Transcription
Chainman chapter 177 starts off with a literal bang, with Yoru pointing an index finger at Poach and saying that oh so important word, "Bang!" before an invisible bullet shoots out and hits him in the midsection. Somewhere, the collector PTSD of power fans everywhere, they are screaming in agony at the reminder of what happened to Power when she tried to wish Denji a happy birthday in Chainsaw Man part one, which is a nice callback, one of a few by Fujimoto.
Here we see Fujimoto have Power being hit by bullet after bullet, with the last set of volleys being powerful enough to send him flying backwards. And we have Yoru standing there staring him down like what she's seeing has no effect on her, in spite of Asa standing behind her in the background, directly behind her, clearly troubled by what she's seeing. And she is beginning to have doubts. Asa is wavering. This is only something short, and it doesn't take long to occur, but it's enough to show more seeds being planted for Yoru and Asa having the division that eventually will cause these two to rift at some point during a crucial point in the story.
While Yoru is taking her newfound power via the sacrifices of the Tank Devil and the Gun Devil, saying that they are devils born out of the fear of war that powers her, Asa is the one who takes this a step further and puts things into perspective for us as readers, while also adding to the layers that are building for that eventual break. She asks, "Will killing black chainsaw man, so basically Pochita, will that make Denji's wish get granted?" It's a reminder by Fujimoto that Yoru and Asa want two different things because Fami told them that there was a black Chainsaw Man and a red Chainsaw Man. And Yoru states that that's what Fami told them, but it should be worth noting that the power dynamic between these two and the choice of angles by Fujimoto, it is very intentional on this page. So Yoru never turns around to face her when Asa is voicing her concerns. And she and Asa do have a connection, so she knew what was on her mind before she even asked it, yet she never turns around to face her when she refers to Fami's plan. It's a reminder that Yoru is the one who holds the power currently, and it's a dismissal of Asa's humanity, while also showing the struggle of Asa's character. Yoru is a devil, and she can be heartless, and all too often she is heartless. But Asa is a human, and we're seeing the humanity of her character on display with how she is processing these turn of events, like asking Yoru, "How could you be okay with sacrificing your friend, the Gun and the Tank Devils?"
What we see next is the most heartless reply by Yoru, which is she says, "At the end of the day, children, they are property of their parents to be used as they see fit." On a primal level, she's not wrong. All humans, at the end of the day, exist biologically to pass on their genetics to the next generation, to find a partner who offers good genetics to build stronger offspring, and to prepare those kids to carry on their legacy. Sure, there is love there that is formed over time, but at the end of the day, at the same time, there's this level of selfishness that is there as well. Biologically, Yoru never speaks from a place of love at any point, only selfishness. And it stuns Asa to hear that. And with how quickly Yoru brushes off her humanity and zeroes in on Chainsaw Man to continue their fight, being driven by her own ambitions and desire for revenge to take him down, we see that divide between these two, it is only further growing.
However, in typical Fujimoto fashion, we get the subversion of expectation because instead of getting the ball-busting, gut-wrenching, gut-busting action that we're used to, we have Pochita go from being this other monster that we've seen in the last few chapters who was on a warpath, to now showing some of the sillier sides that we see with Denji's character. This is shown with how quickly Yoru loses sight of him and she can't find him, so she's waving her finger pistol around looking for him. And in typical Denji fashion, he didn't just go anywhere. He went to the place where he saw a woman, this time a woman at the blood drive, which causes her to take off running. And we see Pochita hilariously waving the sign.
But before we can focus too much on all of that, we shift over to Texas in the United States. Which of course, Texas would be the place that Fujimoto chooses out of any state in the United States for this next scene for the impact. Where you see a man who is sitting at his morning table having coffee, and suddenly blood appears at the paws of his dog's feet. All around America, 400,000 Americans who are members of the NPA, the National Pistol Association, which that is a clear pun on the NRA, the National Rifle Association, they all lose a trigger finger.
And to throw even more messaging into it, Fujimoto has Yoru remake the pose of the Statue of Liberty. And we see the cracks that appear on the face of the Statue of Liberty. Basically, instead of holding up a torch, Yoru is holding up a finger pistol. Which that was very clever and very brutal. With this being an anime channel and we're in an election season right now, I'm not going to go too heavy into politics here, but since there is an undertone, it does have to be brought up because it is irresponsible of us to not talk about what the author is intending. So why did Fujimoto choose to meme the NRA, one of the most powerful organizations in the United States politically? As someone who has worked for politicians that have taken money from the NRA, I can tell you they are very powerful. Obviously, America, it has more guns in the hands of people than it has actual citizens. That is a true statistic. He chose Texas as the place for this first shift because in 2021, the state that had the highest number of registered weapons in the United States, it was Texas. And there was a whopping 1 million guns that were there in the hands of citizens. And in 2024, so far right now, Texas is the state with the highest number of guns that has been sold in the United States. In just 2024, over 5.5 million guns have been sold in the United States. In Texas, the second most populated state in the nation, it has led the way by a wide margin.
Based on the crack on the face of the Statue of Liberty, we know where Fujimoto stands on this whole topic of gun violence in America. Which that's been pretty obvious just given that Yuko basically acted like a school shooter back in the Justice Devil Arc. There were clear parallels being drawn there with how Yuko is being handled. And based on where Chainsaw Man is in the timeline, in the 90s, you had Columbine, so you can see where Fujimoto got his ideas from. And he is someone who is not only aware of his cult following in the West, a proud member of Fujimoto's cult, but he is also very attuned to them. And there have been quite a few nods to Western culture. So if Yoru was going to get a power-up, it's funny that she's getting a potential power-up for the Gun Devil from the United States, the country with the highest number of civilian-owned guns per person, with there being nearly 400 million guns in the United States. And the closest country with the number of civilian guns being India with 71 million and China with 49 million. In fact, you can add up the next three countries from India to China and take one more country, and it doesn't total the number of guns the United States have.
The development of Yoru in this chapter, showing the heartless and how maniacal she can be in terms of her character, getting more and more obvious as she's growing more powers and getting stronger, it's a really nice bit of characterization for her. Whereas in the Justice Devil Arc, she alluded to the fact that she was bullied in the devil world. Back when we saw Yoru at her weakest point in Chainsaw Man part two story, she's now the strongest she's ever been, and she is night and day right now in terms of characterization. And Asa, she is the one spiraling as a result of their dynamic and the power, which has a nice touch of writing there. She's bloodthirsty and she's filled with revenge, whereas Asa has grown more of her heart, and she is more into her humanity than we've ever seen her before. Given how big of a threat that the Gun Devil was in part one and how much effort Makima had to go through when it comes to dealing with it, Jesus, the power-ups that Yoru is getting right now, just on a symbolic phase, it is crazy. Which makes her behaviors in this chapter hit that much harder. And if Asa thought that she could change Yoru, we see that this is the exact opposite. Yoru cannot be changed by Asa. But Yoru going deeper into her anger and Asa getting into her emotions and humanity, it was not done by mistake here. We're seeing the opposite side of the dynamic of a human and a devil working together. There's a rift, and I love the writing here. Whereas Denji and Pochita worked together and there was a love and respect there, Asa and Yoru, that's completely different.