Shout Out / Chainsaw Man

All in one opening.

Being a Tatsuki Fujimoto manga, Shout Outs to various movie and other references are expected.

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Part 1

• Fujimoto mentioned in an interview that Denji was inspired by Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series, not just because of choice of weapon but also in personality, both being brash, lecherous slackers who frequently become victims of their own libido but are ultimately a lot craftier and more resourceful than they might let on.
• Fujimoto also confirmed that the Public Safety Bureau agents wearing matching black suits was an homage to Reservoir Dogs, and the International Assassins Arc was directly inspired by how many Tarantino movies feature many opposing groups of criminals with their own plans and agendas crashing headlong into one another.
• Himeno's death is a very close recreation of the original Obi-Wan Moment, with the mentor character facing their pupil one last time before being willingly struck down and vanishing from existence, leaving only their clothing.
• The final movie that Denji and Makima watch on their date is implied to be Ballad of a Soldier.
• Chapter 49 is outright called Sharknado, and it ends with Denji riding Beam in his shark form into battle against Reze and the Typhoon Devil.
• Readers drew parallels between Reze's death and Léon Montana's death.
• Chapter 15 is titled "Endless Eighth Floor".
• Quanxi and Yoshida's stances◊ before they fight are directly lifted from the fight between Rama and the Assassin in The Raid 2: Berandal.
• The Hell Devil's giant hand has been compared to a poster◊ of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's Un Chien Andalou.
• Devils that look suspiciously like Abe Sapien and the Angel of Death from the Guillermo del Toro-directed Hellboy (2004) films show up in Hell fighting the Chainsaw Man in Chapter 84.
• Among the crowds of people cheering for the Chainsaw Man's victory against the Gun Devil, someone cosplaying as Leatherface can be seen. Another one is wearing a hockey mask.
• Makima appearing out of a swarm of rats is a reference to Dracula doing the same thing to exit a scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• Fujimoto has mentioned that the relationship between Denji and Power was inspired by those of both The Dude & Walter Sobchak and Stan Marsh & Eric Cartman, being an unmotivated slacker everyman with a sensitive side accompanied by a friend who is obnoxious, crass, self-centered, and hostile. In the same interview, he also mentioned that the relationship between Denji and Pochita was inspired by, of all things, the friendship between Finn the human and Jake the dog.
  • Continuing with Fujimoto's appreciation for South Park, Denji as a character may have also been inspired by Kenny McCormick: both of them are blondes who grew up in extreme poverty thanks to dead or irresponsible parents and are willing to do disgusting things for money. Both have unusual powers that they don't fully understand, which often leads to them being messily killed and revived shortly after. And as one of Kenny's primary traits is being a Dirty Kid, Denji is a Hormone-Addled Teenager.
  • An omake reveals that Power often has a Self-Serving Memory about past events in the manga. Considering her inspiration from Eric Cartman, it's easy to compare this to a Running Gag in the South Park episode "Fishsticks", where Cartman's reminiscence of a past event grows more and more ridiculous and masturbatory with each flashback.
• Aki has an Offscreen Moment of Awesome where he kills a Devil that looks suspiciously like a fish from Gyo. As does Beam's Shark Devil form.
• Denji and Power are seen reading CoroCoro Comic when Aki wakes in the hospital.
• In Chapter 70, Cosmo activates her power by emulating the Kamehameha from Dragon Ball, only she says "Ha-llo Ha-llo Weeeeeen!"
• Satoru Noda, author of Golden Kamuy, is listed among the many people killed by the Gun Devil in Chapter 75.
• The author confirmed that Denji is named after Kudo Denji from Tsutomu Nihei's Abara. Pochita's true form as the Chainsaw Man also bears similarities to Kudo's appearance.
• In chapter 81, Makima has a large print of the iconic "Satan's Fall From Heaven" illustration from the 1866 printing of Paradise Lost hanging on her wall. Doubles as Genius Bonus and Five-Second Foreshadowing when it dominates the background as Makima leads Denji by the hand to the door.
• Fujimoto has stated that much of Hell's appearance and atmosphere was inspired by the Eclipse.
• The first intro for the anime is filled with rotoscoped scenes from various movies with characters from the series acting them out. The movies referenced include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sadako vs. Kayako, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, Jacob's Ladder, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Constantine (2005).
• The credits musicfor the fifth episode of the anime, which focuses on the Devil Hunters being trapped inside of the eighth floor of the hotel by the Eternity Devil, is called "In the Backroom".

Part 2

• The Cockroach Devil tries to pull a Sadistic Choice on Denji by dropping two groups of people from a great height simultaneously, an innocent bystander and a car full of old ladies, so he can't save them both, specifically telling him to "be a superhero". This series being what it is, Denji casually lets them both die so he can save a cat at risk of falling off a building.
  • The entire chapter is a shout-out to Blake Snyder's 'save the cat!' rule of screenwriting, invoking it in-universe, with the media focusing on his cat rescue thereby affording him further love from the public, while at least partially subverting it for the reader - if this was your first experience with Denji, you'd probably be put off by his callous disregard for Cockroach's victims.
• Asa turning her uniform into a sword and ending up embarrassedly having to fight in her underwear in the middle of her high school recalls Kill la Kill.
• The Falling Devil's entire demeanor as an Evil Chef is inspired by The Menu.
• Perhaps Denji screaming that he wants to have sex is based on the meme of the Japanese man running in the tunnel screaming that he wants to have sex.
• Asa using her Semantic Superpower on a motorcycle Denji steals for her transforms it into a chainsaw-themed motorised vehicle for him to ride and slice with at the same time. This is thematically similar to Ghost Rider and his ability to imbue any vehicle he rides with hellfire to turn it into a fire-and-skull themed machine worthy of his power, mainly his old stunt bike becoming a badass Harley Davidson.
• Chapter 130's title, "Kill Building", is rendered as "切るビル (Kiru Biru)" in Japanese, which is phonetically similar to how one would say Kill Bill in Japanese (キル・ビル).
• In Chapter 136, a student punches Denji, thinking he was criticizing Chainsaw Man, and even cries out "In the name of Chainsaw Man, I'll punish you!"
• In Chapter 137, the line of Mooks forming outside to fight Denji in the karaoke building hallway calls to mind the line forming to beat up the hysterical woman in Airplane!. Their use of baseball bats and ensuing bloody fight of Denji taking them all down also parallels the infamous hallway scene in Oldboy.
• While Chainsaw Man has always had some visible inspirations from Devilman, Nayuta's apparent death in Chapter 155 comes across as a deliberate homage to Miki's infamously brutal death in which she's torn apart at the hands of an anti-demon mob. The fact that Barem accuses Nayuta of being a "witch" in Chapter 147, exactly what happened with Miki, suggests that the similarities were entirely intentional.
• The moment in Chapter 156 in which Denji is strapped to an operating table and has his body torn to pieces by the government before panning out to Asa showing up outside the facility to save him comes across as a deliberate homage to Ajin, in which the protagonist is put into an almost identical situation. It helps that Fujimoto has actually gone on record◊ and said that he is a fan of Ajin.

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