Tatsuki Fujimoto has undoubtedly made a name for himself these past few years. Between the global success of Chainsaw Man and other critically acclaimed works such as Goodbye, Eri, it's nice to see fans fully appreciate Fujimoto's talents. But what about his earlier works? Before Chainsaw Man is a series of books compiling the self-contained stories that Fujimoto wrote before the serialization of Chainsaw Man, and they paint a picture of how he has refined his writing style throughout the years.

I genuinely admire Fujimoto as a writer and an artist. He's one of the few modern-day mangakas who can imbue his works with a cinematic feel and give a lot of heart to seemingly simple and unconventional ideas. Whether those unconventional ideas are steeped in reality or the bizarrely supernatural doesn't matter. I always find myself walking away from his stories with a smile on my face. This is the most prevalent in the final two stories of this volume, “Nayuta of the Prophecy” and “Sisters.”

The former is about a young man looking after his demon sister that the world hates due to some vague apocalyptic prophecy. The dichotomy between how the world sees this little girl who talks in utter nonsense and how her brother tries to come to terms with the complicated feelings that such a situation gives him is engaging and ultimately makes for an incredibly sweet story. You can see how this one-shot might've laid the groundwork for some of the ideas found in Chainsaw Man – even the little girl's design feels very reminiscent of a recent character in that serialization. However, there is much more emphasis here on looking past the initial fears of the unknown to focus on other connections we can make with the people we love. Seeing the brother piece things together felt very satisfying.

But you don't need demons and world-ending stakes to communicate a message like that. Sometimes all you need is just two sisters that aren't good at communicating with each other. Surprisingly, I find the setup for “Sisters” a little harder to believe, given its more grounded approach, and there was a part of me constantly waiting for some twist at the end. However, “Sisters” definitely excels in its straightforwardness. A story of two sisters constantly misunderstanding each other while finding some common ground by the end doesn't leave room for compelling intrigue or exciting twists. Still, realism and slightly more detailed art direction added credence to the idea of “putting it all out there for the world to see.”

Speaking of art style, that probably stood out to me the most about the first story, “Mermaid Rhapsody.” It presents a relatively simple, if unorthodox, love story between a mermaid and a human in a world where the two species hate each other. I wouldn't exactly call it Romeo and Juliet, and I feel the story's intentions get a little bit muddled by the end. It can be hard to tell if the story is trying to be a straightforward romance, a coming-of-age story about a boy trying to connect with his mother, or a social commentary on racism. Maybe it's trying to be all three things at once, but the story doesn't have enough real estate, so it feels a bit bloated despite only being about 50 pages long. Still, “Mermaid Rhapsody” does manage to convey a similar sense of heart through its art direction with fascinating designs and layouts that invoke a strong feeling of loneliness and longing. I wouldn't be surprised if the premise is built around some of the layouts drawn, and I'd argue that the story is worth reading for the artwork alone.

That leaves us with the second story in the book, “Woke-Up-as-a-Girl-Syndrome,” which is undoubtedly the weakest of the four. Not only does its premise feel unimaginative, but I also couldn't help but walk away confused about what the overall message was supposed to be. This is a gender-bend story where apparently it's prevalent for people sometimes to wake up as a completely different gender, and there are some talks about how that might change a person's sexual orientation and brain chemistry. The story is loud, fast-paced, and at its worst, remarkably tone-deaf to the realities of sexual attraction. Out of the four stories in this volume, this is the one that aged the worst. It almost feels like the story is written like a comedy, but not only did I not laugh at some of Fujimoto's signature character outbursts here, but I also feel like the ending was supposed to invoke a similar heartwarming feeling between our two lead characters. Unfortunately, due to the small page count and how everything was juggled, “Woke-Up-as-a-Girl-Syndrome” was the least interesting.

That being said, this book's final two stories are worth the purchase alone. They represent the perfect summation of ideas in most of Fujimoto's works while highlighting the surprisingly down-to-earth nature of his themes. “Mermaid Rhapsody” isn't a bad story, just one that probably could've been better if it was allowed to flesh out its ideas a bit more, and while I didn't think much of “Woke-Up-as-a-Girl-Syndrome,” getting three decent-to-good stories for the price of this volume is still a good deal. If you're a fan of Chainsaw Man and are curious about Fujimoto's previous works, I think this is a volume worth adding to your collection.