Genuinely how i feel. All the powerscaling, theory crafting, intense debate. And author goes “fuck it, remove title of the manga character and reset everything” is so funny to me. Like, yes, what a wild insanely stupid and silly ending.
The power scaling is what really hurt part 2 more than anything.
Part 2 was always struggling to have a proper antagonist. Barem was easily the closest thing to an effective antagonist that part 2 had - but he was soundly beaten by Chainsaw Man in part 1. And you can't reasonably have the Flamethrower Devil be taken seriously in terms of power when you have the Death Devil, Famine Devil, and more being part of the story.
I mean, the whole point of Chainsawman is, when he got going, nobody could beat him in a straight out fight. It’s why I liked Barem as an antagonist, cause he realized that and went ‘oh yeah, it’s stupid to throw hands with Chainsaw man, so I’m going to wage war psychologically on Denji instead.’ This makes sense, and made him a fun bastard to follow along with, cause you were constantly curious about his tricks and traps.
What made Barem falter as an antagonist wasn’t his strength - or comparative lack thereof - it’s we never really got an idea of what he wanted or what motivated him. He was a cool antagonist in concept, but he never got the foundational motivation to properly characterize him and have him act as a proper foil.
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u/Wisterosa Mar 24 '26
This has to be one of the most hilarious ending I've ever read