#I don’t talk about him much but denji is one of those characters that is just real to me

[seapigeonn]

Every denji I draw is a girl btw. Just so you know.

[starstruckkittensweets]

"Roadside Attraction" | Aki x Reader (Kinktober 2023)

Car Sex - Aki Hayakawa

Fandom: Chainsaw Man Pairing: Aki Hayakawa x Reader Words: 2.4k

A/N: This is my first time writing for any CSM character, so I'm not sure how this turned out, but at least I had fun with writing it! I have a soft spot for Aki, man needs a hug and lots of sleep for dealing with those 2 weirdos Denji and Power! (But I love them all.) Also I drew a blank with the title, if I think of a better one I'll change it. I hope you guys enjoy! :)

Warnings: canon au, dry humping, brief breast/nipple play, unprotected sex, pulling out method, mentions of aftercare, slight dirty talk, Reader is unabashedly horny in this one

As much as you’ve grown to love Denji and Power over the last few weeks…you have to admit, they can be such serious cockblocks sometimes. 

Not that you and your boyfriend could ever be considered sex fiends (you both like to keep an air of modesty around, even in the safety of your shared apartment). But nowadays, it’s almost as if you can’t even kiss him without an extra pair of eyes drinking in the scene. 

Doing a load of laundry? Denji’s sitting on top of the dryer, eyes darting back and forth between the two of you. Making dinner in the kitchen? Power’s not far behind, peeking over your shoulders, demanding to know what kind of food you’ve chosen to prepare for her. Hell, even your own bedroom isn’t as safe as it once was. One night Aki had barely managed to slip your shirt over your head, lips warm against the base of your throat, when you nearly screamed about something brushing against your leg.

Power’s pet cat Meowy, pressing her cheek against your leg, begging for a quick pat on the head. At that point you had half a mind to pick her up by the scruff and drop her right into Power’s lap—but the last thing you wanted was a vengeful Blood Fiend after you for daring to hurt her precious cat.

Even the fucking cat is getting in your way.

“We need a vacation,” you mumble one morning, perched on the kitchen counter.

Aki shrugs his shoulders and takes a sip of his coffee, not even bothering to chide you for sitting on the counter. You know damn well Denji and Power wouldn’t be able to get away with that.

“We have that mission from Ms. Makima coming up this weekend.”

“That’s…not what I meant…”

He pauses, lips lingering on the rim of his mug. His hair is still frazzled from sleep, hanging over his shoulders. (Not that you want to run your fingers through it or anything. No, of course not.)

“…Then what do you mean?”

You smile, tugging on the hem of his sleepshirt, inching his body closer to yours. “We need a vacation, a real one. Not just a solo mission, either. Just you and me…” You lean in close, lips brushing against the apple of his cheek. Lifting your knees and wrapping your legs around his waist. “…And maybe a nice hotel room, with soft sheets, a bottle of wine, and maybe even—”

“Ooh, sounds good! When are we heading out?”

The two of you pull away from each other at once; your face flushed with heat as Aki clears his throat, turning back to the mess of dishes in the sink. Denji sprawls his upper half along the counter, eyes shifting lazily back and forth between you and your boyfriend.

You don’t know how much more of this you can take.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” you hiss through your teeth. “Forget it.”

He lets out a groan just as Power stumbles into the kitchen, Meowy snuggled up in her arms. You sigh and jump off the counter; out of the corner of your eye, you can see Aki shaking his head at you.

You love the little family the four of you have created…but damn it, not at the cost of a little private time with your own boyfriend.

Thankfully the weekend comes faster than you thought, and as you’re driving through the streets at night, the files from Makima resting in your lap, you’re starting to wonder if Aki had a point when he saw this as a vacation.

The destination’s set, the roads are quiet, and the stars are absolutely gorgeous. And the best part? No Denji and Power to bother you.

For the first time in literal months, you have Aki all to yourself. And you’ll be damned if you let this opportunity slip through your fingers.

You shift in your seat, adjusting the papers and folders in your lap (also possibly parting your thighs a bit—just to get comfortable, you swear). “How much longer till we get there?”

“It’s not far,” he says, sounding a little strained from the long drive. “We’ll be there within the hour.”

Meaning the hotel Makima booked for the two of you. Despite the work and expectations for the two of you during this mission, it’s hard not to get excited at the thought of finally being alone with him. And in just an hour you’ll be in that hotel room, far away from any distractions named Denji and Power. Locked inside four walls with no one there to bother you. Just you, your boyfriend, a comfy king-sized bed…and the whole night ahead of you.

Trouble is, you don’t think you can wait that long.

You clear your throat and shift in your seat again. Aki hasn’t noticed your little game yet, too focused on the empty road ahead. So you stretch out your arms in a yawn, tossing the files into the backseat of his car. Rolling your shoulders, squeezing your thighs together.

When he still doesn’t glance your way, you reach out and rest your hand on his crotch.

You’re lucky he doesn’t swerve off the road at that; immediately his body goes rigid, his knuckles a stark white as he grips the steering wheel. Gritting his teeth as he struggles to keep his eyes on the road.

“…Seriously? You can’t wait a bit longer?”

“I’ve been waiting for weeks now,” you mumble, squeezing your fingers around him. He rolls his eyes, as though he’s not growing hard beneath your palm right now. “Can’t help it, I need you—”

“And I need to focus on driving.” He sucks in a sharp breath at your touch, but he makes no move to swat your hand away. “…Stop it.”

“Or what?” It’s hard not to smirk at the look on his face, the way his eyes glow beneath the faint lights on the side of the road. “You gonna punish me? Tell me what a bad girl I am?”

“I-I’m serious—”

“And so am I.” This time he full-on whines when you squeeze your hand around him. You press your thighs together, already feeling your panties growing damp. “It’s just the two of us, Aki. Me and you, like it was in the beginning. Like hell I’m not gonna try to get in your pants.”

He groans again, shaking his head, jolting when the car hits a slight bump in the road. His fingers flex against the steering wheel, eyes fluttering shut with every roll of your wrist, every touch of your fingers.  

But you win in the end; before you know it he’s slowing the car down to a stop, right on the side of the road. No one’s around for miles, no cars coming up in the distance.

Just you and him, as it always should be.

He’s panting by the time he unbuckles his seatbelt. Sliding his seat back to make room for you, as you wrestle with your own seatbelt in the passenger’s seat. It finally slips off and you crawl into his lap, pressing your chest against his own, lips hot and demanding as he pulls you in for a kiss.

“Such a fucking brat,” he mumbles, already fumbling with the hem of your shirt. You barely manage to pull it over your head before he’s on you again, trailing a line of kisses down the side of your neck. “Really couldn’t wait another fucking hour, huh?”

“Nope,” you reply, popping the p with a smirk.

He opens his mouth but you cut him off with a roll of your hips. The delicious friction of your clothes and the heat of the car sending your eyes rolling back into your skull.

Damn it, you’re like a pair of horny teenagers. Has it really been that long since you last shared a night together? Are you really that desperate to be close to him that you’d risk it all for a quick fuck in his car on the side of the road?

Yes, absolutely. You’ve always been the type to take risks, after all.

“Fuck,” he groans into your mouth when you roll your hips again. Too eager to feel him against your body, can’t be bothered to take off any more of your clothes. He reaches up, squeezing your breasts, rolling them in his palms as you kiss your way down his neck. “T-too fast—”

But you can’t stop, and he makes no move to push you off. So you keep thrusting your hips, eagerly chasing your release. He brings your mouth to his again, sliding one hand to cup your ass, dragging your hips along his own.

You reach out behind him, fingers snagging on the little hair tie and pulling it free. His black hair spills over his shoulders, making it easier for you to tangle your fingers in the strands. He doesn’t seem to mind; only pulls you closer, hips stuttering against your own.

Your name tumbles from his lips as a faint pink color washes over his cheeks. “Can’t—shit, ’m gonna—”

You cut him off with a kiss, stilling your hips slightly, shifting yourself just enough to unfasten his belt. The last thing either of you want to do is finish the car ride with messy pants; it’s bad enough you already have to change your panties by the time you’re through here.

He slips his cock out, giving it a few quick strokes, his eyes never leaving yours as you shimmy your way out of your pants. It’s a little hard, given the lack of space in the car to begin with. But finally they’re on the passenger’s seat beside you, panties resting right on top of them. You spread your legs and straddle him, hands curled around his shoulders. Swallowing his moan of your name as you sink yourself onto him, the stretch of his cock sending a shiver down your spine.

“F-fuck,” he hisses against your throat, “missed this, y’know…”

You can’t hold back your smile, nuzzling your face in the crook of his neck. “I know, I did too.”

At least now you know you’re not the only one left feeling needy after the last couple months.

The two of you stay like that for a bit, getting used to the feel of each other. His hands sinking down to your waist, fingertips pressing into the soft skin of your hips. You swirl his hair in your hand, pulling it back and kissing his forehead. Only when he gives you a nod do you start to move your hips; slow and soft, eyes fluttering when you lean in and capture his lips in a kiss.

It’s been too fucking long since you were able to do this last; you’d almost forgotten how wonderful it feels, having him deep inside you. Hard and heavy, sending blissful shivers along the length of your body. Pressing up against that spongy spot inside you, the same one that makes you squirm and clench around his aching cock. Just the thought of it has you moving your hips faster, matching your earlier pace. But Aki is quick to help you, his hands guiding your hips against his own, moaning into your mouth with every thrust.

The windows are starting to fog up around you, the car jerking with every move you make. It must look so stereotypical from an outsider’s perspective; a couple of horny lovebirds who couldn’t wait till they got to their hotel room. Well, you’re the horny one—but Aki is just as guilty as you are, if his moans are anything to go by.

“That’s it,” he mumbles against your lips, “feel that? Feel how hard you get me? What you fucking do to me?”

Yeah, you do, and you love every fucking second of it.

“M-much better than waiting for the…for the hotel room, right?”

He doesn’t answer, only grasps your hips tighter and forces himself deeper into you. You’re panting hard, bouncing on his cock at a brutal pace, a thin layer of sweat beading at your forehead. Aki leans down to kiss your breasts, taking one of your nipples between his teeth.

You’re close, so fucking close you’re practically babbling at this point. Eyes squeezed shut as he rocks himself deeper into you. Whining out his name, nails biting into his shoulders as he drives you closer and closer to the edge.

“Please,” your voice is sweet against his lips, words tasting like honey on his tongue—and suddenly he’s thrusting into your wet heat as hard as he can, as fast as he can, just a little bit more, a little bit, a little bit—

He swallows your scream as you gush around his cock, thighs trembling around his waist. It’s not long before he follows suit, barely managing to pull out before he reaches his own peak. Your fingers find his cock at once, and with a few rapid strokes he’s groaning into your neck, thick white ropes coating your palms.

As much as you want to stay in his lap for a little while longer, you know better than to push your luck. Aki never likes dealing with too much of a mess after sex; besides, you two still have a mission to do, a hotel to get to before they give your room away.

He helps you climb off his lap, as gently as he can, settling you back into the passenger’s seat. He keeps a stash of wipes in the glove compartment, something you never thought you’d be grateful for in the past. He cleans you up and pulls your panties back over your legs, giving you a firm kiss on your lips when he’s done.

“Think you can hold out just a bit, till we get to the room?”

You give him a weak nod, snuggling against the seat cushion with a smile on your face. “I think so.”

And then he smiles, a soft and small one that makes your heart flutter in your chest. He rolls down the windows, letting the cool night air wash out the sticky smell of sex. Once your clothes are straightened and the windows aren’t as steamy, he starts the car again and begins the trek down the road, picking up right where the two of you left off.

But this time he holds your hand in his own, giving it a soft squeeze as declarations of love spill from your lips. 

[haruniki]

Movie Night- CSM

What your fav is choosing for movie night!- Power, Kobeni, Reze, Asa/Yoru, Quanxi(+the gfs), Makima, and Himeno

a/n: first post that i am making from a computer waaaahhh, sorry if it’s bad lol I watched some movies today and i wanted to share what I think some of the characters from CSM would watch! I hope you guys enjoy, also trying to branch out writing some of the characters so there's a bit more in this one i think. Also all movies choosen are just ones that i think they would watch, these are also mostly movies I’ve watched! some of these movie choices suck/are probs overused

POWER:

Power has a very versatile list of movies that she wants to watch every single time

Getting to watch a movie dates are most likely her reward from you for bathing or being good

Power’s pick of a good movie are mostly likely horror movies. The more gorey the better, the more blood shown the better as well.

Always laughing at the horrific scenes

Doesn’t like horror movies where the people have to go through elaborate puzzles to live. Power finds those boring and way to long. (Definitely not disliking Saw)

Power’s go to movie is Texas Chainsaw Massacre! It reminds her of Denji and she likes taking notes of what’s going on then asking Denji if he’s able to do the things that were in the movie.

While watching the movie, Power is really invested! Finds the movies very interesting. Holds Meowy up to see the screen while asking Meowy questions.

“Meowy, don’t you think the movie is interesting? Oh wow! Look at him chopping up that human! Weaklings! I would never be killed in such a way.”

KOBENI:

Kobeni likes movies that have a nice storyline and cute characters!

When she’s able to, Kobeni always choosen a movie that makes her feeling happy! She’s most likely choosing a Studio Ghibli film or a popular romance film!

Howl’s Moving castle is one of Kobeni’s favorite movies to watch on her days off. She likes to be able to be in her pajamas while laying either on the couch or on the bed cuddling with you. Maybe even having a snack or two nearby.

She loves pointing out detail in the scene as well as repeating some of the lines that she knows by heart, though she’ll get embarrassed if you tease her about it.

Kobeni especially loves it when you remember little facts that she tells you about the movie!

“uhh, I know it’s not in the movie, but Sophie.. Sophie actually has powers in novel! I really think they could’ve added it in the movie but I suppose it makes the movie storyline move better. AH! Sorry, I was rambling!”

Kobeni’s favorite character is Turnip Head! She finds Turnip Head helping Sophie along in her adventures adorable!

REZE:

Action Movies with a bit of romance!

While it might be a bit cheesy, Reze likes movies that have both action and some romance. She think it’s nice that throughout all the violence that occurs that the main character and their love interest can still fall in love.

Her top movie of this kinda of movie is Divergent. 

She likes the main character and finds the storyline exciting and interesting.

Definitely read the book series and liked it just as much, maybe even better than movie itself.

Likes explaining niche details in the movie, maybe slightly spoiling the movie/book itself.

“So in this scene, you can see that she’s about to get a tattoo, but your gonna wanna notice the kind of tattoo it is! This will be important for later in the movie and- Heyy (y/nn) are ya listening?”

definitely looks up the actors to see what other movies/shows they’re apart of 

Reze also nit picks certain parts of the movie and how they differ from the book 

ASA/Yoru

Asa doesn’t really watch movies. I see her watching more documentaries than movies.

Likes watching documentaries with you on different topics from oceanic life to ancient greece life.

Doesn’t really talk during these moments you both are watching, but will pause to discuss part of it with you or to correct the speaker about how the information they said was slightly incorrect. (mostly does that during oceanic documentaries)

“I disagree with what they said. While yes you can eat starfish, you have to be careful. A large handful of starfish are poisonous and it’s dangerous to eat them. You can differentiate between them though but that would involve you having to do your own research about such a topic. I don’t see you having to eat those anytime soon, plus if you did-”

Asa is always proud when you praise her for knowing so much. Even offering to teach you a bit more as a study date!

Yoru doesn’t really watch movies or anything but does also like documentaries. Specifically, about weaponry or even wars.

Watching the weaponry documentaries provides her with more ideas for weapons. Likes to also watch the clips of the weapons being made.

War documentaries are a bit different with Yoru though. She oddly proud of them and wishes for you to praise her for them, going so far as to slightly nudge you to hopefully prompt you to compliment such awful events.

“Y’know, I’m the one who cause all of that. Such memorable events came from me! It’s shame that nobody else seems to remember them, ah! But you can boast about how your dating someone so powerful if you wish.”

You might have to explain why those aren’t boastful events even if she pouts.

QUANXI(+the gfs):

Quanxi doesn’t choose what movie is being watched. She usually lets you and the other girls choose. 

However, it isn’t unusually for her to be a tie breaker for a movie. Depending on the movie and her mood, she’ll choose whichever she feels more like watching.

These can range from a horror movie (Cosmo’s choice being Halloween) to mystery movies (Pingsti choice being Where the Crawdads Sing) 

Quanxi usually chooses the movie of whoever she hasn’t been paying more attention to. 

A cuddle pile always occurs during the movies in which almost everyone falls asleep.

Snacks are also always present during these movie nights too. A whole buffet of choices

Quanxi most likely feeds one of the girls and the rest then all ask to be fed there choice of snack

“Eveyone got to eat there snack right? Oh (y/n), c’mere, you got a little somethin’ on your mouth.”

This leads to movie getting completely forgot, sometimes it’s a wonder why a movie night is even held.

MAKIMA:

While a bit of a mystery, one thing that’s for certain about Makima is her love for films.

Makima loves having movies night, especially when you choose then film. She likes to know the reasoning behind your choice. 

Are you sad or mad? Perhaps in a mood for laughs? Romantic movies perhaps you wish for something to happen throughout the movie?

Whatever the reason is, Makima enjoys watching you pick movies.

Makima usually chooses films that might make no sense or that have an artsy way of videography. Though she usually doesn’t say anything or show much emotion during the film

Makima doesn’t really have a favorite film. She likes ones that can make her feel emotions that she might not normally.

A film I believe Makima might genuinely like is Titanic. While an old movie and probably over used movie, it still has a nice storyline and pretty visuals.

“This movie is quite interesting. Were you interested in the romantic aspect of the film or perhaps the tragedy that was the boat sinking? Truly an interesting event, yes?”

Whatever the movie choice is, Makima is sure to even slightly enjoy even if it isn’t something she likes or usually watches.

HIMENO:

On the days that Himeno isn’t working or out drinking with her friends in the division, Himeno enjoys watching movies all day in her pajamas while eating either take out or whatever she has in her house with you.

She always welcome a nice laugh, so comedy movies are definitely her favorites.

Himeno especially likes movies that feature Adam Sandler

Whether that be Grown Ups or Hotel Transylvania, she doesn’t mind.

Loves quote random lines even if the lines are cringey.

Will probably watch any/all comedy movies the she can get her hands on. As long as she can get a good laugh she’s fine with it!

Definitely calls you to tell you that she bought five new movies that you both just have to watch right that moment.

“ Okay so before you come home, head to the convivence store near our place and buy an assload of snacks, OH! And drinks, can’t forget those, No need to grab any beer, i think there’s already some in the fridge. See you at home, ‘kay?”

Overall, Himeno is probably chill with whatever kind of movie you want to watch, but prefers things with comedy or atleast a comedic relief.

[suhmingo]

TL;DR

Fuckers in school telling me, always in the barber shop Part 2 ain’t bout this, Part 2 ain’t bout that My boy a fraud on fuckin Gege and them He, he they say that he don’t be putting in no work SHUT THE FUCK UP! Y'all ain’t know shit All ya motherfuckers talk about Part 2 ain’t no hitta Part 2 ain’t this Part f a fake SHUT THE FUCK UP Y'all don’t live with Part 2. Y'all know that Part 2 had AQUARIUM ARC, Fighting at the Karaoke and shit. Fujimoto been on no assistant since fuckin… I don’t know when! Motherfuckers stop fuckin' playin' him like that Them devils savages out there If I catch another motherfucker talking sweet about CSM Part 2 I’m fucking beating they ass! I’m not fucking playing no more

In my opinion, Chainsaw Man is going through an evolution. Not an awesome Pokemon evolution (Or digivolution, those are cooler.) But a slower evolution, with all the growing pains that come with it. Many have noticed how “slow” recent arcs have been, or how bad the fights have become. And to be fair, the Quanxi ones are kind of ass if you’re looking for a fight fix. But I will go to bat against basically every other complaint and critique of the pacing, the characterization, and the theming. I think the best way I would describe the pacing is as methodical, or more apropos to my argument, literary.

Now I’m not gonna sit here and say that Jane Austen’s planning the story of Chainsaw Man. To my knowledge, there are no pinups of Elizabeth Bennett anywhere in the book, but I do think that there has been a shift in terms of how the story is told and how much detail it does it in, pushing closer to that of a more detailed plot structure and planning than the fast, weekly pace of a traditional battle manga.

Compared to CSM Part One, CSM Part Two is trying to tell a slower, intricate story with a more human element, rather than the fast, succinct, hard-hitting style that Part One embodied. Where the growing pains fit in is that very change in style is hard to get used to, both for the author and audience. The biggest challenge is that it’s difficult to portray methodical storytelling when on 18-20 manga pages a week, and that the Manga medium as a whole is restrictive in terms of how slow you can and likely should take things. Actually, it just seems pretty restrictive in general.

Part One is a very utilitarian story for most of the first half. There’s exist a devil(s) trying to kill Denji, forcing everyone to work together to beat them, secondary characters die, the villain gets Chainsawed, and by the end of it we get Denji feeling more complex emotions. There are core subplots such as Makima’s mask faltering, and/or Aki or Power breaking down or maturing respectively, but those generally feed back into Denji’s growth. Characters, however developed, live and die based on the completion of their arc or the perspective they bring to the story, and no longer than that. Even Reze, a beloved cutie-pie, has her core arc within 14 chapters. Point is, it’s simple story, and that simplicity allows the bulk of it to be told through action.

Finally, Denji and co have their entire stories resolved within 97 chapters. To put that in perspective, that’s where something like the Arlong Arc Ends, and that’s not even halfway through JJK’s Shibuya Incident. Part one is very much a sprint, with the talent showcase being how well-crafted the story is at that very same pace. It really is a testament to the writing quality of how dense that story feels in that short of a time.

That isn’t to say I’d want that again though. One of the most important aspects of any continuation is to not only progress the story, but also how the story is told. Now that there are established elements to a story, it is a good idea from the creator’s perspective to push the boundaries of what is already established. You could do more of the same, but in my opinion that isn’t as stimulating or fruitful long term. That’s where I think Part Two thrives.

Whereas Part One was more focused on characters realizing the goal they want to achieve and reaching a baseline level of human decency, Part Two is more focused on the struggle of maintaining that humanity in an oppressive and equally depressing world. It’s inherently a meatier concept to explore and requires fewer fights and more introspection. For my two cents, I think Part Two is pretty fantastic at this in the long run, but at the same time the week-to-week chapter focus of Part Two means we as an audience will spend far more time digesting and analyzing the setup compared to an explosive fight scene. I think that’s where the bulk of the frustration comes from with part 2, it’s progressing themes and complexity, but it’s hard to fit that within week-to-week chapters without sacrificing something there before, in this case being the fights.

For starters, there are considerably more subplots and mysteries than in Part One. To name a few, there are:

- Yoshida’s allegiance to Public Safety and has own personal end goals

- Denji’s role as a roommate/big bro/parent to Nayuta, and how that affects his personal goals and future

- Denji’s internal conflict with being Chainsaw Man, it’s future, and what it represents (Which I think is meta-commentary, but that’s for another day.)

- Asa’s internal conflict with herself and Yoru, but mostly herself as well as her desire to be loved/admired.

- Nayuta’ purpose in life as the control Devil and how that comes into conflict with her bond with Denji

- Makima’s lasting influence on Denji mirrored in the form of characters like Fami, Barem, and Nayuta.

- The shipping wars I never thought would show up

- Fami. Just Fami.

- WILL DENJI GET LAID???

That’s probably a non-exhaustive list of general questions that are still up in the air and concurrently being explored. The story has gone from being a subversive battle manga with dramatic themes of existentialism, desire, and love to a drama about existentialism, desire, and love with battle manga elements. There’s a lot more focus on thematic cohesion, whole chapters are now given to exploring a character’s state of mind over plot progression. Part One had its downtime, yes. But I don’t think it had nearly as much internal cringing as Asa has had (To be fair, I don’t think any character ever internally cringe fests as much as Asa does). You need that downtime in an introspective story, hell I’d say that’s the uptime, but it’s very against the grain in what came up as a more mature battle manga, so much so that it feels like tonal whiplash to do so.

It’s easy to see that there’s a lot more setup to an arc before it gets to the payoff. For most of the plot threads listed above, we haven’t even gotten a proper payoff in the chapters we’ve had, something that would have been unheard of in part one. At this point in Part One, we would have been nearing the end game, with the development of the story and cast clearly indicating that.

Furthermore, these conflicts aren’t nearly as “cleanly” resolved as the Part One conflicts, at least as clean as anything involving chainsaw combat can be. The punchline of much of Chainsaw Man’s early arcs comes from the dismal world being undercut by a horny, ADHD-laced, solipsistic teenager's ability to 1v1 most problems. Most of the problems grow increasingly difficult to just Denji them, growing in complexity until the conflicts become more abstract. Something like Denji vs. Reze can be realistically resolved within a fight since they’re goals and objectives make sense to come into conflict. Less so for Denji vs “Gun Fiend” since we all know how well that went down. As things progress, Denji can’t slice his way through consoling Power, nor can Pochita’s powers help him cut through his trauma and self-reflection.

That’s the jumping point Part 2 develops from. None of Denji nor Asa nor Nayuta are able to literally fight their way into achieving their goals. This is a stark contrast for Denji particularly since most of Part 1 has the ostensible goal of “Kill this and I’ll let you get to X Base with me,” which is never actually a resolution to his problems. The end of part one and almost all of part two so far has been focused on conflicts which can’t be meaningfully resolved through a fight. The end of the world is not the final boss of these characters, that only serves to contextualize and add weight to their need to solve their own problems. The characters as we see them are mature enough to identify the problems that hold them back, but not mature enough to actually see them through or see clearly in the moment.

That stuff just needs time to sit and simmer, it’s as simple as that. That’s where the action is going. Fujimoto has to show how much Nayuta means to Denji and Vice Versa, he has to show Asa’s growing feelings for Denji against the wishes of both Yoru and her own ego, and so on and so forth. Notice how most of the villains plans aren’t just simply “Kill chainsaw man” (I think the only exception is like Yoru) They tend to be more complex than that. They either want to evangelize Chainsaw Man or silence his influence. That all needs time to unravel too.

With that much going on, it’s considerably harder to get satisfying moments chapter to chapter. So many things have to be established, developed, put into conflict, that the story cannot go nearly as fast as it did in part one. The writing goes far slower to accommodate these things, but the weekly chapters don’t. They still remain in the 18-20 pages that you come to expect. For that reason, we’re left more time salivating until we reach a conclusion that could be chapters away, and even then that conclusion could just be a setup for a later arc. It’s a much bigger story with more ambition to me, something that you’d see like in a regular sized novel.

But course CSM Isn’t a novel, it’s a serialized shonen with all the prerequisites and industry pressure that comes with it.

It’s no secret that the Manga Industry is cutthroat. It’s basically luck whether your story picks up steam or not (JJK was almost canceled at like Chapter 4, for a recent example.) And once you make it, you have to perform at that same level, with the expectation that you’ll continually improve both your quality and numbers, but mostly the numbers. So it’s only natural that the level of quality of the story is going to dwindle at times. So when chapters are bad, it’s not simply because of sloth or laziness. When deadlines are that tight and success is measured in numbers, it’s a testament to the creativity of many an author that these things even get made at all. Hell, the fact that CSM manages to have such intriguing characters and thematic depth is indicative of the writing chops that ol’ Fuji has.

When I think of it like that, it’s easy to see why Fujimoto would prefer to write than to draw. As a writer, I can definitely say writing isn’t a fast art form (At all.) but I at the very least don’t have to worry about drawing the writing in my head week to week, while also trying to appease longtime reader’s desire for action. You can more quickly explore the ideas that you want to explore by putting words on a page. You want to kill a character it’s as as easy as writing “And then the dagger plunged into their heart.” Ok Ideally it’s a lot better than my asstastic writing, but the point is the same. It’s just one of the more reflexive art forms out there.

That’s kind of all I had to say. Hopefully we can all move on to more productive things, preferably within the hour. Thanks for reading.

[galaxynajma]

hmm what about yuji for the send me a character and i’ll tell you?

My first impression: I thought he was a sweet kid and a lovely person to be around

My impression now: BEST BOI BEST BOI! ANYONE WHO HATES HIM IS A RED FLAG HE DOES NOT DESERVE THE SHIT HE GETS FROM THE FANDOM

Also he really needs some therapy

Favorite thing about that character: his personality:) also really like his pink hair and how much he wants to save people

Least favorite thing: the fact that Gege made Him wear his school uniform again after Shibuya

It doesn’t make any sense

The outfit he wore while he was with Choso post shibuya and while looking for Hakari were way better ( at least in my opinion)

Favorite line/scene: of course it’s the " I’m you " scene:) idk all of Yuuji’s scenes with Mahito are great

I will say this if Yuuji and Kenjaku ever do get to talk to each other then that would be my favorite ( Gege give us the family drama)

Favorite interaction that character has with another: hmm maybe Junpei? Or Nobara and of course Megumi

But yk all of those ended in tragedy ( well we don’t know about Megumi yet )

Wait wait i forgot TODO! AND CHOSO! How can I forget them ( I miss todo so much)

A character that I wish that character would interact with more: Maki and Kenjaku

I LOVED when Yuuji and Maki jumped Sukuna back in chapter 215 ( I believe that was the chapter)

I once read a fanfic that took place right after Sukuna escaped with Uraume in it Yuuji and Maki had a little bonding moment talking about the people they lost and at the end of it Yuuji calls Maki his big sister and OH MY GOD MY HEART

For Kenjaku it’s pretty obvious that’s his mom the person who has planned all of this and ruined so many lives is also his mother

ALSO THIS PANEL

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character: hmm a lot of people say Denji from chainsaw man and I see why they have their similarities and also their differences ( idk this isn’t something i thought about a lot)

A headcanon about that character: like the idea of Yuuji being a horror movie fan watching the newest movies to come out to the ones from the 80s

He’s a huge movie fan everytime he watches a film he likes to sit in silence and think about it yk the things he liked and things he disliked

Also one time Yuuji missed the bus so he tried to run for it and accidentally went Past the bus

A song that reminds of that character: can’t think of one rn sorry

An unpopular opinion about that character: Yuuji doesn’t need a power up or be the strongest to be the MC he doesn’t need to be the solo focus of the series other characters can have the spotlight and he would still be the protag no matter what

Favorite picture: this one

I’m just joking

It’s probably these three

[gwagwagwagoogoo]

Stop okay now I need to know both Asa’s and Denji’s warrior names. I think Denji would be a regular warrior who has seen too much shit, moves to another clan, and is begrudgingly handed Nayuta as an apprentice. And Asa’s that one cat in the background who just fucking hates him.

WRONG. This is my warrior cat au take a fuckingn seat

Devils are spawned from the dark forest and then get reincarnated into actuality or possess people basically

Denji was a kittypet who was mistreated by his two legs and everyone around him there is a reason why he related to Firestar and it’s because he wants freedom in his choices like how Firestar decided to join TC, him being a kittypet is important bc then he lacks agency. He is a PET

Pochita is dark forest concept reincarnated so he’s just fucking weird

I think he got ganged up by a bunch of rogues in the forest and nearly died but pochita sorta ‘possessed him’ and their shit became one so he Uber killed him and that’s when Makima jumped in Deputy of. Idk. Chainsaw clan.

Makima’s warrior cat name is Spiralskies, she’s deputy of Chainsawclan but also one one of those reincarnated dark forrest shits called. You guess it. A DEVIL

So Denji’s taken in as Aki’s (Sleetrain) apprentice along side with Powerpaw! And his name becomes. Idk. Sparkpaw? Sharppaw? Whatever.

Everyone else’s names too

Angel devil is Angelicpaws

Kobeni is Teetertail

Violence devil is Razorslash

Himeno is Blackclaw or Blackeye

Beam is Rivercrunch

Kishibe is Greystorm

Reze is Boomingviolets (everyone mishears her and thinks it’s Bloomingviolet )

Meowy is Power’s pet bird btw. Still named Meowy.

Yosheida - Seaswarm or Octopusclutch

Yuko - Softfur-> Softjustice

(If I forgot any characters just comment underneath and I’ll shit smth out of my ass)

A lot of the devils they face are often rogues or from different enemy clans and are either hellish concepts or take the form of cats

ANYWAYS AFTERALL WHAT HAPPENS IN PART 1, PART 2 STARTS

Its in a different clan we call it. Schoolclan. For now. After Makimastar became leader Denji killed her, got his warrior name for his efforts and transferred to schoolclan but before he goes he is given Nayutakit. Uh. Fucking. Shit. Shit. Shit. She’s…. Her name is Dark-kit. Right.

Edit: forgot to mention Makima star’s goal was to kill Starclan and consume total control over every clan and use Denji to get to that bc Pochita.

He is given her and flees to the new clan. With his new name Spark. Spark something I don’t know his suffix

And that’s where part 2’s main character…. SOGGYFUR THATS RIGHT SOGGYFUR MAKES A RETURN BABY. I also think something with Crow would fit Asa like Crowfur or something basic but I also think people would call her Soggyfur so it’s interchangeable. She is an unotable warrior who was orphaned in her apprentice hood and was recently made a warrior. She hates her clan. And she is just some rando warrior who hates denji too but that’s later on

What happened was that due to one of her clanmates trying to enlist the help of a devil, she is killed. But NOT SIKE. THE WAR DEVIL POSSESSED HER and they merge kinda, whatever, and then WARTIME (Yoru the war devil) kills Asa’s former mentor and AAIIEEEEE GETS STRONG AIEEEE

Anyways Wartime functions like an annoying spirit, and since it’s a FUCKING WARRIOR CATS AU war is huge hit with these clans and Asa’s like…. Bro are you kidding me.

And that’s the au so far. I will design ALL of thejr warrior cat designs just you wait and they WILL have hair

I can’t believe I talk abt csm on here and still end up talking about warrior cats tis the illusion of change

[falinscloaca]

seeing people who hate chainsaw man explain why they hate it fucking owns. for one thing i’m glad i’m past taking shit personally even about what i gave up and declared my Favorite Thing Everrr, but like. the biggest part is like. theres of course glaring shit to be pointed out and questioned about CSM and how it depicts certain subjects and people. its treatment of women is.... fucking *weird*, galloping between quasifeminist (from a “let female characters be real people with real faults” perspective) and just straight up “every woman is just out to get poor young men. fucking bitches. >:(” and while I do ******not******* think it ever actually falls into the latter its not something i could ever blame someone for taking away from the text or interpreting as the intent. where and when it chooses to properly full-on sexualize characters is its own can of worms, showing remarkable restaint at *points* keeping denji’s horndoggedness third person slash not sullying the audience perspective with Direct Thirsty Male Gaze Shit (USUALLY), but it also pulls a *lot* of (RELATIVELY tasteful given. some. other anime but i might’ve just blown out my perspective on what constitutes tasteful from having poisoned myself with bakemonogatari as a teenager.....) nudity with Reze, who unlike Makima has no stated age and is presented as a far more “viable” love interest for the runt than her confirmed-to-be-a-working-adult ass. leaving the possibility that she’s underage (her design isn’t really that helpful given kobeni is like 20 and absolutely tiny). If she ISNT underage then that leaves room for the interpretation that the story is positively comparing her being romantic with denji to another adult doing similar, which is fucked up, but frankly the narrative doesn’t exactly condone what she pulls it just doesn’t spoonfeed you the fact that “denji still trying to romance the woman who bit his tongue off would be bad” WHICH MAYBE WAS ASKING TOO MUCH OF THE AUDIENCE BC. HOO BOY HOWDY HOWDY HOWDY LOOK AT THOSE SHIPPERS (IMO when she goes back to run away with him its not a romantic impulse on her part. the story more than establishes fair reason for her to try to “save” him from the city life that isn’t amorously-oriented. I’d be fine with it if she actually is his age though, which isn’t out of the question actually bc she’s practically a genderbend of yoshida design-wise sfldhsgklhksdghlksgd. That’d still come with the other “well that option makes the narrative worse in X way” things described earlier though.) THEN THERES THE LESBIAN ORGY AND I THINK THAT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF??? THERES NOT MUCH TO SAY THERE. THE HYPERVIGILANT PART OF MY BRAIN WANTS TO BRING UP HOW MUCH SMALLER THE FIENDS ARE THAN QUANXI BUT AGAIN KOBENI IS LIKE THE HEIGHT OF A MOUSE. OTHER THAN THAT I GOT NOTHING TO ADD OTHER THAN “FULL FRONTAL LESBIAN ORGY IN A SHONEN BY AN AUTHOR THATS at least for now A MAN”. 

But like. That got away from me for a bit. I love the manga to *death*, again its like the best fucking comic ever made bury me with it, but theres tons that even I could point out. EVEN from a narrative standpoint, the aspect that i think is the most perfect and wonderful, has fairly large holes that could do with criticism. Theres a lotta shit wrong with that piece of work. 

My ACTUAL point, and the point that makes criticisms of it “fucking own”, is that the manga is so god damn direct in its ethos that all people REALLY need to say as to why they don’t like it is “jesus christ denji is a horny gross wierdo”. Series comes with its own lightning rod for having to explain why you don’t like it. basically everything objectionable about it can be summed up one way or another with just talking shit about the protagonist. it rules its funny as fuck he’s like a rodeo clown. 

[xostrawberry-milkyox]

I posted 3,890 times in 2022

That's 1,083 more posts than 2021!

107 posts created (3%)

3,783 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gojosattoru

@smol-ackerman

@gintamajustaway

@naotarou

@tobigifs

I tagged 3,889 of my posts in 2022

#gintama - 1,783 posts

#gif - 1,312 posts

#sakata gintoki - 1,270 posts

#gintama gif - 646 posts

#kagura - 572 posts

#chainsaw man - 545 posts

#shimura shinpachi - 431 posts

#bnha - 403 posts

#yorozuya - 371 posts

#hawks - 260 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#found sources of usage in merch: vol. 59 extras/2019 comic calendar/50th-anniversary shonen jump badge (vol. 3)/vol. 58 with dvd limited ed

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

345 Official Release

Hawks was really ready to end afo's career huh.

See the full post

93 notes - Posted February 27, 2022

#4

340 Official Release

I'm convinced Horikoshi likes to purposefully put Hawks next to giant characters all the time now. Just to make him look smaller (small Hawks hc's are hilarious and it's fun to tease but I still stand that him being 5'8" doesn't make him short). Horikoshi must love to tease Hawks for whatever reason.

Also parrot Hawks? I can't believe this is canon.

See the full post

124 notes - Posted January 16, 2022

#3

Chainsaw man Parallels: Yuko & Aki

See the full post

150 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#2

Gintoki’s Ideal Type

A while back when I did a post about Gintoki as a boyfriend, one thing I briefly mentioned was his ideal type. So I just wanted to take the time to expand on that.

Sidenote: one thing I frequently see with discussions involving Gintoki and love is that he ‘just doesn’t seem like the type to settle for one person.’ I would just like to note that I think Sorachi-sensei never intended for Gintoki (or any character) to have a romantic partner in the manga.

Because an underling message in Gintama - especially in Gintoki’s case - is overcoming personal struggles. The speech he gave in his fight against Kamui really captures this. 

Gintama is also very much a manga built on family bonds and that you don’t have to be related by blood to be family. In Gintoki’s case, finding the family he never had. 

But anyway back his ideal type lol. I just wanted to show why I think it is really possible for him to find love within the Gintama universe.  

One thing Gintoki is really attracted to is someone’s smile. He tries to protect multiple characters smiles in multiple arcs. A smile is the most attractive physical trait to him.  Ketsuno Ana could be used as the template for his ideal type with his massive crush on her. Even if it is just a childish celebrity crush. 

Friendly, kind, down to earth, and always has a warm smile on her face. Even if it is for the most part a TV personality (though she is a genuinely good person) he seems to be fond of the opposite of the way he sees himself.  

He’s been looked at and treated as a demon for a majority of his life. I mean think of the people he’s close to, all of them see him as human and not a monster. Of course he’s overcome those trials, and became human in the end. Which means romantically speaking, he needs/wants someone who accepts him as he is, flaws and all.  

Falling back someone who’s kind, the man gets thrown around like a rag doll, pierced in the head, and stalked. He would really enjoy the company of someone who will sit down with him and just listen - and I mean he has done that when drunk with bartenders/shop owners. But it would be extra nice if it were a significant other.

Patience. He likes this mostly to handle Kagura and everyone else he’s close to, but doesn’t realize it’s needed to handle how he has a hard time expressing his emotions as well. 

177 notes - Posted January 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Chainsaw Man Parallels: Denji and Asa

Let's talk about the parallels between the beginning of part one and part two of chainsaw man.

Denji. A boy living under horrible circumstances and fighting just to stay alive. But even so tries to see the positive.

See the full post

418 notes - Posted July 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cheriipop]

I’m obsessed with fiction and outlandish things so much to the point where I try to apply it to everyday life, I think purely just because of the mental conditions I experience along with the insane circumstances I’ve been apart of, that my existence is somehow something of fiction. There is clearly something fundamentally wrong with how I am, often to my closest friends telling me that they don’t even view me fully as human because of just how strange everything about me is. I think I lack things that make up a human as I find it increasingly harder to relate to them, I know everything a human wants or needs, why logically they might do something but I’ll maybe never know why they do things out of intense emotions as its just something I’ve never experienced, I can understand from a third person view but I can never put myself in their perspective. This thought was actually inspired because I told my friend that I relate heavily to denji, and makima (I’m a very contradictory person I know) and they really don’t like denji, and I think it’s kind of a human thing not to or to at least not understand him. lol I’m basically leaking my core beliefs because of kin lists this is so stupid. I remember they said they heavily relate to makima which is just painfully wrong, they don’t have much media literacy. Ironically enough given my circumstances I feel like appealing to people and finding what they want is really easy and comes naturally. I’ve had people tell me that i’m really good at talking about emotions and problems with others and helping them despite not really knowing my own. Everything about me I don’t understand, I don’t know my own emotions and they always feel fuzzy, there’s a small amount of emotions that I feel strongly (fear, anxiety, nervousness, rage) I try to lean towards rage as its the only emotion that I can feel strongly that doesn’t make me feel incredibly uncomfortable. But I never know what my actual reasons for doing something are, my brain likes to tell me that everything I do and say is a lie even when i’m completely alone. While I can draw conclusions that sound clear, I never actually feel satisfied with the answer and can never truly resonate with it. Everything I do is an enigma to even myself. I handle my own issues and state of being by just gaslighting myself into believing whatever I want, sometimes I shape my core beliefs around them if it means protecting myself or others. My core beliefs feel temporary when I say that but they usually come back around, eventually I’ll stop caring about whatever it was and go back to a neutral state of mind while keeping in the back of my head whatever it was so I hopefully never make the mistake again. I think a reason why I love fiction so much is because I can view characters so out of the norm, almost delusional and find something to relate to. I like having those I can relate to for whatever reason. I only have one person in my life that I can actually somewhat relate to and it’s nice but our circumstance together also just lead me more into fictional thoughts. It’s nice reading characters I relate to and knowing the author probably harbors some of the same feelings, I got a crush on fujimoto he can fix me. I think one of the biggest things I wish I had was the feeling of importance or surprise I guess for others or events. My memory is really terrible so I often forget important moments in my life or with others, or they might tell me something that should logically be a huge deal to me or something basically life changing and I don’t feel anything from it. I only feel something if it fits the emotion of fear. Sometimes I wish I could witness someone die to see if I would feel something intense that will actually stick with me, I wouldn’t actually want someone to die but it’s a thought I sometimes exercise.

[oceansatedogs]

thinking about “The Door” from part 1

i’m not the first person to talk about this lol but i will be talking a bit about myself too because this Is My Fucking Blog and this isn’t supposed to be a theory, just my opinion & my takeaway from it as a person who read CSM at a time i needed it the most. the other day, i saw a post that mentioned a running theme in the manga - that “ignorance is bliss”. i’m honestly in the mood to challenge some of those ideas characters like Quanxi presents

warning for Chainsaw Man (part 1) spoilers

*i want to preface with this disclaimer

like pretty much every single topic in philosophical conversations, the necessity of truth is one that can be challenged and has nuances. and personally, it all boils down to what we need and do not need - to become better people, to become happy, etc.

i do not need to know what my coworkers, strangers, or transphobic family members think of me because i do not really value their opinion of me at all. i do not need to know how i’ll die, or when/if i get married, what my biggest regret will be, that sort of thing. this information is not productive to me in any way. my life’s philosophy is that the only thing that matters is who we are in this very moment, and what we decide to do with the cards we’re dealt.

and honestly, in some cases (under the pretense that the past does not define you), the past has a little less relevance than the present.

i remember telling my therapist this:

i did not feel the need to extensively talk about my childhood or trauma at that specific moment in time when i consulted him, because there were Adult Me issues i needed to deal with immediately. and perhaps there’s things a person just is better off not touching on much, at least for a time in my opinion.

anyways, moving on!

the most tragic part of Chainsaw Man’s part 1, to me, is what could’ve been - given that, those choices even mattered.

if Makima experienced love. if Aki didn’t waste his time seeking revenge. if Denji knew what he’d come to know later.

right now, i just want to talk about Denji specifically — re: the significance of “The Door”, the flaw behind “ignorance is bliss”, and why you should open the door (and of course, the tragic knowledge that Denji was not even allowed the freedom to “open the door” on his own terms).

so first of all: what is “The Door”?

there seems to be a general consensus among CSM fans that “The Door” from Denji’s psyche (which appears a number of times throughout the manga) is a metaphor for his trauma.

so, this is the idea i will be working with!

so basically, if you know what post i’m talking about, op talks mostly about the application of “The Door” within the context of the story, and they sum it up perfectly: “while this mantra [ignorance is bliss] has its applications... living in ignorance creates a life of servitude“.

i just want to expand on that part right now, and not so much the characters.

some tweets from priv because i don’t feel like rewriting shit lol

listen, Denji isn’t the only character (or person) who has a door. everyone has a door. i have a door. the person reading this right now (if someone made it this far) has a door. whether or not the door has been opened depends on the person.

my door’s been opened for a long time - and opening it was not easy. it was excruciating when it finally happened. when i first started unpacking things in therapy, all i could do for a while was get angry and then cry out of nowhere. i’d mourn the life i could’ve had. reconciling with the things that have happened to me & the things i’ve done was the hardest part about even just twisting the knob of that door.

but, i think that’s just a part of the process of opening it.

a number of characters in CSM have their own ways of dealing with their problems, but it all comes down to: failing to acknowledge them.

it’s human (which is ironic, in the case of Makima who i’d still argue avoids her problems just like everyone else, just in a very unique way). i get it. nobody wants to deal with pain. it- well, it hurts! it fucking SUCKS.

if it’s painful, it must be bad for us, right? to acknowledge those problems? wouldn’t it just be easier to pretend they don’t exist? to not think about them?

or anything at all?

no. and i’m sorry, but no.

does anyone remember the thing that people kept saying on here back in 2019 when tumblr was at its tenderposting peak? something about “the fear of being perceived vs the rewards of being loved”? it’s kind of like that, but with the power of the truth. imagine if Denji had eventually come to unpack the fact he might’ve killed his dad out of self-defense. if he talked about the abuse he experienced by the men in his life. if he talked about his mother more. if someone heard him and told him what he needed the most was to be loved, not sex (although sex is a bonus lol). i wonder if that would’ve made the grooming that happened less likely (or maybe it still would’ve happened). there’s so much that could’ve been, if he’d just had opened it sooner.

going back to that post i linked earlier, i definitely do not think there’s anything bad about opening “The Door”, despite Pochita’s warnings.

it was just the context — y’know, how it was done.

and to me, that’s the most heartbreaking thing about Denji. at least a lot of us get to go to therapy, or we have friends to rely on. but Denji was forced to open pandora’s box when he just wasn’t ready for it.

he wasn’t even allowed the agency of how he gets to deal with his *own trauma*.

and thing is, i don’t think he could’ve been able to open it on his own in the context of the story. he just was not afforded the opportunity of a safe space like many of us readers.

but going back to that “what if” - there’s agency in knowledge. sure, trauma responses & subconscious tendencies won’t disappear overnight by going to therapy, but you learn to recognize them. you spot those patterns and you go “oh, maybe i should respond to this situation/stimuli a little differently this time!”, or “maybe i need to change the way i think about xyz...” - maybe Denji wouldn’t latch onto the first woman who gives him positive attention (especially if she calls him a “dog”, unless he’s into that kind of thing), or at least he’d think about it first.

honestly, in my opinion, the first step to becoming a healthier, better version of oneself is to acknowledge the skeletons in your closet.

it’s probably the most important step.

because like i said - doors don’t have to always be scary. i know they protect us from the elements outside of our comfortable homes. they provide safety, warmth, and familiarity. but metaphorically speaking, the world inside your bedroom is a very small one. you don’t meet many loved ones staying inside. you don’t learn much in your bed. don’t you want to join everyone outside, where it’s sunny and warm and full of laughter?

like yes, there’s pain, but there’s joy too. and we can’t get to know the life that’s waiting for us out there without the risk of taking that first step.

so why don’t you open the door and see for yourself?

[24hlevi]

1:48 a.m.

Denji (Chainsaw Man) X Gn!Reader

Genre: Angst

Warnings: Major Character Death, Chainsaw Man Spoilers !! (chapter 81+)

Summary: Denji thought he wouldn’t lose anyone else, and surely never you. But of course, the worst thing he could ever imagine happened.

Word Count: 782

You were laying down beside Denji in your shared bed and now shared apartment, he wasn’t sleeping and neither were you, but you didn’t talk to each other either. It was a dreadful silence and you hated it, but you weren’t going to complain when you both had been through hell and back as of right now.

The apartment used to belong to Aki with you, Denji, and Power living with him, but it was different now without no Aki or Power. It was so different that it felt weird just to be in the empty apartment with nothing going on when it used to be like a bunch of college roommates living together. It was fun while it lasted. You just didn’t expect it to go away so soon.

“Denji.” You whispered to the blonde boy next to you.

Denji turned his head and looked at you, “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Denji’s eyes widened when he heard those words leave your mouth and you could see the tips of his ears and cheeks turn bright red. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do after being told that as no one he had ever loved told him that. The boy stared at you for a few minutes before whispering out, “I love you too.”

Smiling at him, you leaned towards him and pecked his lips shortly before leaning away. “You want something to eat? I know it’s 1 in the morning but both of us are awake.”

“Please?” Denji asked, a small smile on his face.

“Of course.” You chuckled lightly, getting off the bed and walking out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen when you heard a knock on the door.

Denji followed you out of the room and stopped abruptly when he heard the knock on the door, and he immediately realized what was going to happen. What he had done.

You turned your head around to the door, eyebrows furrowing together as you walked towards it. You noticed Denji standing in front of the kitchen, staring at the door and with a look you couldn’t describe on his face. Worry? Or shock? You didn’t know.

Grabbing onto the door handle, you unlocked the door and opened it, only to see Makima there. “Oh hey Miss Mak-“

Bang.

You suddenly felt an extremely painful and burning pain in your stomach and you looked down, seeing a gaping hole right in the middle of you. Letting out a cough, blood came up and dripped down onto the cold wooden floor. Turning around, you saw Denji standing there with wide eyes and a look of shock on his face.

It took him a few seconds to process what he was seeing but then he quickly rushed towards you and caught you from falling, holding you in his arms as he collapsed to his knees.

“Y/n, Y/n please stay with me.” He whimpered out.

“Denji…” You said.

“Don’t talk, you’ll be okay. I promise. Please don’t leave me.”

You could see tears well up in his eyes which surprised you. You had never seen him cry before, not once. You thought it was just him being too emotionless from all the death around him that he couldn’t cry anymore when it wasn’t that. It was him just being manipulated to the point where he couldn’t do anything by himself anymore, not even think for himself. All because of Makima.

“Promise me…something.” You whispered to him.

“Anything. I’ll do anything just please don’t leave me.” Denji cried, tears spilling from his eyes.

“Kill them all.”

Denji heard what you said, but he was too busy crying to respond. “Please don’t leave. I need you, please. I promise I’ll do it but I can’t do it without you. Please, I love you, please don’t go.”

He kept repeating those sentences over and over again like a song that was broken and kept singing the same lines. That was until he realized that you weren’t blinking your eyes, that you weren’t breathing, when he finally broke down completely.

“No, no, no please don’t do this to me. Y/n, baby please don’t leave. I can’t do this without you. Please come back.” Denji held onto your body tightly against his chest, crying so much that he would definitely have a headache soon after he was done. But he didn’t care about how he would feel or how he looked right now, he cared about you. And losing you was one of the one things he never wanted to happen.

“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all, I promise. For Aki, for Power, for you. I promise.”

[ratmonky]

Stairway to Devotion

I’m quite certain that if a character is very like me, I just write them ooc and turn it into vanilla self indulgent fic.

AO3 Link

Word Count: 4.3K

Warnings: none

The abandoned warehouse was quiet for the most part. Demons were lurking in the shadows and in the forest, ready to attack unassuming humans and that was why this small town had been declared as dangerous. Humans didn’t come here to avoid being killed. Yet for a stray like Denji, it was welcoming enough to call home.

Denji had been to many places but he liked this warehouse the best. It provided him the security he desperately needed to sleep at night and most importantly, the electricity was still working. He had gathered many simple kitchen gadgets and a small heater thanks to the people who had thrown them away despite them functioning properly. But that was life, he thought. He would be thrown away by Yakuza soon if he didn’t make enough money. No matter the fact if he was giving results or not, just like the electronic junk he kept finding in the dumpsters.

With the little money he had, his dinners consisted of a slice of bread and very rarely the leftovers he found in the trash behind a restaurant if he was lucky enough.

He ate when there was enough and slept when there wasn’t. But even in his desperate state, he made sure to feed his demon dog, Pochita.

Pochita ate almost anything, even go as far as nibbling on Denji’s arms when he was sleeping at times but sometimes even he, a demon, gave his single slice of bread to Denji out of pity.

In the last years, Denji had sold his body parts to the black market. He had thought he had made quite some money out of his kidney and eye that he sold but he had no idea how they paid him only the half amount of money.

And now, he was trying his best to live for another day with Pochita. Chop woods, kill demons and sell more of his body parts to pay his debt to the Yakuza.

His paycheck wasn’t great and that debt collector of his was a douche but he never complained. Even if his paycheck only allowed him to buy bread and nothing else.

Because at the end of the day, when it was nighttime, he always found peace in the small store he bought bread from. Not because the prices were so low that he sometimes managed to buy two loaves of bread or how they let the customers read the magazines before buying and although he never bought the magazines, he liked to entertain himself and sometimes check the newest porn star’s spread open legs so he could go back to the warehouse and wrap his hand around his cock as he closed his eyes to remember what that looked like-

Ahem…

No, Denji liked this store because of the cashier.

Someone so sweet, someone so kind, someone so loving and someone so beautiful-

“Hii, Denji! You’re late today!” you smiled as the boy entered the store. Stopping sweeping the floor for a moment, you crouched down and gently petted the small dog that had run up to you. “Aww, Pochita, I missed you too!”

Pochita happily whimpered and leaned into your touch as his tail kept hitting the floor out of joy.

“Came to buy bread?” you asked, looking up to the young man. He nodded sheepishly and crouched next to you to pet his dog. “Well, it’s good that I was waiting for you two just in case then.”

“Oh, sorry…” Denji lowered his head. “We were too deep in the forest so coming back to the city took a while. Don’t wait for us if ya gotta close the store.”

“It’s alright, I kinda memorized how often you came to buy bread so I guessed you’d be here. And where would you buy bread from if I had closed the store, huh?”

Denji couldn’t answer.

“Exactly!” you giggled, scratching under Pochita’s chin. “Ahh, he’s so friendly today. Didn’t you feed him?”

“I did! He ate my share too! He started running down the damn street when he realized we were gonna buy bread,” Denji said. “He just likes ya better than me.”

“That’s because I always have this in my pocket!!” you giggled as you pulled out a beef jerky from your pocket.

Pochita started wiggling his tail rapidly and barked excitedly. You tore the packaging open and let the demon dog nibble on the snack before standing back up again.

Your eyes met Denji’s while he was pouting. A soft smile spread across your face, “What?”

“I told ya, didn’t I? If ya keep feeding those he’s gonna leave me for ya!” Denji slowly rose up to his feet, completely unfazed by your puppy eyes.

“Admit it, you’re just jealous,” you said, playfully hitting his chest.

Denji blushed slightly, “I ain’t jealous!”

“Yeah, sure!” You walked behind the counter after picking up the small broom. The lights flickered as you crouched to put the broom away and disappeared from his view for a second.

Denji’s eye landed on Pochita who was still munching on the beef jerky and then back to the counter before he went to grab a loaf of bread.

He wondered how much longer you would be waiting for them if Denji hadn’t taken the bus. His paycheck was almost finished. That bus ride hadn’t been cheap and he would have to sleep instead of eating dinner for a couple of nights, Denji wouldn’t hesitate to take the bus here again. It was outrageous for a nobody like him to make you wait. Although he knew you were doing this because you had a soft spot for his dog but Denji couldn’t help himself. He enjoyed having someone greet him with a smile and talk to him as if he was their friend. It all made him feel welcomed.

With you, he felt like this world wasn’t just rotten.

When he put the loaf of bread on the counter, there was a large plastic bag full of food next to it. You were smiling at him with the biggest smile he had ever seen.

He wanted to flash you a smile matching yours but remembering how yellow his teeth were, he resisted the urge. “What are ya smiling at?”

You shrugged. “Is that all?” You put the loaf of bread in a plastic bag.

“Do ya even have to ask?” Denji scoffed, taking out the thin envelope that had the rest of his paycheck money in it. He reluctantly took out a bill and gave it to you.

“You never know!” You gave him his change. “Maybe you’d wanna spice things up and buy hot coffee or something!”

“Heh, if I could I’d buy meat buns and beer.” Denji shook his head. By the time he took his bread, Pochita was done eating. He was about to turn around and leave the store when you called out to him.

Whipping his head around, Denji’s eye landed on your nervously fidgeting figure holding the large plastic bag of food.

“What is it?” he asked.

You took a deep breath and held the plastic bag out for him. “Please accept this.”

He stared at the bag for a moment longer than the normal. “What’s in that?”

“Meat buns, beef jerky, beef, and everything I knew you’d want.”

Denji gently grabbed the bag from your small hands and felt his chest tighten. “I don’t have enough money for all-”

“It’s a present from me!” you said.

“For what?” He couldn’t believe the amount of food a plastic bag could carry. There was enough food to feast on for months if not weeks.

“For being a loyal customer!” you chirped and put your hands on his shoulders to start leading him out of the store. “So don’t you ever stop shopping here! There’ll be a bigger present next time!”

Denji’s lips curled up into a smile. “I may be stupid but I’m not an idiot. We can’t accept this.”

Pochita growled at his owner in irritation.

“Stop that,” Denji told his dog. He then turned to you. “Thank you but ya really should return these.”

You weren’t going to give up that easily.

“I can’t! We have a no return policy, I already paid for them.”

“Haa? Why would ya buy shit for me with yer own money?” Denji didn’t sound upset even one bit. Only surprised. “Ugh, nevermind!” He put the plastic bag down and picked Pochita up. “We’ll be going home, ya should take that to your place if yer unable to return it.”

“Can you at least help me carry it back to my place?”

Denji was going to say no but seeing the way your lower lip quivered, he was unable to.

“Alright but I’m doing it because it’s too heavy!”

~~~

“Please! Next time… rent a place with an elevator or… on the first floor!” Denji wheezed when he finally reached to your apartment.

You giggled and let Pochita down, “You’ll get used to it.”

“What does that supposed to mean?” He caught up to you with his wobbly legs as you opened the door.

“Have you two had dinner yet?” you asked, ignoring his question.

“Ah...” Denji rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and avoided answering your question but his growling stomach gave him away.

With another friendly smile, you opened your door wider, gesturing them to enter. “I should at least thank you two for walking me home, right?”

“We should really head back- ack! Pochita!” Denji shouted after Pochita who ran inside of your apartment. “You bastard,” he mumbled.

“At least one of you are honest.” You took off your shoes and watched Denji huff in defeat before taking his own shoes off.

~~~

You stole a quick glance in his direction and snorted when you saw him still stuffing food in his mouth.

Pochita had already passed out from overeating and you wondered how long would it take until Denji joined him on the couch.

“You’re still going?” you giggled as you placed a can of beer in front of him.

“Of course!” Denji chirped in between bites. “It’s soo tasty!”

You blushed at the compliment, “I’m glad you liked it. I have some leftovers if you’d want them.”

He nodded rapidly and continued wiping his plate clean.

Once he was done eating, he cracked his beer open, holding it towards you. “Thank you for the food!”

You clinked your beer can with his, “My pleasure.” Momentarily you looked at Pochita and snickered. “He’s out cold already.”

“Pathetic, he should’ve eaten until his stomach started bloating. He’s never gonna get this much food again.”

“Dogs have a smaller stomach, Denji,” you giggled. “He probably ate as much as his little body allowed him to.”

“Do you live alone?” he asked suddenly, it was clear that he was only curious but from the moment he stepped into your apartment he had been looking at the framed pictures or any decoration you had in the living room to figure out what kind of a person you were.

“Y-yeah,” you said softly. “What about you? Where do you live?”

“I live in some abandoned warehouse next to the forest with Pochita.”

You would have laughed thinking it was a joke if it wasn’t the pained tone he said it in.

“Thank you,” he said weakly, his voice didn’t come out as confident as he thought, “I’ve never felt this way before.”

Stunned, you looked at him with a faint blush coloring your cheeks. “D-Denji? W-what are you talking about?”

“You’re the only person who makes me feel welcomed in this world.” Denji smiled sadly. “I… I know it’s pathetic but I have feelings for you.” Denji could never willingly let you be involved with him completely. If he did, you would be involved in deep trouble. You didn’t deserve him, you didn’t deserve human trash like him.

Your eyes widened and you stumbled on your words. “Oh… I don’t know what to say-”

“You don’t need to say anything,” Denji sighed. “I wanted to let you know, that’s it.”

“That’s not it!” you protested, your voice trembling. “Don’t think so lowly of your feelings, idiot!v Why do you think I care for you? Why do you think I started working night shifts?”

“(Name)...”

“It’s because I like you!”

It was quiet.

The kind of quiet right before a storm.

Denji’s cheeks flushed bright red and he looked unsure of what to do or say. He was prepared in case you rejected him but you had gone and accepted him right away.

You looked up at him with your cheeks tinted with a faint red, “I like you,” you admitted meekly again.

Another moment of silence passed.

You couldn’t stop blushing. It wasn’t your plan to confess your feelings to Denji tonight but you had done it. There was no going back now. You had to say something else, you had to do something because that damn idiot looked like he stopped functioning.

“Do you want to have sex?” you dared to ask.

He started to tremble, then his eye widened. He stared at you and he looked so utterly confused. “With who?”

You blushed even harder and pointed at him then at yourself.

Denji pointed a finger at himself and then at you before he looked at you for affirmation.

You nodded slowly.

Everything happened within a minute.

You got up from your seat and offered a hand to him. He gently held your hand, intertwining your fingers as he followed you into your bedroom and closed the door.

Both of you were blushing and didn’t know where to start.

He wanted to touch you everywhere, your face, your neck, your breasts, your stomach, your waist, your thighs and your… your-

The image of the pornstar spreading her legs to reveal her pussy flashed before his eyes.

Whether it be the years of sexual frustration suddenly exploding or his crush trembling in lust and need, Denji’s body moved on its own. He could already feel himself lose control.

Denji put a hand on your shoulder awkwardly, his eye locked on yours. You were looking at him with anticipation, waiting for him to make a move… no you were desperate for him to make a move.

Oh, he wanted to do so many things to you but he didn’t know where to start.

He gave you a shaky smirk to cover his own embarrassment. You looked at him as if you knew what he was thinking and beamed at him, making his already hard cock twitch impatiently.

With the way you looked at him, he could see the attraction you felt towards him.

He cupped your cheek in his hand and you leaned into his touch, rubbing your cheek into his palm.

Audibly, Denji gulped. He leaned in to press his lips on yours. You moved your lips softly against his, encouraging him to open his mouth and when he did, you gingerly snaked your tongue into his mouth.

Denji, as someone who had only seen people kissing in pictures, followed your lead.

The kiss was short, tongues timid and teeth clashing. Nonetheless, it left you breathless. But when Denji leaned forward for a second kiss, that changed everything.

This time, he wasn’t shy, his mouth moved hard against yours as he savored your taste. His hands started moving on their own, his fingers went under your shirt and up to feel your clothed breasts. He moaned into the kiss when he finally groped your tits, they were softer than he had imagined, he wanted to touch them without your bra on. He needed to feel them completely.

His clothed erection was poking at your stomach You moved a hand up to his hair and stroked his cock over his pants with your free hand.

A gasp left Denji’s lips, he broke the kiss and stared between your bodies.

You were touching his dick.

You really were touching him.

“Should we go to bed?” Your voice was as soft as your touch.

Numbly, Denji nodded but he couldn’t move a muscle when your finger very slightly brushed against his bulge, he buried his face in the crook of your neck instead.

You huffed as if you were disappointed but then with a giggle, you removed your hand from his cock and dropped onto your knees.

Denji squealed in surprise and covered his mouth in shock. “(Name)... w-what are you doing?”

“What does it look like to you?” You fumbled with his belt and when it came undone, you hastily pulled his pants down along with his boxer briefs, making his cock bounce free.

“It’s weird...” he whispered, about to take a step away.

You licked your hand to coat it generously with your spit, ignoring his cry. You wrapped a hand around his cock and looked up at him after noticing why he had been so insecure. “It’s fine,” you said reassuringly, pumping his cock.

Slapping a hand over his mouth, Denji held his voice back. Your fingers stroked his cock gently as you ran your tongue up following a vein before kissing the sensitive pink tip. No matter how good it felt, he couldn’t help but move his hips, begging for you to take him into your mouth.

Denji placed a hand on the back of your head and you smiled, stroking him harder. His legs started to shake. Deciding that you might have been teasing him too much, you kissed the tip of his cock once again but this time you sucked his cock into your mouth.

He groaned loudly against his hand. His cock throbbed, nearly cumming because of your hot mouth closing around it. You put a hand on his thigh and bobbed your head slowly.

“Ahh.” He bit his lip. “Your mouth feels so good.”

You chuckled, the vibrations coming from your throat made him shiver in pleasure, almost making his knees unbuckle.

All of Denji's remaining self-control disappeared at that moment.

His hand that was on the back of your head shoved you onto his cock until he could graze the back of your throat. Your eyes teared up as you resisted the urge to gag, instead, you tried to push him away with your hand on his thigh.

Denji’s hips started moving, he thrust forward and moved you to meet his thrust halfway until your nose brushed on his pubes. He kept you there as long as he could to enjoy the view.

Your cheeks bright red, eyes filled with tears and his cock buried deep in your throat.

He had only imagined what it would look like in his dreams but now that he had seen the real thing, he wanted to see more of you. Like how you would look under him.

Decidedly, Denji pulled you away from him, the strands connecting your lips to his cock broke as you inhaled deeply. You opened your mouth to scold him for carelessly forcing his cock down your throat, he picked you up and threw you onto your bed.

Your body bounced against the mattress and you watched him climb on top of you, just like a predator stalking its prey.

His unkempt hair was sticking to his forehead, his clothes were a mess, his eyepatch had slipped slightly and his breathing was uneven. It made you wet seeing Denji look so… messy.

Though you were about to undress, Denji moved quicker. He hoisted your skirt up and tore your pantyhose to reach your now soaking wet cunt.

Quickly, Denji undressed.

“Can you?” Denji leaned forward, his fingers gripping the hem of your shirt.

Biting your lip, you nodded. You sat up and with one swift move, took off your shirt and moved to remove your skirt along with your now ripped pantyhose with your panties. Finally, you reached back to unclasp your bra. As you slid your bra down your shoulders, Denji’s eye didn’t look away from your tits even for a second.

You folded your arms over your chest in an attempt to hide your breasts.

“Don’t hide yourself,” he pleaded. His hands gently unwrapping your arms.

A moan left your lips when he squished your tits together, mesmerized by them. He stopped moving for a second and blushed. He kneaded the soft flesh slowly until he heard you moan again.

“Do you want me to stop?” he took a staggered breath as you laid on your back.

“No,” you stammered. There was no way you could deny how aroused you were. Not when your juices were leaking out from your pussy and soaking your thighs. “P-please be gentle.”

“I don’t think I can.” Denji’s words left you petrified. “I can’t hold back, sorry.”

“Denji,” you softly sighed, nodding sheepishly. “Do as you like.”

Pausing for a second, he looked at you and swiped his thumb across your lower lip, he pressed it on the corner of your lip and gently pulled it down to slightly part your lips. Then he lowered himself over your face, pressing his chest against yours until his lips met yours.

The kiss was soft and warm, only a distraction as he was lining himself up at your entrance. You wrapped your arms around his neck, moaning softly while he ran his cock between your folds, coating it with your juices.

To let him know that you were at your limit, you spread your legs wider, welcoming him completely.

Denji broked the kiss and abruptly pushed himself in. He froze inside you, his cock twitched in pleasure as the gummy flesh of your walls wrapped around it.

This felt so different. It was nothing like your mouth.

He took a moment to steady himself, he wasn’t sure if he could last longer than a minute.

You let out a whimper, your lips parted and you moved your hips, begging him to move.

“Gimme a second,” he choked out.

You didn’t listen.

Moving your hips, you tried to slam yourself onto his cock.

With a loud growl, Denji grabbed you by your hips and snapped forward, forcing a moan out of you. He had finally pushed himself balls deep into your pussy, filling you up to the brim so perfectly.

Another moan left you as he tentatively pulled back and slammed himself back into your twitching pussy. And again and again-

Each thrust of his hips was deep and penetrating enough to make your toes curl and wrap your arms tighter around his neck. His cock was stretching you so well, you had never felt like this before.

Your arms wrapped around his neck and your fingers twirled around his long straight hair, moaning quietly into his neck each time he hit a sensitive spot. Denji’s thrusts became stronger and more animalistic each time you screamed or whimpered.

Denji’s lips clumsily found yours to muffle some of your noises. He sloppily kissed you, sucking your tongue in his mouth while he humped your cunt like a desperate dog in heat.

He grabbed your hips even tightly, his nails digging into your skin as he mercilessly began pounding in your pussy. Your legs started shaking in pleasure, your hips kept moving to meet his and your walls tightened around him.

Your nails dug into his shoulders when the tip of his cock pressed against your cervix, you dragged them down, leaving red streaks on his back.

“Denji,” you whimpered. “I’m close.”

He nodded knowingly, his eye rolling up as your walls tightened around his twitching cock and pushed inside of you for the last time. Your walls pulsated against his dick and sucked him in deep as Denji spilled his seed inside your unprotected fertile pussy with a loud growl. You moaned, wrapping your legs around his waist with no intention of letting him go as the warmth of his seed completely filled your belly.

Right after sliding out of you, Denji lazily fell onto the bed next to you, exhausted and breathless.

It took him a few minutes to collect himself and as he was about to open his mouth to say something awkward, you pressed your lips onto his for a short kiss, taking his breath away.

He pulled you into his arms as soon as you finished the kiss. His hand cupped your tit and his nose nuzzled into your hair to inhale your delicious smell. He moved closer to you while you were busy trying to pull the blanket over the two of you.

Once you managed to get under the blanket, Denji gave you a chaste kiss against your hair before you drifted into slumber.

~~~

“I told ya, didn’t I? You made him into a softie! He can’t even cut as sharp as before! His chainsaw broke!”

“It’s your fault for not feeding him well,” you said, hugging Pochita tighter. “Besides everyone needs a little embrace sometimes to work harder.” The dog licked your cheek in response.

Denji wheezed out for air as he reached on top of the stairs, nearly dropping the groceries.

You laughed and put Pochita down, “Geez, you’ve soaked your shirt in sweat!”

“Because it’s too damn hot!” Denji furrowed his brows as he tried to catch his breath.

The weather was too hot compared to any other summer months. Although it was nearing the end of September, the sun was still blazing hot.

Denji faintly remembered how you had told them that here the weather was always warm.

He liked the warm weather, he liked this place too but the damn stairs… they were going to be the death of him. He didn’t even know why he climbed them so hurriedly each time.

Leaning down, you planted a kiss on Denji’s cheek, “You’ll get used to it.”

Dumbfounded, he stared at you and when he saw you smiling at him so brightly he remembered why. “Ya keep saying that!”

[charmspoint]

how was it ^-^

Let's seee. It was good, perfectly enjoyable, it reads fast and i was never really bored with it. I'd give most chapters like a 7/10 and then chapters 71-82 like 8 or 9/10 and then back to like 7/10 and the ending was weird but also kinda sweet in its own way.

Now to preface anything else: This isn't my type of manga. I can easily see it being a 10/10 for someone who really likes fight scenes and death and gore and what not. I'm not really into that, I'm a character and story driven person which is why the manga as a whole scored as just goodish to me while chapters 71-82 which kinda make a lot of emotional and psychological aspects of the chapters before them come to culmination scored a lot better. You know I don't GET fights. Chainsaw man was very gory but I didn't even really register it. Like because of all the gore I feel I heard people say it has horror aspects but I never really felt scared or off put or anything. It was just kinda like 'oh a lot of people are in pieces rn, okay, that's a thing that's happening'. So yeah that's why the score is the way it is, it simply isn't a manga that focuses on things I like and that's perfectly alright. I couldn't buy into the hype like I did with jjk and I certently didn't feel 'oh this is the best thing ever' like I felt with witch hat atelier.

With all that out of the way let me talk long and hard about Denji and sexual aspects of the series in a surprisingly positive light:

I like Denji as a character. I think he's still a bit rough around the edges but he's not a character made for introspection so that's fine, you really kinda have to take what he says and how he acts and think about it because the author won't do it for you. That being said, I think Denji is probably the most compelling shonen protagonist I've read so far. Like when I read bnha or jjk I see Izuku and Yuji and I'm like 'this is a shonen protagonist'. They are a likable character but they won't be your favorite character. They are largely made for japanese high school boys to project themselves on and I'm not a japanese high school boy. That being said, Denji feels like a character of his own and not something meant to be projected on to. Honestly if anyone projected on to Denji I'd be worried about them. But that makes him probably the most compelling shonen protagonist I've ever read. You just wanna dig a shovel into his skull and go 'man kid ur fucked up'.

I know when you first read csm you were off put by Denji because it felt like a manga put a pervert character as a protag which is naturally off putting and I can 100% see that. Now be it because I was warned about it first or something else, I didn't actually find fanservice jarring at all. It kinda was integrated into the world in a way that made me think 'yeah of course it's like this'. This is a very grim and rough and drty world and things in it would be just like that. It is a story about base desires and sex is one of those. These are people who expect they will die any day now and Denji is a person who's just now getting to experience a somewhat decent standard of living. Here's a thing I noticed though: even as Denji thinks many sexual things (which, he's a teenager, that's normal) he's actually very respectful. I don't think I've ever seen him touch anyone without their permission, in fact i think things like that mostly happen to him. Like example how Power comes in just as Denji is in the middle of his 'i wanna touch some boobs' phase. You would almost expect that what happens next is we see him try to grope Power as she's sleeping or something. But no, he doesn't do a thing until she asks him to help her save her cat and he gets to touch her boobs for it. And it's like this with p much every other sexual encounter through the series. Both partners are consenting and getting something out of the whole thing. Sexual aspects are used as normal bartering chips in a world where your whole body is a bartering chip. It's normal and no one is forced into it. I've told you before that my biggest misgiving with fanservice is that it's often based on embarrassment and unwilling participation of the girls. Like fanservice isn't fanservice because you saw a boob it's fanservice because you saw a boob when you weren't supposed to, when the girl didn't want you, when she's angry or scared or embarrassed because you did. A lot of fanservice feels very much like taking something from the girl, debasing and humiliating her for the sake of watchers/readers satisfaction.

Despite all it's sexual jokes and themes and everything else Chainsaw man never once made me feel like that. It never once made me feel like the author expected me to gain sexual satisfaction out of debasement of female cast. Which is why even though boobs and naked women are literally all over the manga I didn't mind it at all. It stopped being fanservice and became just a natural part of characters lives as sexuality and sex is a natural part of real world.

Back to Denji.

So I mussed a bit about Denji and Maslow before but here it is in total

Denji is 16 years old and at the beginning of the series he's just starting to have his physiological and safety needs met. Like he doesn't live like a human being at the start of the series and Makima recruiting him is A BIG CHANGE for him. Like for a good while Denji is like 'Now I have three meals a day and a place to sleep at so I'm good with whatever'. He's given reliable sources to fulfil his needs and he's given a way to keep those sources stable. He has a job, it's not a good job but he has it. He has a place to live and a theoretical safety net. He's immortal so there's nothing to fear in the death and injury department which means the otherwise unsafe job is perfectly fine for him. Now what Denji gets stuck on through most of the series is Love and Belonging. Because you can't just give someone love like you can give them food (not that Makima doesn't try). People are more complicated. Compromises need to be made and human connections are hard to establish, especially if you are someone like Denji who has no idea how to interact with others aside from obeying orders. This is why his need for love and belonging first manifests as a sexual need (that and he's an allo teenager). Human connections are hard but sexual contact doesn't have to come tied with connections so it's easier (if unsatisfactory as Denji finds out with Power) to achieve. A lot of Denji's personal growth is tied to him finding out that this need can be fulfilled by other things alongside sex. This is why I love chapters 71-82 so much because they are really a culmination of Denji's emotional journey in that category. Along the way along with sexual love he finds romantic one. He wants to spend time with girls he likes, he wants them to like him beyond the sexual. Of course sexuality is always an aspect of it but after that scene with Power it's never the only thing. Human connection, understanding the other person, knowing them, loving them, making them happy. And it all culminates in the familial love he finds with Aki and Power, taking care of someone and being taken care of for no other reason than they are your family and you love them, you care for them, you want them to be well and happy. There's this scene with Power later on when they are taking a bath together and Denji is like 'huh we are both naked but it doesn't feel naughty at all'. He's stopped seeing Power sexually because he started to see her as his sister and it's just really nice, those few chapters we get to see them as a family are really nice.

By the end of the series Denji starts checking off the esteem box too, by people accepting him and loving him and him feeling like he wants to respond to that, but I feel like that aspect and possible self actualization will be more explored in part 2.

There you have it, my essay about why Denji is the most compelling Shonen protagonist I've ever read :)

Also I really liked the girls in this series, it really isn't afraid of letting it's female characters be weird and gross and in Makima's case just plain evil and I appreciate it for that. I just wish Quanxi got more time and things to do but she's a side character and it's not her fault she's cooler than the whole main cast (Power best girl tho).

I feel like I talked a lot already about what was my most important take away from the whole thing but yeah, in general: pretty entertaining read, would probably be a complete blast for someone who's invested in fights, a little thin on psychology and emotion for my tastes but when it delivers them it delivers them good.

Also I like how it basically ended on 'you should give people more hugs' it was cute

Additionally I think the authors idea to basically release manga in seasons like you would an anime is straight up genius I hope that more mangakas start picking this up because it allows them more rest in between big arcs.

Ok now that's it for real this time.

[retrocontinuity]

rev, rev, fight the power: thoughts on the first half of chainsaw man

Spoilers through the end of the Bomb Girl Arc.

Devil Hunting in the Age of Fascism

As one of the cohosts of a podcast on Gundam Wing in 2020/2021, I've been thinking a lot about how authoritarian regimes and the concept of societal control is treated in anime. Which is to say: usually in a very limited sense, and based on the actions of a few bad actors, as demonstrated with its effects on a few unfortunate protagonists. It's not that creators don't care about the issue, but rather a sign that the genre (and yes, I do consider manga/anime to be a genre more than just a medium, but that's for another time) and its conventions are not particularly well-suited to showing you those effects.

So, Chainsaw Man. On an individual character level, Fujimoto has some stuff to say about the choice between death and life, and I do want to talk about that and what it says about the characters and what life means in CSM. But it's hard to tell whether or not he meant to create a world with some really fucked up institutions too. 

For instance, the civilian, non-public sector Devil Hunters. These appear to be explicitly authorized by the Japanese government, to the point where it is a crime for the Public Safety division's hunters to kill a devil that a civilian is in the process of capturing. They don't have guns (this is Japan!) and I imagine they are only allowed to kill Devils, but just, like, think about this. What if you kill someone else in the process of trying to kill a Devil? What if you suspect someone is a Fiend but actually they're just acting weird? What if you kill someone, then claim later it's because you thought they were a Devil?

This is likely the American in me talking, but I can’t help thinking about how badly this would be abused and how horrible an idea that would be. And I can’t help but think about how the Devils allow the world of CSM to separate fears from human nature. By which I mean, in the world of CSM, evil is otherized in a very specific way; they’re represented by very individual, very distinct, and very monstrous representations. Here is the fear of scissors, the fear of sharks, the fear of the future, and so on. But in the real world, we know it isn’t just fear itself that is the problem; it’s people, well-meaning or otherwise, animated by those fears that create the most evil, or people harnessing those fears to gain power. This may be unfair—I don’t know what Fujimoto has planned for Makima, whose mythos and power seems very much wrapped up in the idea of using Devils to her own advantage. But there’s an assumption here that all actions taken towards eradication of the Devils, or maybe just one Gun Devil, is a de facto good. And in 2021, that’s a very unnerving position to take.

Death in Chainsaw Man is a sacrifice. In these early arcs of the series, death is a "contract," an expending of activation energy to achieve something else. So Pochita gives Denji life (which is really a contract repaid, for when Denji gave him life), so the Devil Hunters "trade" something in a contract with a Devil for power (like Aki giving away literal years of his life to his curse sword), so Denji dying to the Eternity Devil would have freed the rest of the team. But there are plenty of deaths in the series where nothing is traded, nothing is given. These tend to be nameless victims or, in one harrowing scene, convicted felons who die at the hands of Makima as she chases down Katana Devil. 

What did they gain? What was the contract formed by the deaths of these 雑魚?

Makima says at some point when she's attacking the gangs that are affiliated with the Katana Devil that "the truly necessary evils are always kept collared and controlled by the state." Which I think is at its face about the fiends and Devils kept “collared” by the Public Safety Bureau. But maybe it’s also about the idea of sacrifice, about giving yourself over to the state, in order to control a world thrown into chaos. The contracts formed by the deaths of those ordinary citizens is meant to bring about an eradication of fear. It gives birth to the Public Safety Devil Hunters, to Devil Hunters in general, to the use of whatever means necessary to achieve an end. But whatever those consequences are, we only see them in the fates of Denji, Chainsaw Man, and the impossible characters around him. 

A state under threat, a state that feels like it must collar evil in order to survive, will have ruinous consequences. I just hope we get to see what those are. 

Just A Teenage Dirtbag, (Bomb) Baby

I read some reviews about Denji being the anti-shounen shounen manga hero which I can presume were written by people whose only frame of reference is Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. Sure, the Big Three were, in their most simplistic forms, feel-good series, and CSM's first half is basically a feel-bad series, but that hardly makes it unusual. It's really not dissimilar from other manga like Homunculus, Freesia, and Oyasumi Punpun. Of course, only old fogies like me, who still remember getting scanlations of these series off of IRC, and query, of course, whether or not those series are shounen at all, or more like seinen. If it were up to me to name the genre, and of course it is not, I would call it “simply another line of stories about fucked up things happen to fucked up people.”

Many fucked up things have happened to Denji. I’d call it traumatic, but I don’t think “trauma” covers what this poor man has been through. The effect, though, has been to make Denji less than human, even in his human form.

Denji and Power's nonchalance towards the fate of their human coworkers who die to Katana Devil and Sawatari is framed by the manga through Denji as a potential sign of callousness. Kishibe notes it as a sign that they are "insane," in other words, "not like other humans," and thus capable of bringing down something like the Gun Devil, which would otherwise drive "normal humans" insane. 

But like, huh? Denji and Power's reactions are, on the contrary, extremely human, because there’s no reason for them to extend feeling towards other humans. Simply put, they’ve never been human to the humans around them. They seem to be bonded most closely to each other, and in fact almost all the Fiends are, because the wider Public Safety employees treat them so poorly. Remember how the Infinity Devil Arc starts? Basically, they're told to be the advance guard, and threatened to be killed if they ever act out. Denji is kept on a short leash, and is so proud (in front of Reze) that he's allowed to go places on his own now.

Which, I'm not saying that that's wrong. Denji is incredibly dumb, holds monstrous power that could easily be tricked into using for horrible purposes, and appears to be the target of a number of Gun Devil's allies. Power is... well. I wouldn't let her out of sight either. But what Makima does that makes Denji feel so loyal, so utterly tied to her, is simply treating him as a human. She convinces him he has a heart, just like any other human. She tells him about all the love experiences he'll have in the future, because he's just a human teenager. And just like Makima, Reze is able to bond with Denji by treating him like an ordinary 16-year-old horny boy. Is it because as a Devil she knows what he wants the most? What he is craving, and never had? It doesn't matter that Denji had been just an ordinary human before fusing with Pochita or before he began his life as a Devil Hunter; as an orphan growing up on the street, unwanted and unloved, he was no more human than a Devil.  

The ending of the Bomb Girl Arc—with Denji asking Reze to run away with him, only to be stood up—reminded me so very much of Aku no Hana. There's the classroom scenes between Reze and Denji, of course, but mostly I think about how Denji—betrayed, injured, manipulated Denji—still asks Reze to run away with him. I'd written about Aku no Hana before, how one of the saddest things about Nakamura is that she cannot imagine a world beyond her current circumstance (and, in fact, the manga ends up dooming her to stagnation). Denji and Reze are Nakamura and Kasuga's perverse mirror. It is because Denji doesn't have the capacity to imagine a larger world beyond his immediate now, three meals a day and a job and this woman who taught him how to swim, that he asks her to do this impossible thing, to run away with him knowing that to do would mean both of them betraying their masters. It is because Reze knows that it is impossible that she does not meet Denji at the cafe. Reze is more human than Denji, because she is capable of dreams, and because she is capable of dreaming, she knows she cannot afford their luxury. She knows too much about the world and its cruelty. And, so, she walks straight into its open maw, and straight into her death.

I don't think we can take Reze at her word that she wanted to be a town mouse, or rather we should say instead that Reze proves that the division between the town mouse and the country mouse is immaterial. The issue is that both, in the end, are only mice, dreaming of a safety they can never achieve. Safety, in the world of CSM, is neither town mouse nor country mouse. It is to not be mice at all. It is to be the dog that digs them out from the cold winter dirt. 

It is, in fact, to be Makima, the person who orders the dogs to kill the mice.

Denji, aim for the top! Transcend the town mouse/country mouse divide! Or else you will constantly be hunted and used!

(Side note: CSM goes at a break-neck pace, and I think the speed through which Fujimoto rushes through these early storylines has made it very difficult for me to actually connect with the characters. Reze and Denji’s relationship is one of the victims to this pacing. Do I believe that Denji could fall for a girl and be willing to risk it all for her after about 3 chapters worth of interaction? Sure, he’s that kind of guy. But does it work for me? Not particularly. We’ve hardly had time to linger with Reze before she swears she’ll protect Denji forever, as long as he’ll run away with her. Though the reader at that point knows there’s something off about Reze, it’s still just not believable. Reze’s actions seem like someone trying to bulldoze her way into Denji’s affections, and though she herself is a bittersweet character, I just really feel like CSM could have spent less time with Bomb Devil vs Chainsaw Man and more time with Reze and Denji.)

No Ethical Women Under Capitalism

The Eternity Devil arc, for all its mini-boss game feel (it wouldn’t be out of place as one of the floors in Tower of God), struck a nerve with me, if only because it felt, however unintentionally, to be a story about working under modern capitalism. A floor you can never leave, that loops endless, where the only way to escape is to destroy it, literally, from the inside, by making it so painful, an eternal feedback loop of destroying ourselves and destroying it, before it opens its heart to us. The Capitalism Devil threatens us, tries to tear us apart. Asks us to sacrifice the strongest, the weakest, anybody among us, as if by climbing over the bodies of our friends and coworkers, we can come out ahead. It makes us suspicious of each other, ready to tear into any weakness for an advantage. 

No wonder this is the chapter where Kobeni lays bare her reasons for joining the Public Safety bureau. She needed to work, to make money. Her options were to be a sex worker or a Devil Hunter. Either way, she was selling her body to the system. Kobeni is a victim of capitalism, which forces her to do what she hates, for goal that are not hers, and then gaslights us into thinking that she’s wrong for being crazy, she’s wrong for losing her shit, for not being able to handle it.

But... that's an asspull for me, even if it's my ass and I'm the one pulling. I'm truly not sure how to feel about Kobeni. Like, what is her deal?! I’m not sure what to make of her appearance in Chapter 20 in her sister’s hand-me-down. Are we supposed to pity her? See ourselves in her? Even in what I think was intended to be a mic-drop-ish line (at least for her), telling Aki that she didn’t quit because she was waiting on her bonus, landed flat for me, too deadpan to be pathetic and not sharp enough to be actually funny. Part of it may be because she is a character very much shaped by her circumstances as opposed to her personality or any interaction/action she does onscreen, but we don’t actually see her family situation in these chapters. We’re left with a painfully shy and cowardly woman who can’t seem to form any human connections with any of the other characters, who in multiple scenes is shown caving to the slightest pressure or threat.

Do the rest of the women fare any better? I’m not sure. Kobeni is unique in that she does not use her gender/sex appeal to manipulate the men around her and/or Denji (even Power lets Denji cop a feel to get her cat back!). Himeno, Makima, and Reze all hide their intentions for Denji behind the veil of his attraction to them (weak or strong) and are either unable or unwilling to be forthright in their desires and ambitions (Himeno to care for Aki; Reze, to accomplish whatever mission Gun Devil had her set out to do; and Makima, for fuck do I know at this point, but she’s up to something!!). Meanwhile, the men are straightforward to a fault. Did Fujimoto intend this? Is this just a subconscious reveal of his own conceptions of gender and Bitches Be Weird? 

I’m not a person who needs to have a strong female narrative in a story, but when you start a story with a protagonist whose life ambition for many chapters was just to feel a boob, you better be careful, you know? CSM doesn’t lack for women; Makima and Power are both formidable characters in their own rights, self-assured and unbeholden to anyone but themselves. But so far almost every arc has featured a woman offering herself to Denji sexually in order to get him to do what they want. It’s getting real old real fast. 

[dropintomanga]

Literal Girl Power - Chainsaw Man

I want to talk about one of my new favorite female characters in manga right now. She’s so hilarious and uninhibited to the point where I feel like this character is a good role model for young women (especially for women of color).

I’m talking about Power from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man. 

For context about Chainsaw Man, the series is about a young man named Denji who becomes a half devil/human with the ability to turn his head and arms into chainsaws. In order to ensure his own safety from anyone who seeks to manipulate him and to live a somewhat healthy life, Denji joins a group of devil hunters that serve to protect the public. The devil hunters are a mix of both humans who form contracts with devils at the cost of their lifespan and fiends/devils. 

One of those fiends/devils happens to be Power. She is known as the Blood Fiend as she’s able to use the blood in her body to make weapons. Power is introduced as Denji’s devil hunter partner and she gets immediate development as she tries to get Denji eaten by a bat devil in exchange for the safety of her pet cat, Meowy. When it turns out the bat devil was disappointed with Denji as its meal, it eats Meowy and Power instead. Denji ends up saving the two of them much to Power’s surprise. Both Denji and Power make up and the latter becomes a character that never ceases to bring laughs to readers and annoyance to the devil hunters that don’t exactly like her.

Power isn’t a saint. She’s rude, hates hygiene, quick to blame others when things go wrong, and is only willing to fight for her own self-interest. There’s some beauty in all of this as she’s confident to speak out (as long as she doesn’t get taken out by Makima, a female devil hunter and her superior who puts fear in anyone, man/woman/devil/fiend). All Power wants is to have fun in life while causing a little chaos at the side. 

When I look at Power, I think of her character as a female minority. Most of her life has her being treated as a threat to humanity. Not only that, Power also has to deal with being a woman and being sexualized as a result. For example, Denji initially wanted to be her partner because she WAS a woman. I don’t know if it’s just me, but whenever I see most monster-like women drawn in anime/manga, they are often glamorized with little agency. Power isn’t like that. I think of Power as Gintama’s Kagura for this new decade of manga. Both are women who aren’t “attractive” by conventional appearance standards and have managed to shine in the eyes of many fans due to their characteristics. 

Sometimes, when I think about feminism and the rise of “girl power,” I feel that most of its supportive messages only apply to women who have access to resources - usually white women. I’m a Chinese man and it just makes me wonder whether the voices of Asian, black, and Latina women whose experiences matter just as much are silenced. In the context of Chainsaw Man, I see this with Power as she does experience a moment of vulnerability (in the much-talked about Chapter 71) recently and the only person who truly cared about her was Denji. Despite his initial intentions, he later sees Power as someone who deserves a chance to live and thrive like a human does because he can relate to what it’s like to be considered a monster due to his own devil-like nature. 

It’s noted in the series that Power could be one of the strongest devils/fiends due to her nature as the Blood Fiend. She can do both great and terrible things with her own blood and the blood of others. Yet Power is kept in check for the safety of both the devil hunters and the public. She also struggles for validation as Denji, despite being a rookie hunter, is considered a higher priority than her in the devil hunter hierarchy poll. I often find that when we assume the worst in a certain type of people, the worse off society can become.

The character of Power does tie into the question of what constitutes real power. Maybe Power is what true power represents - the confident ability to be both vulnerable and resilient in the face of everything that appears to be rigged against you.

[furederiko]

The Dragon's Dilemma!!! For a show with a direct reference to number 9, Kyuranger uses its 9th episode to extend beyond that number instead! XD

- Surprise, surprise! Eventhough Draco Violet made quite an entrance last week, his bravado gets cut short because... his suit has a time limit. No wonder the Draco Kyu Globe looked rather, bland, right? Of course, his main goal is merely to distract Ikagen and Madako long enough for Team Spada to get Team Stinger to safety. Correction, not exactly Team Spada, when Spada himself stays behind just in time to help Commander Xiao, and... gets abducted instead. Ouch. - Bruised and battered Team Balance catches up on this development via teleconference. It might take some time for them to return, so nice excuse to let them off the team! Champ being sarcastic, and Xiao playing janken-kyu (rock-paper-globe) with Kotarou while everyone is waiting for his explanation, are a sight for sore eyes,eh? LOL. Well, here comes the twist. Xiao is NOT a Kyuranger, never was, never has been. Even Ikagen and Madako call him "a pale imitation" while sharing the story to their captive. Which is a convenient way to make Spada up to date. But who or what is Draco Violet, then? - There are Change Kyu Globe, which the legendary Kyurangers have each. Draco however, is just a Skill Kyu Globe, similar to those auxilliary ones like Cancer, Pisces, etc. Xiao, who surprisingly looked really skinny without his Commander's coat, developed the Ryuu Tsueder to force a transformation. This occured before any of the legendary Kyurangers were discovered. So a prototype hero, if you will, which explains the limited use. I don't know about you, but this feels like a nod to "Denji Sentai Megaranger". - We also learn that the assassins wiped out most of Xiao comrades, thus explains why the Rebellions seems 'low' in personnel. What he doesn't reveal to the Kyurangers however, is the fact that during his youth, his rebellious attitude of ignoring orders (or insubordination, if you prefer fancy words), caused the unfortunate death of his Supreme Commander, Big Bear (VA: Kiyoyuki Yanada, who's currently voicing FBI Agent Camel in "Meitantei Conan"). Yes, Big Bear sacrificed himself to protect Xiao from Ikagen and Madako. Hence the hidden grudge aimed towards them. NOTE: Quick trivia! Do you know that the Draco constellation exist in the same family to... Ursa Major and Minor? Coincidence much? Not that it's important of course. After all, it's not like those constellations have anything to do with Big Bear or Kotarou Sakuma, right...? *wink* - Lucky, who seems to be getting more serious in each episode, thinks that he, Spada, and the others won't make the same mistake as Xiao. Unfortunately, it seems Xiao is more intent to repeat history in his tenacity to do the right thing. Vowing that he will not lose a single Kyuranger, he knocks Lucky down and heads out to do what it takes to save Sapada. This can't be good, right? I wonder if this means Spada's going to be the next Commander? Nope, that's not the case. Spada refuses to let Xiao fights alone (while spouting a cool cooking-related reason as well), and neither do the others. - Wow, I get the chills seeing Lucky scolding Xiao for fighting alone. When a loud and generally happy-go-lucky character can deliver a rousing speech, that says a lot, right? And further confirming my suspicion that Lucky works as a catalyst for Kyurangers, all Change Kyu Globes (including Team Balance's, who are still on route) light up and transfer their power to the Draco Kyu Globe. In a scene that easily reminds me of "Dragon Ball" (complete with wish-granting dialogue LOL), a massive violet dragon appears in front of them. We're witnessing the birth of a new Kyuranger! - The violet Draco Kyu Globe is complete now, no longer looking bland. And #10 The Dragon Ma-Star Draco Commander is officially born. Proof? He no longer has time limit, and has his own official roll call now. A cool action sequence is what follows. While Leo Red, Lupus Blue, and Aquila Pink teams up to handle Malistrate Metchatsuyo-Indaver; and Scorpius Orange, Chamaeleon Green, and Dorado Yellow deals with Malistrate Mutschatsuyo-Indaver; Draco Commander takes on Ikagen and Madako all by himself, outdoning both with impressive demonstration of the Ryuu Tsueder's rod/rifle modes... and cocky attitude. "Galaxy! Dragon Crash! Fire!". NOTE: With the convenient absence of Black, Gold, and Silver, this 7-colored formation is clearly a nod to "Ressha Sentai ToQger" Returns. Speaking of which, for a non-Anniversary season, Kyurange sure have so many nods to past teams, huh? - While Ikagen runs off with a piece of Madako's obliterated body, the Malistrates turn giant. Which means, yes, in a cool "Gosei Sentai Dairanger" nod, it's time for Draco Voyager to debut! Loving how the cockpit is held by the dragon's arms instead of plugging in the back like the others. On its own, his Voyager singlehandedly defeats both Malistrates easily. "Dragon Break!" FTW. And together with Kyuren-Oh and Lupus Voyager, the final Stardust Consumarz is destroyed. My goodness, this episode's mecha fight is magnificent. I just love it when the individual arsenals get to show off and kick some butts. I'm curious to why the BLUE Voyager is left out from Kyuren-Oh's formation though? Foreshadowing much? ;D - No moment to waste, time for a new Commander's order. A title rename into "Uchu Sentai Zyuranger" (which is itself a nod to "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger", of course)!!! Yep, that's NOT happening. Kotarou argues that with the same reason, he can become a Kyuranger too then. Perhaps... next week? LOL. Hmmm I wonder why the Ursa Major constellation lights up when Xiao is talking about Big Bear? Another most curious bit... *wink* NOTE: By the way, Commander Xiao is taking the ending dance spotlight with Raptor. But he's not part of that crowded group shot yet. Possibly... starting next week?

Overall: Kyuranger succeeded in giving its first two-parter, an equal if not better second half/conclusion. Great action scenes, fantastic story beats, and multiple nods to past Sentai seasons. Giving flaw or 'sin of the past' for its commanding officer was truly a nice touch. It allowed the show to explore a little backstory for him, but also turning him into a more relatable character. More importantly, Xiao was granted his true power via the 9 Change Kyu Globes, so his ascension to hero status never broke the symbolism of the title. In this case, the Kyurangers have proven why they are called 'Saviours of the Universe'. At the very least, they just saved Xiao's life so he could carry on with Big Bear's legacy... Next week: Orion's crashing down? Ghost of Brother Bear? And oh boy... it's a Blue Boy...

Episode 09 Score: 8,4 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: April 12th, 2017 - Version 14. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.