“If dreams do come true, I wanna score with a girl before I die.” -Denji
For those of you who don’t know, “Chainsaw Man” is a manga written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto, and the first episode of its anime adaptation by studio MAPPA was released in Japan on October 12, 2022.
The story follows Denji, a 16-year-old boy who lives buried under debt that his father left behind. To pay it off, he works odd jobs, sells his organs (a kidney, his right eye, and one of his nuts), and most notably, kills devils for the Japanese mafia with his pet chainsaw devil, Pochita. All he wants is to live a normal life, where he can afford something better for dinner than a slice of bread, and to get a girlfriend before he dies.
One day, the mafia betray him and try to kill him off, and Pochita merges with Denji to save him, replacing his heart with a devil’s heart. From here on out, Denji is able to transform into the chainsaw devil (hence the name, “Chainsaw Man”). He’s recruited by Public Safety to become a devil hunter, and that’s where the story properly begins, with Denji learning to use his powers, fighting progressively stronger devils, and just generally being awesome.
You may have realized by this point that Denji is not, in any conventional sense, what you’d call a “philosopher.” He’s a fictional character in an action anime who spends his time killing monsters with his chainsaw-arms, and on the side, tries to get with girls. But, if you’ve read or watched “Chainsaw Man,” maybe you know what I mean when I say that Denji’s life philosophy is both absurdly and refreshingly simple and straightforward. I’ll explain.
Denji’s Philosophy
I’ll just say it straight out: Denji is my favourite philosopher simply because he has no philosophy. He lives every day as it is and doesn’t think too much about anything. In a lot of ways, he’s kind of an idiot. But as you watch “Chainsaw Man” you can’t help but begin to admire his straightforward attitude.
When Denji is hired by Public Safety in the beginning, his supervisor Aki takes him down an alley and punches him. Aki tells Denji to quit the job, saying that people who only sign up for the money or benefits always just end up dying.
Denji responds by kicking Aki in the balls and yelling, “When I fight a man, it’s nuts…or nothing!”
Apart from that awesome one-liner, I also like this scene because Denji proceeds to explain to Aki that after being hired, he was given food to eat, clean clothes, and was treated as a real human being for the first time in his life. For Denji, who had always lived in poverty, this job was the best thing to ever happen to him. In his own words, “a dream come true.”
For the rest of the show, Aki and Denji are constantly at odds because of their different values. Aki is cool, calm, and collected, always the rational voice amidst a group of idiots, and his reason for working as a devil hunter is to get revenge on a devil that killed his family, a pretty solid reason in his opinion. Denji, on the other hand, works for Public Safety because they feed him three times a day and he has a crush on one of the executives. They are each other’s complete opposites.
Later, Aki asks Denji sarcastically whether he’s trying to make friends with the devils (after Denji tries to make the death of a devil quick and painless). Denji replies, “If there’s a devil I could be friends with, then yeah…’Cuz I don’t have any friends.” All throughout the anime Denji completely disregards manners, social conventions, and other people’s opinions about him, and he also tends to blur the line between devils and humans (he himself being half of each). Here’s the transcript of a scene where he and another part-devil, Power, are asked questions by a Public Safety member:
How did you feel about your comrades dying?
Denji: Okay, I guess?
Power: I thought, “They’ve died!”
You want revenge?
Denji: Nah, that shit’s depressing.
Power: Verily!
Humans or devils: Which side are you on?
Denji: ….Whichever one’s gonna take care of me.
Power: Whichever one is winning.
This scene makes it pretty obvious that to Denji, right and wrong are just abstract ideas, made up by the people around him for seemingly no good reason. Some of you might find this problematic, but I find his brute honesty admirable. Would it have been less wrong for him to lie and say he did care? Obviously don’t go start killing your colleagues or anything like that, but the point I’m getting at is that Denji isn’t bound by the “common sense” or conscience of society the same way the rest of us undoubtedly are.
“I love bad guys, ‘cuz no one cares if I murder them.” -Denji
Sometimes it makes for some problems, but other times it allows Denji to come up with his own unique perspectives and solutions to problems. As stated in the anime, devils are most afraid of the devil hunters that “have a few screws loose.” And as we see later, having fancy, sophisticated dreams and goals doesn’t stop you from getting beaten up by devils or cut up by chainsaws; during his fight with the leech devil, Denji gives a short speech on how sick he is of nobody taking him seriously because he doesn’t have big goals. (For context, his goal in this episode was to cop a feel of a girl’s boobs. Classic Denji.)
“Everyone wants to trash-talk my plans… It’s revenge this, protect my family that, and save a cat, too!
Blah, blah, blah!
I guess your fancy dreams make you guys hot shit, huh?! How about we have us a dream battle, then?! How about that?!
If I murder you, that means your dream’s weaker than wanting to fondle a tit!!”
Denji proceeds to go crazy and try to slice up the devil with just the little chainsaw left on his head. (With just a little help from Aki they eventually kill it.) As crude and delusional as Denji is, I can’t help but cheer for him when he so unashamedly throws your own beliefs and values back in your face. Who says dumb, crass dreams like Denji’s aren’t real dreams? In the end, Public Safety hired him to slaughter devils; if he’s doing his job better than everyone else, then who can say his motivations are invalid? Plus, all the other hunters are only working there to serve their own interests, anyway; maybe Denji is just the only one who can really be honest about what he wants.
Denji is obviously not your typical righteous hero, and he doesn’t have a “good” reason to be fighting devils for Public Safety; he isn’t there to save lives, he isn’t there to help his friends get revenge, and he doesn’t even feel particularly sad as the colleagues around him die. At one point he even violently chucks a car with a man still inside it, after a devil tried to use it as a hostage, proclaiming, “Who said I was protecting him? I don’t give a shit about some dude!”
In one of the last episodes of season one, Denji actually wonders to himself why he is so unaffected and unbothered, even after one of his teammates has died. He asks himself whether he’d be sad if Aki or Power died. The answer was no, probably not… at most he might be a little down for a while, but he says, “after three days, I think I’d be back to enjoying stuff again.”
Since his real heart had long been replaced by the heart of the chainsaw devil, he then asks himself,
“Did I lose my humanity when I lost my heart?”
Five seconds later, after contemplating the question, he goes, “Eh, why bother taking it so seriously? This stuff is no fun, so thinking about it is bound to be a buzzkill!” Power replies, “Such melancholy.” And the two move on as if nothing ever happened.
Maybe Denji is actually just a little stupid. But he also knows how to enjoy the simple things in life. He says it himself: “Three square meals a day and baths and good sleep every night is pretty awesome to me.”
At the beginning of the story, when he’s still living in a shed, completely broke, with only a slice of bread to eat for dinner, it’s a running joke that he wants nothing more than some jam to eat with his toast. He says to his pet Pochita, “The other day I heard that normally, people put jam on their bread, before eating it. Normal’s just a dream for us, though.”
Once he gets hired by Public Safety, his dream finally comes true, and he goes crazy with the toppings on his toast. In the end, we get this beautiful creation:
And the best part is, he takes a bite, and is overjoyed at how delicious the toast is. His dreams are simple, but sometimes the simplest dreams are the ones that bring you the most happiness, because they’re not dreams that take a lifetime of blood, sweat, and tears to accomplish. (*Cough, Aki.)
Conclusion
So, why is Denji from “Chainsaw Man,” a crazy half-devil idiot who never thinks anything through and has chainsaws coming out of his arms and head, my favourite philosopher?
Well, it’s because Denji knows how to enjoy the simple things in life, because Denji wastes no time with sugar-coating and is completely honest in saying what he thinks and feels, and most of all because Denji doesn’t rely on common sense or convention to make decisions or decide what he wants in life. (It may just be due to his messed-up childhood, but nonetheless.) Maybe he realizes that, in a world where anything can be meaningful or meaningless depending on who you ask, the only thing you can really ever do is chase after the things that make you happy.
Denji takes what he sees at face value and doesn’t overthink things; his logic is simple and straightforward, and he doesn’t waste time dealing with complicated, abstract things the people around him push onto him (like morals, revenge, Public Safety regulations, pleasing other people, etc). If he sees a devil that is trying to kill him, he slices its head off. If a guy beats him up and spits on him, he kicks him in the nuts. If someone offers to buy him a bowl of udon or make him breakfast, he eagerly accepts. (Who doesn’t like free food?)
In regular society, Denji’s way of life probably wouldn’t blow over, but in the world of “Chainsaw Man” his no-bullshit logic makes for an extremely entertaining watch, and sometimes I wish there were more people in the world who could be as unapologetically honest as Denji is (although without the violence and murder, perhaps). If you don’t mind some gore and inappropriate jokes, and you’re curious, give “Chainsaw Man” a watch and see what you think.
This article is a little bit out there, but I had tons of fun writing it. If you want to drop a clap or follow, it’s free and you can always change your mind. Thanks for reading!
