#I honestly really like the way they’ve been handling Denji’s continuous existential crisis

[angelfrogs]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways part one and part two have depicted the violence Denji has faced and how part two feels much more clinical and deliberate. There’s still a lot of gore and chaotic fights but those typically surround Asa instead of Denji. The further we move into part two the more trapped and confined Denji becomes, in a way that he doesn’t really fall into in part one despite part one being about control and manipulation. I find it insanely fascinating. I think it says a lot about Makima as a character, in her absence there is still the same abuses of power, there is the same desperation to control Denji and his autonomy, but it’s no longer personal. I think it’s very telling that this was the environment Makima is implied to have grown up in. I also think that this shift in the way people are enacting violence and maintaining control really beautifully illustrates the shift in how the narrative is continually questioning the meaning of personhood. Part one is entirely about love, it is about how we are most ourselves when we are in community with each other, it is about what it means to have a heart. These are still extremely relevant themes to part two (especially when it comes to Asa and Nayuta) BUT Denji’s story has moved on from that, asking what does it mean to have an identity, to have individuality? (Which are also questions introduced by Asa and ignored by Denji which is another interesting topic but I digress) We know what it means to have a heart but what does it mean to have a mind, what does it mean to be a body? To exist in a world where everyone can see you?