Warning: Contains spoilers for Chainsaw Man.Chainsaw Man has managed to resonate with people around the world, and that’s lead toa piece of Adventure Time-style fanart from one of the latter show's storyboard artists. Ever since its debut in 2018, Chainsaw Man has received praise for its stylistic action and storytelling with a clear influence from Western media. The anime took that further by expanding it to an even wider audience, and thanks to Studio MAPPA’s direction, the cinematic qualities of the series were able to be taken even further.
Among the many fans of Chainsaw Man is Ian Jones-Quartey, best known for creating OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes and for his work on Adventure Time and Cartoon Network's Steven Universe, and he recently celebrated that by drawing amazing crossover art between Chainsaw Man and Adventure Time which he released on Twitter. Not only is the art great, but it’s highly fitting for both Tatsuki Fujimoto’s influences and the characters featured in the art, itself. On the surface, it’s a simple drawing, but there actually appears to be a lot of thought put into every detail.
Chainsaw Man & Adventure Time Already Had A Big Connection
The best part about Ian Jones-Quartey’s Chainsaw Man fanart is that there was already an established connection between it and Adventure Time. In a 2020 interview for the French magazine ATOM, Tatsuki Fujimoto discussed some of his inspirations for Chainsaw Man, and he said that Denji and Pochita’s relationship was based on Finn and Jake’s relationship in Cartoon Network's Adventure Time (via Reddit). This, of course, was directly referenced by Jones-Quartey when he posted the art, and it shows that there was already an established connection that further enhances the quality of the art.
The idea of Denji and Pochita being based on Finn and Jake might come off as odd, but it makes more sense than initial appearances suggest. In addition to Denji and Pochita having similar color palettes to Finn and Jake, they also have a dynamic of being a boy and a magic dog who serve as each other’s primary support system in a world fraught with danger, albeit with Adventure Time being far lighter than Chainsaw Man. The parallels between the characters are clear as day, and that helps to sell Jones-Quartey’s art even further.
Chainsaw Man’s Villain Parallels 1 Of Adventure Time’s Heroes
Another interesting thing of note with Ian Jones-Quartey’s art is how it’s not difficult to draw parallels between Chainsaw Man's Makima and Princess Bubblegum. While Bubblegum was one of the central protagonists of Adventure Time, a big part of her character revolved around her being something of a manipulative tyrant who wasn’t afraid to hurt people to maintain order. Bubblegum became a nicer person in the later seasons, but that characterization still draws clear parallels to Makima, who spent the entirety of Chainsaw Man manipulating the cast to try and create her ideal world, so Bubblegum taking the place of Makima in Jones-Quartey’s art makes a lot of sense.
Something else of note with the parallels between Makima and Princess Bubblegum is how both characters had moments in their respective stories where they were turned into children. Bubblegum temporarily became a teenager after her body was destroyed by the Lich, and after Makima’s death at the end of part 1 of the Chainsaw Man manga, she was eventually reincarnated as Nayuta and adopted by Denji. Granted, Bubblegum becoming a teenager wasn’t the start of her becoming a good person in Adventure Time, but the parallel with Chainsaw Man still does a lot to elevate Ian Jones-Quartey’s art even further.
Source: Ian Jones-Quartey, ATOM