silksong tomorrow so before i go i wanna say how important it is that denji has absofuckinglutely no one in the latter half of part 2. the sole exception is asa whose mind is being taken over by the fucking incarnation of war. as much as he cares about her, and she cares about him, she is not a member of his inner circle or his support system that he used to have. no kishibe, no makima (even if it was evil, you can't pull the rug out from someone without giving them a rug in the first place), no aki, no power, no nayuta, no beam, no nothing. now, even yoshida, who MAYBE by the most boiled down and simplistic and blurred version of his job description was to keep denji safe, is gone. his fans have turned into mindless zombies. his dogs and cats were burnt to a crisp in front of him. he cannibalized his way out of a horror dimension. he has no home and no family - the exact same conditions as the start of part 1.
even in the start of part 1, though, he had somewhat respectable goals - staying alive, killing devils, making money. now, though, he's actually down even worse than the start of part 1, because even way back then, at least he had his dog. all he even COULD have is being chainsaw man, and that's being stripped away in front of him.
so it's NO FUCKING WONDER HE'S GRABBING AT WHATEVER HE CAN. is he trying to avoid the thoughts of "wow everything sucks?" maybe! is he regressing? maybe! is he just actually that horny? maybe!
to me, it reads as intentional regression. when denji was given a home, family, food, status, and a purpose, he found enlightenment in more than just staying alive or experiencing pleasure (eg, he stayed with aki and power instead of going after makima). his dreams grew larger (pay for nayuta's university, during the reze fight he mentions saving lives because the thought of deaths that are his fault would bother him). now denji has lost his home, family, food (cucked out of decent sushi </3 /, status, and most importantly, purpose. this is where the themes of duality and choice are going in part 2, and why they are so strong - how do you choose between 2 shit options, when your sole motivation leads to neither of them?
now we get kind of speculative. but i think the only way for denji to conquer this dilemma is to grow internally, instead of through the things around him. if he had his food, home, family, and status, he'd probably make this decision lickety-split; he was never the type to try and think things through. so now that he doesn't have them, and won't get them, he has to - somehow - achieve this positive external effect, internally.
or, he won't. i wouldn't be surprised if part 2 didn't have a happy ending. i mean, the entire world is seriously fucked up at this point. maybe the ending of part 2 will be that camel's back breaks and the straws come tumbling down because the fate of the world was placed in the bloodied hands of a man without purpose, hollowed out by an uncaring, manipulative world. maybe he will choose the cat. maybe he will run away from the choices and get rid of his chainsaw heart so he can live a normal life. or maybe he'll just keep getting friends blown up in front of him until fujimoto pulls some other insane shit out of his ass. who knows.
this ended up a lot longer than i expected! please let me know your thoughts as im rather pleased with how it turned out and the ideas it presents. so long and goodnight