17-21: Fujimoto Tatsuki Tanpenshuu
Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 17–21

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At this point in time, Fujimoto is defined by his already released works (Chainsaw Man, Fire Punch and the one-shots), but it’s good to see how he was before that!

This volume contains a collection of one-shots before he became famous. You can see that even now, he uses the same humour and style. Which is a good thing, because even when he became famous he staked true to his style.

If you’ve already read his other series and one-shots, you might be surprised to find some call-backs to these one-shots here in terms of character names, designs or concepts.

I’d describe this a great anthology of stories ... that manages to take a glimpse into Fujimoto’s mind before he became famous.

High art this is not, but if you care about Fujiyama's art and how he got to where he is now, this collection provides some valuable insight. I personally love to witness artist journeys and seeing the progress they make in their craft over the years, so this review is more about what these four stories are when compared to his later work, rather than an unbiased review of them and them only.

1. Niwa ni wa Niwa Niwatori ga Ita.

This is the most "I'm a 17 year old boy and this is the coolest idea for a comic ever" manga and I love it so ... much for it. Don't get me wrong, the story isn't anything special, there's barely any character in these characters, the art's wonky and the panels are all shaped like boring blocks. This is a very mid one-shot that didn't win a manga competition it was submitted for and to no one's surprise, but you can still see Fujimoto's unique tastes peek through the jank. Niwa attempts to tell a serious and emotional (? potentially?) story via humorous and absurd characters, but it doesn't really work here. A lot of the jokes and facial expressions here give off a very "random XD" vibe, and, therefore, don't really land - I'm not sure if they just aged poorly or if they had never worked to begin with. However, it's cool to see that this was his chosen storytelling style from the start and he had gotten so much better at it.

2. Sasaki Stopped a Bullet

It is honestly insane just how much better this is when compared to the previous work. First of all, the artstyle now looks much closer to what we now know as Fujimoto's signature one, and it's very clear that a lot of effort went in to perfecting the visual part of his works. The paneling is also much more interesting and dynamic, with some very lovely choices here and there. Visually, this already looks like s "serious work" when compared to Niwa's "amateur look". And when it comes to the story, what came into my mind somewhere around the first ten pages was "this was inspired by Asano Inio (the creator of Oyasumi Punpun), wasn't it?". Now, I can't confirm nor deny that that is the case, but the surrealism combined with weird sexual overtones combined with religious cosmic powers felt like something out of Nijigahara Holograph. I personally was not a fan, I think Fujimoto handles all these themes in a much more interesting and unique to him way in his later works, but for what it's worth, this is a very interesting second project.

3. Love is Blind

Finally, a oneshot I wholeheartedly LOVED! The humor was amazing in its absurdity and the characters were surprisingly adorable and heartfelt. The facial expressions got much better at conveying emotion, the protag's body language was top notch and the speech bubbles had a lot of character to them. The presentation still isn't perfect - the hatching's kinda wonky - but finished product as a whole reads as very good to me. I would totally be down to read 100 chapters worth of a romcom like this one.

4. Shikaku

Who would've thought that out of the first four works Fujimoto has created, two of them would be romance? And both painfully sweet too, I want a proper Fujimoto romance manga now lol. The artstyle got a bit wonkier and messier than it was before - if it's because he was in a hurry or if it's growing pains I can't say. It's harder to read than the two previous oneshots, but in exchange it looks much closer in artsyle to what Fujimoto's works usually look like. This work continues with the "real life in the real world until some crazy insane bullshit starts to happen" theme established by the previous to works, which I love - feels very on brand. Other than that, I don't have much to say - it's just a sweet little romance thing, a bit less interesting than the previous one but still plenty cute.

And that was Fujimoto, aged 17 to 21! In that time he's established the general aesthetic his storylines follow and developed his own unique brand of humor. Nothing so far has been truly "great" (except for maybe Love is Blind, but I might be biased), but I really feel like we're getting there!

before this i read a lil american comics & before that years ago i had skimmed a bit of the MHA manga after watching the show, when i decided to rly commit to reading manga recently i started by reading a couple my hero volumes from the top since it was easy, but after that this is the first manga i ever started & completed. i chose it bc i wanted to check out chainsaw man & realized it would be cool if i checked out tatsuki fujimotos lil back catalogue, i realized the importance of wanting to understand a specific artist's style & purpose, ... i would do it in any other artform so why wouldn’t i do it for manga yknow? & from the top i do rly appreciate this cool format of artist origin one shot collections, or at least how these specific stories were readily presented, i guess it would just be like an anthology right? but yea at least for beginners of reading a big name artist it’s def a nice convenient way to get a real sample platter to get to know a mangaka by having them so easily accessible & in order from the beginning, & yea this first volume decent, it's cool i mean there were some cool kind of sharply cutting writing in the stories & i like the sharp style of violence he uses also, how its portrayed almost instant & nonchalantly at times but at the same time so extremely violent lol. the chicken story prob my most memorable, i kept thinking about it randomly after reading this volume, on second read i can confirm that i do like that story even if the art is kinda ass a lot of times in it lol. but i mean he was a kid making it so it's not a big deal. love is blind was rly funny, on second read it's rly confirming that the main character reminds me of iida from MHA with the funny seriousness. but i like that one too it's a feel good funny one. other than that shikaku had a couple cool drawings, but it felt kinda basic & sasaki stopped a bullet was my least fav, it's not that terrible or anything, it's just messy i feel & the message just doesn't quite come through that well by the end.

it's a weird position reading these bc its simultaneously my first experience with one shots/short stories, which i’m loving, prob just the satisfaction of being able to finish something right away creates an environment of no pressure & a guranteed relief, either a relief of closure/completion, or a relief of simply being able to move on to the next story, but i’m trying to balance that with also seeing fujimoto for the first time & i’m trying to seperate the two, but hopefully if i end up liking chainsaw man or anything by him in general, this will all feel cool that i was able to read this