Would you classify "Chainsaw Man" as a battle shounen?
| Personally, I lean towards no. They do fight in this series, but I usually feel like it's not fighting for fighting's sake the way I've seen it be the case in other shounen series that'd be categorized as battle shounen. Plus, CSM is so subversive that I don't think it can be just pigeon-holed as such although it does fit under the umbrella, but especially with part 2 this series has become more than that. At the end of the day, I feel like I know what the majority answer would be, but am curious about who else also feels differently. |
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| Chainsaw Man strikes me more as a drama with action elements |
"To Infinity and Beyond."  |
| Hmm, that's a good question. I'm not sure if there is a consensus definition for what a battle shounen is. A lot of people seem to consider battle shounen to be anime/manga that's aimed at teenage boys where the focus is on the main character's journey as well as the action, fights, and obstacles along the way. They also tend to have things like power systems, power of friendship, training, and the main character aiming to be the best this and that, like wanting to be the hokage, pirate king, etc. I'm up-to-date with the CSM manga, and to me, it comes across as mainly a drama above all else, with mystery as probably its secondary genre. Action, supernatural, and suspense are some of its other genres, and there's some romance too. I think I would still classify it as a battle shounen, but I would consider it to be a very unconventional kind of battle shounen. It's like a shounen drama mystery with deeper themes and ideas than the usual battle shounen. |
| the manga doesn't feel like battle shounen manga and the unusual panneling contributes to that. and the mature aspects of the story are really apparent. tatsuki fujimoto is insane |
| It definetly is^^ The fact that "they're not fighting for fightings sake" is irrelevant. It's a big part of it's appeal. Conflict IS solved via battle. It's ultimatly what is the main focus of the Show. It's tailored to a young, male target group (generally speaking) and they want some cool, action fighting scenes. Im not saying it isn't incredibly layered with other, sometimes serious - sometimes emotional - sometimes hilarious, stuff. It is. That's what makes it good. It's not as one dimensional, as other Shonen Series. But it is definetly a Battle-Shonen in the traditional sense |
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| I personally think that it's a satirical take on the genre. Similar to what The Boys is for superhero shows and movies. It has elements of a battle shonen but it plays around with those elements more rather than following them directly. So in my opinion I would not consider it a battle shonen but a satire of the genre. |
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| Psychological battle shounen |
| I love how it's a near perfect 50:50 split between the votes |
 "To the boy who once sought freedom, goodbye." 🕊️ |
| Yes, of course it is, how is this a question? |
Reply to keinboesewicht
there isnt even a real definition of battle shounen
| @keinboesewicht Hence why I phrased the questions the way I did. It really depends on one's own definition of what battle shounen is. |
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The_Weekly_Jay said: Chainsaw Man strikes me more as a drama with action elements King_KK said: I personally think that it's a satirical take on the genre. Similar to what The Boys is for superhero shows and movies. It has elements of a battle shonen but it plays around with those elements more rather than following them directly. So in my opinion I would not consider it a battle shonen but a satire of the genre. Very good ways of putting it. I was trying to put my finger on how I would describe CSM and would agree that it comes across as more of these descriptions than just battle shounen. |
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Reply to iLuvCoffee1
I love how it's a near perfect 50:50 split between the votes
| @iLuvCoffee1 I thought I was going to be in the minority from the get go. I still suspect that at some point it's not going to be such a close 50/50 and still think more people would disagree with CSM not being a battle shounen, but I was not expecting the votes to stay so close - especially for this long. |
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Reply to Merve2Love
It definetly is^^
The fact that "they're not fighting for fightings sake" is irrelevant.
It's a big part of it's appeal. Conflict IS solved via battle. It's ultimatly what is the main focus of the Show. It's tailored to a young, male target group (generally speaking) and they want some cool, action fighting scenes.
Im not saying it isn't incredibly layered with other, sometimes serious - sometimes emotional - sometimes hilarious, stuff. It is. That's what makes it good. It's not as one dimensional, as other Shonen Series. But it is definetly a Battle-Shonen in the traditional sense
The fact that "they're not fighting for fightings sake" is irrelevant.
It's a big part of it's appeal. Conflict IS solved via battle. It's ultimatly what is the main focus of the Show. It's tailored to a young, male target group (generally speaking) and they want some cool, action fighting scenes.
Im not saying it isn't incredibly layered with other, sometimes serious - sometimes emotional - sometimes hilarious, stuff. It is. That's what makes it good. It's not as one dimensional, as other Shonen Series. But it is definetly a Battle-Shonen in the traditional sense
Merve2Love said: The fact that "they're not fighting for fightings sake" is irrelevant. It's a big part of it's appeal. Conflict IS solved via battle. It's ultimatly what is the main focus of the Show. It's tailored to a young, male target group (generally speaking) and they want some cool, action fighting scenes. What I meant by "it's not fighting for fighting's sake" is that it's not about the spectacle of battle in CSM. Especially not to the degree in other shounen series where you spend stretches of time with characters fighting, and the appeal is in watching the fight and seeing how characters that have been set up with certain skillsets would do against each other. There's enough of that in CSM where some people will think it is a battle shounen, but also not enough where there's people like me who would hesitate to think the same. Of course in the devil world that the story takes place in, it's a given that there'll be fighting and some of those fights will get the spotlight, but I always find that it's so motivated by the narrative and if it's not going to do much more than being a fight, then Fujimoto's not going to care about cutting it out. To list off some examples, it's why we don't see an entire episode dedicated to Denji fighting the Eternity Devil or get an arc about Asa becoming a badass devil hunter and why the way Denji ultimately is able to take Makima down in the end is not through battle. |
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Zar20 said: People compare the two all the time when they're completely different. JJk is more modern battle shounen with a little more flare, depth, but still about the big action fight scenes (typical shounen). Csm is more character focus and has a deeper meaning in its story AkiraMiyazaki17 said: It’s shounen yes, and there are battles, but my associations with the subgenre (if you can call it that) involve long fights with lots of internal monologuing and superpower reveals, which I don’t think is present enough in Chainsaw Man to define it as such. Also, the drama is and has always been much more of a selling point, unlike something like Jujutsu Kaisen, which I think sells itself much more so on the action. I could not imagine "Chainsaw Man" pulling a Shibuya arc or a Culling Game arc lol There's a reason why it's more up my alley than JJK. I originally didn't mention any names, but yeah, JJK is one of those series that I would say is a battle shounen and CSM is just not that at all to me (for the reasons you both mentioned). |
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| Fights are so short and simple so I go with no |
| "Unlike most battle shonen manga this one is about the characters" Same energy as "Unlike most mecha anime this one is about the characters" |
| there are battles in a shonen published manga so battle shonen it is lol |
| Part 1 felt like a battle shounen with lots of gore and some psychological elements; Part 2 felt as slice of life shounen with action, at least before I dropped it, kekw. |
| The only reason why Part 2 barely has any fights is that they're actually hard to draw |
Reply to RippleLover
We're literally doing the "unlike other mecha anime, this one is about the characters" nonsense but with shonen now?
| @RippleLover My thoughts exactly. It's funny, because most of times I see such takes on anime, it usually is just coping mixed with wishful thinking. As if people writing it wanted their favorite cartoon to be perceived as something different than it actually is. It's not bad when mecha show is mecha. It's not bad when a shounen series fits tropes and other stuff dedicated to shounen demographics. It is actually good. No need to desperately try to make various stories look like something they have never even aspired to be. |
Reply to Zar20
Csm is barely shounen to begin with. Csm is definitely not a battle shounen. It has fights, sure, but the show isn't about fighting and doesn't really have power scaling and all that. I think that's why it's not as popular as JJk for an example. People compare the two all the time when they're completely different. JJk is more modern battle shounen with a little more flare, depth, but still about the big action fight scenes (typical shounen). Csm is more character focus and has a deeper meaning in its story, and I hope the people who only have watched it or have missed the message in the story figure that out.
| @Zar20 >"NO IT ISN'T A BATTLE SHONEN BECAUSE IT HAS CHARACTERS AND THEMES" Fujimoto cultists are something else I swaer |
| its an unorthodox one because its more character driven but in true battle shounen fashion, there are battles in the end. glad it's just not all just fights like jjk though, you even have seinens which feel more battle shounen than csm, like kingdom so i'm glad how csm turned out. tldr; it may not be a generic one, but it is a battle shounen. |
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| It's amusing how the voting for this stopped exactly at a 50/50 split, so I'm bringing this back to see how the results could possibly change. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's this divisive, but agree with everyone who said that it isn't a battle shounen. |
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| This is like when people will call Hunter x Hunter a seinen. |
| part 1 is an unorthodox battle shonen part 2 isnt a battle shonen shrimple |
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