Who brought a revolver-head to the chainsaw-head fight?! In the dark cyberpunk world of No Guns Life, human beings have been modified and turned into living weapons.

Inui Juzou lives with a revolver for a head, and no memories of his life before becoming an “Extend.” In the wake of war, Juzou makes a living by handling murders, brawls, and all manners of strange cases involving Extends. When Juzou encounters a young child who can telekinetically control Extends, he begins unraveling the truth behind this distorted world—and the reality of his own transformation.

Beyond the obvious body-parts-as-weapons similarities, Chainsaw Man and No Guns Life both share a main character with a reasonably simple outlook on life. Denji just wants food in his belly and to hug a woman; Juzou wants to smoke cigarettes and stay out of trouble. These are simple, easy motivations that are all the more endearing when the main characters must force themselves out of their comfort zones.

No Guns Life isn’t as gory as Chainsaw Man, but the action is tight and the artwork is impressive, particularly when depicting the broken-down future. This isn’t a gleaming utopia; it’s a cyberpunk hell. But the story is also pretty humorous too, with Juzou being surprisingly bashful at times—just don’t ask us how a revolver can blush, okay?

Chainsaw Man’s mangaka, Fujimoto Tatsuki, penned another highly-praised series before Denji burst onto the pages. We’re talking about Fire Punch, the oh-so-depressing tragedy about an Ice Age and the burden of vengeance.

The post-apocalyptic world of Fire Punch has been turned to snow by the “Ice Witch.” The main character Agni is a “Blessed,” possessing a regenerative power alongside the ability to turn himself into a literal human inferno. The layered metaphors of mankind escaping the ice age and seeking the flame of the future feel heavier than anything in Chainsaw Man, and Fujimoto’s work here is definitely not for the faint of heart. The amount of physical and psychological torture that Agni endures is heartbreaking, all while he desperately tries to cling to the last shred of his humanity.

By comparison, Chainsaw Man comes off as the humorous, light-hearted cousin to Fire Punch, and that’s honestly saying something. But if you’ve got the stomach to endure Fujimoto’s hyper-violent world, you’ll find an engaging story about god, man, the devil, and the strength of the human spirit.

If you really liked the gory, blood-soaked battles of Chainsaw Man, then you’ll enjoy this manga adaptation of the light novel Juni Taisen: Zodiac War.

Every 12 years, 12 fighters assume the form of the Chinese zodiac and engage in a battle royale to the death. The grand victor is granted a singular wish—with no restrictions. Despite being a scant four volumes long, Juni Taisen: Zodiac War is packed full of dramatic tension and conflict. With each of the fighters forced into taking a poison pill before the start of the battle, the 12 zodiac fighters form—and betray—alliances as the fight shifts.

In reality, the zodiac war is a ‘proxy war,’ fought on behalf of nations, and each fighter has their own backstory that’s led them to fight for their clan, their country, or simply for themselves. There’s a psychological element at play here, making the series feel like the closest thing we’re going to get to a proper Fate/stay night manga.

The artwork is similar to Chainsaw Man, with bloody conflicts, gory deaths, and a messy art style that still manages to capture the important details. We definitely recommend Juni Taisen: Zodiac War for an edge-of-your-seat thriller!

One of the more light-hearted entries on the list, Kaiju No. 8 has been a popular choice around Honey’s Anime since its debut in February this year. Throwing the spotlight on a 32-year-old man past his prime, the main character Kafka Hibino gets a new lease on life when he gains the ability to transform into a super-powered kaiju.

In a world where the government is doing everything it can to destroy monstrous kaiju wrecking cities, Kafka decides to live a double life by joining the military and attempting to live up to his childhood dreams. Much like Denji in Chainsaw Man, Kafka has simple goals—to protect the girl he loves, in a world where death lurks around every corner.

If you like the off-beat humor in Chainsaw Man, then you’ll absolutely love the dark comedy of Kaiju No. 8. Despite the serious-sounding premise, the cast of this series is full of hilarious oddballs, and there are lots of jokes to be found between the “middle-aged” Kafka and his much-younger comrades.

We highly recommend Kaiju No. 8 for readers wanting a good laugh, and for anyone who wishes they could have that second chance at their old dreams!

Technically we’re thinking about both Tokyo Ghoul and its sequel series, Tokyo Ghoul: re here, but we’ll only talk about the first series to avoid spoilers.

Much like Fire Punch above, at a certain point, Tokyo Ghoul makes you wonder if we’re only here to suffer. In a warped version of Japan where flesh-eating “ghouls” prey on the innocent, one young man’s life is changed when he’s surgically grafted with a ghoul’s body parts, making him half-ghoul.

The main character Ken Kaneki is a wholesome little bookworm, but undergoes traumatic events that erode his humanity and threaten to consume his identity entirely. Meanwhile, the ghoul and human worlds are thrown into conflict as power struggles form within both the ghoul society and the police force tasked with destroying it.

It’s not just the blood and gore in Tokyo Ghoul that has us thinking of Chainsaw Man, but also the masterful artwork. In our opinion. Ishida is one of the greatest mangaka of our current generation, and his work—oftentimes painting entire pages black—is impactful and bold. That’s not to say Fujimoto is lacking, of course; between Chainsaw Man and Tokyo Ghoul, there are plenty of similarities, particularly in the extremely bloody battles.

Much like Chainsaw Man, Tokyo Ghoul is also split into two parts, with the 16-volume Tokyo Ghoul: re being the sequel and ‘proper’ ending to the series—so all up, that’s 30 volumes of ghoulish horror!

Of all the recommendations on our list, Jujutsu Kaisen is probably now the most famous, especially considering the success of the anime produced by MAPPA. (It seems Chainsaw Man’s anime adaptation will be in good hands if Jujutsu Kaisen is anything to go by!)

When high-schooler Yuji Itadori swallows a “cursed finger,” he unwittingly becomes the vessel for an ancient curse named Ryomen Sukuna: a legendary being who can only be killed by having all of his body parts absorbed by a vessel—and then the vessel must be exorcized.

Following the death of his grandfather, Yuji seeks to “die a good death” and resolves himself to practice the art of Jujutsu to find Sukuna’s body parts and eventually kill the rogue curse for good. Yuji is soon joined by a colorful cast of quirky friends—but Jujutsu Kaisen is not a series to be taken lightly.

The curses in this world are much like the devils of Chainsaw Man—although some are mindless, many are scheming and all-powerful. Jujutsu Kaisen quickly becomes a bleak struggle for survival between humans and curses, all while constantly questioning the nature of humanity itself.

All that said, however, Jujutsu Kaisen is probably the manga most like Chainsaw Man. Denji and Yuji share a simple, easy-to-empathize-with goal in life, and neither of them are particularly smart protagonists. Their clumsy attempts at friendship, underpinned by a genuine desire to be a good person, make them all the more human despite their inhuman abilities.