I have a couple of thoughts about this episode of Chainsaw Man, starting with the fact that it was the most interesting so far.  Also the one that’s left me the most conflicted, in pretty much every sense.  As regards my own feelings about what we’re seeing, and Fujimoto’s intentions with this story and these characters.  Certainly this is the first time that I’ve strongly gotten the vibe that there’s something deeper to CSM, a thoughtfulness beyond the slick pulp of the first four episodes.  I’ve heard nothing but promises that it was there, but until now never gotten a sense of it myself.

For starters, it was strangely reassuring that Denji actually got to tune in Tokyo with Power.  At least that’s not going to be dragged out as a running gag, which would have been unbelievably tiresome.  What we got is much more interesting, namely Denji being disillusioned about the whole experience.  And not just because of the breast pads, either.  I was worried Power was going to treat this is a big joke, but she let Denji have two legit squeezes after that fake-out.  He learns a valuable life lesson here – most of the time, the anticipation of something we build up that much is better than the achievement itself.  Not always though…

The next scene is the most fascinating and troubling of the series thus far. Hey, I know Makima has been nothing if not a cipher – I made no assumptions about her nature as she hasn’t given us much to go on.  The way she manipulates Denji here is certainly masterful, but honestly he could hardly be an easier mark.  Not only is he obsessed with sex but obviously in love with her, which gives Makima effectively limitless power over him.  One might say this exchange paints her in a pretty unflattering light – she basically seduces Denji, promises him (implicitly) sex, and in exchange gets him to agree to a suicide mission.

I have no idea if we’ll ever find out what Makima would do if Denji actually held up his end of the bargain and killed the Gun Devil.  I strongly believe she’s convinced it’ll never come to that, as Denji will be dead.  The Gun Devil has, after all, killed 1.2 million people  – though that was in five minutes twelve years earlier, and it hasn’t been seen since.  That was a game-changing event in this mythology – it “almost” got the U.S. Senate to pass gun control legislation (cheap shot, Fujimoto, but depressingly accurate).  It also changed the way people in this world felt about devils – and by increasing their fear of them increased the devils’ power, especially the Gun Devil itself.

Among those killed was the younger brother of who I’m assuming was the young Aki (Murase Ayumu).  That was the event that presumably set Aki off on the path to becoming a devil hunter.  And the Gun Devil’s impact is felt in other ways, too – as pieces of it turn up here and there and whenever a devil eats one, it becomes much stronger.  Put enough of those pieces together and they act like a magnet, drawn to other pieces – the larger the piece (and the original is the largest) the stronger the attraction.  Since Denji can’t be killed by kill the Gun Devil without finding it first, that seems to be the best way.

One of those pieces has apparently been consumed by a devil who’s holed up inside a hotel, killing people (including private devil hunters).  Aki and his full team are assigned to take it out, which gives us our first extended look at the other members.  All will have their spotlight moments in due course I’m sure, but the one in focus here is Himeno (Ise Mariya)  Aki was assigned to be her partner after the last five had died and is now her boss, which kind of suggests more to that story.  In the present Himeno comes off as the most carefree and confident on Aki’s team, but like Makima she casually uses sex as a tool to manipulate the guys.  And again, Denji is a ridiculously easy mark.

Samu has already discussed Fujimoto’s apparent fetish for being humiliated by bossy women, so I guess none of this should come as a surprise.  In all honestly this is a bit of a narrative third rail for me – it’s not as if it can’t be used for good dramatic effect, but it’s an extremely risky road to take.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind – Fujimoto taking the more dangerous path is part of the draw with Chainsaw Man, and I’m happy to have my preconceptions challenged more than they were in the first quartet of eps as long as the writer has the chops to pull it off.  There’s good reason to think Fujimoto does – only time will reveal for certain.

Samu’s Impressions:

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of this episode is the notion that 1.2 million deaths would even be enough to result in America enacting proper gun control.

But before guns, boobs. When you have Denji as a main character horniness is inescapable; trying to remove it from the series would be like tearing out an artery and expecting the body to still function as it did before. The magic is that despite how prevalent it is to the series it’s almost never irked me or felt as crass as most other proper ecchi or fanservice title that relish in similar delights. Half of that is from the framing not being as lecherous but the other is Denji himself; he desire for boobs is as pure as Luffy’s is to be pirate king. But we start off this episode by seeing him underwhelmed by his much wanted desire of fondling boobs, bringing forth a thought to his mind of being more interested in the chase than the destination – that if the idea of something is going to be more satisfying than the actual result is it worth having any goal in the first place if there’s no knowing it’ll be what you think it will be? Some pretty accidentally deep stuff from a boy who essentially just realised you need to be attraction to the body attached to the boobs to feel something, which isn’t what his relationship with Power is destined to be.

Enter Makima. I could say a lot but what I’ll limit myself to is that she does a marvellous job of drawing out of Denji what he thinks he wants. Just like that, his desire is freshly relit, as if the disappointment of what he just felt never even happened, and he’s being tempted all over again by the chance of the relative unknown. We also see Himeno play into the idea of luring in the boys from their demon hunting party; in comparison to Makima’s calculated approach hers feels much more chaotic for the sake of it, like a cure for boredom – or a front for her inner fears based on that flashback of her losing her sixth partner to the casualties of their profession. Even Power tried it at the start of the episode by using her body as temptation (though the whole thing was more of a joke than anything to her).

This archetype is Fujimoto to a tee. This is the man who when asked in an interview why he like bossy and unreasonable women he thought back to his time at university when a girl who was mean to him one day pushed over his bike and laughed at him about it. And Fujimoto’s response? “At that moment, I thought how happy I am”. Denji very much carries that essence of Fujimoto, and all the dominant and powerful female characters Fujimoto creates are his own version of Denji’s fantasy desires.

But after boobs comes guns. We get a reintroduction to the Gun Devil after the first episode mentioned it, and now its revealed as the driving force of the plot going forward: it killed so many people so quickly that it caused the fear of devils to spike, making devils stronger as a result, over the past decade. The concept of the devils in this series being the personification of a particular collective fear and the strength of that fear determining their power is an interesting one for sure (I’d contribute to the Heights Devil, probably). The Gun Devil is presented as the biggest and baddest of them all – gone without a trace with only stray bullets left in its devastation acting as magnets that, if gathered up from the bodies of other devils who have ingested those leftovers, might lead to the location of this mystery devil for a final clash.

You just have to give points to the series for finding ways to differentiate itself while still sticking solidly to the battle shonen routine. What other series of this can can say their big bad guy is the literal manifestation of the fear of rampant gun violence? And what convinces that series’ hero to take action and save the day? The promise of sex with his superior. As you are, Fujiomoto. As you are.