Nov 11, 2023
If you've spent any time on the internet at all, you've probably brushed shoulders with the "blue curtains" meme, a notorious anti-intellectual punchline which attempts to dissuade against any sort of interpretation or analysis of art whatsoever. Obnoxious as it may be, it's a sentiment that's usually shared by people outside of art or academic spheres, so it's not entirely surprising if someone who doesn't read that often or finds art galleries pointless shares such a sentiment.
What is surprising however, is when a genuinely talented and creative mangaka echoes this vapid viewpoint.
In this one-shot, Fujimoto Tatsuki, best known for his current work on the
...
Shonen series Chainsaw Man, stamps his feet and mewls out his disdain for anyone who dares interpret his work in any way outside of what he originally intended. The hamfisted conceit of the one-shot really sells this open contempt, with the main character transparently being a stand-in for Fujimoto himself, and the song his ongoing work Chainsaw Man.
Just to absolutely hammer the point home, Fujimoto even has one of the many speculators of the nameless protagonist's work infer that it's a critique of American gun culture, riffing on the real life parallels that people have drawn with Chainsaw Man's Gun Devil character, as though that's somehow an outrageous notion when we're living in the highest recorded point of gun violence in history (worldwide, not just in the U.S.).
Fujimoto's message is clear, from the words of the protagonist, to the paper-thin simile that encompasses the entire one-shot; don't think about my work. Don't draw on your own life experiences, emotions, worldview or what's happening in the world. The only meaning behind my work is the meaning I give it.
The death of the artist is a huge mental obstacle every creator will have to overcome at some point, and understandably so; it's intimidating, knowing that someone will draw a completely different meaning out of your work, even if it's deeply personal and drawn from your own experiences. But that's part of the process. If your work doesn't convey that message to someone, then that's that. If anything, most find it quite beautiful that one singular work can mean so many different things to so many different, varied people from various walks of life, but Fujimoto has nothing but scorn for this notion. I was completely dumbfounded, in disbelief that this came from the pen of the same mangaka who brought us Sayonara Eri, a powerful work of art that left itself open to be read any way the reader wished.
As someone who loves art, both creating and absorbing, I was genuinely annoyed reading this, and baffled as to how an artist could take such a philistine approach to people reading their work, and I dread to imagine how Fujimoto's work is going to look from here on out if he continues to write opaque manga that leaves no room for personal inference. My sole reason for not ranking it 1 star is thanks to Oto Toda's solid artwork, who presumably had nothing to do with the story and its "morals" despite essentially signing off on it. If you're one of those idiots who likes to yell "keep politics out of my ______" then you'll love this one-shot, otherwise don't bother.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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