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The adventures of Denji and Asa in the Chainsaw Man manga are often a lot, but mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto really kicked it up for the start of 2024 and chapter 156. With the latest arc, it’s sometimes felt like Denji took a backseat, but now that the attention is fully on him again, it’s resulted in one of the more shocking and traumatizing moments in the series.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for the Chainsaw Man manga up through chapter 156 and what happens to Denji throughout.
Denji has been through a lot in Chainsaw Man. From the very beginning, this kid has been put through the ringer. I mean, we sort of expected it with how the series started. When he began, he was recounting how much of himself he’d sold, voluntarily maiming himself to get money to repay the debt his dad accrued. This poor kid with one eye, talking about how killing devils is more profitable than something like selling his own kidney.
And now in chapter 156 of the Chainsaw Man manga, we see the government’s caught and put him in the Tokyo Devil Detention Center. Initially, it seems as though he’s hospitalized for injuries. The Public Safety Devil Hunter Hirofumi Yoshida is there, who’s always been suspicious, but sometimes helpful. Except then he drops the stinger. “You broke the rules. There’s nothing more I can do to help you.” He claims to the people outside he “put him back under,” though Tatsuki Fujimoto never provided an exact panel showing such. Fumiko Mifune asks if Denji is going to be dismembered, Yoshida confirms it, and she seems almost gleeful to ask if she can take a piece before it all goes down.
Now, after reading all this, I figured there’d be some sort of break. We’d snap to Nayuta or Asa’s viewpoint. Something would happen so perhaps Denji could rally be be freed. However, as he has one of his talks when he’s unconscious with Pochita, another gut punch strikes. When they talk about Denji saving Nayuta, Pochita asks, “Save her? How can you do that without your legs?”
We then get this graphic, operating room scene in which Denji is being taken apart, piece by piece under supervision. It’s horrifying. A man we’ve seen recover time after time from death, surviving major fights, is being felled by ordinary human doctors who put him to sleep and are picking him apart piece-by-piece. It’s infuriating. It’s horrifying. It once again shows how Tatsuki Fujimoto doesn’t shy away from dark or uncomfortable moments.
Plus when you think about it, what happened with Denji in Chainsaw Man chapter 1 and 156 offers a nice bookend. We started with him voluntarily giving up pieces of himself. Now, we’re watching as he is involuntarily being cut up by the same people who he once worked alongside. Not to mention the Public Safety Saga arc of the series ended with Makima being cut up as well in chapter 96.
It lends itself to a sense of foreshadowing. Tatsuki Fujimoto stories end and begin with dismemberment, I guess? So if we’re seeing this happen again, alongside a tease that Denji murdered his father, it feels like perhaps we’re approaching something else big. Maybe something else is about to begin, and this is just the start of it. Especially since it ends with us seeing Asa and Yoru’s shoes as a Public Safety Devil Hunter saying “It would take a war to compromise this facility’s safety.”
All in all, chapter 156 of the Chainsaw Man manga is horrifying, terrifying, and a clear example of how good this series is at having these pivotal moments that make the reader feel things. Sometimes horrifying or anguished feelings, but feelings nonetheless.
Chapter 156 of the Chainsaw Man manga is available now on Viz Media and MangaPlus. Chapter 157 will arrive on March 6, 2024. The manga volumes are released in English via Viz Media. The anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.
