So finally decided to binge all of Part 2. Have a ton to say about it, lol
Read this whole thread as well.
Up to volume 17. (chapter 151-53 or so) I thought it continued to be really enjoyable read and at the same time, I realized I was never really going to
love this series. I appreciate and respect Fujimoto's unrelenting drive for doing whatever the fukk he wants with his stories, and using this manga space as a medium to tackle a bunch of themes, but the way he uses characters as empty canvasses for his theming will never fully click with me.
After volume 18 (up to chapter 218) two things happened from my perspective:
1.- The Aging Devil arc was by far the most interesting and consistent work in all of Part 2, which made me look forward to what happened next, but....
2.- After the Aging Devil arc the series once again went all over the place with Fujimoto indulging in very repetitive behavior to get to the this final confrontation with War Devil.
The past 30 chapters or so made me realize I don't give a flying fukk about Denji anymore. I don't care about any of the characters really, because Fujimoto just uses them to drive home a point for a couple of chapters and then repeats a cycle to either repeat the same point or make a new one. Denji having such a fukked up life and struggling to deal with stuff while being pulled from every direction by Devils or horrible human beings is a good starting point for your MC. But when 200 chapters in you still use your MC as a dumb, horny teenager who can never get it right no matter how many times he faces similar problems in front of him, it stops being funny (when used for that purpose) and as a reader I just don't care what happens with him just like Denji feels about himself every 10-15 chapters. I read
@T-K-G post about what else to expect from a guy like Denji at this point -specially from an author like Fuji- and honestly, it's not that I want or need him to go through a generic shounen MC journey, just give me some more creative stuff with this moron, I feel like I read the same ol' shyt for 100+ chapters.
Asa was a very interesting character that also got stuck in an endless loop. The fact her biggest development was realizing that shooting herself was OK is Fujimoto as his Fujiest
Every other new character in Part 2 fukking sucked tbh. That hurts because the story doesn't have any stakes, doesn't have any characters worth following week to week and Fujimoto refuses to write funny or cool interactions for longer than a couple of panels every few chapters. Nayuta was an awesome idea for a character to play with but she was disposed waaaaaay too early and for the same reason characters in Part 1 got got: we have to make Denji feel miserable.
The action has turned into a borefest as well. With the series not having any power system or real power level (besides the fuzzy "fear" stuff), it just a bunch of behading and gore pannels that at this point it's more of the same, really. What was innovative or new years ago has become stale, imo. I was expecting more creative ways for these battles -you
don't need a power system for them-, specially because they take way longer to build than part 1. The only time I felt Fuji was truly cooking was the Aging Devil stuff.
I'm glad I binged read because I would've absolutely dropped this if I followed it with each new release. Binging at least makes it flow better and it's just an easy read that it's a breeze to get through. But the fact remains that Part 2 is a huge step down from Part 1. Fuji just got too into his own shyt and while I salute him for being able to get away with it in Jump+ with a freaking shonen series, it's not a story that really grabs you even on a surface level. Once this story is done I'll come back to it.
PS: I have no fukking clue how 70% of what's been done in Part 2 will be adapted, let alone how an anime series could sustain itself. Before getting to the Aging Devil you are gonna be asking the anime audience A LOT of patience and I'm not sure they can get to the good stuff in a potential season 3 (going by the logic that season 2 finishes Part 1)
Also, gotta say that reading
@tripleaamin and
@storyteller 's posts was entertaining as hell. Going from excitement to bewilderment to defeat to coping was
Halfway through Part 2 I realized there's no real big story to "salvage" in a future arc or a Part 3. This is Fuji's playground to vent about the shyt that bothers him or entertains him. There's no big payoff, he doesn't write for one, imo. He has ideas/themes in mind and going on a journey to show them in manga form. It's kind of a masochist version of Hideaki Anno's depressed self in the 90's, lmao.
Denji getting a handy was the series peak.
Which may be an indicator that it was mid the entire time. For as much as people try to hype this shyt to seem like avant garde tastemakers, this is one of the more forgettable manga I've ever read.
Like 80% of this series is a blur of grossout panels, weird humor and denji being weirdly endearing in his loserdom. For the life of me though I couldnt articulate what actual story is being told here. Especially with part 2
I don't think Part 1 was mid. The level of praise/enjoyment will always vary depending on each reader but Part 1 had a clear direction and all the satiric/meta stuff hit way better than Part 2. Going from WSJ to Jump+ gave Fuji more time to rest and more leeway in the amount of content each chapter has, but the lack of editing is evident in Part 2. It's pretty clear no one wants to reign him in anymore.
I wonder how it will feel on a binge.
By chapter 190 or so it truly hits how repetitive everything is and how stuck in mud every character is. It's not even 1 step forward two steps back kind of feeling. It's a "about to make a step forward but ends up no moving" type of situation.
again.
I did post about how the fukk this could get adapted in a season 3 of the anime without huge, potentially cancelling a series level backlash, lmao.