Fujimoto calls out Chainsaw Man fanbase yet again via Denji's latest low

Modified May 25, 2024 09:49 GMT

Denji as seen in the anime (image via MAPPA)

The ongoing second part of the Chainsaw Man manga has added a lot of depth to Denji's character from the first part, as it saw him leaving the life of being Chainsaw Man behind, in order to live a normal life with Nayuta and his pet dogs.

However, the Chainsaw Man fanbase themselves may not always see Denji in the same light, as they have often failed to sympathize with him and instead mocked his character for his frequent ridiculous desires.

As such, the mangaka, Tatsuki Fujimoto, often takes the opportunity to depict this particular trait of the fans in the manga itself, through the mannerisms of certain characters who claim to be diehard fans of Chainsaw Man.

How Tatsuki Fujimoto called out the fans in Chainsaw Man chapter 166

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As Chainsaw Man, Denji has gained a massive fan following, with people creating high school clubs to a whole church in his name. While Denji certainly loved the popularity and the amount of traction he was getting from the public at first, he eventually decided to leave this life behind after a chain of unfortunate events and being threatened by the Devil Hunters from Public Safety.

As such, Denji initially tried to lead a normal life with Nayuta and his dogs, at least until things came crashing down once again. In fact, Denji hitting rock bottom became a frequent occurence in the recent chapters of the manga, as he went from seemingly losing Nayuta forever to being dismembered alive.

Although he did get saved in the end by Asa Mitaka and a few others, Denji hit yet another low point in the recently released chapter 166 of the manga. In order to replenish his strength, Asa and the others tried taking Denji to a sushi restaurant. While on the way however, he ended up misplacing his priorities, as he let some of his other desires distract him from his goal of saving Nayuta.

Denji and Pochita as seen in the anime (image via MAPPA)

After realizing just how much he had misplaced his priorities, Denji fell apart and blamed himself for always making the wrong choices and letting his desires get the best of his rationality.

However, as Denji was beating himself up for making horrible decisions in life, none of the people around him comforted or at the very least, sympathized with him. Instead, one of them even laughed at Denji's plight, while the latter yelled out that it wasn't funny to laugh at him.

One could argue that this was Tatsuki Fujimoto indirectly calling out a significant portion of the fanbase, who admire Chainsaw Man yet always fail to see Denji as a human being. In fact, there have even been a lot of Chainsaw Man fanatics in the manga itself, including Haruka Iseumi, Nobana Higashiyama, Barem Bridge, and Fumiko Mifune in particular, who never really showed any fondness for the person under the chainsaw - Denji.

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Denji had undoubtedly had to live an extremely miserable life, where almost every single day, he hit a new low point. Everyone he cared about, including Pochita, Aki, Power, Nayuta, and even his pet dogs, were all ripped away from his life. However, Denji never really took any time to process his grief, leading to his mental breakdowns and frequent existential crises.

Many fans of the series often fail to recognize all the hardships and suffering that Denji had to endure in his life, and are only ever fond of his alter-ego of Chainsaw Man.

As such, Fujimoto took the opportunity to call out these fans in the latest chapter of the manga, by subtly showcasing their behavior through Haruki and Nobana, who did not even bother to comfort or sympathize with the very person they had been obsessed with all this while.