Now that a Chainsaw Man anime has been announced, the merchandise floodgates have been opened. Mark my words: you’ll be sick of it by the time 2021 is out.
There’s already Denji and Power nendoroids on the way from Good Smile, and a Pochita plushie was on sale at Jump Festa 2021 Online (good luck getting one before they sold out). This is because an anime means that a manga has mixed-media potential, and we’ve already seen dozens of Weekly Shonen Jump series explode after getting an anime in terms of goods before: My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and Jujutsu Kaisen, to name but a few.
If a massive amount of Chainsaw Man merch is about to descend on us like a tsunami, we want it to be cool. Tatsuki Fujimoto’s series is renowned for pushing the boundaries, so we want any merchandise based on it to honor this. Here are some of our rough ideas.
Figuring out Something Interesting for Chainsaw Man Figures
Sticking with Jujutsu Kaisen for a second, some of the first figures that the series got were from S.H. Figuarts. Bandai Spirits’ line of poseable figures sell well as collectors love to use and abuse them, using them in inventive ways to birth such trends as Creepy Woody. That figure is made by Kaiyodo, but the point still stands.
If part of Chainsaw Man’s merch tsunami is going to be some of these figures, then we want them to be a little more left-field. Sure, a Chainsaw Man or Katana Man figure is pretty obvious, but how about something a bit more interesting? Santa Claus from the International Assassins arc is one such choice: her joints made out of different doll bodies could work well in S.H. Figuarts form, and you could even make her taller and smaller by swapping them out.
The Darkness Devil could also make for a pretty cool figure. Again appearing in the International Assassins arc (it’s one of my favorites), this fearsome antagonist has a unique appearance, being made up of different bodies and possessing multiple limbs. Combined with the inevitable Makima figure, you could even recreate that double-page spread where his dismembered limbs may or may not spell out her name (I’m sure Bandai would also love to sell us all the stands needed to hold them up).
T-Shirts: Gotta Go Meta
Another type of Chainsaw Man merchandise that is obviously going to get made is t-shirts. Indeed, some of them already exist: COSPA already released two designs for Jump Festa 2021 Online, and this is just the beginning. If Chainsaw Man apparel is going to flood the market, we want the designs to be just a little bit more interesting than a simple character design.
One of COSPA’s designs is, admittedly, exactly that: a picture of Denji transformed as Chainsaw Man with Makima in the background. Pretty standard. The other one, however, is exactly what we’re looking for: a deep cut from the series, taking Captain Kishibe’s line ‘Makima is listening’ and placing it behind a barely visible image of the character.
Even so, there’s still a ways to go. We want more Chainsaw Man apparel to really lean into the more bonkers aspects of the series, creating unique designs that both capture the insanity of the source material and prove eye-catching. One idea could be something inspired by Cosmo’s ‘Total Halloween’ ability, revealed at the end of the International Assassins arc: I can totally picture a full-graphic tee that replicates the full-page ‘Halloween.’
Another idea, if a bit morbid, is something themed around the Gun Devil destruction scene in chapter 76. Here, we see the Devil’s victims as a cold, objective bystander, listed like in a status report. You could, again, make a pretty cool full-graphic tee out of this.
Denji’s Head Needs the Talking Toy Treatment
Move over, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: we’re not about to let you monopolize the talking toy space.
Remember those swords with built-in speakers and voice lines from Power Rangers that used to dominate store shelves back when we were kids? Apparently, they’re still on sale, but I wouldn’t know since I haven’t gone into a toy shop in about a decade.
In any case, we’re thinking something similar for a potential piece of Chainsaw Man merchandise: using Denji’s head as the transformed Chainsaw Man, you could create an interesting talking chainsaw toy that definitely isn’t meant for kids.
This is because the kind of lines that it would scream would be ‘I wanna feel some boobs!’ and ‘I WANNA HAVE SEEEEEX,’ so it wouldn’t exactly be suited for the playground. It might provoke some interesting parent-teacher conversations, that’s for sure, but it’d be perfectly suited for the series.
Kobeni’s Car Deserves a Model Kit
But enough about all of these unimportant and superfluous characters. We all know that the real protagonist of Chainsaw Man is Kobeni’s car, and it’d be ridiculous not to see it given the merch treatment. So, I’d like to propose that it be turned into a model kit.
Why a model kit? Well, it could work as a pre-built figure, but that wouldn’t do it justice. Kobeni bought it with her own money, after all, and quite likes it, so such affection can only be replicated by building something with your own two hands.
Assembling a Kobeni’s car model kit would be an entirely different experience than receiving it pre-built; such a product would be suspiciously absent if it did not appear at some point in the coming deluge of Chainsaw Man merch.
To be honest, I’d even put money on this being in development right now. Kobeni’s car came in seventh in the series’ first popularity poll, so Shueisha and other partners know that this is a popular ‘character.’ And if a Cup Noodle can get a model kit, then so can this iconic car.
F Is for Family… Burger
Okay, so this one isn’t really a piece of merch per se, but would make for an interesting Chainsaw Man collaboration.
One of my favorite chapters possibly ever is Chainsaw Man chapter 85, where Denji goes to eat a hamburger at the fictional Family Burger fast-food chain. Kobeni just happens to work there, leading to one of the funniest, most horrifying chapters ever published in Weekly Shonen Jump: Kobeni keeps tripping over, ruining the terrifying Devil’s highly anticipated meal and causing a bunch of her co-workers to be killed as a result.
Wouldn’t you like to see this chapter honored in a collaboration with Mos Burger or the like? This could very easily be achieved with a couple of collaboration menu items, such as the Family Burger that appears in the chapter, as well as special outfits for the staff. They could even then do the dance, if they really wanted to.
What are some of your ideas for cool Chainsaw Man merch? What sort of things do you want to see in the future? Let us know via social media or our Discord server, linked below.