Although "Edgerunners" has already finished its last episode, its popularity and recognition still don't seem to decline.
This is also because Ren, the author of "Edgerunners", gained popularity due to his imbalanced personality at the book signing and the "Subway Judge" incident after the signing.
In the manga industry, it's common for a work to be famous, but the mangaka not so much.
Some mangakas even have popular works, but lack popularity or fame themselves.
In short, it's common for mangakas to be less famous than their works.
But "Edgerunners" is different from Ren. Now, Ren is as famous as "Edgerunners".
A flying video, a book signing video, and a subway judge video, plus the neurotic plot of "Edgerunners".
Ren had crowned himself with the title of mental patient and mad genius, and due to the setting of "Edgerunners", he was nicknamed "Cyber Maniac".
At that time, Ren presented his new manga, "Chainsaw Man", and almost perfectly connected "Edgerunners" with the serialization of "Manga World Gogo".
And due to the popularity of "Edgerunners", the first episode of "Chainsaw Man" appeared on the cover of the magazine.
It also read: "The new work "Chainsaw Man" by the new manga genius Silverhand returns! Serialized!"
Sakura held this issue of "Manga World Gogo" magazine. Although Ren had started drawing the manuscript for "Chainsaw Man" a long time ago,
it was her first time seeing the work.
On the magazine's cover, a humanoid monster with chainsaws on its head and hands seemed to stand out with countless enemy corpses beneath its feet.
'Is this... the protagonist of Silverhand's new manga?'
Sakura's eyes sparkled with curiosity and then she opened the page where "Chainsaw Man" was published.
However, the start of the manga's plot was shocking like a lightning bolt.
A yellow-haired boy with a hedgehog head and an eye patch walked on the wide road and said: "Chopping wood, I can earn 3,000 yen a month~".
"The kidney I sold before cost 60,000 yen".
"My right eye cost 20,000 yen".
"I sold one testicle... how much did you sell it for? It seems less than 10,000 yen".
"And I still owe 1.82 million yen to others".
The initial thunderstrike hit. 'Is the protagonist of "Chainsaw Man" that miserable at the beginning?' He directly sold his own organs to pay off his debts, and talking about kidneys is easy, but he sold his right eye and one of his testicles.
'What the hell is this?' Then Sakura saw that in the manga there was another orange puppy with a small chainsaw on its head.
"Woof!"
"I know, I know! Pochita, hurry!" the blond-haired boy said to the puppy Pochita.
"Huh? Pochita? Pochita?"
Sakura was confused.
'Ren... drew Pochita?'
'Then, this protagonist named Denji... was he drawn by Ren based on himself?'
'Since Ren drew both Pochita and himself,'
'would he draw her too?''What role does she play in this manga?'
'Could it be...?'
Sakura's pretty face blushed. 'Could she be the female lead?''The female lead of Silverhand's manga?'
She continued reading with some anticipation, and then she learned about the worldview of "Chainsaw Man".
This is a world where devils exist, but this world has no angels or God to save them.
Humans must rely on the power of devils to fight them.
And Pochita is one of them and should be considered a "relatively weak" devil.
The male protagonist of this manga, Denji, also has a truly devastating start.
Indeed, everyone thinks David in "Edgerunners" is already quite miserable. He comes from a single-parent family and is supported by his mother, Gloria, who works in municipal corpse transportation.
His mother died later, leaving David alone.
But he didn't expect that the male protagonist, Denji, drawn by Ren this time, would be even more miserable.
Not only did he have no father or mother, but he also had to work for unscrupulous gangs to pay off the huge debt his father left him.
Not only did he work hard and fight devils, but he also had to sell his organs to pay off his debts, and his food and lodging were miserable.
His biggest dream was to eat bread with jam every day? And... he dreamed of being with a woman before he died...
ahem, ahem.
Putting this aside, Denji was truly...
miserable, too miserable.
Fortunately, Denji also raised a devil puppy, Pochita, so they could rely on each other. Also thanks to Pochita, he had the ability to fight weaker devils.
But... he still didn't live like a human. The gangs only ruthlessly exploited him, and even those scoundrels provoked him into swallowing cigarette butts
on the spot for fun, and he did it without hesitation.
Just for the one thousand yen the other party gave him, Denji and Pochita were able to buy a few more slices of bread this week...
and Denji had no dignity and did it like a dog.
But despite obeying the gangster's orders and not resisting,
Denji was betrayed by the boss, who called him to a warehouse in the middle of the night.
Then he was attacked by zombie devil puppets who stabbed him and Pochita. A large wave of puppets surged and dismembered Denji.
Denji hugged Pochita and wanted to escape from there.
At the same time, he roared in his heart unwillingly: "I'm already content just imagining a normal life in my dreams..."
"But even this wish is a luxury?!"
But his roar could not save him or Pochita. With extreme pain, Denji was killed and dismembered.
Then he was thrown into the trash as if he were garbage.
But Pochita, who had also been dismembered, suddenly moved in the trash.
At the same time, Denji and Pochita's past memories suddenly interrupted her.
"Pochita... maybe one day I'll die fighting the devil..."
"In that case, I'll only worry about you, Pochita."
"You could starve or be hunted by other devil hunters."
"I heard that some devils can possess the bodies of the dead."
"If Pochita can do that, I'm willing to give my body to her."
"As long as I die, those gangs won't chase me anymore, and then you can leave here..."
"You'll live and die as always."
"My dream depends on you."
Denji held Pochita in his arms and said expectantly.
...
Dream again...
"Edgerunners" fans are well familiar with the word "dream", and it could even be said that everyone suffers from traumatic stress.
Sakura felt even worse.
However, Pochita did not occupy Denji's body as he had told her, but instead decided to sacrifice herself and save him.
- - - - -
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