Public Safety's plans may be their downfall in Chainsaw Man's next chapter

Modified Dec 30, 2024 20:26 GMT

Public Safety's plans may be their downfall in Chainsaw Man's next chapter (Image via MAPPA Studios)

With the release of chapter 178 of mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man manga series earlier this week, fans saw Pochita’s fight against the Aging Devil take an unexpected turn. While fans were expecting the fight to be difficult for the Hero of Hell, what wasn’t expected was Pochita’s inability to meaningfully damage the Aging Devil.

Thankfully, Denji’s quick and creative thinking left the issue on a cliffhanger, with Pochita set to have Denji throw up a Devil that may be of help in the fight against Aging. However, there’s another means of neutralizing the threat that the Primal Fear Devil represents and striking at the source may just be Pochita’s plan.

Public Safety’s deal with Chainsaw Man’s Aging Devil may be ruined by Pochita’s next move

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Despite complications that have arisen along the way, the Aging Devil’s main motivating factor in fighting and feeding itself to Pochita is the completion of its contract with Public Safety. In exchange for Aging being eaten by Chainsaw Man, the governmental group is preparing ten thousand children with Japanese citizenship to sacrifice. Fans recently saw that the Japanese government was actively rounding these children up in chapter 178.

Likewise, both Pochita and Denji are aware of this fact, with the Aging Devil having dictated as much to each of them individually. Should Pochita be aware of the nature of the Devils he consumes and throws up, then it becomes abundantly clear what Devil he’ll likely have Denji throw up next. This would be the Devil representing “the light of a particular star that would break children’s minds,” as described by Control Devil Makima in chapter 84.

By bringing this Devil back, the star that it represents would also return to reality. While it’s unclear how this would work, it can be presumed for the narrative’s sake that this light would immediately be seen by these ten thousand children. While these children obviously wouldn’t be able to defeat or fight the Aging Devil, the act of breaking these children’s minds may create a scenario that forces Public Safety to abandon their contract.

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The most obvious impetus for creating such a scenario would be the children being in such a feral state of frenzy that they become legitimate threats to the soldiers present. While they’re only children with some being shown as infants, there’s still ten thousand of them to deal with. At a certain point, the military personnel shown rounding them up in Chainsaw Man chapter 178 would unlikely be able to restrain them all before their own lives are put at risk.

This would force a break in Public Safety’s contract with the Aging Devil by one of two methods. The first is that the military forces present kill the children out of a desire to protect their own lives since it’s unlikely another ten thousand children could be gathered. The second is that the soldiers give up on restraining and controlling the children, letting them escape and creating another scenario where gathering another ten thousand is unlikely.

Final thoughts

Public Safety's likely coming failure may lead to Kishibe's long-awaited return (Image via MAPPA Studios)

While still speculative, this is certainly one of the more viable and likely options for where Fujimoto is taking the current plotline and fight. It would also push the narrative forward in an interesting way while simultaneously offering significant expansion on previously introduced worldbuilding and lore. On that note, even if the above-named Devil isn’t the one Denji throws up, fans can safely presume it to be one of those mentioned by Makima in chapter 84.