There is no one at the funeral but the yakuza boss, very briefly, leaving Denji distinctly alone, wearing only shorts and a thin tank top in the heavy rain, with no one to help or care for him. One of the mob boss’s suggestions is that he sell himself (sexually) to earn the money owed. This is not a kind or gentle spot Denji has found himself in. Yet when faced with the suffering of another creature, the doglike devil Pochita, Denji recognizes the pain and need of another and offers to help! This is a stunning level of compassion in someone to whom very little compassion has been shown. It is only as an afterthought, after Pochita has already begun to drink his blood that Denji makes it a contract, and a loose one at that. So his actions are at once extremely practical, and extremely altruistic in a way that others in similar situations might not be. Denji is lucky to have found Pochita, but Pochita is equally lucky that the person he found was Denji, and not someone who would have slain and sold him in his weakened state.
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Deprivation
Ten years later, when the anime actually opens, Denji has already sold off several body parts to keep himself and Pochita going: an eye, a kidney, one of his testicles, and his only lamentation is that it did not earn more money! Take a moment and live with a world where a child sells body parts to survive. He endures on 1700 yen for a month, and happily fakes eating a cigarette because the 100 yen gained will last him 3 more days. His diet is a plain loaf of bread that he shares with Pochita. Consider briefly what it means to live like this: no school, no friends, no food, no help…ever. No one to talk to except Pochita who won’t answer back and maybe yakuza thugs who unfortunately will and who only seek to use him and make him the butt of their abuse and “jokes”.
The only work he has is extremely dangerous and solitary. He lives well outside of town in a run down shack with broken windows, lies on a pallet without blankets, surrounded by trash and little protection from the elements, and frequently can’t sleep from hunger, but thinks that the worst part of that is that it makes him worry more about money. What are his dreams here? The absolute limit of his fantasy that he considers hopelessly out of reach? That one day he might go on a date and “get with a girl”…so companionship…and to eat bread with jam. And he thinks that the sweetness of both these things, jam and a girlfriend, are far beyond his reach.
Denji goes with Makima because she promises to feed him. She might call him a dog, but he’s used to that, and she’s a lot better looking than the usual mobsters he deals with. He even tries to be savvy and quantify the deal by asking what the food would consist of, that is how innocently he enters this contract. He takes on Aki’s beating for getting above himself by desiring Makima by mentioning the udon AND sausage she gave him to eat. When he is first at Aki’s house, eating bread with ALL the toppings, it is important to realize that this is the absolute fulfillment of a dream and that he thinks he is entirely lucky because of this. Baths…he mentions that he never had friends because he smelled bad. He uses an entire roll of toilet tissue because he’s never had any. These very normal things are absolute luxuries to Denji, and he logically wants to continue in this vein.
Dreams
It is ridiculous to be critical of Denji’s character on the basis that his desires are small or “base”. He has never had an opportunity to dream any bigger. Denji was severely abused, neglected, and alone, so the idea that his desires are small is perfectly understandable. People and even devils relentlessly make fun of Denji for his “ridiculous” dreams and the way he interacts with the world, without taking into account his circumstances and how well he does considering this.
Of course, he fights “unfairly” and kicks Aki repeatedly in the balls…who would have taught him how to fight? What would a fair fight have been when he was a child against yakuza or street thugs? Kicking someone where it counts is logical and just move when you’re facing bad odds, and when was Denji ever facing good ones? But then he carries Aki to safety after he collapses, whereas Aki would have left him alone and hurt in the alley. Who was nobler there?
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It’s not as if Denji isn’t aware of this himself. He realizes that other people have bigger dreams and bigger things to fight for. After his first kill on the Public Safety Unit, he realizes that Aki and the police officers are fighting for big things like revenge and their families and now that he has had jellied toast he needs to move on to something else. It’s just that he lands on boobs next. Why not bigger dreams? He hasn’t lived a life where bigger things, let alone abstract things like grand ideals, have ever been in reach.
Of course, he wants to touch boobs and be “with” a woman. When has anything ever been soft or pleasurable for Denji? Being with someone implies that they want to be with HIM, and that is a novel idea for Denji, who again, has never even had a friend other than Pochita. Pochita gave his life for Denji so that he could fulfill these tiny dreams of peace and normality. Pochita recognized the value of Denji’s desires no matter how small and made it a contract, perhaps so that he could watch Denji’s desires grow.
Desire and Altruism
In part, the story is one of Denji leveling up his desires, almost as if he were a player character in a video game. Food, then boobs, then maybe being together with someone he really likes. Each time along the way, he is offered an opportunity to go for something that is not quite what he wants, and while, for the most part he’s willing to take it (a bird in hand has real meaning when you are as starved for affection as Denji is) the fact that he is able to deny himself and still behave altruistically is amazing, under the circumstances.
He rescues Meowy to cop a feel, yes. But he rescues Meowy mostly because he remembers how it felt to be without Pochita and wonders how Power was able to sleep at night. Rescuing boobs is just easier to say. He jumps into the Infinity Demon’s maw despite being betrayed by almost all his teammates, maybe because Aki gave him a good example of how to sacrifice, maybe because he was promised a kiss at the end of it, but maybe, mostly, because that kind of kind altruism is central to his being. It’s just the outer part that’s rough and ignoble.
Denji’s disappointment with both boobs and his first kiss is mostly based on a lack of understanding of what he really wants, which is based on a lack of any real life experience with relationships. When offered any kind of guidance as to why this is so by Makima or others, he’s able to reassess, redefine his dream and keep going. To insult that as base or ignoble deeply misunderstands a character who is essentially a babe in the woods when it comes to defining and actualizing his own desires due to poverty and neglect. He’s figuring it out. No wonder so many people find him sympathetic. Who hasn’t felt a bit lost in figuring out what you want in the long or short run, let alone understanding why? It’s not surprising at all that Denji’s wants and motivations are “base”. What IS surprising and what makes the character of Chainsaw Man more interesting to watch is how ennobled he is within that, how often in his core demands more than base exchange. Pochita was right to trust in Denji’s dreams and to want to see where they’ll lead.
Death
Denji’s reaction to the deaths of his teammates could be seen as lacking empathy, but really it is an honest reaction to a lack of interaction and shallow attachment. He’s known these people for a very short time. Although the anime isn’t specific about it, possibly just a matter of weeks. It’s hardly surprising that while he’s a bit disturbed, he’s not sobbing like Aki is over a comrade in arms, someone who taught Aki to smoke, and with whom he’s fought for years.
It would be almost pathological if Denji was completely destroyed by the death of someone he almost hooked-up with, and yet Denji is self-aware enough to wonder if his reaction is normal. This isn’t a sociopathic or even a callous reaction, it’s a normal and healthy one in abnormal circumstances. He was going to take all the apples, but he considers Aki, and afterwards, makes sure to leave him one, which, given his starvation background, is a kindness that Power, whom he’s often compared to, wouldn’t do. When faced with his new instructor, he doesn’t mince words about his motivations, not because he’s bad, not because he’s stupid, but because he’s completely guileless in an almost childlike way. He has never learned social niceties, and therefore answers honestly. As a character, Denji is not ignorant, he’s underdeveloped, not in concept but in actuality. Chainsaw Man is childlike, and as a result Denji’s wants are simple and pure. More importantly, so far, his heart, and Pochita, are in the right place.
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