Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories

Rate this book
Chainsaw Man's supernatural action returns in four new prose stories of devil-hunting partners!

Power lives out her favorite anime by becoming a genius detective—or so she wants her “audience” to believe! Denji is along for the ride as her assistant for an investigation into disappearances at a mountain hotel. Other stories center on Quanxi and Kishibe’s relationship nine years after they met, Himeno and Aki’s first assignment together, and Denji, Power, and Aki’s dream trip to Enoshima.

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 4, 2021

204 people are currently reading
1228 people want to read

About the author

Tatsuki Fujimoto

122 books3,039 followers
Tatsuki Fujimoto 藤本タツキ (Fujimoto Tatsuki) is a Japanese manga author, mostly known for Chainsaw Man.

Awards:
- Shōgakukan Manga Award: Shōnen category for Chainsaw Man (2020)
- Harvey Award: best manga for Chainsaw Man (2021-2022)

Chinese language profiles: 藤本樹 and 藤本树.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
314 (27%)
4 stars
474 (41%)
3 stars
275 (24%)
2 stars
75 (6%)
1 star
4 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 210 reviews
Profile Image for Phu.
794 reviews
August 6, 2023
Đầu tiên chắc hơi lạc đề so với nội dung sách, nhưng "Chainsaw man" là bộ manga dài tập đầu tiên mà mình đọc và vẫn đang chờ từng chap mới. Mình chưa bao giờ có ý định đọc mấy bộ manga dài tập, năm ngoái mình vô tình biết tới "Chainsaw man" - không phải do mình muốn xem anime chuyển thể hay gì đâu (hiện tại mình vẫn chưa hề xem anime chuyển thể của nó), sau vài lần xem mấy video trên youtube thì mình đọc manga luôn, và manga đúng kiểu ấn tượng với hay luôn í. Vừa hài, đầy plot-twist, ẩn ý; nhân vật chính, phụ cho tới phản diện đúng hấp dẫn, hài và cảm động; dù Denji kiểu ước mơ xàm xí nhưng mình thấy đồng cảm với Denji. Và mình chỉ muốn nói là "Chainsaw man" là bộ manga ảnh hưởng tới mình về việc nghiêm túc đọc truyện tranh

Trở lại với sách, Chainsaw Man - Buddy Stories quyển lightnovel được viết bởi Sakaku Hishigawa, gồm có 4 truyện ngắn chưa có trong bộ manga gốc "Chainsaw man", đặt bối cảnh trước sự kiện đánh bại Makima.
Mình chưa bao giờ đọc novel mà chuyển thể từ manga - đôi lúc mình cảm thấy vấn đề này sao sao ấy, nhưng mà thực sự cách viết của tác giả Hishigawa viết khiến mình có cảm giác như gặp lại những "người bạn cũ", cách viết có thể khiến mình tưởng tượng nếu là manga sẽ ra sao. Bốn truyện về những người cộng sự, đồng đội, những miêu tả tính cách nhân vật hầu như giống với manga, có một vài nhân vật manga không có xuất hiện nhiều nên hơi lạ lẫm với mình. Mình thấy thích quyển lightnovel này, mình chỉ có thấy tiếc là hai truyện đầu tác giả chưa có sáng tạo nhiều về mấy con quỷ.

1. The Great Detective Power and
Her Assistant Denji.


Truyện lấy bối cảnh lúc mới sống chung của Denji, Power và Aki. Power đóng vai thám tử cùng Denji và một nhóm săn quỷ khác điều tra về vụ mất tích ở khu nghỉ dưỡng trên núi.


Mình bật cười nhiều lần với truyện này, tác giả miêu tả đúng con mắm Power =)) vừa điên điên khùng khùng, đã thế nhân vật thợ săn quỷ Denzo còn bị con nhỏ Power lừa - tin rằng mấy cái suy luận của Power là cách mấy người ở Cục bảo an làm việc =)) Mình không thích chi tiết về con quỷ trong truyện này, diễn biến không khác gì khi đấu với Quỷ vĩnh cửu, bù lại là mối quan hệ giữa Power và Denji ở cuối hay hơn. Đọc xong thấy nhớ Power (= ; ェ ; =)

2. Nine Years’ Savor

Truyện lấy bối cảnh trước khi Quanxi thú nhận ra tính hướng của bản thân với Kishibe. Truyện này có mấy cuộc trò chuyện như cách Kishibe từng nói với Denji trong manga, mấy cảnh hành động khá hay nhưng con quỷ lần này được lấy cảm hứng giống Quỷ rối, mình khá lạ với Quanxi trong lightnovel vì trong manga gốc Quanxi chỉ có chiến đấu và quan tâm tới mấy cô nàng bán quỷ. Mình thích cách tác giả khiến mình bất ngờ với nhân vật Minami, mình thích sự sáng tạo của tác giả Hishigawa, đặc biệt là mình thích chi tiết về ở cuối truyện - Quanxi trong lạnh lùng với Kishibe nhưng ở cuối truyện chỉ có Quanxi hiểu rõ về Kishibe.

3. The Day They Became Buddies

Truyện lấy bối cảnh khi Himeno và Aki lần đầu gặp và trở thành cộng sự của nhau. Truyện này có phần buồn hơn, nội tâm của Aki về ký ức và mong muốn ở hiện tại, à buồn nhất là mình lần nữa gặp lại Himeno - người vẫn được khắc họa luôn lạc quan và vui tươi, nhưng bên trong Himeno đã vỡ vụn dần, cũng lần gặp đầu tiên Himeno biết Aki không thể trụ vững trong cái nghề săn quỷ này. Một câu chuyện suy luận, mình thích cách tác giả sáng tạo về con quỷ này hơn hai truyện trên.

4.Enoshima, Island of Dreams

Truyện cuối này lấy bối cảnh chuyến nghỉ dưỡng của Denji, Makima, Power và Aki đến đảo Enoshima.


"Tiến sĩ Nobel" tương lai - Power vẫn đóng vai cây hài trong truyện này. Truyện này kểu tươi sáng và nó cũng khiến mình thắc mắc, vì nó khiến mình cảm thấy thời gian của nó với manga gốc không hợp lý, cho tới cái kết thì thắc mắc của mình được giải đáp, tác giả dành thời gian để khắc họa nội tâm của Denji.

“Power, you’re talking crazy.”
“But Denji, if one day you should discover my absence is tearing you up inside, then come and find me. I promise I shall be waiting for you!”
Profile Image for Shadyside Library.
345 reviews132 followers
September 3, 2023
I really enjoyed getting to see all of the characters personalities in novel form. Great change of pace from the manga. A quite wholesome and humorous book that should definitely be read after the completion of the first 11 books!
Profile Image for allie.
63 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2023
My rating would have been higher if they hired me to edit it…

It was fine. When I bought Buddy Stories I didn’t read the description and didn’t realize it was a light novel. Oops. All four stories were just continuations of the CSM we all know and love, there really wasn’t much new content—although I would maybe possibly consider rereading just for Kishibe’s backstory. Love that man.

Anyway, I could have written this. It was boring and unimaginative, but it was nostalgic. Maybe it deserves three stars, but honestly I was holding out for something more, and it never came.


An additional note: not including Angel—not even his name!—was incredibly cruel to us readers. I don’t feel bad about rating it 2/5 anymore.
Profile Image for Jessica.
485 reviews88 followers
January 1, 2024
Actually flawless!

4 incredible short stories:
-The Great Detective Power and Her Assistant Denji consist of the comedy duo and was very entertaining (maybe a little ridiculous)

-Nine Years' Savor revolves around Kishibe and his partner, at first I didn't really like this story but by the end it added so much to his character and made the main series that much more heartbreaking

-The Day They Became Buddies shows Aki and Himeno's first mission together while completely tugging on my heart strings. It shows how Aki has changed over such a short time, what he's lost and what he's gained

-Enoshima, Island of Dreams shows Denji's much anticipated beach trip and brought tears to my eyes!!!!

SOMEONE GIVE POWER HER NOBEL PRIZE!
AND DO NOT READ THIS COLLECTION UNTIL AFTER READING PART 1 OF CSM!!!!
Profile Image for Erika.
2,859 reviews88 followers
February 2, 2023
As expected, it was just meh.*shrugs*
All the memorable lines from the main characters were the ones from the manga, and the stories had no influence on our overall understanding of the Chainsaw man world.
And since this is a novelized version of the manga, it felt like the book was over-explaining things, e.g. the fact that Aki ended up feeling protective of Denji and Power was just implied (in the manga) from his actions and his words to Makima, but the author of this book spelled out Aki feelings toward Denji and Power like making him say "I'm afraid of losing these two" etc.: an example of "tell not show".
However, since I've been expecting this book to be underwhelming, I wouldn't rate it 2 stars.
(I got to see Kishibe when he was young. I guess that deserves a +1 star.)

まぁ...本編にないオリジナルストーリーのノベライズって、こんなもんだよね、という感じの内容。
登場人物達の印象的なセリフは全て漫画で言っていた台詞だし、物語の筋も、当然ながら本編には関係ない。
むしろ、アキがデンジとパワーを大事に思ってるって事が、漫画では行間からかなりはっきり読めたのに対して(はっきり「自分には二人が大事な存在だ」とは一言も言わないのに、二人を守る行動をする)、ここでは思いっきりアキに「自分には幸せを願う相手がいる」「今、孤独の魔人(矢で射られたらその人の大事な人が死ぬ)に対峙できない」と言わせていて、安っぽく感じてしまう。
(偶然だが今日似たような話を友人とした:自分の書いた脚本が手直しされていて、その直し方が、「文字で全て説明する系」だったという。本来なら、言葉だけでなく、表情や行動や声色など、演技を含めて意味を持たせるのに、書き直されたものは、例えば「(温かいマグを両手で包みながら)あったかーい」と言う代わりに、「この飲み物、温かくて嬉しい」と役者に言わせる、という感じ)

...まぁ、想像してたレベルだし、岸辺の若かりし日の絵が可愛い(黒髪でにこやかに笑ってる)ので、「普通に読めた」で☆3つ。
Profile Image for violek.
57 reviews6 followers
July 24, 2023
Dawno się tak nie zawiodłam na książce. Przyznaję rację recenzjom, które uznają ostatnie opowiadanie za najlepsze, ale i tak sądzę, że całość to jedna wielka pomyłka.
Kocham serię CSM całym moim sercem, ale to nie miało nic wspólnego z mangami, które czytałam… Postacie były sztuczne, ani trochę nie przypominały swoich „oryginalnych odpowiedników”. Pomysły i „twisty” fabularne były tak banalne (własciwie te drugie nawet nie istniały), że z każdą przewróconą stroną chciałam jedynie albo jak najszybciej to skończyć, albo przewrócić oczami.
Na początku myślałam też, że język jest tak koślawy i na poziomie opowiadania z podstawówki, dlatego że tłumaczenie zawaliło sprawę. Wszystkich, którzy mają podobne odczucia, zapewniam, że to na pewno nie wina przekładu. Wystarczy sprawdzić, jak wiele tytułów zostało świetnie przetłumaczone przez Wojciecha Gęszczaka, aby się o tym przekonać.
Jeżeli tęsknicie za Chainsaw Manem, polecam zrobić reread, ale na pewno nie kupować to coś i liczyć na to, że rozbudzi te same emocje i nostalgię, co oryginalna seria.
Profile Image for Ronald.
1,471 reviews16 followers
August 19, 2023
Not a Manga, might have been unused stories, just plain old text novel.
There were four short stories, none stand out as excellent or in some cases don't reach the level of good. So, to summarize, not a comic / manga and average storytelling 2.5 stars rounded up for that one good story.
20 reviews1 follower
March 7, 2024
3.5

Unfortunately, this book suffers from a poor, sloppy localization and potentially juvenile writing in the original text, but in spite of that, these stories are delightfully entertaining and worth the time for a fan of the series.
Profile Image for lola.
17 reviews
October 27, 2025
this hit so different after watching the movie 😞 i loved all these little stories, it’s so nice to get more content of these characters since most of them are now gone. chainsaw man really knows how to make you love all these little stories characters, only to kill them off. i grew so attached to the denji/power/aki trio dynamic, particularly because i myself am in a sibling trio and could definitely relate to their dynamic. while part 1 is an end of an era, i’m excited to finally read into part 2 of chainsaw man!!
Profile Image for Bryce.
111 reviews
August 31, 2025
This gets two stars solely because I love these characters and this world and Fujimoto’s work. This is kind of a dumpster fire. It’s incredibly fan-fic-y. Like you can tell the author wasn’t allowed to come up with anything original, and all the characters seemed like caricatures of themselves. No one felt RIGHT. The entire collection of stories felt like the author read a few lines of the OG series and decided to base the entire thing off of it. A few times we see repeated lines verbatim from the Manga, and rather than coming across as a cool nod, it feels like a desperate attempt to remind me that, yes, this is Chainsaw man. Because holy crap is this NOT Chainsaw Man. Maybe this would have been better in the original Japanese and the translation sucks, I’ll never know. But I did not care for this, and it was a genuine waste of my time.
Profile Image for Kiril Tzvetkov.
32 reviews2 followers
April 4, 2024
A good collection of stories that helps flesh out Fujimoto's characters. Not necessary for the manga readers but does provide more backstory to some fan favourites.
Profile Image for Samuel.
476 reviews
February 16, 2025
4.5/5.

Just a bunch of stories set in the Chainsaw Man universe, but I think I liked it so much because the main series doesn’t give you many moments with the main cast all together. A fun read.
Profile Image for ollie.
166 reviews7 followers
December 22, 2022
(3,5) Serce złamane po "Wyśnionej Enoshimie". Nienawidzę Makimy.
Profile Image for WhoaJack.
97 reviews1 follower
September 28, 2025
Looooove love loved this🖤

Hishikawa did an excellent job creating these mini stories that integrate perfectly with the manga; having the dialogue from the oc at the begining and end of the stories was so good "I love you.-I think I'm into women." (poor Kishibe 😭😭).
Reading Chainsaw man as a novel is just as good as reading it as a manga and it's all even better than watching the anime. So much more content out there to consume, why wait?! ✌🏼

Make sure however that you have read at least up to vol. 10 of the manga before reading this lil treasure, some huge huge spoilers in the last story "Enoshima, Island of Dreams" and if you have read up to vol.10 be prepared to have your heart wrecked all over again 💔

All in all a sweet small gem in the csm universe that you don't want to miss out on🎀
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,162 reviews174 followers
May 14, 2024
Esta "novela" de Chainsaw Man se trata en realidad de cuatro relatos cortas ubicadas en momentos claves de la primera parte de la serie (o sea, en los primeros 11 tomos). Algunas como la primera son más entretenidas que otra cosa, pero hay otras como la última no apto para sensibles y vistas en retrospectiva tremendamente tristes. Muy recomendable tanto para fans de la serie como para escépticos que no sepan por dónde meterse (si están dispuestos a tolerar los spoilerazos).
Ojalá salgan más de estas con el mismo equipo creativo, Hishikawa escribiendo y Fujimoto ilustrando y me imagino que supervisando también.
Profile Image for Sterling Weiser.
32 reviews1 follower
December 31, 2024
This was a nice popcorn read because I like chainsaw man. With that said, the 4 stories all tried to tell tales that were better expressed in the original manga. (Though the story with Aki and Himeno actually detracted a little from the way their relationship appeared in both the anime and manga.) That doesn’t mean the stories were bad, just derivative to a fault. I did like the devils they fought. Very fun, but again, similar. I will say the stories, especially the conclusion of the last one, will spoil the anime if that’s all you’re watching. Nothing special, but still a fun time.
Profile Image for Laura ✨.
473 reviews2 followers
August 24, 2023
This was such a good vacation/pool read. The stories were short and fast paced, which made it easy to pick up and read. I'm usually not a short story person, but these were actually fun to read. Happy I picked it up!
Profile Image for Pepijn Coene.
38 reviews
May 5, 2024
I hoped it would be a manga, It was a light novel.. whoops.

Still this was fun, I especially liked the last 2 stories.
It gave a bit more of the characters from chainsaw man.
The only issue is that it gets a bit boring sometimes and I missed the absurdity from the manga a bit.
Profile Image for mage.
86 reviews1 follower
October 11, 2024
☆ 3.5

es una expansión de ciertos sucesos que ya vimos en el manga. no aporta nada nuevo a la historia principal, pero nos dió más escenas de la familia hayakawa siendo la Found Family de la década, así que no me quejo
Profile Image for Joanna Brown.
73 reviews5 followers
March 23, 2024
I don’t think this really added much to this whole series but I still enjoyed it. Probably would have enjoyed it more as a manga but oh well. Plenty of cute scenes tho which I am a sucker for 😔
Profile Image for Mira.
48 reviews
July 23, 2024
I can't believe it's canon that denji and power call aki ,,mom"
Profile Image for EmRia.
11 reviews
December 31, 2025
This was such a fun read - it felt so nostalgic to revisit the characters from the series and get glimpses into their pasts.
Profile Image for Elisa Giraldo.
5 reviews
Read
February 24, 2026
Peak, los personajes son perfectos.
Te toca mucho el corazón, sobretodo el final.
Está muy bien escrito, gracias Fujimoto por crear este maravilloso mundo.
Profile Image for abi.
80 reviews
July 28, 2023
*The Great Detective Power and Her Assistant Denji: 3 stars

*Nine Years’ Savior: 5 stars

*The Day They Became Buddies: 5 stars

*Enoshima, Island of Dreams: 5 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 210 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.