Transcription
With Chains in chapter 175, the expression "actions speak louder than words" definitely comes to mind. Because now that the Mouth Devil has been erased, there are literally zero words being uttered. And what this does is it provides Fujimoto the opportunity to showcase that effective forms of storytelling, they don't always require you to have words to get the message across to the readers.
With battles shown, you come to expect this simply because fights are often used for development. But in this chapter, it's not just the brief fight that we see which conveys the message of the chapter, but it's also the character interactions and the expressiveness of the eyes in particular with Yoru that really drives home the chaos of this chapter and the dark nature of this chapter.
So we open up the chapter seeing the world as it is, where there are no mouths that exist. And we're shown right away that even with people not having mouths, it doesn't stop them from expressing their fear. Chainsaw Man, because right away we see a guy, he's running for his life at the sight of Pochita. And you got people falling over themselves running away for a really good reason. Pochita, he is on demon time, or rather, I should say he is on devil time, considering what he is. Right away, three people who try to attack him, they get their heads cut off.
What all this is doing is Fujimoto is showing you that you don't need screams and blood and gore for people to be afraid of Chainsaw Man. It's a nod to him being such a movie buff and a nod to the silent film genre, which includes silent horror films, which is a very clever nod. However, this, this is also a reflection of humanity. It's a statement on humanity. This chapter proves that even though we're our own unique individuals, at the end of the day, we all, to a degree, still possess the primal nature of moving in packs and following orders. People in this chapter see everyone running away from Chainsaw Man, and they just all run away in response without seeing the threat themselves. Most humans, they are followers.
But what we see here is that in the face of the unknown and the clear danger that is around the corner, there are those who choose to defy said danger. With one of them being Katana Man, which that is fitting. While he himself isn't honorable per se, most of the time when you think of katanas, you think of the samurai who wield them. They are warriors who are associated with bravery and honor. However, here with Katana Man, on top of not necessarily being honorable in the traditional sense, being blunt, he's shown that there's a fine line between bravery and foolishness and pride. He's once again getting his ass handed to him by Chainsaw Man, just as we saw in part one of the story.
On one hand, while Pochita does make light work out of him while he attempts to attack him, I give Katana Man this much. When it comes to being the hater of the year and getting that award, he is definitely making a strong case for it, because the guy, he never bends the knee at any point to Chainsaw Man.
Now, this is where it does get interesting. After Katana Man attempts to attack from behind, we see the Aging Devil attempt to attack, and we see Yoru jump in with this huge sword, and she drives it right into Pochita's skull, or she tries to. And with most people, that potentially would have been death. But with Pochita, we know that this is nothing. And Fujimoto is showing us the true horror of Chainsaw Man, and it's through the various things that are happening all at once. The primal devil known as the Aging Devil gets his hands cut off. Katana Man falls backwards. Right away, Yoru has to use her legs to kick Katana Man's corpse off of her body because she no longer has an arm to push him off, because Pochita has cut her arm off, as well as the arms of the Aging Devil and Katana Man, and he cuts Katana Man's head off.
For a moment, we see Yoru attempting to stand tall against Pochita, yet even she has begun to start reaching her limits, dropping down to one knee and lowering her head in defeat. And when she does lift her head up, those eyes of Yoru, that are normally filled with brash overconfidence, they're now wide open in fear. Zoomed in on the last panel, which is fitting, because while we can't hear her scream, we don't need to, because the eyes, they tell us a whole different story.
This one interaction, this long-awaited Yoru versus Pochita, this moment does several things in such a short amount of time. It shows us that for as much as Yoru thought that she powered up enough to fight Chainsaw Man, she is still boxing well out of her weight class. This interaction also shows us a strong emphasis on how frightening and powerful Chainsaw Man is, in particular, what just being in the mere presence of an enraged Chainsaw Devil is truly like. And it makes you realize that long before Pochita ever met Denji, this was the Chainsaw Man who was fighting solo against Makima and Yoru, Fami, and the Mysterious Death Devil in a consistent four versus one battle. In this chapter, it shows you why four very powerful Horsewomen needed to team up to take on Chainsaw Man. This is what makes it such a brilliant opportunity for Fujimoto to highlight one of the four Horsewomen being humble on her knees, looking up at Pochita, because this is the scariest we've ever seen him.
The other thing this chapter does is that it plays on the whole irony of the situation. There are no mouths in this world, yet we see Yoru has figuratively bitten off more than she can chew with this battle. Chainsaw Man is at a point right now where he is erasing every concept of humanity that comes into contact with him, whether it be the humans who try to attack him, hence it was self-defense, to previously the Mouth Devil, and now you have Yoru, Katana Man, and the Aging Devil all being bodied by Pochita. This imagery gets even more beautiful when you realize that with no mouth to convey the words or the thoughts being shown, it's up to readers to look at the eyes and the body language of the characters. And that shot of Yoru's eyes, they say everything. There are a lot of emotions in that one panel. She has rage against Chainsaw Man, but her body is kneeling down in defeat. Her eyes try to convey the defiance against him when she's looking up at him, yet in pure spite of her situation, she still has a hint of fear. And that goes back to the PTSD that comes from having so many battles against Chainsaw Man and fear from what we know it means to be erased by Chainsaw Man.
Look at how much she cared about the world beginning to remember her name. We've never seen what happened in the past that led to her hating Chainsaw Man so much. We've only gotten small bits and pieces, which this chapter, Fujimoto now has the opportunity to further explore that later on down the line. Now that we see Yoru is scared, this also makes the intention of Pochita very clear here. Pochita, to a degree, he still cares for Denji, obviously. We've established that. Notice he cut the head off of Katana Man, but he does not cut off the head of Yoru. This was intentional. He could have ended her right here if he truly wanted to, but he chose not to do so because he knows Denji caught feelings for Makima. And Yoru is controlling Makima. This whole Chainsaw Man situation is about to get very messy, and I love the idea of it. But we're seeing more of the conflict that it brings to the table. Pochita makes Yoru suffer a little because he respects Denji's feelings for Makima, yet Yoru is well aware of Makima's feelings to Denji, and we see she doesn't care about them or about Makima's well-being, because at the end of the day, the only thing that truly matters to Yoru is, does she get revenge on Chainsaw Man? What does she have to do in order to get that?
As we saw a few chapters ago, she was not above taking control of Makima's body, rubbing one out on Denji, even though she knew how uncomfortable it made Makima, and the fact that Denji and Makima's relationship will never be the same. And it's evident how she's able to be willing to sacrifice Makima's body, even losing an arm because of her hatred towards Chainsaw Man. It's symbolically placing both of them at opposite ends of the spectrum. Makima is on one end, and Denji's on the other end. Yoru is on one end, and Pochita's on the other end.
I like to say that things are getting out of hand, but right now, Yoru has no hands to use. Unlike you, who can use your hand to click on this Chainsaw Man playlist you see on the screen to watch more Chainsaw Man content, or you can click here to watch more videos from Anime Explained.