Tear Jerker / Chainsaw Man

"How could I make you so hurt that you'd no longer be capable of living a normal life? So damaged that you'd never be able to bounce back for as long as you live?"

— Makima^note and Tatsuki Fujimoto to the reader, probably

From the author of Fire Punch comes even more soul-shattering gut-punches!

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Part 1: Public Safety

• Right off the bat, we see Denji's living situation, maimed to sell body parts, desperate enough to immediately eat a lit cigarette just for 100 yen ^NoteA little less than $1, and being so hungry that he treats eating a slice of bread like a gourmet dinner. Even then, he doesn't seem to have much longer to live due to the heart condition he inherited from his mother.
  • During the eventful night that would lead to him becoming Chainsaw Man, said condition rears its ugly head as Denji talks to Pochita, causing him to violently cough up a truly worrying amount of blood. Denji's reaction is complete nonchalance as he casually comments his mom suffered the same condition. He has spent so long deprived of the most basic comforts in his life that the prospect of a slow, lingering death does not even faze him.
  • The only comfort Denji has is Pochita and at the very least dreaming of all the things his current lifestyle denies him. But even that is taken away as the Yakuza ambush him and kill them both. His last thoughts are a cruel bemoaning of how he's not even allowed to fantasize about a better life.
  • Many chapters later, Denji has a dream of Pochita. It's one of the rare times he looks genuinely happy and looks excited to at least be able to dream about being with him again. But Pochita refuses, desperately pleading to Denji to never open the door he's hiding behind. Which is much later revealed to be the mental representation of Denji repressing the horrible traumatic memory of killing his abusive father in self-defense. It's implied that Pochita could have actually communicated with Denji in their merged form; but, after realising how horrific his best friend's past truly is, the Devil sealed himself off in the darkest corner of Denji's mind in an attempt to protect him, unwittingly giving Makima exactly the tool she needed to break his will by just forcing him to open it.
• While he doesn't dwell on it too much, it's clear that Denji deeply misses Pochita's presence in his life. Early on, he wonders that he's finally gotten the decent living he wanted with access to a shower, a bed and decent food yet he still feels like something is missing. The only solace he can take is in the knowledge that Pochita isn't actually dead but it's clear his absence has left a large void Denji's life.
  • When you factor in Denji offering Pochita use of his body when he dies it's obvious that the possibility he would somehow end up outliving Pochita instead had never even occurred to him. Given that he was well resigned to the fact he would die young and consoled himself in the knowledge Pochita could at least live a full life, he's likely not entirely sure how to cope with the fact that the opposite has occurred instead.
• Denji remembers a time when he was younger when Pochita went missing. Horror kicked in as Denji ran all over town looking for him, terrified that Pochita had been killed without his knowledge. Luckily, he found out that Pochita had managed to find his way back home on his own and spent his time crying as he waited for Denji to return. The two were so relieved that they both fell asleep on the floor hugging each other.
• Aki has a particularly shocked look on his face when he learns Denji never went to school, as if he just realized the implications of why Denji acts the way he does.
  • Right after, when both of them go to take down the fiend and Denji kills it without activating his power, Aki lectures him about devils being the enemy and asks him if he'd be friends with one. Denji responds by saying he would be friends with one since he grew up with no friends. Aki backs off after hearing this, and despite what Denji claims, it is still a reminder of his grim childhood.
• When the Bat Devil eats Meowy, Power just...stops. Before she's eaten herself, she tells Denji that she now understands how he feels about not being able to pet Pochita anymore. Thankfully, Denji saves them both.
• Aki lost his family to the Gun Devil, in what seems to be collateral damage from its attack. Even worse is that they died in one fell swoop right as Aki was about to bond with his little brother by playing catch with him, and that his brother may have survived if he hadn't gone back inside to get some gloves.
• Himeno is so used to losing friends and partners that she doesn't even bat an eye when a girlfriend of one of them goes up to her on the street to slap and berate her for getting her lover killed.
• Kobeni’s status as the resident Butt-Monkey is largely played for comedic effect, but her backstory and reason for being a Devil Hunter is actually quite sad - especially because she didn’t even want to join Public Safety originally. Her parents forced her into it so she could make enough money for them to pay for her brother’s college tuition, and she openly admits that they loved him more than her. To make things worse, they apparently threatened to force her into prostitution if she didn’t accept the job. This quote from her sums up her situation the best:
  Kobeni: [sobbing] I wanted to go to college, but I'm just going to my grave...!
  • Kobeni gets an especially raw deal during the Eternity Devil/Hotel arc. The poor girl is shaking and sobbing uncontrollably out of fear for her life during the whole ordeal, and considering all the pressure her family’s placed on her shoulders, it’s no wonder that she’s the first to snap and try to kill Denji.
  • And in case you didn't already feel bad for her, both her English and Japanese voice actresses give their all in the anime to make her crying and panicking sound chillingly genuine, particularly during the scene where she accuses Power of luring the group into a trap.
• Himeno's death is full of this. Injured by Katana Man and faced with death, she tells the Ghost Devil that it can have all of her in turn for its immense power. Despite that, she still loses out to the more-powerful Snake Devil, so she decides to give herself up for Aki. A couple of panels later and it's shown that her body is completely gone. The only things that remain are her Public Safety uniform and her eyepatch.
  Himeno: Best not die... Got that, Aki? Because... when I finally go... You can cry for me.
  • Chapter 29 reveals that he did cry for her death. It's about as soul-crushing as it gets.
    • When Denji hears Aki crying from outside his hospital room, he wonders to himself why he isn't crying over Himeno's death as well, despite her being the first person to actually want to be friends with him. He muses that he feels like he wouldn't cry if Aki, Power, or even Makima died, then wonders, since the last time he felt sad was when he lost Pochita, if he lost his humanity when he became Chainsaw Man. He brushes it off, but it later provides the basis for his Identity Breakdown.
  • "Easy Revenge!"
• After Himeno's death, her sister visits Aki and gives her some of her letters. An excerpt reveals that she's been spending the time since she and Aki met desperately trying to find a way to convince him to quit Devil Hunting, all because she was implicitly in love with him.
• Arai's death was hardly impactful in the manga, but the anime lends it far more weight by showing what happened: barely surviving the first shot, he throws himself in front of Kobeni to save her life. Kobeni is in clear anguish looking at his corpse and has a pretty bad emotional breakdown looking back on the memory.
• The confused look on Denji's face when he sees Reze blushing and smiling happily over the flower he gave her. The kid's been so happy about the superficial attention he's gotten from those he lusted after that he doesn't understand how to respond when apparently faced with actual unconditional love.
• Denji's sheer frustration with how unlucky he is when it comes to his love life, which explodes out of him during the fight with the Bomb Devil. While the story treats it as a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense chase sequence, it serves to highlight that for all his faults Denji is just a regular boy that wants to be loved by a girl. Yet none seem to care about him, only his power.

  Denji: ALL OF THE WOMEN I KNOW! EVERY SINGLE ONE HAS TRIED TO KILL ME! Everyone's after my chainsaw heart! What about my heart?! DENJI'S?!

• Much of Denji and Reze's interactions becomes this with Rewatch Bonus:
  • With her upbringing as a Child Soldier who pines for a normal life, it's not hard to imagine how much that small flower from Denji meant to Reze.
  • Denji guesses based on her failure to kill him while his guard was down while out on their date that she actually went into the phone booth to kill Denji, only to get completely thrown off by his charming antics. Reze's death monologue strongly implied he was right on the money.
  • Much of her reactions to learning Denji never went to school take on whole new meanings when it's later revealed that she really wished to go herself. It's also easy to miss, but when she offers to run away with Denji, part of it includes the two of them finding a school to attend together.
  • Her reaction to Denji's rejection of her offer especially becomes more painful when you realize she's very likely furious that the boy she loves has ended up yet another brainwashed victim of Makima.
    Reze: So that witch has got you on a leash, Denji? Then it would have been meaningless even if we had run away together?
• Reze's death at Makima's hand. Her whole arc revolves her falling in love with Denji, because of how similar both of their circumstances are. Denji offers to run away with her, but before the two can rendezvous Makima brutally has her murdered. To add salt to the wound, right before having Reze killed, Makima brings up the Country Mouse conversation that Reze previously had with Denji, signaling that Reze was doomed to die from the start since Makima always had her in her sights.
  Reze: Denji, I... never got to go to school either....
  • Denji appears to have waited all the way to nightfall for Reze until the café owner had to kick him out due to closing time. Meaning Denji likely spent the rest of the story believing that Reze really was faking everything all along.
• The death of Quanxi and her fiends can count as this, considering that they were fan-favorite characters and were easily the most sympathetic and honorable of all the assassins sent after Denji. Half of her harem ends up getting massacred by the Darkness Devil when they're all sucked into Hell, and the rest are unceremoniously killed alongside Quanxi by Makima once Santa Claus/the Doll Woman is defeated.
  • As soon as Makima arrives on the battlefield, Quanxi immediately surrenders and attempts to bargain for the lives of her remaining women, claiming that she'll do anything Makima asks if she lets her fiends go in peace. It doesn't work.
  • Kishibe's refusal to remove his blindfold after Makima kills Quanxi and her Fiends becomes this moreso, after it's revealed in an extra chapter that not only were they once partners, but Kishibe had feelings for Quanxi.
  Kishibe: I don't want to see a thing.
• Seeing the once haughty and confident Power turn into a Nervous Wreck after the encounter with the Darkness Devil. She’s become so scared of the dark to the point that she needs Denji to always be around, constantly checking dark places like inside her own mouth for the Darkness Devil. Power realizes how much of a burden she is to Denji and even admits fault while begging for Denji not to hate her.
• Overwhelmed by a vision where he and Power are killed by Denji, Aki breaks down and resorts to tearfully begging Makima for any Devil power she can provide because, guilty over his little brother's death, he wants Denji and Power to survive and be happy.
• How Aki's death to the Gun Devil is confirmed: as simply another name on the list of mounting casualties to the fear of firearms incarnate. Even if he wasn't under Makima's control at this point, he stood absolutely no chance.
  Hayakawa, Aki
• Aki is on a destructive rampage through his neighborhood after being turned into the Gun Fiend, with Denji desperately trying to stop him. In Aki's mind however, he's a kid again having a snowball fight with a kid Denji. And it's the happiest we've seen him in the manga yet.
  Aki: I've never had this much fun before! Mom and dad are always fussing over Taiyo. They never pay any attention to me. But now, my life has finally...finally...gotten kinda fun.
• Aki's death at Denji's hand. Spurred on by civilians who had been caught in the crossfire, Denji is forced to kill Aki. In Aki's Dying Dream, it's implied he allowed this when he saw that Denji was crying during their snowball fight. Aki is then reunited with his little brother, finally being able to play catch with him just like he promised before their family's death.
  • The chapter cover twists the knife even further, showing Denji, Aki and Power all smiling together as children with the content of this chapter effectively being the disintegration of the Family of Choice the three had developed over the course of the series.
• Power's death itself stings, but what makes it worse is the fact that she's killed right after she attempted to do something selfless for once: she bought a birthday cake for Denji.
  • The leadup is also harrowing. The doorbell to Makima's apartment rings and Makima explains to Denji that it's Power, that she invited her and that if he opens the door for her she's going to kill her. What follows is an agonizing 7 pages where Denji is psychologically manipulated by Makima into opening the door, looking like he's in a dissociative trance the whole time, barely able to resist her commands. His unsure motions and internal monologue about what Power is even there for make it seem like maybe, just maybe, he can resist Makima and save Power. But the door swings open and as Denji sees Power standing there, he gets a horrified look on his face before Makima murders Power, leaving her as only a head and legs as the horrified Denji can't even muster the emotional strength to scream.
• Watching Chainsaw Man try to do the things Denji wished he could do becomes saddening when one remembers back in the first chapter, Denji told Pochita to take his body if he died and do the things he dreamt he could do. Thanks to its nature as a Devil, however, Pochita is unable to fulfill Denji’s dreams without turning them into horrific nightmares but fulfilling his friend's dreams are all he has left.
  • Throughout his "date" with Kobeni, the manga shows us silent Beat Panels of Pochita reacting to Kobeni freaking out. While his true form disallows him to emote, it's heavily implied that it's dawning on poor Pochita that he's completely failing to fulfill Denji's wishes.
• Power's second and possibly final death, as her resurrection in Hell will likely erase all memories of having been Power and she'll revert back to being the Blood Devil. She realizes how much she loves Denji as a friend and sacrifices herself to revive him, urging him to live in spite of having lost everything and brings him back by contracting him to find the Blood Devil in Hell and remind it of having been Power so they can be friends again. And all of this is done to be reflective of when Pochita merged with Denji to save him.
  Power: Denji, this is a contract. I'll give you my blood. In exchange...come find me.
• Chapter 92's color spread◊ is of Denji, Aki, and Power in an alleyway. Power and Aki are portrayed as walking into the light.
• The fact that out of the whole cast of protagonists (Makima at this point is the Big Bad), there are only three named characters left, all huddled into a room drives the point that we're heading into the Grand Finale.
  • Poor Kobeni, who's acting more like the Final Girl in this story. Even after leaving for a life of civilian work, gets roped back into the fight for this arc. She barely even escaped getting killed by Makima because of a lapse of Denji's judgment, and while she's perfectly capable of handling herself, she's just so broken at this point.
• Chapter 93 has Denji break down and cry at the attention he's receiving as Chainsaw Man, because all he wanted was to be happy. While it may be considered Narm, the fact that a happy-go-lucky character like Denji wants a normal life of luxury after the living hell he's been through and is willing to die for it says something.
  Denji: The real truth is I'm tired of eatin' stuff like toast with jam for breakfast! What I really want... is to eat steak for breakfast every morning! I know I shouldn't! I know it's terrible! But it's the same when it comes to girls too! Deep down... I want five! No, ten girlfriends! I WANNA HAVE TONS OF SEX!!! That's why... That's why I... I wanna be Chainsaw Man!
• Even when he defeated Makima by using the chainsaw made of Power's blood, he still isn't happy with his victory, as he had to defeat the woman he loves in order to stop her plans. It's possible that he heard Makima's rant against him while he was disguised, and that probably was the final nail in the coffin for him to finally suck it in that she never loved him. Despite this, he still loves her and even apologizes to her before he prepares to slice her up.
  Denji: Sorry bout' this, Ms.Makima.
• While he achieved victory against Makima, the final image of Chapter 96 is of Denji completely alone in his apartment eating Makima by himself, just to drive home how many people he's lost having to get to this point.
• Chapter 97:
  • Makima doesn't recognize humans by their faces but rather by their smells. Denji made a gamble on whether or not Makima would recognize and notice him by his smell. Seeing how Makima didn't notice Denji until he sliced her open with a chainsaw, Denji was correct in thinking Makima never once cared enough about Denji to remember his smell.
  • Denji's face when he recounts this makes it pretty clear that he is devastated knowing she never really cared for him at all.
  • Something of note when Denji encounters Nayuta; he's rather shocked due to seeing her, and for a few seconds, doesn't want to actually deal with her because of his experience with Makima genuinely leaving him that hurt and empty.
  • It's especially tragic when you realize: after a lifetime of knowing only how to force others into loving her, Makima completely disregarded possibly the only person who'd fallen in love with her of his own volition.
  • Furthermore, Makima's entire relationship with Denji, which is made to seem uneven and dysfunctional but cute and heartwarming at first, becomes Harsher in Hindsight given her true nature. To summarize: the very first person aside from Pochita to ever show (what seemed at the time like) genuine kindness to Denji was merely doing it as a sham. Not only did Makima have zero interest in Denji, but she was actively planning to tear down everything he cared about just to force him to break his contract with Pochita, and any kindness she showed towards him was just to set him up for further trauma (see the page quote). For fans who finished Part 1 of the manga, it can be heartbreaking to see new fans start to read/watch the series and think that Denji and Makima make a cute couple, knowing that they'll be in for a massive gut punch once they reach the Control Devil arc.

Part 2: Academy

• Bucky's death. The little guy was weak due to nobody being scared enough of chickens to warrant a powerful Chicken Devil, but they were ultimately just a kind and cute critter not unlike Pochita. Even the usually aloof Asa is touched by their kindness when they show that they went to the effort of knowing her by name despite her actively avoiding them until then. All of this kindness gets repaid by the jealous Class President tripping Asa as she's running forward to finally mingle with her classmates, causing her to fall on Bucky and crush them to death. And all of this not long after the whole class declared them their friend.
• We learn in Chapter 102 that while technically the Typhoon Devil did kill Asa's mom, she was ultimately killed due to pushing Asa to safety when she lingered behind to save a cat and was crushed by a flying car. When an old lady praises Asa for saving the cat, Asa bursts into tears, clearly believing that the rescue was not worth her mom's life.
• Denji messily enjoying his cake is funny, but quickly becomes sad and bittersweet if one remembers that the last time someone got him a cake, it was for his birthday, that someone was his surrogate sister, and she was unceremoniously killed over it. You can't really blame the kid for wanting to enjoy it as much as he can after all he's been through.
• Denji gets asked out on a date by Asa, and he agrees almost immediately despite their bad first impression, because even after all the terrible experiences he's gone through, he still just wants to find love. But as we the readers know, Asa is only doing it because she considers Denji a criminal and won’t feel too guilty turning him into a weapon for Yoru to use. Asa unknowingly just becomes the latest in a line of women who take advantage of Denji’s feelings to get what they want.
• Denji and Asa's date at the aquarium has a rough start. Asa insists that they follow her game plan to the letter, even telling Denji that he doesn't have to think. This... clearly reopened fresh wounds left by Makima as Denji snaps back that he's decided to think for himself and leaves Asa in a huff.
• After a Hope Spot with Asa realizing she has her mother's cell phone and the barest chance of calling somebody for help, she ends up tripping and breaking her phone. She gets berated by Haruka, who borderline calls her a liability despite her just trying to help (it doesn't help that she called Denji useless earlier for seemingly not helping). She responds by finding the emptiest part of the aquarium to sulk in.
• Asa's laments to Denji when he checks on her. The poor girl, huddled in a starfish exhibit, weeps as she apologizes for getting him trapped in the Eternity Devil's loop and trying to turn him into a weapon, and bemoans her own weakness for being unable to accomplish anything due to her chronic fear of making a mistake.
• Asa's newfound confidence when Denji compliments her brings a fond smile to Denji's face and he notes that it "reminds him of an old friend." Denji's still clearly missing Power dearly, and seeing this side of Asa reminds him of what he lost.
• There's something sad to be said about Denji declaring that he has experiences with fun dates considering all instances of said dates were with women who had eventually broken his heart. Chapter 118 even expands to reveal that his plan for a second date with Asa was to take her on a movie marathon much like Makima did, making it clear that despite all that she had done to him in the end that date at the movies meant quite a lot to him.
• While Asa getting upset over Denji not liking her back is initially played for laughs, she still doesn't want him to fall for her and get turned into a weapon due to her newfound feelings for him. She winds up talking down to him during their movie date at his house, claiming she hated him and was using him as a distraction, while also giving him a warning that she was dangerous and should stay away from her.
  • After being told she hates him, Denji similarly wonders why Asa doesn’t like him, revealing he actually does like her a little. He wonders if it’s because he smells like wet dog, showing that what the Yakuza leader said to him before he sacrificed Denji to the Zombie Devil still affects him long afterwards.
• While Nayuta is revealed to be much less malicious than her reintroduction initially implied, she still ultimately results in Denji and Asa's movie marathon date ending poorly, forbidding Denji from seeing her again as well as wiping Asa's (and Yoru's) memories of the date and making them think Denji had stood her up. As it sinks in for Asa that Denji (seemingly) stood her up, she tries to rationalize to herself that she doesn't feel bad about it at all and that she's better off not being with him, but she knows full well she's lying to herself. After a drawn-out pause, the poor girl mentally kicks herself for ever getting caught up in her feelings for a boy to begin with, deciding her main priority is figuring out how to get her body back from Yoru. When Yoshida suddenly arrives and asks her what she's doing, she can only dejectedly reply she's doing absolutely nothing.
  • Nayuta's reasoning for wiping Asa's memories? She knows that Denji has a history of falling for women who end up trying to kill or manipulate him, and she doesn't want her big brother to be hurt again. You can't even call the poor kid unjustified for thinking that, since Yoru really was trying to turn him into a weapon.
  • Denji, while complying with Nayuta's demands to not see Asa again, isn't completely happy about it, as he did in fact like her just a little. His exhausted expression as he tells Nayuta that she comes first also makes clear that while he does legitimately care about her and does his best to raise her properly, at the end of the day he's still just a young boy, and has to make sacrifices he shouldn't be having to make at his age due to his responsibility to her.
• Asa falls into a deep funk by the end of Chapter 121. After Nayuta wiped her memories, Asa believes that Denji stood her up for their date, despite being the one to ask her out. Then Yoshida asks to have a chat with her, and for a brief moment Asa interprets this as him having an interest in her, which he quickly shuts down by telling her to stay away from Denji before leaving. She's on the verge of tears, pointing out how she is quick to convince herself that someone likes her only to feels hurt when she turns out to be wrong. Her feelings turn to Heroic Self-Deprecation, calling herself arrogant for being selfish yet wanting companionship. It's bad enough that Yoru tells her that she's been too down on herself. Keep in mind that Yuko turning into a devil for her sake and subsequent death and Asa's aquarium date with Denji happened in a very short amount of time. The last few chapters had their humor but it's this chapter where we see it take its toll on her.
• Chapter 123 shows even more of Asa's trauma-riddled life. After her mother's death, Asa lived in an orphanage with other children orphaned by the Typhoon Devil, along with the cat she rescued. The caretaker convinces Asa to give up her cat, explaining that her attachment to the cat is preventing her from socializing with the other kids. Asa relents, but later that night another orphan states they saw a cat just like Asa's dead in the river. Asa turns to the caretaker who reveals she wanted the cat dead purely out of spite that Asa had someone she was affectionate with while everyone else there had nothing. Even worse, Asa's mother is directly dead because Asa went out of her way to save the cat, meaning Asa has nothing at all to show for her brief moment of heroics.
• And this only gets worse in Chapter 124 as Asa breaks down and Yoru of all people has to tell her to keep going. Except, Asa doesn't want to. She reflects on her life and sees that she has been trapped in a cycle of loneliness and pain. Each time she's tried to form a relationship with someone, it fails, and either her or them gets hurt. She has long since passed the Despair Event Horizon.
• The Falling Devil uses her Emotion Bomb powers on Denji and he sees... Aki as the Gun Fiend and Power with the birthday cake. A horrified Denji screams as he succumbs to Falling's powers and falls into the sky. He overcomes this by slicing up his own brain to prevent any more mental attacks, but this course of action can just as easily be interpreted as Denji resorting to Self-Harm to cope with his trauma.
• Denji has given up being Chainsaw Man to keep Nayuta safe and tries to convince himself he’s happy not being Chainsaw Man and having a normal life with Nayuta. But when he sees somebody on the television claiming to be him, he can’t hold himself back and yells that the man on the screen taking credit for his deeds isn’t him. Nayuta comforts Denji as he cries, letting out his real emotions at no longer being able to be Chainsaw Man anymore and seeing somebody else steal his identity.
  Denji: I’m more Chainsaw Man than him!
  Nayuta: There, there.
• Chapter 136 is just... depressing. The ending of the previous chapter showed Denji reacting to the news that Asa had officially stolen credit for his kills as Chainsaw Man, implying that he's going to confront her about it. Nope. He keeps to his promise to live a normal life and goes to school, where he's accosted by a Chainsaw Man critic who scolds him for wearing Chainsaw Man merch, then attacked by a Chainsaw Man fan who mistakenly thought Denji was trashing the hero. After Denji gets chewed out by his teacher for defending himself, Yoshida then invites Denji to a movie theater so they can be "normal" by cutting class, all while bluntly telling Denji that he's not as important or special as he feels he is and that the world can and will move on without him. By the end of it, all Denji can do is ask if his new, unfulfilling life is what it means to be normal - the same normal life that Denji had so desperately wanted all the way back in the beginning of the series. And when a girl Yoshida had called to be Denji's date shows up, Denji, the Hormone-Addled Teenager we all know and love, can only exhaustedly tell the girl how down he feels about his current life and outright tells the girl to leave him alone. Then the girl grabs his crotch with a wide grin on her face, essentially sexually assaulting Denji just to solidify his shitty day.
  • Denji asking Yoshida if his new unfulfilling life is "normal" is soon followed by a Call-Back to Denji's date with Makima, only this time Denji is all alone by himself with nobody else in the theater, and symbolically nobody else but Nayuta that cares about him as a person.
• Chapter 137: There is something quite sad about Denji knowing full well there is nothing good to come of a random girl he just met groping him without permission and offering him sex if he debases himself for her amusement, even correctly assuming from experience alone that it's likely a Honey Trap—yet due to his apparent depression and hormones, he goes along with it anyway.
  • Denji flashes his first, true genuine smile that manages to reach his eyes reminiscent of his more energetic persona from Part 1. Not from hanging out with Asa, not from taking care of Nayuta, not from overcoming his grief or learning to love himself, but from beating up dozens of armed attackers with a baseball bat. For all his character growth and persistent episodes of empathy, he can't seem to break away from how good it feels to commit horrific violence, especially because said violence is emblematic of his life as Chainsaw Man and he now has a chance to engage in it once more when he thought it was lost to him forever.
• Thanks to Fami's hype machine, the public's love affair with Chainsaw Man himself is starting to wind down by Chapter 141. Merchandise is relegated to the discount bin, Asa has largely replaced him as the media darling du jour, and a bunch of civilians opting to take down a Devil that appears in front of Denji themselves rob him of a chance to show off to Nayuta.
• Remember that Denji was trying to give Nayuta a normal life, the implication being that while she knows he's Chainsaw Man and that she is a Devil, he tried to keep her in the dark about his past or her complicated nature as the Control Devil. In chapter 146, Denji dismisses Nostradamus' prophecy as stupid crap before Nayuta reveals that it is not only true, but that the Great King of Terror is her eldest sister, the Death Devil. Denji is shocked that she knows this, but perhaps even more shocked that his goal to give her a normal life was never going to come to fruition.
  • Considering how Denji vocally refers to Nayuta as his little sister, it must be gut-wrenching for him to hear her reference her true "family" after all he's done for her.
• Chapter 149: Denji trying to convince Nayuta not to side with the devils by attempting to point out that they have friends at school only to realize mid-sentence that he has no one left.
• Chapter 155: Nayuta sacrifices herself to ensue Denji's escape... after Denji just callously told her that he doesn't need her anymore. Her last thoughts reveal that she was originally planning on betraying and breaking Denji similar to Makima's ultimate plans... only to end up loving Denji for real and abandon her ultimate goal for his sake. To top it off, Denji ends the chapter by dreaming that he doesn't deserve any family because he killed his father.
• Chapter 161: After watching Makima emotionally breaking Denji to bring forth Pochita, this chapter shows Denji getting literally broken to prevent Chainsaw Man from emerging, at the hands of Public Safety themselves.

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