It’s amazing seeing how some characters just refuse to die in canon, with a resilience that can put literal armored vans to shame. Like, they go through so much blunt force trauma, literal dismemberment, and the like and still come back for more? Wild. It’s especially concerning when you first start a manga, and the character is already dead by the first chapter, coming back to life through sheer willpower. And no story has abused its characters (like Denji) more than in Chainsaw Man?
How Denji, the protagonist of Chainsaw Man, is still alive after the literal Yakuza dismemberment. It’s a miracle, but it helped that Pochita, the chainsaw devil, merged with him and replaced the human heart that was very rudely ripped out of him. This helps Denji come back from the dead, albeit with a few new enhancements. Being able to transform into a demonic creature with chainsaws for limbs and a head by pulling on a cord on his chest, he is now the titular Chainsaw Man!
And it’s funny because I played a lot of Yakuza over the summer since it’s one of my favorite game franchises of all time. And Kiryu Kazuma, the protagonist, is deemed a pacifist, which makes me dry heave. Because that man has literally deadlifted and beaten men with a motorcycle, and yet, I’m supposed to believe they are still alive? That’s what Chainsaw Man reminds me of because, damn, there are almost no characters in this series that haven’t suffered near torture levels of abuse. And yet, they are still there.
But how do healing and dying work in the Chainsaw Man universe? How do characters get ripped into pieces and then still have some part of them survive? That’s what we shall take a look into in today’s segment of Lore Analysis – where we take a deep dive into the mythos of specific manga and anime to figure out where the plot is going. Today, let’s discuss the life and death (And damnation.) of Denji, aka Chainsaw Man!
Denji: Down On His Luck, Damned To Hell?
Denji’s story is sadly not very far from what usually happens to those who have to take loans from illegal money lenders. Denji’s father had borrowed money from the Yakuza to pay for his late mother’s medical expenses, but he sadly died before the debt could be repaid in full.
This transferred the debt onto Denji, placing him responsible for returning it back with interest. However, Denji knows that it’d be impossible for him to do so on his meager earnings, so he turns to do odd jobs for the Yakuza instead. It’s on these excursions he comes across Pochita, who he ends up forming an unknowing bond with after sharing blood.
After the incident with the Zombie Devil and destroying a part of their army, Denji ends up joining the Public Safety Devil Hunters and, well, from there, starts his journey as a Devil Hunter alongside the likes of Power and Makima.
How Is Denji Still Alive Without A Heart?
Denji is canonically someone who was dismembered and chopped up by the Yakuza. So, how is he alive, you ask? Well, remember the zombie incident I mentioned a while ago?
The Yakuza are apparently being led by the Zombie Devil, to whom the Yakuza are extremely devoted. And the Devils themselves are beings born in Hell, being the embodiment of the fear that their ‘name’ represents. If that ‘name’ represents and instills fear in humans, they incarnate. The Yakuza, in the name of the Zombie devil, decide to betray Denji and sacrifice him.
When Pochita realizes what had happened, he decides to enter Denji’s body and assumes the role of being his heart, which was ripped out by the Yakuza. He starts repairing Denji’s damaged or missing organs and body parts in the process, while his demonic powers also transfer and help him become Chainsaw Man.
The Road To Hell is Paved With Good Intentions:
Pochita originally finds Denji when he is crying over his dad’s tombstone. At that point, Pochita had just battled the Four Horsemen and the Weapon Devils in Hell, which is why he appeared in his Near Death form, aka a dog.
He was succumbing to his injuries until Denji took notice and fed him some of his own blood out of empathy. From then on, Denji and Pochita became partners, where he would help him in Devil hunting, and Denji, would share his rations with him.
But turns out that battle in the beginning? That was because Pochita was an extremely strong Devil who was being hunted by all the other devils. Some of his monikers included The Devil That Devils Fear The Most because one of his abilities was being able to consume and erase devils completely. And that’s kind of frightening.
Considering how Devils reincarnate by dying in Hell and reappearing in the human world and then vice versa, that makes them effectively immortal. So, killing a devil is a useful ability. It’s probably why Denji is such a tough character to kill fully!
