#CSM 164

[pumpkingface]

Let’s eat sushi 🍣

[sugar-grigri]

Comedy in CSM is the most important thing to analyze

I accept that the last arc can be read as comic, but you have to push the analysis further; every situation, every comic spring, pursues a theme: identity.

While it had been raised, questioned, it's in this arc that Fujimoto announces that this time we're in the dissection phase.

Denji is accompanied by characters of different narrative rank to enable this operation: a former enemy (still current, but belonging to part 1), a current enemy (introduced in part 2), a potential lover, a guy who idolizes part of his identity, and someone a little more out of touch with everything that's going on.

Everything is there to talk about identity, from the fact that Asa's high-school girl outfit is an advantage for going unnoticed, to the fact that she's stumbling.

Because this way of portraying Asa isn't the right one, since she's a teenager who's always resisted fitting in at her high school.

The guillotine is not insignificant either. It's not to be analyzed as something innocuous - there were plenty of potential demons - but Fujimoto chose ultra-symbolism.

For the guillotine has been manipulated by men of all political persuasions, and is also the symbol of a France seeking to redefine itself.

Above all, it's a symbol of a changing world.

And the rules of the world into which the characters fit are changing.

Fami's struggle against death is one of the first cogs in this change.

Stripping the guards of their clothing is also a way of removing their authority through their uniforms.

The high school girls' uniforms, on the other hand, had the advantage of symbolizing innocence and candor, and of not drawing attention to themselves.

The guards' uniforms contained their authority, so undressing them is enough.

Finding Denji cut up also heralds what's to come, as all the characters help him to literally rebuild his life.

If Asa learns who Chainsaw Man is from Denji's severed head, it's also Fujimoto's way of punishing his main characters.

Asa had always conceived of Chainsaw Man as an evil symbol, a demon for whom she felt no respect or consideration.

So, presenting her with a severed head is always reminiscent of the guillotine: the guilty party's head, presented to the people.

Because Chainsaw Man, before being a hero, is a culprit.

Just as the greatest revolutionaries glorified by the early revolutionaries ended up on the guillotine.

Above all, Fujimoto punishes Denji, because Denji's dream, the only thing he had about his identity - the power to reveal himself - has been taken away from him.

Denji didn't present himself, he was presented as a hunted beast

If Yoru and Katana Man are trying to help Chainsaw Man, it's because without the bloody, invincible enemy that is Chainsaw Man, they lose their objective.

The way they both present themselves from the start is through a desire for revenge

If the beast that would allow them to savor this vengeance is not in state, then all falls away.

What you're witnessing is not a humorous transition arc, but a pause in the work's own narrative.

Because its main character no longer accepts pretending to be Chainsaw Man

So the work stops and starts again from the beginning

What does Denji want to eat?

And what could he have eaten already?

The most obvious response to a Denji who refuses to rebuild himself as the person he used to be, and to whom he no longer wishes to resemble, is to grant him what he desires, since what defines this life before is precisely the fact that he doesn't get what he wants, that he stagnates, and that everything is denied to him, even his own identity.

Sex is something Denji is banking on, basing all his hopes on, since what he's experiencing doesn't please him, so surely the answer must lie in what he hasn't experienced, right? His reasoning is as simple as that. If sex is the foundation of existence, then it also settles existential problems.

It's a disillusionment, an obsession for a teenager, who has been denied the status of child so much and is now obsessed with this """"passage to adulthood"""" because everything would make everything so much more coherent.

Sex is also an element of incessant blackmail, but one for which Denji is willing to put himself at risk because it's his only hope, yet another unknown physical sensation, yet another need to be satisfied.

Denji takes up this objective knowing full well that what he's missing once again is someone, a loved one, to protect. For the old Denji loves, tries to protect, is trapped in Chainsaw Man's infernal cycle of suffering. If he is to return to the way he was, then he must also learn to love again, and to love others.

But love isn't visible; Denji only expresses himself in terms of needs.

The need to be loved and the need to have sex are two different needs. Denji doesn't seek one through the other, he only grasps one.

This conclusion on sex sums up this arc a little, this pretext for making Denji out to be an idiotic character, obsessed with sex as a poorly-written character with subversive aims. It's not about falling into the pitfall of a puppy looking for love.

It's about a boy who has long since stopped accepting that he has to go on living, and who projects himself through his non-experience to find meaning in it.

Not having a mother is part of his non-experience.

[blackvelvetinfierno]

Sometimes I forget no one else knows Asa and Yoru are sharing bodies so to me her mood swings make complete sense but poor Denji (and the rest) must be so so confused

[cold-dragon-europehsr]

The two best panels. Imo, all Denji wants is sushi and his gf hates it. Stop bitching about fish Asa and get with us in the sushi boat.

[defnotkanyewest]

They’re actually so cute in the weirdest way 😭😭😭

Me watching Asa and Denji

[lazyflower48]

Poor Denji. He must be so confused due to all the mixed signals he's getting from Asa because of Yoru

ALSO, THIS!!! PLEASE I HOPE FUJIMOTO MAKES THEM CANON

[lunargirlthing]

This panel is the equivalent of high grade top shelf crack for asaden shippers

[rivxia]

ASADEN BUT AT WHAT COST…..

[swaggy-kat-me0wy-meow]

Is the love Asa has for Denji enough to bear through the pain to heal him?

will it be too painful, or will it be worth it to hold Denji's hand as he get better and move forward to get his normal life?

and how much of those situations will she have to compromise on?

and how will that affect her?

can they be happy together, or is hurting eqch other what they have to do to both find their own happiness?

[wurm-food]

asa I love you asa

[numbmontezuma]

Denji weakly trying to find the remains of nyakko and the dogs is my roman empire.

[galaxynajma]

Fami really said you’re not you when you’re hungry

[sugar-grigri]

I think Makima's woken up.

But already a small series of observations for this chapter I loved

- CSM's curse is to lose his loved ones, if he has no one left to lose, Denji can't become Chainsaw Man again.

- Just as Asa loves Denji AND Chainsaw Man, Denji loves Asa AND Yoru because he can't tell them apart.

- I have the impression that this is the first time Denji has asked for help.

- Denji doesn't want to fight to protect, he needs to protect to fight

- Yoru hands over to Asa several times, because rummaging through rubble and mourning are human things, but that doesn't mean she's immune, because she's also mourning her opponent.

Asa doesn't like sushi, probably because it's often made of fish.

But what's important isn't culinary taste, it's the symbolism of these fish.

When Denji restored Asa's hope, he literally gave her back her strength by feeding her.

A hope that naturally repels Asa, who is not used to it.

What this chapter is about isn't just "I feel like eating sushi".

It's : make me hope again among the rubble

Make sure there's someone behind me when I fight you

Finding a loved one lost to Chainsaw Man's curse is already fighting Chainsaw Man.

Now that we've talked about water, how about fire?

The symbol of fire is not loss, despite the title "charred remains".

Fire in Chainsaw Man now has a precise symbolism, conveyed by the fire demon itself, allowing co-contractors to become whoever they want.

That's why, symbolically, in front of his burning apartment, Denji wanted to be CSM.

But Nayuta also came close to this dreamy fire

By being literally pointed at by a firearm by Barem, weapon of the flame thrower, co-contractant of the fire demon

Charred remains is the old Nayuta

Focus on fire

What Nayuta wanted to become or become again

For this, Chainsaw Man needed to be wounded, completely inactive.

And Control Demon to be alone again

What this chapter indicates is that several cycles are closing

Asa has been helped by Denji, who asks for her help,, closing where time left off with virtually the same protagonists, at the aquarium.

The element of water, hope

That's why Yoshida's question only makes sense now: is Denji in a state to literally face death, i.e. his own mourning?

And then part 2 gently embraces not only its beginning with water but now part 1 with fire, what we wish to be

Deep down, in choosing to be CSM Denji has chosen to be alone

And Nayuta has finally answered the question

Both decided to return to their own starting points, one running after the devil of control, the other embracing her new-found solitude.

You know, I said earlier that Yoru was also mourning the loss of an adversary. Don't you feel that we're bitterly trying to mourn our own? That of our own antagonist? But as fire signifies rebirth… not loss… A remnant… For Nayuta… A carbonization… For Makima.

To fight, Denji needs… Nayuta For the demon of control has awakened in her…

So friends, wash your hands: let's eat

[lentendays]

I cannot express how much I love how dumb our teenage MCs are. If Denji just said he was looking for Control, the others wouldn't be so quick to dismiss her as dead. If Asa explained the Yoru situation - the scars are physical and nearly everyone there is a fiend, so it wouldn't be a hard sell - that'd prevent the misunderstanding. Normally I hate the miscommunication trope but that's when characters are actually able to communicate better and don't - Asa and Denji are both genuinely dumb and I love that.

[dr-pipis]

the hating grind never stops🔥🔥

[poop-benedict]

CSM #164 SPOILERS

Denji suggesting sushi of all things had to be on purpose.

Fish is the one thing he knows she can't eat, and watching her struggle to eat it was the first time they really connected. He must be recalling their first date and is testing her with it.