Foreshadowing / Chainsaw Man

"The future rules!"

—Future Devil

All spoilers below are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

^{85 chapters later…} 

Manga

• The very first image of the manga, the Shonen Jump cover with Denji and Pochita staring down a surprised Makima with her reflection in the blade of Denji's chainsaw is not only a hint at her fate but also a hint at her true role in the manga.
• Right in Chapter 1, Denji makes mention of Fiends before Power is introduced.
• The first Devil we meet is the Zombie Devil, who makes themself known by controlling the Yakuza like zombies. Guess what ability the Big Bad of Part 1 has?
• Shocked that Pochita revived Denji from his dismemberment, the Zombie Devil decides to have its minions devour Denji because "he has to stay dead if we eat him...". Come the end of the series, Denji makes a very similar conclusion.
• After Pochita saves his life by fusing with him, Denji laments that his dreams had taken his only friend from him and briefly believes that dreaming of a better life is detrimental. However, realizing that the Yakuza dreamt of more power in spite of their much better lives compared to his makes him conclude that it's normal to want more and decides to dream further. This ends up the crux of Denji's entire Character Development as similar sentiments are repeated and expanded upon near the end of Part 1.
• When he first meets Makima after killing the Zombie Devil, the first thing Denji says to her is "Hug me". While it's a bit unusual a request at first, it ends up being an early sign of Pochita still being alive inside of Denji, as Pochita's greatest desire as the Chainsaw Devil was for someone to hug him.
• In Chapter 2, Makima offers to pay for whatever food Denji wants, to which he orders udon and a hot dog. When he comes back from killing the Muscle Devil and rescuing the little girl, Makima is seen eating the hot dog; an understated summation of her plan to give Denji happiness only to cruelly take it from him.
• Denji's quote in one of the early chapters about Makima misbehaving with him by treating him as a dog while treating him nice at first is an extremely accurate description of Makima's true goal towards Denji.
• In one of the early chapters, the Public Safety heads discuss with Makima regarding Soviets using devils for military powers, several chapters before Reze and the Bomb Devil are introduced.
• A subtle one when Denji is filling out paperwork in Makima's office: Still shell-shocked from discovering that touching Power's boobs isn't as much fun as he thought it would be, Denji worries aloud about finding something he's only wanted only for it to be nothing like he thought it would be. Makima dismisses this concern - which becomes very significant upon the discovery that she's simultaneously in love with Pochita and has no understanding at all of what he's actually like.
• Makima cheekily notes that she's got a good nose, which she uses to confirm to Denji that Pochita had become his heart. Devils and Fiends like Power are shown to have a strong sense of smell. Additionally...
• In Chapter 39, Makima mentions that Denji and Beam look similar, which is clearly untrue. This, along with the above mentioned line about her nose, lead Denji to realize that Makima relies on her sense of smell to recognize people, and therefore doesn't actually know what he looks like. He ultimately kills her by disguising his scent and hiding among her personal entourage.
• Makima's Supernatural Gold Eyes also resembles Hypnotic Eyes with their circular irises, hinting at how she embodies humanity's fear of control and her Compelling Voice powers.
• When Makima orders Power and Denji to be quiet, Power is the only one who complies while Denji is left confused by her reaction. This is because his fusion to the Chainsaw Devil makes him immune to Makima's Control Devil powers, as she reveres Chainsaw and doesn't consider him lower than her which is the criteria for her abilities to take effect.
• Chapter 13 makes reference to Aesop's fable of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, a long way before it's retold in full and firmly established as the manga's Central Theme.
• Hawaii is listed separately from the United States when statistics of the Gun Devil's attack are recounted. Since the Chainsaw Man is later revealed to have erased World War II from existence, it's likely that Hawaii was never made into the 50th State in this timeline.
• In a more comedic manner, Makima describes how powerful devil can be based on the connotations around its name, using an example of how a car devil could be stronger than a coffee devil since cars are associated with accidents. Come Chapter 57 and Power rams Kobeni's car into one of the assassin brothers.
• Power, angry at Himeno disciplining her, swears to kill her and turn her into a steak. Denji expresses how he would like to try steak eventually. Guess what's one of the dinners Denji cooks Makima into in the final two chapters.
• Denji realizes that the Eternity Devil is scared of his chainsaws because in spite of his power, he's counting on the other Devil Hunters to kill Denji for him. Because in spite of outclassing him in size, Eternity like a lot of other Devils is obviously still scared shitless of being eaten and erased by the Chainsaw Man and isn't taking any chances in spite of thinking he'd become weaker than before.
• Makima's specific fascination with Denji's chainsaw form is sprinkled throughout the early chapters. Himeno herself quickly figured out that Makima knows something that others don't about the Chainsaw Devil.
• Makima decides to reveal what's special about Denji if she is out-drinked by her staff. As we see in the episode, even Aki and Himeno are heavily drunk when Makima holds her liquor, as she decides not to tell them. Makima is the Control Devil meaning she has an immunity to alcohol, which she uses to trick her Division from revealing her true goals for Denji.
• After Himeno nearly sleeps with Denji, she apologizes the next day, acknowledging that it's wrong for grown women to sleep with boys his age. This in turn throws a red flag on Makima, who continues indulging Denji's desire to have a relationship with her, and she gradually becomes more controlling and villainous as the story goes on.
• Himeno questions Denji's attraction to Makima, asking if he'd still love her if it turned out her personality is crap. Denji retorts that he'd be willing to love her in spite of it. This tragically ends up a big source of Denji's sadness in the final chapters, as he still finds himself in love with Makima even after all the horrible things she'd done to him. Though, it's also because of this that he's willing to give Nayuta a chance.
• On the train ride to Kyoto, Makima expresses unwillingness to meet her bosses and wistful reminiscence of last night's dinner. All of which hints at how The Government took away her dream of having a family, which she was ever so briefly able to live out that night.
• After Himeno's death, Denji wonders if he'd cry if Aki is ever killed, concluding that he wouldn't due to what he believed to be an increasing Lack of Empathy. When he's forced to kill Aki after he's become the Gun Fiend, Aki sees Through the Eyes of Madness that Denji is bawling his eyes out at having to kill his friend to stop him from rampaging.
• The assassins who attempt to kill Makima are seen dead with giant holes in them. This foreshadows her Finger Gun Hand Blast weapon which she later uses to kill Power and fight the Chainsaw Man with. And when asked if she's injured, she claims that she wasn't hit. Because any and all injuries she sustains are translated to some poor soul in Japan as per her contract with the Prime Minister.
• Aki is urged by Tendo and Kurose to leave the Agency, warning him that the longer he stays, the more likely it will be that he'll see hell. Aki is one of the characters who are sent to Hell later.
• In Chapter 27, there is a panel with a bird flying over a city when Sawatari realizes Makima is killing her men. Several chapters later, Yoshida confirms that Makima can use birds and rats to spy on people.
• The Volume 4 cover◊ shows Aki in front of a gun range bullseye target.
• Aki's topknot was designed to resemble the hammer of a pistol, and his name is derived from the AK-47, which is often referred to as an AKI in Japan.
• In Chapter 33, Makima has a monologue to the Yakuza about how the government keeps Necessarily Evils like them on a leash. This hints at her backstory as revealed in Chapter 97, as it's implied the Japanese government contracting the Control Devil and putting her in charge of Public Safety turned her into the terrifying woman that she is.
• The same scene has a yakuza boss claiming, with some surprise, that the Gun Devil's will exchange firearms for simple money—something literally no devil is even stated to do. 40 chapters later, Makima explains the truth: those guns were manufactured normally and provided by state actors; the Gun Devil's involvement was just a coverup.
• While fighting the Ghost Devil under Sawatari's control, Aki tells Himeno in his interior monologue that he'll be joining her up in Heaven soon. One wonders if Makima or the Future Devil were listening when he had thought...
• When Denji and Makima go on a date to the movies, both suddenly cry when they reach a scene where two characters hug, with Makima crying especially being a minor Wham Shot. As it turns out, Denji isn't the only one who sought love and affection. Makima also wanted a relationship where she could be equal to others and Chapter 97 reveals that it was impossible for her as both the Control Devil and the leader of Public Safety. Pochita would later encourage Denji to give Makima's reincarnation, Nayuta, plenty of hugs so she'll have the love Makima never got.
• Denji is able to list why he's in love with Makima, citing her kindness to him beyond his physical attraction to her. This is in stark contrast to Aki being unable to answer Angel's question of why he too is in love with Makima, as she had mind-controlled him into inexplicably falling for her.
• Denji and Reze's Meet Cute was incited by sudden rain forcing them to take shelter in a phone booth, setting up the Typhoon Devil's involvement later in the arc.
• Denji offers to run away with Reze. This is another hint at his immunity to Makima's Control Devil powers, as even though he later confirms to still be in love with her he still has the free will to defy her and forgo his loyalty to her if he wants to.
• Aki asks Beam how he knows that the Bomb Devil is the Gun Devil's partner, with the Fiend refusing to expand beyond that Makima told him. This hints at the fact that the Gun Devil might not have actually been as involved as Makima claims, with Makima engineering events to feed the narrative that the Gun Devil is the series' Big Bad.
• Rather than give Power the bouquet of flowers he bought for Reze, Denji instead opts to just eat it. This is mostly because he noticed Power blushing over them and her arrival coincided with the cafe owner assuring him that another girl will come along for him eventually. While being Bathos after a Downer Ending to an arc, it also foreshadows how Denji ultimately doesn't see Power in any kind of romantic or sexual light, and would much rather destroy anything that could imply as much rather than humor the idea.
• Makima is shown to be angered that the Bomb Devil had exposed Denji's existence to the public. This is because this interferes with her plans to weaken the Chainsaw Man using the news to make the public love him later.
• There is an innocuous line from Denji where he expresses delight in being on TV. He would become even more happy about it when he sees the news report about the world celebrating his heroic deeds as the Chainsaw Man, which would bring him out of his Heroic B So D.
• The Violence Fiend mentions still having the memories of his host body, which is suggested to be why he's so ironically polite in spite of the fear he embodies. This sets up why some of Aki's personality is still intact in spite of being killed and possessed by the Gun Devil.
• In chapter 47, Denji notes to Reze that he's realized every woman he meets tries to kill and manipulate him, accompanied by a collage of said women. Among them is Makima—who hadn't yet tried to kill Denji, but would eventually become more determined to take his life than any of the others.
• In his first appearance, Tolka is regularly pestered by his master about whether or not he felt anything about taking a life. This at first appears to be the master teaching Tolka to detach himself from his prey, but it's eventually revealed that this is the master, the real host of the Doll Devil, instilling within Tolka certain emotions to make him the Perfect Doll so he can replace the Santa Claus.
• When the four parties of assassins are introduced, three of them are shown or mentioned to be hunting Denji on behalf of their native government. However, while Tolka and his master are shown living in Russia, no mention is made of who they're working for—because they aren't working for the Soviets, Tolka's master is the true identity of Germany's agent "Santa Claus".
• After Santa Claus' first attack, Tamaki says he must be nearby and they'll be sure to confront him before the day is over. Then the rest of the page is a cut to Tolka's master.
• When Angel first uses his Spontaneous Weapon Creation, he apologizes to someone for using their lifespans. It wouldn't be until much later that it's revealed that the village he supposedly massacred actually adopted him and treated him as one of their own until Makima forced him to kill them all to see a demonstration of his power. While he's mostly amnesiac about his past, his apology hints that his backstory is much more tragic than initially let on.
• Every time Denji encounters a posthumous Pochita, it's always in front of a door that Pochita is implied to be hiding behind. Once he ends up in Hell, Hell's sky is filled with similar doors that Devils emerge from.
• Tolka's master's explanation of how to groom the Perfect Doll by making them feel certain emotions eerily matches how Makima drives Aki to form a contract with her.
• Makima wounds Darkness by pointing at it. Probably for narrative reasons, the manga opted not to include her saying "bang".
• Yoshida explains that Makima can control animals like rats and birds because they're "lower lifeforms." It's eventually revealed that this isn't limited to just animals but literally anything she considers lower than herself, thus any Devil or human is susceptible to her Compelling Voice...except for the Chainsaw Devil who she describes herself as a fan of and thus can't use to forward her plans for a utopia without winning a fight against him.
• Multiple color pages show Aki at a beach, very likely the same beach where he later gives his life to Makima which leads to his death.
• It's eventually revealed that the series takes place in an Alternate History 1997. However, it turns out to not be the end as there are far more ramifications surrounding this plot point; mainly that it's an alternate timeline because the Chainsaw Devil had erased major historical events and disasters from existence, causing things to eventually diverge.
• Various chapters make a point of showing that Denji absolutely does not want to kill innocent people and sounds genuinely terrified at the notion of being a murderer. It's later revealed that he killed his father in self-defense, and the act was so traumatizing that Denji had repressed the memory. Once he's forced to remember by Makima and called out as a murderer, Denji completely breaks.
• When visiting her home, Denji discovers that Makima is the owner of seven dogs. In Chapter 86, Makima summons seven mooks to fight the Chainsaw Man, including Katana Man, Reze and Quanxi.
• Barem Bridge shows an odd amount of individuality compared to the other Weapon Humans who are all vocally loyal and enamored with Makima. His first line is simply an observation of how many people are in love with her, he giddily yells "burn for me, baby!" when he attacks Pochita, and engages in conversation with Makima about "Denji"'s fighting prowess, all of which none of the other Weapon Humans do. It would be revealed in Part 2 that while there was some degree of control, Barem is the only one of Makima's posse that wasn't brainwashed into subservience and genuinely believed in her plans, and much like Denji was likely in love with her without the need for her to control him.
• Throughout the story, Denji longs to eat good food. Originally he is satisfied with a consistent three meals a day, but begins dreaming of bigger and better foods, like hamburgers and steak. In the finale, when he eats Makima piece by piece, she is prepared as various dishes, with the final chapter even beginning with a collage of high end delicacies she's been turned into.
• In the climax of Part 1, Makima is confronted by what appears to be Denji. In fact, it's really Pochita, who'd temporarily separated from Denji as he prepared to ambush Makima from behind. Several things hint at this revelation:
  • Pochita doesn't actually claim to be Denji, and at first glance Makima correctly believes she's talking to him, but then assumes Denji had taken over because his behavior (like talking and wearing clothes) didn't match the "real" Chainsaw Man. In reality, Pochita is nothing like Makima assumes, thus making her unable to tell when the real thing is right in front of her.
  • Unlike Denji's transformed form, but like the Chainsaw Devil, his arms are visibly plated/mechanical. Denji has also never gotten physically larger during his transformation, but the "Denji" that Makima fights is huge and visibly rippling with muscle under his dress shirt.
  • Pochita displays more aptitude and skill with his power than Denji had by that point, including using his chains to pull a huge chunk of rock out of the ground.
  • Denji is even drawn as a member amongst the crowd of Makima’s followers in a couple of panels, showing that the Chainsaw Man that we see in the chapter isn’t actually him.
• Nayuta's behavior in Chapter 97 pretty much hints at how she would turn out to be a Mouthy Kid, considering she already has some unruly traits in her by playing and climbing on Denji's dogs without permission and playfully biting his finger in retaliation when he tries to ward her off. Her creepy declaration of him as a "doggy" also goes to show how her Control Devil aspects would remain and how while she does genuinely love and respect Denji way more than Makima, she will still view him as her property.
• As she's killed by the Class President, Asa laments that she never got a boyfriend. As Chapter 117 would cement, much of Part 2 is setting out to be about her attempts to court Denji.
• In the Second Episode Morning of Chapter 99, the news reports that the following days would be hit with a severe heat wave. With the later revelations that the "Justice" Devil encountered throughout Part 2, including Chapter 98 where the class president contracts with it, was actually the Fire Devil, it's very likely that the heat wave is meant to signal its manifestation and involvement with Part 2's story.
• Yuko claims to have become a fan of Chainsaw Man. Considering the previous person to declare herself a fan, Yuko turning out to be a Knight Templar isn't too surprising.
• Yuko is bizarrely cheerful while Bonding over Missing Parents with Asa and planning to take revenge against devilkind together. It's a hint that all Yuko's talk about "justice" is only a pretense to make herself feel like a hero.
  This is gonna sound so wrong, but we're kinda like manga main characters, don't you think?! Like two avenging angels of death!
• During the montage of civilians giving their opinions on Chainsaw Man, one guy yells that Chainsaw Man is American propaganda and doesn't exist. Very ironically, the Japanese Chainsaw Man Church is later revealed to be spreading around similar conspiracy theories about America and has convinced several people of a laser weapon that alters the minds of adults.
• A recurring motif is Asa's clumsiness causing her to trip and fall at the most inopportune moments. Rather appropriately, the first Primal Fear Devil that she and Yoru are forced to fight turns out to be the Falling Devil.
• The night before her attack on the school, Yuko is shown burning the bodies of her victims, hinting at how the "Justice" Devil she contracted to is actually the Fire Devil.
• During the Dating Denji arc, Asa and Denji angrily tell each other to go to hell in a dispute. Come Chapter 128 and both of them are sent up to Hell by Falling Devil’s power.
• Yoshida offhandedly asks Denji if he thinks Chainsaw Man can Ret-Gone the Death Devil. Chapter 146 reveals that the Great King of Terror prophesied by Nostradamus is the Death Devil herself, and Fami plans to strengthen Chainsaw Man and War to kill her and prevent the Age of Devils.
• Denji tells Yoshida in early Part 2 that his ideal type of girl is one who is desperate for a boyfriend. Whilst he initially tries to set him up with Asa, come Chapters 136, we see Yoshida set Denji up with a girl who immediately begins touching his crotch.
• Falling Devil blocks Denji off from escaping through door with a stained glass pattern, which matches with Fami's background of the Volume 14 cover. It's later revealed that Fami essentially hired Falling Devil in her plan to stop the apocalypse.
• It really shouldn't be surprising that the powerful devil that Barem is allied with would be the Fire Devil considering he's merged with the Flamethrower Devil.
• In a bit of Five-Second Foreshadowing, Whip reveals that she's actually almost 82 years old, thus reminding the readers that Weapon Hybrids are The Ageless. Shortly after, she and the other Hybrids are attacked and dispatched by the previously established ageless Quanxi.
• During the motorbike battle with the catepillar-like Devil, Denji wonders aloud what sort of devil would have the powers it has. It turns out that this is the TRUE Justice Devil, with the Devil that was claiming to be the Justice Devil being an imposter all along; Denji's statement was meant to draw attention to the unnamed Devil's identity.

Anime

• The start of the first opening shows Makima's painting of Lucifer's fall in the background.
• In their Team Power Walk through the street, Makima is walking in front with Power and Aki at her right and Denji at her left. The camera shows Makima giving a casual side-glance to Power and Aki before switching to a Kubrick Stare at Denji's direction.
• Aki can be seen covered in snow in the first opening.
• Makima can be shown feeding Denji a snail that is clearly infected by a green-banded broodsac, a parasite known by enlarging the snail's eye stalks that controls the snail's movements in the hopes that it would be eaten. Even moments prior to that, another parasitic bug known to control insects, the Jewel Wasp, rests on top of Denji's head and even cordyceps grows all over his body.
  • Denji's door's appearance in the OP is framed against the lyrics "I feel I've forgotten something", hinting at its purpose of locking away Denji's traumatic memories of killing his father in self-defense.
    • The shot directly prior, Denji cracking an egg into a bowl while seemingly attempting to make a meal by himself, more or less shows his state following the climax of Part 1; sitting around his apartment making food, completely alone.
    • Not to mention the significance following Chapter 96 of Denji alone in his apartment cooking himself a meal.
• Near the start of the first opening there's a shot of various characters watching a movie in a theater, with the main characters all sitting together in one row. At one point, Kobeni's nervousness gets the better of her and she leaves, with Power taking her seat before she comes back, leaving her dejected. She's the only one in that row, save Denji, who escapes Part 1 alive, thanks in-part to her pulling a Screw This, I'm Out of Here!.
  • Characters such as Aki, Angel, Beam and Princi are shown to stare intensely at the screen, showing how they're controlled and used as pawns in the story.
  • Kishibe also seats in the farthest row in the back, where he can clearly see what the other viewers do at the front. He is one of the few characters who does not succumb to the Control Devil's power, and seems to know how everything is unfolded around him. Similarly, Himeno grows bored of the film, likely representing her being aware of how others are infatuated by her, but due to how she's with the others near the bottom, she isn't aware of the full picture.
  • Denji only focusing on only Makima herself rather than the movie likely represents how he's able to resist her powers to some extent, but is still under her "control" due to being infatuated with her as a person.
• During a P.O.V. Shot of Denji reaching out to Makima, you can catch her glance shifting down towards his chest area, hinting at her true affections towards the Chainsaw Devil.
• The second ED at one point features Denji falling up before being grounded with a hug (and a kick in the rear) from Power, an early reference to the devilish power of the Falling Devil.
• The fourth ED song, TOOBOE's "Jozai" contains lyrics that heavily foreshadow Power's fate:
  The sound of a gunshot in the middle of the night (trulululu)
  The moment it pierced my chest, I knew I was alive
  Think again once more
  Think of becoming stronger
  Let’s get rid of those controlling us and become free
• The fifth ED song heavily foreshadow numerous plot points of the manga:
  • The horses running and the figures in fear of a infinity-shaped symbol represent the Four Horseman, the horses mirror the ones they were told to ride on in the bible^note The black represents Fami, the pink unicorn represents Nayuta, the white represents Makima, the gun horse is the Death Devil and the red one with three legs and no head represents Yoru and Asa along with their situation of sharing a body and Bucky the headless Chicken Devil.and them fleeing represents the battle that they had with Pochita.
  • Arai drowning in blood and Himeno disintegrating foreshadow their deaths
  • A shot of Makima features her two sides that she shows to people with one of them having a halo that is made to look like her brain halo.
  • Aki is walking down what might appear as stairs but in actuality are gun barrels.
• In episode 9, there are a few added shots of birds as Makima starts killing Katana Man's henchmen. This ties into her later revealed powers that she spies on people using animals like birds, implying that she may have learned everyone's names through using the birds.
• The tenth ED features Denji slumming it solo in an apartment as he takes care of a bunch of dogs and eats a lot of grody dishes by himself, hinting at his ultimate fate and decisive actions in the Part 1 finale. Tragically, the second half of the sequence has him chasing after a phantom of Pochita as he's haunted by recollections of Makima and many of his enemies, representing his state of mind from that same period.
• In episode 11, there is a scene where Kishibe said "that move you just did were pretty good", then we see Denji's pants being all torn up and a lot of blade marks on the ground. In the next episode, Denji uses a chainsaw coming out of his leg to get the final blow on Katana Man.
• Episode 11 adds a scene of Sawatari being affected by Makima's long-distance killings of the Yakuza members, but she receives only a small nosebleed when all her men were violently smashed into bloody pulp. This is an early hint that Makima doesn't actually want to kill Sawatari, because the latter has been working for her the whole time.
• Ending 11 has two very subtle, blink-and-you miss it nods to later events in Part 1: Aki's arms dissolving into pixels, hinting at how he loses them after the Darkness Devil's attack, and a scene transition that shows Makima separating into many thin strands, as if she's been chopped up.
• A small anime-exclusive scene in episode 12 has Aki smoke the "EASY REVENGE" cigarette Himeno gave him. As in the flashback, he's said that "this is my last one" and it's showed that after the Samurai Sword arc, he stops smoking. But the route to revenge is not "easy" anymore as Aki has his newfound Family of Choice, lets his emotions get better of him, with the "easy" part got burnt, leaving only "revenge".
• The Stinger of the first season finale features Reze making her way to the cafe through an alley. Like the manga, she never makes it to the other side of it.

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