The Unexpected Genius of Chainsaw Man
“Chainsaw Man…” the title itself may prompt ideas as to what sort of a series it is. A shounen action story aimed at teenage boys filled to the brim with gory battle scenes, wicked villains, and lewd jokes. And at first, Chainsaw Man does indeed present itself as an easily digestible action story. However, under its surface lies a genius tale involving the deconstruction of and subversion from the shounen genre, as well as numerous plot points that tackle existent societal issues.
CONTEXT
The story’s beginning puts us into the shoes of Denji, an orphan boy who hunts devils to pay off his late father’s debt.
Devils are the physical manifestations of human fears, and whilst they are generally malicious, the story introduces us to many which we are meant to empathize with. Pochita, Denji’s “Chainsaw Devil” dog, being the most lovable of them all. Upon Denji’s betrayal by the debt collecting Yakuza’s, Pochita gives him its heart, creating Chainsaw Man.
His tragic beginnings resemble that of a typical shounen protagonist, who starts off as pathetic and hopeless but eventually grows into a hero with the guidance of his friends and mentors.
Yet, from the very beginning, the story takes on a sinister tone, Denji’s low status isn’t painted as pitiful, but as pathetic. The debt collectors refer to him as a dog, he does exactly as he’s told, whether that be killing devils or eating a cigarette for 100 yen.
The gravity and overall realism of these opening scenes are telling of the story’s tone and broader distinction of direction from other works in the genre, which typically take on a more lighthearted approach in tackling a character’s lowly beginnings. The, almost nauseating, sequence of events suggests that there is more to the story than its synopsis.
DECONSTRUCTION
To deconstruct a genre is to clearly demonstrate its essential elements and then to display their real consequences.
“It is not solely done to denote how unpleasant a genre or trope is, but to break away from the clichés and stock themes said genre or trope has acquired.” Genre Deconstruction
Chainsaw Man deconstructs the essential elements that make up a shounen protagonist, by providing realistic explanations for typically expressed behaviors.
Such characteristics include having a large appetite, a lack of social skills, a lack of intelligence, a sort of simple-mindedness, as well as an immense determination. These characteristics are placed upon characters without much reason and serve as either opportunities to provide comedic relief, as ways to drive the plot forward, or to add easily perceptible character development. And although Chainsaw Man undoubtedly uses these peculiarities to add interest to the plot, it is the viable reasoning for their existence that sets it apart from other works.
The realistic explanation given for the usage of these tropes is Denji’s socio-economic status. He has a large appetite because he grew up eating rotting garbage in order to survive. His social skills are lacking, but so are any people he could connect with on an interpersonal level. His lack of social cues isn’t simply a cool quirk that differentiates him from the other characters, but often puts and keeps him in situations that cause and perpetuate his suffering. His lack of intelligence is painted in the same harsh and realistic light, it stems from the fact that he never went to school and didn’t have the liberty to think complexly due to his living conditions. Lastly, maybe the most virtuous characteristic of a shounen protagonist is their immense determination, but this trait of Denji’s does not stem from a noble or abstract goal, but rather from simple, trivial, stupid things.
These choices not only contribute to the genius of the story but prompt the reader to further question works in the shounen genre.
SUBVERSION
Chainsaw Man’s subversion from overdone shounen tropes is what makes it stand out amongst the dozens of other “Shonen Jump” publications. The manga anthology publisher is home to some of the most stereotypically shonen works, such as One Piece, Dragon Ball and Bleach. The weekly publishing format favors simple and easily digestible stories that are guaranteed to cultivate an audience; this makes Chainsaw Man’s realistic angle stick out like a sore thumb.
WOMEN
One of the primary reasons I’ve come to love the manga is how it treats its women. The reader is introduced to two female protagonists, both of whom are painted as love potential interests. The smart and respectable Makima, whose persona is opposed by Power, the promiscuous blood-loving devil. Off the bat it is easy to assume what direction the romance will take, Denji will flip flop between the two girls, but inevitably end up with Makima, the more worthy of the two.
Often, in manga, literature, and broader society, women are grouped into two dichotomous categories, The Madonna and the Whore. Coined by Sigmund Freud, the Madonna-Whore complex categorizes women as the chaste Madonnas and the seductive Whores, claiming that men, at least on a subconscious level, do not respect women they find sexually attractive. This patriarchal lens that women are viewed through is customary in shounen literature, and for a plausible reason. Shounen, the name in and of itself is telling of its audience. The direct translation is plainly “Boy’s Comics”. With the target demographic being young boys, many works in the genre rely heavily on male power fantasies. Women are used as a means to satisfy those fantasies, coming at the cost of any nuanced characterization. In Chainsaw Man the reader is almost promised to be able to insert themselves into the shoes of Denji, who will achieve both sexual and emotional satisfaction and will have the ultimate deciding power over the two women.
Those expectations were then flipped on their heads, resulting in a great deal of satisfaction for those who felt as though the ploy was deeply overused and in rather poor taste.
Denji’s relationship with the formerly thought of as saintlike Makima is nothing short of a deeply uneven power dynamic, in which he is the dog, and she is his master who he obeys without question. Denji is often humiliated and emasculated to such an uncomfortable extent that the reader can no longer comfortably insert themselves into his shoes.
The emotional satisfaction is then not fulfilled, but neither are any of his indecent needs, since…
MALE-FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS
Denji’s relationship with Power is wonderfully platonic.
Her sexual appeal wasn’t utilized to satisfy Denji, rather, it is used to diverge the typical dynamics present in male-female friendships. The female is usually either deprived of any feminine characteristics, or the relationship is used as a cheap plot device in which the two parties engage in will-they-won’t-they rhetoric, which adds no substance to the plot.
The story tackles Denji’s obsessive desire for vulgar things and simultaneously addresses the realistic problems that arise from basing your life’s purpose on a specific goal, a common trope amongst shounen protagonists. When Denji achieves his first trivial goal he feels empty, after realizing that it isn’t all that it was made out to be. Revealing the often disappointing truth of achieving one’s goals, particularly if they are misguided as is the case with Denji. In a sense, his strong urge to be sexual is a manifestation of his desire for normalcy, which he has been so deeply deprived of.
After working through his genuine thoughts for the first time, Power is then painted, not as an object which can be used to satisfy Denji, but as his equal, both in value and in character.
Power and Denji are both outsiders from society, with Denji being dirt poor and Power being a devil, which creates a sort of solidarity between the two. Both characters are simple-minded and largely unaware of social norms. This creates a satisfying power dynamic in which both share many naturally humorous interactions, as well as build up each other’s humanity. Both of the characters’ development lies in their connection to each other, as they build empathy and learn to care for people other than themselves.
GOOD VS. EVIL
Denji, Power, and the other characters the story follows are not the most virtuous bunch. The characters aren’t necessarily sorted into groups of good and evil, but into the country mice and city mice. In which, the good and virtuous country mice get killed. This is both a subversion of the shounen genre and of the fable itself.
In Aesop’s fable, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”, the country mouse rejects the good food of the city, for the stability of the countryside. Yet, each Chainsaw Man character that has grouped themselves, or otherwise fallen into this category has each met their tragic end.
Aki, who was once the embodiment of the city mouse, continuously chasing revenge and refusing to leave the 4th division in hopes of defeating the gun devil, survived well under Makima’s jurisdiction. But, once he gained back a sense of humanity, remembering how he favoured the life of the country mouse, died soon after. This correlation between humanity and defeat is the consequence of Makima’s disdain towards humanity.
Makima, unlike the others, does not group herself into either category, signifying that her position is above everyone else. This position is later explained when it is revealed that Makima is the control devil, and has been manipulating the other characters to play into her scheme. This further answers why the story’s course didn’t align with the moral of the fable, Makima’s control over each character is so vast that it goes against human nature itself.
Makima sees humans as dogs, who need to be trained not to sin, this is mirrored in both her abnormal collection of dogs and Denji’s role as her dog whose purpose should be to obey. Denji, then, serves as a foil to Makima, he values the simple things and understands that you need to experience the lows to truly appreciate the highs.
SOCIETAL MATTERS
EXPERIENCE MACHINE
This line of reason is what eventually prompts Denji to fight Makima when he asks her if “there would be any crappy movies in her vision of a utopian world” and she responds with “it would be for the best if bad movies were erased from the world”. This is in reference to when he and Makima went on a movie date and watched a series of bad movies, but when he saw the 10th, comparatively better movie, he burst into tears. The scene is largely symbolic of his life, a series of tragic events followed by a change that isn’t truly fantastic by any means but is comparatively fantastic for the ill-fated Denji.
A similar question to whether or not there should be crappy movies in a utopian world was posed by Robert Nozick in his 1974 book “Anarchy, State, and Utopia.” His thought experiment named the “Experience Machine” proposes a world in which one could use a machine to experience a desirable state of being at any given moment, a person’s brain could not distinguish between the machine and the real world, so then, would you choose to live in the real world? He argues that if pleasure was, as the Hedonists claim, the highest value then the answer would be an overwhelming no, yet many, such as Denji would answer yes. Because what is life without death and triumph without failure and good movies without the crappy ones? This is an interpretation developed creatively by Instagram User @chensoposting.
Makima, by contrast, seeks a god-like controlment of the world, in which she could create a utopian world free from pain, conversely siding with the Hedonists.
Nevertheless, Makima’s plan is carefully thought out and well-executed, it is so well executed in fact that the reader almost accepts her supposed victory. Not being able to think of an accordingly complex counterattack the protagonist could follow. Denji isn’t one who thinks complexly though, and it is this slow wit that leads to his eventual success.
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Denji is an idiot, but stupidity is not only a weakness but his greatest strength. He doesn’t play the psychological games the others try to lure him into, not because he can see through them, but because he doesn’t understand the rules. Remorse for himself, let alone others, was never a useful card in the game of survival. When the “dolls” Santa Clause uses to kill Denji with begin begging and screaming in pain like the real people they once were, he continues swinging his chainsaws with raw unwavered power, as though they are but limp nothings. Denji applies no question or reason to his surroundings and circumstances, there exist no What If’s? or Why’s? What if I am hurting real people? Why am I in this position?
This is the same reason Denji fell into Makima’s grasp and was the only one to escape it. He accepted her offer without question, served her without question even barked without question. So when Makima pulled the rug she had placed down from under his feet, he didn’t ponder too long the moral complexities of killing the woman who was once his everything. He killed her without question, chopped her up into pieces without question, and ate her without question.
Such an approach not only derives from the typical shonen showdown in which the protagonist uses his newfound knowledge to outsmart the villain but solidifies Denji’s standing as a simple-minded character whose greatest enemy is simply not comparable to him.
IMAGERY
Chainsaw Man’s imagery provides a further foundation for the distinction between Makima and Denji.
Makima, being the control devil, is parallel to the first horseman of the apocalypse who is otherwise known as the horseman of conquest. Riding a white horse, the first horseman is often interpreted as Christ. Denji, being a foil to Makima, is seen riding a shark similar to how Napoleon is portrayed crossing the Alps. The faithless Napoleon was often equated to the Anti-Christ during his invasion of Christian Russia.
Such semblances are used as a means to uphold the difference between the humanistic Denji and the godly Makima, who are the embodiments of the age-old battle between holy virtues and mortal vices.
The intriguing and often meaningful ends that one arrives at when scrutinizing Chainsaw Man can single-handedly provide it the status of genius. But, besides its elaborate plot points filled to the brim with insight into the shounen genre and profound takes on some of history’s most noteworthy dilemmas, Chainsaw Man is a bizarre story with a great deal of heart.
