Chainsaw Man: Is Pochita the strongest devil in the series?

When fans first watched Chainsaw Man's premiere, no bystander would have thought that the cute orange canine in the show was one of the strongest devils in the series. As it happens, the Chainsaw Devil is the most feared devil in hell, which cannot be possible unless there is a good reason behind it.

Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man follows the story of Denji, who, together with the Chainsaw Devil Pochita, becomes a devil hunter to pay off his dead father's debts to the Yakuza. Upon being betrayed by them, Pochita fuses with Denji's heart to keep him alive and allow him to become Chainsaw Man.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the Chainsaw Man manga.

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Pochita's unique ability makes him the strongest devil in Chainsaw Man

In Chainsaw Man, there are several types of devils, including the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse and the Primordial Fears. However, for some reason, the Chainsaw Devil, i.e., Pochita. is considered to be the most feared devil in the franchise.

As per Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga, when a devil dies in the human world, they are born in hell. However, if the devil dies in hell, they get reincarnated into the human world. In this way, a devil goes through this never-ending cycle of reincarnation until they encounter the Chainsaw Devil Pochita.

Pochita as seen in the Chainsaw Man anime (Image via MAPPA)

While the other devils in the series have overpowered the Chainsaw Devil on several occasions, none of his defeats were permanent. If he wins, that could turn out to be the end of the devil, as any devil that gets defeated and consumed by Pochita is erased from existence due to the devil's ability known as Devil Erasure. This means that the devil's existence and fear would cease to exist in the universe.

The same was evident when Makima named several events that occurred in the past to Kishibe, but he had no clue what they were. As such, it seems Pochita had previously defeated and consumed several devils that represented the fear of Nazis, World War II, Arnolone Syndrome, SOA, AIDS, Mount Hio Eruption, and nuclear weapons. Following that, the world remained unaware of any such events.

Makima mentions the devils that were erased (Image via Shueisha)

The only entities that remembered the names of the forgotten devils were extremely powerful devils, such as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, including Control, War, Famine, and Death Devils.

Out of these devils, Pochita has apparently already eaten a major part of the War Devil, causing all wars in the human world to limit themselves to movies and series. This is also why War Devil Yoru is after the eponymous devil in Chainsaw Man Part 2 so that she can get the devil to puke out all the nuclear weapons, making her and her fear strong again.

Angel Devil as seen in the anime (Image via MAPPA)

Additionally, according to the Angel Devil, the last sound that a devil hears before reviving on earth is the revving of a chainsaw. This fact leaves fans with a reason to believe that the Chainsaw Devil seemingly hunts all the devils and gives a warning sign to those that get revived.

Thus, Pochita, i.e., the Chainsaw Devil, can be considered the strongest devil in the series due to his exceptional ability to erase other devils' existence.