The sustenance known as Chainsaw Man against Death. The hunger that pushes Chainsaw Man to fight the finality of Death, the fandom fuelled by Denji's hunger by becoming Chainsaw Man to avoid accepting the finality of Pochita's, Aki's and Power's deaths by propagating purpose from their deaths...
And you can see this in Falling's presentation of food as well, built on concepts, made with love to be served, consumed and appreciated. This extending into Kiga's gluttony for human food as she runs the Chainsaw Man Church giving out Fire Devil contracts in the prospect of an approaching finale.
You can see how this fits into there being an "age of devils" especially with the Chainsaw Devil outbreak and the "Justice Devil" contracts. Humanity's desire to transcend their limitations with the power of concepts. The fear of Death and the finality it represents as catalyst for creation.
The text frames the Death devil as something to be defeated but isn't the desire to combat Death itself with more death empowering the fear of Death?
And if humanity desensitise themselves to Death to offset that fear, what is left or becomes of "humanity"? Conquered by devils of our own making.)
Especially since while the Death devil embodies the horror and power of death, it's fundamentally a devil, a fear and concept born from humans. The apocalypse manifesting as humanity giving death power over us.-
And in contrast how much would continuity fare against finality, how do you make it worth something to you either way? And the way it all plays into the microcosm of agency within limitations through creation/preservation.-
(For me, it seems to be more an exploration of trying to grapple with what the finality of death entails which is something we can't actually truly be prepared for and how that contextualises and reflects on our own lives + the part we play in it alongside other people/forces shaping it.
It always comes back to this.
#csmp2analysis
But also, the propagation of weaponhood and destruction in the narrative extends the story of Chainsaw Man. Because what is Denji if not Chainsaw Man?
short continued 🧵
Also thinking abt this in terms of hell's and devils' existence as well in csm. Because there is hell and devils, from it there's desire and context for heaven and salvation (from devils) and from that a reality that's both dreadfully awful yet imaginatively brimming with possibilities.
Fleeting awesome fireworks show that exists through fire and its weaponised hazards.
The flawed personification of Justice in those who transform under its name through individual fire. The title of Justice being a red herring when what operates beneath is Fire, but fire on its own is weak unless combined.
Denji's grief and hedonism is at odds with his heroism despite them feeding off each other, Asa's life ruled by virtue and acceptance disguising thorny selfish desires she both starves herself of and hurts herself on. Justice is grotesque beneath the shining mantle it wears.
of Denji's and Asa's development as hero/protag arc to be followed vs the world of csm's exploitation, villification and reverence of hero/messiah status represented by the characters' in p2.
The conflict of the story being centered on wish-fufilment/satisfaction clashing w paving hope thru justice
and with alienation comes loneliness and a dissipated self. The nudge for Denji and Asa to fulfill a world-saving hero narrative w the personality to match vs Denji's and Asa's personal idea of heroism/justice to be met w the characterisation to match vs the audience's idea
and its name forms the narrative building blocks of each arc as its primary purpose. Being human does mean becoming forgettable unless name and identity becomes immortalised and enshrined usually through feats or sacrifice, it comes at a cost of alienation in its transcendence
what they recognise as making them outliers to human society for their danger and crimes, being a "superhero" is inherently dehumanising and othering as it is to become/be seen as a devil. When Denji and Asa become poster child heroes they're seen as symbols and titles first before their own person
name while Denji himself is being confronted with the existential question that he doesn't have to be the world's superhero as his way of life to find joy and satisfaction. These dangerous devil identities as Asa and Denji refer to being their celebrated saviour personas to the human public but also
denying her relevance and presence in favour of Denji/the CSM as the hero protag in the metacontext, but I also think that what it highlights is that both Denji and Asa aren't really supposed or made to be "superheroes" esp when you think abt Yoru doing the work for Asa as her alter ego bearing her
Thinking back to Yoru's quote about the futility of Denji's and Asa's heroism since they'll be forgotten anyways and the way Asa had to let Yoru take the stage when she was devil hunting as the church poster girl.
There's the consensus that the lack of screentime of Asa's heroism is a means of ⬇️
In every sense of the term
Denji was givem the touch of midas when he became chainsaw man.
Oh yeah forgot to share this. Final movie bonus. An A5 illustratiom card by Sugiyama Kazutaka.
The way people react to this chapter reminds me of how people cope with the FF7 Remake's twist ending.
Will touch on this in the morning
What if fjmt pulls an bsd ripoff ending where Pochita eats some stuff and it cuts to a guy in the future reading a manga given to him based on the amazing chainsaw man who's become a myth and saying it's the best manga he's ever read but it had torn pages and being told to write his own fic about it
Pochita seeing what Asa's being put through and is like maybe I should be the one disappearing.
Best typo
"aXe-Man"
Fjmf wrote this chapter bc he's sick of all the Pochita merch being sent to him.
