If You Like This Ending, You Are Wrong. (Chainsaw Man)

Critique of Chainsaw Man Part Two

Pengy delivers an emphatic critique of Chainsaw Man Part Two, arguing that its final chapters undermine the story rather than resolve it.

Chapters 231 and 232

Pengy contrasts Chapter 231, which they describe as brutally bleak and seemingly wipes out characters, with Chapter 232, which they see as a sudden, overly cheerful reversal that brings people back—though not Reze or Aki. They argue that both chapters mishandle Pochita’s erasure powers and mock the finale as an “it was all a dream” ending, comparing it to fan fiction, Disney, the MCU, and Dream SMP.

In their view, the closing banter between Denji and Power, along with the title drop, does little to resolve the world’s problems or make the characters’ losses feel meaningful.

Themes and agency

Pengy argues that Part Two introduces themes of trauma, agency, religion, aging, and social control, but ends by suggesting that wanting things is the problem. They see this as a contradiction of the story’s earlier themes.

They also contend that the central characters have little meaningful agency: their choices cannot change an outcome that seems doomed regardless.

Other criticisms

Pengy criticizes a recurring cycle in which controversial chapters prompt fans to speculate that the next installment will explain everything, only for the story to move on without doing so. They also describe the manga’s art and paneling as having declined.

They reject explanations that attribute the decline to lost assistants, workload, or a deliberate reflection of Denji’s mental state. They also criticize the fandom for overpraising the series and treating criticism as a failure of “media literacy.”

The cast and the ending

Pengy’s most mournful criticism concerns the cast. They feel that characters such as Denji, Asa, Yoru, Power, and Nayuta either disappear or return in ways that no longer feel true to the people readers followed.

The video ends with a bitter joke: “So, I won, I guess.” Pengy had expected the series to end badly, but says they did not expect it to end this badly.

Personality featured: Pengy, the video’s solo commentator.