#or its just that pochita is like that in general (not that its a bad thing. just that its his devil nature) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miceysfandomstuff · 1 year

Text

Leftover Fried Rice with Eggs and Oyster Sauce, Denji x Reader

Summary: You invite a boy and his dog(?) into your home.

AKA: In which I worldbuild and call out my cooking habits.

Also posted on ao3 here

Was written based on a prompt from @phen0l

Turn on the stove.

Pour vegetable oil into it. Not too much, because according to your school's food and nutrition education, oil is bad. But not enough oil means things stick to the pan. As well as wasted soap for scrubbing everything off.

Add extra vegetable oil. Tilt the pan around to let the oil spread.

Check-in on the boy and his dog who saved you on the street.

You didn't expect to welcome Denji and Pochita to your home one fine sunny morning. But you also didn't expect to get attacked by the Exams Devil on your way home from school.

An attack was expected. Your school wasn't the type to hire devil hunters to patrol around when exams rolled in. One moment, you were walking down a shortcut in one of the seedier neighborhoods, devastated by the Gun Devil attack so many years ago, and the next you were on the ground, convinced you were having a heart attack. No, worse than a heart attack.

Something viscous had started to crawl from the inside of your chest to your throat. Your entire body shook and burst into a cold sweat. Thoughts of failure burst into your mind. Of failing your exams and of everybody knowing, of getting rejected by universities, parents, and friends. Of being unable to support yourself and ending up dead in a dumpster. That's when you knew it was the Exams Devil.

You recalled in your haze hearing about it on the news. How the devil hides atop a school and spreads its spores. That's why everyone's been having the urge to vomit lately. You thought it was just stress.

Killed by not a devil, but one of its spores. Your thrashing grew weaker, and you thought of your school, too cheap to think of its students. Your death might get published in the newspaper among the other devil victims. Your parents would cry. Your vision grows dark. The thing in your throat stops and starts to spread outwards.

And then a foot meets contact with your ribs. Violently.

"Sorry!" A voice yelled.

After a minute of what can be generously described as someone stomping on your chest repeatedly, you hurl a saliva-covered lump up. It looked like a wadded-up bundle of exam papers with featherlike tendrils sticking out. You stared in morbid fascination. One of the tendrils twitched and your savior crushed it under his heel. It burst in a bloom of blood and intestines.

You looked up at the person who saved you from the ground. He seemed around your age. There was something boyish about him, even with his tattered clothes and an eyepatch. The sunlight hit his blond hair in a way that made it glow. You met his eye, and he smiled a sharp-toothed smile at you. You smile back and checked your ribs. "Thank you," you said, "you've saved me." You've heard nasty stories about what the Exams Devil did to students. Your ribs didn't hurt. They felt quite numb, actually.

"No problem!"

He then turned towards a…dog? A rotund dog with a chainsaw sticking out of its head and gestured to the mess of test papers on the ground.

"Hey, Pochita! Ya think we can eat this?"

That was how you invited the boy Denji and the dog Pochita into your home.

You peeked in on them from the kitchen door. They had raided your pantry. Chips, dried seaweed, and multicolored KitKats littered your table. Pochita sat on a chair opposite Denji's and gnawed on beef jerky straight from the bag. Denji had wrenched open a ramen packet and was shoving raw ramen into his mouth like someone was going to steal it. You made eye contact with him again as he dumped the flavor packet in his mouth. He waved at you, and you waved back. He blushed. You had held his hand on the way back after convincing the two not to munch on the spore-like it was French toast. His grip was like iron. You should really get back to cooking.

You stepped back into the kitchen and dumped leftover rice, straight from the fridge, into the stove. It sizzled on contact with the oil. With one hand on the panhandle, you used your spatula to break up the rice chunks and lulled yourself into a trance.

You hadn't realized your house had so much junk food. Most were probably stale and old. Wasn't it unhealthy? To eat so many preservatives and sugar right after a period of starvation? You read somewhere that famine victims should be treated with lots of hot water and soup to prepare their bodies for food again. Should you have made miso soup for them instead? You ran out of flavoring a while ago, and you already got your leftovers out. Denji and Pochita should be fine, they seemed fine when they began picking flies off the exam spore's twitching corpse.

Add the leftover chicken stir fry. There was just enough to not overfill the pan. You watched the chicken, carrots, broccoli, and white chunks that should be yam hit the rice.

Mix everything together.

Everything sizzles, a wonderful sound.

Kenji from the class next door had his arm torn off by a rogue devil. Your old teacher got caught in the middle of a devil fight and lost her sight. One day, one of your seatmates didn't come to school. You learned a week later they were eaten by devils.

Did a devil take Denji's eye? Was it Pochita? Pochita seemed too nice for that. When you first saw him, you assumed he was a sentient marshmallow or stuffed animal. But no, the most realistic assumption was that Pochita was a devil. That meant you can't hug him no matter how soft his fur looked. Denji was able to pet Pochita just fine, but it's probably just the nature of his contract.

You remembered a childhood rumor that a girl from a neighboring school vanished because her father sacrificed her to a devil to woo the homeroom teacher. And the rumor that certain devils will do anything for you if they are fed enough of their favorite food.

You remembered when two Public Safety Devil Hunters came to your classroom and lectured on devils to a bunch of elementary schoolers. You remembered a conspiracy theorist who raved about how all important government officials and high-power CEOs had secret devil contracts, which is how they escape the atrocities committed by devils every day.

You remembered how Denji carried Pochita up all the flights of stairs on the road to your house, even though the boy seemed nothing but skin and bones.

The stir fry looks heated and properly mixed with rice. Take the jumbo jug of soy sauce and dash some into the rice. Mix.

Grab the half-empty bottle of oyster sauce. You want to put something other than pure sodium as a flavoring. Even though you're pretty sure oyster sauce is just soy sauce with extra ingredients. Dump some in. Mix. It smells wonderful.

Check the fridge to see if there are any leftover diced green onions. None. A shame, they made everything smell good. Add it to meat dishes and trick yourself into being healthy.

You don't have any sesame oil either. You'll have to buy it next week.

The rice is done. Turn off the stove. Get the plate out. Get some eggs out. Wonder if Denji and company like their eggs over easy.

"Denji? How do you guys like your eggs?"

"I dunno! Soft and not raw!"

Do over-easy eggs count as raw? Should you make scrambled eggs instead?

Before you had come to a conclusion, a searing pain danced through your ribs. You clutched them and collapsed in pain. Shock. It must have been shock that had silenced your ribs long enough for you to go home and cook. A much more likely answer than you having a healing factor.

You hit the floor in a thunk and Denji rushed into the kitchen, Pochita at his heels. He knelt down over you on the kitchen floor you hadn't cleaned when your parents left on their trip. You had curled into a ball. "Shit, shit, I'm sorry! And I'm sorry for not apologizing earlier, it didn't seem like I hurt ya that much!" He tried to ruffle your hair in what you assumed was a comforting gesture. On a better day, you would've appreciated how gentle his touch was compared to the roughness of his hands, but today was not that day.

"Denji…just carry me to a chair…I need to rest." Pochita scampered over to your face. He licked your tears of pain. His tongue felt like that of a normal dog's.

"Right, okay." Denji tucked his arms under your shoulders and legs slowly, as if you had been targeted by the Porcelain Devil, and lifted you up. His arms shook when they touched you, but Denji had strength that belied his scrawny silhouette.

"You're really strong Denji, I wouldn't be able to do this."

He flashed his toothy smile at you again. "Didn't I tell ya? Pochita and I cut trees for a living, and hunt devils too!"

You didn't remember the last part. Probably because you were busy thinking about the devil attack earlier.

Denji took you to a chair in the dining room and set you down there. He disappeared into the kitchen and Pochita crawled on your lap. You read somewhere that cat purrs could regenerate tissue. Dogs cannot purr, but Pochita isn't an actual dog. Perhaps devils could purr, you didn't know. The field of Devil Studies mainly concerns itself with how to kill devils, not keep them as pets.

Pochita didn't purr but was very warm. You reached a hand out to pet him, taking care to avoid the chainsaw. Pochita was as soft as he looked. His fur felt like velvet.

Denji clambered into the crumb-filled dining room. He carried the entire stove like a plate. "I forgot to say this, but thanks for everything," he said with a smile. Denji settled down to the chair opposite yours, and Pochita used your lap as a springboard to scramble over to him. You sniffed the air and felt pleased with how savory it smelled.

Denji and Pochita ate out of the same pan with their hands-slash-paws and faces. You had quite a bit of leftovers, and your guests plowed through them in between cries of "So good!" and approving dog noises.

You were content to watch and marvel at how bottomless their stomachs were until Denji shoved a handful of leftover rice in your face. "Don't ya want anything? If I were making this, I'd eat it all up the moment I stopped cooking!"

You stared at the handful. The sauces you used browned everything perfectly. It had a fair amount of rice, some carrots, green things, and a single chunk of chicken. You didn't think Denji washed his hands, but you also survived a devil attack today. Fuck it, you deserved this. "You know what, why not." You accept Denji's handful into your hands and ate it. It was delicious. The right amount of salty and flavorful. The parts you think were yam crunched beautifully under your teeth. The chicken wasn't too dry and held on to the flavor from when your parents made the stir-fry a few days ago. The meal had that hand taste too, and you're not sure if it was from Denji or you. Probably both. Would it count as indirect handholding?

By the end of the hour, the boy and his dog had finished the pan down to the last piece of chicken. Which Denji took, scraped it around to get the rest of the sauces and oil, and fed it to Pochita. Pochita swallowed it in one bite. "Dang, I dunno if you feel it too buddy, but for the first time in a while, I feel…full." Denji patted his abdomen. Pochita flopped over in agreement and showed his bloated belly.

Your ribs felt better now too. Maybe your cooking had healing powers, based on how happy and relieved the two looked. "Okay," you said, "I'll have to put the eggs away now."

Denji shot up, salivating, and Pochita followed. "Oh right, I forgot about the eggs!"

Three hideous over-easy eggs sprinkled with oyster sauce later, Denji leaned his head on the table and moaned, "okay, now I'm full. Thank you for the meal."

"Sorry about the eggs, normally the yolk parts aren't as spread out," you said. Turns out your ribs weren't as healed as you thought, and that affected your egg-breaking abilities.

"Who fucking cares about looks as long as it tastes good?" Denji reached a hand to pet Pochita, who had similarly collapsed on the table. Like man like devil-dog. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

"Where will you go next?"

"Back to my place. Sorry, but you can't visit there, I don't have video games or anything."

"Cable?"

"No."

"Heating?"

"There's heating in a convenience store nearby, but they kick you out if ya don't buy anything."

You looked at his tattered clothes and remembered how desperately he and Pochita shoved food in your mouth. You didn't want to speculate anymore on his home life. "Denji, I'm making pancakes tomorrow. Do you want to stay over? My parents aren't home, and we can watch TV together."

Denji looked at you and smiled, "Pancakes and TV with you? Of course I'll say yes."

#chainsaw man #CSM #Denji #Denji x reader #chainsaw man x reader #csm x reader #my writing

369 notes · View notes

bluebeetle · 2 years

Text

Also watched the first ep of Chainsaw Man

I had been considering reading the manga for awhile--I had only heard good things about it, but I kept putting it off since there's so many other things I ve been meaning to read (still may read it in the future, same with Dungeon Meshi and the Vanitas manga). I had heard of the manga a few years ago (...like 2019? Maybe earlier like 17 or 18? I think?) and knew it was gonna get big just based on all the hype I heard of it from people who regularly keep up with Shounen Jump in general.

And this episode? Blew things outta the fucking water. Man, the lighting, the pacing, the animation, the integration of the CGI... It was dark and bloody--if I hadn't already known this was in SJ i wouldn't believe it, even compared to its contemparies like Demon Slayer and BNHA it's dark. But I really enjoyed it, and I'm hyped to see where things go because I've heard it gets really trippy and also has some really interesting things to say!!

I also love how the anime doesn't bog you down with exposition. There's a little bit (like Denji talking about how Devils can take over corpses) but most of it feels natural--it's no narrator or teacher character sitting someone down to explain how the world works. It just plops you in: here's Denji. He's got a chainsaw dog. He's in debt to the Yakuza. Devils exist, people hunt them, most work for government, they are dangerous but can make deals with humans and even take over their bodies. Devils heal from human blood. Denji's had a hard life and is horny. Bam, done!

I really gotta applaud the mangaka and the screenwriters for avoiding many pitfalls first episodes/chapters fall into when it comes to really anything, especially for fantasy (even urban fantasy) settings. I really loved that about it--it doesn't talk down to you, it understands the reader is capable of putting things together on their own, and it's smart about it. This type of cold open can still be done wrong and leave people confused, but they did a good job and had pretty simple concepts to explain, luckily. Exposition isn't always bad, after all, and is usually necessary, but you can really appreciate when it's been done so naturally, as it's such an easy pitfall.

Pochita is adorable. I wonder if he could talk the whole time?

Love the OP and all the cool references and shots. The OP is amazing. I am interested in seeing all the different EDs too, and if the animation'll change or not. Can't wait for more! This season has been one of my faves in years, between this, MP100 III, Gundam, plus netflix dropping Stone Ocean and Tiger & Bunny soon too.

#csm #txt

11 notes · View notes

aotopmha · 2 years

Text

Chainsaw Man episode 3:

Last week I got spoiled on what I assume is a pretty big twist in the story.

The good thing about getting spoiled for me is that I don't care that much about spoilers – I prefer not to be spoiled (which is why I'm still blocking anyone who even closely seems to be spoiling anything, along with not letting anyone else who doesn't want to be spoiled be spoiled), but it's also not a big deal to me.

I don't care because the true test of a good story to me is if the effectiveness of its twists holds up if you know them. If the only strength in a story is the shock, it's probably not a very good story.

A good story holds up in its power even if you know the twist because the point isn't just to shock you.

As a result of being spoiled (and especially if the twist is good) you enjoy a story a little differently, seeing clues leading to the twist you already know.

And in this case, I think the twist is really obvious.

I actually think I would've called it without being spoiled.

So, here's a spoiler warning for all of the hints I saw in this episode for said twist and the twist itself because I thought the hints were fun and like with any good twist, could be looked past:

- Power literally calls Makima a demon. I think this is the one I think I would've picked up immediately. It's really obvious. You could dismiss it as banter, but it was really specific. She's also really scared of her.

-Makima has the same style of pattern in her eyes as Power, but both have different patterns. The cinematography has been really particular about Makima's eyes in general.

-The ending theme literally has the words "demon" in its song when Makima is shown in the visuals. It's super emphasised by the repetition and contrasting visuals in the ending.

So I can say that I think Makima being a demon is a good twist: telegraphed just the right amount and makes sense with everything we know about her.

But I actually think the bigger thing here is that she's so manipulative and Denji just isn't emotionally savvy enough to see it.

I think this because with that figured out, I think the more important detail is that demons actually do seem to have the capacity for empathy.

Power came to genuinely care about the cat she initially wanted to eat.

Pochita clearly cried when Denji was gone.

They have a capacity for empathy and I think that can lend well for complicating the narrative because the capacity to feel things isn't just about feeling good emotions like love. It's also about bad emotions. A lack of emotions can also be something used in a narrative, of course.

And just like Denji, Power is really bad at them.

And just like with Denji, I'm also seeing Makima being very manipulative with Power.

It's a fantastic emotionally stunted cast we're building here.

Denji thinks he can find (emotional) fulfillment through physical means (dem boobies), so he jumps at the chance to get it when Power offers it to him in exchange of getting back her cat.

But the subsequent interactions do nothing for him because there is no real emotional connection between him and Power.

But the story about the cat is true, so they potentially at least have something to bond over after this confrontation is done with.

Most likely first friendship for both?

We'll see, but 3 episodes in, I think I'm invested pretty nicely in the relationships and characters that are being built.

Can't wait for the reveal! It's gonna be great.

#Chainsaw Man #CSM

8 notes · View notes

j1080p · 3 years

Text

Ignorance & The Unknown: A Chainsaw Man Analysis

In a world like Chainsaw Man, there exists many untold secrets regarding Devils, Hell, or their universe in general. It’s inevitable to arouse curiosity within that world. But in a kind of world like that, ignorance is valuable. I’ll be elaborating the value of ignorance in an unknown world.

1. Quanxi’s Virtue: Voluntary Ignorance

Let’s define what is ignorance first. Ignorance is a lack of information or knowledge. Therefore, how can that lack of information, be something that is beneficial, whether involuntary or not?

We encounter this virtue from Quanxi, a.k.a the First Devil Hunter. She begins by telling a story. A story about the reporter she liked, then discovering that everything about that reporter was a lie.

Quanxi didn’t told us what she felt about that discovery, but her quote “Ignorance is bliss.” tells it all. Happiness can be found even in a lie. If she didn’t know about the exposal of the reporter, then she would keep anticipating the morning news. She wouldn’t have to feel betrayed or disbelief. Her normal routine would just keep going on. In other terms, there’s nothing she has to worry about. That’s the unexpected virtue of ignorance.

This is also what she tells to Kishibe. To keep a blind eye, not only for the sake of his happiness but also for the sake of his life.

2. Denji, the Epitome of Involuntary Ignorance

Denji is the primary example of ignorance. He didn’t experience or even has a knowledge of what modernity is. What’s considered normal for him, is considered as the bare minimum for a Japanese person. All of that is the effect of extreme poverty. He was deprived of education, deprived of the normal life. But despite of that, he showed us that he can still manage to be happy, even because of something so little.

His ignorance made him contented with settling for the less, because less is something he barely has.

Even after being granted of a normal life, Denji is still living in ignorance. He continues enjoying his dream. Even Pochita is preventing him to know the truth; he is keeping Denji ignorant to avoid the unknown. The unknown that will eradicate that bliss. That dream. Because knowing what’s beyond that door will be at the expense of Denji’s happiness.

3. Aki’s Future

We also learn the importance of ignorance with Aki and his future. The future devil tells him that Aki will suffer in an inevitably worst death possible and even offers him to know it. But Aki decides to keep his ignorance and not abide by his curiosity, which is a good decision.

After he made a contract with the Future Devil, he gained the ability to get a glimpse of his future. Despite his decision to remain ignorant about his future, or the unknown, Future Devil does not respect that decision and keeps bugging Aki about what’s coming.

Aki, of course, does not achieve joy with this. To have the ability to know what will happen, and what is the unknown, sure is a torture. And knowing that it is inevitable, makes it all the worst.

The time has come and Makima tells Denji to prevent from thinking anything while they fight with the Gun Fiend. Because if Denji is unaware, and believes that his enemy is just the Gun Fiend, then killing it wouldn’t hurt so much.

This takes me back where Quanxi advises Denji to think that its dolls imitating humans, to keep a blind eye in order for him to eradicate his enemies. Because in their world, you’re left with only two options: To kill or be killed. With a world like that, Ignorance is considered as a survival tool, whether voluntarily or not. A coping mechanism to cope with the reality. Going back to Aki & Denji’s battle, Unfortunately, it didn’t unfold that way.

Denji successfully defeats the Gun Fiend. However, with knowing the fact that it was Aki’s body. That it was his FRIEND’s body. Just imagine, if he didn’t think it was Aki, and just some Devil who wreaks havoc, he would’ve saved himself from all the pain and grief he’ll encounter in the future. If he followed Quanxi’s advice, he would’ve kept his bliss. That was just the start of him losing his ignorance, of him losing the title, “Epitome of Ignorance.” It will clearly affect him in the future, or rather, already affecting him in the present.

4. Beyond That Door

This is where Denji’s ignorance was abolished, the moment he goes beyond the door. His bliss has come to an end. He learned that the life, the dream he was living, were all a lie. After all, a normal life is too good to be true especially for a person like Denji.

His ignorance and naivety were taken advantage by Makima. Whether Denji knew or remained ignorant about it, it is still corrupt and evil. But the latter wouldn’t be so bad. Ignorance is a paradox. It is evil, but at the same time, it’s mercy.

It’s evil, in a way that we live in a lie. That we dismiss the truth, whether intentional or not. We become insensitive, inhuman, and heartless. But on the other hand, it’s merciful, in a way that it saves us from anxiety, sadness, insanity, and trauma.

However, this will be a massive turning point for Denji. This will be the time that Denji will acknowledge his ignorance, and that will lead him to the wisdom he will need for the future. A “Socratic Wisdom.”

“Socrates shows how clearing one’s mind of false ideas, even if it leaves one in a state of self-confessed ignorance, is a valuable and even necessary step if one is to learn anything.”

5. Ignorance & The Unknown: Why Ignorance is a Blessing

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." -HP Lovecraft

When we think of the unknown, what commonly comes into our minds is space. That dark vast unknown space. When we think what’s out there, what we think of commonly are the aliens and planets and such. But to know the fact that we don’t know anything about it, or we do know but only a fraction of it, is frightening.

To know that there is something in that vast of darkness, something that is abstract, that is beyond our comprehension exists, it fills us with horror.

Striving to comprehend the unnameable will be at the expense of our sanity. The limitless and unknowable quantum of space is something that could never, and never will annihilate our fear of the darkness, or the unknown.

There are two possibilities that exist, it’s either we’re alone in the whole universe, and we’re not. Both are equally terrifying and dreadful.

We, humanity, which is known to go beyond our limits, attempt to shed light in that unknown. That’s where Astronauts comes in. But no matter how many ventures is done, and how many studies and theories are made, we would never truly know what is beyond of our world. And that alone, is mercy.

Some truths, are better left unknown.

To clarify, I am not saying having knowledge is a bad thing. What I’m trying to say is in some cases, ignorance is bliss. I love acquiring knowledge but I believe there are things better left unknown.

#chainsaw man #chainsaw man manga #csm #csm manga #denji #power #aki hayakawa #csm analysis #chainsaw man analysis #aki #quanxi

51 notes · View notes

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

16 notes · View notes