Given how wild and unpredictable Chainsaw Man's Denji is, it makes sense that his creator is just as, if not more, unhinged.

According to Anime Senpai, the official English edition of Tatsuki Fujimoto's second one-shot collection, Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 22-26, has been released, and Fujimoto decided to use it as a makeshift confessional to confess his greatest and worst sin. Fujimoto recalls that he and his fiancée shared a small apartment in Yamagata and cared for a pet Japanese rice fish. The fish died during the summer while they were together. Fujimoto's fiancée wanted to bury their beloved pet and asked him to do it. However, things did not go as planned.

 

Fujimoto's Decision Was Influenced by His Love for His Fish

Fujimoto, to his credit, attempted to bury the poor fish behind a large tree, but failed because "the ground was too hard, my hands got all dirty, and I had no hole to show for my effort." He had no choice but to leave it exposed. As fans witnessed in Chainsaw Man, love causes individuals to do inexplicable things, and "love for that pet fish welled within me for the first time," prompting him to eat the fish. After all, the most profound form of love is when two people become one.

Fujimoto's act of 'love' had not gone unnoticed. When his girlfriend asked about his upset stomach, Fujimoto lied, admitting this was one of the few times he had not been caught in his lie. At the end of his comments, the mangaka confessed he felt much more guilty for lying to his girlfriend than for eating their fish because of priorities.

 

While fans should take Fujimoto's statements with a grain of salt, his dry sense of humour has become one of his writing style and personality traits. For example, he has spent the last few years convincing his followers and supporters that he has a younger sister named Koharu Nagayama, who routinely updates "her" Twitter account with information such as what she ate that day. Chainsaw Man, his most popular work, has received accolades for its dark comedy, storyline, and unique shonen-type characters. The manga first appeared in Weekly Shnen Jump in December 2018 and will be transferred to Shnen Jump+ in July 2022.

Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 22-26 is available via MangaMonster.

Source: Anime Senpai, via Reddit