Denji is a teenager who lives his life as a Devil Hunter. Aiming to pay off the debt he inherited from his father, he starts hunting devils for the yakuza with his buddy Pochita, a "Chainsaw Devil", while living a tragically poor life. Just when things seem like they couldn't get any worse, Denji gets betrayed and killed by the yakuza. As Denji starts passing out, he hears someone calling from inside his head...
The ending theme for this episode is “Chainsaw Blood” by Vaundy.
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The anime begins with a scene of Denji dreaming of a door covered in pieces of paper, a concept that wouldn't show up in the manga until chapter 38 (but was mentioned as something he'd been doing for as long as he can remember).
- All There in the Script: According to the animation guide◊, the small, blob-like devil that Denji kills to prove himself to his debtors was a "Marshmallow Devil (マシュマロの悪魔)".
- Blood from the Mouth: Denji coughs up a huge mass of blood, which makes him think he's has the same heart condition that killed his mother. It's unclear if that was really the case, or if it was just his overall health that started being affected by his missing organs. However, it becomes a moot point after Pochita fuses with Denji's heart.
- Body Horror: The Zombie Devil resembles a headless human chest with a face on it.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Poor Denji arguably suffers an even worse death then he did in the manga since in that version it seemed like he was hacked to pieces fairly quickly from multiple directions. Here one zombie catches up to him and starts repeatedly stabbing Denji In the Back, and later impaling his palm, while all the poor boy can do is scream in agony.
- Deal with the Devil:
- A straight example occurs between the Yakuza and the Zombie Devil. In exchange for bringing Denji to it, the Zombie Devil will bestow its powers upon the Yakuza. Which obviously turns them into zombies for the zombie devil to control.
- A more heartwarming example between Denji and Pochita. Pochita fuses with Denji and becomes his heart, giving Denji the powers of the Chainsaw Devil. In exchange, Pochita asks Denji to continue showing him his dreams.
- Demonic Possession: Discussed: In a flashback, Denji tells Pochita that, if he has the power to take over human bodies, that he wants Pochita to have his body after he dies. After Denji is torn apart by the zombies, Pochita fuses with Denji, allowing his body to be restored.
- Determinator: Denji is determined to escape the Zombie Devil even after being impaled by one of its zombies.
- The Dog Bites Back: Rather fitting considering the Animal Motifs comparing Denji to a dog. After being kept in indentured servitude by the Yakuza, being left only enough money to survive, then slaughtered when they decide they don't need him anymore, Denji gleefully massacres the zombified Yakuza once he becomes Chainsaw Man, even noting that he's just doing his job of slaying devils note after all.
- Downer Beginning: This episode starts with Denji as a young man that has almost nothing to lose: he has a huge debt his father left him after his death and that he struggles to pay, many organs missing because he had to sell them, and discovers that he is probably dying with the same heart disease that killed his mother.
- Driven to Suicide: It's implied Denji's father killed himself because he couldn't pay the money he owed to the Yakuza.
- Eye Scream:
- Denji sold his right eye to help pay off his debt. It is restored when he fuses with Pochita, though.
- Later in the episode Denji, already fused with Pochita, hits the Zombie Devil in one of his eyes with one of his arms.
- Half the Man He Used to Be:
- The zombies cut Denji's body in many pieces before throwing him into the garbage.
- The way that the Zombie Devil itself is killed by Denji.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Denji's biggest goal: to live a normal life, freed from the huge debt his father left him.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Denji develops this, what leads him to believe he has the same heart disease that killed his mother.
- Kick the Dog: Almost literally, given Denji's Animal Motif and the fact they they additionally butcher Pochita when disposing of him. After years of slaving away at their behest, with plenty of Moving the Goalposts, selling his various organs to try and pay off their absurd debt and risking his life fighting devils to give them valuable resources, the Yakuza betray and kill Denji as part of a deal to make their own contract with another devil. The Yakuza leader even highlights how much of a bunch of Ungrateful Bastards they're being about this, admitting that despite his service and all he's done for them, he never really liked Denji, and is glad to be rid of him in a manner that will benefit himself more from disposing of him.Yakuza leader: Denji boy... We're grateful to you, y'know. You're obedient like a dog and you work for cheap treats like one too. Thing is... I hate dogs. Can't stand the smell.
- Laughing Mad: Denji, while he's killing the zombies the Zombie Devil left behind, as he remembers that, with all the Yakuza dead, he won't owe any more money to anyone.
- Mutual Envy: Denji envies the life his yakuza handlers, and most other people, enjoy where they get more than the absolute minimum to survive. However, despite all they get from Denji, the yakuza covet the power Pochita gives and try to get their own from the Zombie Devil.
- Transformation Horror: Denji's Chainsawman form has chainsaws growing from his head and his forearms, vertically splitting them in two, with plenty of gushing blood from the self-inflicted injuries he receives whilst 'reving' them. Denji's able to survive such a state because becoming a fiend gives him an inbuilt Healing Factor, but using his chainsaws is implied to still be quite painful for him. That said, thanks to having a screw or two loose, Denji is able to use his new abilities to awesome effect to slaughter both the Zombie devil and its corpse army.
- Walking Transplant: As of the beginning of the episode, Denji has, in order to help clear off his debt, sold a kidney, his right eye, and one of his testicles. He gets better after fusing with Pochita.
- Would Hurt a Child: In a flashback, the audience gets to see how Denji got in the situation he is now: his father died while having a huge debt to the Yakuza, and their leader then tells Denji that unless he manages to give them a huge amount of money until the next day, they would cut him in pieces. They also have no problem sacrificing Denji to a Devil in the present.
