When I picked up Chainsaw Man I quickly noticed how it differed from other shounen manga. Shounen is usually comprised of its classic troupes, maybe the most essential being a determined protagonist with a specific long-term goal, unwavering in their morals and conviction to achieve it. At first, you wouldn't think this description fits our main character, Denji. But as I made my way through each arc and watched his short-term goals change it became pretty clear how they were all more or less the same. His motivations remained consistent no matter how many times he changed the goal post: connection and love.
From what we see of Denji's childhood, neglected and abused by his alcoholic father, starving and selling his body parts to pay off his debt, we can tell that he has not been socialized appropriately as children should be. He's forced into the adult world without the tools and maturity to accompany it. He's never gone to school, doesn't have friends his age, rations one slice of bread for meals on a good day. And so his motivation throughout the series becomes a lot more tragic when we realize how naive he is for a 16-year-old due to this unstable upbringing, and slowly watch as that naivety is taken advantage of when he tries to get close to people.
Chainsaw Man is a story about how childhood shapes how we perceive the world and the people around us. It's about what you think love looks like when you’ve never had it before and how dangerous that misidentification can be.
You know it's funny... when you look at someone through rose-coloured glasses all the red flags just look like flags.
— "Yes And." Bojack Horseman, created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, season 5, episode 10, Tornante Television, 2015.
Makima begins her work on Denji from the moment she meets him. His first act after surviving the Zombie Devil and meeting Makima is to fulfill Pochita's wish and be hugged by her. She indulges him but immediately asserts herself as an authoritative figure. Her dominance, in retrospect, is extremely oppressive, but Denji, who has never been on the receiving end of kindness in his life, is instantly infatuated with her and willing to follow her anywhere. She gives him a meal, a place to sleep, a job and says that whether he likes the work or not, he'll have to do it unless he wants to be executed by Public Safety just for existing as a human-devil hybrid. Denji, vulnerable and ecstatic, starts his new life in Utopia. He's met a pretty girl, he's been hugged, he has food to eat and somewhere to live, and they're not even going to kill him! Sounds like a good deal, he ought to be grateful.
Denji won't bite the hand that feeds him, even as Makima puts his life in danger again and again and again. When we are first introduced to his squad leader at work, Aki, I have to admit that I sided with Denji's argument and was annoyed at Aki for trying to invalidate his reasons for working as a devil-hunter. But as I progressed through the manga I realized how right he really was, especially when Reze is introduced and Denji confides in her. Basic living standards aren't something to be grateful for, especially when you're a child, it's a given right everyone deserves. Denji is now in debt to Makima for it, yet he doesn't express resentment but gratitude.
The juxtaposition between Denji's two crushes, Makima and Reze, is interesting. They both immediately pick up on his infatuation with them and exploit it for their own goals, to steal the Chainsaw Devil's heart. But unlike Makima, the time Denji and Reze spent together was genuine at least on some level. So he's fallen "in love" again, he's betrayed and nearly killed. But when he gets the chance he saves Reze and suggests they run away together, to live for themselves and have a normal childhood away from their obligations to their governments. He was willing to throw his entire new life away for human connection.
“This is also the message of classic horror: if the monster learns appropriate restraint, it becomes an angel.”
— Kirk J. Schneider, Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale
The Darkness Devil wrecks havoc and Power is severely traumatized. The tone takes a dreadful but intimate shift in the series, and it feels like the beginning of the end. However, despite the main characters' major loss, this period of the story confirms that Denji has gotten what he's always been looking for. If their dynamic was presented as a lighthearted comedy before, the Gun Devil arc shows how Aki and Power have truly become his family. Their love is defined in their worst moments, like Denji turning down a trip with Makima to take care of Power, or him and Aki taking turns calming her down from nightmares. They're at a point where they'd most likely die for each other. The three of them are alive and together, and it's more than enough.
Makima snaps her fingers, and it all falls apart. Just as easily as she took him out of poverty and gave him these bonds, she turns Aki into the Gun fiend (tragic and ironic) and has him fight Denji in a hybrid-devil Hunger Games. She kills Power in the next chapter and convinces him that he's her accomplice. The "Bang" is when she reveals that this was always her endgame, she had built him up so she could break him when it was necessary, and all Denji can do is lay in her apartment and submit, as obedient and thoughtless as her dogs.
The confrontation is the first time we see Denji stand up to his executioner. In order to kill her, he has to wake up and come to terms with the fact that this girl has nothing but apathy for him, that he was being used from the beginning, just like so many other people in his life. He realizes that not only did Makima not care for him, she never saw him at all. Denji theorizes that like a predator, she can't recognize faces but only memorize the scent of those she's interested in. We experience their fight at the graveyard from Makima's perspective, unbeknownst to her that the person she's fighting isn't even Denji, but another body he placed Pochita in. She takes the bait and it shatters any doubt Denji or us readers have.
Although Denji knows he has to kill her, he still loves her. He apologizes before ripping into her with his chainsaw and vows to bear her sins with her by consuming her so the two of them become one, even if there's a chance it will kill him. I questioned the scene at first, wondering if Denji learned anything after all, but was relieved to find out that wasn't the case.
The series comes full circle with the introduction of Nayuta, the new Control Devil. In her and Makima I drew a comparison to Denji. He and Makima were driven by the same desire from a lack of love and affection and went down two paths: abuser and victim. With Nayuta, a young child, alone, who will probably be wanted by the government as Denji and other devils are, there is a chance to break the cycle and give a kid the childhood and future they deserve.
Waking up from a dream from Pochita back in that dumpster from the beginning, Denji's first action is to fulfill Makima's wish of equal relationships and family and hug Nayuta. They stay in a nice apartment and eat tons of sliced bread. Denji goes to school and neither of them is alone. They live for themselves. Denji smiles at her, and asks nothing in return.
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