Why Denji Works - A Chainsaw Man Video Essay

I've always found anime to be a very fascinating medium of fiction I grew up with Classics such as Dragon Ball Z Naruto Death Note Hajime no hippo YooHoo Hakusho and many more that you all will undoubtedly know by name but As I Grew Older I became distant with no anime releases I barely even kept up with what was being released for quite a long time instead I always found myself going back to check out all the series like bleach which I actually watched for the first time rather recently Dragon Ball super Bucky the grappler and one punch man were the closest to the new generation of anime that I kept somewhat invested in but nowhere near the degree of the series mentioned in the beginning nothing really appealing stuck out to me in these newer series that were spitting out left and right something always felt off about them they were Eva overhyped as Hell by their audiences or simply kinda okay with good moments or aspects here and there not enough to constitute it being a great appealing series overall at least that's how it felt to me felt like I had to force myself to enjoy these newest series coming out whenever someone I knew would try and put me on it never reaching a hype and quality they would claim it had this became my perspective of anything modern anime slash manga as it had been so long since I had seen anything fresh something that did things differently and Innovative it seemed like anything that had somewhat of a promising future would get praise as the next coming of Christ on platforms like Twitter and YouTube That's How lackluster anime had become that they seemed to be scraping out the bottom of the barrel so hard to claim each random new series was the next best thing a potential new member of The Big Three even in some situations chainsaw Moon initially appeared to fall into that same bracket when I kept hearing how good it was I brushed the idea about actually being as good as people made it out to be aside leaving it to be nothing but hype as was the case with far too many other series I had been recommended in the past though ultimately my curiosity got the better of me especially after some of my more critical friends claimed they had been enjoying it so I decided to watch the anime which conveniently came out a day after bleach's return anime each week after watching the first episode I was taken aback the strong introduction alone got me hooked and genuinely took me by surprise I thought to myself it must have been a fluke there's no way they'll keep the consistency in quality or start off strong but full of hard even the name of the series chainsaw man could have easily LED myself and many others to miscategorize it based solely on the name almost sounding like an ironic comic book esque title but as each episode aired I became enthralled and intrigued with the in-depth and interesting likable cast their amazing chemistry amongst each other and the Thematic messages presented through both the Arts and relationships as well as the ecstatic action and simple yet cool power system of their world the opening alone is magnificent and insanely catchy it grabs the audience's interest straight away and was easily the best opening of 2022 and one of the best openings in anime I've ever seen the sheer amount of technical animation work and supreme directing that went into the open alone is something to behold there's like 10 odds of the cap to different Series in it and even the way he uses lighting effects is insanely impressive I heavily stress the importance of new anime series not having an appealing effect on me just to illustrate how good chainsaw man really is I needed more after watching the anime and couldn't wait so I binge read the entire manga and was just as entertained throughout from start to finish if not more finding the narratives and the characters to be extremely laid and genuinely gray overall the entire cast each have their own extensive personal reasonings to explain why they do what they do what motivates them to proceed in such a depressing world but the most compelling and tragic character to me throughout the entire series is no doubt the protagonist denji everything about denji and how he operates compared to other main characters in The Narrative of Chainsaw man just works in fact it works extremely well to tell the story inside of the story but before I dissect the character of denji this video will contain Major Spoilers for the Monger of Chainsaw man if you do wish to avoid any of these spoilers please carry on about your day because you're about to get right into the meat and potatoes of it all if you're enjoy in-depth content like this please make sure to stick around to the very end kindly leave a like And subscribe for many more videos like this now let's continue a common consensus I've seen in regard to chainsaw man is that denji is nothing more than just a horn ball this gross oversimplification is not only played out to death but couldn't be farther from the truth denji is far more compelling and laid than that brain dead summary and purely indicative of the absolute lack of attention these armchair critics are paying to the story from the moment we see denji we are thrusted into that horrid reality of his tragic situation denji and I want to stress this heavily as a literal child is battling essentially the deadliest threats known to mankind on a daily basis upholding a never-ending fee that is not even his own to begin with whilst barely earning enough financial gain so seriously put a dent in the debt he owes or to sustain himself for food and basic living Necessities essentially being placed in the worst living conditions with death being waved around his face constantly by both his adversaries he faces and the Yakuza he is forced to pay back due to a debt he inherited to display how strong chainsaw man's opening sequences in relation to introducing denji to us but that he had incurred is so steep that denji had sold his own body parts for ridiculously low prices is I kidney and more a shocking example being one of his own testicles being sold for the equivalent of 782 US Dollars could you imagine selling one of your own balls for less than eight hundred dollars even one million dollars would be a hard sell for most men being put in this unfavorable position after the passing of his father with no mother present at all as she had a heart condition that ended her life and this had been passed on to denji when I say right after his father's passing I literally mean right after at the funeral where denji as a child is given his father's outstanding enormous debt to the Yakuza given one of his first ultimatums again as a kid to gather up the equivalent of 5474 US Dollars by the following day and didn't care how the funds were gathered even suggesting inhumane ways of obtaining it before the deadline or else he would be chopped into bits we know how it really played out between denji and his father so we can State the given there was an absence of a motherly figure as denjis passed away due to her sickness at an extremely young age he also dealt with an abusive drunk that heavy father and was put in a position where he had no other choice but to take his life to survive he did what he had to do denji is a Survivor keep that in mind a father he did not ask for a mother he did not want to lose a heart condition he was stricken with and a debt he was cursed to pay repressing that life-changing trauma so deep into his mind it was to the point he wholeheartedly believed the incident to be a suicide denji has dealt with unfavorable odds that are out of his control since the very start and had always aspired for a normal life but couldn't do so after the murder of his father heavily repressing that key moment in his life behind the door that we see throughout the series in various moments he didn't even have any time to process it or mourn properly as his life got turned upside down right after with all that unresolved grief and life-changing trauma put on halt severely stunting his psyche it's even more considering he is once again wrapped up a normal life once more at this point dengie is trapped in the worst situation anyone could be in as a child and has no one he can fall back on no friends or family denji at his lowest then encounters a devil and was so mentally broken that he didn't even care if it attacked the metal as he saw himself dead either way knowing the reality of the situation there was no realistic way to gain the unrealistic amount of money that the Yakuza were demanding by their insanely strict deadline then she then has a change of heart after seeing the devil to be wounded and near death with a mental projection of his father's quote unquote death popping into his mind and AIDS him with his own blood to heal it with the stipulation that the devil from that day on to help him out as he ultimately had the human reaction of not wanting to die at all for most of his childhood it was paid his debt or die at this point he was just living for the sake of being alive he had no other choice Any Dream being long gone crushed and robbed with the situation being so bad that he romanticizes a normal life and wonders if he's even allowed to dream Desiring literal bare minimum he basically winged it for over a decade in surviving life on Mega steroids most of dengie's Youth is lived in a tiny Shack with no basic hygienic Necessities entertainment many of us take for granted foodie can eat regularly and a change of clothes or even a proper bed literally forced to lean on pallets with failure roof over his head whilst living in constant danger with his human limitations lack of body parts and a life concerning illness at the ripe age of 16 years old sleep deprived due to the circumstances of the situation Weighing on him heavily and due to the extreme hunger he always endures even when he would get the chance to rest the Yakuza would abruptly wake him up to do dirty work like a dog denji would do anything to obtain the funds to pay back at that even if it was degrading this horrible life had become rinse and repeat for denchu a cheetah was the only companion he had ever had during this large portion of his life he cared for him so much that he offered his own body in the event he were to ever die which by now Genji had expected in his line of force work denji had given up on his streams at this point of the story and was content with pachita having a life he had always wanted and advocated to chase those aspirations if he were to die and be taken over by the Cheetah there was also another moment where he had woken up to the cheetah not being beside him in the morning searched all over town for him worrying he had been eaten by a devil to calm him at night with overwhelming reliefs to find a little chainsaw devil there crying which he then immediately passed out due to exhaustion with pachita in his arms this is how important Vegeta was to denji soon after Genji was lured into a trap where he was chased by a horde of zombies and was then stabbed dismembered cut into pieces and thrown into a dumpster which is symbolic of denji's life and the way he has been viewed by others the soap denju Vegeta gives his life away for him to live out his dreams someone so meaningful and essential to his life go on just like that the style of devil powers where he fills every cut and ounce of physical tear brought upon himself even after dealing with those holding him financially hostage turn into zombies he is then again presented with another ultimatum that is beyond his control be killed by markima as a devil or kept as a human slash pet with complete obedience as in her own words she doesn't need a dog who says no denji even reflects on this to the point he is willing to run away with a random child who he had initially thought was very similar to himself both having Common Ground by having a supposed devil threat so much but then she only cares about nothing but titties huh I actually believe he has a much worse of Public Safety than he did with the Yakuza now hear me out sure he was given her home food even a family but again it is their bare minimum even later characters like rizae highlight this fact and how messed up it really is especially for someone his age too all of those quote unquote positives by the way are paid by fighting even stronger Devils he isn't accustomed to with every devil specifically after him more so than before being at an all-time high denji also isn't allowed any real Freedom as he's constantly under surveillance as if he were to ever disobey any of these rules denji gets quote unquote put down or taken care of which is constantly bashed into denji by makima and other supporting characters and again all of these positives were meticulously given as a ploy by makima to utterly break denji down to the point he didn't want a normal life and to destroy his world to live all of his new close friends and loved ones he had spent the entire a part one bonding with and getting closer to dead by his own hands with makima promising and ensuring that even if Dengue to find any semblance of future happiness or normality or even a future relationship and manage to repast these heavy grievances bestowed by her that she would go out of her own way to personally destroy it no matter what at least with the accused the situation hypothetically if Dengue would have somehow managed to pay that their off he had had them off his back entirely and Vegeta would still be around to live the normal life he had always wanted to put a both of them there was also at least a chance of running away too if the Yakuza didn't stay true to that word denji is distant with being emotionally vulnerable in confronting emotional conflict on how he feels because of what he did to his father and unconsciously avoids thinking of anything depressingly heavy like that as he gets him closer to remembering what happened it also doesn't help that he never went to school denji is very uneducated with no real comprehension of the world and general social cues which explains why he chooses to ignore and play off anything serious typically moving forward unknowingly with his happy can do attitude everyone close to Dengue is dead the person he loved totally tore him to the point of accepting and wanting to die Howie even reaffirms its fact being at his lowest State of Mind mentally this again is why I believe he had a way worse compared to the Yakuza current denji at this point in the manga is pretty much depressed or Rogue and again the grades himself for any amount of money he can obtain regardless of the means he also has constant reminders of Power with him taking care of her cat meowy and the constromaido and makima and taking care of all of her dogs in Naruto everything that transpired in part one of Chainsaw man has severely scarred and traumatized our protagonist denju denji is a character that has been repeatedly shown the worst of the world everyone prior to Public Safety treated him as an inhumane dog and avoiding them like the plague he is also mentally destroyed and altered by those who have profited off his suffering or used him to their own ends leaving him in a state where his goals seem Hollow or immature as a coping mechanism to fill the emotional void and damage caused in the StoryBots Spa using the desire of Fame and having a girlfriend as a quick fix believing all mendo's deeply sewn issues away another working element in the excellent writing and characterization of denji is realism the world of Chainsaw man is full of fears brought to life in an anthropomorphic sense being reflective of real world fears in this world as being an antagonizing force of nature for the main cause to conflict with Satsuki Fujimoto also known as the author of Chainsaw man uses these anthropomorphic Fierce how to sense of real world commentary and familiarity with the input of the gun devil being a prime example of fear of firearms in the most hyperbolic sense being the conglomerate of the concept of General Affairs surrounding the military might and the physical representation of the worst of the glorified United States war machine or in a simpler way the author basically wanted to create the USA as a character despite the fictitious elements there are to chainsaw man realism is no doubt a very compelling aspect of the series this is especially apparent of denji who despite having superhuman Powers is pretty human himself if you think about it the masterful themes tackled within the story are reflect of a menu internal real life struggles which the readers can resonate with on a deeper level a quick example is denji not wanting to die before a cheetah due to his consideration of worrying what would happen to him if he weren't surround which is realistic in the sense of not wanting to die before a pet as you would naturally worry for their well-being a great working moment which grounds denji into more of a character of genuine substance is the realistic depiction of his dreams having significance and serious value to himself wholeheartedly the spyhouse more and or laughably ridiculous and may come off to others the note of consistently highlights denji's smaller dreams having the same amount of importance as any other character's Grand or sincere Ambitions especially the ones mocking and critiquing his motives not everyone's dreams and desires necessarily need to be a grand finale and or be all type goal even the littlest what may be perceived as majorly insignificant dreams and aspirations can be genuinely so often have worthwhile people can be more to contend with smaller or obscure dreams in life which I believe the characterization of dengue captures amazingly and is incredibly grounded and compelling component of not only his character but the narrative as a whole dengue's traumatic repression is also very realistic especially in an abusive household where suppression of those normalized worrying acts would be naturally blocked out as a coping mechanism to get by those who have experienced some form of domestic violence growing up can relate to this pivotal aspect of Genji's early life and the long lasting effects mentally as every messed up key moment that occurred ends up haunting him unconsciously which eventually reached back to him most of denji's actions actually make a lot of sense if you think about it he is incredibly young with no real educational guidance in life always under the thumb of another this explains many of denji's socially unaware characteristics as well as him being incredibly naive at times and impressionable most of his poor choices made in the story are due to this very reason keep in mind that denji is a kid at the the end of the day it was essentially raised as an obedient killing machine he's also been taken advantage of most notably by the person he loved most which no doubt many can relate to being used in some form of fashion getting used quite frequently which in of itself is horrid for denji's mental state and how he's consistently treated as a lesser with it all even being more tragic as his happiness is completely fabricated and torn maliciously for opportunistic intentions now let's address the elephant in the room denji is just a horny MC oh his compulsive reasons for wanting to experience many things people label and or downplay as being nothing more than just a lazy hornball shallowing character and wanting nothing more but can be explained very very very simple he's a teenager going through the height of puberty not only is this realistic and his attractions being very potent at this age but consider the fact that he has never ever even talked to a woman let alone touched one that's why he freaks the out when he grabs makima's tits The Only Exception you could hypothetically argue in terms of interacting with a woman before is his mother but details on that are incredibly vague and even if that were the case that's not the same and is still insane that he hadn't interacted with any other woman besides potentially her then she is unironically worse to note where's my hog out guy at school when it comes to experience of women the is rizzolis any form of once and one has been Wishful dreams not on reality for him until the possibility of him scoring became realistic after being caught by machumar actually having a legitimate chance to do so without being shunned away this justifies why denji realistically acts the way he does when it comes to wanting to be a hyper hormonal fiend it is also very common for a man to find an inherent calming and comforting nature from a woman which explains why someone like denji would put them on a higher pedestal especially if it's someone like amakima who has been nothing but incredibly nice to him and giving Which is shocking for denji as he's endured nothing but the opposite there is a deeper layer behind denji seemingly called nature to losing those close around him shown first when himino dies and he's left contemplating on loss initially not expressing any emotional reaction at all nor feeling any significant sort of way loss sometimes causes a sense of bleakness of the permanent absence of a loved one not truly registering it with yourself or your emotions with its abnormality being so sudden and in some cases being so unique that people do not know how to react with genuine ambivalence to confronting emotions in dengie's case he tries not to think about it although prior to that decision he did somewhat self-reflect if he was heartless due to not feeling expected overwhelming despair before blocking it out for the realistic reasons mentioned before as well as probably being desensitized to the concept of death due to his lifestyle a lot of people on places like tiktok and Twitter like to act like this aspect of deji's character doesn't exist at all which has me thinking that either as smart as power or just straight up do not read or watch the material properly the atmosphere of Chainsaw moon is very edgy and is commonly classed as nothing but nihilistic in nature Fujimoto uses his amazing artistic Ingenuity to depict the variety of symbolic and metaphorical layers of many of the characters and themes of the narrative chainsaw moon is symbolic of denji being found by chains this is true in the metaphorical sense and in the literal sense of his powers incorporating chains this is further backed up by the visuals of the cover image of chapter 61 as well as makima basically having denji bound to do as she says with one of her main abilities being controlling others with chains even as far back as chapter 4 the cover art shows denji you're restrained by a belt representative of a dog collar with more than one hand holding the leash like strings highlighting how denji truly is not free at all nor has ever been with the visuals consistently reinforcing this fact another clever example of symbolic imagery being consistent in painting the display atmosphere of the series is the introduction of Hell the depiction of hell is shown to have the pre-mensioned motifs that the doors plastered all over the skies representing the deepest and traumas and fears being the gateway to Hell the atmosphere of hell is also incredibly Eerie which is spinning as it is known as the home to the devils in their purest forms which are again anthropomorphic fears there are a plethora of layered symbolic and deep visuals throughout the story highlighting many of the themes and characteristics of the cast which in of itself could be its own separate video This is how heavily it is incorporated throughout the entire series by tatsuki Fujimoto then she's live for the most spot is pretty depressing with others consistently recognizing and reaffirming that notion with this bleakness bleeding in even when Deng is placed in conventional comfort as an example after the death of akihai akawa denji cannot even enjoy the good food he would naturally in character consider a delicacy claiming it tasted bad due to a state of mind no matter how brutal the world seems to be for denji he manages to grasp at some form of happiness or acceptance where many others would curl up and be crushed by the overwhelming nature of it all with the only exception being the one mentioned before makima which even so he technically overcomes later on this just goes to show how tenacious Dengue really is and how even in the worst of circumstances he still found the semblance of happiness I believe the saying one man's trash is another man's treasure fits the character of denji quite well another major working aspect of Genji's character are his dreams and aspirations the first time the term dream is mentioned is the knife page of the very first chapter and is still to this day a staple of the narrative and Chainsaw man there is a huge emphasis on the importance of Dreams regardless of how small or big they may be denji's dreams are literally the driving force of the series dreams are the reason pachita gives up his heart to denji to see his aspirations come into fruition without dreams there is no chainsaw made there is no story there is no anything his aspirations of what pushes his every decision from reaching a normal life hugging a girl eating good food touching titties getting on magma and many many more ultimately his initial and bigger stream he earned for years was to have a normal life his situation was so terrible that this was considered a quote unquote pipe dream it was so bad he pretty much conceded the fact he was never going to experience these conventional normalities which is why denji's willing to die when he's giving the taste of the bare minimum we see Genji is willing to go above and beyond for his goals and Ambitions regardless of the stakes at hand in part two for instance more specifically chapter 109 Yuko now possessed by the Justice devil who has the ability to read minds notes that denji during combat is thinking about nothing but how to expose his secret identity while making the seem natural which is an aspiration of dengie's which was mentioned prior showing how much of an effect his goals play into his decision making even during his battles when denji achieved one of his initial dreams of touching boobs during the earlier chapters of the story denji fell into a Great Depression as he came to realize that it wasn't what he thought it would be he pretty much had post not Clarity when he finally reached his first goal leaving the chase to be more cathartic than the actual end destination believing all of his other goals would fall under the same category it wasn't until makima basically stoked the flame of his skulls were more attempting offer would he then regain his value and importance of Dreams once more which transitioned into the natural progression of Desiring bigger dreams the normal life dream that's so heavily longed for by denji was also at the end of the day just a means of escape from his traumatizing household and live during his adolescence even after accomplishing his most sword off the goal with living a normality in Comfort denji still at this point of the story is drowning in mental sorrow to the point that even though he lived his credit card dream life he cannot bear going on as he's lost all of those he cares about and closest to him showing that denji deep down within himself is not self-centered and selfish despite how it may come off sometimes he said it himself even with the dream life that he yearn for it meant nothing when there's nothing good waiting for him in life anyway without obviously referencing the ones he's lost as he comments about power not being there in his life anymore missing her to the point of not wanting to live we see throughout the story of Chainsaw man that denji Ponders about his own dreams as well as others even relating to their own Ambitions a common question that's brought up in the world of Chancellor man is would you rather be a city mouse or a country mouse with key cast members giving their own take of the pros and cons of both but if we were to look at where denji fits in this category it was neither the city mouse or the country mouse it was just a mouse who truly had nothing but his dreams and was more to content with that it's almost impossible to talk about denji without bringing up his endless Chase and tragedy of love he's since the very beginning of the series pun is about being with somebody and is immediately given hope without possibility manifesting when admitted into public safety and meeting makima who he instantly becomes absolutely infatuated with so much so he's willing to do pretty much anything for her even fighting the gun Devil with his appeal for her being much deeper than just physical attraction experiencing mostly positive and happy feelings and Unforgettable moments are markima prior to her true intentions being revealed which had been foreign to how he had been treated his whole life at his lowest the one he loved most crushed him mentally and emotionally admits the terrible State of Mind forced to confront and take her life away in the most unforgettable Manner and trust me when I say most unforgettable manner denji from the very start to the climax of The Story of part 1 has been chasing makima for a love and attention with her capitalizing off this Markham never even saw him this had been a common pattern in the story being used by those denji found appealing and sought after then GM solved questioned how everybody is after the chainsaw man's heart and that nobody truly wanted him what about denji's heart to add to the tragedy list our protagonist has gone through every single kiss he has ever experienced has been traumatizing himino's literal vomit oozing into denti's mouth being his first kissed ever coming out of nowhere which had obvious mental trauma attached to considering the gross circumstances of it his second kiss was with rizae biting his tongue completely off which not only caused an emotional Rift with the sudden timing of it but an obvious overwhelming physical pain the most recent kiss during the making of this video was with asses being completely unprompted and against his rules which again led to things going awry each kiss being scarring one way or the other with obvious long-lasting ramifications the only person denji fell head over Hills for was rizae he struggled internally about both makima and Rize initially yet felt compelled Theresa and did anything he could to see her whenever he had the chance after finding out riza's ulterior motives thenji would unfortunately fall back to makima which was the initial reason there was a wedge between the two to begin with even during the post Battle of reezy denji was willing to give up his entire dream life to run away with her even though doing so would mean almost certain death and forever being hunted down out by public safety and montyma a common misconception I hear is that rizae didn't actually like denji and was simply using him nothing more I do not know how people come up with this conclusion reset liking denji is very blatant with even the narrative going out of its own way to Showcase this of her explaining why she didn't instantly take him out when that would have been the most optimal way to do so for her initial greater Mission relating to him as they both didn't go to school and only fell back to a task once denji became conflicted when asked about running away with her and starting a new life which again probably was not a part of the original Mission but for those who still doubt it here is the final nail in the coffin Rize went out of her own way to risk meeting denji at the spot where they first met after being told he would be there when she had every chance to easily Escape if she was truly Mission driven Benji lost to one person who actually had a genuine interest in him and has the long-lasting impression that connection was truly nothing but fabrication as she didn't turn up to the cafe because of you know who many of the loving interactions with Benji over the most part due to ulterior motives this is especially apparent of makima even after everything denji had been through of makima all the deception lies in betrayal he still claims to love her as she was the most consistent person in treating her mice and not deplorably even if it was all a lie not only is that incredibly messed up but insanely tragic for our poor man Genji every woman he meets tries to kill him he is always on the receiving end when it comes to love constantly heartbroken we really get an insight to the insanity and doglike lifestyle of denji throughout the entire story of Chainsaw man as we know by now Genji has literally lived a life of constantly killing to belly appease Yakuza whilst being ripped off by them a byproduct of their lifestyle mentee was becoming less human-like with a lack of basic conventional human traits every antagonist of the series thus far has referred to denji Eva as non-human or more commonly a dog with the constant notion that he has no heart and is just a dog being repetitively bashed into denji's psyche which slowly grew the seeds of self-doubt and is one of the leading factors to the major plot point of denji wanting to become makima's pet dog denji still continuously is referred to as a dog or dog like by many others and even himself the distinctness as shown in the visuals from the very start even as a human Genji out sharp animal-like teeth which is more akin to a devil aesthetically it's shown more initially in his battles where he was more sporadic and fought heavily off his wild instincts to to further highlight how animalistic Dengue truly is the only reason he swallowed amino's vomit was because he had nutritional value as he commonly ate whatever he could find during his childhood regardless of where it came from as long as it was edible which is very animal-like this is even the case when he drops his onigiri on the ground and still ate the out of it despite being reprimanded there's also a moment when denji is fed up with power as she held no value for vegetables flinging her food across the room which led to Dungy scolding power about having respect for the farmers who grew the carrots which makes sense where his anger is coming from considering his harsh poverty-stricken life being void of proper meals naturally being disgusted at the wastefulness of food denji is very rapid in action and takes a lot of sadistic joy in battle in a profession where did sane did not make a very long denji thrives due to having his grizzlers denji and his chainsaw May inform as the most hyperbolized version of himself accentuating all of his violent and sadistic features in combat immuno points us out as well during his fight with the eternity devil literally calling him Bonkers in the manga and in the a crazy his insanity is also reflective in his fights and in his role occurs to life always being consistently compared to a devil and mistaken for a fiend in both appearance and attitude as well as being treated as one by the main cast denji is pretty obedient throughout part one and somewhat so in part two he is easily tricked by those who use him and is way too trusting we see this best of the muscle devil power kishibei and makima denji had been conditioned to be property of others for so long that he had gotten comfortable with people using him for their own benefits even at the expense of his own well-being it pretty much became the norm for him doing everything though Yakuza and Public Safety are demanded of him with little to no retaliation at all for the most part he isn't treated or respected as a human and more so treated like property a major character moment in highlighting denji never having any real free will was in chapter 92 or page 11 where he self-reflects on his life commenting on his own insane compliance being to the point that he's never made any choices for himself following up stating that even if he were to come out alive from being hunted by makima that he would still always be living in obedience to Someone Like A dog blindlessly doing the bidding of others for all of his youth Rob denji of a childhood aspirations in the normal life and had major consequences one of the Prime ones being his obedience to makima leading him to be complicit in the death of power someone he held very dearly every major player of the story of Chainsaw man points out that denji does what he's told mixes lack of making his own decisions and obedience to those about a second thought then you get the perfect recipe for denji to get manipulated from the very first encounter between Dengue and Mark too much she had been manipulating him giving him a taste of his dreams and tempting him with love she systematically planted the seeds of Happiness to be stripped away and self-doubt to do anything off his own volition and questioning his own Humanity to utterly break him down maliciously to the point he would become an inferior to her so she could control him to get a cheetah who she also wanted under her control as well he is so mentally and emotionally distraught that he unconsciously lets Vegeta take over his body showing that he's given up on the agreed conditions of his contractual deal with Vegeta by not wanting to go on until he is given the world to live by power denji's biggest op at that point of the series falls under the category manipulation machima is literally the control devil this extended more than just psychological warfare as well she also played a hand in physically weakening the chainsaw man form by publicly making chainsaw Mana hero-like figure therefore getting less people to fear him so that she could weaken him to have advantage in combat to get what she wanted out of denji other manipulative instances of course being power tricking denji into getting her cap back riza's initial Us by interacting with them being solely to get his heart and even Arthur trying to get close with him to be used as a weapon slash tool for her own purposes my man Genji seriously cannot catch a break I love a working factor that adds a further further Dimension to the characterization of denji is as underlying depression this is both unconsciously happening with a set of mind being forever broken and is consciously taking place during critical low points of this story I bring this up to highlight and differentiate the compelling aspect of Genji's character that I feel many people do not touch upon that being his real mental sorrow and self-loving people play up as dark upbringing and cruel tribulations and life is nothing more than excessive nihilism which I couldn't disagree with more anyone who has undergone real hardships in life and serious mental struggles and resonate with denji's character on a deeper level and gain further insight to his State of Mind the ground's Dengue to a more human level which avoids typical Shonen trots coming off much more as a saying in the nature with a lot of mature themes revolving around denji it really adds that extra deep layer to his character that I feel like is severely underappreciated nearing the end of part 1 denji loses another family relapsing into a dark depression leading to makima exploiting him completely again he had been orchestrated to hate himself to the point where he didn't want to think nor Act of his own position the self-loving got so bad that he gave his initial wish of wanting to give makima his chainsaws in a bedroom a way to being a non-thinking compliant dog I want to reinforce that this was the wish that he pretty much dedicated his entire life up to that point avidly pursuing makima to insane degrees since the moment they met he even turned down himino throwing herself at him sexually for his very goal so much for him being just a Sex Fiend because if he truly were he would have smashed and taken the opportunity but didn't due to being in pursuit of makima so for him to despise himself internally so much he gave up his initial wish of wanting makima physically really speaks volumes especially to those who discredit denji as nothing more than a poor man's Minetta and constantly wanting in truth denji had lost everyone meaningful to him which permanently altered his mental psyche even nowadays he just seems to be gone for the Motions of life he also essentially gambled the fate of the entire world and his own life on being certain that makima never actually cared about him which is pretty heard every other romantic interest have only had their eyes on chains on me never dingy with the only possible exception being rizee they even so her initial desire to pursue denji was based on him being chainsaw made taking its obvious mental toll on the protagonist which is still ongoing in the series this works in illustrating the nuances of inherent humanity and the depressing questioning that comes with it as denji has plenty of inner monologues about many of life's hardships and his perspective on things which many can connect with and understand on a more significant level most of denji's essential mental depression stems from the lack of family whenever I try to explain Savas who have a more casual Outlook of denji's character as to why he does what he does and why it works and makes total sense given the context I immediately mention a lack of family and any form of relatives or even genuine companionships and denji's entire life and how that came to be starting off from having no mother and being forced to kill his own father which forever affected the state of mind leading to this major event in his life to be heavily repressed and Alternate his own head so I can have some sense of normality in his life as a parent killer it's not deserving of one as pointed out by Marquee mode it's also why he comes off as abrasive as the lack of Parental Guidance Rob Dengue many key life lessons on how to act as a person the loss of his original family permanently scarred denji it's to the point where he doesn't like to linger on the forts of lassitos close to him typically playing off it wasn't until he gained another family and Arcane power then did he begin to slip into deep thought about it especially after the death of Aki where it was extremely reminiscent of his own father's death again being trapped in an ultimatum to kill someone he considered family again being left of no choice to illustrate how important family is to denji he actually compromised having alone time with makima on a privatized vacation to tenter power's night terrors after she was traumatized by the darkness devil even the visual imagery depicts their relationship as family-like makima referring to Arceus the good big brother and Powers the bratty little sister to denji Tachi Fujimoto grows out of his way to showcase the cracks and denji seemingly unfaced Behavior with each genuine connection he makes an example of this is when Dengue cries when battling against a possessed Aki which Aki himself from his perspective highlights how incredibly rare it is to see deji Express sorrow I explain all of this to really enforce why he currently acts the way he does in the story and currently in part three of the ongoing series tatsuki Fujimoto really emphasizes the importance of the loss of denji's first family which drastically changes life forever which was unconsciously buried deep behind the mental door as a child which gets opened up at its lowest reliving their insanely traumatic moment whilst losing another family entirely do you see where I'm going with this if one loss of family is enough to affect denji this much prior to the main story you can only begin to imagine what losing a second one does to him in his life going forward we've also got to consider that this isn't mentally sort of like the first one was and that denji has constant reminders of those he has lost now and is forced to confront this fresh trauma in his life unlike his childhood where it was sealed off this really does work in showing the character's vulnerabilities opposed to being magically immune to defeat with actual long-lasting consequences in the narrative and also shows just how tragic denji's life has been up to this point which as I mentioned plenty in this video people really do not give enough credit to fujimoto's writing when discussing the character denji he has so much more than just the chainsaw man or the booby man an underrated working element throughout the entire story that adds a lot more depth to denji's character is his overall growth so it is pretty early on in a realistic sense when his Ambitions naturally get bigger and bigger where initially he strive for lower goals and what he could realistically achieve growth also occurs early on with denji beginning to form more Main meaningful relationships of Aki and power instead of maintaining his tunnel vision of only caring about makima and nothing more slowly maturing more as the series progressed becoming one of the more introspective characters in the entire story you can even see the progression of change in the way he generally acts an example of this is comedically shown in the brief Montage of denji's hygiene and general habits when moving in with akihayakawa he is night and day from that version of himself and can practically live on his own with plenty of real world responsibilities whereas the initial immature deji could not there was also more Nuance growth that denji undergoes throughout the series such as his combative skills in the past and use approaches to fights were entirely Reckless and improvised nowadays he has learned to implement more brain heavy approaches into his fights and has gained a variety of new skills which works not only showing natural progression throughout the narrative but also providing more creative and well thought out battles working growth also extends into little things such as denji developing a more extravagant palette and not putting the bare minimum food on pedestals like you used to straight up Desiring plenty of better foods and the quantity of them a major aspect of growth that adds a lot more to the character of denji that he is currently undergoing is thinking for himself instead of following others and then controlling the man splinelessly although it has not gone entirely as of yet he is definitely working on this aspect of blind compliance and is generally bettering those former habits being taken advantage of his goals also have extended further from just being purely self-centered denji as a part to now has Ambitions of saving money to get our U-turn to college to have an education something he never had was given a chance to receive at all this all works in illustrating the growth he has undergone destroying the notion that he is just a one-dimensional character and nothing more the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved this iconic quote by the Mother Teresa perfectly encapsulates denji's internal struggle and what he has endured for most if not all of his life undergoing both loneliness and the feeling not being unloved denji had no family no friends hell not even someone who could have a singular conversation with it was just him tatsuki Fuji murder really framed denji's Beginnings with a huge emphasis on dengie's loneliness and how aside from Vegeta he really had no one else in his life which even then he did eventually succumb to tragically losing Vegeta loneliness is a massive working element and factor of denchi's character then she essentially had nothing to begin with which was damaging enough alone but then is pretty much given close to everything he has ever yearned for including new loved ones and Archie and power which gets violently and dramatically torn apart from his life being thrusted back to square one even after overcoming battle Genji still nowadays incredibly lonely apart from Naruto someone who's a customer mind of you know who which would open obvious emotional wounds this is why the aspect of loneliness and Solitude of his character works so well as it explains a lot about denji such as why denji goes to the lengths he does when trying to get what he desires why denji is so incredibly desperate for any sort of companion in his life to the point it became his new goal and as well as why he comes off as silly or ridiculous in the way he acts as he lacked anyone to converse with for a major portion of his fundamental stages of life therefore reasonably justifying why he comes off as abnormal when he's thrusted into conventional Society scenarios and interaction with others modern meets the eye summarizes a lot when we first encounter denji in the story of Chainsaw man he is an incredibly likable protagonist with a lot of compelling death and substance to his character denji has great chemistry of those he interacts with especially the former Trio that consisted of araki and power most if not all this fight scenes work in delivering entertaining and hype moments of a certain appealing Insanity to the chaotic spectacle his battles typically end up having the narrative that is just nothing but a hornball main character really does get this proved easily if you just put two and two together tatsuki Fujimoto really going out of his way to depict denji as a complex three-dimensional character with a plethora of great defining moments throughout the entire series having a vast array of compelling aspects such as his incredible tenacity actually being susceptible to vulnerability and having real world flaws and dingy simple-minded nature being generally endearing to the audience and a lot more that I've already covered throughout this entire video then she just simply works and I honestly cannot wait to see what tatsuki Fujimoto does of his character moving forward

Channel: Charlie

Views: 28,816

Keywords: makima, chainsawman, chainsaw man, pochita, anime, dragonballz, dragonballsuper, goku, vegeta, jjk, gojo, power, video essay, bleach, onepiece, one piece, luffy, aki, denji, batman, marvel, spider-man, spiderman, hulk, superhero, mcu, comics, movies, sakura, hinata, madara, aizen, shonen, mha, deku, all might, sukuna, manga, analysis, reze, quanxi, kishibe, miles morales, spiderverse, zoro, sasuke, sasuke uchiha, naruto uzumaki, flash, animation, dc, superman, xmen, green lantern, yuta, yuji, obito, boruto, chainsaw, cartoon, thanos, viral

Id: aCkHd30vnJA

Length: 43min 45sec (2625 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2023