>>42997
>parts of part 2 make it feel like a rough draft, like he's still hashing out the A to B to C except it's actually getting published as it goes.
Can see that, especially Asa's progression from high schooler to devil hunter to wanted criminal, felt very sudden and straight to the point. Without the insight on how Part 2 will conclude, so far it feels like that only came to the detriment of her character.
>but part 1 was simpler and had a stronger central focus both emotionally and narratively.
Indeed, Part 1 had a very clear and concise goal through most of it's run: Defeat the Gun Devil and beyond that PS just had a strong general theme of hopelessness and workforce exploitation that existed in all of the characters, which makes them feel like meaningful additions to the story and gave it cohesion.
Denji had a worse life, PS felt like heaven to him and he wanted to eat good food and have sex (get close to Makima).
Aki could've quit and have a normal life, but he was so hellbent on getting revenge that he felt like he had nothing else to live for.
Kobeni joined to avoid prostitution and because she hated her family, the job was driving her insane but she was such a wage slave that she refused to quit.
>this is one of the things i mean, all the supporting characters feel like they were conceived and then thrown into the narrative without a fully-formed idea of what purpose they'd serve or why or what they'd even do
Have to wait until it's conclusion to get the full picture, because it's easy to to criticize a work already published like this and nitpick details saying how the author could have done x or y better to the point that it would be disingenuous. But it does feel like Part 2 had fertile grounds to develop a side cast connected to it's themes (or at least what appears to be it's themes given the current understanding of the story).
>Asa's class/school, especially her bullies like freckles.
Asa just came to the realization on how much people rely on escapism to lead their everyday lives. It also showcases how this "escapism" can take the form of unhealthy habits that directly hurt other people.
>Public Safety, particularly Yoshida and Fumiko.
Instead of appearing every once in a while to call Denji a fool, we could have had a nucleus of characters that thread the needle in finding out about the Death's plan, the Church and the apocalypse.
>Church's boys
This one feels closest to PS in Part 1 because it has a common theme of "exploitation of the youth" as their infatuation with Chainsaw Man's hero status is used to make youngsters join a literal Death Cult. Much like Barem seemingly mocked CSM fans in a meta sense, wishing to see him get covered in gore fighting devils etc. the story could have explored what "Chainsaw Man" meant to those people almost as a reflection of the audience that came to like the story. It would make a particularly interesting dynamic with Asa because she was there to kill their idol.
But then again, this point has grown too long already, Fuji for some reason or another deemed these aspects unimportant to the story he wanted to tell.