Manga
‘Chainsaw Man’ is a Raw Exploration of Male Victimization and Abuse
‘Chainsaw Man’ is one of the most successful manga and anime series of the past couple years. When praised, people often mention its stellar character writing, scratchy art, and incredible action sequences.
However, there is something so much deeper that I don’t think many people pick up on — and so many more should. It frustrates me to no end how Denji, the protagonist of the series, is portrayed by the public: A horny gremlin that is motivated entirely by women he finds attractive. I will tell you now that this is absolutely not the case. ‘Chainsaw Man’ is a tragedy that hyper-emphasizes manipulation and abuse, with poor Denji at its epicenter.
Just to preface, this article will contain spoilers for the first part of the ‘Chainsaw Man’ manga.
To be completely fair, this wild misinterpretation can be attributed to the fact that the anime — which is often much more mainstream than the manga — does not cover many of the arcs that further explore the gritty cycle of death and abuse that the manga does, and that could be the case, but ultimately, more people need to appreciate the tragic masterpiece that this series truly is.
‘Chainsaw Man’ sort of bait-and-switches its readers/viewers by initially setting its plot up as a success story.
The world of ‘Chainsaw Man’ revolves around this strange symbiosis between humans and devils. Hell in the ‘Chainsaw Man’ universe is a real, tangible place where devils spawn from. A devil is a manifestation of a human fear of something, and the more people that are afraid of that specific thing makes its respective devil stronger. The strongest devils would be something like the War Devil or the Darkness Devil, or even the Snake Devil.
When a devil dies in Hell, it is sent back to Earth and when the devil dies on Earth it is sent to Hell and the cycle repeats. However, some devils decide to get uppity and begin to attack humans on Earth. Devil Hunters are required to get rid of them. They do this by forming contracts with other devils in order to gain their powers.
Our boy Denji is a 16-year-old who is forced to pay off his no-good father’s debt. It turns out his dad had connections to the Yakuza and when he died, Denji was saddled with the debt. He is contracted by the Yakuza to become a Devil Hunter to pay off what his father owes, and his life is miserable. This lifestyle has impoverished him so badly that he’s forced to sell one of his eyes, eats nothing but a slice of bread a day, and lives in a run-down shack that is open to the elements.
His only comfort is his friend Pochita, the Chainsaw Devil who allows him to take on the devils that the Yakuza forces him to kill.
After years and years of this torment, the Yakuza finally decides to be done with him through the power of the Zombie Devil. Denji is weak, powerless, and for once can’t fight his way out of his situation.
Denji is grasping at his last strands of life, utterly defeated. He had dreamed of getting a girlfriend, being able to eat, being able to stay in a house that was protected from the winds and rain.
But dreaming was okay to him. As long as he was able to dream he was happy.
But death isn’t coming. In an act of noble sacrifice, Pochita replaces Denji’s heart and Denji becomes a human-devil hybrid:
The all-powerful Chainsaw Man.
Denji eventually gets saved from the advancing Zombie Devil by a mysterious woman: Makima. She’s a leader of a devil hunter agency and contracts Denji to work under her. For once in his life, Denji gets to eat as much as he wants, stay under a clean and safe roof, and has a shot at a normal life. He’s instantly smitten with her, head over heels in love. He’ll die for her.
For the first time, Denji gets a normal, happy life. In fact he’s happier than he’s ever been. He has two friends, Aki and Power who are near and dear to him, and his skills as Chainsaw Man allow him to dispatch devils with ease.
His life couldn’t be easier. He’s finally done it. He’s achieved peak life. He crawled his way out of the gutters and made himself a successful, happy life.
Ultimately though, Denji does have a goal besides the vague definition of a “better life”. He wants love. He wants to have his first kiss, experience having a girlfriend, and if he’s lucky, even lose his virginity. And this is where things start to go downhill.
Denji begins to pursue what he perceives as romantic. A subplot occurs where he makes a deal with a coworker that he’ll get to touch her boobs if he beats a devil, and the prospect of romantic connection deeply excites him and motivates him to take down said devil, but when he finally does, it’s underwhelming and isn’t romantic at all. He also is advanced on by a drunk coworker that he manages to turn down because he doesn’t see any real love there, but he seriously considers it.
This is sad enough on its own. Denji has been so isolated from any form of affection he has no definition of what love even is so he just pursues whatever he decides to think is romantic to delude himself into believing he is loved. That’s hard-hitting, and tragic in itself. But it gets worse.
His knight in shining armor, the one who pulled him from the rubble and saved him from his debt, uses him. Makima, the one person Denji can never refuse, plays him like a fiddle. She makes it seem like he has a chance with her, asking him out to the movies, on small dates, and even kisses him. In exchange, Denji hunts devils, kills people, walks to the ends of the Earth to appease her. He’s just a dog on her leash.
But Makima has a secret. She’s the Control Devil, and plans to remake the world using Denji’s powers as the Chainsaw Man. She kills his friends as Denji hopelessly watches.
His life is torn to pieces with the loss of everyone close to him. And the all-powerful, unbeatable Chainsaw Man can only watch.
Makima has manipulated him, strung him along with the promise of false love to make herself the most important person in his life, the one above all, and all just to use his powers. She’s used the false pretense of artificial love to make him numb, to make him docile, to groom him into her ultimate weapon.
The surge of emotion is too much. He almost gives up, but finds the resolve to take on Makima. He challenges her to single combat and wins through the most depressing trick in the book:
He separates what remains of Pochita from his body and Makima attacks it, while Denji catches her off guard while she’s distracted, ending her reign of terror with one stroke. Denji managed this monumental feat off of a single assumption: That she would attack Pochita because she never saw the real Denji — just the legendary Chainsaw Man.
‘Chainsaw Man’ is just a story about a boy looking for his way in life, only to be duped, groomed, and victimized at every turn.
Tragic, isn’t it? I think the overall narrative is very much straightforward in the fact that it’s a tragedy — but I want to touch on why I think it’s so often misread.
For one, it’s important to note that Denji actively pursues romantic and sexual actions, which makes him seem annoying to some. But it’s also important to recognize that Denji as a character is extremely attention starved. He can’t comprehend what love truly means. He’s been forced to claw his way to the top through negotiation and that’s how he views even love: a transaction. This can lead to creepy and even unsettling interactions which at a surface level, can in fact paint Denji as the bad guy.
It is also evident that ‘Chainsaw Man’ is an action-driven series, with an emphasis on gore and over-the-top action fights. These sequences can distract some from the undertones and real issues the series tackles, which to an extent is understandable.
Despite the fact that the fanbase can be particularly awful at times and the series tackles dark and gritty topics, ‘Chainsaw Man’ is absolutely worth a read. It is the most nuanced depiction of manipulation and abuse I’ve seen in a long while, and truly will make you think.
