Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories

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I am going to preface this review by saying this light novel is meant to be read after Chainsaw Man (up to the end of Vol. 11 anyway). Some of the stories spoil quite a bit of the series – including the ending!! – so wait to read this novel until you've finished the manga!

Secondly, I feel I should say that this light novel is best enjoyed by those who read Chainsaw Man and loved it. If you read Chainsaw Man and were neutral on it, or weren't the biggest fan of it, I would not recommend reading this light novel. It's nothing revolutionary and ... it's not gonna change your feelings on the manga.

Now with that in mind, and as a fan of Chainsaw Man myself, I'll give my thoughts on it to other fans.

This light novel is 4 short stories that feature different characters. The scenarios, apparently laid out by the author of the manga, are quite in line with the manga. None of them felt like they were out of place. Some of the stories were better than others, however it's nothing drastic. They all range somewhere from "average" to "pretty good". I don't think any of them are exceptional, but none of them are awful either so it evens out.

Each of the stories has a single full-page illustration to accompany it. Loved the art. However, I question why certain scenes were chosen to be depicted over others... I believe certain scenes would have made for a better illustration in some of the stories. Not a big deal but I did find one of them in particular disappointing. (Again, not the art itself! but rather the choice of scene.)

Now, my actual complaint with this light novel is that the prose is *very* short and direct. I can see the appeal of this style of writing but I found the detail was just too bare-bones at times. I found this was a lot more noticeable in certain stories compared to others. The lighter, "fluffier" stories worked with this style of writing a lot better than the stories focusing on heavier content did. I think if another handful of pages could have been added to those heavier stories it would have given them the opportunity to build up more impact. This is totally subjective though! You might prefer the quick pacing yourself but yeah, I did not.

Overall, in my opinion this light novel is good stories hampered by mediocre writing. I suppose that should warrant a lower score, but it was a silly, fun read and honestly I didn't expect much more than that. Just don't expect anything profound and you'll probably enjoy it too. (Think of it as official fanfiction.)

Chainsaw Man Buddy Stories, at first, seems like just a generic spin off, created to make extra cash with fanatic fans desperate to have everything Chainsaw Man, or Fujimoto related in their collection.

But it isn't.

The first and last story are the most akin to a spin off that you'll get from this piece of work (and they're still fun and interesting in their own way), because the rest is a literal expansion of the CSM universe in the form of a novel. Especially the second and third stories are peak character development and I wholeheartedly want to someday see these two animated somehow.

This volume, next ... to the manga itself, makes me genuinely believe that the CSM universe literally exists inside fujimoto's head in constant motion and that he can, anytime he writes something related to Chainsaw Man, just take a small part of it and put on the paper for us to appreciate.

That's why he's my favorite manga author. If you're a Chainsaw Man fan and, specially, a Fujimoto fan, I suggest you read this one. You won't regret it.

As a fan of Chainsaw Man this was a good read, get some more content with the characters we love and a couple of the moments are actually pretty good. As an actual book its not great, mostly just because the writing itself is just basic generic quality, its not bad but its just bland. The 4 mini stories that are in this LN are good and they all have uniqueness to them, no retreading old grounds and we get some cool insights that we didn't get to see about certain characters. In the end no one is reading this to find some peak writing, ... we're here for more more more Chainsaw Man and this delivers.