Since theres a wordlimit on this website, yall gonna have to read the full version through the google doc file

OBEDIENT NARRATIVE

“Your ‘necessary evil’... is just an excuse to justify your own crimes. Those excuses are unnecessary to society. The truly necessary evils are always kept collared and controlled by the state”.

To note, whenever I will be referring to the subversion of the expectation, I will have in mind how the series itself sets-up the conventions of the past in its own series and how it proceeds to criticize or pay homage to them in my mind and knowledge.

Also, the text's purpose is not to highlight how deep the story is, but how much I like just how the story is put together and how it appeals to me beyond being a great galore of cute aggressive women.

Write-up is written before chapter 133 and around Part 1
(Part 2 also kino btw)

For starts, let us establish that we should not see Makima as a grounded person who is supposed to be very relatable to be considered as well-written, but moreso as some sort of a force of nature, that may or may not have personality and emotions beneath the surface, to explore what does she represents in the narrative, first and foremost - which, in case of my write-up, is all about how Chainsaw Man depicts and portrays stately and heavenly entrapment through the presence of Makima and her motherly dominance. The idea is set-up from the get-go by her calling Denji a pet the moment she sees him, juxtaposition of how Yakuza was already treating the boy as a dog, as in, going from one owner to another and not being considered as someone worthy of being human by anyone. Denji, as a point of view, serves his purpose, to lay foundation that Makima antagonizes, in two different manners:

One, both his desires and behavior are relatable for teenagers (as they are the target audience) on top of the empathetic connection he also warrants sympathetic connection given Denji’s situation, since in this day and age all of teenagers have “good” chances to end up in similar circumstances - that said, what makes Denji stand-out is, that he is accustomed to unhappiness in his life to the point of normalcy as he has never really seen ‘light’ in his life given the poverty and abuse even from his father, being the lowest of the low as opposed to Makima who is the higher being in civilization. This pays off by him meeting the hero of hell at legendary figure’s most vulnerable moment in life and instead of seeing it as either from glorified rose tinted goggles or being afraid of it and ultimately being unable to ‘hug’, they form an equal relationship with the informal ‘contract’ (promise) to save one another and thus complement lives of one another - no malice involved and none of them taking anything from another while doing work as both of them genuinely want to realize each other’s dreams through their companionship, establishing an answer to every personal or impersonal conflict arising in the story from hereon. Now how could they form an equal relationship in a perfect world, how else could appreciate what he has instead of taking everything granted in his life, and how else would there be a need to allow himself to dream a lot more of these earthly delights in his life as he experiences the world?

Pochita being this champion figure - Chainsaw Devil or/and the end point of battle shounen protagonist ideal (and I appreciate Fujimoto is not treating it with hostility) - who only really wanted a normal livelihood with just normal hugs and treatments ironically enough resulted in Denji, who already has whatever could Pochita ever want, indirectly inheriting the fate of being the hero and yet, he has to overcome wanting the same as Pochita by realizing that yes, he wants to be - Chainsaw Man - in its all glory. Funnily enough, at the end of the Public Safety Arc, as he shapes the reputation of Chainsaw Man, he starts sharing a predicament similar to Pochita and he fails to make people notice this Denji person beyond the image of the hero of earth - that said, it is not because he will obliterate people via hugging them, but because his approach is wrong.

On top of that, both Pochita and Makima are higher beings in the civilization, yes, but while Makima was in total control, Pochita was not only at its most vulnerable but also a pet - someone lower in the food chain, ironically idolized by Makima, who despises everyone she considers as lower than her in the food chain - , and what transitions us to the second point is how as Denji reaches the same point in his life as dying, reborn as puppy, Pochita, he is metaphorically reborn by Pochita’s sacrifice (someone who has always had more than what it needed) as the realization of ever-growing needs kicks in and he enters the world of adulthood. His rebirth is illustrated by him being completely naked, opened up, bathing in blood and getting embraced by the mother figure that is Makima - as her name suggests, (ma)ki(ma). Except this time his mother is the authority. This is half the meaning of her name, but let us save the later half for later.

*as a bonus, he also learns that eating devils gonna make them stay dead, hence him getting an idea to eat Makima up in the end

And two, as someone who has never seen or felt anything positive from any other person in his life but was just being abused, Denji, naturally, has issues with connection and apathy, and can’t really understand what he is feeling and why. Interestingly, he could be viewed as a misandrist given how averse he is to the idea of interacting with men and how focused he is on women, which may or may not be a foreshadowing of how he was being sexually abused by his dad. We can also see how Denji hardly ever gets seriously angry and resentful and furious to even attempt to murder someone, so it’s interesting what would make such a person to kill his dad of all people (also offering to lick some man’s asshole out of nowhere in the singular moment of his complete powerlessness to help his own family).

Thus, the POV of the reader and Denji has been shaped as one and the same. The very next thing that we witness is how Makima enters the scene - instead of being the subject of abuse, this time he gets to get groomed and the presentation engages in it to throw the readers in that very illusion.This unequal relationship, as opposed to that of one with Pochita, is illustrated beneath Denji’s unreliable narration - on the surface, as a regular person would, Denji of course gets swayed away by the present moment and appetite, if he can eat daily as good as he never ever has eaten before, he is ready to do a job and on top of that, Makima is apparently girl of his dreams, as superficial as it may be, she is the only one who does not care about how he smells. Now, if we dig the subtext, things get a bit complicated. We see Makima, who sense’s people by their smell and never really looks at them for what they are as she does not care and even views them below herself, taking her uniform off and even if that could be seen as her opening up to Denji, as well as getting on equal terms and giving a prospect to romantic relationship, she is still giving him an ultimatum and if that was not questionable enough, she also covers him and his innocence with her suit that reflects her authority and how government is swallowing an individual. Not only that, but Makima is also clearly aware since very early on that Pochita and Chainsaw Devil is what Denji has in his heart thanks to her sense of smell and so, we can interpret her saying ‘someone like Denji’ as wordplay on her being suggestive to Denji, while not lying but having Chainsaw alone in mind. What we have here is the manipulation of the perspective with the visualization of what is actually going on, but there were also a bit of other things established here or have had context enriched by later reveals.

Even within the country itself, we can see even in the first chapter itself that no matter from which organization to which organization goes an individual and how differently they may be treated superficially, they will still be expected to be below the food chain, as dogs. And no matter how they will be dressed up, their lives will still be as (un)fulfilling as ever.

The moment Denji gets out in the world, he immediately starts encountering various different types of people, who are quite weaklings even as demons (at least compared to Denji), but they all share one thing - they are all also similar to Denji. After Yakuza, when he immediately encounters a devil, Makima does not care about it endangering the people around to the point that neither her facial expressions change nor she loses appetite, she does not react at all and prioritizes her food - instead she decides to make use of exhausted Denji by reminding him that otherwise they will get rid of him, thus Denji’s instincts starts focusing on everything besides their faces to realize what is actually going on, albeit too late. Ironically, that devil is the one on the other side of the ultimatum given to Denji and presents Denji’s childhood, by being a victim of abuse and being all alone with her ‘pet’ devil . But the rest of the devils are not as kind as Pochita and he can’t really run away anywhere else, even if his own childhood innocence that he is forced to willingly eradicate on his own. As a result, Denji is on the leash from hereon and contrary to him (as a human) establishing equal and free relationship/companionship with Chainsaw Devil (as a pet), he has neither freedom nor equal authority (as a pet) with Makima (as a human organization) and only death will be able to liberate him.

Next example is from the bureau’s perspective as they introduce how they live and work to Denji - it is mostly highlighting for Denji the benefits of working as he is unaware of the basic decency and how to behave and treat oneself in the house, and also how dedicated people around him are to protect or/and avenge their loved ones and relatives that fell victim to devils and fiends. Now what is not being highlighted is how the population lacks all of these benefits and so in the Bureau they are not even fighting for people that are alive and still need their lives protected. What's even worse, it pities one of a kind, bottom of the barrel parts of the society to one another - the guy with sexy magazines living his life identical to Denji prior and pretty much would have been Denji’s fate if not for Pochita, which creates a really fitting background for him to start contemplating just how is he surrounded by so-called ‘shonen protagonists/heroes’ Makima garnered with their grand objectives and thinking whether he is even supposed to be there without actually wanting anything - realizing that yes, in fact, his dream is to touch some tits and yes, he too has needs and desires. Sure, this may seem shallow if we ignore the environment that is foiling his inner turmoil by saying what kinda life he would be leading without Pochita and how there is no ‘nakama power’ to be found around since he never even had friends, but let us take notice of two very important matters:

Externally - not only you do not really need to have necessarily some big goals for there to be need to attain something since that just highlights how we take such valuable things for granted, but he also just so happens to be the most motivated and charged to achieve his small goals and directly winning over the ones who think they deserve sitting on the high horse just because of their lofty romanticized aims. Not to mention, even in case of him saving Meowy, he clearly regained his spirit immediately after starting to relate to her predicament (hence the pay-off to him meeting people similar to him - particularly, both Power and Denji taken to Bureau being as naked as new born children, almost like siblings). Which leads me to the second point.

(In case not dying by the government's hands was not enough of a motivation)

Internally - as he is also uneducated and not very smart and not really aware of the world, even if he can get tricky and come up with stuff spontaneously in the heat of the battle and instinctually see the general picture it's more of ‘street smarts’ and all he can do is find shallow explanations to understand his inner self and mask what's beneath the surface in actuality. After all, Denji is used to both directly running away when faced with complications (exemplified by the muscle devil encounter) or (un)intentionally distracting his mind (exemplified by melons and various other instances)

But has he lost his heart along Pochita now that his ideal ‘normal’ life is full of apathy? Amusingly, despite the apathy, Denji still has understanding that he is ‘nice’, as in, would do things normally may or may not be feeling to do just because it is a nice thing to do and he would be all nice and happy, hinting at his nurture and of course it is only natural to raise a child by telling them right from wrong. But once it clicks to him that he may as well have lost his human heart (as in, humanity along with it), I assume, he realizes, or rather, remembers that he is guilty and runs away in a blink of an eye, locking the unhappy thoughts behind the magical door. A ‘normal’ person must aim to be ‘kind’, naturally.

A similar situation occurs once he starts harboring feelings for more than one girl and can’t get either one of them out of his mind - he starts imagining one of them (Reze) naked, while another in more casual dress (Makima, without her formal wear). Whatever this could mean is up to interpretation, it may allude to how he loves Reze as a woman and loves Makima more as a maternal figure or that he loves more than one girl and craves to have all sorts of different relationships with them. But it is more than clear that he himself can’t make up his own mind and is more focused on being restrained by the expectations set out by the traditional senses of romance, despite not even dating Makima.

If I were to interpret that, I would call it one of the better examples of Denji’s unconscious disobedience - the arc starts by Denji eating a flower while being in a romantic mood, but meeting Reze makes him immediately cough it out back. The arc ends by Denji eating a whole bouquet of flowers and I think that explains how he views girls around him. In Makima’s case, as it is not an equal relationship and he does not actually know anything about her, it is only a small dose of romance that can be easily influenced (hence coughing the flower back). In Reze’s case, we see it as a reflection of how much Denji’s romantic power levels have increased. That is not to say that he is purely in love and won’t get over her death (or going away) relatively fast, but to highlight how a girl opening up to her and being the same as him made the connection far more understandable and closer rather than Makima only being above and distanced and not feeling any semblance of intimacy on her own while being with Denji - thus his feelings of Reze are just romanticized to the maximum. In Power’s case, he is not romantic at all and would rather eat flowers than give them to her.

Most importantly Denji, despite having a hard time carrying about his surroundings as his relationships all tend to be hollow in the objective oriented society where killing is pretty much a norm, does not seem to be giving into pessimism and as his behavior is humorous and easily approachable, he is anything but an archetypal edgy, brooding sorry excuse of an anti-hero seeking vengeance - he is used to losing and hardships, it has been ingrained in his mind as normal to the point that three days of mourning would always be more than enough and he would immediately restart trying to be happy, whether guilty (un)consciousness allow it or not. If anything, he finds such things blatantly lame and so do I. Conceptually, I do not consider brooding anti-heroes ‘self-criticizing’ and being presented as mere murderers who somehow are unable come up with literally anything else in the face of villainy a compelling answer to battle shounen heroism, so Denji being best of two worlds is more than I could have asked for.

In short, someone who does not have anything is striving to achieve the normal life, unaware of the kind of ‘normal’ life he may be craving for and is destined to be unable to fulfill it due to being magnetic to grander events.

As the being that unintentionally breeds fear in everyone, fate inherited from Pochita, Denji is not destined for normal life, for he has to deal with people treating him as some holy grail rest of his life, as a result of either admiration or fear. How will he be able to overcome loneliness and the lack of (parental) affection and guidance in his life to finally achieve something neither Pochita or Makima could ever attain? Taken to their respective extreme expressions, both masculine dominance (that of Pochita) and feminine dominance (that of Makima) has been deemed as failure in the very genre of might proving right.

Lastly and probably something that is the most crucial, Denji progresses in one way or another after each encounter either with a friend or a foe. What I find appeal and novelty in is how, unlike most of other battle shounen leads, his development is anything BUT power creep. Even if he is not really coming up with anything really smart and even if he is not really doing anything but murdering those who get in his way, he is perpetually learning how to use everything at his disposal, how to improvise and adapt in the heat of the moment that he will also expand on in his future battles, and, of course, get closer and closer to his true self. Of course not everyone is that lucky. Everyone has to be on their toes given how power system (that fortunately has virtually zero exposition and never detracts from momentum) in CSM does not neglect the vulnerability of humanity, anyone can be ambushed anywhere and anytime by literally any type of a person and suffer fatal injuries, sometimes to the point of leaving permanent consequences or just plain old death.

Unlike Makima, who is detaching herself and garners more influence and control after each of his puppets encounter opposing forces instead of her. She also can’t appreciate the beauty of death thanks to her contract with the government, that they most likely gave her since the childhood, allowing her to transfer and transform all of the damage she could ever live through to various illnesses distributed the everymen - as if highlighting how Japanese government is so deep into dodging the responsibilities that they may as well breed the satanic cult of a personality out of children. This can also be seen as an amusing play on the cliche ‘kill the final boss and goons will all disappear’, since nobody can really go against the government because it will simply only result the pain that population as a whole will be sharing and won’t really fix anything, symbolizing the futility of terrorism.

There is the vulnerability of a human being and a devil. Humans are weak and live amongst beings that can easily eradicate them, thus it is easier for them to find shelter in the strong protective figures. Devils, on the other hand, do not really have to fear anything since they can live forever as long as they are being feared, so for their existence there is only reward - so for them to fear an unstoppable killing machine no matter what, is plausible.

Instead of getting rewarded for all of his deed by growing stronger and stronger as he is getting more and more popular alongside befriending everyone and everything, popularity is directly tied to him weakening and as he is getting popular more as a heroic figure (that they are protected by, thus there is nothing to fear) rather than devilish, its his image that is being beloved and not Denji, nobody knows him and all of his friends are dying one by one, some even by his own hands. What increases in parallel to him connecting to people are his needs.

To me, this is also the prime example of how CSM criticizes the power philosophy of violently beating the traits main characters deem as bad out of antagonists and being glorified by doing something so self-destructive by which the genre may be summed up - One of my favorite scenes of characters just having a simple, friendly conversation is somewhere in the International Assassins’ section, when Yoshida and Kishibe are just sitting and sharing their thoughts, while clearly being some of the best devil hunters out there, if not the best, but they do not brag about their capabilities at all and even trying to undermine their own, actively calling themselves third-rate hunters. Kishibe being a retired sadist I guess also highlights their generational contrast (history repeating itself and all that) and how not accepting a cigarette as a minor not only means Yoshida has not given up on his life while still retaining his childish innocence, but that he is also very much aligned to bureau’s twisted mindset and wrongdoings. After all he is killing people and lying just as naturally as he is breathing (him wearing white, as if having the pretense of being innocent, but being dressed in black beneath also reflects his sociopathic nature).

Makima, on the other hand, gets inspired by the parody on the conspiracy theories - birds being replaced by government drones, considering she is able to overhear anything, anywhere as long as creatures who she deems beneath here are around - allowing her to hear almost everything alongside the readers and be one with the narrative. Unfortunately to her, there are things in the world that simply cannot be observed from afar. Such as whatever Denji is learning in combat, whatever he learns by being told from his acquaintance or whatever will be left to him and seized by him every single time a tragedy befalls him. Which gets connected to the metanarrative - of Makima weaponizing the battle shounen conventions - that I will be gradually expanding on. In this case, Makima expecting only the arrival and resurrection of the one true Chainsaw Devil (as in, Denji’s power growing) made Denji’s growth something that she could never anticipate to have relevance - commentary on how writers capitalize on physical prowess and neglect everything else or just put them out as decorations for show. Or maybe it is just reflective of the government neglecting the needs of its population, who knows… layers, layers…

Even if they have certain policies to keep the country in order, also take official measures and even apologize for the damage they cause in the environment and Aki (who is also being manipulated by Makima and thus is not really aware of the higher-up machinations, hence the hierarchy within the hierarchy) is appreciating how nobody gets hurt by Denji’s actions and recognizes people thanking Denji by now holding a respectable distance through power dynamics, One thing is clear, especially after Reze’s appearance, that no matter how the bureau is acting all good and caring, no one really bothers to educate Denji give that leaves a lot of room for exploitation. All of their apologies are but a formality. In retrospect, this goes deeper - clockwork of the bureau is made out of people getting brainwashed in a chain-reacted sense. When Denji is contemplating whether Makima is a bad person or not, the thought that ‘of course she is good, I owe her my life’ is proposed to him to get distracted as he gets confirmation on whether someone who tried to negotiate to him with his life is a good person or not by her reputation and agreement in society (or at the very least at the workplace), that which results in mass indoctrination thanks to people enabling such thoughts in one another unwittingly, as if reaching the belief on their very own - meaning, that ‘one person saving the other must result in being indebted’ is used as the means of binding and enslaving people, and is absurd idea to abide by to say the least. No one owes loyalty to anyone, they owe it all to themselves. Thus we have people being binded both through materialism (Yakuza and money) and spiritualism. And thus we have a system built around heroism as fueling motivation and who does not like indulging in and excusing their actions with greater good? It is all but a ploy - unlike Denji who is able to answer questions as to why he may be into Makima, Aki can only remain silent… Well, I can imagine it being hard to recall memories of what made me like someone and how they saved me when such things have never happened to begin with and sentiments were all made up by Makima. Hypnotic eye checks out.

Now this is an unique, fresh and ambitious narrative shift that changes everything here - Usually in heroic stories and specifically in battle shounens being a paragon of traditional values and merely serving a country is masked and advertised as something heroic that each and every aspiring individual should train and get officially approved - perhaps an ideal world that Makima is trying to perpetuate - this in turn establishes heroism as an average job that only thanks celebrities for engaging in. Such stories do not even present systematic flaws as a narrative point and conflict to resolve - at most, strangely enough, even villains themselves are focused on how they were mistreated by individuals -, but instead put blame on rebellious individuals who are exclusively displayed as the agents of chaos instead of offering natural change towards progression and the only thing that so-called heroes need is to grow stronger to prove their good, moral high-ground. What we have in Chainsaw Man is an aggressive display of misconduct done by the higher ups and no stand-out ‘human individual’ to put the blame and hatred on.

However, from the opposite point of view, that of Makima, matter may be more gray then I put it together above. But before getting straight to the point, let's take notice on how expectations are set into juxtaposition and for what pay-off:

First, Yakuza are a family. Obviously. They are certainly going to have their loved ones and relatives - also obviously. Generally one would expect that the main character having a tragic backstory accompanied by flashbacks would result in them taking their rightful revenge. In case of Chainsaw Man, we have Denji murdering Yakuza (whether zombified or not being non-factor to anyone who cared) in cold-blood as he lost the heart - well who would have thought that someone could come after him, the matter of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ turning into a mere suggestion. Not only after him, but people they are close with as well - you know, the reason why heroes even conceal their identities, the usual.

And so we get Samurai Devil, usually referred to as Katana Man. As his relative dies in the first chapter, he gets prematurely placed as a leader of the organization, a grieving manchild to whom the ways of the (under)world are unknown. Instead of achieving his devil’s trust like Denji did with Pochita, he had the devil and the heart replaced and given to him - which says to me, that his family’s overprotectiveness, strictness and fear and preparation for the impeding responsibilities was what made his life so lacking in terms of affection. And when he gets introduced, the first thing he does is to mock and look down on Denji’s sense of taste and lack of education - which establishes Yakuza’s ungrateful power dynamics towards lower classes, since people lower than them working hard (Denji hunting demons to pay the debt) is the very reason his granddad was able to provide spoils to him. Despite him being conditioned to how refined taste makes people happy, we also never really see him being happy in his forced predicament, unlike Denji who can appreciate everything given and gained to him. Lastly, the way he emphasizes on everybody liking his granddad, I could imagine he was looking up to him and either wanted his revenge and current capabilities to be recognized and validated by him or shape himself similar to his granddad or both.

To be fair, Denji is not exactly a good person, he is selfish and does not even feel guilty or care for his surroundings (at first, at least). On the other hand and Unlike Denji’s father, Katana Devil’s father was not abusive and had happy times spoiling his child while having a pretense of the ruthless Yakuza figure - disposition encompassing of the traditional way of thinking, that is also alluded by Katana Devil’s dressing of Imperial Japan and weapon of choice, meshing very well with his petty, spoiled and stuck in the past personality contrasting Denji’s punk, living in a moment and grasping for each and every bit of happiness, highlighted by their taste in food.

Normally you would expect stuff mentioned above to be used as an argument for heroes to never murder even the vilest villains or if they do, they must be condemning themselves and live the rest of their lives in eternal navel gazing. Fortunately our main characters are far from heroes, despite what role their (un)intentionally built reputation is throwing them and that won’t stop them from killing. Even so, they are not necessarily sadists either. Going a step further, we witness how the cycle of retaliation (or lack of thereof) is getting concluded - instead of going on the path of self-destruction after the tragedy, we have tears turned into happiness through the requiem of kicking balls. This ordeal also continues the recurring motif of suits - at first we had hierarchy established through Makima’s overcoat next to Aki’s normal suit and Denji having a mere tie. Aki at first was beating up and spitting on Denji, but then as the progression started thanks to Denji proving himself against the Bat Devil we saw him accepting this barrier between him and Denji. Now it finally culminated by Aki getting rid of his suit and getting on equal power dynamics with Denji

To me this means the return of his childish innocence and true self, instead of being carried away by either Makima or Himeno. At first Aki was a childish prankster choosing on his own to do things he was not asked to do, instead of just accepting pessimism thrown at him. Later he accepted a cigarette, symbolizing the fatalistic magnetism to aimless self-destruction - or, in its purest form, acceptance of having nothing to live for - and was also willing to sacrifice Denji, becoming THE MOST anti-devil racist (or so it was told to us). But now as he has his own family, he can give up on smoking and also give up on his revenge in exchange for Denji and his family in general to try to be happy with him. And quite literally sacrificed his own life(span) for the sake of the devil, to the point of liberating him and himself from Makima’s hypnosis, albeit at the worst and the most sadistic moment imaginable.

In addition, on top of subverting the brooding vengeful expectations set by Aki, we also have layer of both Aki and Denji gaining control of oneself over their emotions and the system they work under by kicking someone else’s balls to appease their needs and still abide by the laws that otherwise deny the feelings of involved, showcasing their individuality and dissatisfaction. Refusal to murder being the climax and reaffirmation that Denji does possess a human heart alongside the devilish one. Now Yakuza is the one being mocked and now Denji is the one refining his ways of dealing with baddies (contrary to ‘murderizing’ them)

Another interesting nod in this ordeal is how, as we are not meant to owe anything to the dead ones, every impulse attempt to appease the vengeful desires, even from the main characters, gets completely nullified and comes back to them as punishment (case example being Aki using his life span and Katana Man getting revived immediately after - especially when Himeno herself would not accept such measures)

Even so, Makima is the one who Denji wants to be reassured by that he does have a heart. From his ignorant perspective, everything is going just perfectly. Now from another reversed perspective… Makima ironically is the most heartless person in the story who Denji has interacted with. Denji’s question only reminds her that her real objective after all - the moment she starts listening to Denji’s heartbeat is the only time, briefly, she makes any semblance of an intimate expression, as her facade comes down due to her only caring about Pochita. She is doing anything but consulting for Denji.

So, both Denji and Makima only really care about each others’ chest. If Denji is interested in Makima’s chest, Makima is interested in whatever is inside Denji’s chest. And by killing Makima, Denji is essentially outdoing his libido, while Makima is unable to overcome her fanaticism to see through who Pochita actually is (both Makima and Denji meeting Pochita at the graveyard). Of course, he does that thanks to learning a trick of playing dead from Power, a person with whom he achieved equal relationship on his own accord - I hope it requires no explanation that this is an argument in favor of genuine and equal companionship.

Second, what defies the expectation yet again is how this entire classic revenge event was a narrative crafted by Makima herself through the promised differences in-between the government and yakuza - so much so, that, in theory, she herself arranged the delivery of Samurai Devil heart to the Yakuza, assuming she forced their hand by mockingly forcing their hand for them to ‘reignite the past glory’ (considering neither Yakuza nor Sawatari had the heart prior). Seeing Makima being in possession and control of Akane’s body and powers, it is safe to assume that yes, the theory mentioned previously is correct and she was one who made her kill herself upon being captured. Aligns well with Makima’s first appearance of going on the hunt of zombie devil, who was involved with said Yakuza family and how Makima has looked into Denji’s past (plus she controls zombie devil as well, so she may as well have been responsible for yakuza getting involved into devil contracts).

Whether poor (like Denji) or wealthy (like Samurai Devil), they all get their strings pulled by the higher ups all the same. At first one would expect that the conflict between two organizations would naturally lead to the equal opposition or maybe even in favor of the ‘antagonistic’ side since they even start moving by killing Makima, of all people - this is of course just another misdirection to not suspect Makima’s involvement even if she has had several sinister things foreshadowed about her.

Later in that arc Yakuza is justifying themselves as if they were ‘necessary’ for the country and that they were in control of foreigners passing into the country, their destruction thus leading to the country being eaten alive from inside-out by other countries. Everything said here is of course completely turned on their head - in this conversation and in these excuses, Makima has completely taken control not only by bringing eyes of Yakuza family members, but because she is the very reason why countries can’t really make a direct hit on Japan and she can also read their minds perfectly fine.

But Makima’s domination in actuality spreads over the entire arc. Himeno’s premonition that the fish might have been fed the piece of Gun Devil has served as foreshadowing and we got an indirect yet borderline confirmation for this after it is revealed that every country controls a certain amount of ‘Gun Devil’. Her saying that it might have been done by any other country was her just lying and manipulating Aki's entire existence with a straight face. As she is going above, she can allow herself to disclose information that pities the countries to one another. Once again, higher existential beings influence countries on cultural level to rift their connection further.

That said, my favourite example of this is done in the Femme Fatale arc with Reze. At first Reze is introduced as an innocent worker making Denji the luckiest guy ever by miraculously going on a date with him, but shortly after there is a revelation of her being a deadly killer, but what makes this scene beautiful is how Reze starts talking (or rather, singing out of sentimental excitement - since her date with Denji is no longer ruined) in Russian and unknowingly to the readers (Japanese or pretty much any non-Russian speaking readers) it is a clever revelation that she genuinely likes Denji and you need to learn the language to crush the language barrier and understand her true feelings that even Denji could not understand (unless manga translators ruin the scene by translating her Russian song) thanks to how Makima orders Denji’s “loyal” servant to lie to him that Reze is a servant of Gun Devil. Denji still manages to act on her own and save Reze despite her attempts to kill him and still realizes that human relationships and moralities are far more complicated that he ever expected them to be. On top of that, we see Reze introduced with her fake smiles and fake blushes - to the point that she still tries to bait people with her fake blushes in the hostile situations where people simply are not capable to blush (makes sense, since she would be averse of normal behavior and normal life, given her life is the same as Denji’s, a victim of unspecific organization, just from a different country - highlighting the omnipresence of child maltreatment in the world), but once Denji learns to fully dedicate himself to combat and saves Reze, she starts to blush genuinely.

What Makima actually did was creating an image of some Gun Devil cultism (provided guns to them, naturally) that baited every syndicate into revealing their desire to go against the government and engage with with bureau to enhanced the fear further, as well as sacrificing his own squad - it is up to interpretation as to why would she do that, you can interpret it as them learning too much about Makima and taking away from her plans or that she may have gotten too attached to them (as she was ordered to - it being part of the normal procedure also tells us that she was nurtured with the mindset to not get attached to anyone since forever). Hints at this could be found in how she clearly anticipated an attack and did not do anything to stop it, as well as knowing the names of the members of ambushers while they did not know who hired them and it was never revealed. Her saying that her squad would get more freedom after the success was not technically a lie, since she herself did gain it - got promoted officially and otherwise just filled the government with her devil and hybrid puppets, all of them named after the angels and their hierarchy (dominion, (arch)angel, virtue and so on).

There being ‘big bad’ that is a cult of a personality that builds the organization of cultist henchmen off of his charisma alone to antagonize the world order outside from the system is of course a classic narrative well known to Makima and thus we get a subversive reveal that it does not actually exists since government controls everything around and government itself is befitting of an occultic group that is not even built through natural charisma and loyalty in this day and age, but pure control, since world domination is something nobody actually wants.

What they want is affection and to appease their trauma and needs, which is highlighted by a character literally named Angel. Being both an Angel and a Devil, he is quite conflicted by his behavior and makes decisions by preferences and how attached he gets. That conflict mostly arises from the memories that Makima repressed. The first thing we notice is his character being defined by his large appetite, which serves as foreshadowing as to what length’s Makima can go to recruit pawns with much needed skills - he is someone who can’t even touch anyone without ruining them, which makes his issues regarding affection visible, but he also feels the lack of his family, lover and entire village that were supposed to fill the void. And thus all he is capable of doing on his job to cover said gap of emptiness left behind is to use eating a lot as his coping mechanism to the point of becoming numb. Him getting close to Aki and making all within his possibilities to keep Aki distant from Makima makes him regain his memories as he finally recognizes his older self through the deadly premonition of Aki sharing the identical fate as him.

On the grand scheme of things we have government capitalizing on vindictiveness of not only of their people, but people surrounding them to pity people stuck in their lives against people who refuse to move on from the older values, mentality shaping as ‘you are either with us or an enemy’ with the prospect of monopolizing the whole world. So, unlike Yakuza who treat their own well enough to spoil them genuinely, we have a government who treats their own as playthings. And to get back on the point I was supposed to make - there is hierarchy within the very idea of ‘necessary evil’. Both Yakuza and the bureau are full of people doing ‘questionable’ things to say the least, bureau members going as far as to justify their crimes motivated by selfishness on their self-destructive path, failing to notice the real enemy.

First thing that catches the attention is how Makima, even in the hastiest situations, asks for not random innocent civilians but specifies how she wants death sentenced criminals delivered to her to serve as sacrifices, basically the ones that are already dead and their death changes nothing, neither for the state nor for them themselves. (that said, she was perfectly aware of the situation and could have instantly arrived there thanks to Princi, she just prefers detaching herself from conflicts)

Considering Makima was nurtured by the higher-ups (as an anti-christ of some sort, whether intentionally or not) to burden her with their own responsibilities and collar her as the representative of the state, then her words regarding necessary evil not only gains credibility and authenticity, but it also has implications regarding various matters in this conflict. Filial piety exists in-between parents and a child, but serving the state is the ultimate goal of it, so Yakuza going against the government defeats the purpose. They also have children collared for them to do the dirty work. Ultimately the system does what it is supposed to be doing.

As the religious teachings have been a fundamental part of humanity, it only makes sense that the end-point would be to create a peace in the world through control and order, akin to paradise. That said, it is questionable whether government officials themselves would have approved such drastic activities from Makima and given how Kishibe tried to fight Makima off alongside other devil hunters, I can imagine Makima trying to have politicians collared as well. But if we go far back in the manga, we start noticing how Makima is not really telling her bosses anything regarding Chainsaw Devil and what she actually knows when she is obligated to report it in details, thus we can tell that she has been used to disobedience and it makes sense, since she is only fearing the Chainsaw Devil, only creature she sees above enough to her to garner such feelings and turn into excitement in her - as the opposite attracts, it is more than understandable for sheltered, self-controlling person to get magnetized by the total uncontrollability and freedom of Chainsaw, a heroic figure that will liberate her from her predicament. All in all, her being able to control anyone she herself finds in any way to be beneath her and yet her inability to control the source of admiration and never being able to stand on equal footing with him is more than enough of a confirmation that there is an inherent contradiction that won’t ever allow her to achieve her goal. And Makima being mostly motivated by her fangirling over Chainsaw Devil, blurred lines as to what may be considered as the truly evil in the world.

Mutual ‘agreement’ is sort of a requirement for her to gain control, considering power is given to devils that are being feared, resulting in her controlling more. One of the better examples for this could be the character named Power herself and how said ‘Power’ is running away from Makima’s grasp - when we first meet Power, she is childish and also gets scared of Makima and is not really doing anything powerful, which gives her words of saying just how powerful of a devil she once was gain very little credibility. Despite her standing and mannerism that makes her antithesis to the stately ideal that is Makima, there is something in Power that makes Makima unable to take over her - something she longs for. She is the only devil about whom Makima has voiced clear concerns and it did pay off in the end when she injured Makima with Makima’s own blood, making her powerless (no pun intended). I dare say that reasoning goes tad bit deeper - her being unable to control certain individuals, namely Power and Denji, indicates what kind of a people and relationship she hold in high regard and in what kind of a relationship she wants to be (assuming Blood Devil and Chainsaw Devil have interacted previously in hell similarly). Them beings foils is not there for the show but makes a point regarding what kind of a relationship country mouses need to progress through to achieve a genuine bond and their unsanitary and unethical nature used as the means of the development to seal the deal, to appreciate the ‘bad things’ in the world and do not condemn people in judgment from the get-go. After all, Pochita was the one in the garbage bin with Denji and not with Makima, and Power was the one in the garbage bin with Denji and not Makima - once again, freeform reigns supreme against the control.

Rather amusing how Power’s ill-mannered jokes are exactly what Makima is unironically capable of doing. I think the difference in their relationship with pets is also telling. While a stray cat comes to Power out of blue, I think it is telling that dogs have not really come to Makima on their own volition, since these dogs seem rare enough to not be randomly found in the streets, let alone walking there as a pack and so Makima brought them on her own given they are good for ‘warming hands’.

And thus we have jealousy as one of the defining traits of Makima. Aside from hinting how history of Pochita’s relationships keeps repeating itself in front of Makima, we also go down the root of Makima’s jealous along with Power and Kobeni. Now if interacting with Kobeni actually disillusioned Denji on his idea of normal life with a cute girl, prior to that Pochita forcefully tried to make Denji’s wish come true by taking the same exact girl on a ‘date’. After observing it all and seeing how Pochita refused to eat Makima, she started talking about the love she gets from the population as if to compensate for the lack of affection Pochita shows towards her (similarly to how Nayuta keeps telling Denji how if he won’t be loved by girls and won’t have dates with them, he will always have people cheering after him once he transforms into Chainsaw Man) and naturally threw the spear of longinus (so called Spear of Destiny) at Kobeni to showcase her neuroticism. It is also believed that the fear of abandonment is a key motivator of jealousy, so it can serve as further build-up towards the revelation that Nayuta is gonna need a lot of hugs in her life to not turn back into Makima.

(That said, the holy lance being exactly that of Longinus, a person who pierced the side of Jesus makes it a pre-planned passive-aggression - she knew our Jesus figure, a true hero, would tank it all - which is an interesting spin, since Pochita can be viewed as both Jesus and Lucifer)

Disillusionment with the changing times can be very well met by the changes in generational narratives regarding the role of a motherly figure. After all Makima is just as much of a ‘big bad’ as much the cliche villains of the older times, such as Gun Devil that is being chased by the ‘kids’ worldwide. Having a big role full of personal agencies is an uncommon achievement for female characters, let alone being the central (antagonistic) figure. After all they more often than not get reduced as borderline background characters - which turned the entire genre and matters of relationship to pretty much just silly twisted ‘it is a genre that caters to boys, of course it is just fanservice’ mindset. Coming with such expectations, we see how Yakuza, the ones following the older values of the world, comes and the first person they kill is Makima and of course we are easily led to believe the event's plausibility and that yes, she is in fact dead. But nowadays, in this day and age, as the roles of women come into the focus, it is interesting that Fujimoto portrays her as the face of the state(ly tool) and it is also interesting how she herself views the heroic conventions and how she weaponizes them - It is rather rich how in this day and age, despite there being a dominant masculine figure, horseman of conquest is still represented by the feminine control. Sort of like giving a sadistic homage to them, making the revelations regarding her even more impressive, ambitious and purposeful shift of expectations.

Once we finally enter Makima’s livelihood, what we have revealed in front of us is that it is quite a normal household, perfectly so - neither hellish nor heavenly. There are paintings, flowers, books, dogs in her house, she has a governmental job, she is busy watching movies in the cinema, shopping, drinking with co-workers. Yet it is all hollow, done all alone, detached with no actual friends or any real connection with people. She is only getting ‘promoted’ and interacts with the world in complete formality. Eyes never catching up to the movements of her mouth while smiling. As if she was living an ideal life by the understanding and expectations of a capitalistic lifestyle, epitome of a country mouse. It is always gained by trapping others beneath her. The most suitable place for disillusionment to culminate, to be sure - that which, naturally, occurs by her own will, her being in control of the narrative.

As well as being supportive, all knowing, always knows how to ease your mind and guide you. It is but an act, an imitation of ‘a life’ and what it is supposed to be around people she got conditioned, as if learned from a movie. Her nature is neither of a town mouse nor a country mouse. She is merely practicing a ritual to keep her hands warm and fit in, she must be used to it. That said, her house still reveals what she is indulging into: