Chainsaw Man & Jujutsu Kaisen: Subverting the Shonen Archetype with Modern Existential Dread

1. The Collapse of the Shonen Hero: From Hokage Dreams to Simple Survival

For three decades, the golden formula of Weekly Shonen Jump was defined by the legendary triad: Friendship, Effort, Victory (友情・努力・勝利). Protagonists like Goku, Naruto Uzumaki, and Monkey D. Luffy possessed monumental, transcendent ambitions: becoming the strongest warrior in the cosmos, becoming the Hokage to earn the respect of their village, or claiming the One Piece to become the King of the Pirates. Their moral universe was inherently teleological: hard work and moral purity guaranteed eventual self-actualization.

Enter Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man) and Gege Akutami (Jujutsu Kaisen). Emerging in an era defined by economic stagnation, hyper-precarious labor, climate anxiety, and social atomization, Fujimoto and Akutami executed a brutal deconstruction of these cherished tropes. In Chainsaw Man, the protagonist Denji does not dream of saving the world. Sold into indentured servitude by the Yakuza to pay off his deceased father’s astronomical debt, Denji sells his kidney, his right eye, and one of his testicles before eating garbage out of dumpsters to stay alive alongside his Chainsaw Devil dog, Pochita.

Denji’s aspirations are heartbreakingly mundane and biological: eating bread with jam, sleeping in a clean bed with sheets, taking a hot bath, and touching a woman’s breast. Fujimoto strips away romantic superhero posturing to expose the visceral desperation of modern youth trapped in economic precarity. Denji does not fight Devils because he possesses an altruistic savior complex; he fights because Public Safety pays him, gives him food, and threatens to execute him as a Devil if he quits. He is the ultimate blue-collar gig-economy wage laborer.

2. Jujutsu Kaisen & The Banality of Cursed Human Mortality

While Fujimoto channels cinematic trash art and dark comedy, Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen confronts the agonizing arbitrary nature of human mortality. In JJK, “Cursed Energy” is not a mystical gift bestowed by gods; it is the toxic radioactive byproduct of human misery, jealousy, fear, and regret leaking out into the world.

Akutami rejects the traditional shonen safety net where named mentors and beloved comrades survive fatal injuries through the “power of friendship.” In the devastating Shibuya Incident arc, the narrative unleashes sheer, unadulterated existential terror. Characters are obliterated abruptly without speeches, tears, or dignified farewells. Nanami Kento, the fan-favorite ex-salaryman jujutsu sorcerer who left corporate banking because sorcery was slightly less pointless, dies with his body half-burned away while dreaming of sitting on a beach in Malaysia reading a book.

Yuji Itadori’s psychological journey is the systematic dismantling of his initial idealistic promise to his grandfather: to give people a “proper death.” When the ancient curse Ryomen Sukuna takes over Yuji’s body and incinerates thousands of innocent civilians in Shibuya with his Domain Expansion (Malevolent Shrine), Yuji does not unlock a hidden super-form to reverse time. He collapses onto his knees in the burning rubble, vomiting in agonizing guilt, clawing at the dirt, and realizing that he is not a chosen savior: he is a cog in a meat-grinder.

3. Makima & The Architecture of Totalitarian Grooming

The pinnacle of Fujimoto’s thematic deconstruction is Makima, the enigmatic leader of Public Safety Special Division 4. Unlike conventional anime villains who rely on monstrous physical appearances and maniacal laughter, Makima is a polished, softly-spoken bureaucratic civil servant dressed in a tailored corporate suit.

Fujimoto constructs Makima’s villainy as an explicit metaphor for psychological grooming and authoritarian control (she is revealed as the Control Devil). Knowing that Denji has been starved of parental love his entire life, Makima feeds him, hugs him, gives him a home, and introduces him to friends (Aki Hayakawa and Power)—only to deliberately orchestrate their horrific deaths one by one. In the terrifying Episode/Chapter climax, Makima laughs directly in Denji’s face, explaining her psychological trap: “I gave you happiness so that I could tear it all away, ensuring you could never live a normal life again.”

Denji’s victory over Makima is one of the most shocking and philosophically layered resolutions in manga history. Recognizing that Makima cannot be killed by violence (due to her contract with the Prime Minister of Japan redirecting all damage to Japanese citizens as illnesses and accidents), Denji defeats her through an act of literal culinary cannibalism. He slices her with a chainsaw made of blood, cooks her flesh into meals, and consumes her entirely—not out of vengeance or malice, but out of unconditional, tragic love: “I will become one with her and shoulder her sins forever.”

4. Studio MAPPA’s Cinematic Realism and Visual Language

Under director Ryu Nakayama (Chainsaw Man) and Sunghoo Park / Shota Goshozono (Jujutsu Kaisen), Studio MAPPA elevated these narratives using cinema-grade live-action staging. Instead of exaggerated anime comedic expressions, Chainsaw Man uses subtle rotoscoped micro-acting: the awkward way Denji ties his shoelaces, the sound of oil sizzling in a morning frying pan, and the lingering, quiet stares between alienated youths.

By blending gory splatterpunk horror with arthouse cinematic framing, MAPPA and these visionary authors created works that capture the true existential climate of the 2020s: noisy, chaotic, traumatizing, yet fiercely determined to carve out a sliver of warmth in a burning world.