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Back in June 2014, manga enthusiasts were treated to a fresh and intriguing one-shot story titled Love is Blind, featured in Jump SQ magazine. At first glance, the narrative seemed whimsically bizarre, centering on a high school student determined to confess his affection to his crush, undeterred by potential obstacles like theft, assault, or even alien abduction. Despite its seemingly outrageous premise, the story delved into the depths of its characters and themes, offering a unique charm that resonated with readers.
Love is Blind marked the debut of Tatsuki Fujimoto, who would later rise to prominence as one of the most celebrated shonen manga creators of the past decade. Fujimoto’s name might be familiar to many due to his acclaimed work Chainsaw Man, which made waves when its Reze Arc adaptation topped the US box office last year. Yet, Chainsaw Man is just the latest addition to Fujimoto’s impressive repertoire. His earlier works, like Fire Punch and Look Back, showcase his cinematic flair for paneling and his knack for crafting post-modern, relatable stories, solidifying his status as a unique voice in manga.
Before the weekly serialization of Chainsaw Man in Shonen Jump, Fujimoto honed his craft through a series of compelling one-shots that showcased his distinctive perspective. These early works, now available in the collection Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26, reveal the evolution of a young artist gradually finding his footing in the manga world. While the quality of these stories varied, Fujimoto’s unmistakable vision and creative voice consistently stood out, marking him as a notable talent in the industry.
Tatsuki Fujimoto is The Undisputed King of Manga One-Shots
Before Fujimoto was serializing Chainsaw Man weekly in Shonen Jump, he got his start crafting interesting one-shots that highlighted his unique perspective. Now compiled in the excellent collection Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26, Fujimoto’s early one-shots paint a fascinating portrait of a young artist who is slowly coming into his own as a great mangaka. Some of his ideas were better than others, but Fujimoto’s distinctive vision and voice always shine through in all those early stories.
Even after Fujimoto started serializing Chainsaw Man, his love for crafting one-shots never vanished. It’s likely his infamous appreciation for cinema that continued his drive to keep writing one-shot manga stories in the interim between the end of Chainsaw Man Part 1 and the start of Part 2. In particular, Fujimoto would pen what are arguably two of his greatest works during that period: Look Back and Goodbye, Eri.
Now adapted into both an award-winning anime film and an upcoming live action movie by acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, Look Back is the ultimate expression of Fujimoto’s versatility as a mangaka. After having spent two years drawing an upbeat, bloody shonen battle manga full of dark storylines and juvenile humor, Fujimoto’s ability to completely pivot into the heartfelt drama of Look Back is a testament to his skill as a writer.
Look Back is an homage to the artists. It’s a coming of age story about two girls whose rivalry as young mangaka leads them to become the best of friends. Look Back is the objective proof that there’s more to Fujimoto than just ridiculous ideas and bloody action. That’s also exactly why his next one-shot in the lead-up to Chainsaw Man Part 2’s release, Goodbye, Eri, would end up being another profound feat of fiction.
Goodbye, Eri is like the perfect middle ground between the absurdity of Chainsaw Man and the reserved drama of Look Back. Telling the story of a boy named Yuta, who is tasked by his mother to record the final moments of her life, Goodbye, Eri, is the kind of emotional, life-changing story that’s more normally seen in a prestigious film than it would be in a manga. And that’s without even mentioning the impressive approach to paneling and art that Fujimoto uses to convey the ‘film-maker’ concept, which has to be seen to be appreciated.
Fujimoto’s Fire Punch is an Underrated Modern Manga Classic
Even as a one-shot writer, Fujimoto was already great, but his two longer series are acclaimed manga classics. Fujimoto’s first serialized manga, Fire Punch, is also easily his most divisive work. Published on Shonen Jump+ online across 83 chapters from 2016-2018, Fire Punch is what happens when Fujimoto doesn’t hold back or reign in his most outlandish ideas, for better or worse.
Fire Punch tells the story of the aptly named “Agni”, who lives an agonizing existence as a man who is eternally burnt by fire with no hope of the flame going out. Unfortunately, because his power of regeneration makes him effectively immortal, Agni has to learn to live with the constant pain, stumbling through life for long enough to see himself become both a hero and a villain. That moral ambiguity is one of the most powerful themes of Fire Punch, allowing it to tell a shockingly human story despite its supernatural concept.
While technically a shonen manga due to it being published by Shonen Jump, fans often classify Fire Punch as seinen series due to the matte themes it explores and the inherent darkness of the events that transpire. Its disturbing imagery can definitely be a lot to handle even for teenagers, making its release on Shonen Jump+ instead of the main Shonen Jump app an understandable decision on the editorial staff’s part.
Hate It or Love It, Chainsaw Man is One of the Greatest Shonen Manga Ever Written
Following the bizarre and boundary-pushing story that was Fire Punch, it makes perfect sense that a series about a boy who sprouts chainsaws from his limbs would represent Fujimoto’s greatest attempt at being commercially accessible. First serialized in Shonen Jump in December 2018, Chainsaw Man is easily one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful new-gen shonen series in recent years.
The story of Denji, a young man who makes a contract with the Chainsaw Devil to become “Chainsaw Man,” became such an instant hit that its anime adaptation was announced almost exactly two years to the day of when the series was first serialized. And it goes without saying that the series has only gotten more and more popular over time. Just last year, Chainsaw Man’s film debut, Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc, shocked the world when it debuted 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and jumped to the top of the charts to hit #1 at the US box office.
Unlike Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, whose record-breaking success last year was a result of the hype it built up over the course of multiple seasons, Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc’s success was born purely due to the quality of MAPPA’s adaptation and the powerful storytelling in the source material. Part of what made Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc so appealing is that its character-driven storytelling and romance are just as compelling as any drama out there, despite it still being a shonen battle anime (and a particularly gory one, at that). That philosophy holds true for the entire series, not just the Reze Arc.
Chainsaw Man is a brutally honest story about finding happiness in a world full of devils, and finding love among people who only want to steal your heart. Fujimoto presents Denji as something of a blank slate in modern society, because he grew up in abject poverty without any parental guidance. As a result, Denji has to learn practically everything from scratch, and that gives the reader a unique perspective through which they can potentially reflect on the world at large.
Chainsaw Man Part 1 concluded as a universally beloved masterpiece of modern manga, and the anime is only just now headed into its most popular arcs by way of the upcoming International Assassin Arc adaptation in Season 2. While Part 2 of the manga has seen more criticism, it’s highly likely that readers will look back on CSM’s second half as a unique masterpiece of its own. The tonal shift, slower pacing and complete change in art style midway through definitely caught fans by surprise, but those are also facets of the series that — when taking a look back (pun intended) at Fujimoto’s history as a writer — highlight Fujimoto’s unique versatility.
From Spy X Family to Dandadan, Fujimoto Has Influenced Greatness
No matter what’s to come for Chainsaw Man Part 2 and beyond, Tatsuki Fujimoto has already made an undeniable mark on shonen manga history forever. The sheer extent of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s influence can probably best be seen through the assistants who worked on Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man with him, many of whom have gone on to create timeless classic manga series of their own.
Infamously, Hell’s Paradise author Yukinobu Tatsu, Dandadan author Yuji Kaku and Spy X Family author Tatsuya Endo, were all assistants to Fujimoto before serializing their own iconic manga opuses.
However, contrary to popular belief, Fujimoto’s relationship with his assistants wasn’t as a teacher to them as much as it was as a mutual student and peer. Most of the assistants who worked on Fire Punch and early Chainsaw Man with Fujimoto were actually more established mangaka who had been in the industry even longer than Fujimoto had. That’s particularly the case with Spy X Family author Tatsuya Endo, who had serialized multiple series before working with Fujimoto on the first few chapters of Fire Punch.
In a joint interview with Yukinobu Tatsu, Fujimoto’s long-time editor, Shihei Lin, explained: “[Fire Punch] was Tatsuki Fujimoto’s first series, so Tatsu and Kaku, who had more experience, taught him many things.” He continued, “For me, it’s this peer relationship, where they even became friends, that allowed each of them to reveal their best by drawing from each other what they might have lacked.” At least some of Fujimoto’s success can be attributed to the fact that he was constantly surrounded by so many other great artists.
This also helps explain why each of these great artists went on to become the leading taste-makers of the shonen genre. Still, it’s no coincidence that all those great mangaka came into their own after working with the budding talent that was Tatsuki Fujimoto, whose influence can definitely be seen in their works.
Tatsuki Fujimoto has not only created multiple of the greatest manga of all time, but also influenced many of the greatest modern shonen series by his proximity to those equally great artists. There is no debating that the modern manga and anime industry would simply not exist in the way it does without him. At this point, it’d be hard to argue that Fujimoto isn’t one of the greatest shonen mangaka of all time, because he’s definitely the absolute best of his generation.
Chainsaw Man’s first season is available to watch on Crunchyroll, and Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc was recently announced for a Spring 2026 release on Crunchyroll. The new film is already available to purchase on digital stores.
- Created by
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Tatsuki Fujimoto
- First Episode Air Date
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October 12, 2022
- Cast
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Kikunosuke Toya, Tomori Kusunoki, Shogo Sakata, Fairouz Ai, Mariya Ise, Karin Takahashi, Taku Yashiro, Kenjiro Tsuda, Shiori Izawa