Chainsaw Man manga comes full circle as Denji suffers Makima's fate

Modified Apr 04, 2024 03:30 GMT

Denji's final actions against Makima come back to haunt him in the latest Chainsaw Man chapter (Image via MAPPA Studios)

Earlier this week, the latest chapter in author and illustrator Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man manga series was released, bringing with it the continuation of the ongoing Denji Rescue arc. While fans weren't quite sure how long this arc would last, it is reportedly set to come to an imminent end given Asa and co reaching Denji's location in this most recent issue.

However, the main concern came from the appearance of the Public Safety Devil Hunter Asa and co have been fighting with, seemingly named Takagi, and his bringing Quanxi with him. Likewise, Chainsaw Man fans are understandably concerned about how Asa and co could possibly escape their current situation.

Unfortunately, this shift in focus led many fans to miss an intriguing bit of irony and karmic retribution present in the issue of how Asa and co found Denji. Specifically, his dismembered and boxed-up state is reminiscent of how he defeated one of the series' most powerful and intimidating villains yet.

Chainsaw Man's latest issue sees karma come for Denji as he is treated the way he once treated Makima

The full circle explained

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In the latest Chainsaw Man chapter, Asa and co find Denji's body boxed up after having been hacked into pieces by the doctors present at the Tokyo Devil Detention Center. Likewise, they immediately begin unboxing his body and laying the parts out on the floor in proper order, planning to revive him by using the starter on his heart once they lay out the pieces.

This is eerily similar to how Denji defeated Makima, hacking her body into pieces and storing it in his fridge in various Tupperware and takeout containers before slowly eating her body over an extended period. Denji's goal in doing so was to circumvent Makima's damage nullification, in which she transfers the damage she would've taken over to a random Japanese citizen.

It is a significant full-circle moment, considering the criticisms many Chainsaw Man fans have lobbied at Fujimoto as part 2 has progressed. Many go as far as to say that he has completely forgotten the style with which he wrote part 1, asserting that it's almost as though two different people wrote each part.

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Yet this subtle callback to part 1 shows that Fujimoto is writing part 2 as a continuation of the original rather than a new and separate story. This is especially true considering that Denji is the one who was boxed up by Public Safety. Similarly, with his defeat of Makima potentially leading to the evolution of Public Safety as fans know it in part 2, this full circle moment is only made even more significant.

It's also even more significant that Denji is the Chainsaw Man character to suffer this fate since he's the one who boxed up Makima himself to defeat her. Essentially, the same actions Denji made against another, which led to Public Safety's moral downfall, are now being done to him by Public Safety. It may even have been done to him by Makima sympathizers, whether they're the doctors themselves or the higher-ups who gave the order.