Chainsaw Man Buddy Stories is an anthology light novel set in the Chainsaw Man universe focusing on friendships and partnerships. Written by Sakaku Hishikawa, it was released in Japan in 2021 and in English in July 2023. The collection consists of the following four tales:
- The Great Detective Power and Her Assistant Denji: Power, enthralled with her favorite anime Detective Magician, is sent with Denji to investigate disappearances at a remote mountain mansion. The Blood Fiend relishes this opportunity to roleplay as a genius detective and rope along Denji as her assistant, causing headaches for all involved.
- Nine Years' Savor: Quanxi and Kishibe, having worked together for nine years, set out on a Devil-hunting mission with a new recruit.
- The Day They Became Buddies: Aki recalls his first assignment together with Himeno where they hunt down a Fiend causing periodic disappearances in an apartment complex.
- Enoshima, Island of Dreams: Denji, Aki, Power and Makima finally set out on their dream trip to Enoshima to enjoy the sunshine and scenery, but things aren't quite as they seem.
In order, the stories are as follows:
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All stories
- Demoted to Extra:
- Makima only briefly appears in the first story, to send Denji and Power on their mission and later to catch up with them afterwards. Subverted in that, while she does play a larger role in the final story, it's All Just a Dream and the real Makima doesn't appear at all.
- Kobeni only briefly appears at the very end of the final story, and doesn't get any spoken lines.
- While Pochita was already something of an Advertised Extra in the main series, he doesn't directly appear at all in this anthology.
- Lighter and Softer: While acts of graphic violence still occur, the overall focus of the stories is on partnerships and friendships, and no major character deaths occur (not even for newly introduced characters) except for devils being hunted and backstory deaths. The one time the novel delves back into the psychological trauma that defined much of the manga is at the end of the final story, where Denji wakes up from his dream and Makima's Hope Crusher tendencies are pointed out to emphasize how bleak his situation is.
The Great Detective Power and Her Assistant Denji
- Body Horror: At the end of the story, Denji emerges from the defeated House Devil with the right side of his body digested and mutilated by the monstrous mansion. He's still excited to see Makima and gives everyone a peace sign.
- Chewing the Scenery: Power absolutely relishes the opportunity to emulate Detective Magician, despite literally nobody else being in on the act.
- Genius Loci: The Devil Hunters' target is the House Devil - the house that they'd been staying in the whole time. Its layout corresponds to its anatomical structure, with each of the rooms of the house serving a different biological function.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: As usual, Power insists that she's an absolute genius despite being one of the dumbest characters in the series.
- Periphery Hatedom: In-universe, Denji looks down on Detective Magician and calls it a "cartoon for babies".
- The Pig-Pen: Subverted for Power, as the story finally details her hygienic habits later on in the series; she bathes every three days and flushes half the time, which still isn't great but is an improvement from her nonexistent habits from when Denji first met her.
Nine Years' Savor
- Love Triangle: Kishibe has a crush on Quanxi, Quanxi has a crush on the new recruit Minami, and Minami has a crush on Kishibe.
The Day They Became Buddies
Enoshima, Island of Dreams
- All Just a Dream: As if the title wasn't enough of a hint, the entire story is a dream that Denji is having near the end of Part 1 when hiding from Makima.
- Breather Episode: Unlike the other stories, which focus on various devil-hunting expeditions, this story follows a peaceful celebratory vacation held by the four main characters until the end, where Denji wakes up from his dream and we're stuck in the bleak "real world" where Aki and Power are dead and Makima has revealed herself as the Big Bad.
- Lighter and Softer: Despite the gut-punch twist at the end, this is the only Chainsaw Man story to not feature any violence directly occurring, only using it to set up the context of the "real world" and Denji's mission to kill Makima. Justified, as most of the story is a dream that Denji is having.
- Mythology Gag: Despite Denji never seeing her in the outfit and hence not really having a basis for picturing her in it, Makima wears the same black sundress (now labeled as navy blue) that she wore during the Gun Devil battle.
