Transcription
With Chains Man chapter 174, the meme of "boy, that escalated quickly" has never been more appropriate. And if, for whatever reason, up to this point in the story, you haven't been giving Public Safety the side-eye, this should be the chapter that does it. Because Fujimoto builds off the moment where Denji sees Nayuta's head severed from her body a few chapters ago and is now taken a step further by drilling into our heads even further that nobody is safe, not even the youngest of infants. Because that's exactly what this chapter sets the stage for.
So, we open up at the residency of the Prime Minister of Japan. He's being briefed by the members of his cabinet, as well as Fumo, representing Public Safety. And the story confirms something that, up until now, was merely a suspicion: which is that everything that has been going on with Pochita's rampage, it has been controlled chaos for the purpose of measuring the extent of the Chainsaw Devil's devil eraser powers. Which, prior to this, they were only briefly mentioned by Makima. But that one conversation from way back then, it continues to pay dividends for the narrative of the story itself.
Apparently, when Pochita ate the E-devil and erased all ears, Public Safety had people observing what was going on, taking detailed notes. And they measured the impact. People, they lost their memories or any conversations that ever had the word "ear" used in them or was the topic of a conversation. Yet, things that were associated with ears, they didn't vanish. So, things like hearing aids and telephones, radios, all those things, they were still in existence. And this is Public Safety running the test. They're saying, "Say, if we get rid of the fear of ears, does that start and stop with only ears being erased, or does it extend to all things that are associated with ears?"
For this reason, Fumo and the members of Public Safety, they wish to use Chainsaw Man's power for their own reasons, the same way that Makima did, though slightly different outcomes. Fumo tells us that the power of Chainsaw Man to erase things will be critical for the process aspect of human evolution, where they can selectively remove certain things that would be for the benefit of humanity. Say, the way that Makima once talked about using Chainsaw Man's power to erase terrible movies. So, for example, Captain Marvel 2, better known as The Marvels.
But this is where it really gets dark here, and this is where Fujimoto's message really begins to shine through. Fumo reveals that Public Safety has made a deal with a primal devil, one of the oldest fears of mankind: the Aging Devil. So, the devil we just saw in the last chapter. And the symbolism here, it is absolutely insane. People, they fear aging because every day that passes by, they get another day older. They get wrinkles on their faces, bags under their eyes, they get gray hairs in their beards and in their hair. They get gray hairs in places they didn't know that they could get gray hairs downstairs. All those subtle signs of aging mean that you're one moment, one breath away from dying. That fear is arguably third only to the fear of darkness and the fear of death itself.
However, the Aging Devil itself, unlike human beings, it has no fear of death or any attachment to life. And it is willing to be eaten by Chainsaw Man, which, as you would expect, would do away with aging, just as eating the Ear Devil did away with ears. However, there are a couple of catches here, including one monster price for this trade-off. The first is that even though aging itself might go away, there is no way to know with certainty that mental and physical decline will go away. So, those aching bones that you get when people get older, or the dementia that they have when they start losing their minds due to age, there's no guarantee that those would go away. Similar to how when the Ear Devil went away, things like ear picks, they still remained.
The second thing is that Public Safety is controlling Chainsaw Man right now to prove a point. That is why they're saying they need an answer now as to if the Japanese government will agree to the terms with the Aging Devil, which are very barbaric. Which is basically, the Aging Devil wants 10,000 children of Japanese citizenship to be killed in front of mirrors. And they must be between the ages of infancy and 9 years old. So, the youngest of the young.
Now, this is where it gets interesting, especially when you understand real-world statistics about Japan and why Fujimoto is a madman for the commentary he's making here. He's basically throwing a middle finger up to the birth rate in Japan, which they've had issues with for the last few decades. The birth rate, for those of you guys who don't know, is the number of live births in a year and the average of a population. You need a certain number of births each year in order to maintain the population and a certain number needed to grow the population. Anything less than that, and you're declining the population. For Japan, that number over the last few decades, it has been on a sharp decline. The murders of 10,000 children is one hell of a drop for the time period in the late '90s, which Chainsaw Man is set in, where Japanese birth rates at that point in time were around 1.3 live births per woman, which again, you need two to maintain the population.
Fujimoto basically said, "Screw them kids." And he took it a step further here, saying, "I'm not like Spy x Family where I'm going to promote loving children. If children got to die in this story, they got to die." While others in this room are shown being hesitant, it's the oldest among them, the old man that's in a wheelchair, who says, "Kill all the children that are needed." Because he's the one that stands to benefit the most if the Aging Devil goes away. First, he rationalizes it by saying that he'll use his grandson to grab all the kids who fit the age demographic who are orphaned by devil attacks. And then he tells Takanashi to have a contact give orders to international adoption agencies to give citizenship to as many non-Japanese children as they need to. That way, they become Japanese children in order to hit the number that is required. And when Takanashi refuses, the old man says, without having to directly say it, he'll sacrifice Takanashi for children for this cause, if need be. And as you would expect, the man immediately goes along with it.
However, before Fumo can give the green light that she's been given to further contain Chainsaw Man and then eventually have the Aging Devil get eaten, suddenly everyone's mouths around the world, they just vanish. And it's because Chainsaw Man has devoured the Octopus Devil, the Mouth Devil, the Snow Devil, and the Bitterness Devil in one fell swoop. Which is where the chapter ends off, but not before cementing itself as one of the darkest chapters in Part 2 of Chainsaw Man so far. Which Fujimoto is clearly laying the groundwork for the Death Devil. Because if he's willing to go this far for the Aging Devil, you can only imagine how far he'll go for the Death Devil.
Now, this is a detail that really stood out here, which is that Pochita proves that with this one move, it's not just Public Safety who's thinking a few steps ahead, it's also Pochita as well, too. By eating the Mouth Devil, he's now lost his own mouth. Just one chapter after Yoshida forced him to throw up the Ear Devil. Now he's got no mouth to worry about. Which means the power to erase devils, it not only stays under his control, but if he's eating you, you are not coming out, at least not through his mouth.
Fujimoto, from a writing perspective, is showing us just how far people will go in order to control Denji. From the way that Makima was systematically breaking him down over time, to now Public Safety, what they're doing. And Pochita is the one who's had a front-row seat to all of this. He's seen how there are those out there who want to use this power, despite themselves being morally corrupt, with those who are one foot in the grave, like the old man we saw in this chapter, willing to sacrifice the young so they can escape from death itself. Which might indirectly be fueling the Death Devil. Because those actions in of themselves, trying to get rid of the fear of aging, that way you can stop aging, that is a fear of death. Aging brings you closer to death.
This just continues the masterclass of the symbolism that Fujimoto has continued to do with this imagery throughout Chainsaw Man, going all the way back to Part 1. Think about it for a second. Hell, in a lot of media, it is depicted as this place of fire and brimstone and super dark and gloomy. You got red guys with pitchforks, and they're tormenting you. In certain religions, you got like the seven rings of hell and like the eternal punishment. The further you go down. Yet, as you go, look at Denji and company when they first arrived in hell in Part 1 of Chainsaw Man, it looked nothing like that. In fact, hell was shown as this place with flowers around them, and there's this beautiful sky, and it's got all these doors in it.
Now, we have Chainsaw Man in particular, the Chainsaw Devil, Pochita. Who both times that he has hijacked the control of Denji, for lack of better words, it's come during a time when Denji was at his most broken. His mind was shattered. Pochita unleashed, no pun intended, hell on Earth with his rage and his erratic actions. Yet, in this chapter, his actions stopped the morally corrupt from attempting to cheat death via aging by erasing mouths and stopping himself from eating any more devils or coughing them back up. It's Fujimoto saying that sometimes the real devils, they are humans ourselves. Which is a very bold and ballsy approach to take, especially for Shonen. And it's one that I don't necessarily disagree with. It's a big part of the reason why I love Chainsaw Man as a series. Whereas other Shonen will make you feel rosy and bubbly about the world, give you hope about the future, even if it is unrealistic. Chainsaw Man isn't above telling you that this world, it isn't sunshine and rainbows. In reality, it's got a lot of moments that are going to make you feel pain, and it's got moments that will break you if you let it. And the people that you've been conditioned to think that are good, from the sultry, sexy vixen like Makima, who's always smiling in your face, to the seemingly kindhearted Yuko, to the old man you initially want to believe is a nice guy, he's an old guy, old people are nice. Each of these characters, to different degrees, they represent a darker aspect of humanity that we spend so much of our time trying to convince ourselves that we don't possess. Yet, it's in there with all of us. And Chainsaw Man isn't above holding up the mirror and making you realize you're not as pretty and as special as, say, every Star Dress that Lucy Heartfilia has. Which my video on the left breaks down each of those transformations. And over here on the right, we got more Chainsaw Man content for those of you guys who just want to hear me talk more in-depth about Chainsaw Man and the world-building.