Synopsis
TBD
Chapters
- Bath
- All Together
- Everyday Life No More
- What the Waves Say
- 9,12
- Don't Open It
- Ring Ring Ring
- Snowball Fight
- Play Catch
Tropes:
- All for Nothing:
- The US President spends hundreds of millions of years of his citizens' lives and causes the death of thousands of Japanese civilians using the Gun Devil against Makima. As the Gun Devil could have only overcome Makima's Resurrective Immortality by killing literally the entire population of Japan, and is quickly overcome by Makima's countless enslaved devils, all he did was hand her their most powerful weapon.
- Aki's whole arc becomes this. After sacrificing much of his lifespan to gain power to kill the Gun Devil... he is told that the Gun Devil is already defeated and is currently used as a power-play among the nations. Soon after, he is brainwashed by Makima, and then killed by the Gun Devil when rampaging across Japan. Makima lets it possess him, which leads to him soon getting killed again by Denji, the person he came to see as a surrogate little brother.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Aki's entire goal throughout the manga was to find the Gun Devil and get revenge on it for killing his family. Not only does he learn that it's already been defeated, but when it's summoned to kill Makima, he's killed in the crossfire and merges with it to become the Gun Fiend, thus becoming the very monster he'd been desperately attempting to kill his whole life.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Angel asks Aki why he's in love with Makima. Aki becomes confused when he realizes he doesn't know.
- Awful Truth: The Gun Devil that Aki and countless others want dead has long since ceased to be be a threat to humanity. It's become a tool human governments fight over, and its reputation is a means to strengthen it while providing cover for illegally supplying firearms.
- Badass Bystander: Several civilians see Denji in chainsaw form, manage to deduce that he's actually trying to help them, and willingly cut themselves to feed him their blood to get him back on his feet.
- Bury Your Disabled: We find out the previous arc's battle left Aki missing one arm and Angel missing both, then both die a few chapter later. Angel was actually at risk for being killed by Public Safety for his disability if Kishibe and Aki hadn't recommended he be retired as a devil hunter just to make contracts.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: It turns out governments can use their nationals as payment in devil contracts without them even knowing. Makima has a deal with the Prime Minister of Japan to have her injuries transferred to a random Japanese citizen. The President of the United States trades a year off of every American's life for the Gun Devil to try to kill Makima.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: After seeing Denji and Power nearly killed by the Darkness Devil, Aki request Division 4 be left out the Gun Devil hunt, knowing even if the mission is a success, the outcome will be classified until years after his death. Cruelly, Makima demands Denji and Power come anyway, and so Aki joins to protect them—and then discovers he'd have rested easier without knowing the truth.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Zig-zagged; it's specifically human authority figures that are portrayed as highly questionable at best, using the lives of innocent human citizens for devil contracts. The contrast between authority and regular humans is best shown in the American president sacrificing the lifespan of his citizens to summon the Gun Devil (who takes down dozens of Japanese innocent civilians in the crossfire) and the fact that the Gun Fiend's defeat is accomplished by several human bystanders helping heal Denji of their own free will.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: During their fight, Denji desperately screams for Aki to remember who he is to stop his rampage. This seems to have an effect, as Aki quits the "snowball fight" because he sees Denji crying, but at most it just gave Denji an opening to put Aki down.
- Lethal Chef: Denji and Power attempt to repay Aki for his hospitality by cooking him dinner. Whatever it is that they made, one little nibble made Aki vomit his guts out.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Denji and Power end up bathing together due to the latter's traumatized state. While in the bathtub, Denji expresses confusion about how he finds nothing titillating about bathing with a cute, naked girl.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: After the Gun Devil's initial attack, it was next seen by the Soviet Army, already unconscious thanks to an unknown third party.
- Production Throwback: A billboard in Times Square seems to be advertising a Fire Punch movie.
- The Reveal:
- The Gun Devil was already defeated long ago, and its pieces are highly coveted by the world's governments in some sort of arms race, meaning Aki's entire quest for revenge against it was All for Nothing.
- Aki's loyalty and infatuation towards Makima was never real. He had been brainwashed to feel that way to be obedient to her.
- And finally, Makima is actually the Control Devil. And the true Big Bad of the series.
- Sequel Hook: Denji kills Aki as the Future Devil predicted, but it said Power would also be killed by him as well, after which "The devil that devils fear most shall appear!"
- Shoo Out the Clowns: This arc is when it becomes more serious. Thus Kobeni, the last remaining (and living) comic relief character that's not Power, quits Public Safety after being sent to Hell.
- Vengeance Denied: Aki's goal of taking revenge on the Gun Devil turns out to be more hopeless than he even imagined, as the world's governments aren't even trying to kill it.Aki: Even if we manage to beat the Gun Devil, the body would probably be collected by Public Safety and kept by the government. We aren't going on a mission to kill the Gun Devil. We're going on a mission to take the Gun Devil from another country for Japan's possession.
Denji: Uhhh... what's that mean?
Aki: It means the Gun Devil can never be killed. The Gun Devil will live forever, always being used by one group or another. - What If?: The cover for chapter 79 (the last in the arc) portrays Denji, Aki, and Power together as children, as in Aki's hallucination.
- What You Are in the Dark: Despite being given the chance to go to Enoshima with Makima by himself, Denji declines the offer in favor of staying behind and taking care of the traumatized Power.
