Chainsaw Man Chapter 173: A new Primal Devil appears as Yoshida brings back ears

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 was expected to continue its focus on Pochita’s return as the Hero of Hell, as well as his struggles against Public Safety and seemingly imminently, War Devil Yoru. Officially released on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, the latest release in author and illustrator Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga series did continue its focus on Pochita, but not in the direction fans were expecting.

Instead of pitting Yoru against Pochita, Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 saw Public Safety make a contract with what appeared to be a brand new Primal Devil introduced to the series. Working in tandem with Hirofumi Yoshida, the pair were able to force Pochita to throw up the Ear Devil, successfully returning ears to the earth’s creatures.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 confirms that Pochita can throw up what he has eaten, teasing a fight with Yoru

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173: World without hearing

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Chainsaw Man Chapter 173, titled “Hard of Hearing,” opened up with a focus on how the world was impacted by Pochita eating the Ear Devil. First was a focus on a man using a phone and seemingly being frustrated or shocked at not being able to hear anything. Focus then shifted to elephants in a savannah, shown without their trademark floppy ears.

A cell phone was then seen seemingly smashed on the ground amidst a crowd of people, before a group of cats without ears were also seen. A final panel here showed a group of earless people walking the streets of Tokyo. Focus then shifted to a Public Safety agent trying to communicate with a group of prisoners who had earmuffs on. They tried spelling out that the erased Devil’s name was Ear, but the prisoners didn’t understand.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 saw them ask the prisoners to raise their hand if they knew this word while excluding cases like someone’s name. No one raised their hand, causing the agent to confirm the erasure of Ear Devil to someone before telling Team C to commence their operation. Focus then shifted to a bathroom, where three Public Safety agents each stood before their own sink with a mirror.

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Each of the agents then cut off half of their left index fingers with a pair of scissors, picking up what they cut with their right hand and beginning to write on the mirror. The first wrote the letter “H” while saying the phrase “cervical spine,” while the others wrote “I” and “T” while saying “neck” and “vertebrae,” respectively. This was shown to spell out “HIT” as focus shifted to what appeared to be a new Primal Devil seeing these mirrors floating in front of them.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 saw this Primal Devil sitting on a throne seemingly modeled after various human parts, which itself was supported by two humans on all fours. The two humans had their arms amputated just below the elbow, the bandages still bloody. Adorning the throne were several human fingers, as well as fang-like teeth, and portions of human faces from the tongue up to the nose, the lower jaw and eyes missing on either end.

The Devil’s appearance was equally unnerving, with their body seemingly being made up of fleshy vines which intertwined with each other for support. Their face was a featureless one aside from a mouth, but was flanked by two halves of another face. This face was bald on top, but had long hair flowing outside of this bald spot. It also seemed to be the face of someone old, but whether they were male or female was difficult to tell.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173: Hearing returns

Pochita seemingly meets his match in Chainsaw Man Chapter 174 as he's cornered by both Yoshida and a new Primal Devil (Image via Shueisha)

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 then saw this Devil sigh as it raised its fist to one of the mirrors in front of it, as focus shifted to Pochita who just finished eating the Ear Devil. The fist of this Primal Devil then appeared out of a mirror above Pochita, which was also much larger now.

While Pochita was seemingly squashed, Pochita was able to escape by cutting off two of the hand’s fingers, which also caused the Devil to lose those same two fingers in hell. Pochita was suddenly then wrapped up by an octopus arm, revealing that Hirofumi Yoshida had arrived on the scene.

The Primal Devil commented on Yoshida doing a good job, as the octopus arm squeezed Pochita and forced him to throw up the half-eaten head of the Ear Devil. Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 ended with a focus on an elephant getting its ears back, seemingly happy to have them returned. The issue also excitingly confirmed that there would be no break before the next issue’s release.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173: In summation

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While Chapter 173 did see ears return as fans had expected, they didn’t quite return in the exact way fans expected them to. Nevertheless, it’s an exciting confirmation that Pochita can indeed throw up that which he has eaten, in turn all but confirming that War Devil Yoru will enter the fray in order to get nuclear weapons back.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 173 also excitingly sees Hirofumi Yoshida return and enter the fray, in turn setting up a rematch between him and Yoru/Asa Mitaka in the coming issues. While the arc isn’t progressing quite in the way fans were expecting, it’s nevertheless exciting and enthralling.