Summary

By now I’m sure most of you are enjoying the Chainsaw Man anime, which at this point has 2 episodes out. I was going to try to get all of these volume reviews out but I underestimated how much procrastination I’d face this month. We last left on the Safety Protection Squad (SPS- yes I made this nickname) were trapped in a hotel where a devil had manipulated time and space. It offered them an ultimatum; give it Denji and everyone else can live.

Well, our homegirl Kobeni was like “Say less” and pulled out a giant kitchen knife on our boy and was ready to serve him up like a turkey on Thanksgiving. Luckily, Aki and Himeno stopped her, was embarrassingly easy to do so, and decided not to sacrifice him. Aki tries to use his fox devil to swallow the other devil but since the foxes body was too far away, it didn’t work. Himeno tries to use her Ghost devil but that just makes it angrier and larger. Then, it reveals that they basically have to destroy his heart, wherever that is.

We learn more about devils and contracts! Such as, when they use the word ‘Contract” it holds a lot of power and both parties MUST honor the terms of the contract or you die. Also, fiends and devils cannot make contracts with each other. This makes everyone think a liiiittle harder and then Arai takes the bait, suggesting they kill Denji. Power also decides, “This is a fun game, let’s kill Denji!” because she’s Power. So it’s almost majority rule and things are looking grim for Denji. However, Aki and Himeno refuse to make the deal since he figures the devil must benefit somehow if Denji dies so no dice. We also learn the devils name; The Eternity Devil.

So, we’ve got this giant blob of hands and a mouth chasing them, half of them wanna sacrifice Denji, the other half is looking for a way to kill this thing. Aki is hellbent on using his sword but Himeno keeps rejecting the idea. Apparently, if he uses it it will cut his life span down by a huge amount. She seems to team up with Arai and Kobeni to get Denji while Power is just laughing (she’s so chaotic, I love her). Somehow in the shuffle, Aki gets stabbed instead of Denji by Kobeni and he basically states that his only reason is because he needs him to kill the Gun Devil.

Everyone’s really just looking out for themselves and to me that’s hilarious but it works. Aki needs Denji and Power needs Aki (to cook her meals). Denji needs…..? Himeno freaks out, Kobeni still hasn’t come down from her murderous intent, everyone’s loosing it! Then Denji decides to sacrifice himself. Why? He wants his kiss. He goes to fight the devil and defeats it. According to Denji, this makes he and Aki even now.

Denji is fighting the devil and eventually wins! Not gonna lie, he almost had us in the first half, but Denji decided to get serious. In the midst of battle we also got a flashback of Himeno talking to ~~my husband~~ Kishibe. He’s explaining to Himeno how all Devil Hunter’s have a few screws loose but the good ones always die. The theme that resigned with me was in order to go after the gun devil and survive, you gotta be unpredictable, crazy, and a little convoluted on the inside. Once it’s all over though, you can literally seem the +Respect stats go up from everyone to Denji.

Noooow we get to the most iconic part of the chapter. The newbie welcome part which consists of Divison 4’s new recruits, takes place and Denji gets to act on his promise with Himeno about getting a kiss. Aki is only willing to go if the party takes place that week so he can drink with ~~satan~~ Makima. They all talk and introduce themselves, everyone’s eating, the drinks are flowing, etc. Apparently, when Himeno’s drunk, she kisses anyone but that doesn’t deter Denji. He is in a dilemma since he doesn’t want Makima to see him getting kissed but he can’t very well reject it! So it happens but unfortunately for him, Himeno is so drunk she vomits in his mouth midway. Denji swallows it. I’m not showing that so here’s a visual rainbow representation.

Also, important information to note, Denji is 16 (or thinks he is) so I’ll circle back to this in the next few volume reviews on why this makes things even more grim. Arai comforts Denji and then we see he’s with Himeno. She is obviously drunk but tries to come on to Denji. Of course he’s almost swayed but reminds himself of how much he likes Makima and wants her to be his first…ugh. The pair are now eating breakfast together and Himeno realizes, “Ahh, another victim of Makima’s” but then she decides to form an alliance with Denji.

She’ll help him get with Makima if he helps her get with Aki. What could POSSIBLY go wrong? Then, the chapter ends with Makima taking her trip to Kyoto to meet some super important people and ends up getting ambushed by some enemies. So 10/10 chapter for meee.

The new few pages are just scenes of the Safety Division out and about, working and hanging out together. Then we get this weird scene with Kobeni and Arai whre suddenly the citizens around them all have guns. Anyone else thinking Gun Devil is around? Those two have the worst luck, I swear. So, Aki, Denji, Power, and Himeno are eating ramen at a shop and this random man starts talking to them. Low and behold, he pulls out a picture and reveals that his grandfather was actually the man Denji killed in the first volume. Now, if I’m Denji, you ain’t go no proof, I’m denying it! Turns out he works for the Gun devil and shoots Denji. This causes a chaotic panic in the small restaurant and they all begin to fight the mane. Aki uses his Fox Devil which looks like Kurama’s second cousin, and smashes up the place.

Himeno has gotten shot and then a new guy appears who looks similar to Denji but has swords instead of chainsaws sticking out of him. Aki fights him and we get to see his other devil, the Curse devil. I mean we don’t actually “see” it but an outline of it? Anyway, it takes out that Sword devil in like 3 seconds. I’m actually worried by how Aki is powering these devil contracts. Some little girl walks up to them and then the Sword devil pops right back up. Round 2 ensues and Aki gets struck with his sword. Himeno pretty much pleads with Power to save Aki but she refuses. She knows she is no match.

Himeno tries to use her Ghost devil but it ALSO is like “Absolutely not” like good help is hard to find these days. Then Himeno is like “Do this for me and I’ll let you use all of me” and Ghost Devil was like

We get left with this very sad and haunting scene of Himeno losing her arms one by one, I’m guessing for using so much of the devil’s power, and she uses her last words to tell Aki not to die and that she wants him to cry when she dies, but the new girl is rude and interrupts the touching moment having her “Snake” devour her up. Literally the only thing left is her clothes. Someone’s hand, I’m assuming the Ghost devil’s, pulls Denji’s string and turns into his chainsaw form. It’s clear the two enemies are after him because they say the Gun Devil wants his heart. Thus, the final chapter ends with Chainsaws vs Swords!

Characters

We get 1 new character sort of introduced to us and that’s Kishibe!

Kishibe

Highlights

Makima’s “death” scene
Goes into more detail on how contracts work between devils and humans

Conclusion

This volume had a lot of action! I was glad we got to get some more backstory on the contracts and devils. Everything seems to be slowly coming together and I’m excited for these new enemies too. Also, I’m no fool. This isn’t my first rodeo, I know Makima isn’t dead. She seems way too important for the story but I enjoyed that false moment. The gun scene confused me a little but I think maybe whenever the Gun Devil shows up, so do guns? The little short at the end was cute. I still adore Power as my favorite female character. Next volume is definitely going to be intense now with Himeno’s death, Gun devil getting closer and whatever is going on in Kyoto.

If you’d like to purchase this volume, please click the link below!