#chainsaw man.

this post was mainly drafted as i have certain add-ons or divergencies i wanted to include, as well as some background to the characters i've chosen to showcase! as said above, their stories range in terms of triggering themes, and people should always research but i wanted to make my own guide purely for the sake of my mutuals. as a note, chainsaw man is set in the late 1990s, though this can be changed to fit a more "modern" verse.

▍ the public safety devil hunters, otherwise known as the national devil extermination public safety commission, is an organisational branch of government devoted to the capture and/or extermination of devils and the safety of the public. their status and regard is similar to that of a fire house or police station. those employed are named devil hunters (though there are private and civilian devil hunters that are unaffiliated with public safety), and they are able to make contracts with captured devils in order to gain powers and abilities, offering more strength in the deaths of devils that cause harm. they wear formal clothing, notably a suit and a tie, though the blazer is sometimes foregone and additions of personal style have been added by some members. devil hunters are noticeable not only through their uniform, but of the scars they carry, as many of them are heavily scarred and missing limbs, either from battle or from making a contract from a devil which has stipulated that the limb is the prize of the contract.

denji, the chainsaw devil, lord chainsaw, chainsaw man.

denji is the main protagonist of this story, a boy in his late teens fused with his beloved companion pochita, who is actually the chainsaw devil, weakened after a battle with the four horsemen and weapons devils. the chainsaw devil is so powerful because it is feared by other devils, as the chainsaw devil possesses the ability that, should he eat them, they will be wiped into non-existence within their concepts, and will simply cease to be (for example, if the chainsaw devil was to eat the leech devil, the concept of its fear would cease to exist, thus the devil itself would be no more).

before denji's story within the manga takes place, at a young age he killed his abusive, alcoholic father (though a repressed memory) and inherited the debts he had accrued with the yakuza. he was malnourished to the point that he ate from trash bins and would eat toilet paper just to fill his stomach, and he frequently vomited blood due to a heart disease he inherited from his mother.

when we meet denji in the first chapters, he lives in a run-down shack and he is missing his right eye, a testicle, and a kidney after selling them to the black market in an effort to pay his debts. prior to these chapters, denji had found an injured pochita lurking near his father's grave, and formed a contract with him after feeding the devil his own blood. pochita, a creature resembling a "dog" with a chainsaw protruding out of its head, became denji's first pet, friend and partner, the two going on to execute devils for the payout, that denji could then give to the yakuza to pay his debts.

in spite of, or be it because of his harsh beginnings, denji has simple dreams. to eat well, to be clean and warm, and to hug (and more. he's a teenage boy) a girl. he also wants to keep a job, so that he can continue to have these things.

after being ambushed by the zombie devil, and close to death, pochita urges denji to fulfil his dreams even in their absence, and fuses themself with denji to resurrect him. thus begins the story of chainsaw man when he meets makima, head of public safety and who would become his ultimate downfall.

it should be noted that denji's story surrounds many difficult and triggering themes, such as abuse --- mental, physical and sexual. he is an abuse survivor and this is seen in almost all arcs currently having been explored within chainsaw man's main story. denji is easy to manipulate due to his wishes for simplicity. he only wants good food, a job and a place to sleep, and friends (+ a girlfriend). this means that giving him conditional tasks, balancing those listed above as rewards for their completion, is easy and denji will always take them, because he doesn't want to lose what he has or risk disappointing those he looks up to.

denji is shown to question his own morality in the face of his empathy towards others, and questions if with his heart, pochita took away his ability to feel sad, both for himself and for others. this isn't true, as denji regularly grapples with feeling some disconnected empathy for others, but just as he prefers to repress his own hardships, he downplays other's or simply advises that he doesn't know what to say, or doesn't want to talk about it anymore.

although denji is shown to be naive, he is not stupid. though his literacy is limited due to his initial lack of formal education, he is street smart and incredibly resourceful, able to make the best out of a bad situation and still, despite it all holding himself in high regard. he cares little for the wants of others and is often controlled by his want for companionship and a deep "respect" for women, shown making a deal with power that if he saved her cat, she'll let him touch her breast. makima offers him deals in conjunction with this nature, though of the "tamer sort", offering him whatever he wants from her in favours and exploiting his "crush" on her by initiating close physical contact with him. of many things, makima is shown to be his main abuser in the arcs of part one of chainsaw man, and his relationship with her is not something i will be exploring or reflecting on in threads/introspections at all positively.

with regards to denji's own "positive feelings" towards her that may crop in threads, and they will because he talks about her and thinks about her a lot, please do not consider this a reflection of how i think their interactions are viewed.

denji's relationship with makima, to me, is more reflective of an invasive and abusive parent that makes you question their worth to them if you cannot perform tasks to their inferred liking. denji frequently worries what makima thinks of him, as shown in the first arc and bomb devil arc, wherein two other female characters have made advances (and in arc1, this is not something i tolerate or will debate on. himeno's actions are deplorable with or without the alcoholism involved and it is shown to have a negative effect on denji) and denji was sick with worry that their advances would change how makima perceived him, and the kindness she would offer him if she found out, or did not like it.

in later arcs and chapters denji is sexually abused by yoru, in asa's body. this also makes asa a victim, which i think is easily inferred unless you're stupid! asa and denji however have a somewhat trusting and good relationship, and despite all that happens to him, denji still trusts in people though he begins to reflect that he shouldn't. as when faced with yoru, he absently speaks to pochita and advises that he knows this isn't going to go in his favour, and when the betrayal is later identified, he says, "what did i say, pochita?"

in spite of everything, denji is still kind and forgiving, as he forgave himeno for her actions as he forgave asa for the actions of yoru. though this can be inferred to be less forgiveness and more an act of repression, which i highly regard it as, as these are not things denji wants to confront but would rather forget about so that he can continue to live his desired "humble" life, which means that he ignores a great many challenges he has faced in order to do so, that later do flare and cause spirals of misjudgement and despair for him. denji still tries to connect with people on levels most people would find disturbing, connecting with asa because of their shared "parent-killing" arcs in their lives.

denji is funny, bad-mouthed and dirty-minded. he has a deep need for companionship and will do almost anything to maintain it. he is opinionated and loud, but has good cleaning habits.

denji later comes to believe that he is incapable of living a good life because he "thinks with his dick" (he's hyper-sexual, due to a lack of properly formed affectionate relationships and trauma) and spends his time thinking only about himself and his own feelings rather than those of others. denji's simple dreams and his promise to pochita pose a great threat to his own safety, as when he is put in situations in which those simple dreams cannot come to be, pochita will emerge and fight on denji's behalf and erase the obstacles causing his unhappiness (note: pochita/the chainsaw devil emerges when denji has lost the will to live). denji believes that if he cannot save people and cannot keep a family unit, his life is useless, however as a contradiction he says he will keep finding himself a family [unit] even if they all keep dying, as he will keep moving forward no matter what. he believes being chainsaw man and being a "hero" will get him a girlfriend (or many of them) and will make him well-liked. when told not to transform into chainsaw man, denji is continuously conflicted at what he should and should not do, even when the lives of his loved ones are threatened.

he loves his friends, though even through his need for closeness and companionships struggles to maintain healthy relationships with himself and others. he lets girls pay to sit on him in his arc of formal education. he likes movies and comics and penguins, and generally likes messing around. he's a contradiction in terms of his approach to superiority, but takes orders well when its required of him. rather than talk about his hardships, he prefers not to think about them and frequently represses hard or triggering memories. ie. himeno's advances, the murder of his father, the deaths of aki, power and nayuta, (possibly later) yoshida and other fallen comrades.

▍ where can you find him? in his earlier youth you can find denji making up his father's debts to the yakuza, working as a civilian devil hunter for the payout. from sixteen you find him working with public safety as chainsaw man, hunted by devils and organisations across the globe even once he's resigned and started formal education at seventeen/eighteen, he can be found trying to stop nostradamus' prophecy from becoming true, battling yoru and aligning with certain devils to help him in his journey.

reze, the bomb devil.

reze is a devil-hybrid, fused with the bomb devil as per military-designated experimentations. one of the first divergencies made is that as reze is named a soviet soldier in the source content, i have removed this element and simply have her as a member of an undefined military organisation, and her origins as discussed in her arc, "the room full of children, taken for experiments until they succeeded or died." within my personal divergency the location is left vague, and this is simply a horrifying whisper of a story that echoes across the globe, of militant organisations trying to produce their own devil-hybrids. a tale to keep children indoors at night and out of the clutches of the devils that roam, or those that would turn them into such with no regard for their lives.

with further divergencies wherein reze appears post control devil arc, this is obviously no longer her affiliation and i have reworked this to reflect that as a free-agent no longer under makima's control, she is free to do as she pleases. as such she does not appear in the source content in the current arcs, post control devil arc. this can be explored, however, as reze becoming a member of the chainsaw church --- though it is unlikely, as the goal of many weapons devils and the four horsemen is to exterminate the chainsaw devil to ensure their lives continue uninterrupted and they are not eaten to non-existence as concepts.

i think it's important to note that her themes surround kidnapping and abuse, indoctrination into wartime efforts and likely brainwashing. i classify her as [her body] being around denji's similar age, if not a year older than himself, though her chronological age is unknown, as a devil-hybrid it is uncertain how old she may truly be.

as the bomb devil, reze is regarded highly, called lady bomb by lesser devils. she is extremely powerful and is able to manifest devastation level explosions from the palm of her hand and her other extremeties. she is skilled in both close-range and long-distance combat, making her an extremely difficult enemy to overcome. within her indoctrination and her skills as a soldier, she is incredibly quick-thinking and focused, and can switch her tactics with little to no thought required, based on her chances of victory versus loss.

her abilties have their downfalls, as when transforming reze pulls a grenade pin from her neck, which is usually hidden by a thick black choker, and she explodes into the manifestation of the bomb devil. as this happens, she can feel the heat and spark of fire igniting and forcing her apart only to rebuild her again, her skin splitting and transforming, and it is a truly painful experience, though one she has become accustomed to. she transforms many times and like most devils, needs blood to sustain these transformations. her regenerative capabilities rival that of the chainsaw devil, though as someone highly skilled and trained, she does this much faster and with a certain finesse.

it should be noted that the bomb devil has fought the chainsaw devil once before, leading to its manifestation as a weakened version of itself, pochita. whether this was within reze's body is unknown, is something i would like to explore.

she is witty, however, and uses her girlish-charm to confuse her enemies, seen shouting for help against devil attacks --- when in fact she is the devil attack. though she was recognised from an image by one of public safety's own devil hunters, of those very rooms she was kept within in before her transformation.

it's put plainly in black and white that she is intelligent and manipulative, and that the majority of her time with denji was performative and based on the need to get him alone, away from public safety, where she could extract what organisations around the globe are after: chainsaw's heart. i do think that a portion of her feelings were perhaps real, especially towards the end of her arc when she is seen coming to him at the café. i think his kindness, as something she had never been offered and his plain and humble dreams of a simple life, intrigued her as someone who seemingly, if she thought about it, had no ideals other than those that been instilled within her through harsh training for the cause she served.

it should also be noted that the true name for a devil-hybrid does not exist, as the chainsaw devil ate and eradicated their concept. but they are not devils, and they are not fiends, and they possibly aren't even supposed to be named hybrids, but as this is all that exists for them, it is so.

▍ where can you find her? you can find reze on missions across the globe before her placement in japan to capture the heart of chainsaw man. an operative under military control and a powerful member of the weapons devils, she is highly regarded and incredibly skilled, and works on insurgence missions. post control devil arc, she may be found in the other arcs working to protect him from other devils after forming a friendship with him, or maybe her goals are the same, and much like the other weapons devils and four horsemen, she is once again working to use or destroy him. or, she may even simply be a free agent, with the ability to make her own choices for how her life is lived.

angel, the angel devil.

angel is quite literally what it says on the tin. the concept of angels and the fear of them, making them part devil and part angel. angel is lazy, considers dying an easier feat than working, and tends to prefer sidelining himself rather than getting involved in any serious form of battle.

as an angel, the angel devil is actually the weakest manifestation, with seraphim, virtue and dominion ranking high above him in the hierarchy. angel's looks are akin to depictions of lucifer in certain artworks, likely a nod to the fear people have of the "fallen angel" yet still considering him rather beautiful. angel is androgynous and sometimes mistaken for someone more feminine, as referenced in denji's mind when he briefly considered angel as someone he found attracted and could form a relationship with, then dismissed because he remembered angel is actually not a woman.

angel is a notably dangerous member of public safety (special division four) as a single touch will siphon the lifespan of the person he is touching, and these stolen lifespans will go on to make weapons angel and others can wield, some with special abilities --- like hayakawa aki's sword, which can cut through ghosts.

he dislikes order and superiority, will eat anything (including zombie flesh) and tends to reject empathy. though, at times angel can be seen apologising to those he siphons the life from, either putting them out of their misery in order to use them, or simply not to let them suffer anymore. he finds this akin to being part angel, not that he genuinely feel any remorse for the action.

due to his physical ability, angel is isolated and not commonly seen amongst friends or fellow devil hunters as he is considered highly dangerous and people don't like getting too close to him. this is also further demonstrated by aki's severe hatred of devils, which obviously will be seen throughout other members of public safety. it's rather lucky that he's lazy, as if he wanted to, it is likely he could decimate large numbers of humans using the weapons created from the lifespans of others.

angel also uses his ability to create weapons from the lifespans of others. the correlation of years used implies the strength of the weapon, with certain weapons being named purely after the number of years used to create it. angel is known to be a skilled spear and sword user, having used a sword to dispatch of enemies, and using a spear to accurately pierce and immobilise reze at the end of her arc. these weapons are manifested and pulled through his halo, and take a great deal of strength and focus to create, willing each to serve a purpose and instilling abilities, where applicable.

angel was once part a peaceful seaside village of humans that accepted him, despite his birth as a devil. he fell in love with a woman on the island and lived a simple life until makima appeared and forced him to demonstrate his abilities, killing everyone on the island by absorbing their lifespans. before employing him into public safety, she suppressed his memories and guilt related to the event and put him to work. this is likely the reason he does not like working and will do everything to avoid it, and why he separates himself from others, suppressed memories of his grief forcing him apart from connections and a willingness to work.

in my own personal introspections and divergencies, i believe angel has the poorest living conditions. he possesses only the necessities and does not own a tv, and rarely reads books due to the effort it takes to focus. he is not allowed to make unsanctioned contracts, and doing so could mean death for both himself and the person being offered said contract, if he was to do so.

another is that in a world where post control devil arc he survives being under makima's control, with her rebirth into another form angel is able to gain more control of their physical ability, possibly leading to him being able to touch others. i believe in some circumstances this may have been one of makima's plays to isolate and corner angel, keeping him tethered to her as people would avoid coming into contact with him, until aki, who angel regards as the first person he was able to form a connection with, and someone who although he knows about his short lifespan, feels some grief over taking more, and wants --- tries to keep him from taking makima's deal at the height of the gun devil arc.

angel is apathetic and does not connect easily with others. he is dismissive to subjects which require empathy and connection and prefers not talking. other people are also loud and take up space, though there are some he likes the presence of. he will find any excuse not to work and treasures sweet things, namely ice-cream. as good a reward as any for completing a task, or a good bargaining chip if you want him to do something for you.

another headcanon is that angel is permitted (or more so ordered) to visit the bedsides of dying people and offer to take what is left of their lifespans, further adding more to their own arsenal and doing what is seen as a "kindness" for others, offering them a painless death. however, as referenced in the source content the faces, goals and memories of those angel has taken from haunt him in his dreams, relentlessly. like watching film from a camera you didn't own in a dark and desolate theatre, on repeat with no way to stop it, until he wakes up. likely another reason he isolates himself.

▍ where can you find him? before his employment with public safety, you can find him on a seaside island surrounded by those who love and accept him, despite his nature as a devil. post employment, you can find him working for public safety, isolated from most due to the nature of his abilities and his dislike for making any effort in both communication and work. post control devil arc, he may have found more control over his abilities and is working to explore what this means for physical touch and his isolation may be lessened with his regained memories of how he loved, before. likely, if he has survived the control devil arc angel is likely still employed by public safety and works to protect denji from those who mean him harm and can be found reworked into the later arcs.

makima, (later nayuta) the control devil, conquest of the four horsemen.

as a note, makima's character is heavily criticised (rightfully so) and yet so badly misunderstood. i do feel her character is appreciated more when you take away whatever need you might have for her to be redeemable. as a character she is insanely op at times, which is something i don't dial down for any character! though she does die, so that's something..........and then she comes back.

the four horsemen of the apocalypse exist as a concept of fear within chainsaw man. death, famine, war and conquest. within john's revelation conquest is the first rider of the apocalypse, riding a white horse and given a crown and bow. later the term conquest was turned to pestilence instead, however that matters little here. makima is the control devil, the embodiment of conquest and for part one of chainsaw man, the head of the public safety devil hunters and division five.

▍ makima's japanese devil name, shihai (支配), uses the same kanji as the japanese translation for the first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in christian mythology. in japanese, shihai is an umbrella term for several similar concepts relating to control, conquest, rulership and domination, etc.

in her past and before her instalment into public safety (though it hasn't been confirmed, but comments made by kishibe in part two allude to this) makima was controlled and groomed by the japanese government. she has a contract with them that gives her power and control over the devil hunters, and has less control over government officials that are higher ranking. having been raised by the japanese government, she was taught to "love" and care for the people of japan and to hold their best interests in mind, which she uses an as an excuse for what she later goes on to do. later, she alludes to this when revealing her plans to denji, explaining she only wants a better world for the people she has been designed to protect. under the control of the japanese government, she is also being used in efforts to defeat the gun devil, which is controlled by the american government.

although she is a devil, she resembles a human woman in her mid to late twenties and has long, auburn hair that she usually keeps tied in a loose braid behind her back. her eyes, that are red with yellow circles swirling within them, are the only hint to her inhuman nature.

on the surface she seems kind and understanding, gentle and a social woman who is often smiling. she is cool and calm during crisis and usually level-headed, the first to provide solutions to problems and ordering her subordinates with ease. at the beginning of chainsaw man part one, makima finds denji after his fusing with pochita and "rescues" him, giving him her coat and feeding him noodles all the while posing the idea that he should come and work for her, threatening his life through smiles and kind words. denji agrees to become her dog on the basis that he quickly forms a crush on her and wants to be close to her, as she is also the first person to have embraced him in a long time.

as the story progresses however, her true nature is revealed. makima is not human, and makes that known. she is a cunning and manipulative being not interested in the lives of those beneath her unless they serve her greater divine purpose. she controls denji through promises of romance and sexual natures, while in the same breath threatening his imminent demise if he cannot obey and please her. she is ruthless and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals, even at the cost of the lives of those she swore to protect.

makima has awaited the return of the chainsaw devil to enact her ultimate plan, to erase concepts like war, death and hunger so that humans can live in a fairer world without fear. however, this is also not her true motive. as the control devil, the admiration people hold for her is based on fear, as are the majority of her relationships.

she is not a morally good character under any circumstances, but parades as though she is because this is how she was raised by the government to view herself. and even then, it's still barely. makima is very open about her intentions but the true motives/lengths she will go to are hidden as per her conversation with kishibe. she wasn't lying, but she was omitting part of the truth.

the revelation of her true goal as per pochita's explanation to denji: “the control devil ... she always wanted to form equal relationships with others. she could only form relationships through the power of fear. so she always longed for something like a family. that's the kind of world she wanted to create, even if she went about it the wrong way.” when she first met denji, she embraced him tightly, as she had finally once again found the chainsaw devil and in this form, she could again form her ideal plan. within the bomb devil arc, she also places her head on denji's chest to listen to his heart, the chainsaw devil's heart. there is also the idea that she's jealous of denji and the chainsaw devil for the relationship they cultivated, as it's one she cannot have with anyone, even her own "siblings", the other horsemen.

her plan is: that by by using denji to erase concepts like hunger, fear and death, she would be able to gain more control over the world and eventually come to form the kind of relationships she longed for. a lot of people think her tears in the movie theatre were a ploy to make denji feel safe and understood, but the film she finally sheds a tear at, the scene is a caring relationship between two people who come to embrace, and something she longs for. she's not crying because she feels it, she's crying because she wants it, and in perhaps in showing denji that particular movie (amongst the others) she wanted to know if he understood her. the fact that denji also cried (for unknown reasons to himself, but likely for the same reasons makima had cried, in his longing for close relationships) showed her that on some level, he did, and he would possibly understand the way things would later come to be.

towards the end of her arc as a character, makima reveals her true intentions to denji and criticises him for his way of living, even going as far to announce that she feels he is not fit to house her idol, the chainsaw devil, as he is foul-mouthed and naive and is ruining his reputation as a fearsome devil capable of fear-erasure. she admits that she loves the chainsaw devil and wants to be with him. she reveals that she installed aki and power as a family unit for denji, stating that aki became a good big brother to you, and power, the younger bratty sister. admitting that she would continue to forge those relationships for denji and rip them away when he felt any shred of happiness to fulfil her goals and bring back the chainsaw devil and live a happy life with him, as the only other being that might possibly understand and love her.

some interesting character notes regarding makima is that she cannot remember faces, and knows who people are solely based on their recognisable scents. she possesses all of the standard devil abilities, including the ability to make contracts with humans --- however, due to her power as the control devil, she can also force humans to make contracts with her, one notable contract being the one forged with aki, whom she turned into the gun fiend and ordered him to exterminate the chainsaw devil. another notable contract is the one held with the japanese prime minister, wherein any fatal attacks inflicted on her are transferred to an appropriate accident of illness on a random japanese citizen. makima has been "killed" twenty-six times by her reveal as the control devil.

she possesses immense strength and enhanced smell, and as her instalment as a primal fear devil she is incredibly powerful in her base nature as the devil of control. she can channel the power of her victims by summoning them through chains connected to her bodies, she can borrow the hearings of rats and crows and other small animals which she uses to hear conversations anywhere on the planet and seemingly extending into hell. she uses force manipulation to weaken or injure her enemies simply by staring at them. she possesses the ability to crush targets by an invisible force over long distances (to use this, it requires a high-altitude location such as a shrine, the name of the target and a human sacrifice. she forms a symbol with her hands and instructs the human sacrifice to speak the name of the target, the sacrifice then dies and the target is crushed by an invisible force). she can inflict damage by pointing her index finger and speaking the word bang.

when some of these abilities are used, public safety devil hunters are required to cover their eyes with a black cloth, as they are not allowed to know which "devil contracts" she holds.

she is practically un-killable, however denji found a way to bypass her nature as a devil and the contracts she had made by killing her to end her suffering. as although makima admitted to never memorising denji's scent and only truly seeing him as a vessel for the chainsaw devil, denji still cared for her. after defeating her, he then cooked her body into several different meals, which didn't count as an attack on her person because denji viewed it as an act of love. after her death, makima was reincarnated in hell and then reincarnated in china as nayuta due to the reincarnation abilities of devils.

as nayuta, she is reborn as a child. kishibe heard rumours of her in china and collected her, bringing her back to japan and placing her in denji's care, fearing that should the government get hold of her the same situation as previous would occur.

denji becomes to nayuta what aki was to him, an older brother and someone who protects and cares for her. after resigning from public safety he goes to school and attempts to make money to feed nayuta as he isn't allowed a job.

nayuta is still the control devil and exercises this power over people like asa (+yoru) by erasing their memories when yoru kissed denji and by forcing denji "not to see her again", which actually proved pretty impossible. nayuta is bratty and self-important, but she is still a child and is still learning. she attends a junior school and makes friends but cares little for them. she does not possess memories of her former life as makima, and many try to keep it that way. she cares for her dogs and for meowy and loves denji, which is also likely a side-effect of her presence as the control devil and some lingering feelings towards him from her previous life(ves).

ultimately nayuta is used as a pawn by both current and defected members of public safety, and is allowed to be ripped apart by an angry mob by one of fumiko mifune's body doubles, who runs away and advises her job is not to save nayuta at the cost of her own life, as she has more important things to do (like dying at the hands of the aging devil, and offering yoshida her heart in contract). her death serves at yet another trigger to bring forth the chainsaw devil, as upon the reveal of her murder and the likelihood that denji has been fed parts of her, denji once again loses the will to live and so cannot fulfil his dreams and promises he made in contract to pochita.

▍ where can you find her? as makima, you can find her in japan heading public safety, and putting in place her plan to bring forth the chainsaw devil by any means necessary. she is usually found in her offices or in the field, usually accompanied by a limited number of devil hunters and devils under contract to her and public safety. as nayuta, she can be found at the apartment she shares with denji, at school, and in the event that she survives past the current arc, back at denji's side. nayuta has also come into contact with her two older sisters, war and death, though little came of their interventions aside from memories restored.