I like the contrast of Denji and Reze's pool scene and the beach scene. In the pool, they show intimacy by taking off their clothes together. Meanwhile at the beach, the intimacy comes from Denji putting clothes on a naked Reze, showing compassion to her even after all the destruction and pain she brought him. I think that moved her as much as him sparing her life because it's such a small 'unnecessary' kindness.
It's also proof that Denji isn't just a 'gooner creep' like some of the audience misinterprets him to be. We know he finds her sexy but instead of perving over her naked unconscious form, he put his shirt on her to give her some privacy and safety. He's a considerate guy.
This is why the pool scene is important to the character development and themes btw, despite some dumb people calling it 'gooner bait'. It gets recontextualized in the end to indicate their feelings have deepened beyond physical attraction or surface level... perfection.
let's fucking talk about denji's peace sign making a comeback
- ONE it has been SUCH a long fucking time since we've last seen him do it let alone do it with happiness and joy like im p sure the last time we saw him do it was when he told yoshida he chooses two choices and that wasn't even really peace, which could mean nothing
- TWO of COURSE THIS FUCKING MEANS SOMETHING ARE YOU KIDDING ME WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CULMINATION OF PART 2'S THEMES OF DUALITY AND BINARY CHOICES AND DENJI JUST CASUALLY THROWS UP A 2 AND THEN FUCKING FUSES???? HE MERGES HIS TWO CHOICES - LIVE A NORMAL LIFE AS DENJI OR A SUPERHERO LIFE AS CHAINSAW MAN HE BECOMES AS THE CHAPTER NUMBERED TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO IS TITLED "DENJI MAN" its just so fucking PEAKKKKKKK
- and you KNOW i could not miss the extra layer of meaning where he beats yoru, war, with peace. i mean come on. come the fuck on. he beats war in rock paper scissors with peace and then reaches actualization and merges his conflicts at once. nobody else is doing it like denji
reze chainsaw man is obviously a manic pixie dream girl archetype and so also plays into stereotypes of mentally ill young women. however, instead of playing the archetype straight, csm recontextualizes her from a character that exists purely for the male protagonist into an expression of deep longing for intimacy and agency as a victim of the same abuse that denji faces. ultimately, reze's murder isn't the callous "fridging" of a love interest, but instead illustrates the violence that highly vulnerable women face, particularly from the government and other institutions that are supposed to care for them. in this essay i will,
i think about this scene a lot and i know it’s been talked to death, but i still think it’s amazing. it’s amazing how denji and makima are the only ones in the theatre sitting side by side, how they didn’t react to the rest of the earlier movies even though everyone else did. they are strikingly similar in the way neither of them know how to properly connect with people which is why the last movie finally connected with them.
i remember someone saying smth on the lines of how makima is always so close to being human but never being able to fully bridge that gap because of who she isand yeah i agree 100%
in this scene they are both crying, but only denji looks to realise the other is crying. makima doesn’t look because she’s never looked at denji, not once, so she doesn’t ever realise. even though they are equal in this aspect when it comes to connecting with others.
I always wondered why Angel was saying all these bullshit lies about how he thinks humans should be in pain or whatever, but then I realized!!
It's a defense mechanism.
(analysis post / AKA me being lowkey delusional but whatevs)
So, like, this is when they first met. Think about it this way, you're Angel, and everyone avoids you because of your powers. You ask this guy for a napkin and he goes up to you, you're confused, question him, and he counters your statement by confirming that there is a way to be near you.
That obviously got to him, because, immediately after, the guy who never wants to do anything that bothers him, USES HIS WINGS TO DEFEND HIM FROM A GUN SHOT. A guy he just met by the way, and he verbally expresses that it hurts, but he did it anyway.
So then, they get teamed up together by Makima.
And here's the psychology of Angel. He hates death, hates seeing humans die, and he knows humans die if they get close to him, and he has this gut feeling about something he can't remember. So what's his best effort? Push people away.
Yes he's "lazy" (depression), but the way he was almost taunting Aki felt intentional.
Aki is the one human who wasn't scared to get close, so he wants Aki to dislike him so he'll have some other reason to stay back.
And it worked! Kind of.
---
And here's where it gets tricky. Angel has depression, for sure, and his powers are literally just for exploiting humans, so he just never wants to work, but he knows that if he gets attached to someone, he'll put in effort that he shouldn't. It's dangerous and bothersome.
He gets that point across in this scene, he's basically telling Aki that he wants nothing to do with him and anything he represents, and Aki is still hesitant.
So now, he has successfully created a distance between himself and Aki.
Or did he?
I really like this addition in the anime because it really gets across the point that I'm about to make.
Despite the walls they have created, they are curious about each other.
That's represented here well. Angel is literally creating a wall between them with his wing, but he's looking out at the city (that represents Aki) in wonder. Aki is almost analyzing him, despite the distance.
And that curiosity manifests into conversation, he wants to know more about him, and Aki listens closely to what Angel is telling him.
And then there's this scene.
Aki is holding onto him for dear life, and that puzzles Angel a bit. He keeps telling him it's fine to let him go, to the point where he even gets a bit frustrated as he explains how he doesn't care if he dies. But nonetheless he felt wanted, wanted alive, and that gave him a flashback of someone who wanted him dearly.
And then this happens!
He grabs his bare hand, and drags him to safety. And this is where Angel's true colors show because this shocks him but also angers him, he's angry, confused, and exasperated at the same time. he asks Aki is he wants to die, and Aki says that of course he doesn't, and asks him how much time he lost. Angel looks defeated as he tells him, and that's when Aki sorta gains an epiphany.
He doesn't want more death, he doesn't want to see people die in front of him, and that is something that Angel can relate to immensely. Suddenly, they had a lot more in common than they thought, and all of the barriers and walls Angel put up, Aki literally destroyed both socially and physically. In that last panel, Aki is holding onto him tightly, and Angel sorta looks defeated, he has gained an attachment.
---
After that, he once again, puts in effort in doing something for Aki's sake, and this time, it's disobeying Makima's order.
He fully accepts it, you know what, I am an angel, I do care. And he asks the mouse "is the city a good place", because he wants to know if caring is worth it, if putting this much effort into something reckless is worth it.
Then after that, he started to really put in effort into his job. Using his power despite his hatred towards it because people were in danger, collecting information and telling it to Aki.
Despite them growing closer, Angel is still a snarky little shit, but despite that, he cares. He acts like he doesn't, but he does and he knows it.
(I could also go on about how this parallels Reze and Denji's relationship but that's an analysis for another day)
the characterization of makima from all sides of the fandom is very incorrect and downright infuriating as someone with a deep love for makima.
i genuinely don’t care about the dudebros who call her mommy, not because it’s correct or not egregious, but because they’re few and far between if you’re not engaging with stupid men. what is more frustrating to me is people that call her a sexual predator or pedophile.
she dangled denji’s desires in front of him to manipulate him. she was never going to have any sexual relations with him, and her manipulation + grooming were never sexual. she is incapable of that sort of attraction.
i also dislike the people that characterize her as some wacky cartoonishly evil sadist when her sadism is no more than that of any devil. she does not enjoy killing, she enjoys control. her laughing after killing power was her experiencing the joy of her power, true control, and being swallowed by that ecstasy.
people seem to forget that her life is not dissimilar to reze’s. she was also a child once, and she had always been kept “collared and controlled” by the state. she views people as tools due to the combination of her natural desire for control and also because she has always been a tool with a gun to her head. she never knew equal relationships, all she knew was the government and its destruction.
her treatment of denji, including destruction of his family and security, was for the purpose of drawing out chainsaw man and having him eat the other horsemen and all of the other dangerous devils.
she did get some level of satisfaction in these things, her instincts as the control devil make that immovable, but she also got satisfaction due to her jealousy. seeing denji get a family and withhold equal relationships despite the danger of his hybrid aspect, she feels satisfied that she gets to rip that away and watch him turn empty and motionless, just like herself.
her reasoning for wanting to kill other devils is control is something that is feared due to what it brings. war, famine, death, etc. are all the reasons people feel fear towards control. makima desperately wants equal relationships, a family, to feel the simple joys that people do.
she believes her actions are a necessary evil to ultimately end human suffering. she believes this because her life is government control, and the only way she knows how to achieve this goal is the same techniques used by the corrupt and abusive government. she doesn’t care what it takes because she doesn’t know how, people are pawns to her because that is how her superiors treat humans and makima herself.
despite part of her goal being to “free” mankind of their pain, it is truthfully more selfish than that. you see it too when she cries in the movie theater while two characters hug. she would give anything for a chance at a family, a chance at equality without feeling above others. how can a devil feel above others if she has no leverage to hold? maybe then, and only then, could she be free of her chains.
the overarching theme of chainsaw man is government corruption. makima is a product of that, a victim of the cruelty instilled since she was born. she is the tragic example of what a system turns blank slates into. her stone had been carved for years, and there was no way for her to erase that. this is all she knows, and as such she had to be erased to form a new beginning in the form of nayuta.
Im sure this has been talked about before but like I recently saw a review that someone left for Chainsaw Man on some anime website that made me roll my eyeballs so hard it almost gave me a headache. The rating was really low and one of the reasons- according to the reviewer- was that csm should be labeled as ecchi because of all the “unnecessary fan service” or something like that. And I’ve heard other similar complaints as well where people complain about Denji being a pervert or a gooner or whatever the fuck the term is these days.
And man… did y’all just not even read/watch the series?? Like idk but I feel as if the majority of the nudity, raunchiness, and all of Denji’s pervy thoughts all serve a storytelling purpose, not just as fan service.
The main purpose I think is to remind the viewer that Denji is just a teenager! He’s literally just a very normal teenage boy with very normal thoughts and feelings. Which can be sort of forgotten in a lot of shonen, what with all the action and violence and revenge and training and superpowers and whatever other larger-than-life events might be going on for the protag. Especially in csm, where Denji never even had a chance to be a normal kid. But throughout the story, we are constantly reminded that Denji is in fact just a teenager, because the way he initially reacts to certain things is usually very immature and goofy and yes, even perverted.
He sees a hot girl? He gets excited and nervous! And yes he wants to touch boobs, yes he desires physical intimacy… just like damn near every other teenage boy. And so what he sees and thinks and feels is exactly what we as the viewer also experiences… until reality comes crashing in, and suddenly what he sees—what we see—is just a woman, an average person. And I mean that in the best way possible!
Like, touching Power’s boobs? Hell yeah let’s gooo! Until he realizes she’s gross (affectionate) and wears bra pads because she likes the way they make her look and feel. And suddenly the illusion is shattered. Like that whole scene starts off with Denji’s original point of view, looking up at Power as this sexy angel granting him the opportunity of a lifetime! She’s leaning back and her chest is perky and she’s luring him in.
But as soon as the bra pads fall out and the camera pans back to her… she’s no longer this glorious sexy angel on a pedestal, but instead just a girl. Baggy shirt, flat chest, sitting a little more awkwardly.
Then kissing Himeno? Hell yeah let’s fucking gooooo! Until she pukes in his mouth. And later that night when she tried to sleep with him? Again, he sees this sexy half naked woman who’s seemingly interested in him
but it all shifts when he realizes he doesn’t actually want to do that with her. It then shows her hogging the bed and snoring. And the next day, she’s still half naked.. but it doesn’t even register to Denji because he’s so focused on the food and the view from the balcony. Plus, Himeno is sitting “unladylike”, slouching and legs crossed in the chair. She’s now shown as an average woman chillin at home on her day off.
Then there’s hanging out with Reze and seeing her naked?? And she’s flirting with him?!? Well hot damn, that’s his dream come true! She’s cute and he’s freaking out at seeing her start to undress, focusing on her underwear and coy smile
But then they get in the water and there’s ZERO sexiness, just silliness! They’re kids having fun! And suddenly the nudity is just natural, just them existing as human beings.
Now, I don’t think all of the nudity and so-called “fan service” serves this one sole purpose, because eventually we do start to see Denji maturing as the story goes along and he’s reacting this way less and less as time goes on. But! I still don’t think it’s ever “unnecessary”. There is still always a more meaningful reason for the nudity and suggestive/sexual content.
Makima enticing Denji with a nibble of his finger, a grope of her breast, and a promise to grant any wish he has? Denji constantly fantasizing about Makima? This is obviously meant to show the severe control she has over him. Out of all the women he meets after becoming Chainsaw Man, she’s the only one where his rose colored glasses don’t shatter until it is far, far too late. And so he continues to have these immature and perverted thoughts about her much longer than he did for Power, Himeno, or Reze. And I mean, I could sorta maybe see how an anime-only fan would think this was all just unnecessary fan service at first, because it does take until you get further into the episodes before things start clicking into place. There’s a scene in like the second chapter of the manga though, and it’s one of the only scenes I can think of that didn’t get animated, but it was a brief moment of clarity for Denji where he clocked that something wasn’t right about Makima, that maybe he should actually run away. But since this wasn’t in the anime, I think it takes a bit longer to realize that everything she says and does to Denji is definitely not a good thing.
Reze’s nakedness as the Bomb Devil? It’s never actually portrayed as sexual in my opinion—no one is ogling her, she’s never stopping mid-fight to stand in a hyper feminine sexy pose, and I can’t think of an instance where it ever zoomed in and focused on her naked parts. She just… is. And honestly the nudity only emphasizes the fact that she’s actually just like Denji - a CHILD who has been taken in by the government, controlled, and turned into a weapon. Being the Bomb Devil is not something she wants. And this is made even more apparent when she and Denji wash up to shore after their fight… because even though she was naked as the Bomb Devil, Denji has dressed her in his shirt when she transformed back into Reze. It highlights the stark contrast between the animalistic weapon Bomb versus the average teenage girl Reze.
Power and Denji in the shower together? I’m sorry but if you seriously think that whole scene was nothing but “unnecessary fan service” then all I can say is literally what is wrong with you. Nudity in that scene was meant to show their vulnerability, the care they have for each other, the important shift of Denji’s feelings from “I definitely wouldn’t cry if she died” to willingly helping her bathe because she’s too afraid to be in the bathroom alone. And even when they’re in bed together and Power insists on the physical intimacy and the blood drinking, Denji flat out admits to himself that he no longer views her in a sexual way anymore. The moment is very much portrayed as Power’s desperation to feel present and safe in their home and not like she’s still about to die in hell, and Denji’s determination to make her feel safe again. Plus, despite his immaturity, he’s also a chronic people pleaser, so of course he gives in to Power being clingy.
“OP this is all fine and dandy but what about the scissoring lesbians??”
Ah yes! Even the scissoring lesbians serve a greater purpose than just fan service! The way I see it, it’s just another example of the overarching theme of control. Makima and Quanxi are actually pretty similar in that they tame and control their fiends through honeyed words and the promise of protection, food, and a generally comfortable life. The only difference is that while Makima may tease with a boob grope, a date, and a promise of granting a wish (and also being ya know.. the Control Devil), Quanxi is out here putting her whole pussy into pleasing her girls. Literally.
So anyway there’s a reason Chainsaw Man isn’t considered ecchi and I will die on this hill.
Pochita being the first relationship Denji chooses to have and has actual autonomy in only for their relationship to end with Pochita taking away Denji's autonomy and making decisions without his consent.
