Recap / Chainsaw Man - Control

Synopsis

TBD

Chapters

80. A Dog's Feelings
81. Paw
82. Always Eat a Hearty Breakfast
83. Death, Resurrection, Chainsaw
84. Hero of Hell
85. Bloody Good Gut Feeling
86. Date Chainsaw
87. Chainsaw Man vs. the Horrifying Weapon Humans
88. Star Chainsaw
89. Go Get 'Em, Chainsaw Man
90. Super Power
91. Power, Power, Power
92. Zombie, Blood, Chainsaw
93. You & Crappy Movies
94. Chainsaw Man vs. the Weapon Humans
95. Chainsaw Man vs. Control Devil
96. This Kind of Taste
97. I, Love, Chainsaw

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Tropes:

• And the Adventure Continues: Part 1 ends with Denji, now attending high school, getting ready to pull his cord to fight a rampaging Devil and save the day as Chainsaw Man.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Denji / Pochita manages to get Makima to admit that she's a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist by asking her if there's room for bad movies in the perfect world she's trying to create.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Power's return to life to save Denji makes it quite unambiguous that she genuinely cares for him. Even when it seems that she was going to slip back into being willing to let harm befall him for her own benefit, she's suddenly flooded with fond memories of their bond and flees from Makima with him in tow.
• Bittersweet Ending: This arc ends Part 1 on a melancholic but otherwise hopeful note. Almost all of the people Denji had grown to love and care for are dead, and he discovered that the woman he had been in love with for most of the series never cared about him and possibly even openly hated him once the chips are down. In spite of everything he's been through, Denji has rediscovered the will to live, has embraced being a Celebrity Superhero, and his new responsibility of lovingly raising Makima's reincarnation Nayuta might just break the cycle of abuse that led him to where he is. And he also finally gets to go to school, just like Reze wanted him to.
• Burger Fool: It's revealed that between the last time we've seen her and now, Kobeni's taken a job at Family Burger. She gets slapped by her manager for constantly messing up.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After spending eighty plus chapters stuck in Uncertain Doom, Pochita returns, and comes back in his true form: as the original Chainsaw Man.
  • Kobeni returns after an arc-long absence, where we find her working a menial and abusive job at a fast food restaurant. Unfortunately for her, Pochita shows up and makes her day worse.
  • Katana Man, Reze, and Quanxi suddenly return without warning alongside other Hybrids, under the control of Makima and expressing similar smitten sentiments about her as Denji.
  • The Zombie Devil suddenly reappears, revealed to be under Makima's control and supplying her with zombified mooks.
• Chekhov's Gun: Pochita's method of returning to Earth inspires Denji to pull a similar trick: have Pochita separate from his body and pretend to be him and battle Makima, distracting her long enough for him to sneak up from behind and strike.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Pochita absolutely demolishes the Hell Devil, the horde of Devils waiting for him in Hell, Makima, the Hybrids, and multiple Family Burger employees without breaking a sweat.
  • Makima later kicks the shit out of who she assumes to be Denji and rips Pochita out of his chest.
• Escaped from Hell: Pochita literally battles his way out of Hell, breaking open the door that the Hell Devil sent him through and bringing with him a flood of blood and guts.
• Final Boss: Makima, the Control Devil, is the final and strongest enemy faced by Denji and Pochita at the end of Part 1 and before the manga would continue 2 years later with Part 2.
• From a Single Cell: Pochita gets blasted into orbit. He gets out by ripping out his own heart and throwing it back to Earth, regenerating his entire body around it in moments as he returns to the fight.
• Heroic B So D: Denji starts the arc in a big one after having to kill Aki, the closest thing he had to an older brother. Makima then breaks him further by murdering Power in front of him without warning, then forcing him to remember that he had killed his own father in self-defense. The memory resurfacing ended up too much for Denji, causing him to mentally collapse to the point where Pochita is forced into control over his body.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Power sacrifices her current life to revive Denji under the contract of finding the Blood Devil in Hell and befriending them.
• Identity Impersonator: Denji and Pochita ultimately pull the wool over Makima's eyes (along with the audience's) by voluntarily splitting apart and having Pochita take a humanoid form that resembles Denji's transformed state. At first glance, Makima correctly identifies him as Pochita in a weakened form (perhaps because his arms look completely different), but assumes Denji took over as soon as he starts talking back. Once Makima's minion are dispatched and she thinks she'd won, Denji sneaks up and uses a chainsaw made from Power's blood to disable her long enough to kill her permanently.
• Loophole Abuse: Makima's contract with the Prime Minister postulated that any attack on her person would be translated to a Japanese citizen. Denji gets around this and fully kills her off by cannibalizing her for dinner as an act of love, an action so bizarrely specific and out there that... it works.
  Denji: So this is how you taste, Ms. Makima...
• Loving Details: How Denji recognizes Nayuta as Makima's reincarnation: she bit his finger in the exact same way Makima demonstrated in an earlier chapter.
• Raise Her Right This Time: Denji is given the responsibility of lovingly raising Nayuta, so she will never become the sociopathic monster Makima was, negate the Control Devil's potential power, and live knowing that those around her are equals that can be her friends.
• Rewatch Bonus: You can see Denji among Makima's army of mooks before he reveals himself and strikes her down.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Kobeni is not only one of the few surviving major characters of Part 1, but her fugitive status may allow her to finally cut ties with her Abusive Parents and strike out on her own.
• Title Drop: "Save me, Chainsaw Man."
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The door in Denji's mind was hiding Repressed Memories of killing his father in self-defense.
  Makima: Children's brains are really quite incredible. You see, they can hide bad memories behind a door without the child even knowing it. You hid what you did behind a door for survival's sake, right? Because you'd never be able to lead a normal life otherwise. Your father didn't kill himself. You killed him, didn't you? Your father was drunk and nearly killed you. You really had no choice but to kill him. But the other grown-ups wouldn't get their money back like that. So they made it out to be a suicide. You were finally able to open the door.
• Victory Is Boring: Makima manages to defeat Pochita by forcing him into Taking the Bullet for Kobeni. However, the battle was anticlimactic enough for Makima to be underwhelmed by the win. This luckily stalls Makima's plans to gain control over Chainsaw Man enough for Power to return and rescue Pochita/Denji.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: At his lowest point, Denji spots a news report reporting on the worldwide celebration of Chainsaw Man's heroic deeds against the Gun Devil and then some. The display of adoration from those all around the world drives Denji to Tears of Joy and he finds the will to live again despite all that Makima put him through.
• You Are Not Alone: Denji is tasked with making sure Nayuta knows this so as to not allow another Makima to be born.