Fujimoto Says Weekly Serialization Left Him Without Time To Plan Chainsaw Man
The interview puts the ending's lack of closure down to how the manga was made rather than a deliberate narrative turn, which is a different explanation than the essay-length fan readings the finale drew after chapter 232.
Reporting from 1 source: Animehunch.
Tatsuki Fujimoto told director Kohei Kadowaki that drawing 19 pages a week left no room to write a plot before storyboarding, so he went straight to the name and trusted the characters. He said he enjoys things slipping out of his control. In an earlier Da Vinci Magazine interview, he said he wanted the manga to leave readers with the feeling he got from The Big Lebowski.
Fujimoto's account of the schedule is specific: 19 pages every seven days, no time for a plot, so he moved straight to storyboards. He contrasts that with one-shots, where he writes a plot before the name and has room to reflect.
Rather than resisting the loss of control, he said he rolls with it, and that a writer who cannot enjoy that cannot survive serialization. In a previous Da Vinci Magazine interview he pointed to the ending of The Big Lebowski, which he called pretty meaningless, as the feeling he wanted Chainsaw Man to leave behind.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.