Chainsaw Man creator’s bizarre origin: Fire Punch
While Chainsaw Man may be their claim to fame, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s first published serialized work – Fire Punch – is undoubtedly a strange one.
Chainsaw Man‘s popularity cannot be denied with its over-the-top violence and action, even by the world of anime standards, and gut-punching emotional moments in the story, keeping fans glued to both screens and the page.
Anyone who has read Chainsaw Man in its entirety knows how dark Fujimoto can get with his characters and story. Still, if you can believe it, Chainsaw Man is Fujimoto toning it down a bit when compared to his first serialized work, Fire Punch.
Fair warning! This article will contain spoilers both for Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man.
What is the story of Fire Punch?
In a post-apocalyptic world suffering through an Ice Age where humanity is indifferent at best to one another, we’re presented with our protagonist, Agni, a person with powers called “Blessings.” In Agni’s case, he has extremely potent regenerating abilities.
To summarise, Agni seeks revenge for his sister’s death, who wishes for them to have a romantic relationship before a conflict that sets him permanently on fire, with him constantly burning until he gets used to the pain. Along his journey, Agni meets some unlikely allies: Sun, a boy with electricity powers, and Togata, a transmasculine deranged cinephile with reasonable regenerative abilities who wants Agni to be the star of their film. Agni follows a girl named Judah, who heavily resembles his late sister, swearing it actually is her.
The only functioning society is one of tyranny where all who possess a blessing are either part of the military forces or kept as prisoners to power the city. The leading organization behind it all used religion to convince the remaining population an “Ice Witch” caused the Ice Age to give them a common enemy. Still, none survive Agni’s wrath as it all burns down when he arrives.
Said Ice Witch is actually trying to reheat the Earth, restoring life to the planet using a giant tree with the hope that society will restart and develop precisely as it did in the real world, so she can watch more Star Wars movies, the latest of which was canceled during production because of the oncoming disaster. Hence, the Ice Witch never saw it. We’re not joking; that’s on the page.
Moving on, Agni gains followers, some of them are odd, Blessed people on the way who deem him godlike and start a religion in his name; Judah loses her memory and is adopted by Agni, who names her ‘Luna’ after his late sister after he exacts revenge on the person who killed her. During a conflict that restores some of Judah’s, now Luna’s, memories, she purposefully attacks Agni’s brain so he’ll forget about everything that has happened and sacrifices herself to the tree to restore the world.
An amnesiac Agni, renamed Sun after his late friend and disciple, lives in a seemingly comfortable recovered world many years later, his abilities preventing aging. Since conflict seems to be sparking up in the world again, Sun is offered a way out with a suicide pill. Still, after Togota’s camera is recovered and Sun watches what little surviving soundless black-and-white footage of his life as Agni, it’s hinted he refuses to take it and outlives the planet.
Time is not a factor for those with regeneration blessing. While the universe grows old and dies, Sun and Luna finally reunite within the tree among the stars. We recommend anyone interested in Fire Punch pick up a copy today. It’s only eight volumes long, making for an interesting short manga, to say the least.
What does Fire Punch mean?
The general consensus of Fire Punch’s message, besides emotional damage and confusion, is “Live.” Each time Agni is close to death, he is saved by his friends and loved ones, often resulting in their own deaths; he is told to live again and again. Even if you’re living just for the sake of being alive, it’s much better than the alternative. This message is reflected in Chainsaw Man, though it’s closer to “appreciate what you have” and “be careful who you put your faith in.”
Agni’s purpose changing can reflect how we may need to change what we’re aiming for, for the sake of ourselves, from revenge to protecting your sister even when you both exist in a fugue state pulling into question if any of this is really happening or if Agni is losing his mind, the state of the world and Agni’s miserable state, regardless of how bad things get, you’ll find a purpose to keep going you just need to live through this state first.
Fire Punch is also full of a surprising amount of Indian imagery, with Agni being the name of a fire god in Hinduism, meaning fire in sanscrit, and judging by the final panels even takes place in a frozen India. It is also generally considered an extremely liberty taking retelling of the story of the Sun and the Moon who chase each other across the sky.
A lot of awful things happen in Fire Punch. While a name such as “Fire Punch” may not sound like much outside of an action anime, it’s full of emotional brutality with bizarre, almost parody like imagery, to the degree where you may become as numb to the awful situations as Agni does. With all that said Fire Punch still earns a laugh at the sheer absurdity of how the serious situation is unfolding.
The absurdity of the characters’ actions and motivations is possibly their way of coping with their situation; after all, they live in a frozen world where everything is slowly dying, and they cannot see a way out of it, nor are the people in power even trying. So, focusing on a sole purpose and making your personal world smaller is worth appearing a bit absurd if it gives you comfort.
For more on Fujimoto’s work, check out everything we know about the upcoming Chainsaw Man movie the Reze arc, and learn when latest Chainsaw Man chapter is heading your way, keep an eye out for any delays that might trip you up!
