[1372] Muscle Devil from Chainsaw Man

Why is the Muscle Devil?

Remember the Muscle Devil? That thing Denji fought in chapter 2? Anime-onlies won't, because it was cut from the anime.

In the manga (after Makima, Denji, and company reached the udon stand, but before Denji half-fainted and explained that he loses blood when he turns on the chainsaws), some guy runs up and says his daughter was kidnapped by a devil. Makima threatens Denji, Denji goes off to hunt the devil, and he sees a little girl playing with a devil. The girl cries and says the devil protected her from her abusive dad; Denji asks if she and the devil want to run away with him. But psyche! The devil can control muscles, he made the girl lie! The Muscle Devil is present in 16 panels, and three of those are while Denji's cutting him to pieces.

Sometimes, when a scene is cut from an adaptation, you wonder what the adapters were thinking. Sometimes, it makes you wonder what the original author was thinking. This is in the second category.

Almost everything the Muscle Devil scene does, was accomplished in the Zombie Devil scene. Both show Denji in action, show that he's stronger than ordinary devils, show that not all devils are nice like Pochita, etc.

I remember that point being particularly grating when I first read the series. (I just really dislike anything that feels "All X are inherently Y," especially when it's framed as a twist.) It's especially odd in retrospect, with how many devils are written with depth and complexity. Maybe Fujimoto thought that we'd be expecting Power, Beam, and the rest to be decent people if the only devils we saw them were Pochita, the Zombie Devil, and a tomato mook? It's weird.

The Muscle Devil scene also does two non-Zombie-Devil-overlapping things that I noticed. First, it shows us a devil lying, so we know 100% for sure that Power's full of shit when she says devils never lie...but the reader knows that the thing Power said right before that is also a lie, so maybe that's not a thing.

Second, it gives Makima a chance to threaten Denji, which is a red flag! But this isn't really necessary, because Makima's red flags are obvious to anyone who isn't both into pet play and an authoritarian fanboy. Maybe it seems a lot more obvious now that I've seen the anime, which uses character animation, cinematic language, and so forth to fly those red flags more subtly than "Our useless dogs get euthanized."

It also does some basic stuff to set up the conversation and scene after it, but the anime barely had to do anything to stitch over that gap. Have Denji faint at the udon shop from the blood he lost fighting the Zombie Devil, and that's about it really. It's really not a necessary scene.

Best I can figure, Fujimoto included the Muscle Devil scene because he hadn't read the next ninety-some chapters of Chainsaw Man yet and didn't realize how useless the scene would end up being. But I'd like to hear from people who have other thoughts on what the Muscle Devil does for the story.

Chapter 2: The Place Where Pochita Is

so me and the bestie have been binge-playing re2/re4

Bounce lil Easter Bunny 🐰… Bounce…

bos@njd | 13.12.23

hi vergil nation

I'm having a little too much fun with this AI Generator.

there is NO clear current muse in my sketchbook, no siree. i will freely admit that ive been afraid to embrace the absurd mishima eyebrows but NO LONGER

one sketch in the first one based on this tk3 promo art!

Lustful Faun in the Garden of Eden

Do you feel lucky?