Recap / Chainsaw Man - International Assassins

Synopsis

TBD

Chapters

53. In a Dream
54. To Go to Enoshima
55. Let's Go
56. A Curse and a First
57. Suddenly
58. Yutaro Kurose
59. Mess
60. Quanxi and Fiends' 49-Person Massacre
61. News Reporter
62. Super Mess
63. Trip to Hell
64. Welcome to Hell
65. The Darkness Devil
66. Woof!
67. The First Devil Hunter
68. Dark Power
69. Shining Power
70. Pinch

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Tropes:

• Anti-Climax: After several chapters of the brothers killing multiple recurring characters and impersonating at least one of them, Power kills the eldest by accident right as he's reached Denji. Joey swears revenge, but then immediately runs into Yoshida, who instantly and messily kills him just out of sight. The chapter both occur in is even called "Suddenly".
• An Arm and a Leg: Everybody who've been sent to Hell gets their arms cleanly severed by the Darkness Devil.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The eldest of the American assassins picks an odd way to end his lists of ordeals they've survived.
  Eldest Brother: The Gun Devil leveled our entire house and we didn't die. Even though mom, dad and grandpa all died. Even when we got swallowed by a devil, even when our place was on fire, even when all three of us got food poisoning, we didn't die. We're immortal.
• Bear Hug: Power hits an assassin with a car and hugs Denji to celebrate "avenging" him. He's hurt, not because of her using excessive strength, but because Denji had also been hit in the same car crash.
• Bilingual Bonus: Translation Convention breaks to have untranslated Chinese text two times when it's heard by Japanese characters. Knowing what they said isn't important, but is meaningful.
  • When Quanxi first prepares to attack, she tells her girlfriends "小姐们！一如往常,请们处理剩菜剩饭了。/ Ladies! As always, please dispose of the leftovers.", either instructing them to kill the few opponents she misses or inviting them to eat the bodies of the fallen.
  • Before Quanxi's fatal blow against some Public Safety agents took effect, Pingtsi mockingly tells them "尸体在说话 / A corpse is talking.", the same line Makima would repeat in the reader's language later.
• Car Fu:
  • Power fatally crashes Kobeni's car into an assassin by accident.
  • Santa Claus has one of her puppets crash a car into Denji when he's chained himself to her. Denji is undeterred and moments later smashes Kobeni's car into Santa Claus as a Finishing Move, destroying Santa Claus' body in a fiery explosion.
• Carnival of Killers: Four different parties come after Denji's heart, each from a different country. Quanxi and her fiend girlfriends from China, the three assassin brothers from the United States, Santa Claus from Germany, and Tolka from the Soviet Union.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: Inverted; since the Skin Devil contract can imitate faces but not other devil contracts, Division 4 use theirs off-screen as an Impostor-Exposing Test.
• Defensive Feint Trap: Tamaki heard Santa Claus' first wave of puppets coming, and so had Denji's group enter a department store while pretending to stop for a meal. Once they charge through the door, Kusakabe uses the circle he'd set up inside to destroy them with his Stone Devil contract.
• Diving Save: A variant; when Aldo steps in from behind to shoot Denji, Kishibe kicks Denji out of the path of the bullet, simultaneously avoiding the bullet himself by a few inches.
• Driven to Suicide: All the Fiends start freaking out when they are sent to Hell, and Pingtsi begs Quanxi for permission to kill herself to be spared from the wrath of the Primal Fear Devils lurking nearby.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The three American brother assassins are introduced after an Establishing Shot of the Statue of Liberty.
• Enemy Mine: When they're sent to Hell, Quanxi calls a temporary truce with Public Safety so they can find a way out. She continues the truce when she and the others return but Santa Claus kills her Fiends, teaming up with Denji to defeat them. She immediately decapitates Denji as soon as she sees that Santa Claus had been dealt with.
• Epic Fail: Power is behind the wheel of Kobeni's car for at most a few minutes, and possibly had just unparked, when she crashes into two pedestrians.
• Exact Words: Kusakabe tells Denji to throw away a rice ball he dropped on the ground. Denji scarfs the whole thing down and says he "threw it away—into my belly".
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Chapter 60 is titled "Quanxi and the Fiends' 49-Person Massacre". True to that title, multiple pages are spent on Quanxi in a blur, decapitating five devil hunters and dozens of dolls, spread across multiple blocks. It's so fast it takes several moments for the heads to actually come off.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: There's two different scenes of Quanxi's group having an orgy, the latter of which is centered on Quanxi and Long tribbing together. Their nipples and genitals are all obscured by each other's bodies.
• His Name Is...: While riding in the car, Subaru asks Michio and Yutaro what Makima is like. They hesitantly appear as if they're about to say something significant about Makima, but then the assassin brothers crash their car and murder them all.
• I Have to Iron My Dog: Power is a bit quick on the draw in excusing herself from a vacation in Enoshima with Makima.
  Power: I have an urgent meeting that day...
  Makima: We still haven't chosen a day, Power.
• I Meant to Do That: After Power crashes into the disguised eldest brother and Denji, she takes a few breaths before saying it's Kobeni's fault, because she owned the car. Then the brother's disguise goes away and Tamaki identifies him as a hitman.
  Power: I knew it! Looks like I was the only one who saw through the enemy's disguise!
• Ignored Epiphany: Hearing about Kurose's life while impersonating him makes Aldo have some serious regrets about all the people he's killed. Then, when Kurose's friend Tomono asks "What would your brother say if he saw you like this.", Aldo thinks of his brothers, and he resolves to go back and take Denji's heart.
  Aldo's brother: We're immortal. Why? Because we're ruthless, soulless, and emotionless. So don't be afraid.
  Aldo: A pro always gets the job done.
  Tomono: Would he really say something that cool… ?
• Immortal Life Is Cheap: Comically invoked; since Power doesn't want to go to Enoshima with Makima, she demands some other reward for their mission. She asks to drain all of a human's blood, and Aki agrees to let her do it to Denji, since they can revive him afterward.
• Kick the Dog: Cosmo first demonstrates her Mind Rape power on a random civilian after Quanxi crashes her car into his, either because they were annoyed he complained or simply because he'd risk drawing too much attention to them.
• Lifesaving Misfortune:
  • Aldo Stress Vomits upon seeing his brother killed in a car accident, which makes Yoshida fall for his civilian disguise after killing his other brother.
    Yoshida: I guess a pro wouldn't puke...
  • Quanxi violently removing Yoshida, Kishibe, and Aldo from the mall saves them from getting sent to hell with the others still in it.
• Lured into a Trap: Once Public Safety knew Santa Claus was after Denji, they decided against running, instead using Denji as The Bait to quickly end things with as few civilian casualties as possible.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": All the Fiends begin freaking out when they are transported to Hell, with Pingtsi realizing that they are risking attracting the attention of the Primal Fear Devils. Her fears come true when Darkness arrives.
• Mêlée à Trois: The different (groups of) assassins are in it for themselves, and come to blows at several points. Tolka turns out to have been working for Santa Claus, but even he didn't know this. The one Enemy Mine is actually pulled between Quanxi and Public Safety.
• Mood Whiplash: Denji is noticeably more melancholic after the Bomb arc and Reze seemingly abandoning him. As he drinks coffee, he's reminded of her and realizes that he may have gotten his heart so broken he can never be happy again. Cut to Makima announcing a vacation to Enoshima that Denji, Aki and Power are invited to and Denji loudly cheering and jumping in joy.
• Motive Misidentification: It's assumed each assassin is after Denji to deliver the Chainsaw Devil's heart to their respective country, but this is only true for Quanxi and the American brothers. Santa Claus was sent by the Germans to kill Makima, and Denji was just a means to get power from the Darkness Devil while drawing Makima out. Tolka wasn't working for the Soviet Union at all, as his master is actually Santa Claus' true identity, though he didn't know this in advance.
• Multiple Gunshot Death: The assassin brothers kill Subaru, Michio, and Yutaro by crashing their car with a spike strip, breaking the windows, sticking their pistols inside, and repeatedly shooting each point blank. All three people in the car are dead moments later, having each seemingly taken at least one bullet to the head, soaking the car in blood.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: When on the run, Aldo uses his Kurose disguise to spend the night with Kurose's friend Tomono. While there, he is disturbed by all the details he learned about his victim's life, seeing pictures of him with his girlfriend or as a child. Tomono even tries to talk "Kurose" into opening a store with him before devil hunting gets him killed, because Kurose's brother is dead and his parents have no one else to take care of them.
  Aldo: I'm sorry… I'm so… What the hell… am I doing…?!
  Tomono: Why are you crying?! You're too drunk!
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Kishibe confronts Quanxi's harem, who see that he's physically a broken old man and decides it'll be a breeze to kill him. The next time we see them, Kishibe has both Pingtsi and Long unconscious and in headlocks, making it clear that incapacitating them was quite easy for him.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Aki, Power, and especially Kobeni are absolutely drenched in sweat reacting in shock to Power's car accident.
• Playing Possum: Kishibe takes Pingtsi and Long hostage, seemingly after knocking both out, and hands them off to Power and Denji, respectively. Suddenly, Aldo ambushes Denji, giving Long the opportunity to spring to life and pin Denji to the floor.
• Power Misidentification: The squad of Public Safety agents that Quanxi first encounters think she used "a devil that can make you disappear", when she really just ran past and attacked them so fast they didn't see her, nor had the cuts sunk in yet.
• Running Gag: Kobeni's car keeps getting progressively more damaged. First, Power crashes into two people, putting a large dent in the hood. Then two different people fall several stories on top, smashing the carriage down flat. Finally, Denji picks the whole thing up and smashes it into Santa Claus, blowing both to smithereens.
• Surprise Car Crash: On one page, Power is taking off for a drive with Kobeni in the latter's car. On the second, the assassin disguised as Kurose introduces himself to Denji and possibly prepares to attack. On the third, Power crashes the car into both.
• Tempting Fate: After the first couple dolls are defeated, Aki says the amount Santa Claus can make must be limited. Next page, dozens of them come flooding in, forcing the group to retreat to the next floor.
• This Was His True Form: Killing the eldest assassin brother ended his contract with the Skin Devil, removing his Kurose disguise, much to Power's relief and exaltation.
• Uncertain Doom: The final fate of Aldo is uncertain. He's shown to be chanting "Halloween" with the Doll Woman's dolls at the end, but he himself clearly isn't a doll. It's ambiguous whether or not he encountered Cosmo offscreen, or is just faking insanity to escape town.
• We Win, Because You Didn't: It's theorized Reze had a secondary objective of exposing the Chainsaw Devil in a way Public Safety couldn't cover up. The ensuing flurry of countries hunting Denji down may make the Soviet Union less likely to succeed, but Makima would still have a harder time keeping a hold of him.
  Makima: They probably don't care who has their hands on Denji—as long as it's not me.
• Wham Shot: Forcing Quanxi to talk with him, Kishibe shows her handwritten notes to show her his true intentions. One of them reads: "Going to kill Makima. Will tell you everything if you'll help."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The German government gave Santa Claus four children. Three were sacrificed to the Hell Devil, while the remaining girl was presumably kept to replace Tolka as her next "perfect puppet". What became of her after Santa Claus is disposed of is left to our imagination.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Makima cheers up Denji in Reze's absence by inviting him on vacation with her. Within minutes Public Safety agents burst in to inform him the Chainsaw Man's existence has been exposed, making him a target for foreign powers, so the trip is postponed.

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