kafukaselect-blog

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Just made a Chainsaw Man Connections game in case anybody wants to check it out. https://connectionsgame.org/game/?X0C5HZ

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The true identities of Fami's friends

Let's just get right into it, we finally know who the female Devil Hunter Club member with the hoodie that attacked Yuko is. It's Fami's friend.

But wait, wasn't that devil hunter club girl Fami? Nope, and there's actually a ton of evidence that she isn't.

At the start of the Aquarium arc Haruka said that the Yuko attack caused one member of the club to die and another one to quit. There were three Devil Hunter Club members present when Yuko attacked the school. Furio died, Seigi was injured but stayed with the club, so the member that quit has to be the Hoodie Devil Club Member. This means that she cannot be Fami, since Fami is still a member of the Devil Hunter Club at this point.

On top of that there are numerous aspects of the Hoodie Devil Club Members appearance that don't match with Fami, but do match with Fami's friend. She wears a hoodie that Fami has never worn, does not wear earrings, and has hair that looks a lot closer to the friend's hair than Fami's.

But that's not all, once we've figured out that Fami's first friend was a member of the Devil Hunter club, we can actually use that information to guess at the identity of her second friend (possibly, this one isn't as certain).

Fami's second friend has long black hair tied into a topknot, and has visible eyebags under her eyes. She is the friend of two previous Devil Hunter Club members, Fami and Hoodie Girl.

This character from chapter 99, is a member of the Devil Hunter club with long black hair and eyebags. If she is the same character it would explain how Fami and her two friends met, they were all in the Devil Hunter Club before the Yuko attack.

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Fujimoto having Pochita/Denji's eating ability directly reference this famous depiction of Saturn/Cronus

He's already referenced the painting before in part 2. What a coincidence that its alongside a "War" namedrop.

Yoru takes the place of Zeus in this story, attempting to free her "siblings" from Pochita's stomach. Interestingly, when she calls forth the Gun Devil, she pulls him from the mountain famous for being the location Zeus trapped Prometheus

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i didn’t get to voice my thoughts of the recent chapter, i was just waiting for the reception to calm down. with that being said, the way i see it denji is going through all the stages with his issues. first, denial when asa pointed out how what denji was doing was not a right or nomal response to pain, guilt & anger and now depression.

many assumed that “oh, them being stuck in this place is just gonna be like the aquarium arc, they’re gonna talk it out and asa will get them out” we forgot that the denji and asa now aren’t the same as they were before, both went through traumatizing events leading up to this (their dynamic has changed). they can still talk in future chapters we don’t know what fujimoto could do, but what makes this different to the aquarium arc is that yoru is here with them as well.

yoru, continues to acts as an unpredictable factor in the story that's constantly terrorizing both asa & denji. i love the characterization with yoru in these recent chapters, we see her gain power and control in a situation, only to lose it and goes back to this pathetic being. once she loses that power, she tries to regain that semblance of power and control by taking out her frustration towards denji (hurting and kissing him) . what i’m still wondering is what is causing her to kiss denji (it is bc of asa’s feelings? is kissing him a way for her to find the one thing she can control/own in a world where she has no control?? her own feelings? or all three?) anyways much to think about, because it’s such a body horror-esque concept in regards to asa’s character and what could it mean for her and for future chapters.

i also want to point out, yoru refers to denji as "chainsaw man" consistently throughout the whole exchange & if we go to the direction of her trying to regain that power and control she lost by owning denji? it’s so much to think about because we are literally introduced to her character bc she became weak due to Pochita.

i can’t help but be interested in the distressing dynamic with yoru and denji. denji thinks sex as a way to be cared for and that’s how he coped with for so long that he’s at a point where he thinks being stuck in this world is a form of punishment, and combine that with yoru using asa’s body to kiss and harm him to cope with this loss of power and control in an uneasy environment where people turn to trees ,, it’s a recipe for disaster that i still can’t help but wait for future chapters to analyze them.

also, i saw some people voice their concerns with asa’s character. seeing people say “when will we see asa’s breakdown!?” i understand bc yoru is doing all these harmful transgressions towards asa’s own body and we don’t see her thoughts of it? i’m still holding onto hope we will see more introspection from her especially in this new setting bc last time we were interrupted by asa’s hunger. i found it interesting whenever anything catastrophic occurs in csm, many ppl on twitter always pull that panel of asa’s dream. so many people are waiting to know what is the darkness in her dream and fujimoto keeps teasing us with it. it’s his way of telling us “ik you guys are waiting to delve into that but we’re not there yet!” it makes me think when is it enough for her, fujimoto!! but alas, we must be patient and hope the wait was worth it.

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hey am i fucking crazy or is there an extra student hidden when Asa crushes Bucky.

1. Asa falling on Bucky, class prez is alone behind her

2. There is now another highschooler standing next to class prez

3. We see a figure next to class prez moving so fast they are a blur

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How Asa will react next chapter

This chapters cliffhanger puts heavy emphasis on Asa's reaction to the events, which makes sense considering that she did not consent to anything that happened. Combine that with her stated disgust towards sex and it seems like Asa is going to have a massively negative reaction next chapter.

More specifically I think that Asa's reaction next chapter will be to vomit.

Fujimoto has often used vomiting in Chainsaw Man, it’s a motif that he seems to be very fond of. Yoru's main goal in Part 2 is tied directly to vomiting,  Fujimoto even makes a point of showing that Nayuta's power is able to make people vomit (Which is clearly setup for Nayuta being the one to make Pochita vomit up nuclear weapons, but I digress).

Of course I'm not just relying on random instances of characters vomiting to predict her reaction, there are two specific instances that connect very directly into the current events. First is Asa vomiting in response to crushing Bucky, this not only sets up that she vomits when disgusted, but also ties into her dream of the birds in the alley.

The series has already drawn a comparison between Denji and the birds Asa steps on, with the birds obviously being inspired by Bucky (Bucky is also notably not actually Asa's fault but was caused by a third party, similar to how Yoru is responsible for this chapters events). This connection means it make sense that her reaction to unwillingly sexually assaulting Denji in an alley would mirror her reaction to crushing Bucky.

The second instance of vomiting that this would tie into is Denji's vomit kiss, more specifically, the ensuing conversation with Makima it spurs on about first tastes. This situation in the alley is easily the biggest example of a "first taste" for Denji since his first kiss, another first taste that has been potentially ruined for him. And if Asa's reaction in the next chapter is to vomit, then that provides a natural segue for Denji to think back about his first kiss, and tie this chapters events back to the concept of "first tastes".

The motif of vomit in Chainsaw Man has been something I've been noticing for a while now, and I am super interested to see where Fujimoto is going with it.

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HOT DAMN ik i already said a bit abt csm 167 but i keep thinking of more extremely interesting shit here and the sheer inner turmoil in the shared body of asa and yoru

I was wrong, it's not yoru masterminding this. Maybe she is, but we've already got so many hints that yoru and asa are starting to rub off on each other, w/ yoru feeling asa's emotions and asa getting more nonchalant about death and killing. Everything until now has been a relatively clean merge, something neither of them even notices too much.

But denji is a jagged edge. Asa and yoru have very different approaches to love and interpersonal relationships. Asa being a sex repulsed and desperately lonely romantic and yoru being the embodiment of war, uninterested in love, & intimacy only being violence (because war).

The merging can't go unnoticed anymore, it's not just massaging red play doh into blue play doh anymore. Their feelings regarding denji and chainsaw man are so different and entirely irreconcilable the merge is hacking off a hand and painstakingly sewing each individual nerve and vein to the end of a fraying rope.

Here yoru is her usual uncaring self. Denji wants to lose his cock, so be it. Who cares, she's war, she's done worse and feelings never got in her way before.

When denji knocks the knife away that's a very asa face and reaction despite the scars showing it's clearly yoru. Yoru isn't this clumsy. It's not like denji peeled her hand open, he knocked it away and yoru wouldn't have such a loose grip on a weapon.

Yoru is shocked. This shouldn't feel too different from any other fight for her, why is she so shocked? I thought she was unaffected by emotion, so why would she feel even a second of confusion about hurting denji? It's like she's shocked at herself, and she reasserts herself by doubling down on the violence and gripping his balls. Doubt isn't like her, it must be a fluke. She'll finish it quick.

Once again, that is an Asa face with the yoru scar, immediately followed by yoru attempting to regain herself

And failing. This is yoru, why is she so confused? If she wanted to assault denji it wouldn't be unwarranted from War, but there's emotion in that kiss. She looks so shocked when she pulls back, this isn't yoru's idea nor is it asa's. Again it wouldn't be surprising if war decided to idk assert dominance by assaulting denji, but if that was her goal she'd be as confident and unphased as she usually is in fights. At worst she'd be angry if he didn't go along with it, but panicky? Confused? That's not like her

She's too emotionally involved to be yoru, but too sexual to be asa. This is the ugly joint of fraying rope and nerve endings. A girl neither asa nor yoru recognize as themselves and one they can't control as individuals. They are merging, but they can't merge into 1 whole person, they're so diametrically opposed in their views of interpersonal relationships that they can't fuse cleanly together and instead their jagged edges get smushed together with such force it makes a 3rd person they mutually hate and are unable to control.

Finally they split again and asa is so deeply fearful she takes over again. But despite losing the scar she keeps the horseman eyes, and the paneling splits her in half implying we are seeing both of their reactions here. And despite having seemingly been in control and making the decision to assault denji, asa and Yoru are equally terrified by what just happened.

This wasn't yoru raping denji then leaving asa to handle it. God that'd almost be better since at least then asa could blame her, but she can't. This was the ugly frankenstein joinery of yoru and asa acting here. Both individuals lost control of their shared body entirely while their desires were mangled and reshaped into something they find mutually disgusting but are forced to feel as enjoyment. Yoru experiences sensation and emotion she considers so far below her and is terrified by this loss of her devil nature. And asa is lost in indulgence of violent sexuality the likes of which she never could've previously imagined enjoying, let alone forcing onto the only person who ever gave a shit.

As a person she is so deeply concerned with morality and righteousness she won't even cross a red crosswalk with no cars around at night, but she's been forced to commit a crime so heinous as rape against the boy she likes and gain enjoyment from it.

It's so deeply violating not just of her agency but her existence as an individual it's hard to define in words, but i can only imagine asa scrambling away. Frantically she screams at yoru for fucking it all up so badly, only for yoru to be equally as scared and disgusted. This wasn't yoru's doing. This devil that has had such tight control of her for so long is completely clueless as to what the fuck even happened or why and points at asa because if it's not yoru it's asa yeah? But if they look deep inside themselves, they'll see that their reflection isn't them. Neither of them know who this is, and they can't talk to her or control her even as they get sucked into this singularity.

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Is Nail Fiend actually the Curse Devil?

It was awesome to see the Nail Fiend (and Katana Man) return this chapter

Back when the Nail Fiend was first introduced, a common theory has been that rather than being possessed by the Nail Devil, they are actually the fiend-ified Curse Devil. Opinions on this theory seem to be pretty divided, and since the Nail Fiend is coming back into the spotlight with this latest chapter, I felt it would be worthwhile to make a post re-evaluating this theory in its entirety.

The main reason for this theory is that the Curse Devils choice of weapon is a nail, just like the fiend's, with both Aki and Santa Claus needing to pierce their victims with a nail to trigger the Curse Devil's attack

In addition, the Curse Devils attack takes the form of a crucifixion, and when the "Nail Fiend" debuts, they hang up the church schoolkids with nails in a crucifix position.

There's also the fact that a Nail Devil doesn't really seem like they'd be that powerful at all under CSM's fear based system, and considering that fiends have a further reduction in power compared to devils, the speed and competence that the "Nail fiend" shows could be considered unreasonably powerful for just representing the concept of nails.

You could argue that the Nail Devil also represents the hammer and nail curse ritual (Ushi no toki mari) to give a reason for its power, but the Curse devil already clearly takes inspiration from that. It would be incredibly redundant to make the Nail Devil just represent the exact same thing as the Curse Devil, and it would make more sense to just re-use that devil, it's not like Fujimoto has had a problem with reintroducing devils from Part 1.

The main counterargument for this theory that I have seen is the fact that the fiend's introduction chapter was named "Guns, Nails, Katana", with people arguing that because the chapter title uses the word "Nail" that the fiend must then must be the Nail Fiend.

I don't think this argument really holds any weight, the chapter had "Nails" in the title because the fiend used a bunch of nails and the chapter title was describing what happened in the chapter. It's like how the "Guns" in the title refers to how the chainsaw church followers used a bunch of guns, not that they were contracted with the Gun Devil. If anything the title "Guns, Curse, Katana" would be really strange and out of place, because it would be revealing something that wasn't actually revealed in the chapter itself.

At the end of the day this theory is still unconfirmed though, and we'll really just have to wait until we see the Nail Fiend show off a bit more of their powers before we can really call it one way or the other. Though I am definitely hoping to see some curse action in the upcoming chapters.

Also: if they really are the Curse Fiend, then them being paired up with Katana Man is pretty funny, considering they straight up murdered him in Part 1. This fact doesn't really affect the likeliness of the theory, but I think it's pretty neat.

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The Guillotine Devil's Incredibly Well-Executed Design

The Guillotine Devil has quickly become one of my all-time favorite devil designs in Chainsaw Man.

The exceedingly tall stature of the devil perfectly captures the tall and unwieldy shape of an actual guillotine, and while I would like to say a little more of substance with this post than just "it looks cool"… it cannot be overstated how fucking cool this design looks. The long wings of the bird creating a circular cloak that doubles as the frame of the guillotine is genius.

The skeletal "body" of the devil, if you can even call it that, hangs limply so that attention is drawn to the guillotine device itself, which adds a wonderfully cold and unsettling element to the design, fitting for a cold metal murder machine.

The bird motifs that have been present throughout Part 2 are on full display here, with a design that harkens back to the crows that have been seen throughout the series (Most notably the one Denji stepped on), but with a pigeon head to emphasize its birdbrained nature.

With a tilted head the devil echoes Fami's own signature scale-tilting lean to draw a connection between itself and its owner, similarly to how the Falling devils love of cooking connects it to the food-loving Famine devil.

But while the tilted head's similarity to Fami is great, my favourite aspect would have to be the way that the entire upper body of the Guillotine Devil resembles a severed head after an execution, with the feathers around its shoulders creating a birds-nest-looking basket much like those placed under a guillotine.

Fujimoto absolutely cooked with this design.

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oh, to live a mundane life. how sweet and how cruel can it be.

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The Tragedy of Hayakawa Aki - chainsaw man, tatsuki fujimoto

grief lessons: four plays by euripides, anne carson // chainsaw man, tatsuki fujimoto // deathless, catherynne m. valente // “untitled,” 2016, ink on paper, kara walker // james, clementine von radics // slide tackle, japanese breakfast // how to cure a ghost, fariha róisín // red glove, holly black // the letter, richard paul evans // interview with james hall, richard siken // ptolemaea, ethel cain // iq84, haruki murakami // the godfather, mario puzo // god's silence, franz wright // crush, richard siken // tumblr user ojibwe // when i was done dying, dan deacon

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I know that alot of people think that Denji and Nayuta are going to run into Yoru at their apartment, but honestly I think it's more likely that they run into Fami there.

The idea of Fami ending up in their apartment at some point has already been set up with the house rules. Not to mention how suspiciously absent Fami has been in the events so far despite being directly responsible for everything that is going on currently.

The entire reason that Denji and Nayuta want to go home is because they are worried about their pets starving. And if Fami IS at the apartment, then the implications are... concerning.

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Nayuta didn't just inherit Denji's good qualities huh

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God but Asa wasn't even the person who kissed him then, it was Yoru trying to turn him into a weapon, this is so fucking sad.

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The Truth Behind Famine, Fakesaw, and the Falling Devil

Welp, I promised that I would make a full post about my opinions on Fakesaw, but the only way to do so is a full analysis of the previous arc. Ever since the Falling Devil arc, it seems that the pervasive belief about Fakesaw Man is that he is working against Fami, but I completely disagree, in fact I believe that Fakesaw saving Asa and Denji in Hell was all a part of Fami's plan.

Super quick recap, while Falling is attempting to serve Asa to the residents of Hell, Denji attempts to fight her but is defeated, then a mysterious person appears and uses their blood to revive him. Later on while Denji is trying to escape Hell with Asa, Fakesaw Man shows up and carves up Falling, saving Asa and Denji.

First off, who is the mystery man who feeds Denji blood? Well this one is pretty straight-forward, it is most likely the Church's resident Sword Hybrid: Miri Sugo. Not only do his shoes match the mystery man but they have been a consistent aspect of his design even in part 1 (None of the other hybrids were even given detailed shoes but for some reason Fujimoto chose to specifically give detail to Miri's).

The motive for Miri to help Denji in this way is obvious, he likes Denji and feels indebted to him after being saved from Makima's control. But one thing that isn't obvious is the question of opportunity, Miri happened to be in exactly the right place to save Denji from Falling, even though the entirety of the Falling Devil's attack took so little time that Public Safety was unable to effectively send a real response other than nearby devil hunters.

The fact that the Falling Devil was about to be unleashed on earth was completely unknown to Public Safety right up until the moment it happened, and Fami isn't exactly just going to tell random members of the church that she is responsible for the biggest devil attack on Japan since the Gun Devil. The only way that Miri could have been on the scene in time is if he was ordered to be there by Fami.

This directly contradicts Fami's stated plan of starving Yoru, and it isn't the only contradiction. The hard-cut to Nayuta in school does a good job of hiding it, but the chapter where Fami explains her plan to Nayuta actually hides a vital clue towards Fami's REAL goal. Asa is unconscious during this chapter, and she wakes up next chapter lying on a couch in a hospital. So here's a question, how did she get there?

Denji didn't take her there, he was unconscious. So it must have been either Nayuta or Fami, but Nayuta doesn't even like Asa. Plus she doesn't seem to have any qualms about Fami turning War into a pawn, considering that once Fami explains the plan her only problem with it is that she is busy with school. So Nayuta would have left Fami alone with Asa. Fami then - instead of taking advantage of Asa being unconscious to try and starve her - brought Asa to a hospital. Why?

Because taking Asa to the hospital while she is unconscious creates a very important misconception in Asa's mind, it makes her believe that she was saved by Chainsaw Man, and what does Famine immediately do after the events of the Falling devil arc?

Put simply, the entire Falling Devil attack was nothing more than a performance, Miri saving Denji, Fakesaw attacking Falling, it was all part of the plan. Fami never intended to harm Asa in any way, she instead wanted Denji to save Asa in order to make her indebted to Chainsaw Man. Fami then immediately uses that sense of gratitude and responsibility, combined with a photo prepared in advance, to achieve what this entire arc was about…

Getting Asa and Yoru to join the church.

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Yoshida and Public Safety

In light of the latest chapter, I want to say that it genuinely cannot be overstated how important it is to Yoshida's characterization to understand that he says "I" when he is talking about actions he is personally choosing to take, and "We" when he is talking about Public Safety's orders/actions.

It was Public Safety's call to kidnap Nayuta, and Yoshida then chose to kidnap Denji in order to keep the situation under control and deliver his ultimatum.

Yoshida specifically brings Denji to the protestors as a warning, we now know thanks to the latest chapter that Public Safety does want to neutralize Denji and is perfectly happy with putting him down. Yoshida makes it clear that he thinks Denji should no longer transform into chainsaw man to avoid further escalating the situation.

Public Safety are gearing up to kill/imprison Nayuta independently of Yoshida, the situation isn't that Public Safety kidnapped Nayuta in order to convince Denji to stop being Chainsaw Man, Public Safety is neutralizing Nayuta because she is the control devil, and Yoshida's ultimatum is to try and prevent this from happening.

Yoshida slips up and drops the act here because he is upset at things not going to plan, he refers to Public Safety as if they are completely separate from himself, an organization he has no say in or control over.

Yoshida's distress is made even more appropriate with the reveal that Public Safety is completely fine with Denji being turned into a weapon due to his continued autonomy being inconvenient for them.

And of course:

Since Public Safety want Asa to turn Denji into a weapon, Yoshida telling Asa to stay away from Denji here is a flagrant act of rebellion against Public Safety in order to protect Denji. And, considering that Public Safety has surveillance on Denji, their first move after Asa turns him into a weapon would most likely be to instantly order Special Division 7 to kill her and take the weapon. Him issuing this order is also protecting Asa from Public Safety.

Yoshida is a lot more than just some heartless Public Safety lackey.