CSM#223 : THE ARMOR OF THE DEVIL OF WAR IS A TEENAGER, ASA MITAKA
Of course the demon of war would take the face of a teenage girl as a shield, something that is all the more obvious given that Fujimoto designed this fusion precisely so that the demon of war would have this face.
A recurring theme in CSM is the fact that people are sometimes disappointed (myself included) to see that the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are NOT devils with designs that are as horrific as they are cool (just look at all the ideas from fans for the design of the devil of death). But I think Fujimoto just liked the idea, beyond drawing attractive girls, of having the strongest devils have horribly simple designs.
Because the devil of hunger will enjoy crushing ants, the devil of death will remove her organs, wishing to continue to exist only to attend the high school festival, because Nayuta was a little girl who just wanted to go to school, Makima an antagonist who wanted to be at the heart of a loving family, and Yoru the second half of the brain of a complex teenager.
The Knights of the Apocalypse have a connection to humanity, not only because they are the ones supposed to bring about the Last Judgment, the figures of sacred texts carried by men, but also and above all because strength, not ordinary strength, but the paroxysm of strength, will always join the weak.
Because the symbol of the Knights of the Apocalypse is a loop.
Yoru thought of Asa as a shield from the start, watching over an isolated life, moving towards her destiny, certain death, but she gradually forgot this idea because she shared Asa's brain, and her vulnerability, the weakness of the demon of war, affected her. Not to be changed, to change her goals, but to forget enough that it is not her body, just as Denji's body is not hers because she is not his beloved, just as she is not the true heroine of part 2.
We can see the progression in the manga. At first, Yoru is directive towards Asa, a hiding place, an ordinary high school girl, then she becomes more useful, an apat, a vulnerability that would allow a boy to become a weapon.
The power has shifted from Asa, who used Yoru's power as her own, to Yoru's power of destruction, which Asa can only watch because she is no longer the negotiating half of the war demon's brain; she is now just a spectator.
That's what Yoru thought, at least, she believed that Asa was her perfect counterpart, like a leaf perfectly folded in half, but in reality, the shield has shifted. Asa, who loved Chainsaw Man, became a part of him through the goal she set for herself: to help Denji, the demon who became humanity's accidental hero, as best she could, even though humanity is such an ungrateful creature.
But above all, Asa became the shield not of the demon of war, but of the cannon fodder, of all of humanity. The misanthropic teenager, preferring isolation to the risk of forming bonds with others, thanks to Denji, another isolated boy, both martyred by humanity, stood up to protect humanity, which is nevertheless their primary tormentor.
Humanity is the origin of the two protagonists, their first curse as abused children and murderers of their parents, outcasts among their peers, condemned to certain loneliness, of their own making. Two protagonists with irreparable crimes of killing their own, of taking a second step towards inhumanity by becoming half-demons, are the most capable of saving the humanity they wanted to get rid of.
Because rejection does not lead to isolation, rejection leads to expecting even more from others.
Distancing themselves from humanity led them to want even more to become human again, or at least to defend what was their first home.
Asa warned Denji about Yoru's terrible plan, Asa shot herself to try to stop Yoru, she tried to defend humanity as best she could.
When Denji tells her that they have the right to keep hope alive despite their crimes, it's not a shonen phrase, a vain hope. It means that the strongest defenders of humanity are born from the depths because they have hit rock bottom, because they are bad people, rejected by their own, but still capable of saving them despite the resentment that exists, despite the family that disappears, despite the weight of regret.
Asa is not Yoru's mirror, it is Denji who becomes it, carrying the bodies of others so that she does not attack him, as she does with the body of a teenage girl, pretending to be heroic and humane, a distorting mask for war in which these two notions, honor and humanity, cannot exist.
Black Chainsaw Man may be responsible for the disappearance of the devil of war, but Red Chainsaw Man will not be responsible for her disappearance, only for freeing the last hostage, the teenager possessed by her.
Victory and defeat have no meaning in war; rock, paper, scissors is enough to reverse the feeling of victory.
This does not make Denji the winner; war only ends with losers.
Yoru promised intimacy with a body that was not hers, like bait, committed a sexual act with a hand that was not hers and for a boy who was never hers, carrying a love that was still not hers. The rules are reinvented, Yoru decided that all of this was her, and because she is a folded leaf, the love between Asa and Denji is also her story.
And as victory reinvents itself like the rules of the game
Love also follows its own rules.
First fundamental rule: a demon and a human remain two, even in symbiosis, even perfectly fused; there will always be a red Chainsaw Man and a black one; individualities cannot be confused.
The second fundamental rule is that the heroine is Asa Mitaka, whose weaknesses, flaws, vulnerability, and crimes give her the right to exist.
And then came the ultimate rule.
We can pinpoint the exact moment when Asa realized that she could never merge with Yoru—or rather, that they had never truly merged in the first place.
How could children forced to kill their parents in the name of a supposed good learn the meaning of property, rather than dream only of escape and freedom ?
