his terminally ill mother to film her and make a movie about her death if she dies. After premiering the movie at his school following her death, Yuta is essentially laughed out of the school, deciding to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of his mother’s hospital.
However, a girl named Eri, who was present at the showing, stops him, revealing she loved his movie while urging him to make another one. The two work together to produce the movie, which is filmed in a semi-documentary style about the two of them, revolving around the idea of Eri being a vampire who is finally dying.
As the two make the movie, they grow closer until real-life tragedy strikes the pair during the final stages of their film. Along the way, readers learn more about Yuta’s childhood and past, as well as why his mother requested her final months to be filmed. Fans praise the story amidst nearly every other aspect of the manga, calling it one of the best one-shot plots in recent memory.
3) Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man
For those looking to get the best idea of what Fujimoto’s work was like before his current series, Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man is one of the best anthology collections. It has eight of the earliest one-shot stories written by Fujimoto before starting his currently serialized project. The full list of included one-shots is as follows:
- There Were Two Chickens in the Garden
- Sasaki Has Stopped the Bullet
- Love is Blind
- Shikaku
- Siren Rhapsody
- “When I Woke Up I Had Become a Girl” Disease
- Nayuta of the Prophecy
- Little Sister’s Elder Sister
While each of these stories saw varying receptions from fans and critics alike, the compilation volume was well-received by fans. Many praise Shueisha’s decision to offer a compiled volume of Fujimoto’s previous works, which were tough, if not impossible, to find in the print format prior to the collection’s release.
Most of these series garnered fantastic praises from his fans, particularly in the case of Sasaki Has Stopped the Bullet and Nayuta of the Prophecy. The latter has drawn particular interest from fans following Chainsaw Man’s release, thanks to the appearance of a character named Nayuta towards the end of the first part.
