1. anne sexton (“the truth the dead know”), 2. anne sexton (“suicide note poem”), 3. mary oliver (“august”), 4. l.m. montgomery (“anne of the island”), 5. morgan parker (“the black saint & the sinner lady & the dead & the truth”), 6. found poems: sylvia plath / peter k. steinberg (“percy key among the narcissi”) artwork by hugo grenville
I will surely do about other characters from chainsaw man (or about some manga)
some spoilers under, don't read if you're not up to the manga !!
Feel free to give me ur thoughts about her in general or about this post, kinda cool to interact with some fans (:
I scrolled on twitter and Tumblr to see people's pov on Makima (like French twitter or English one) and every time, either people just adore her because of her design or hate her because of what she did to Denji &Co. Even with some of my friends (bc I really like this character), they either see me as a "simp" or a "dumbass".
For sure, Makima is portrayed to be like at first because the story starts from Denji's eyes, we are reading his story, so we perceive everything like him. She seems incredible and unattainable, an impossible reward or reach, and the fact that she is mysterious just embellishes her. Even in the 3rd and 5th ending, she is portrayed as Maria, religious connotations to portray her as something/someone unattainable. She is a savior for Denji, Aki, Power and I'm sure for a lot of devils or humans. Her appearances are often short but very determinant for the story or the plot, so we are kinda intrigued by her. In the beginning, we don't really see her "human" side (y'know she is a devil but she has a soft side), we just see her as a woman who have goals to achieve and tricks Denji as her wishes want.
In fact, if we just see her actions, she is a bad person. Tricking everyone with her controlling power, abusing Denji's truth (and Aki's too), ruining people life because it seems right for her, for her idealistic world. In French, we call that ''conséquentialisme", it has as a definition : "the ethical theory that the morality of an action depends solely on its consequences", so as for Makima, her action may be seen as "valable" because she wants a better world, because she is here to create a better place for everyone even tho it's based on Denji's misery. Her actions are valid thanks to their consequences; an utopia. We may associate her to another philosophy trend called "utilitarisme", defined as : "maximize everyone's happiness" in this case. It means your actions are useful for everyone, it has a meaning.
Everyone can be utilitaristes, as seen with a simple example ;
A train has two roads, right and left, on the right side; the train will kill one person. On the left side, the train will kill five people. Which way will you choose ?
In this case, most people will save the five guys, this is what we call the "utilitarisme", and Fujimoto wrote the limits of it. Indeed, he made the trio "Denji, power, aki" so lovable, so endearing and so relatable that we won't see Makima's purpose as good because she killed most of them, because she destroyed them. We are blinded by our feelings. Even tho her actions are useful for the whole world, a lot of people hate her because she hurt a character they like. But, if we resumed chainsaw man as "a better world vs a guy's happiness", everyone would choose the better world except if they know the guy, it will create a feeling of pity, sadness, and you aren't objective anymore (some videos on YT explains a way lot better the idea of utilitarisme).
Chainsaw man is a shonen, most people reading a shonen won't search this deep into a character. Every character is either bad or good. Makima is bad for a lot of readers because she killed other characters.
Every thing up is just a resume of Makima's actions, but if we analyze her more closely, she isn't just there to create a better place for everyone, she wants to create one for her too.
Let's take the chapter 39, she is first seen asking Denji is everything is okay. Then, she invites him to a date, which he accepts happily and without any hesitation. During this date, they are watching movies, and the only one that affect her (and Denji) is a movie about a family, about reuniting with a loved one, with a closed one, with a sibling or a father. It's about genuine love, it's about genuine care. It isn't about war, despair or anything like that, it's about having a family. It's about having someone who cares for you and for who you care too. She is seen crying, a powerful feeling, because she is just always seen smiling or just neutral. This is a sign of her human side, her first desire; to have someone. Not a lover or anything, just someone who loves her, who gives her affection.
As Pochita said, the control devil only wants hugs, only wants someone who is equal to it. Some people see Makima as a "fangirl" of chainsaw man but it's not totally right. Why does she admire him ? Because he is strong, strong enough to defeat her. Makima doesn't know the defeat, Makima doesn't know someone who is stronger than her. The manga perfectly deflects that : everyone is scared of her (aka Quanxi threw her saber/sword when she saw her, she didnt even try to fight Makima). Added to the government who abandons any war against her, it nourishes the idea that she is invincible, it flourished in her. It became as obvious as the water is wet for her; that everyone is inferior. She indeed likes chainsaw man because he can erase any demon, but she also likes him because he can defeat her and it kinda excites her. She is smiling, laughing and excited during this last fight (some thing we never really saw from her). Even if it ended in her being eaten, she is honored and happy to have met someone who can injure her, who isn't going to die against her. When she tore Denji's torso to take Pochita, her first reflex is to squeeze him against her face, to hug him, to say that they are going to be together forever. She is hugging him as if she is craving a physical touch, as if she missed him, we never saw this side of her during the whole manga. So, with all that, Makima just seemed to be a lonely person during her whole life. All her relationships are based on fear or control. And I'm thinking that, even when she was younger or else, it was this way, it was always this way. And it will always be. She wanted to erase the death, maybe she suffered from a loss ? Even tho she wanted to help everyone or to delete any source of suffer, she also wanted to help herself. I'm always thinking that if someone showed Makima a genuine love, a real care, things would be different (but we won't be having this final for the part 1). Maybe she was doing it because she didn't want anyone to be as lonely or to suffer just as her. You know, your perception of love is strongly inspired by the love you see from your parents or between them. Maybe she just didnt have a great "example" of love, of what a real relationship should be.
Kishibe said to Denji to take care of Nayuta so the government cant make "another Makima", she is just a result of it. I think even her doesn't know her true self. Everyone saw her as a goddess, she didnt ask for it, people just feel the need to fall on their knees in front of her. She never described her as a "God" but, of course, for her purposes, she acted like one; she acted like a savior. She just abused the perception that people have of her at first sight.
Comparing a cold blooded Makima to a Makima hugging Pochita is kinda interesting; we have a facade and the true one. She acted all caring and loving after she thought everyone was dead, after she thought she won. You know, it seemed like a relief. She can be herself and start the life she really wanted; a loving one.
To justify what she did to everyone during the manga, don't forget that Makima recognizes people thanks to their smell. I really think she cant identify someone just by the face or the sound of their voice. She said that she saw humans just like humans saw dogs. Being detached to them kinda help her to act like this. She doesn't even see them as human or devil, she cant have any compassion to them. During summer, you can kill an annoying fly, right ? You won't have any remorse, even tho this fly had a life, it was living, you killed it because it was just annoying.
Don't be wrong, I really love Denji, I was sad for what she did to Aki, but I can put this affection aside and just try understand a character's depth.
had to google this as i wasn't familiar with the name. incredibly specific and accurate reference. please don't compare my cat-in-law to a homestuck character again
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