#chainsaw man chapter 2

[thesmishler]

Thisis myg confession to authorities me momo is Walter hart well white I love at 22222 breaking bad lane I love my baby boy and my baby person theres money in the pizza on the roof check onder tbe pebberonis each of them has money and gold on tbem. Call my lawyer

[daisychainsawman]

i mean it's not like i can save you and it's not like i can even save myself but we don't have to suffer alooooone...LOL!

[aucasaurus]

[cattusnefasta]

chainsaw man deep dive chapter 2: pochita's whereabouts

warning: spoilers for the entirety of the manga as this is a re-read and analysis

we start off almost immediately where we left off. makima wastes no time whisking denji away to tokyo where he'll start his new life as a dog to the public safety bureau. on the way there, poor denji who hasn't had food aside from a piece of bread gets hungry and his stomach rumbles. makima has them all pull over into a gas station where they order a bowl of udon each and a corn dog. conveniently, as they're ordering, a man in distress bursts into the station claiming a devil has his daughter. makima states that her udon will get soggy and tells denji to take care of it in her stead.

at this point we've already seen that makima can, at the very least, be hot and cold with her kindness. but now it's becoming pretty evident that there's more to her meanness. not to mention, she doesn't seem to care that a child is in danger. so denji, threatened with execution if he doesn't obey makima's orders, grudgingly heads off to save the day.

the dog and his master

at this point, fujimoto is REALLY beating us over the head with the dog comparisons. fujimoto isnt hiding anything here; he's telling us everything we need to know about makima and denji before we actually get to the major reveals later on. it's great foreshadowing.

the udon scene was fun for me to analyze. makima and denji are balanced on a sort of seesaw; a scale that depending on which side tips over decides who is the master and who is the dog. makima is training denji to submit to her without him even noticing.

makima having denji go work before eating reminded me of how a trainer teaches their dog to obey and exercise patience before jumping straight to their meal.

contrary to denji's thoughts in the car where he was shocked by makima's graciousness towards him, makima has been doing the opposite the entire time. her kindnesses have been superficial from the very start.

for denji however, i think this scene and his confusion towards makima, especially as a stranger, shows just how much he's willing to sacrifice for a connection. he's willing to overlook blatant mistreatment and threats and rationalize them, and it's sad because its actually a realistic trait for someone like him to have.

the death of denji's individualism

or: "yes" to "woof"

makima's infamous statement "you're my pet now. all you get to say is 'yes of woof'" initially angered denji. as he's searching for the devil, he's fuming over the dog comparisons. but then something interesting happens.

the girl and the devil are playing together. obviously, this was a ploy by the muscle devil to trick whoever came to let down their guard so it can kill them.

this isnt confirmed as far as i know but i wouldn't be surprised if makima set this situation up because it parallels pochita and denji's friendship so well and shows denji that despite this, devils are not his friends. and because pochita's pseudo-death is so fresh, it must be gutting for denji to be tricked in such a way.

so when he heads back to makima, he says "woof". this here is the death of denji's individualism.

makima won.

the muscle devil's lesson

i think the muscle devil event shows us that devils are just like people: good, bad, biased, racist, and flawed.

some are like pochita, some are deceptive. and denji doesn't have the social skills or support system to adequately deal with that.

denji's reaction to this betrayal is an immediate switch to extreme violence. he's quick to act and react, and it makes sense because he grew up with violence. its synonymous with survival. but only after its all over does he let himself feel betrayed. but as we'll come to find out, he doesn't let himself truly deal with these emotions.

pochita's whereabouts

i want to try going through each chapter and talking about why fujimoto named it such. i think that this chapter is a taste of just how out of place denji is now. before the zombie devil and makima, denji had carved himself a little place in the world. he had a job, a purpose, even if it was ultimately a purpose that would have never been realized. denji himself knew he would die before he paid off his father's debt.

so now denji is lost and confused and placed in an unfamiliarly dangerous environment. and he doesn't even have his sole partner, his friend, to stick it out with him.

to end this on a slightly more upbeat note, i did want to mention how makima's comment about there being historical precedence for people merging with devils makes me hopeful that yoru and asa's relationship will becomes a true friendship in a parallel to denji and pochita's. its rare within the world of chainsaw man but it can happen.

thanks for reading!

rare shot of denji being "clever" and my favorite scene of the chapter

love him.