Chainsaw Man is what happens when a manga author refuses to give the audience what it wants and is right to. Tatsuki Fujimoto's series has the structure of a shonen battle manga and the sensibility of a grubby crime film, and it kills characters with no ceremony whatsoever.

Denji is one of the least aspirational protagonists in the genre. He starts in crippling debt, wants bread and a girlfriend, and becomes a devil hunter because the job comes with meals. His ambitions stay small even after he can turn his arms into chainsaws.

The devil system is the best idea in it. Devils draw power from what people fear, so the Gun Devil is apocalyptically strong and the Tomato Devil is not. That single rule generates both the comedy and the horror.

Pochita, the chainsaw dog, does more emotional work in silence than most casts manage with dialogue.

This collection covers Denji and Pochita.