Chainsaw Man Chapter 231 or: "You Just Don't Get It"
The discourse on Chapter 231 frustrates me.
Because fans will come up with a really meaningful story in their heads inspired by what they read and what seemed to have been the intent behind the chapter, and mistake that as being the actual work itself. Thus anyone who hates this chapter must simply not understand it.
As a writer, when I think of a cool story idea, I go "I want to write that."
But when these fans fill in the gaps and come up with something far more impactful than the narrative itself, they assume it must've been there all along. Even when it just isn't.
And you can make the argument that perhaps one of these interpretations, or even all of them, were the genuine intention behind the chapter, but that's not the same as what we actually got.
What we actually got was Pochita saying "Your life was better when you were dying in a rundown shack and dreaming of happiness, because actual happiness isn't worth it if you lose it."
Maybe what he meant was that Denji needed to grow up and face reality. Or that the Chainsaw Man persona enable his worst destructive habits chasing after impermament, shallow esctasy, and thus Pochita is forcing indepence onto Denji out of genuine concern, love and selflessness. Or whatever other interpretation sounds good to you.
But that's not what he said. You can't even say it sounded good on paper, because this was literally on paper.
As of writing this, Chapter 232 is not out yet. So who knows what that will bring. I just hope one day, when a bad ending of our favorite manga comes out, we can all go back to making fix it fics, instead of saying "you just don't get it."
We might not have Part 1 in universe any more, but we still have that in real life. So, at least we have that. I'm gonna go reread all the Denji and Power scenes to cheer myself up now because holy shit.
I wanna thank @emdlare for pointing this out to me. There's a misconception that Denji wasn't talking about Power in ch. 230 because she only tried to kill him once, and he says this girl was always trying to kill him, so it has to be someone else. However, he actually said the exact same thing directly to her.
[Image ID: Two black and white panels, both medium shots showing Denji and Power from above the elbow. Going right to left, the first one shows Power with a bored look on her face laying her chin on Denji, who looks annoyed. The second shows Power, now turned to face Denji and with an eager smile, saying "I'm bored! Wanna wrestle?" Denji, now looking frustrated, says "No! You're always trying to kill me!" /.End ID]
The Bat Devil Arc is when Chainsaw Man went from really good to great!
Previous Analysis
Following Analysis
I said this before but I think it bears repeating. Chainsaw Man was never a bad series. It was always good. But the Bat Devil arc is when this series figured out what makes it truly special.
So first off, one of the cool things this arc does is that is shows us that Power is not a complete idiot.
[Image ID: Black and white panel showing a close up shot of the right side of Power's face saying "What if I said I'd let you touch my chest if you got Meowy back from that devil for me?" She is comforting a cat. /.End ID]
Sure, Denji basically hands himself on a silver platter, but she still had to connect the dots and be able to play along with the ruse. She understands that Denji is desperate for some kind of sexual connection and uses that to trick him into a barter with the Bat Devil.
Power isn’t actually THAT stupid. She's like Denji in that she can be smart, but her own mental hang-ups hold her back. She is arrogant and selfish and that's what leads to her ignorance. She thinks so highly of herself that she just assumes she's always correct. She's not incapable of learning, but she does often refuse to learn and play along. Pay attention to her wording when she eventually reveals the rescue was bullshit.
[Image ID: Two black and white vertical panels, one showing Denji and other showing Power. We view Denji's left side from the waist up saying "Isn't it gonna use your cat as a hostage if you show up? You can't come this close with me right?" The other shows Power from a similar angle to Denji, saying "Ohh? Was that my story?" /.End ID]
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Power walking in front of Denji. We still only see their left side. Power says "A slip of the tongue it was" while Denji looks surprised. /.End ID]
If she was really a traditional idiot, she would try to come up with some nonsensical explanation. But she doesn’t. Her excuse is nonchalant, and even she is aware of how much of a nonanswer it is because she is immediately ready to knock out Denji. Because Denji is already where she needs him to be and he means nothing to her because he’s human. So she forgets the ruse by that point. It's useless information to her, so she just tosses it aside. This is what I mean when I say Power isn't stupid. There is a logic to her actions.
And while Power is known for lying, she can also be brutally honest, even if it isn't actually true.
Take the scene of them on the bus.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Power sitting in a bus drawn from the from the chest up saying "That means Pochita died, does it not? The dead have no life! "They're in my heart" or whatever-that's pathetic consolation!" She in a relaxed position, we see her arms raised and laying on the top of the back of seat. /.End ID]
Denji tells Power about Pochita and we see that arrogance of hers in action, talking about foolish humans and how Pochita is definitely dead.
Power in my eyes, tries to act as a nihilist. Because she was once a full-on Devil, she views the world through the principle of eat or be eaten.
Empathy and emotional attachment is treated as alien to Devils in this series. Even the Leech and Bat Devil being in a relationship is treated as a throwaway joke. Get it, because they both suck blood?
Meanwhile, Denji’s more optimistic. He has a cynical side no dought but while both he and Power had similar upbringings, as the Yakuza’s Devil Hunter, he learned to grow attached to people, whether through a genuine bond like Pochita or in the business sense like with his former employers
He may not care about Meowy at this point, but he is genuinely sincere about the deal he made with Power. But while this may be a conflict between optimism and cynicism, part of what makes the Bat Devil arc so great is that we see the opposite for both underneath the surface.
Power's nihilism turns out to be completely bullshit. Even though she started out wanting to eat Meowy, she grows attach to this cat and is willing to do the Bat Devil's bidding because of that.
[Image ID: Two black and white panels, one above the other, both show Power. The top panel is a full body shot of power Power, back when she was naked and covered in dirt, running right to left, on an empty road. There is a text box displaying her thoughts saying "then why am I running? Why am I searching for a human?" A close up shot up her face is shown, from the left, her long wild hair covering her eyes. Another text box of her thought is shown here, saying "to save Meowy?" /.End ID]
Denji, on the other hand, buys into Power's surface level cynicism and starts to believe it is impossible to be friends with her. The shot is even framed in a fish eye lens to emphasize the distance between them.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji and Power sitting on a bench of a bus. The panel is drawn as if it was a wide shot through a fish eye lens, the bench curving towards the reader. Denji and Power are looking in opposite directions, making sure not to look at each other. Power has her right arm on her lap while resting her left arm on the top of the back of seat. Her right leg is crossed on top of her left leg's knee. Denji is leaning back and has his arms resting on the bench. /.End ID]
And this all comes to ahead when the Bat Devil swallows Meowy. Power fully gives in to despair, admitting to Denji that she finally understands him because they both lost a friend, it’s utterly heartbreaking.
[Image ID: Black and white page consisting of two vertical panels. The right panel shows Power, waist up, saying "I know how you feel. 'Tis an awful feeling isn't it?" with a melancholic look on her face. The second panel, only making up about a third of the page, shows Power letting herself get grabbed by the Bat Devil's hand. /.End ID]
But then we get Denji’s perspective. A memory of him thinking he lost Pochita. So he refuses to surrender.
[Image ID: Four black and white panels showing Denji's flash back. Three panels laid side to side on top of a wide fourth panel. The first panel of the three smaller panels shows young Denji's shoe. A caption showing Denji's thoughts says "Pochita wasn't there when I woke up." The second shows a shot of Young Denji from the knee up running right to left. Another caption says "I looked all over town and still couldn't find 'im. I thought he'd been eaten by a devil." The last of the third panel shows a crying Pochita near some boxes. The caption says "But when I got home, Pochita was there waiting for me." The wide panel shows Denji hugging Pochita and holding him close while they both sleep. The last caption says "I remember being so relieved that we fell asleep together right on the spot." /.End ID]
He's willing to fight for this girl who literally just sacrificed him to a Devil. With a couple of flashbacks and some dialogue, we immediately get the stakes at hand and how these two are going to become one of the greatest duos in all of manga. Denji’s fights with the Bat and Leech Devil thus become really meaningful. He’s not just saving someone, he’s saving his first real chance at connection. Not only that, he's also saving Power's first real chance at connection as well. At this point both only had their pets to rely and talked to. They are each other's first opportunity at a real human relationship.
[Image ID: Black and white two page spread of Denji and the Bat Devil fighting. Denji is on the right in his Chainsaw Man form with blood splattered all over him. The Bat Devil has a left side of his torse severely damaged by Chainsaw Man's blades. His mouth is wide open and the onomatopoeia has him going OOOO. /.End ID]
And this leads to one of the best moments in the entire series. Power’s remembers her realization about how blood is nice and warm. She's opening her eyes, crying if only for a moment, to see her holding on to Meowy in his cage, and then to Denji holding her close to his chest and them just looking at each other's souls
[Image ID: Black and white one page spread of Denji carrying Power in his arms as they look at each other intimately. His left hand is under her right knee while his right is holding her head up. Power is holding onto Meowy in a cage. Both are covered in dirt and are surrounded by the intestines of the Bat Devil. /.End ID]
Yeah this page drives me insane. It’s intimate, it’s a satisfying pay off, and... it’s kinda hot. Just two people in their own little world, on the verge of realizing that what they have is something special. It’s so good. It’s the same reason why even after, well everything, I’m still a Bleach fan. Because man, those early arcs with Ichigo and Rukia still mean something to me. Shonens hit different when they’re shoujo-pilled. I don’t make the rules.
But I have forgotten something, haven't I? Yeah, Denji’s motivation is wanting to touch some boobs. And that’s because it really doesn’t matter. It’s shallow and it’s not the reason Denji cares about Power. I know this because he kept forgetting about it and Power had to remind him. And it won't be the last time she will have to do that.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji and Power. The shot is a close up of the right side of Power's head laying on the ground as she says "Meowy survived. I'll let you touch my chest." Denji is sitting up right in the background with a surprised look on his face. /.End ID]
But we’ll get back to that in a future post. This one is already long enough as is, so thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Power and Denji's Flower Scene and Why Romance Series Work
You can read part 1 and 2 of my Denpower's analysis here
A lot of people only view Denji and Power's relationship through a platonic lens. While that is a perfectly valid interpretation, I think there is a lot of fun and intrigue when you see it as a different kind of love story. And the flower scene is a perfect example of that.
[Image ID: Black and white page consisting of 5 panels showing Denji and Power in a cafe. The first panel shows Denji holding flowers with Power looking excited and blushing saying "What's with these flowers?! These should suit me perfectly! Gimme!!" The second panel and thirds panel show close-up shots of Denji and Power's faces. Power's mouth is covered by the flowers and thus her hairs, eyes, and blushing cheeks are all the reader sees. The 4th panel shows Denji looking at the bouquet in his hands. The last panel shows Denji eating the flowers. He is raising his right arm to block Power's attempts to reach the flowers, as she yells "Hey! Don't eat them! Those are mine!! Thief!!" /.End ID]
Now you might think she really does just want them because of her selfishness, but then you notice her blushing and then there is this awkward moment of silence between the two(something the movie makes last even longer and thus upping the tension). And the scene ends with Denji deciding the best course of action is to eat the flowers.
There's a lot of really cool things going on in this scene.
First, this plays on the rules of 3. We had Makima’s date with Denji, then Reze, and then we end on Power.
And apparently Power missed Denji so much that as soon as her blood was fully drained, she immediately went to track him down.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of a close-up shot of Power's face as she tells Denji "I followed your scent here. What a puny place!!" /.End ID]
And for someone known for being brash, arrogant, and not really giving a fuck, she sure is staying silent and blushing after she asks for Denji's flowers. The manga makes a point to really highlight this by making it a close-up shot. Like even she knows how this looks.
What I really like about this scene is that it could have easily been an ironic scene. Because it starts with the owner saying this kind of hokey line. So this scene could be just subverting it by proving him wrong.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of the owner of the cafe from the head up saying "Face it, she was out of your league. You lived in separate worlds. You'll meet a girl who's right for you eventually. /.End ID]
But then of course there is this legit tension between the two. The scene thus reveals that it is ironic, it's just a different kind of ironic. Where the right girl for Denji... is the one who attempted to sacrifice him to a devil. Not only does that rule but the scene itself is also genuinely cute.
It reminds me of actual romance series like Toradora or Dress Up Darling. Because it’s not subtle, but that's also not the point. Taiga and Ryūji or Gojo and Marlin getting together is not a spoiler. I mean both of their first EDs are basically "OMG I've fallen in love!"
It's actually a fairly common criticism of romance stories. That they are just too predictable and I'm sorry, but I also think it's kind of a dumb critique. This critique completely dismisses what makes these kinds of romances series so good. The enjoyment of a good romance series is not that you don't know whether or not the couple will get together in the end. What works about them comes from your emotional attachment and the narrative layers involved in the scenes. Let's talk a little bit more about Toradora.
The premise of Toradora is that Taiga and Ryūji discover that they have crushes on each other's best friends and so they decide to help each other out. I think even with that small description, you can already tell what the "twist" is going to be. But the story finds a lot of great ways, such as this moment.
[GIF ID: A capture from the Toradora episode "Ryūji and Taiga." In it, the characters Ryūji and Taiga are in an empty classroom when it's near dusk. Ryūji closes his eyes before chugging down some crumbeled cookies in a pink cloth bag. Taiga looks in shock. Once he's finished, Ryūji smiles at her and says "delicious." /.End ID]
In this scene, Taiga is worried that her cookies she made for her crush aren't any good, especially after she accidentally threw them and they crumbled. But Ryūji takes a swig of them and says that they're pretty good. Pretty standard so far. But here's the thing, Taiga tries them herself and admits that they taste like shit.
[GIF ID: A capture from the Toradora episode "Ryūji and Taiga." Ryūji and Taiga are walking down a road where house and trees are on both sides, walled off. Taiga has both hands behind her back and her eyes closed while her head's looking down. She asks Ryūji "Those cookies were salty, weren't they?" Ryūji responds with a surprise look on his face. Taiga then explains that "I tried some." And with a cut to a close-up of the right side of her from the chest up, she continues with "And man, were they gross!" /.End ID]
Now Ryūji caring about Taiga and her feelings is really not that hard to figure out. But there are a ton of fun and interesting implications in him enjoying those cookies. Because Ryūji can cook, it's one of the first things we learn about him.
[GIF ID: Capture from the Toradora intro "Pre-Parade." It shows Ryūji in an apron cooking some sort of meat and veggie dish. He stirs with some chopsticks and flips it in the air. /.End ID]
He knows what a cookie is supposed to taste like. So either’s he lying or he does somehow like them. And it doesn't matter which it is because both just make him a much more interesting character. Even if the ending is predictable, how we get there doesn't have to be.
The same is true of this moment between Denji and Power.
Like even just Denji eating the flowers. It's kind of interesting that when confronted with the choice of either giving Power the flowers, ones with an intense romantic connotation to them, or just saying no, which Denji is certainly capable of when it comes to Power in most other circumstances, his solution is to eat them. He's quite literally eating his feelings.
The ending of a romance story does not need to be surprising. It just has to be worth getting there and stick the landing. ...which Chainsaw Man absolutely does, but that's for another time. (>ω^)
I... I don't know how to feel honestly. I guess on one hand, DenPower won. But on the second hand, man would it have been sweeter if it felt earned for a second.
We should talk about Chainsaw Man Pre-Power, because I think people forget how different it feels from the rest of the series.
It’s very melancholic and even, lethargic at points.
One of the most telling moments in the entire series is right around the half way point of the first chapter when Denji tells Pochita about his dreams.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji laying on his back, saying "I'll spread jam on sliced bread and eat it with you. I'll flirt and stuff with a girl. We'll play video games in our room together... and I'll fall asleep in her arms..." Pochita lays on top of him. They're in a rundown shack. Window and a door on the door in the background. Two shelves on the right wall. The faces of Denji and Pochita are obstructed by shadows. /.End ID]
Video games, bread with jam, and being able to hug a girl. They really aren’t that exceptional. But Denji’s life is so utterly miserable up to this point that they might as well be. Hell, in this same scene we find out that he was going to die soon like his mother(who by the way, might be one of the most important characters to never make an appearance ever).
Even after Denji becomes Chainsaw Man, even after our introduction to Makima and Aki, you really get the feeling that Denji is truly alone and the composition of the panels emphasize that.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji, isolated and over a light gradient background. He is sitting with his head buried in his arms as they lay on top of his knees. Tuffs of grass are around his feet. He says "I just remember Pochita's dead... Blaah..." /.End ID]
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji and Aki. Aki is slamming Denji into a window with his right hand, open palm, his face only inches away. Above Denji's head is the word BANG. Aki tells him "listen up, don't you forget this. Fiends are bona fide devils too. A devil hunter shouldn't be sympathizing with devils." /.End ID]
Everyone is above him and they see themselves that way. He’s always being talked down to and getting beat up. He’s always isolated from everyone else. He has no one he can relate to. No one he can really just… talk to. And then the greatest character introduction ever happens.
[Image ID: Two black and white panels of Power. The first on the right shows a full body shot of her in her full Public Safety outfit. She is shaking her raised left fist back and forth. She yells out "Hey, hey hey! Grovel, Human!" In the second, on the left, is a close up shot from the shoulders up. She has her right hand out in front of her, open palm. She continues from the previous panel with "My name is Power!" There is a glow behind her horns. /.End ID]
Power energizes the book. Now I want to make it clear that I’m not saying Chainsaw Man was bad before. Not at all, I think very early Chainsaw Man is brilliant in a lot of places. But I genuinely believe Power is what made it really special. Chainsaw Man was good, but she made it great.
She plays off of Denji perfectly. Even before they became friends, their antagonism is so much different from Denji's other relationships.
[Image ID: Three black and white panels of Denji and Power arranged with one vertically orientated rectangular panel to the right and on the left: two smaller panels, with one on top of the other. In the big panel, Power smacks Denji in the back of his head. Denji looks shocked, with wide eyes and his mouth only slightly opened. The word THWACK is split up, with THW above him and ACK below his head. On the left, the top panel shows Power, frustrated and her mouth wide open, yelling "Human! Hurry up and let me kill something! I thirst for blood!" At the bottom panel, Denji looks befuddled. His head tilts to the left and his shoulders hang loose. /.End ID]
Because for the first time, he’s on equal grounds with someone. Like sure she’s haughty but she doesn’t actually have any real, well, power over him. They both will be killed if they fuck up. So the kind of rivalry between them is just a lot more fun than with Aki, which was just uncomfortable. That's not a bad thing, Aki's interactions with Denji by design are supposed to be awkward. But I definitely enjoyed Denji's interactions with Power a lot more and how much fun they are is one of the reasons why.
[Image ID: Black and white panel of Denji and Power. She is charging to the left, they are action lines behind her, her right arm in front of her and her right raised behind her. She is looking happy. Denji is to her right and gripping metal bars, lightly hunched over. He's yelling at Power, saying "Hey! whoa, whoa whoa! Where do you think you're going?!" /.End ID]
It's a clever way to foreshadow her eventual relationship with him. Because it's a subtle shift that the reader might not be aware of at first... but it's absolutely there. And I mean that in tone, obviously there were jokes before this point, but now the vibe is a little different. The manga finally gets to be a little loose and little less serious. Even the artwork gets less grounded and the characters get to have more energetic poses and faces.
Like characters are often defined just as much by how they physically react to a situation as much as they talk about it. And Power's immediate reaction to smelling Devil blood by jumping off the top of a building is so insane and characterful, that it still gets me everytime.
[Image ID: Three black and white panel of Power, one vertically oriented rectangles to the left and right of one another, and one smaller panel horizontally oriented rectangle above the right panel. The top right panel shows a wide shot of Power jumping off a building. The bottom right panel shows her falling, her arms wide open and her feet dangling in the air. Action lines representing wind lines cover the entire panel. Her long hair is blown upwards by the wind. The final panel on the left shows her smiling while she holds a giant hammer above her, basically a classic cartoon mallet. /.End ID]
Subversiveness is something that gets thrown out a lot, but I think it really fits here. You think Aki is going to be Denji's rival and the main attention like in other shonen or whatever but then Power stomps her way into the series. She grabs the attention not only of Denji, not only of the readers, but of the metanarrative itself.
[Image ID: Four black and white panels. Two box shape, one on top of the other on the right. Two vertically orientated rectangles, side to side. On the top right panel is a close up of Power saying "No! This deceiver told me to do it! Devils can't lie! Only humans lie!!" Her eyes are closed and we can only see the right side of her face. Small beads of sweat are dripping down her face. On the bottom right panel is a close up of Denji countering with "That's not a thing!! You're the proof, stupidface!! you lying liar!!" Sweat is also on his face but this time, we only see the left side of his face. The panel right next to the top and bottom panels shows an ever closer shot of Power with just her face, yelling "Humans tells nasty lies! I only did as I was told, 'tis truth!!" The sweat is even more obvious and her mouth is wide open. The last panel is a close where you can only see Denji's eye looking to the right and some parts of his hair. He says "Quit talkin' all weird to sound cooler than you are!! It's so creepy!!" /.End ID]
Also the squabble between Denji and Power over whose fault it is when they’re interrogated by Makima is so cute.
See what I mean? This is genuinely fun. This is what I love about a lot of manga and anime in fact. How they can so easily shift tone without it ever feeling sudden. And Chainsaw Man is one of the best to ever do it.
And that's before we get to the really good stuff involving rescuing Meowy, but I'll save that for the second part of my Denji and Power analysis. I just wanted to start with the actual intro because I think Power had one of the best character introductions ever.
