Tatsuki Fujimoto has a humorous goal for Chainsaw Man fans in mind when he’s working on the series.
On Oct. 18, Shonen Jump released “The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga,” which includes commentary from various mangaka of popular series. Fujimoto, the creator of the acclaimed series Chainsaw Man, gave a cheeky response to one of the questions. When asked, “What do you bear in mind when creating manga (e.g., personal themes and throughlines)?” Fujimoto replied, “I try to create scenes that readers will remember until the day they gasp their dying breaths!”
Considering how successful Chainsaw Man is as well as how his visceral artwork complements the dark storytelling, he’s definitely achieved his goal — there are several scenes in the manga that fans will never forget and take to their graves. While many other creators provided thought-provoking and helpful advice to aspiring manga artists and writers, most of Fujimoto’s answers were more tongue-in-cheek, such as when he said that his approach to ensuring manga was readable was by keeping “the text and explanations to a minimum.” He did offer some helpful advice to authors, and perhaps this serves as a warning to his fans as well: “Don’t fall too in love with anything you do. Kill your darlings.”
The guidebook contained interviews from a total of 16 creators, including Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Tite Kubo (One Piece), Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), Demizu Posuka and Kaiu Shirai (The Promised Neverland), Koyoharu Gotouge (Demon Slayer), Akutami Gege (Jujutsu Kaisen), Shun Saeki and Yuto Tsukada (Food Wars!), Kenta Shinohara (Witch Watch), Hideaki Sorachi (Gintama), Ryu Tamura (Beelzebub), Taishi Tsutsui (We Never Learn!), Yusei Matsui (Assassination Classroom) and Kentaro Yabuki (Ayakashi Triangle). Aside from the interviews, the book also holds tips for up-and-coming creators, such as where to begin.
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Origin Story
Fujimoto’s mangaka career began with a series of one-shots. His first one-shot, There Were Two Chickens in the Garden, was nominated for the Jump SQ Monthly Award in 2011. His first major serialized work was a dystopian thriller called Fire Punch which ran from 2016 to 2018. After working on two more one-shots, Fujimoto began working on Chainsaw Man, which became a hit. The dark fantasy/comedy series won several awards including Best Shōnen Manga at the Shogakukan Manga Awards and Best Manga at the Harvey Awards for 2021 and 2022. The story follows Denji, a destitute young man, who lives in a shack with his devil-dog, Pochita. After the yakuza kill Denji and Pochita, the latter sacrifices himself to save his friend in the hopes that he can witness Denji’s dreams come true. When Denji comes back to life, he is no longer the same person anymore — in fact, he’s not even human: Denji is now the ruthless and bloodthirsty Chainsaw Man.
“The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga” is available in paperback in local bookstores and digitally on various platforms like Kindle, Nook, Google Play and iBooks.
Source: Viz Media
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