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my-fancy-hat · 10 months

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I can definitely see the vision that Yoshida's perse Denji's personal arc and relationship can be read as the queer closeted experience too as some people have pointed out in these past chapters. Both who share the same feelings of disconnection with their environment, in addition to an inherited social ineptitude and naivety about what it really means to be normal, in which they assume that the origin of their frustration and sadness comes from their weirdness and not from the rejection that the same scheme who ignored them now inflicts on them. This uncertainty of knowing that, despite the fact that you are doing what the manual says, what the majority does, you still do not get the same results of satisfaction and personal fulfillment that everyone gets, is what increases this frustration and pilled anger against their surroundings and against each other; Yoshida has faith that this is the path to take, that the results are guaranteed by logic so tries to persuade Denji to trust on his good intentions, while Denji is submerged in an existential crisis from said normality that feels more transgressive than comforting, even though he already has what he wished for and maybe what Yoshida envy of him. Them forcing each other to do things they both know it won't make them feel any different from the usual apathy and sense of losing themselves in the progress with so little reward such as doing the expected of their asigned gender roles (men always wants girls, always wants sex) for example, only increasing their solitude as a result.

Like, we all know the obvious, that all of this comes from their respective backgrounds and duties, Denji as the extremely poor orphan kid forced into child-labor and, taking Yoshida's subtle wording, it makes you think he's not so different from him, like a child soldier raised by the state similar to Makima and Reze. These feelings of the uncomfortable normality that secures your place as the "social failure" despite your desperate attempts to prove yourself to be worthy of acceptance, are very common around a lot of groups incluiding the one mentioned on here, as on top of that is so valid to take in consideration the not so-subtle tension (and poor tasted jokes), misunderstanding but at the same time complicity between Yoshida and Denji makes this interpretation really interesting, to me.

#i dont ship them but i want to study them under a microscope bc their dynamic is cooking. gay or not lol #and pls dont say denji is happy beating the mob in last chapter thats the adrenaline and relief of pilled frustration coming out #we both know denji's face of happiness and thats not it #denji is capable of living outside of violence bc his happiest were with aki and power together #chainsaw man #csm #denji #yoshida hirofumi #yoshiden #this whole theme reminds me of that legendary asuka compulsive heterosexuality meta post so so good

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24hlevi · 1 year

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— faded

chainsaw man characters (denji, power, aki, makima, & reze) x gn!reader

summary: the csm characters as stoners

warnings: language, drug usage (marijuana), suggestive in aki's

this was an impulsive decision but i did it anyway while working on reqs so here

also one of power's hcs repeated idk why my phone hates me 🤷‍♂️

denji -

- would probably die the first time he smoked pot, no matter what he smoked it from he will most likely pass out and not wake up for a good few hours

- cannot figure out a pipe like at all he just can't seem to hold it the right way or how long he's supposed to hold his thumb and then inhale he just cannot do it

- his favorite method is probably a bong like power, the bigger the better for him, he probably threw up the first time though from accidentally hitting it too hard 💀

- denji is okay with joints or blunts, but if you ask him to light it he will say he's worried of burning his face off with a lighter that close (fair tbh) so you always have to do it unfortunately

- he is probably clingy when he's high like reze, except he just lays his whole body on top of you, mumbling out incoherent sentences you can't even understand which is mainly just him saying how he loves you

- denji also gets more jealous easily when he's high, if he sees anyone looking at you in the slightest way he will tell them to back off even if they aren't interested in you at all because he can't differentiate the two when he's high

- denji probably got SUPER paranoid the first time he smoked, thinking there was devils when it was just power or just overthinking everything possible

- he probably smokes with you every few days, not every day but quite often even if he does nothing to help contribute the costs like a fucking scavenger

power -

- does not understand the rules of smoking with others like ashing the blunt before passing it, hitting it twice, or anything it's honestly embarrassing

- she loves hotboxing in a car or just the bedroom, claims it gets her higher faster and it does honestly so she's not wrong 🤷‍♂️

- is obsessed with those gas masks she put one on once and convinced you to buy one somehow and now she is always using it

- power seems like a bong girl to me idk she probably just gets really big ones with pretty designs and most likely one that glows in the dark because she's like a child and gets super excited over being able to see it in the dark

- do not ask this woman to grind down the weed, the one and only time you asked she poured all the buds on the tray and just...smashed them with her hands instead of using the grinder, needless to say she wasn't allowed to smoke with you for two weeks

- power is already a menace, but when she's high it's even worse, she will try to fight everyone no matter the reason, and she yells a lot more, it's a surprise you don't have hearing loss yet with how she screams every word she speaks

- if you were to hand her a blunt with a flavored wrap she would probably hit it once and then just eat the whole thing and then throw up because she literally ate the entire blunt 😐

- power probably smokes a lot after she realizes the effects it has on people, though she's also a scavenger like denji she does nothing to help not even cleaning the bong water for you 😒

aki -

- aki already smokes cigarettes, so he's familiar with the concept of smoking, but smoking pot is a completely different way of smoking than cigarettes to him

- he most likely started out with a joint or blunt, seeing as it's the closest he can get to a cigarette without actual tobacco

- aki probably likes flavored wraps better then cones because he likes having a taste rather than straight weed flavor

- he hates bongs, hates them because he can never seem to take a small hit off one and his head always hurts super bad after taking one hit because he can't control it 😭

- aki is probably okay with pipes, probably the sherlock ones though and nothing with a design on it like a marvel logo or some shit, just a small one that has no design is good for him

- when aki is high he is way more chill and calm when it comes to denji and power and is definitely more comfortable with you, even going as far as leaving little marks on your neck to express he wants something but won't actually say it

- aki also does become more emotional when he's high, he doesn't know or understand why it just happens, he will tear up at certain affectionate actions or when watching a movie and he gets really embarrassed after

- he already smokes cigarettes a lot, so this would be no different pretty much, he probably has one of those cool cases that holds two joints in one that he carries around or mixes them with his cigarettes in the box

makima -

- a blunt girlie there is no doubt about it, she loves all the flavors you can get and actually has a few favorites she really enjoys

- will pay for all of the supplies whenever you need more or just want something new, don't bother trying to pay she will do it anyways

- makima knows how to do o's with the smoke even if it's harder she does it perfectly like 😵‍💫

- on occasion she will use a pipe, though, but she despises bongs and any other method, mainly because bong water gets nasty fast and she doesn't want to bother cleaning it all the time (same ngl)

- everything is super organized and looks like every little thing has it's own place on the tray, she doesn't like when the tray gets a bunch of useless shit on it like stems and roaches from joints she will literally clean the whole thing just to make it look pretty again

- makima does enjoy a edible every once in a while when she's traveling and can't smoke, she usually gets gummies because they hit her faster than normal edibles made by someone else

- she has a roach clip thats probably like iridescent or multicolored or some shit because she likes using that than possibly burning her fingers

- makima doesn't smoke a whole lot, mostly just on her days off and after work but never before work or a business event of some sort, even though she doesn't change much when she is high

reze -

- when i say reze is clingy as hell when she's high i mean literally so fucking clingy 😭 she will be attached to you the whole time, playing with your fingers completely zoning out of everything else

- she probably has a cute little jar she stores the weed in with hearts on it or some shit and her tray is probably some sort of purple galaxy with a lid to cover the contents

- she will smoke out of anything, she doesn't really have a preference she likes all methods of smoking really but she leans towards pipes

- reze is also 10x more emotional when she's high, she could see a puppy on a tv show and would start sobbing uncontrollably leaving you a confused mess trying to help her feel better

- like denji, when she is high enough she will just lay on top of you while hugging you tightly, playing with your hair while ranting about how much she loves you

- she most likely has a collection of custom lighters in a drawer in the bedroom, she specifically likes the old school zipper lighters, probably with cool designs on them like butterflies or something

- reze probably makes really good edibles idk she's the one most likely to know how to bake in my opinion so if you buy the supplies she will make some and it's usually cake so she can decorate it and make it look pretty

- she probably smokes the most out of everyone excluding aki like on a daily she would be high constantly if it weren't for her job, her off days are spent laying in bed smoking and sleeping the whole time which she gets far more cuddly than normal on those days

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haruniki · 1 year

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Movie Night- CSM

What your fav is choosing for movie night!- Power, Kobeni, Reze, Asa/Yoru, Quanxi(+the gfs), Makima, and Himeno

a/n: first post that i am making from a computer waaaahhh, sorry if it’s bad lol I watched some movies today and i wanted to share what I think some of the characters from CSM would watch! I hope you guys enjoy, also trying to branch out writing some of the characters so there's a bit more in this one i think. Also all movies choosen are just ones that i think they would watch, these are also mostly movies I’ve watched! some of these movie choices suck/are probs overused

POWER:

Power has a very versatile list of movies that she wants to watch every single time

Getting to watch a movie dates are most likely her reward from you for bathing or being good

Power’s pick of a good movie are mostly likely horror movies. The more gorey the better, the more blood shown the better as well.

Always laughing at the horrific scenes

Doesn’t like horror movies where the people have to go through elaborate puzzles to live. Power finds those boring and way to long. (Definitely not disliking Saw)

Power’s go to movie is Texas Chainsaw Massacre! It reminds her of Denji and she likes taking notes of what’s going on then asking Denji if he’s able to do the things that were in the movie.

While watching the movie, Power is really invested! Finds the movies very interesting. Holds Meowy up to see the screen while asking Meowy questions.

“Meowy, don’t you think the movie is interesting? Oh wow! Look at him chopping up that human! Weaklings! I would never be killed in such a way.”

KOBENI:

Kobeni likes movies that have a nice storyline and cute characters!

When she’s able to, Kobeni always choosen a movie that makes her feeling happy! She’s most likely choosing a Studio Ghibli film or a popular romance film!

Howl’s Moving castle is one of Kobeni’s favorite movies to watch on her days off. She likes to be able to be in her pajamas while laying either on the couch or on the bed cuddling with you. Maybe even having a snack or two nearby.

She loves pointing out detail in the scene as well as repeating some of the lines that she knows by heart, though she’ll get embarrassed if you tease her about it.

Kobeni especially loves it when you remember little facts that she tells you about the movie!

“uhh, I know it’s not in the movie, but Sophie.. Sophie actually has powers in novel! I really think they could’ve added it in the movie but I suppose it makes the movie storyline move better. AH! Sorry, I was rambling!”

Kobeni’s favorite character is Turnip Head! She finds Turnip Head helping Sophie along in her adventures adorable!

REZE:

Action Movies with a bit of romance!

While it might be a bit cheesy, Reze likes movies that have both action and some romance. She think it’s nice that throughout all the violence that occurs that the main character and their love interest can still fall in love.

Her top movie of this kinda of movie is Divergent.

She likes the main character and finds the storyline exciting and interesting.

Definitely read the book series and liked it just as much, maybe even better than movie itself.

Likes explaining niche details in the movie, maybe slightly spoiling the movie/book itself.

“So in this scene, you can see that she’s about to get a tattoo, but your gonna wanna notice the kind of tattoo it is! This will be important for later in the movie and- Heyy (y/nn) are ya listening?”

definitely looks up the actors to see what other movies/shows they’re apart of

Reze also nit picks certain parts of the movie and how they differ from the book

ASA/Yoru

Asa doesn’t really watch movies. I see her watching more documentaries than movies.

Likes watching documentaries with you on different topics from oceanic life to ancient greece life.

Doesn’t really talk during these moments you both are watching, but will pause to discuss part of it with you or to correct the speaker about how the information they said was slightly incorrect. (mostly does that during oceanic documentaries)

“I disagree with what they said. While yes you can eat starfish, you have to be careful. A large handful of starfish are poisonous and it’s dangerous to eat them. You can differentiate between them though but that would involve you having to do your own research about such a topic. I don’t see you having to eat those anytime soon, plus if you did-”

Asa is always proud when you praise her for knowing so much. Even offering to teach you a bit more as a study date!

Yoru doesn’t really watch movies or anything but does also like documentaries. Specifically, about weaponry or even wars.

Watching the weaponry documentaries provides her with more ideas for weapons. Likes to also watch the clips of the weapons being made.

War documentaries are a bit different with Yoru though. She oddly proud of them and wishes for you to praise her for them, going so far as to slightly nudge you to hopefully prompt you to compliment such awful events.

“Y’know, I’m the one who cause all of that. Such memorable events came from me! It’s shame that nobody else seems to remember them, ah! But you can boast about how your dating someone so powerful if you wish.”

You might have to explain why those aren’t boastful events even if she pouts.

QUANXI(+the gfs):

Quanxi doesn’t choose what movie is being watched. She usually lets you and the other girls choose.

However, it isn’t unusually for her to be a tie breaker for a movie. Depending on the movie and her mood, she’ll choose whichever she feels more like watching.

These can range from a horror movie (Cosmo’s choice being Halloween) to mystery movies (Pingsti choice being Where the Crawdads Sing)

Quanxi usually chooses the movie of whoever she hasn’t been paying more attention to.

A cuddle pile always occurs during the movies in which almost everyone falls asleep.

Snacks are also always present during these movie nights too. A whole buffet of choices

Quanxi most likely feeds one of the girls and the rest then all ask to be fed there choice of snack

“Eveyone got to eat there snack right? Oh (y/n), c’mere, you got a little somethin’ on your mouth.”

This leads to movie getting completely forgot, sometimes it’s a wonder why a movie night is even held.

MAKIMA:

While a bit of a mystery, one thing that’s for certain about Makima is her love for films.

Makima loves having movies night, especially when you choose then film. She likes to know the reasoning behind your choice.

Are you sad or mad? Perhaps in a mood for laughs? Romantic movies perhaps you wish for something to happen throughout the movie?

Whatever the reason is, Makima enjoys watching you pick movies.

Makima usually chooses films that might make no sense or that have an artsy way of videography. Though she usually doesn’t say anything or show much emotion during the film

Makima doesn’t really have a favorite film. She likes ones that can make her feel emotions that she might not normally.

A film I believe Makima might genuinely like is Titanic. While an old movie and probably over used movie, it still has a nice storyline and pretty visuals.

“This movie is quite interesting. Were you interested in the romantic aspect of the film or perhaps the tragedy that was the boat sinking? Truly an interesting event, yes?”

Whatever the movie choice is, Makima is sure to even slightly enjoy even if it isn’t something she likes or usually watches.

HIMENO:

On the days that Himeno isn’t working or out drinking with her friends in the division, Himeno enjoys watching movies all day in her pajamas while eating either take out or whatever she has in her house with you.

She always welcome a nice laugh, so comedy movies are definitely her favorites.

Himeno especially likes movies that feature Adam Sandler

Whether that be Grown Ups or Hotel Transylvania, she doesn’t mind.

Loves quote random lines even if the lines are cringey.

Will probably watch any/all comedy movies the she can get her hands on. As long as she can get a good laugh she’s fine with it!

Definitely calls you to tell you that she bought five new movies that you both just have to watch right that moment.

“ Okay so before you come home, head to the convivence store near our place and buy an assload of snacks, OH! And drinks, can’t forget those, No need to grab any beer, i think there’s already some in the fridge. See you at home, ‘kay?”

Overall, Himeno is probably chill with whatever kind of movie you want to watch, but prefers things with comedy or atleast a comedic relief.

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xehathotbetterxehanot · 8 months

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The Weapons are losers and that's awesome

After Chapters 139-44 of Chainsaw Man I think it's safe to say that I love that none of the Hybrids have their lives together or are cool. It's so realistic for immortality rather than vampire maturity or whatever.

Denji and Miri being just teenage boys, though Miri needs respecting women lessons, is perfect especially how they're captured persona wise. Reze's portrayal as a child soldier was also authentic since CSMs world is absolutely built of exploiting the vulnerable or leashed. I hope we see her more soon.

The older Hybrids are also their own brands of either immaturity, apathy, or psychopathy, which makes sense since they're fully grown adults and their brains and conscious behaviours are fully developed. Katana and Whip being over-the-top and unreasonably, and self-righteous/a supremacist respectively, Barem being just Makina but a psychopathic Clergy man, and Spear and Quanxi being mirrors of the apathetic nihilism (Quanxi being hedonistic and loving her Fiends, meanwhile I suspect that Spear probably prefers the freedom of loneliness and how it doesn't tie him down) causes are great overall representations of the bad what if persons getting the strongest power imaginable.

#chainsaw man flamethrower hybrid #chainsaw man flamethrower #chainsaw man hybrid #chainsaw man longsword #chainsaw man spear #chainsaw man whip #chainsaw man barem #chainsaw man spear hybrid #chainsaw man whip hybrid #chainsaw man #quanxi #chainsaw man spoilers #csm part 2

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morally-grey-girlbosses · 10 months

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The top two characters will be eligible to proceed into the bracket!

Propaganda under the cut.

Makima:

Girl they're so fucked up. Their entire goal is to create a perfect world free from bad things, and will do everything in her power to ensure that happens. And by god do they do a lot of bad things, including, but not limited to: grooming a minor, murder, allowing acts of terrorism, mind control, manipulation, and the swagger of stealing people's eyes to use as random.

A high end government worker who is then revealed to have a much much darker truer self Makima is one of the most manipulative terrifying woman in manga period, exudes subtle terror and menace in practically every scene shes in. The entire plot of Part 1 is more or less totally caused by her own design and is in control totally to the unbeknownst of the main characters In addition to the terror of her fantastical nature she is a very real and terrifying rendition of a child groomer and abuser with horrifying consequences. Everything she's done she claims is for the benefit and safety of Humanity. All with a placid cold never leaving smile on her face

Lady Reze:

Please make her win because I love them a lot. She was raised to be an unfeeling killing machine and assassin, but tried to leave it behind and run away with chainsaw man, which unfortunately didn't work, so she defaulted to her original orders: capturing him. She has committed multiple atrocities and acts of terrorism in pursuit of her goal (to capture chainsaw man) but she didn't really want to, and feels bad murdering people. Doesn't stop her, but it's the thought that counts. She chopped off her own head and threw it like a explosive bowling ball once. She even likes women.

Power:

she's best girl. she loves the rush of battle and still attacks denji on occasion even though she grows to be siblings with him. her character development is beautiful!

#poll #tournament poll #qualifiers #chainsaw man #makima #reze csm #lady reze #power csm #power chainsaw man

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easy-revenge · 1 year

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Aside from AkiMeno, what are your other CSM ships?

the other big one that lives in my brain rent free is ofc akiangel !!

its the only other csm ship ive ever analyzed or made content about. it was my og aki ship and probably my favorite one in the series. love akimeno they have a different brand of tragedy but akiangel is top tier !!

i do enjoy a couple more ships though.

i rly liked denji and reze together.

i think there was real potential there with them both being brought up to be exploited and having parallel storylines in a lot of ways. plus the chemistry was rly there !!

also. violence and kobeni. not much to say about that one. very cute. very shippable. i wanted the best for both of them <3

lastly. quanxi and her girlfriends.

idk if it counts as a ship since its already canon. loved the dynamics and how protective quanxi was over them all. very enjoyable characters. lets go lesbians !!

#answered #chainsaw man #akiangel #denji x reze #kobeni x violence #quanxi and her girlfriends

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razrbomb · 2 years

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OBSCURE HEADCANONS.

Reze

what they smell like. cheap floral perfume from the konbini &. kerosene. after her shift from the café, she sometimes smells of coffee.

how they sleep. sleeping position. schedule. reze is definitely a night owl; probably survives off 4-5 hours of sleep per night ( on a good day ). she goes to sleep in the AM &. wakes up just in time for her shift at work — the café opens around 10:00 in the morning, by the way. typically, it doesn’t take her long to fall asleep ( give it about 5-10 minutes before she starts counting sheep ); however, reze is quick to wake up, as she is a sensitive sleeper easily disturbed by sudden noise or sensations. her bedroom has to be engulfed in darkness; no music or no other background noise lest she lie awake &. takes a longer time to fall asleep. she is always on her toes that even sleep, a natural state of vulnerability, doesn’t deter her from being quick to go on the offense. which is why she sleeps on her back, arms crossed over chest; think: the stereotypical dracula pose inside a coffin. as for nightwear, she is partial to wearing oversized shirts that goes past her knees; &. nothing else.

what music they enjoy. industrial, shoegaze, alternative rock, dream pop, breakbeat, &. electronica; her favorite bands &. music artists being NIN, b/jork, a/dam f, this m/ortal coil — anyone that can create ethereal soundscapes that makes her brain buzz &. shut off her thoughts; all vibes, no thoughts ( r.i.p reze, you would have loved t.a.t.u. though ). reze essentially has two moods: incredibly loud &. chaotic akin to static in her ears, or something more somber &. dreamlike that reflects her waves of emotions. overall, she loves distortion &. being able to feel a wide array of emotions purely from the music alone, the true universal language that surpasses language barriers.

how much they spend time getting ready each morning. give it about half an hour before reze goes out that door. of course, the typical bathroom routine takes less than 15 minutes; all she really has to do is brush her teeth &. take a quick cold shower ( cold water because not only is it good for her skin, but it tightens up her muscles &. jolts her awake ). so fresh, so clean after using cheap liquid body wash from the konbini. afterwards, she brushes her hair before styling it in a messy bun, putting effort into appearing effortless. ( you think her long bangs fall to the side naturally? hah! ). &. if she feels like it, she ends her morning ritual by applying a very light coating of make-up — mascara &. a simple cat eye on her top-eyelid to accentuate her natural feline-like features. that last part, that vested interest in maintaining a pretty appearance, truly became a daily habit after she met denji.

favorite thing to collect. cute mugs to drink her coffee with. though, she has a meager collection: 5 in total, all in display on her kitchenette’s counter top. her favorite is probably the light purple mug with a black cat decal on the front.

left or right handed. right-handed !

favorite sports. reze does not like spectating any sport; she finds the idea of watching other people play a game she can’t participate in to be incredibly boring &. tedious. as for active participation, she does enjoy swimming, funny enough ( seeing how water is like her kryptonite against her powers ). swimming &. being around water, in its wide endless vastness beyond her understanding, have always felt like a freeing experience for her, like she could forget about her troubles the moment she disappears into the wet embrace of the sea or the pool. had she lived an honest student life, she would have probably joined the swim team in high school.

favorite touristy thing to do when traveling. enjoying the local cuisine of the area, &. taking pictures of the sights &. the boring, mundane every day life of the people that live there. it’s like a scrapbook of the million of different lives she could have lived.

favorite kind of weather. she has really enjoyed the the warmth of tokyo in comparison to the unforgiving cold of her motherland in russia. it’s unfortunate that she burns so easily under the sun, because she loves the summer; specifically, on those sunny days when the heat feels refreshing &. there’s a nice languid breeze to alleviate the hot weather. all blue skies &. sunshine. adding layers of sunscreen on her face is an extra step to her morning routine when it’s her favorite time of year.

weird / obscure fear they have. tight spaces. anything that is reminiscent of a deprivation chamber; anywhere where she feels trapped, vulnerable, &. unable to escape from.

the carnival / arcade game they always win without fail. reze is a beast in rhythm games &. shooters. anything that requires perfect hand-eye coordination. she is definitely the girl that wins all the prizes for her dates at the local festival.

thank you, @primordyalsoul, for tagging me :* <3 tagging: @shinanai ( for denji &. dabi ), @violevin, @ymagishi, @deathleads / @curseleads, @sinwrote ( pick anyone you want to talk about ) + everyone on my dash ~ if you see this, do it!

#* hc » like a snakeskin / wear me out and tear me down.#this was a long one... but these are always so fun to make #i lov thinking bout my gorl past a surface lvl #like... make me think bout their mundane routine to make these characters feel more /real/#long post /

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retrocontinuity · 3 years

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Eat, for this is Her Body: Chainsaw Man and the Doxology of Cannibalism

"One day," Anthony Oliveira writes in "The Year in Apocalypses," [Jesus'] disciples approached their master while he was silent in prayer and made a request: 'Lord, teach us how to pray.'" From here, Jesus teaches them the Lord's Prayer, what the Catholic Church once called "the summary of the whole gospel":

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Denji is no one's disciple. When we first meet him, he is closer to how Oliveira describes Jesus himself, "homeless, gleaning for food in the field like a sparrow and relying on the kindness of strangers to put him up, . . . a man cheerfully resigned to powerlessness." And so, Denji doesn't need to be taught how to pray. He has always known. Every bone in his body at the opening of Chainsaw Man sings out the Lord's Prayer: "forgive me my debts", "deliver me from evil." And, of course, Denji is intimately familiar with the prayer's most pitiable, most powerful line. It's this line that he cries out to Makima when he rests, Pieta-like, in her arms at the end of the first chapter. It can only be this line, one that Denji might have written himself:

Give me, from this day forward, and for all the rest of my days, daily bread.

Bread runs throughout CSM like a mocking scent that you only fully identify in the last two chapters. It should have been a sign to all of us when the first meal Makima buys for Denji is not bread (but rather a hot dog and udon noodles). It isn't until Denji meets and enters Aki's home that he is seen making a hideously overladen slice of toast for himself, luxuriating in having all the toppings he was denied. The morning after she forces Denji to open the door to Power's death, Makima makes the very breakfast she once promised to serve Denji: eggs, coffee, salad, and sliced bread. But this is a meal that Denji never eats—maybe the only meal in the entire series that he, a survivor of the meanest starvation and poverty, ignores. There is only one other time we see this meal in CSM, and it is subtle, almost off camera, though no less meaningful: in Chapter 53, after Reze's death, as Denji sits down to breakfast once more with Power and Aki.

To revisit CSM's public safety arc is to see all the ways the plot connects itself to food and the act of eating, both appetizing and revolting, both profound and profane. Denji, eating gyoza at a bar for the first time. Denji being forced to swallow barf as he is kissed for the first time. The Fox Devil, who eats indiscriminately and on command, who refuses to return to Aki after being fed something disgusting. A fox that is hunted and transformed into stew. Denji eating sandwiches at Reze's cafe. Aki and Angel eating noodles. A woman sitting down to eat a hamburger for the first time, before she commits mass murder. She is worried she has lost her taste buds, yet she exclaims, "So delicious!" We know, later, that this woman is a liar, that no part of her is what she presents herself to be. Should we take this moment at its face value then? Was Santa Claus simply lucky enough to have preserved her sense of taste? Or was it her one last act of humanity, to recognize that it is not enough just to eat, that man does not live on bread alone, that there must be at least food that is also delicious, that inspires people to get up and dance—even if it means she has to lie about what she can experience?

Food is necessary for survival, and CSM is a story about survival. But CSM is also a story about glimpsing the after. After you know you can keep living, what next? After you are no longer starving, after you have been forced to kill a friend, after you have touched your first boob, after you have been betrayed, what next? After you are tired of eating toast with jam for breakfast, what do you eat next?

The version of the Lord's Prayer we tend to recite asks for "our daily bread." But this, most modern scholars believe, is a mistranslation. The Greek adjective as it appears in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke is "epiousios," which doesn't mean "daily" at all, but rather something too complicated etymologically for me to even begin to parse. The point is that what we ask for in the Lord's Prayer is not just bread for today, but bread for tomorrow. Both the physical bread and the spiritual bread. Bread on this kingdom of earth, and bread that is the kingdom of heaven. Bread to feed our bodies, and bread to feed our souls. The realm of the divine is full of these moments, isn't it? Of two things existing at once, in one.

Denji starts the series asking for daily bread, and ends the public safety arc with Nayuta, Makima's reincarnation, asking him for daily bread. Trash heap Denji, living with his not!dog Pochita, really was just asking for daily bread. A slice to eat for breakfast, maybe even with butter and jam. But he too learns that bread, physical bread, is not enough. Merely to subsist, to eat good food, is an empty life. And what he must give Nayuta is not just bread, as was given to him. Otherwise, he will be trapped in a cycle of creating more Makimas. Instead, he must give her a relationship, a family, a world that Makima was unable to create. He must give her, in Pochita's words, lots of hugs. He must give her, in the words of the Lord's Prayer, epiousios.

To be clear, I am not arguing that CSM is meant to be read through a Catholic lens, and I doubt Fujimoto had all of this in mind when he wrote it (though he must have thought something, given that he drew a very large print of Gustave Dore's "Satan descends upon Earth" in Makima's entranceway!). But there is something primal (primordial?) about the Lord's Prayer. If every reader can understand the horror that the Darkness Devil represents, so too we can understand the intimacy and comfort of the Lord's Prayer. It is, as Oliveira writes, "a simple peasant's mantra for detoxing anxiety." Jesus opens by addressing God as father—not king, not an all-mighty spiritual being, but rather "abba, which is rather closer to 'dad,' and not in the intercultural Greek of his adulthood, but the Aramaic of home and childhood." The Lord's Prayer asks for what we always want, the only thing any of us have ever wanted since leaving the womb as infants: for no bad things to happen, for there to be enough to eat.

Even if what we have to eat is another person.

At the center of the Christian liturgy is the Last Supper, and at the center of the Last Supper is a meal that functions as ritual, abomination, accusation, transubstantiation, paranoia, and an early example of cracking open a cold one with the bros. Here, Jesus shares bread and wine with his disciples and then, as if trying to invent r/creepypasta years before its time, informs them they are actually eating his flesh and blood. This image is so powerful and heretical that the Romans accused early Christians of being cannibals. And why shouldn't they? It's there in the text. "Take, eat. This is my body. This is my blood." Stripped of the grandeur of tradition and ritual, this is downright vampiric. And yet it goes on to become the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

Oliveira begs us to see the Last Supper as a family meal, one shared by Jesus and his found family. "All he is really saying is, 'I hope when you eat together, you remember me.'" It's a good reading, one that moves me to tears, and is the framework through which I see the events of chapter 80. Because Makima is not the first time that Denji "consumes" a friend, and I don't just mean him sucking Power's blood or taking Pochita into himself. When Aki died, he left half his fortune to Denji, who uses it to support himself and Power. They "pigged out on good food," he tells us. This is Aki's symbolic body, through which he provides Denji his daily bread. Eat ice cream and onigiri in remembrance of me.

But it is not how I see the events of chapter 96. Denji does not eat Makima in the context of a feast. He does not partake of her in a communal meal, as Jesus did, among his found family. He eats every bite of Makima alone. Jesus said before his death, "this is my blood, which is shed for many." Yet Denji says to Makima, I alone will absolve you alone of your sins. I alone will bear you alone.

Denji's Last Supper is a lonely remembrance. He is hoping that no one but him will remember her. He is hoping to wholly consume her, because he loves her. "We love as cannibals," French philosopher and activist Simone Weil wrote. "Beloved beings . . . provide us with comfort, energy, a simulant. They have the same effect on us as a good meal. . . . We love them, then, as food." In fact, Weil believed we cannot love any other way. As humans, we are forever doomed to want to eat the ones we love. In order to escape, we must both be devoured by God and then become food for our fellow human beings. As Alec Irwin writes of Weil's philosophy, "the devouring violence of God must be positively harnessed in order to dismantle the machinery of human cruelty."

If Weil is right and being devoured is transformation, a crucial part of salvation, then in eating Makima, Denji redeems her. He turns her into food to break the cycle of her cruelty. For Makima's power itself is consuming, cannibalistic. She "eats" humans in order to use her power, which remains mysterious like God moving across the face of the earth, leaving only broken corpses as a sign of its presence. So it must be Denji, not Chainsaw Man, who does the consuming. If Pochita had consumed her, as she had always prayed for, then it would simply be another act of violence being enacted. Instead, Denji gives her salvation by turning her into human food—his food.

To Denji, Aki was human, his family, his brother, his friend. It is Makima he loves as a God and a woman. To him, she is Satan and God, his betrayer and his creator, his salvation and his friends' damnation. So he must take her, consume her, digest her, excrete her, reduce her to nothing, as she once consumed and excreted and reduced him. "I ate her to become one with her." He ate her to become her. There is no truer form of his love than for Denji to take Makima into himself. I use those words purposefully, because this is the rejection of classic cishet PIV penetration, that old hoary chestnut of men inside women. As Don Delillo famously outlines in White Noise, we talk about sex as if women are containers, rooms, elevator lobbies: "He entered me," "I want him inside me," "I took him into myself." Denji and Makima never have physical sex, but this is a consummation, a reversal of roles. We are given the only sex that Shounen Jump will allow us, with Denji taking Makima into himself. She enters him. She is inside him. He is—physically, emotionally, willingly—penetrated by her flesh. She is released inside of him, becoming part of him.

Because the divine is full of moments like this, isn't it? Of two things existing at once, in one. That is the kingdom and the power and the glory. For Makima now lives in that country inhabited by God, where loving and eating are one and the same. For that country is none other than Denji's body.

In conclusion:

Substitute Makima for "God", and the preceding statements are still rigorously accurate.

Further Reading:

Anthony Oliveira's ongoing podcast reading the Gospel of Mark (Patreon exclusive, but I highly recommend, even/especially if you are a heathen like me)

Hannibal (NBC)

Daniel Birnbaum and Anders Olsson, An Interview with Jacques Derrida on the Limits of Digestion

David Farrell Krell, "All You Can't Eat: Derrida's Course, "Rhetorique du Cannibalisme (1990-1991)." Research in Phenomenology, vol. 36, 2006, pp. 130–180. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24660636.

Alec Irwin, “Devoured by God: Cannibalism, Mysticism, and Ethics in Simone Weil.” CrossCurrents, vol. 51, no. 2, 2001, pp. 257–272. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24460795.

#chainsaw man #cannibalism as love #love as cannibalism

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0tivez · 2 years

Note

I wish my body would stop going into fight or flight mode every time it hears Shibuya. Somethings we cant change Ig 😭

I picture baby Megumi as the grumpiest baby, always with a frown, but in a cute way. Definitely glaring at gojo through the mirror as he uses a shitton of hair gel to make his hair all spiky

I love reze so much I hope she isn't [spoiler] ya know?? that scene with denji waiting at the cafe SO CLOSS YET SO FAR I- I need to continue reading it, I just don't- I know it will break my heart

OH I also just remembered!!! I watched the first 4 episodes of Tokyo revengers and Im only watching for the op bc I hate the animation and the sound effects 😁 the voice acting is good so far tho! but the animation I just- it scares takes me out of what im watching bc it looks off

I LOVE YOUR COSTUME IDEA!!! I love Freddie in the I want to break free video, he's so cool. fun fact! queen was my top Spotify artists for 2, or it might've been 3 I don't remember very well, years! I still like their music but I don't listen to them as often :/ I dunno why, I think I just switched genres 🤷‍♀️ I think, even people thought you were a weeb, they'd think youre the coolest, most mysterious cold blooded sexy weeb to ever exist 😌 also, kobeni is so sweet, she's very funny <3

LMFAO I have no idea what an enneagram type is BUT I agree. I just googled giyuu and he looks very Megumi. you think the three of them would get along?? I have mixed thoughts right now. I feel like there would be a weird tension between Aki and Megumi; like a I don't know if I like you but I kinda do.

I- the holy trinity is gonna make me scream LMFAO I don't know much about va's but Takahiro Sakurai's voice is 👀 I love voice acting. I don't do it well but I would love to learn ngl. ive seen a bunch of tiktoks of a group of vas saying lines from animes and they all sound so cool :D

ilym! <3

A lot of people mention how there's no, or most of the time, villains that do evil things just for the sake of being evil, but bc they believe they are right in away and I honestly would love to see the current jjk mc's as evil from the other side's perspective; thats a very interesting idea! thanks for sharing that pov! I would also like to objectively analyse toji, and a bunch of other characters, but I am a biased whore so I won't even try <3

AND A TOJI SPINOFF?? I wish gege had Tumblr so he could see this >:( actually, do you think gege has a Tumblr?? imagine him just lurking and reading- shivers ANYWAY I would sell my kidneys for it. I wanna see a detailed retelling of his life growing up as part of the zen'in clan up until he left. Maybe how he met Megumi's mom as well ugh- I need that

HIDDEN INVENTORY IS ENDING ME EVERYTIME I THINK ABOUT IT. Gege make gojo keep suffering 2k22. I feel like I make fun of gojo a lot bc of toji trauma but it also makes me sad everything he had to go through TT if gojo was on Tumblr he'd probably filter the tag 'cw toji' im sorry im gonna shut up

OH BC I TOTALLY GET THE CLASS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR CAREER ITS INFURIATING I think that was one of the things that made me depressed as well, I just felt useless and like I was doing nothing for my life bc I was kinda forced to study a career I didn't enjoy by my parents lol

Guess ill start sending Tuesdays ask so my ethereal presence makes things better 😌 im joking. but not a more serious note I hope your Tuesdays get better; I know they will eventually even if they feel like a pain in the ass right now, im rooting for you :D

thanks for asking! so the search is going like shit. Looking back at what I wrote this is also a bit of a vent :,)

im so confused bc okay, so after I dropped out of college I started applying to college for theatre bc it was what I wanted to do at the time. After sending and doing a couple of auditions 3 out of the 4 colleges I applied to reached out to tell me that even though they thoroughly enjoyed my performance, I would not be eligible for a second round. I think that their rejection--which some people have told me to not look at it that way bc "they didn't reject you, you just didn't get in" WHAT DO YOU CALL IT THEN (this is also probably bc Spanish has more words to explain rejection than English ig??)--just depressed me a bit? like I kinda stopped caring about stuff and started to avoid anything to do with my future, talking about college and career paths and such. the rejection from the first college really led me to not care much about the second audition so I can see how I did myself dirty there. I had high hopes and when I didn't meet them I kinda crashed.

I don't know if I wanna continue with theatre, I don't think I do for a lot of nuanced reasons that im still scared of sharing. Im not really passionate about acting either, but sometimes its hard if im not passionate about it bc I didn't get in or bc im truly not passionate about it. don't get me wrong, I like acting and putting on plays bc I think its fun but I wouldn't kill for it, you know??

other than that, I don't have a lot of careers in mind. I know I like artsy things ig? like baking and drawing and writing, so my safest choice is to follow a path in there. I also looked at a very cool business program that included the acquisition of Japanese language and I really liked that! I think Japanese is a beautiful language and ive always wanted to learn. Plan z is going back to the college I dropped out of and continue where I left it ig (degree in communication); my mom is very keen on this one. I feel like I sound like a spoiled brat and im sorry if I came off this way, it was not my intention to do so.

I feel nice after writing all that lmfao, I hope it wasn't too much of a bother oof

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE TUMBLR, it a messy platform but its been my home for forever <3 the costumization aspect- I could spend hours upon hours here just changing fonts and adding symbols and just tweaking details here and there.

I would love to share my fic! let me send the link through another ask :D

Writing long responses is a pain on mobile TT specially bc Tumblr would sometimes glitch bc the mobile app is hell. I remember reading a fanfic a while ago and in the middle of it the app just shut down and I lost it and I never found it again LMFAO its happened way too many times for me to feel any sort of pain, im numb towards any of the attacks from the Tumblr mobile app lol.

ANYWAY! I always look forward to your responses! You're very fun to interact with :D and don't worry! you don't have to apologise <3

This was a really long ask im sorry LMFAO TT but I hope you have a good weekend! im writing this on Thursday so its close to the weekend LOL

-🥳 anon

okay 🥳 i will smack you if you apologize again hereby i announce you're banned from apologizing

megumi is just scary without even trying lol imagine gojo's reaction to megumi being a bully bully in middle school 😭 OR imagine gojo telling megumi to smack those asses KLAEWFLKMAFL MY HEART

reze is best girl. we were robbed

right?? the animation is BAD. apparently, it's the same studio that did 2016 berserk sooo yeaah. the story didn't do much for me either, but i can at least say that it gets better after i think 14th episode? it gets hectic

aah i used to love queen too! i kinda changed genres, but i used to listen to innuendo religiously lol they were such a cool band

thank you! i think being a weeb is cooler than it used to be, and like i'm not ashamed of it or anything LMAOO cause one episode of evangelion will smack them in the head. but also like- EVERYONE watches attack on titan

i translate the last season of aot weekly and my dad asked for the link to it, so they could check it out. i sent him the link, and while talking to his friend he mentions it and his friend- who is like 50 and a military officer- says "oh yeah that show is awesome!" 😭 i'll rewatch it with them this summer!! they don't know that yet tho. i might need to tell them to just squeeze themselves a little bit and wait for the third season. i told my dad that they compare aot to game of thrones, and they really like got sooooo

enneagram is that XwX ones! all of them are istj's and 1w9's if i remember correctly, personality database is down rn. i feel like they would like each other, but not really fond of. all of them seem to like upbright, cheery people (itadori, tanjiro, denji and power) so they would be good coworkers, not friends lol

the va lore is so big that i can't even follow it lol. they are cool tho, i sometimes see tiktoks of them too! i love their commentary too! va's are usually very into their characters- gojo's va being an exception

he definitely lurks in the shadows of tumblr. i mean, the man got in disguise and watched jjk 0 to see people's reaction lol. i wonder if he knows how loved satosugu as a ship is </3

i believe to the civilians, sorcerers are devils. especially now. we might actually see that pov post culling game. it would be fun to have an aot-esque turn of events

KJNASDKWNA NOT THE TAG--

no cause talking to you DOES make me feel better <3 i'm going on an EVEN more hectic week and god hold me back cause by the end of sunday, i will be ready to smack a bitch. i can't believe how things can be even worse every week. i also can't believe how school became this hard ONLY on my second semester ever like last semester was hard but NOT LIKE THIS

yeah i get that. i mean, if you're not super into theater or see yourself in that path, no need to tire yourself. it's so hard to find a career at this early age tbh. hopefully, you can find something you would enjoy int he long term. tho, plan z sounds great too! comm is, from what ive heard, a fun field.

and no, you don't sound spoiled and fuck anyone that would think so. it's your future, you should be picky. it's your right to do so.

ALSO i read your fic and IT WAS SO GOOD???!?!?!? PLEASE WRITE MORE???? like the way you described the environment, gojo and reader was just chef's kiss. i wasn't sure if i should post that other ask, so i wanted to write here <3 you're such an amazing writer, please feed us more

have a great week! kissies :*

#🥳 anon

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easy-revenge · 2 years

Note

Hey! What do you think about AkiAngel ship?

hi hi !!

short answer: i love akiangel with all my heart !!! favorite csm ship for a year and a half now. i recently got into appreciating the tragedy of akimeno and hyperfixating on it but akiangel stays at the top for me.

just multishipper things.

slightly longer answer: i absolutely love the sincerity and gentleness of every single one of their scenes. i dont think they're just shippable bc of the couple times they came closer physically (even though aki holding angel against his chest after saving him is imprinted on the back of my eyelids permanently)

imo loads of their scenes have romantic subtext, they never rly hit it off as besties, there was a different kind of tension there from the start. plus there were scenes where an akiangel scene would directly parallel a canon romantic scene (case in point: the date with denji and reze looking at the rain and talking about the city mouse and the country mouse)

u can't deny that if angel was a woman everyone would assume he'd be aki's love interest since their first scene together.

there are some deeper lore moments that i think about a lot regarding akiangel and why i think especially angel may have had deeper feelings for aki but I won't get into that unless im asked for it bc we'll be here a while hehe

in conclusion: akiangel <3

#answered #akiangel #aki hayakawa #angel devil #aki x angel #chainsaw man

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retrocontinuity · 3 years

Text

rev, rev, fight the power: thoughts on the first half of chainsaw man

Spoilers through the end of the Bomb Girl Arc.

Devil Hunting in the Age of Fascism

As one of the cohosts of a podcast on Gundam Wing in 2020/2021, I've been thinking a lot about how authoritarian regimes and the concept of societal control is treated in anime. Which is to say: usually in a very limited sense, and based on the actions of a few bad actors, as demonstrated with its effects on a few unfortunate protagonists. It's not that creators don't care about the issue, but rather a sign that the genre (and yes, I do consider manga/anime to be a genre more than just a medium, but that's for another time) and its conventions are not particularly well-suited to showing you those effects.

So, Chainsaw Man. On an individual character level, Fujimoto has some stuff to say about the choice between death and life, and I do want to talk about that and what it says about the characters and what life means in CSM. But it's hard to tell whether or not he meant to create a world with some really fucked up institutions too.

For instance, the civilian, non-public sector Devil Hunters. These appear to be explicitly authorized by the Japanese government, to the point where it is a crime for the Public Safety division's hunters to kill a devil that a civilian is in the process of capturing. They don't have guns (this is Japan!) and I imagine they are only allowed to kill Devils, but just, like, think about this. What if you kill someone else in the process of trying to kill a Devil? What if you suspect someone is a Fiend but actually they're just acting weird? What if you kill someone, then claim later it's because you thought they were a Devil?

This is likely the American in me talking, but I can’t help thinking about how badly this would be abused and how horrible an idea that would be. And I can’t help but think about how the Devils allow the world of CSM to separate fears from human nature. By which I mean, in the world of CSM, evil is otherized in a very specific way; they’re represented by very individual, very distinct, and very monstrous representations. Here is the fear of scissors, the fear of sharks, the fear of the future, and so on. But in the real world, we know it isn’t just fear itself that is the problem; it’s people, well-meaning or otherwise, animated by those fears that create the most evil, or people harnessing those fears to gain power. This may be unfair—I don’t know what Fujimoto has planned for Makima, whose mythos and power seems very much wrapped up in the idea of using Devils to her own advantage. But there’s an assumption here that all actions taken towards eradication of the Devils, or maybe just one Gun Devil, is a de facto good. And in 2021, that’s a very unnerving position to take.

Death in Chainsaw Man is a sacrifice. In these early arcs of the series, death is a "contract," an expending of activation energy to achieve something else. So Pochita gives Denji life (which is really a contract repaid, for when Denji gave him life), so the Devil Hunters "trade" something in a contract with a Devil for power (like Aki giving away literal years of his life to his curse sword), so Denji dying to the Eternity Devil would have freed the rest of the team. But there are plenty of deaths in the series where nothing is traded, nothing is given. These tend to be nameless victims or, in one harrowing scene, convicted felons who die at the hands of Makima as she chases down Katana Devil.

What did they gain? What was the contract formed by the deaths of these 雑魚?

Makima says at some point when she's attacking the gangs that are affiliated with the Katana Devil that "the truly necessary evils are always kept collared and controlled by the state." Which I think is at its face about the fiends and Devils kept “collared” by the Public Safety Bureau. But maybe it’s also about the idea of sacrifice, about giving yourself over to the state, in order to control a world thrown into chaos. The contracts formed by the deaths of those ordinary citizens is meant to bring about an eradication of fear. It gives birth to the Public Safety Devil Hunters, to Devil Hunters in general, to the use of whatever means necessary to achieve an end. But whatever those consequences are, we only see them in the fates of Denji, Chainsaw Man, and the impossible characters around him.

A state under threat, a state that feels like it must collar evil in order to survive, will have ruinous consequences. I just hope we get to see what those are.

Just A Teenage Dirtbag, (Bomb) Baby

I read some reviews about Denji being the anti-shounen shounen manga hero which I can presume were written by people whose only frame of reference is Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. Sure, the Big Three were, in their most simplistic forms, feel-good series, and CSM's first half is basically a feel-bad series, but that hardly makes it unusual. It's really not dissimilar from other manga like Homunculus, Freesia, and Oyasumi Punpun. Of course, only old fogies like me, who still remember getting scanlations of these series off of IRC, and query, of course, whether or not those series are shounen at all, or more like seinen. If it were up to me to name the genre, and of course it is not, I would call it “simply another line of stories about fucked up things happen to fucked up people.”

Many fucked up things have happened to Denji. I’d call it traumatic, but I don’t think “trauma” covers what this poor man has been through. The effect, though, has been to make Denji less than human, even in his human form.

Denji and Power's nonchalance towards the fate of their human coworkers who die to Katana Devil and Sawatari is framed by the manga through Denji as a potential sign of callousness. Kishibe notes it as a sign that they are "insane," in other words, "not like other humans," and thus capable of bringing down something like the Gun Devil, which would otherwise drive "normal humans" insane.

But like, huh? Denji and Power's reactions are, on the contrary, extremely human, because there’s no reason for them to extend feeling towards other humans. Simply put, they’ve never been human to the humans around them. They seem to be bonded most closely to each other, and in fact almost all the Fiends are, because the wider Public Safety employees treat them so poorly. Remember how the Infinity Devil Arc starts? Basically, they're told to be the advance guard, and threatened to be killed if they ever act out. Denji is kept on a short leash, and is so proud (in front of Reze) that he's allowed to go places on his own now.

Which, I'm not saying that that's wrong. Denji is incredibly dumb, holds monstrous power that could easily be tricked into using for horrible purposes, and appears to be the target of a number of Gun Devil's allies. Power is... well. I wouldn't let her out of sight either. But what Makima does that makes Denji feel so loyal, so utterly tied to her, is simply treating him as a human. She convinces him he has a heart, just like any other human. She tells him about all the love experiences he'll have in the future, because he's just a human teenager. And just like Makima, Reze is able to bond with Denji by treating him like an ordinary 16-year-old horny boy. Is it because as a Devil she knows what he wants the most? What he is craving, and never had? It doesn't matter that Denji had been just an ordinary human before fusing with Pochita or before he began his life as a Devil Hunter; as an orphan growing up on the street, unwanted and unloved, he was no more human than a Devil.

The ending of the Bomb Girl Arc—with Denji asking Reze to run away with him, only to be stood up—reminded me so very much of Aku no Hana. There's the classroom scenes between Reze and Denji, of course, but mostly I think about how Denji—betrayed, injured, manipulated Denji—still asks Reze to run away with him. I'd written about Aku no Hana before, how one of the saddest things about Nakamura is that she cannot imagine a world beyond her current circumstance (and, in fact, the manga ends up dooming her to stagnation). Denji and Reze are Nakamura and Kasuga's perverse mirror. It is because Denji doesn't have the capacity to imagine a larger world beyond his immediate now, three meals a day and a job and this woman who taught him how to swim, that he asks her to do this impossible thing, to run away with him knowing that to do would mean both of them betraying their masters. It is because Reze knows that it is impossible that she does not meet Denji at the cafe. Reze is more human than Denji, because she is capable of dreams, and because she is capable of dreaming, she knows she cannot afford their luxury. She knows too much about the world and its cruelty. And, so, she walks straight into its open maw, and straight into her death.

I don't think we can take Reze at her word that she wanted to be a town mouse, or rather we should say instead that Reze proves that the division between the town mouse and the country mouse is immaterial. The issue is that both, in the end, are only mice, dreaming of a safety they can never achieve. Safety, in the world of CSM, is neither town mouse nor country mouse. It is to not be mice at all. It is to be the dog that digs them out from the cold winter dirt.

It is, in fact, to be Makima, the person who orders the dogs to kill the mice.

Denji, aim for the top! Transcend the town mouse/country mouse divide! Or else you will constantly be hunted and used!

(Side note: CSM goes at a break-neck pace, and I think the speed through which Fujimoto rushes through these early storylines has made it very difficult for me to actually connect with the characters. Reze and Denji’s relationship is one of the victims to this pacing. Do I believe that Denji could fall for a girl and be willing to risk it all for her after about 3 chapters worth of interaction? Sure, he’s that kind of guy. But does it work for me? Not particularly. We’ve hardly had time to linger with Reze before she swears she’ll protect Denji forever, as long as he’ll run away with her. Though the reader at that point knows there’s something off about Reze, it’s still just not believable. Reze’s actions seem like someone trying to bulldoze her way into Denji’s affections, and though she herself is a bittersweet character, I just really feel like CSM could have spent less time with Bomb Devil vs Chainsaw Man and more time with Reze and Denji.)

No Ethical Women Under Capitalism

The Eternity Devil arc, for all its mini-boss game feel (it wouldn’t be out of place as one of the floors in Tower of God), struck a nerve with me, if only because it felt, however unintentionally, to be a story about working under modern capitalism. A floor you can never leave, that loops endless, where the only way to escape is to destroy it, literally, from the inside, by making it so painful, an eternal feedback loop of destroying ourselves and destroying it, before it opens its heart to us. The Capitalism Devil threatens us, tries to tear us apart. Asks us to sacrifice the strongest, the weakest, anybody among us, as if by climbing over the bodies of our friends and coworkers, we can come out ahead. It makes us suspicious of each other, ready to tear into any weakness for an advantage.

No wonder this is the chapter where Kobeni lays bare her reasons for joining the Public Safety bureau. She needed to work, to make money. Her options were to be a sex worker or a Devil Hunter. Either way, she was selling her body to the system. Kobeni is a victim of capitalism, which forces her to do what she hates, for goal that are not hers, and then gaslights us into thinking that she’s wrong for being crazy, she’s wrong for losing her shit, for not being able to handle it.

But... that's an asspull for me, even if it's my ass and I'm the one pulling. I'm truly not sure how to feel about Kobeni. Like, what is her deal?! I’m not sure what to make of her appearance in Chapter 20 in her sister’s hand-me-down. Are we supposed to pity her? See ourselves in her? Even in what I think was intended to be a mic-drop-ish line (at least for her), telling Aki that she didn’t quit because she was waiting on her bonus, landed flat for me, too deadpan to be pathetic and not sharp enough to be actually funny. Part of it may be because she is a character very much shaped by her circumstances as opposed to her personality or any interaction/action she does onscreen, but we don’t actually see her family situation in these chapters. We’re left with a painfully shy and cowardly woman who can’t seem to form any human connections with any of the other characters, who in multiple scenes is shown caving to the slightest pressure or threat.

Do the rest of the women fare any better? I’m not sure. Kobeni is unique in that she does not use her gender/sex appeal to manipulate the men around her and/or Denji (even Power lets Denji cop a feel to get her cat back!). Himeno, Makima, and Reze all hide their intentions for Denji behind the veil of his attraction to them (weak or strong) and are either unable or unwilling to be forthright in their desires and ambitions (Himeno to care for Aki; Reze, to accomplish whatever mission Gun Devil had her set out to do; and Makima, for fuck do I know at this point, but she’s up to something!!). Meanwhile, the men are straightforward to a fault. Did Fujimoto intend this? Is this just a subconscious reveal of his own conceptions of gender and Bitches Be Weird?

I’m not a person who needs to have a strong female narrative in a story, but when you start a story with a protagonist whose life ambition for many chapters was just to feel a boob, you better be careful, you know? CSM doesn’t lack for women; Makima and Power are both formidable characters in their own rights, self-assured and unbeholden to anyone but themselves. But so far almost every arc has featured a woman offering herself to Denji sexually in order to get him to do what they want. It’s getting real old real fast.

#chainsaw man #reading too deeply into the text

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