i miss early part 2 asa, as a lonely and awkward woman myself i loved her portrayal but now i don't care as much for her
Asa’s writing in early Chainsaw Man felt more layered because we were constantly in her head, navigating her strange, personal thought processes. Something like her talk with Yuko about killing her neighbor, or the full page of her thinking happy people should just die— objectively, based on the current writing, Fujimoto would not write such important, personal moments. He would just have her say out loud “Sometimes I wished happy people would die… but I don’t feel that way anymore.”
Her internal dialogue revealed a character who was deeply insecure yet weirdly self-absorbed—someone whose “arrogance” was a defense mechanism for her depression and alienation. The back-and-forth exchanges with similarly weird people like Yuko or even Haruka highlighted her awkward, rambling way of viewing the world, making her feel like a fully realized person speaking to other fully realized people.
Now, though, she seems reduced to a plot tool, existing primarily to amplify Denji’s angst. It’s not that she’s been entirely stripped of personality, but the focus has shifted so dramatically that she feels less like her own character and more like a reactor to his personal struggles. It’s honestly hard to see this Asa having those strange, erratic thoughts that the early one did. She is just so, so, so flat. And all her conversations are so, so, so flat. The nuance of her perspective—the narcissism, the bitterness, the vulnerability—has taken a backseat to her place in Denji’s life. Dear God, even her relationship with Yoru is portrayed as the most nothingburger of all time. How can you even do that?
I’m just so disappointed with this character. Isn’t that strange? I can say a lot “I didn’t end up liking her” but no— I did. I love early Asa. She is a character in a story and serves it well. Late Asa is not the type of character I would spare a second glance towards. She is so banal. It’s almost like Fujimoto lost his endearment for her.