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Tag: Tatsuki Fujimoto

  • ‘Centuria’ Is a Dark Fantasy Manga More People Should Be Obsessed With

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    If one were to look at what’s hot on Manga Plus, a manga-reading app filled with banner titles like One Piece, Chainsaw Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo, they might be led to believe that this trio is the reason the app is worth downloading in a sea of reading apps that are more of a monetization hassle than they’re worth. However, the real manga that make the app essential aren’t these tenured shonen, but newer blood series. Alongside MAD, another manga series that more people should be obsessed with is the dark fantasy Centuria.

    Reductively, Centuria, created by Tohru Kuramori, feels like a chimera of Makoto Yukimura‘s pacifist warrior odyssey, Vinland Saga, by way of Kentaro Miura‘s brutal and melancholic masterpiece, Berserk. On its own merits, however, reading the manga as it has evolved from week to week since its debut in 2024 has been nothing short of witnessing a literary powderkeg poised to push dark fantasy into a new echelon after an era dominated by works that felt more derivative of Berserk than genuinely self‑defined.

    Centuria follows Julian, a boy with a truly messed-up past who finds himself as a stowaway on a ship filled with slaves awaiting their freedom. There, he befriends his fellow slaves, most of all Mira, a pregnant woman who rekindles his faith not only in humanity but also in his right to live a happy life. That is, until the shoe you’re waiting to fall, having read the previous sentences, hits him like a Mack truck. His fellow slaves are massacred by the ship captain, and to make matters worse, an eldritch emerges from the sea. During all the chaos, said eldritch being makes a bargain with Julian, granting him supernatural abilities by gifting him the combined strength of his slaughtered friends as well as their combined lives. In essence, Julian becomes a quasi-immortal being: with every death he suffers, he is resurrected, and his tally of 100 lives dwindles. Julian, in turn, indebted to his allies, uses his newfound strength to protect Mira’s newborn daughter and his adoptive sister, Diana, from forces both human and otherworldly that want her for their own ends as a mysterious “child of prophecy.”

    Watching Centuria expand its world‑building week to week is a treat in itself, branching outward like a precarious spiderweb crack across a windshield. Despite its moderately brisk pace, nothing feels out of left field; each chapter lands on either a wholesome cliffhanger, an emotionally devastating beat, a giant bombshell, or a clever subversion of where you assumed the story was telegraphing itself to go. Rather than regaling readers with the well‑trodden lone‑wolf‑and‑cub dynamic between Julian and Diana, Centuria pointedly refuses to make its hero a lonely, solemn scowler. Instead, it surrounds him with new allies who quickly form a found family—a village determined to rear the child of prophecy the right way and fight tooth and nail to keep her safe.

    And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the series is awash in some of the most detailed background art in the medium. Kuramori’s aesthetic feels pulled straight from the medieval tapestry of knights in the Bayeux Tapestry, with textures practically lifting off the page as if chiseled from stone. Its double‑page color spreads, meanwhile, evoke the haunting grandeur of Dark Souls and Elden Ring‑tier vistas that, even when rendered in black ink on a white page like any other manga, never fail to be equal parts awe‑striking and terrifying.

    Another fun wrinkle in Centuria‘s intrigue beyond the literal story itself is that the series is part of a pretty cracked lineage of former assistants to Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. Granted, it’s pretty standard that the trajectory of becoming a mangaka means you likely served as an assistant under a bigger mangaka. But for whatever reason, those in Fujimoto’s orbit tend to have all branched out to make pretty unique series all their own that all feel like a counter-cultural influence of Fujimoto. To give pomp and circumstance to the Midas touch Fujimoto’s assistants have had since becoming their own mangaka, here’s a quick rundown of who they are and what they’ve made:

    Likewise, Kuramori is a former assistant to both Fujimoto and Tatsu, having worked with the former on his one-shot manga, Goodbye Eri, and with the latter on a couple of chapters of Dandadan, and it shows. Centuria is teeming with impressive character designs, clever power sets, and even a cast of villains that are endearing and worth reading for, with arcs to rival those of its heroes.

    Another hallmark of Fujimoto’s influence that’s unmistakable in Centuria is his penchant for drawing “cute girls,” which is as alive in Kuramori as in his other assistants, arguably more so. At the very least, it’s something that’s impressed Tatsu enough to draw fan art of his assistant’s massive female knight while imploring him not to follow in Fujimoto’s footsteps by killing her off.

    Over the two years of its serialization, Centuria‘s momentum as a must-read manga series has shown no signs of slowing. It’s even earned it a shortlist recommendation from Manga Plus editor-in-chief, Shuhei Hosono.

    “It has both a complex story and special-power battles, and I have no doubt it’s going to become a masterpiece, so I hope more people give it a read,” Hosono said in the YouTube video linked above.

    With the luck Fujimoto’s assistants have had getting the whole series picked up and turned into a banner anime of their own, hopefully, it’ll only be a matter of time until an anime studio announces they’re adapting it. So now’s as good a time as any to give it a read and see what all the hubbub is about.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Isaiah Colbert

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  • Thank Pochita, the ‘Chainsaw Man’ Anime Will Return

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    And it’s official, more Chainsaw Man is coming. During the anime’s Jump Festa panel, Mappa revealed it was already at work adapting the “International Assassins” arc, which is exactly as it sounds: Denji’s gained some international attention, after which killers from around the globe pop into Japan looking to take him out.

    This is some good news for Chainsaw fans, who’ve been expecting hoping for a while that the studio would reveal a continuation. The first wrapped all the way back in 2022, and interest in another sparked up again with the recent record-breaking (and really great, in our opinion) Reze Arc movie. Between then and now, Mappa’s also been really busy with other big projects like Hell’s Paradise, Lazarus, and finishing Attack on Titan several times. However, it’s worth noting that Mappa hasn’t revealed in what form this arc is being adapted. Is it season two of the anime, or is it a second movie?

    We’ll have to wait to find out, but even so, it’s nice to hear the studio’s got enough “free time” that it can return to Denji, Aki, and the rest of the Chainsaw Man gang. Since it mighth be a while, you might as well catch up on the first season and movie so you’re ready, or read the manga and see what’s in store. Spoiler: it’s bonkers.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • ‘Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26’ Is a Joyously Unhinged Look Into the Young Mind of Manga’s Wildest Auteur

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    With rare exceptions like Star Wars: Visions and Love Death + Robots, anthologies have become a dying breed in anime. Gone are the days when studios—seemingly already at the height of their powers—banded together to make once-in-a-generation pastiches like Robot Carnival and Memories, showcasing their flair, artistry, and the magic of anime’s unique visual language.

    These projects launched directors like Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) as visionaries whose influence still shapes animation today. These relics offer viewers a kaleidoscopic portal into wildly varied tales, each with distinct tones, styles, and moods, affirming animation not as a blueprint for live-action but as a standalone art form worth marveling at.

    And now that lost form is seeing a revival, spotlighting the humble beginnings and abstractive range of one of manga’s most unpredictable auteurs, Tatsuki Fujimoto.

    In 2025, few creators are more visibly beloved in the anime industry than Fujiimoto. Over just two years, the Chainsaw Man legend (and unabashed cinephile) has seen his one-shot manga, Look Back, adapted into a stirring Studio Durian feature rivaling the work of Studio Ghibli, and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc explode into a box-office hit via Mappa. Both films showcase his flair for sentimentality, whimsy, romance, and bombast. Hell, even Chainsaw Man’s first season had the unprecedented distinction of unique outros in every episode, and its openings referenced Hollywood films before the title became one itself. The dude has motion.

    As if winding back the arms of a grandfather clock, Prime Video capped Fujimoto’s banner year with Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26, a vivid anthology of his pre-fame works.

    Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 sees the unified effort of studios P.A. Works, Zexcs, Lapin Track, Studio Kafka, 100studio, and Studio Graph77 adapting eight short stories Fujimoto wrote from ages 17-26, before he became a household name with his first published series, Fire Punch.

    Despite the conceit of the anime anthology being short stories from the same author, none of them feel like the kind of fast-food smattering of the same ingredients dressed up as a different meal. They all feel like a medley of Fujimoto’s wild, creative tempest. Clearly a mangaka student of the game, Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 embodies a wild imagination that seeks—almost unconsciously—to break the fabric of tropes, turning them into exaggerated parodies or subversively inverting them.

    100studio’s Sasaki Stopped a Bullet © Prime Video

    Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 is a painter’s palette laid bare, with each story serving as a rough, radiant smear of color, revealing the early chaos, tenderness, and wild ambition of a mind destined to set the manga and anime world ablaze. Each story shows early flashes of the emotional range and genre-defying bravado that would make Fujimoto a household name. From the post-apocalyptic bond in A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ in the Schoolyard to the adolescent anguish of Sasaki Stopped a Bullet, Fujimoto’s storytelling already shows signs of being unrestrainedly far-reaching, a fuse that would erupt into Chainsaw Man and Look Back.

    Likewise, Love Is Blind spins romantic comedy into cosmic absurdity, while Shikaku dives into the twisted psyche of a lovesick assassin. Mermaid Rhapsody offers a tender underwater romance; Woke-Up-as-a-Girl-Syndrome explores identity beyond gender; Nayuta of the Prophecy traces siblings caught in a cruel fate; and Sisters captures the friction and growth between artistic siblings and rivals. Some stories, like Sisters and Nayuta of the Prophecy, read like first drafts of what would evolve into Look Back—Fujimoto’s viscerally tender ode to art—and the self-referential groundwork for Chainsaw Man Part 2.

    Together, they form a kaleidoscope of diverse art styles and moods that are thought-provoking, deeply hormonal, and full of raw imagination. And all are a testament to Fujimoto’s uninhibited genius, unpredictability, and uncanny way of making the most obscene premise land as earnestly moving (be they to tears or laughter) even in his earliest strokes.  And that’s saying something, given these short stories are from the same man whose fame came with tales in which he asked, “What if a guy with a godlike healing factor was on fire all the time?” and “What if a teenager had chainsaws for arms and a head?”

    The true beauty of Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 isn’t just in spotlighting the creator’s wild adolescent musings and alchemic ability to make the absurd somehow touching. It’s in how the anthology elevates the studios behind it—virtual unknowns even to the most seasoned anime faithful—into names worth watching.

    Each studio, some under the direction of acclaimed directors like Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome‘s Kazuaki Terasawa (The Ancient Magus’ Bride), Mermaid Rhapsody’s Tetsuaki Watanabe (Blue Lock), and Love Is Blind‘s Noboyuki Takeuchi (Fireworks), pours its full creative self into every frame. Whether animated 2D with a touch of 3D or laced with live action, they all coalesce into a unified tapestry of crisp, lovingly crafted work. The visuals speak for themselves: sunsets feel like lush velvet. Depictions of agony take on a rough, sandpaper texture. Action glints like firecrackers glimpsed through squinted eyes. My favorite of the bunch is the final tale, Sisters, directed by Osamu Honma, for how rawly and tenderly it explores girlhood and sisterhood—woven together as the backdrop to artistic rivalry.

    While some viewers have questioned whether Fujimoto’s contemporary works are as profound as online discourse suggests, Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 invites viewers to set those thoughts aside and simply engage with the stories. Fujimoto urges us to play—to revel in absurdities like a student’s love for his teacher, defying all logic so intensely he can stop a bullet. Or how the classic coming-of-age dilemma of confessing unrequited love to a classmate can be pushed to its absolute extremes, undeterred by romcom tropes or acts of god, as if the boy might combust if he doesn’t spit it out. Some tales are short walks. Others long. But all feel like scenic routes viewers unsuspectedly get enraptured in as they waltz down memory lane of one of manga’s boldest creators.

    Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 isn’t an armchair anime connoisseur’s fodder for think pieces—it’s a “let’s go outside and play” kind of fun. The kind of anime that rarely feels allowed to be endeavored anymore without a self-serious thesis to justify it. It’s pure, animated joy.

    Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 is streaming on Prime Video.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Isaiah Colbert

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  • The ‘Chainsaw Man’ Movie Carves Up a Box Office Win

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    In a weekend of music biopics and romantic melodrama, the big winner in theaters was none other than Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

    Per the Hollywood Reporter, Mappa’s anime movie made $108 million worldwide. It’s been out in Japan and other countries since September, and as of this weekend, made $90.7 million internationally. This weekend marked its North American debut, where it exceeded expectations of $11-12 million and wound up grossing $17.3 million. It’s another victory for Sony and Crunchyroll following the domestic debut of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle back in September.

    Chainsaw Man’s gotten pretty strong reactions from critics and audiences, as THR boasted its A Cinemascore and Rotten Tomatoes in the high 90s. The movie adapts the “Reze” arc of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s dark fantasy shonen, where Denji meets a teenage girl named Reze and develops a crush, which goes…not great for him or everyone else in the city, suffice to say. Helping the film’s success is the fair amount of buildup to it; not just trailers playing before movies, but it also had a New York Comic-Con panel earlier this month, and Sony’s made sure to promote its music and get the film on IMAX screens.

    Before Reze’s release, Mappa hoped the film would elicit enough excitement that the studio would get to make another season of the anime series. Last month, studio head Manabu Ohtsuka mentioned wanting to do right by Chainsaw Man fans, and only saying more when it was in a position to do so. Slightly less vague, vice president Hiroya Hasegawa talked about reevaluating how to tackle the anime going forward: “‘Are we going to do it as a series? Are we going to do it as a film?’ It’s another question we’ll be asking ourselves [after Reze],” he said.

    The next few weeks, Chainsaw Man’s got some big competition in Bugonia (October 31), Predator: Badlands (November 7), and Running Man, Keeper, and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (November 14). Some of those will take its IMAX spots, so good to see it while you can.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • The ‘Chainsaw Man’ Movie Is Hitting Theaters Even Earlier Than Expected

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    Animation studio Mappa‘s upcoming theatrical release of Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc has bumped up its premiere date. Now, the film arc continuation of the 2022 anime will hit theaters—including select IMAX screens—a few days earlier than initially scheduled. The film will now premiere in theaters on October 24.

    This date adjustment came with the release of a new English dub trailer of the film. The story, created by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Look Back), follows Denji, a down-on-his-luck young man who, after fusing with his chainsaw-headed pet dog, Pochita, gains the ability to transform into the most feared devil of all, Chainsaw Man. The series is set in a world where concepts that humanity fears, such as guns, war, and blood, physically manifest as humanoid devils. The level of universal fear surrounding these concepts determines the power of these devils.

    After being lured into enlisting in the Devil Hunter Association by its enigmatic leader, Makima, Denji is thrust into a series of battles with devils as he grapples with the warped contours of his own hierarchy of needs. High on his list is chasing romantic love in a world shaped by violence, control, and the looming arrival of the Gun Devil.

    Reze Arc, which picks up after the anime’s season finale, sees Denji run into a new girl on the block named Reze, sending the lover boy in a tizzy as he weighs whether he likes her more than he likes Makima. Unfortunately for Denji, his meet-cute with Reze gives way to him discovering she’s actually the Bomb Devil.

    To make matters worse, she’s just as crazy about Denji as he is about her and will stop at nothing to get him to join her side with the Devils, even if it means transforming Tokyo into an all-out warzone.

    The English dub of the film will see the return of the Crunchyroll voice actors, including Ryan Colt Levy as Denji and Suzie Yeung as Makima. The film will also have theme songs “Iris Out,” by Kenshi Yonezu, and “Jane Doe” by the incomparable J-Pop regent, Hikaru Utada, as well as an extended version of nu metal/hardcore punk band Maximum the Hormone’s outro song, “Hawatari Nioku Centi.”

    Crunchyroll also uploaded a series recap video to get fans up to speed with the movie. The handy recap represents one effort by Mappa and Crunchyroll to ensure folks are ready for Reze Arc.

    Another is a compilation release of the anime to get people hyped for the film without having any head-scratching questions about, say, why Chainsaw Man is riding the back of a shark into a typhoon to battle a lady with a missile as a head. The two compilation films are already playing in Japan, with plans to hit the U.S. and elsewhere later this month.

    Japanese language fans also got something to enjoy in the assortment of Chainsaw Man news, with a new trailer for the film featuring new scenes of Denji and Reze’s battle and his date with Makima.

    In the lead-up to the film’s release, Mappa president Manabu Ohtsuka and vice president Hiroya Hasegawa spoke to Anime News Network at Anime Expo 2025. In their sit-down interview, the presidents gave an update on the show’s future—sort of. It’s not yet clear whether the studio will continue its adaptation of the anime arcs in theatrical formats encompassing the manga or in episodic seasons.

    “We’re always thinking about what’s the best way to deliver Chainsaw Man to the fans who love the franchise. That’s what’s always on our minds,” Ohtsuka said. “But how we’re going to do it, if we’re going to do it, we’ll announce it when we announce it. We can’t talk about it.”

    “As Ohtsuka-san mentioned, [Reze Arc] is a continuation of the first season. We are being loyal to the original content. We asked ourselves, ‘How are we going to do it?’ We thought that the cinema was the best way to deliver the Reze Arc. After Reze, if we are going to create more Chainsaw Man, we’ll probably follow from there,” Hasegawa said. “And then we’ll reevaluate and think, ‘Are we going to do it as a series? Are we going to do it as a film?’ It’s another question we’ll be asking ourselves at that time.”

    The film’s credits includes the following:

    Seeing as how Mappa is already busy with Jujutsu Kaisen‘s upcoming arc, Culling Game, this coming January, as well as its remake of Ranma 1/2 second season premiering on Netflix this October, and the forthcoming second season of Hell’s Paradise—a manga from Fujimoto’s Fire Punch assistant, Yuji Kaku—it’s understandable that it’d take a beat to wait and see about reception for Reze Arc before officially announcing what lies ahead for Chainsaw Man.

    In the meantime, Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc hits theaters October 24.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Isaiah Colbert

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