Characters in Chainsaw Man - Denji

Denji / Chainsaw Man

Voiced by: Kikunosuke Toya (Japanese), Ryan Colt Levy (English) ^{Foreign VAs}
Child Denji voiced by: Marina Inoue (Japanese), Ciarán Strange (English), Marta Argota (European Spanish), Estelle Darazi (French)
Played by: Naotake Tsuchiya (JP stage play, human form), Masahide Tada/Yutaka Nakasone (JP stage play, Devil form)^note

Chainsaw Hybrid (formerly)

"Everybody's after my chainsaw heart! What about my heart?! Denji's heart! Does nobody want that?!"

^{As Chainsaw Man}

"So what if I didn't think it through when I agreed to this gig? I would die to keep this life. Understand me?"

The Hero of Chainsaw Man. Denji was once an orphan independent Devil Hunter working with his Devil pet / best friend, Pochita, in a vain attempt to clear his dead father's debt to a bunch of local yakuza and escape their life of poverty. However, after being killed by the yakuza after their attempt to enlist a Devil of their own goes horribly wrong, Pochita merges with Denji to resurrect him as a half-Devil Henshin Hero with a blood-fuelled Healing Factor and the power to sprout chainsaws out of his limbs and face by pulling a ripcord in his chest. After receiving an ultimatum from the Public Safety Devil Hunting Bureau, Denji quickly accepts for a shot at the better life he’s always dreamt of.

While very immature and easily led on by promises of food, money, and sexual favors, Denji is both far less stupid than he appears and nigh-unbreakably determined to live out his meager dreams.

See also his self-demonstrating page for his own take on the matter.

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A-C

Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Ultimately subverted. After the ordeal with Reze and into Part 2, Denji does his best trying to find a girlfriend, even agreeing in dating Asa Mitaka early on. However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that Denji barely knows anything about Asa and is mainly dating her as a means of trying to fill the hole in his heart from everything that happened to him in Part 1. Chapter 183 shows this to be true, as when Denji finally remembers Reze for the first time in over two years he refers to her as one of the people in his life he loves, which suggests he's still in love with her and his attraction to Asa (and Yoru) is more out of a desire not to be lonely.
Absurd Cutting Power: His primary strength as a combatant, thanks to becoming the eponymous Henshin Hero.
Abusive Parents: His father was an abusive alcoholic who attempted to kill him in a drunken rage, forcing Denji to put him down. The whole event was so traumatic for him that he sealed his memories of killing him deep within his mind for most of his teen years, choosing to believe his father had just hanged himself until Makima forced him to confront the truth.
Achievements in Ignorance:
- His friendship with Pochita was born from one. Denji first met him when the devil was wounded and clearly in pain, and seeing an innocent animal hurting fed Pochita some of his blood so he could heal. Since Pochita's true form is arguably the most powerful Devil in existence thanks to his ability to Ret-Gone things right out of reality, Denji accidentally saved the whole world from being destroyed in Pochita's destructive battle with the Four Horsemen simply because he was a scared little boy who just wanted a friend and risked serious injury or death just to help out a wounded animal in its time of need.
- During his fight with Bomb Girl, Beam observes that Chainsaw Man can extend his chains as long as he wishes, suggesting that Denji use them to travel, presumably meaning that he uses them like grappling hooks to Building Swing. Denji instead uses them as a reins and bridle to saddle Beam up and ride him like a horse. Beam doesn't have the heart to correct him.
- Denji's solution to fighting the Darkness-empowered Doll Devil, who's invincible as long as she stays in the darkness? Light himself on fire so she'll always be illuminated while he's fighting her. His opponent is, understandably, baffled by this strategy. The best part? It works.
- Denji finally defeats Makima for good by cutting her into tiny bite-size pieces and eating her, theorizing that since it doesn't count as an attack if he's doing it to "make her a part of him forever," and therefore won't trigger her Healing Factor. Kishibe theorizes that instead, Denji lucked out and that this strategy was so absurdly specific that it wasn't covered by the terms of Makima's contract.
- In Part 2, a Justice Devil contractor tries to get a leg up over Denji in their fight by scanning his mind to figure out his strategy. She's downright incredulous when she realizes that Denji isn't even thinking about the fight and instead all his attention is focused on figuring out a way to blow his own cover without making it look like he's doing it on purpose.
- Much later in Part 2, the Fake Chainsaw Man melds people into his body to deters Denji's attacks, in particular have one man pop out right under his weak point. Denji deals with by forgetting that one guy, destroying the weak point, and calling it a win to have rescued all the other hostages.
- In the revised timeline, Denji accidentally saves Asa from her bullying problem retroactively by stopping her from tripping and killing Bucky, allowing her to properly socialize with her classmates. Ironically, he also saved her by arriving too late to save her teacher from the Devil rampaging at her school, preventing the Class President from attempting her Murder the Hypotenuse plan later. However, due to their memories of the previous timeline having been erased, he has no idea of the change he made in her life.
Adaptational Badass: The anime adaptation expands several of his fight sequences, so even if he loses the overall fight, he looks way more badass.
- Though in both versions he ends up being killed by the Zombie Devil's zombies, in the manga he gets caught almost instantly, whereas in the anime he briefly outruns them despite having been stabbed in the back and even has the strength to knock over a crate which causes a zombie to trip and fall.
- His brief scuffle with the Leech Devil is turned into a full blown fight. In the manga he was too exhausted to put up a long enough fight and it just ended with him running into its tongue. The anime has him run on its arms to outmaneuver its attacks, briefly tie its legs together with the Bat Devil's intestines to get a hit in, and hide under the Bat's organs in a failed attempt to ambush it.
Addled Addict:
- Denji's development in the Chainsaw Man Church arc of Part 2 can arguably be read as a hopeless adrenaline addict trying to change for the sake of his loved ones, only for him to relapse due to his lack of a support system. Throughout the arc, both Yoshida and Fumiko make it entirely clear that turning into Chainsaw Man is a horrible idea which will hurt Denji and his loved ones. Although Denji tries to give up Chainsaw Man when Nayuta's life is threatened, ultimately he's too traumatized, broken, and self-loathing to give up the adrenaline rush and attention of Chainsaw Man. Although one could certainly argue that Denji was justified in transforming when he did, given that Barem just murdered all of his pets, it's worth noting that Denji decided that he wanted to be Chainsaw Man before he arrived at the house. He was going to transform regardless; Barem merely gave him an excuse to do so, an interpretation which is supported by Denji's disturbingly gleeful behavior during the fight. Yoshida's dialogue to Denji in chapter 156 seems to support this interpretation somewhat. Yoshida makes it clear to Denji that he had done everything he could have done for Denji within reason, but at the end of the day, Yoshida can't protect Denji from the consequences of his own self-destructive behavior. It comes across as highly akin to someone trying to help their friend with an addiction, only to give up and leave them to their own destruction after their friend repeatedly refuses to be helped.
Denji: [thinking] I'm the worst, aren't I, Pochita? They burned down my home... with my pets inside it, and I...
Denji: [out loud] I feel like a million bucks. Thanks to you guys, I get to be Chainsaw Man.
- By Chapter 231, Pochita even realizes this, that his actions in becoming Denji's heart has made Denji's life far worse than it was back when he was living in poverty and Denji is so addicted to being Chainsaw Man that he's caused Denji to regress his behavior to becoming more self-destructive. Realizing being Chainsaw Man is the root cause of all his trauma, Pochita erases himself from existence to give Denji a fresh start and a chance at true happiness, even if it means he'll never remember his best friend ever again.
Adoptive Peer Parent: At the end of Part 1, Denji, who's at least 17 by then, adopts Nayuta, who is a newborn but physically resembles a young child.
Aggressive Submissive: Very much so. Though loud, selfish, and violent to men, he's much shyer and kinder to women and loves when they tease and hit on him. Partly this is because, as strong as his sex drive is, he lacks the confidence in his social skills to be sexually forward.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In Part 2, when he and Nayuta are kidnapped by Yoshida's organization, he offers to tongue Yoshida's butthole for a week in return for being let go.
All for Nothing:
- He raises Nayuta with love the best he can throughout Part 2, to which she becomes a much better person compared to Makima, even resolving to stop being Chainsaw Man for good for her sake, which ends up being too little, too late as Barem had already figured out where he lived. By the time he loses his home and all his pets and gives in to his destructive behavior, Denji turns into Chainsaw Man once again, resulting in Nayuta having to sacrifice herself to save him, making everything Denji has done to ensure her safety for nothing.
- His Quest for Sex ends up being completely fruitless, as even though Yoru (and supposedly Asa) gave him consent to have sex with her, Denji is Eaten Alive by plague Devils minutes later, much to his annoyance when he wakes up to Pochita in his Dying Dream. Pochita then tells him that it's a good thing that he didn't get to make that dream come true, as it wouldn't have fulfilled him Even in the revised timeline there's no indication that he got any luck with girls.
- His quest to gain control over his own life and think for himself without someone else controlling him was also rendered moot in Part 2, as he lost his family and was used as a tool to erase either Death or War by most of his peers for most of Part 2, culminating in Pochita making the final decision to erase himself for him and strip him of all of his agency and memories of his previous life, returning him back to his life as a slave for the Yakuza. Once he was saved from the Zombie Devil, he was forced into a contract with both Power and Nayuta that turned him into their servant, though they seemed to have a relatively close relationship in spite of this.
All Men Are Perverts: A series-long Deconstruction. Denji's overactive libido forms much of the comedy in the early parts of the story and at first seems pretty typical for shounen, but soon it becomes clear that what he really craves is intimacy, of any kind, and his abusive upbringing left him with only the shallowest idea of what that entails. The women who enter his life are too emotionally dysfunctional themselves to explain this and in fact often exploit his eagerness to take sexual advantage of him, leaving him much more emotionally muted by the end of Part 1 as he becomes less trusting of strangers. It gets much worse in Part 2 when he ends up with Asa and Yoru, as the former is too neurotic to express her feelings towards him and the latter sexually assaults him when he's at his most vulnerable. As his limited support network is taken away and the trauma of all these experiences piles up, Denji eventually starts to blame himself for being unable to let go of his "perversion" — which in reality is perfectly normal for a man his age, just manipulated by the people around him — and loses the will to live completely.
Ambiguously Human: In Chapter 232, the Denji created from the revised timeline isn't revived by Pochita, but rather by Power, who recognizes him as a human but still manages to revive him with blood like a Devil would. A shot of his heart also shows that Pochita is inexplicably still in there, unless it was just a visual, but his eye appears to have never healed, as he still has his eyepatch around a year after being rescued. Notably, Power says that he smells like a dog even though he didn't have any pets in this timeline.
Ambition Is Evil: Inverted. Rather then a desire for more from life then he could ever possibly need being used to illustrate his malevolence, Denji’s hunger for the basic amenities he was denied in childhood is one of his most sympathetic qualities.
Amicable Exes: A variant. Though they didn't date for long, Denji attacks the Falling Devil more frantically during their fight in Part 2 when she mentions how she intends to harm Asa Mitaka.
An Arm and a Leg: Katana Man cuts off both of his arms during their second fight, removing access to his arm chainsaws. This doesn't save him from Denji's chainsaw legs, though.
Animal Lover: Despite being completely broke in the first chapter, he shares his only loaf of bread with his "dog" Pochita, and he says that his biggest regret if he died would be leaving him alone. He also adopts Power and Makima's pets after their deaths, and in his introduction in Part 2, he causes the deaths of several people so he can save a cat, despite telling Power a year prior that he hated cats. Furthermore, while trying to encourage Asa not to give up on life, Denji's first instinct is to bring up cats and dogs before moving the topic to sex. He also really likes penguins.
Animal Motifs: Dogs. Beyond fusing with a Devil with the appearance and demeanor of one, he's got many of the traits of one, being quick to violence when prompted, prone to hormonal outbursts, and being completely subservient to someone as long as they give him food and shelter.
Annoying Younger Sibling: He gets in on the action with Power in annoying Aki once their Family of Choice dynamic begins to settle in.
Anti-Hero: Denji is driven primarily by material wants and only became a Devil Hunter for the sake of fulfilling them. Most of his heroism throughout Part 1 is motivated by the desire to keep Public Safety paying for his nice new apartment and food, though he still dislikes the idea of civilians dying on his watch and usually goes out of his way to keep them safe in the middle of a fight. Part 2 takes this further thanks to Denji losing the Sympathetic P.O.V. to Asa. Without it, a lot of his behavior (such as scamming homeless people with recycled cigarettes, letting others use him as furniture for money, and eating cake with his bare hands rather than a fork) makes him look like a pathetic loser who'll do anything to make a quick buck, said idea being enough for Asa to decide on using him to make a weapon out of someone she cares for, as he's nowhere near a "good" person she'd hate to do it to, but he isn't "evil" enough that she wouldn't want to associate with him in the first place.
Anti-Regeneration: The chainsaw he made with Power's blood nullifies Makima's Healing Factor. It's still there, but it's slowed down enough that Denji can finish her off.
The Artful Dodger: A trait that he likely learnt from the Yakuza. Denji is very Street Smart and opportunistic and knows how to scam people. The first time he meets Pochita, he exploits his near-death state and offers him some of his own blood, before making a contract with him after Pochita has bitten into him, recruiting the Devil to help him pay his debt. He still has traits of this as late as Part 2, where he scams homeless people with recycled cigarette butts. His life on the streets has also taught him to be a Combat Pragmatist and to always aim for the nuts during combat, enough to take down the more experienced fighter Aki by catching him off guard twice.
Artificial Hybrid: Denji became a Devil-human hybrid after Pochita fused with his heart.
Ax-Crazy: Has shades of this. Denji most of the time acts like your typical teenager, but transforming into Chainsaw Man in battle has him going cackling mad when tearing through his enemies. It could be his way of coping with the pain the transformation does to his body. He becomes even worse once the happy civilian life he's made for himself and Nayuta is brutally crushed by Barem.
Back from the Dead: Thanks to fusing with Pochita, Denji is functionally immortal as long as he gets even a drop of blood. He's come back from being stabbed in various vital organs, shot in the head, blown up, reduced to a torso, and chopped to pieces. While training with Kishibe, he was killed apparently 20 times in a single day, only to come back just fine.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Wears the full Public Safety Bureau uniform to disguise himself during his final battle with Makima at the end of Part 1.
Badass in Distress:
- Antagonists recognize him as the largest threat among the protagonists and work to disable him before moving on to the rest, leaving his allies to rescue Denji or protect him long enough for him to recover.
- At the end of the Chainsaw Man Church arc in Part 2, Denji is betrayed and imprisoned by Public Safety.
Badass Normal: Starts the series as one. He briefly becomes this at the end of Part 1 again to fool and defeat Makima. In Part 2, he's ambushed by a small army of thugs while in human form and utterly thrashes them without using his powers. In the new timeline, he demonstrates how skilled he is on his own when he survives countless encounters with Devils while working for the Yakuza and later Public Safety despite not having Pochita around to help him.
Barrier Maiden: His emotional well-being is basically the only thing holding back the Control and Chainsaw Devils from continuing their fight with each other, which will result in either one of the most dangerous Devils in existence conquering the world and erasing anything that could possibly threaten their new position, or all forms of control (such as every form of government or the laws of physics) never existing. Part 2 goes on to show how vitally important it is that Denji be safe and happy, because when he crosses the Despair Event Horizon for a third time and Pochita takes over again, the Hero of Hell immediately starts erasing things like the ears and mouths of all life on the planet just because they indirectly hurt Denji in the past.
Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe example. In Part 2, Chainsaw Man is a hotly debated figure; one half of Japan loves and adores him and the other half hates him for being a Devil and the amount of property damage his battles involve, and the rest thinks he's American propaganda and doesn't really exist. In the aftermath of the Falling Devil arc, public opinion starts to sway as Denji's popularity starts waning. By Chapter 146, it's all but guaranteed Denji's on his way to becoming a malignant figure in the eyes of the public as part of Fami's plans involve boosting the Chainsaw and War Devils' powers by increasing people's fears toward them and turning followers of the Chainsaw Man Church into facsimiles in his image and wreaking havoc.
Batman Gambit: Knowing it was practically impossible to defeat Makima head-on, Denji relied on her obsession with Chainsaw Man to take her down. Using Pochita as a decoy, Denji hid himself among Makima's puppets and struck her down when she least expected it with a chainsaw made of Power's blood.
Batman Grabs a Gun: In Chapter 185, Denji knowingly attacks one of his fellow prisoners in the Aging Devil's domain so he can eat some of their organs, marking the first time in the series when he has bit into a living human for their blood rather than a Devil or a medical bag (though this isn't fatal, even if they might want it to be). Despite hating the idea of being a cannibal, Denji reluctantly does this to remotely heal Pochita as their stomachs are still linked together despite the metaphysical distance, and his friend is the only one who can save the children that the Aging Devil is holding hostage.
Beautiful Tears: When he asks why Yoru kissed him again in Aging’s world, her response is that he looks cute when he cries.
Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Played for laughs. One of Denji's main goals in Part 2 is to get a girlfriend, preferably by exposing himself as Chainsaw Man as he thinks it will be a surefire way to get attention from girls. He sort of gets his wish with Fumiko Mifune, a Public Safety Devil Hunter assigned by Yoshida to be his bodyguard who claims to be interested in him because he is the infamous Chainsaw Man. Unfortunately, she's also incredibly obnoxious towards him, killing any sort of feelings he could've had and leaving him more annoyed by the situation than anything. Their first meeting probably didn't help.
- On a more serious case, his attempts to be recognized as Chainsaw Man and get a girlfriend begins biting him hard when he sees the sheer fanaticism of the Cult that exists around Chainsaw Man that formed in part due to his reckless abandon are committed to interfering with him having any chance of a normal life so he can be Chainsaw Man full-time, up to leveling a threat to kill Asa Mitaka, in hopes that destroying the one desire he has will fulfill their insane obsession with his other identity.
- In an even more serious example, Denji wished all the way back in Chapter 1 to live a normal life. Despite this, his new life as Chainsaw Man prevented him from being normal, and stunted his relationships with every person he grew to care for, so Pochita chose to give him what he always wished for, and erase himself from his life and revert him back to a normal human, leaving Denji heartbroken before he's forced to forget his closest friend.
Because You Were Nice to Me:
- Denji is forever loyal to Makima for being the first person in his whole life to compliment him and hug him. Makima being a pretty lady certainly helps, but Denji fully acknowledges that, while Makima may be hot, that's far from the only thing he admires her for. This motivation extends to the Public Safety 4th Division, and he works for them because they treat him to an apartment and food.
- He falls for Reze and almost runs away with her because of this. Unlike Makima and Public Safety, Reze seemed to be the first person since Pochita to like Denji for being Denji rather than what he could provide for her as the Chainsaw Man. This makes him momentarily forget about the whole "forever loyal to Makima" thing above and risk everything just because Reze's kindness vastly outclassed what his co-workers and boss had given him.
Being Good Sucks:
- Learning to love and care for those around him only ends up bringing Denji a lot of sadness and misery as he loses them just as quickly as he gets to know them. This is especially true when he enters an intense Heroic BSoD after having to kill the closest thing he has to a brother to save an entire neighborhood.
- This further ends up biting Pochita/Chainsaw Man in the ass as Denji's heroic deeds has caused the Chainsaw Man to be revered by humanity as their savior from Devils, substantially decreasing the fear that powers him and weakening him.
The Berserker: As you can expect with someone with chainsaws sprouting out of his arms, Denji naturally fights in a savage and frenetic manner that always results in gallons of gore in his wake. Subverted later on however as he starts to become downright analytical in fighting particularly powerful enemies such as the Santa Claus and the Control Devil. However this trait comes back in full force after Barem and the Chainsaw Man Church burn down Denji and Nayuta's apartment. The results speak for themselves.
Berserk Button:
- After the ending of Part 1, trying to be too controlling over his decisions. He appears willing to tolerate a date at the aquarium with Asa even when she keeps droning on and on forever about marine life facts, right until the moment where she tells him "you don't need to think about a thing"... unknowingly repeating, almost word-for-word, what Makima said to him before forcing him to become her slave. Unsurprisingly, he snaps that he can think for himself and immediately walks off in a huff.
- If someone hurts Pochita, it's best that they make sure that Denji is indisposed, because he's willing to go so far as to kill and cannibalize the woman he loves if it means protecting his best friend.
Better with Non-Human Company: Barring a few exceptions like Aki and Asa (who are initially disgusted by him), and Reze (who didn't have anyone before meeting him), Denji's lack of social skills and the fact that his Only Friend for years was a Devil who behaved like a dog around him cause him to generally get along better with Devils and animals than people; Meowy, the Shark Devil, and Makima's dogs all warm up to him quickly, and he can easily get along with Yoru, Power, and Nayuta due to his lack of moral standards concerning the people he surrounds himself with and his lack of fear for Devils. In Part 2, he also sleeps on the floor huddled together with all his pets, prioritizes the life of cats (which he didn't even like at first) over those of humans, and he has a really hard time getting along with people as he defaults to having transactional friendships with them.
Be Yourself: It becomes quite apparent that a lot of Denji's problems are primarily because of his inability to properly be himself, and instead be the roles that everyone else places on him, mainly as the Devil superhero Chainsaw Man. When he is being himself, as in the loveable horny teenager with a heart of gold that genuinely cares for others, he's shown to be rewarded with family, friends, and potential Love Interests that actually love him for being him, and it's apparent that he has a very positive effect on others when not seeking approval or affection. Pochita realizes that Denji's reliance on being Chainsaw Man to escape from trauma rather than see his own self-worth outside of that aspect of himself has effectively ruined his life and ability to grow as a person, causing him to erase himself and all instances of Chainsaw Man from existence so that Denji has the chance to earn a happy life based on his own strengths and flaws rather than what he can provide for others with his bond with Pochita.
Big Brother Instinct:
- After the International Assassins arc, Denji becomes more patient and caring towards Power after she is traumatized by their trip to Hell. Notice how they barely bicker like they usually did in prior story arcs.
- While it comes after treating her quite cruelly, Denji is nevertheless only motivated to start attacking the angry mob lynching him when one of them pushes Nayuta aside.
Bittersweet Ending: Upon the finale of Part 2, Denji loses Pochita and all his memories from his adventures throughout the series and ends back in the shack working for the Yakuza with his heart condition. However, Power shows up and kills the Zombie Devil and the Yakuza saving Denji with a contract between the two saving him from death. He's forced to join Public Safety again but this time under Nayuta, and while Denji will likely never remember his loved ones (though Asa seems to spark a memory in him when she calls him Chainsaw Man), and he still laments not having gone to school, he's much happier than he was prior and gets to live a much healthier lifestyle than he ever did and gets to hang out with his best friend Power for comfort.
Black Bug Room: First seen in Chapter 38, and then opened in full during the final act of Part 1. It resembles his childhood home where he was abused by and eventually killed his father.
Bleed 'Em and Weep: Does this after killing Aki... and it only gets worse from there.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: He's the Blonde to Aki's Brunette and Power's Redhead.
Blood Iron: His contract with Power lets him create a chainsaw out of her blood. This lets him get the killing blow on Makima after he briefly splits himself from Pochita in a Death or Glory Attack.
Blood Knight: Zig-Zagged. He revels in fighting and killing to no end when in his Devil form, coming off as a deranged sadist in his most ruthless moments. However, he doesn't show this behavior regularly and is content to leave others alone if left alone. On the other hand, when in an extremely depressed slump after a series of confidence-crushing events occur one after the other, getting attacked by a small army of goons as the capper to a Honey Trap doesn't break Denji's resolve, but actually strengthens it, as he proceeds to go One-Man Army on them in human form with a beaming smile on his face, implying that part of him is eager for violence as a means of venting regarding the shittier parts of his life. Taken to frightening levels in chapter 152, where his return as Chainsaw Man is marked by increasingly brutal and even sadistic behavior where he not only tears apart the Weapon Hybrids but also cannibalizes them when they're down, even comparing the entire thing to a relaxing massage. And then there's his unusually cold behavior to Nayuta, telling her outright to piss off and leave.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Thanks to his upbringing and subsequent trauma as an official Devil Hunter, Denji develops a rather skewed perspective on right and wrong. In Part 2, when given a choice between saving a teenager or a car full of elderly people, he chooses to Take a Third Option by killing the devil who tried to force him into this dilemma and saving a cat instead. Although, this is perhaps best exemplified by his belief that eating Makima piece by piece to defeat her was an act of love.
Book Dumb: An Idiot Hero par excellence for sure, but it's repeatedly demonstrated that Denji's stupidity is the inevitable consequence of him being robbed of anything remotely approaching a stable upbringing. Several times he's shown to be actually rather quick-witted and insightful when he needs to be, even outwitting incredibly dangerous opponents like Bomb Girl, Doll Woman, and Makima who all things considered should be much smarter than him.
Bookends:
- His first and last battles in Part 1 involve him sneaking up on a Devil and defeating it with a chainsaw.
- His first and last attempts to become Chainsaw Man have him face a horde of enemies and pull out his cord as he tells them to Prepare to Die if they get in his way. He fumbles the latter one as he's eaten before he can finish the sentence.
Boring, but Practical: He transforms by pulling the cord on his chest. It looks rather silly and just dangles out most of the time, but it's a lot more convenient than how other Hybrids transform, and he didn't have to sacrifice any limbs or sensory organs like hands or eyes.
Born Unlucky: Good Lord is he. Since the time he was born, it seems the world was out to make Denji miserable, being forced into the Yakuza as their money ticket for most of his childhood, forced to work for Public Safety to kill the Gun Devil by Makima, losing his surrogate family at the end of Part 1 at the hands of the woman he loved, who orchestrated the whole ordeal, and losing his family again halfway through Part 2 at the hands of a follower of said woman. Even his love life doesn't fare much better, as he rightfully puts it, every single girl he meets or shows interest in tries to kill him. He has a little more luck with his male friends, but even then all of them either treat him like dirt at first or betray him. By the time of Part 2, he's so worn out by this all he's actually begun to give up ever finding love and will take any form of attention, even letting Yoru do whatever with him because of his loss of Nayuta.
Brains Evil, Brawn Good: His relationship and final battle with Makima at the end of Part 1 amounts to this, with Denji as the Book Dumb but incredibly strong Chainsaw Man contrasting Makima as the scheming, manipulative Evil Genius. In the end, Denji overcomes this and defeats his almighty, abusive crush by outsmarting her with Pochita's help.
Break the Cutie: Denji may be a crude and selfish boy who thinks with his dick most of the time, but he's also a lonely street urchin who just wants genuine love and a normal life where he doesn't have to risk his life every day. He almost gets his wish in Part 1, after years of being constantly exploited and taken advantage of by others... only for it to be cruelly and coldly taken apart in front of his very eyes, culminating in him being forced to kill his best friends/surrogate family and the reveal that his Love Interest orchestrated the whole thing specifically to destroy him emotionally, resulting in him having to kill and eat her. By the start of Part 2, he's become very closed off and cynical as a result of his loved ones constantly dying and/or breaking his trust, and things only get worse for him from there.
Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: His father turned out to be an abusive drunk that Denji had to kill in self-defense. Makima, while a Love Interest, had multiple signs of being a maternal figure for him and ended up mentally and emotionally destroying him. So when he adopts Nayuta, the new Control Devil, he does his best to raise her with love and care in the hopes of preventing another Makima from being born. There are some bumps in that road, but Nayuta so far seems be a much better person than her predecessor.
Bridal Carry: Carries Asa like this when he and her are being chased by the caterpillar-like Devil's tentacles.
Brought Down to Badass: At Yoshida and Public Safety's insistence, Denji abstains from transforming into Chainsaw Man for the duration of the Chainsaw Church arc. The fact that he can't transform does not mean he is a safe opponent to fight, after at least 40 grown men found out too late when they ambushed him and Fumiko at a karaoke bar with baseballs and were swiftly beaten to a bloody pulp without scoring a single hit on Denji.
Brought Down to Normal: Pochita erasing himself has the effect of returning Denji to what's implied to be a normal human. Though he's still revived through a contract with Power and is later implied to still have part of Pochita inside of him, he now requires the former's weapons to fight, and the eye he sold at the beginning of the series never healed.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When the Fire Devil reveals the true identity of Fakesaw Man to be the twin brother of the student he let die to save a cat in his battle against the Cockroach Devil, Denji genuinely doesn't remember him, much to the Fire Devil's disappointment as they were the ones who raised it and they looked up to him as a hero of justice, so his death served as motivation for Fakesaw Man to hunt him down for revenge.
…But He Sounds Handsome: In Part 2, Denji won't stop singing Chainsaw Man's praises while denying or downplaying any of his prior transgressions when asked about him, if only to achieve his new goal of becoming a superhero with a secret identity so that he can attract the ladies. Despite how obvious it is, no one not already in the know thus far has caught on to the truth, instead thinking that he's just a Loony Fan.
Call-Back: His comeback in the final events of Part 1, after Makima completely destroyed his spirit, Power sacrifices all of her remaining blood to save Chainsaw Man's dying body inside a dumpster, just like the one Denji first died in at the beginning of the series; the scene where Denji wakes up calling for a already gone Power is framed the exact same way he did when calling for Pochita who became his heart.
- Part 2 has numerous instances of this to Part 1, from some of Denji's old enemies to similar story beats. For example, at around the same chapter count he was bisected in Part 1 by Samurai Sword, he is similarly torn in half by the Falling Devil in Part 2.
Came Back Strong: In chapter 1, Denji is cut into pieces by a mob of yakuzas turned zombies. However, he's made a contract with Pochita earlier who made Pochita able to take over Denji's body after his death, since he didn't expect to live long. Pochita merges with him and resurrects him, giving him chainsaw powers and the abilities of a devil.
Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest:
- A justified case as Denji is smart enough to know that Makima will likely not appreciate it if he was open about just wanting to touch her boobs. This ends up being used to manipulate him more as Makima assures him that she's fine with knowing that he is attracted to her, and even goes as far as letting him grope her to lure him into a false sense of hope.
- Subverted in regards to Reze. He only ever sees her in a sexual light after she strips naked in front of him, but it only occurs all but once and by this point of his Character Development, he'd learned to understand the distinction between physical and romantic attraction.
- Played with in regards to Asa Mitaka. The first time he sees her in her underwear, Denji being Denji spends an entire page staring at her exposed body. But despite his desperation to have a girlfriend in Part 2, he doesn't do anything to pressure Asa or make her uncomfortable, and sex doesn't even seem to register as any kind of desirable outcome throughout their time together.
Can't Live Without You: Due to his hereditary cardiac condition from his mother (and being murdered at the end of Chapter 1), Pochita fuses with him, becoming his heart. In possibly the most-selfless contract known, Pochita will sustain him if he follows his dreams, but Denji cannot live without his devil best friend now.
Can't Stay Normal: A rather depressing theme of Denji's throughout the series is that his desire for a "normal life" (both what he considers "normal" and what everyone else does) is constantly yanked away from him just when it looks to be within arms' reach. In Part 1, Makima purposely gave him a glimpse of happiness and then brutally rip it away from him in her plans to separate Denji from Pochita. In Part 2, Hirofumi and Fumiko try to give Denji a normal life (which Denji finds incredibly poor and boring) by making him agree not to become Chainsaw Man again in exchange for not going after Nayuta. Unfortunately for him, Fami's plan involves turning Chainsaw Man and Asa Mitaka into Public Enemy #1 so as to strengthen the Chainsaw and War Devils in preparation for the Death Devil's arrival on Earth. This one is arguably worse in that Denji's initial idea of normalcy involved him lavishing in attention and praise from his fans. Chapter 150 reinforces this with Barem burning down his and Nayuta's apartment with their pets still inside to force Denji into becoming Chainsaw Man again regardless of what Denji wants. With that said, its clear that Denji wants to be Chainsaw Man as much as he wants to live a normal live. He intially refuses to give up being chainsaw Man, confident he can live both lives, but eventually acquiesces out of fear of Nayuta's life. The chapters afterwards show him unhappy with his normal life, finding it incredibly dull and boring and resenting how Asa gains the adoration he once had. He increasingly finds the normal life to not be what he imagines and agonises over his conflicting desires, with the conversations between Pochita and Denji making it clear Denji still wants to be Chainsaw Man. After Barem burns down his apartment and Denji transforms into Chainsaw Man, he says he feels like "a million bucks" despite his home burning down and his pets dying and becomes exhilarated with the violence and power, and even tells Nayuta she shouldn't be around him anymore. Eventually, Denji comes to seriously regret his decision.
Can't Take Criticism: Denji's first conversation with Asa ends poorly because of her critical view of Chainsaw Man, which Denji is quick to protest against.
Cartwright Curse: Poor Denji. The kid does not have good luck when it comes to women - as he himself laments during his fight with Bomb Girl, every cute girl he's ever met has either lied to him and manipulated him, tried to kill him, or both, and things don't usually end well for the women in question either - Himeno (who takes his first kiss) dies fighting the Snake Devil, Reze is killed by Makima specifically to cement her control over Denji, Power is pointlessly killed by Makima right in front of Denji on his birthday, and Denji himself laments with some disgust at the end of Part One that he still loves Makima, despite how she systematically destroyed his life and the fact that he's already killed and eaten her. The guy simply cannot catch a break in his love life. Things don't get much better for him in Part 2. The first time a girl asks him out on a date, it's because she, Asa Mitaka, is planning to turn him into a living weapon - so she can use it to kill Chainsaw Man. Hard to say whether the fact that she bombs spectacularly at making herself appealing to him makes things better or worse for him, especially with the added irony that she ends up developing a legitimate crush on him afterwards. The situation is also not helped by Nayuta sabotaging their date because she doesn't trust Asa and knows about Denji's history.
Celebrity Superhero: Though Denji himself remains a public unknown, the Chainsaw Man becomes the world's most famous and loved Devil Hunter, even receiving (unlicensed) merchandise. Makima deliberately let the news get out to rob Pochita of the fear the name "Chainsaw Man" provides him. But this also backfires by giving Denji motivation to keep carrying the name on, even if he has to kill Makima to do it. In Part 2, he schemes to eventually push the public's attention to his true identity, thinking that exposing his identity as Chainsaw Man will make him attractive to girls.
Chain Pain: He can take the chains off his chainsaw arms to tie up his enemies and prevent them from escaping.
Chainsaw Good: Goes without saying. Denji's chainsaws are powerful weapons that he typically swings around and stabs enemies with to shread their flesh, but he can also perform a Clean Cut if he puts his mind to it. His main chainsaws are on the head and arms, but he can summons two more in his legs.
Chairman of the Brawl: When Asa threatens him into killing her before Yoru takes over again in Chapter 195, Denji obliges not with his chainsaws or by throwing her off of the tall building whose roof they're standing on, but by grabbing one of the chairs they were sitting to try and bash her brains in with it.
Character Development:
- He matures from a manic, hedonistic horndog to a tired but experienced Knight in Sour Armor. His desire for a normal life leads to many hardships and losses, but in the end he comes to accept that it's just how the world is, and the best he can do is to keep dreaming and to show kindness where it was previously absent to make life just a little bit better. He's ultimately rewarded for his efforts with a surrogate daughter/sister that becomes very affectionate to him.
- Denji starts off as someone with very simplistic goals and wants in life, aspiring to be taken care of by someone else almost entirely. By the end of Part 1, he tearfully confesses to Kishibe and Kobeni that he wants more out of life than just “eating bread” and “touching boobs” but rather wants steak and having sex with a hot girl. He also learns to handle life on his own while also caring for someone else… who just so happens to be the reincarnation of the woman he fell in love with.
- Part 1 concerned his lack of control over his own life, as he was constantly the pawn of multiple people especially Makima. In Part 2, he's become much more mature and individualistic, refusing to let the likes of Yoshida and Asa take control over him, whether it be preventing him from eating cake or ordering him to blindly follow along a tightly scheduled date.
  Denji: I decided... to think about stuff in my own way, y'know!
  - By the time of Part 2, Denji is shown to have gone a bit too far in the other direction, where he refuses to compromise his newfound individualism even when doing so would be better for him and his loved ones. When Yoshida offers Denji an ultimatum between Nayuta's safety and being Chainsaw Man, Denji persistently chooses both. Yoshida makes it clear that he's not kidding and Nayuta will be put in danger if he continues to be Chainsaw Man, but Denji simply rejects the terms of the decision altogether, much to Yoshida's bafflement. Denji eventually does reluctantly decide to quit being Chainsaw Man for Nayuta's sake but is shown to be unhappy with his normal life and yearns to be Chainsaw Man once more. After Barem burns down his home and kills his pets, Denji makes the choice to be Chainsaw Man again and relishes doing so, to the point of telling Nayuta to stay away from him. He comes to seriously regret it.
- Played for darkly humorous laughs in Chapter 119. When Yoru-in-Asa's body unexpectedly kisses him, he keeps his mouth tightly shut against her lips and doesn't use his tongue. Clearly, he remembered how his last two kisses went and is not taking chances this time.
- The one thing that can get him to drop his quest for a girlfriend is Nayuta's wellbeing; he's quickly willing to go along with Nayuta erasing her memory of their date to get rid of her, though he does get a little depressed about it since it seemed like things were working out. He admits that "Nayuta always will come first" (he says that she's his most precious person in the original Japanese version).
- In a textbook example of Character Development not being equivalent to Character Progression, Denji reverts from the above traits he learned at the end of Part 1 and displayed early in Part 2 after Nayuta dies, completing his journey back to rock bottom and then some.
- After hitting what might be his lowest point yet after Nayuta dies, Denji once again starts picking himself back up again, convincing himself that he can keep chasing his next dream if he accomplishes one or another goes to hell while in Aging Devil's realm and believing he deserves to be happy thanks to Asa's words as they fight Falling Devil. While he falls into despair once again when Yoshida is killed by Barem, Fire Devil's warning and his heart-to-heart with Asa while in a shared Mental World as Pochita and Yoru fight to the death allow him to finally understand that he'll never hold onto his and Pochita's original dream of living a normal life if he doesn't choose his own path and let Yoru and Death steer him whichever way, allowing him to bounce back with a renewed fire and even tighter bond with Pochita.
- In Chapter 232, the Denji from the reversed timeline shows a degree of maturity and restraint that he rarely showed as Chainsaw Man when he stops himself from killing Bucky, drops the chainsaw in his hands, and instead goes to stop Asa from tripping and falling, which turns out to be the right call as Bucky was never a threat.
Character Regression: After Denji hits rock bottom, he starts digging, with the chapters following Yoru's return to full power having him become even more swayed by his hormones than he was at the very start of the series. By Chapter 231, Denji has let his regression get so bad that Pochita erases himself from existence to set the world anew and give Denji a chance on a happy life without him so he'll be able to mature past all the pain he's endured.
Character Tic:
- Sticking out his tongue. Which is turned against him when Reze bites it off to get the edge over him during her assassination attempt.
- He has a tendency to raise up a peace sign in response to something. Every time he does it though, they're good indicators for where he is mentally and emotionally. Suffice to say, they're not going uphill.
- Offering a gift (a flower he just puked up in the first instance, a starfish in the second) to a girl he thinks is cute with a big smile and a cheerful "Ta-da!" The hilarious thing? It succeeds in charming them both times he's tried it.
- Denji gains a slight slouch in Part 2, which becomes more apparent the worse his life gets. The members of the Chainsaw Man Church who turn into pseudo-devils gain this slouch as well, due to the weight of the head-chainsaw on their necks, implying Denji was previously becoming Chainsaw Man enough to affect his posture.
- Also in Part 2, his default facial expression has his mouth tiredly hanging open, giving him a "mouth-breather" look.
Characterization Marches On: He's always been more considerate to women than men, but early on seemed extremely, callously apathetic to the latter. While fighting the Bat Devil in the second volume, Denji warns a woman to stay away and saves a man's life by catching the car he was in. Then, he nearly kills the man himself by throwing the car, just to prove he didn't care about the guy. Later chapters show Denji as incredibly reluctant to kill any human, even in self-defense.
The Charmer: Surprisingly, despite his crass and often immature behavior, Denji has shown a remarkable talent for winning people over with his kind heart and compassion for those in pain, even those who previously despised him. Himeno recognizes him as a great kid immediately while Aki and Power end up becoming his devoted friends despite looking down on him earlier, and even Reze, a trained assassin sent to steal his heart, finds herself becoming attracted to him for real. In Part 2, despite intentionally targeting him because he was the most outwardly unpleasant person she'd still feel guilty about hurting, Asa Mitaka finds herself developing a huge crush on him after he's the only one who tries cheering her up while they're trapped in the aquarium.
Chekhov's Skill: His part-timing as a lumberjack way back in Ch. 1 gets a callback one hundred and eighty-four chapters later, as Denji hacks into a tree-person in two swings with a makeshift axe fashioned out of a tooth in Aging's world.
Chick Magnet: Despite his horrible luck with women, it's still surprising how many he's able to genuinely attract in both Parts 1 and 2 combined. Reze fell for him after a few exchanges that exposed a Commonality Connection despite being her target, Asa Mitaka fell for both him and his Chainsaw form hard after he revealed a level of kindness she didn't expect, and Fumiko Mifune made it no secret that she would really like to touch his wiener. Then there's the many fangirls that Chainsaw Man has across the world that beg to be his girlfriend. Some girls in his class have also implied that they find him cute.
Chivalrous Pervert:
- In Part 1, Denji enjoys porn magazines and decides his new goal in life will be to touch boobs. However, he makes a point of wanting permission before doing it and has a soft spot for people in trouble. This is Played With in that when he does actually get to touch a woman's chest (Power's), he doesn't feel much of anything and goes into an existential funk about it, wondering if chasing after a goal is better than achieving it since the latter means you have nothing to live for anymore. After speaking with Makima, he comes to the conclusion that sexual contact won't mean a lot without emotional intimacy behind it. He even rejects Himeno's advances, part of it is because she was drunk and the other part of it was because he wanted his first time to be with Makima.
- In Part 2, he freely admits the reason he wants everyone to find out he's Chainsaw Man is so that girls will be into him, and he even hires himself out as a chair for girls at his school. While on a date with Asa that results in them being trapped by the Eternity Devil, Asa formulates a plan to get free that requires Denji to give her the million yen they've collected. Denji immediately agrees when Asa says she'll grant him any request if he agrees, framed in a way similar to Makima implying she'll sleep with Denji if he kills the Gun Devil. After they're free and Denji brings up her promise, Asa clearly looks scared Denji will ask for sex. Instead, he asks her for a second date, because he has more experience with it and "will teach [her] how to have the best dates ever." Yoru, who experiences the same thoughts and feelings as Asa, believes Asa's fallen in love with him.
The Chosen One: Deconstructed. Everyone who meets Denji and hears of his desire to defeat the Gun Devil so Makima will be his girlfriend eventually come around to the idea that he's strong, skilled, and crazy enough to do it. They're all correct. Sort of. As he ultimately winds up slaying the Gun Fiend at the behest of a vile conspiracy to destroy his spirit.
Circular Character Arc: His character arc in Part 2 can more or less be summed up as this. Denji realizes multiple times that him turning to hedonism as a coping mechanism is unhealthy, but he always relapses back into that behavior time and time again. Perhaps the most blatant example is how in chapter 166, Denji has a breakdown about how much he hates himself for always "thinking with his dick" and wishes he could be different... and then a couple chapters later he, again, degrades himself when Yoru offers him sex. By the climax of his fight with Yoru, he's regressed again in wanting to cash in on the deal to have sex with Yoru because he ate the Death Devil and is delighted to the point he tries to fight the hordes of pest animal Devils in front of him, only to be eaten by them. This flaw ends up forcing Pochita to sacrifice himself to fix the world and give Denji a chance on a happier life without him.
Color-Coded Characters: In Part 2, Fami refers to him as the Red Chainsaw Man in order to distinguish him from Pochita in his true form (the Black Chainsaw Man). While they look nothing alike, Fami admits that she and her sisters are faceblind.
Combat Pragmatist: He makes it a personal policy to always go for the nuts (possibly because he once sold one of his own bollocks before he got it back through fusing with Pochita).
Coming of Age Story: Starts the series willing to work for humans or devils depending on whichever "takes care" of him after spending much of his life struggling to support himself. Ultimately, Part 1 has him reluctantly taking on personal autonomy and agency in very short order, even becoming a surrogate parent by the end of it.
Commonality Connection: He's briefly motivated to abandon Makima early on after encountering a young girl who befriended a small Devil who saved her from her abusive dad. Since Denji also had an abusive dad and his Only Friend for years, Denji decides against killing the Devil and offers to run off with the girl. It then turns out that she was being controlled by the Muscle Devil into saying those things so it can get Denji to lower his guard, and it was never her friend.
Conditioned to Accept Horror:
- Denji spent childhood was spent living in nightmarish poverty, forced to risk his life against Devils and sell bodyparts just to make ends meet. His “job” for Public Safety is such a massive step-up by comparison that he fails to realize how much he’s being exploited until Reze spells it out to him.
- Remarkably inverted after the Chainsaw Man Church arc, where being out of commission for a week makes Denji the only one who does care when he runs into a corpse in the middle of a train station.
- By the time chapter 194 rolls around, he's so used to dangerous women who like him also trying to screw him over that he can't even act surprised when Asa points her Finger Gun hand at him right after Yoru shoots some ruined buildings down.
- The climax of Part 2 begins to deconstruct it, that because Denji was so used to the poverty he experienced he just accepted his horrible life and began to regress all his progress becoming more hormonal than ever in his Quest for Sex, which, as pointed out by Pochita, him being Chainsaw Man made him more miserable than before and was actually happier back when he was living in poverty because he had Pochita by his side. To fix this, Pochita decides to sacrifice his life and existence to give Denji and chance on the life he truly deserves.
Confusion Fu: His greatest assets in combat aren't his powers, but his cunning, ingenuity, and sheer unpredictability that let him keep his enemies guessing, even as he snatches victory from opponents more powerful, experienced, and intelligent than himself. No one but Denji would think of countering a darkness-based Healing Factor by setting himself on fire, nobody but Denji would conceivably expect this tactic, and nobody but Denji would make it work.
Country Mouse: The opening chapter features Denji as a rural Devil Hunter before being drafted by Makima to join the government in Tokyo. He's ecstatic at first, believing that he'll be able to accomplish his simple if ribald dreams only for each of them to become disappointments when they come true. His sole attempt to leave the big city to go on the run with Reze is thwarted, and Part 1 ends with him deciding to stay because he needs to take care of Nayuta and there's nothing for him to go back to in the countryside.
Converted Fanboy: His date with Makima at the movie theater seems to have made him a small movie fan. His idea for a second date with Asa that will improve upon their disastrous outing at the aquarium was to go on a mummy movie marathon before she shot it down. This newfound love for cinema also informed his and Pochita's final decision to kill Makima, as her desire to also erase bad movies from existence cemented her fate.
Crazy Enough to Work: Denji has a knack for coming up truly baffling plans in the middle of a fight he can’t win just by flailing his chainsaws.
- His solution to beat Doll Woman, who’s extremely potent Healing Factor only works in darkness, is to light himself on fire with gasoline. His opponent notes that it’s a crazy stupid move and yet, Denji's sheer determination to keep on fighting despite the searing hot pain allows him to get the drop on Doll Woman.
- In between Parts 1 and 2, he's developed a grotesque countermeasure against mental attacks, during which he inflicts grievous (but not lethal) chainsaw wounds on his own brain to return him to his senses. Afterwards, he devours chunks of his opponent to heal the damage.
- How does Denji deal with being trapped in the Aging Devil's world with slim chances of escaping? He runs laps around a lake many times to make himself hungry, then he cuts down a human tree and eats its organs to heal Pochita and get him back in action as their stomachs are still connected despite being in separate realms. It works.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At first glance, he seems like a pathetic loser and idiot, and Aki immediately becomes convinced that he has no idea what he's getting himself into and will get himself killed horribly. However, underestimate Denji at your own peril. His dreams of living a comfortable life and getting laid may seem humble, but he will fight for them just as fiercely as anyone has ever fought for any lofty ideal, and his trusty chainsaws will see to it that any obstacle standing in the way of him achieving these goals will get torn asunder. He is also nowhere near as dumb as he seems. For instance, he is the only member of his group to figure out that if the seemingly invincible Eternity Devil is trying to manipulate his allies into killing him instead of doing the job itself, well, there might be a reason for that.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Denji was killed by the Yakuza, who betrayed him by chopping his body into pieces and throwing them into a trash bin.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Pochita takes over his body fully thanks to Makima's manipulations, he starts dishing these out like candy, shredding all of Makima's Weapon Hybrid slaves in a matter of seconds. Twice!
- By the time of his first appearance in Part 2, he's grown so strong that even in his regular human form (and not Pochita's "Hero of Hell" form) he's reintroduced utterly thrashing a monstrous devil the size of an average apartment building, squashing the Bat Devil (his first major opponent from Part 1) in the process by complete acccident.
- He utterly demolishes Yuko during their fight, ripping her to shreds in a matter of seconds without ever taking a single hit.
- A group of thugs attack him and Fumiko at a karaoke bar in Chapter 137 for unknown reasons. There's at least 40 of them, all grown men armed with baseball bats, and they have the element of surprise, while Denji is a sickly teenager who's distracted by Fumiko's singing. Denji doesn't take a single hit in the entire fight and proceeds to pummel every last thug into a bloody pulp, if not to death outright, with one of their own baseball bats, and without even bothering to transform.
- Near the climax of the Chainsaw Man Church Arc, he effortlessly beats and even cannibalizes Miri Sugo, Whip Woman, and Spear Man with nothing but sheer brute force.
- When Barem shows him Nayuta's head on a sushi plate, Barem doesn't even have time to take a bite before Denji brutally grabs him by the throat and rips off his head with one hand without even transforming.
Cute Monster Boy: His overall Endearingly Dorky nature makes it hard not to like Denji, even in his Hybrid form.
Cuteness Overload: In Part 2, during a date at the aquarium, he's really interested in seeing the penguins. When he comes face-to-face with one, he's so overjoyed at how cute it is that he spends all his time cuddling it and doesn't even notice his date has freed them from the aquarium they'd been trapped in and killed the Eternity Devil responsible. He claims getting to hold the penguin was reason alone for his date with Asa to not be the worst ever.
Denji: He's so cute. I wanna keep 'im!

D-H

Dark and Troubled Past: His father was an abusive alcoholic, leading to Denji killing him in self-defense during one of his violent spouts. After that, he became an orphan in absolute poverty, forced to sell off many of his body parts on the black market and kill Devils for the Yakuza to pay off his debt. All of this made him into the hedonistic, short-tempered, idiotic jerk that he is today.
Dark Is Not Evil: The blades on his arms and his pointily fanged head causes him to scare all the civilians who see him in Part 1, but he means well, and said civilians are quick to recognize tropes when instead of attacking them, he screams that they should leave the area as he's fighting something more terrifying and malevolent than a Humanoid Abomination covered in chainsaws.
Deal with the Devil: Made a blood pact with Pochita to get a second chance to live. Thankfully Pochita did it out of benevolence compared to the usual Devil's contracts, but it still comes with the consequence of putting a target square on Denji's head.
Debt Detester: Due to his backstory of spending his formative years in crippling debt, he absolutely despises owing anyone anything, be it money or favors. He makes a point of getting even as soon as possible.
Death or Glory Attack: He and Pochita manage to hoodwink the Control Devil in Chapter 96 into thinking she was attacking Denji, when in fact, she was fighting Chainsaw Devil the whole time. The young man hid himself, until she finally let her guard down. During this split in their fusion, all that was sustaining Denji for that fight was Power's blood given to him in a new contract, of which he ended up using every last drop she gave him, until he could recover Pochita. Denji was seconds away from death.
Deconstructed Character Archetype: Denji is a hyperactive, bombastic and plain strange Idiot Hero that also happens to be a decent person at heart looking for some semblance of respect, affection and attention, like some other Shonen protagonists. He's also an absolutely broken individual in terms of what he's had to go through in his life, his happiness is a major plot point as Makima sends him into the Despair Event Horizon by making him think he can never be happy so that she can separate Pochita from him, and for all of his urges to do heroic things for that attention (and a pay check), the reality completely subverts the usual big dreams of such characters; he's not out to be the greatest hero or the biggest figure ever - being normal to him means living like anyone else with gaining mundane luxuries like a decent meal and a girlfriend, preventing him from potentially self-destructing on troves of ambition. Never mind the guilt he feels even when he does achieve such things. These simplicities are what makes him the hero that is Chainsaw Man, rather than impossible expectations and goals.
Defiant to the End: When the pest Devils are rushing him and Yoru, Denji ignores the latter's advice that they run for it and tries to face them head-on. It backfires horribly, but given the circumstances the world had been left in, he would've been screwed either way.
Déjà Vu: When Asa nicknames him "Chainsaw Man" in the revised timeline, he feels his heart skip a beat and is momentarily confused. His heart is shown to look suspiciously like Pochita, despite him becoming nonexistent.
Demoted to Extra: Discussed, invoked, and ultimately enforced. Yoshida forces Denji to quit being Chainsaw Man at one point in Part 2, but this causes Denji to be unhappy with how this causes him to fade away into a background character of his own story, and soon rejects this in favor of going back to being Chainsaw Man. However, it's later shown that Denji no longer being the main character might be for the best: his being Chainsaw Man has caused grief to not just him, but a series of mishaps and manipulations stemming from him being Chainsaw Man has caused the world to enter a devastating apocalypse. As a result, Pochita decides to erase Chainsaw Man and thus everything that's special about Denji because of it, and creates a new timeline where Denji is Brought Down to Normal as one of many Public Safety Mauve Shirts that could be killed at any moment, but is also now more capable of happiness and growth than when he was an immortal superhero.
Denied Food as Punishment: Played for Laughs and Subverted. After Yoshida treats him to some desserts including a shortcake, he tells Denji that he won't let them have any of them unless he stops being Chainsaw Man, seizing all the cutlery. Denji ignores this and proceeds to eat the shortcake with his own hands, and during their next encounters, the punishment changes to his family being taken away from him and Denji being chopped into pieces and stored in boxes.
Despair Event Horizon: Being forced to kill Aki sends him down this path, and he fully crosses it when Makima kills Power and reveals that he killed his own father in self-defense, causing him to snap and relinquish all free will to her so he can live in blissful ignorance.
- Parodied in Part 2 when he tries to save Asa from the Falling Devil. When Asa tells him that no girl would ever want to have sex with someone with a chainsaw on his head, he is immediately horrified and becomes vulnerable to the Falling Devil himself, sending both of them plummeting into the door that leads to Hell.
- Part 2 later plays this straight when Barem and the Weapon Hybrids burn down his and Nayuta's apartment, killing their pets as well. As a result, Denji finally snaps and transforms into Chainsaw Man once more, attempts to kill the Hybrids, and tells Nayuta to her face that he always saw her as a burden. Barem showing him Nayuta's severed head being served as a sushi dish ends up being the final nail in the coffin — he enters another fugue where Pochita takes over his body, and when he regains consciousness in the Aging Devil's pocket dimension, he's a sobbing wreck who outright says he no longer wants to live.
Desperately Craves Affection: On the surface, he seems like a Hormone-Addled Teenager simply willing to throw himself into a meat grinder if an attractive woman (or any woman, to be honest) offers some sensual reward. As the series goes on however it becomes depressingly clear that Denji's upbringing as an abused son has made him starved for any kind of affection and companionship, causing him to be perfectly willing to throw away his dignity for the sake of a hint of said affection. His motivation in Part 2 to get a girlfriend in particular has signs of him actually trying to fill the massive hole that Makima had left in him after all that she had put him through. This proves to be extremely self-destructive after Nayuta is killed, that by then, Denji has given up ever finding love and affection and accepts Yoru's offer of sex if he eats the Death Devil, something he brings up at the end of their fight. By the climax of Part 2, Pochita realizes that him letting Denji be Chainsaw Man is the source of his problems and resolves to erase himself from existence to give Denji a chance to find love.
Desperation Attack: A Partial Transformation that causes a small chainsaw to jut out of his forehead. He loses every fight where he's reduced to bringing it out.
Destructive Savior: Though generally viewed favorably by the public in Part 2, because the Devils he fights are too dead or dangerous to be criticized, Chainsaw Man is often blamed for the collateral damage from his hunts.
Detachment Combat: In Part 2, he's learned to tether his head to his body with a chain if it gets cut off. Hell of an upgrade, since decapitation used to be his biggest weakness.
Determinator: He might be sharp as a wet sponge, but Denji will never stop fighting for his dreams. Perhaps the most triumphant example being, after he and the Eternity Devil spent three days non-stop gorily ripping each other to shreds, his response when it weakly pleads for a Mercy Kill.
Denji: What?! You're done already?! I was havin' fun splashing around in this bloodbath like a kid in a pool!!
Did Not Get the Girl:
- He has several burgeoning intimate relationships with women all throughout Part 1. Most of them wind up dead, with Reze being the only love interest who's still alive, but her whereabouts are unknown.
- At the end of Part 2, he doesn't get together with either Asa or Yoru due to Pochita resetting the world to start his life over again. While Denji does meet Asa again at the end, they both go their separate ways even if he felt some attraction to her.
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: The Aging Devil's plan is to have Pochita eat him to Ret-Gone aging from existence and thus have 10,000 innocent children sacrificed as a result. Denji, Yoshida and Asa/Yoru get around this by having Pochita swallow him whole, since the contract specifically specified the children would be sacrificed with every bite Pochita took, and since his stomach in the Aging Devil's world is essentially a portal between Pochita's in the real world, the Aging Devil is transported there without any way to use its powers, forced to agree to a contract to leave them all alone... or spend eternity with only Denji for company.
Difficult, but Awesome: His hybrid form’s chainsaws are powerful enough to cut through most Devils, Fiends and other Weapon Humans like butter, but having chainsaws constantly grinding away at his flesh means Denji has to use up blood to even stay transformed. He gets around this weakness by drinking as much spilled blood from his enemies as he possibly can.
Ditzy Genius: Denji is Book Dumb, has No Social Skills, is very emotionally stunted, struggles with empathy, and is prone to repeating the same mistakes over and over again when facing trauma. He's also extremely creative and quick-witted, has a decent memory, can be very philosophical and self-aware when he tries, and has been a Positive Friend Influence on most people he meets without trying.
Disability Immunity: During the battle against the Falling Devil, Denji reveals that he can No-Sell Mind Rape by abusing his Healing Factor and giving himself brain damage, temporarily becoming even more Too Dumb to Fool than he is normally.
Disappeared Dad: Denji's father committed suicide when he was a child. Except he didn't.
Distracted by the Sexy:
- There are normally only two things on Denji's mind: women and their boobs. It's fairly easy to get Denji's attention so long as you promise him some form of sexual reward. When Yoru confronts him, he takes a good second to stare at Asa's blood-soaked body in her underwear. He later gets momentarily distracted by the Falling Devil's large chest in chapter 206.
- Later gets Deconstructed and Played for Drama in Chapter 166 when he bemoans this particular trait of the Stock Shōnen Hero that he's saddled with; despite knowing that there are better things he should be focusing on like finding Nayuta after she got attacked by a mob when Barem burned their apartment down, he still can't stop thinking with his dick whenever the topic of women or sex comes up. Denji snapping at Nobana when he starts to laugh about it only highlights that Denji's overactive libido is much more of a hindrance to him than this trope normally is, and is almost certainly a maladaptive coping mechanism from all the abuse that Makima hurled onto him in Part 1. By the climax of Part 2 and having regressed to his old hormonal self, Denji has let his desire for sex get the worst of him and get eaten by a Devil, to which Pochita has to sacrifice himself to save Denji and the world from the destruction of having erased Death from the world.
Does Not Like Spam: Having to cannibalise Makima’s remains to finally get rid of her leaves him very averse to meat.
Doomed Protagonist: As Pochita explains in Chapter 231, he'd come to the realization that the kind of person Denji was and the horrific life he'd lead before becoming Chainsaw Man would always mean that Denji would never be truly happy, no matter how many good things happen to him or how many of his dreams are fulfilled. As Pochita sees it, Denji's idealism had led him to become Conditioned to Accept Horror and capable of finding happiness despite being a starving debt slave, but that was a mindset he should have never settled into since he can now only be happy while suffering and is happier to want a better life than actually have it. Pochita believes that his presence in Denji's life as his best friend and companion is what gave Denji the strength to keep going but also made him okay with settling for less, causing him to erase himself to give Denji another chance to be truly happy. Pochita's realization turned out to be well-founded — without him in the picture, Denji has a much healthier mindset that lets him live far more happily.
Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: Averted big time. Yoru grabbing Denji's privates and inadvertently giving him a hand job while he's not reacting is treated just as badly for Denji as it is for Asa, with Denji left in a state of shock over what just happened. One of the reactions a sexual assault victim can have is freezing up as the assaulter has its way, which was what happened towards Denji and in no way reads as consent. All the while, Denji's absolutely baffled since, due to not knowing about Yoru, he's being confronted by "Asa" constantly mood swinging and going from sexually assaulting him one moment, to lambasting him the next, making her look like the Master of the Mixed Message. And this is while he's still reeling from a breakdown over having lost Nayuta and the self-hatred over how his mind still defaults to sex thanks to his libido, with Denji practically catatonic when on the train in Chapter 168. Then, in Chapter 169, he reflects on what happened by thinking to himself if it's something it could happen to anyone, remarking internally to Pochita that his heart "felt really nice" even if physically it didn't feel as good as "jacking off". Given his rotten luck with anyone who had an interest to him or his Chainsaw Man persona, Denji doesn't quite realize how consent factors in a sexual relationship and is trying to rationalize the abuse he suffered to himself, as he wonders if he's happy or unhappy after Yoru's unsolicited handjob.
Dramatic Irony:
- Denji becomes markedly more depressed and cynical after Reze fails to meet him at the cafe, thinking that she broke her promise and abandoned him. In reality, she was actually almost there when Makima cornered and killed her specifically because Reze genuinely loved Denji and was going to run away with him - and more importantly, threatening Denji's subservience to Makima. In fact, she was so close to the cafe that she could literally see Denji waiting for her through the window with a bouquet of flowers as she was dying.
- When Nayuta asks Denji in Chapter 149 why he was still thinking about Asa, he answers that she's the one person he's kissed where something didn't go horribly wrong right after. Except he wasn't kissing Asa, he was kissing Yoru, and something did go horribly wrong- Yoru tried to turn him into a weapon again, as can be seen by her hand on his head. The only reason the memory's a fond one is because of Nayuta's intervention (and Yoru's terrible luck), and do not reflect the actual person he's hung up on. Case in point, his next kisses with "Asa" (Yoru) happen when he's at the lowest points of his life, and don't help in the slightest.
Dramatically Missing the Point: When Pochita reappears in Part 2, his actions mainly served as attempts to help Denji get back up as he hit lows after lows. While Denji does regain the will to live after these, later chapters shows that he severely misunderstood what Pochita was trying to tell him. Rather than understand that there's always new dreams to follow if some don't work out or that terrible memories can often be associated with especially good ones, Denji takes Pochita's encouragement as a call to just callously move on from tragedy since he can easily just find Replacement Goldfish for his loved ones to start the cycle anew. It's because of this that Pochita decides to just erase himself, removing Denji's ability to trap himself in a Vicious Cycle so he can actually grow as a person and appreciate what he has and lost.
Drunk with Power: Played With. Being Chainsaw Man gives Denji something of a high, clearly having the time of his life slaughtering Devils and becoming famous in Part 2. However, it becomes apparent that Denji is addicted to the concept of being Chainsaw Man, that after the Chainsaw Man Church burns down his home and kills his pets, he becomes Chainsaw Man in rage, acting extremely maniacal with sadistic glee ripping the other Hybrids to shreds, to the horror of Nayuta and the mob present. By the end of Part 2, Pochita realizes this, that Denji is actually miserable being Chainsaw Man because of all the trauma it causes him and resolves to sacrifice himself to save Denji.
Dub Personality Change: In the English dub, he throws a car and the man in it back at the Bat Devil without clarifying that the driver's gender is a deciding factor to his callous counterattack.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: The trauma and pain he endured in Part 1 really did a number on him. He's lost most of his energy and usually has a tired exhausted look on his face. Given what Makima did to him taking his surrogate family away and having to raise a bunch of pets and Nayuta, go to school and be Chainsaw Man to protect others, and the fact that he's still being manipulated by others, even those he thought he could trust such as Asa and Yoshida, it's hard to see why he is this way.
Dumbass Has a Point: While it's because he's not happy with words being put into his mouth and his anger at having to tie the knot before getting laid, Denji raises a valid point about how the Chainsaw Man Church sure does a lot of shady things despite claiming to help those in need, such as forcing high schoolers to marry and procreate and spreading ridiculous lies about others to manipulate masses. Denji makes a solid enough callout that even Sword Man is taken aback and forced to invoke The Needs of the Many to justify the Church's actions.
Dumb Blonde: Gender-inverted. He's book-dumb as hell and has blonde hair. However, he's got quite the creative bone in him when it comes to fights, especially after training with Kishibe.
Dumb Muscle: As Chainsaw Man, he's a hulking mass of muscle and steel that can slice through and brutalize Devils like they were made of paper, but once again, he's Book Dumb.
Dying Dream: A variation. After being eaten by a Devil, since death is erased, Denji's consciousness lingers in some sort of limbo resembling the graveyard where he first met Pochita.
Earn Your Happy Ending: An interpretation of the ending is that, despite everyone having lost their memories of Denji, they still levitated towards him and were able to connect with him again because the attraction they felt towards him remained despite the Cosmic Retcon, which would explain why Power revived him for smelling like a dog despite only liking cats up until then, why Meowy is on such good terms with Nayuta, why part of Denji still appears to remember Pochita, and why Asa's instant reaction when she saw him was to call him "Chainsaw Man" despite that label not existing anymore, implying that the time he spent with them wasn't in vain and that it was thanks to the positive influence he left on them that they reconnected at all.
Eating the Enemy:
- This is how he defeats Makima. To bypass her Healing Factor, Denji first chops her into bite-sized pieces, then cooks said pieces into dishes for him to consume.
- It's also part of how he defeats the Aging Devil, despite that Devil wanting to be devoured. Instead of eating it, Denji manages to get Pochita to swallow it whole, as his stomach in the Aging Devil's world is connected to Pochita's in the real world. Once there, when Yoshida brings up the idea of forming a contract with the Aging Devil to escape, it's Denji's statement that he'd let everyone leave except the Aging Devil, leaving them trapped alone with Denji, that convinces the Aging Devil to stand down and agree to the contract.
- His Denji Man mode also inherits Pochita's Devil erase ability, as he uses it in his fight with Yoru and the Locust Devil.
Empowered Badass Normal: Denji has already been killing Devils for the Yakuza with no actual superpowers of his own except having Pochita as his weapon since he was a child by the time the story begins. It would be less accurate to say that performing a Fusion Dance with Pochita helps him learn how to fight and more that getting the ability to grow chainsaws out of his arms makes killing enemies much easier.
Establishing Character Moment:
- He and Pochita became friends because he willingly risked death or major injury to help the Devil recover by feeding him his blood. Whatever his behavior is like in the coming days, the series wants it understood that Denji is ultimately a selfless person.
- The Yakuza think he'll do anything for cash, and make him eat a used cigarette for a few measly yen. Which Denji does, only to reveal that he'd actually tucked the cigarette under his tongue so he could spit it out as soon as they were gone. In doing so, he shows that while he's willing to debase himself for his goals, he has his limits, and he's far more clever than he appears.
Every Man Has His Price: He'll let women sit on him for money. For guys, that'll cost extra, but he'll do it, even if it's for a man who's taller and heavier than him like Yoshida.
Everybody Has Standards:
- Given how he spent much of his life starving, Denji hates wasting food. He catches the food Power threw away that Aki had made for them, and reprimands her about wasting it or not acknowledging the effort put in when she should be happy someone bothered to feed her at all.
- Even when he was homeless, seeking food in dumpsters, and eating toilet paper, he considered eating vomit to be a step too far. Though he reflexively swallows when Himeno pukes down his throat, he's quick to barf it all back up the moment he gets to a toilet.
- Denji might be willing to risk life and limb for the slightest chance of a hot girlfriend, but even he quickly loses interest in Power. He also bounces off of Asa after she attempts to take him on a "date" because she turns out to be very boring and something of a Control Freak.
- While he's willing to join the Chainsaw Man Church for a position that can get him laid, Denji is disgusted to learn they encourage their members to marry and have children before they're even adults (even besides expecting him to do so).
- Denji is visibly jealous when he has to give up being Chainsaw Man, only for Asa Mitaka to become a celebrity and be credited for all of his accomplishments. However, Denji is horrified when Barem suggests murdering her so that he can be Chainsaw Man again, immediately choosing to get the hell out of the Chainsaw Man Church.
- Denji is often unaffected by the deaths of strangers, especially men, but he's a little taken aback when he discovers a corpse near a subway station and a worker there tells him that nobody has bothered cleaning it up because people have grown desensitized to seeing them.
- For as apathetic as he’s become after Nayuta’s death, he’s genuinely upset and angry with Yoru when she murders a woman he was trying to save, simply because she didn’t like him paying attention to other women. He also does his best to avoid hurting his fans which Fakesaw Man assembled unto his body during their fight.
Exhausted Eye Bags: Sports these 24/7 in Part 2. At first it's likely because of the stress from juggling his new domestic responsibilities and his outings as Chainsaw Man, but later he's exhausted for much less innocuous reasons.
Expecting Someone Taller: Some Devils are surprised at how relatively weak Denji is because they thought they'd be encountering the original Chainsaw Man instead.
Experienced Protagonist: While amateurish and unskilled, Denji has actually already been a Devil Hunter for the Yakuza since childhood by the time the story proper kicks off. By the end of Part 1, he's taken this to a whole new extreme: when he finally reappears in Part 2, Denji has killed so many powerful Devils and lost so many friends that no opponent he faces can even hold his attention. He kills the Justice Devil Yuko in three pages without even thinking about the fight and his reaction to being trapped in the Eternity Devil's time loop for a sec is about the level of annoyance one would expect from him seeing someone steal his parking space.
Extreme Doormat: Denji has been following orders from other people for a long time, and even after taking the reins of his own life, he regresses into being a servant easily. He does often have demands, but they're extremely small.
Extreme Omnivore: A very dark example. Due to growing in extreme poverty, he's trained himself to eat basically anything, no matter how bad it tastes, to the point he reflexively swallows anything put in his mouth. This bites him when Himeno ends up throwing up in his mouth during their french kiss, and his immediate response is to try to eat it, leaving him puking in the toilet.
Extreme Melee Revenge: Denji is a total sweetheart deep down, but he is not someone you want to piss off. Denji's reaction to Spear Man and Whip Woman burning Denji's house down and killing all his pets then taunting him about it has to be seen to be believed. He doesn't just cut them into pieces with his blades, he tenderizes them, brutally grinding them into pieces while pinning them down and then eating them.
Eyepatch of Power: Denji initially wears one over his right eye because he'd sold it to pay off part of his debt, but he quickly casts it off once he resurrects and regenerates a new one. After Pochita rebooted the timeline, Denji has the eye patch still from selling his eye and being unable to regenerate.
Failure Hero: After he is defeated by the Falling Devil and the Justice Devil, Denji spends the next few arcs of Part 2 being beaten, threatened, imprisoned, insulted, mutilated, and molested by everyone from Yoshida to Barem to Samurai Sword to even the usually hapless Public Safety.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Downplayed. Chainsaw Man is lauded as a hero for defeating the Gun Devil when he actually just killed the Gun Fiend. However, the public will never know of his actual greatest battle and victory in Part 1: ridding them of the Makima iteration of the Control Devil.
Fatal Flaw: Even considering his limited agency on most situations, Denji's biggest flaws contribute to many of the tragedies around him and his desire to live a normal life. Part 2 picks these apart to a tragic degree.
- His hormones and desire for sex. As a young teenager, Denji tends to lose himself to the desire of a pretty girl and wanting to have a girlfriend and someday sex, something he doesn't deny when talking with Himeno. This behavior tends to blind him to the fact, as he puts it later on, every girl he meets tries to kill him because he can't resist the urge to want to find love. Makima never cared for him, manipulating him through lust just so she can kill Aki and Power to break his will to live. It takes Pochita and Power helping him get back up to regain his will to live and kill Makima and end her plans. While Denji tries to change his standards, he still doubles down on his desire for a girlfriend in Part 2, taking Asa Mitaka on a date solely because she's the first girl interested in him (due to Yoru and her trying to turn him into a weapon). By the time Nayuta is killed because of him becoming Chainsaw Man again when he was told not to, he angrily realizes that he's "always thinking with his dick" and blames himself for her death. By then he becomes so broken and miserable he lets Yoru do whatever with him and even agrees to have sex with her if he eats the Death Devil. When he finally is about to cash in on the deal in the climax of Part 2, he's devoured by a Devil as he laments he was about to have sex finally. Pochita even finally has to spell it out for him that even if he did have sex with Yoru, nothing would help him, as he doesn't love her and nothing would fix his trauma, which motivates Pochita to erase himself from existence to save Denji.
- His berserker tendencies. Denji loves being Chainsaw Man for the attention and power, but because he lets his emotions get the better of him, he tends to kill devils left and right because it makes him feel good using violence to solve his problems. Yoshida even calls him out on this, that if he wants to have any semblance of a normal life he needs to give up being Chainsaw Man to protect Nayuta or she could be killed. When Denji is unwilling to do that, the Chainsaw Man Church burns down his apartment with his pets and Nayuta is kidnapped. Rather than controlling himself, Denji loses himself to his wrath and brutally assaults the villains responsible for burning down his home, which ends up causing him to waste time and it gets Nayuta killed in the process explicitly because Denji couldn't resist being Chainsaw Man.
- His guilt. Denji is filled with guilt for a lot of the tragedies around his life. He blames himself for the deaths of all his loved ones, from killing his father, getting Aki and Power killed, and later the deaths of his pets and Nayuta. This attitude is extremely destructive to himself, as Denji winds up making very rash decisions which cost him many times. While he does get better after a heart-to-heart with Asa over their trauma, he's still very susceptible to Yoru's influence.
- His love for Pochita and being Chainsaw Man starting from Part 2. Since fusing with him, Denji enjoys the power he has thanks to Pochita and uses it to live his life the way he wants. However, being Chainsaw Man also makes him a target for assassins and Devils who want his heart. Part 2 is where he truly has agency over this, but he uses being Chainsaw Man as a means to get a girlfriend and become famous, blinding him to the fact he has more responsibilities and his actions will just make him a bigger target. True enough, The Chainsaw Man Church burns his home down and kills his pets and Nayuta because he can't give up being Chainsaw Man. By the part's climax Pochita has come to realize this himself, telling Denji that his life now is even worse than it was before because deep down, Denji is still unhappy with his life in spite of finally getting to go to school, and that Denji was actually happier living in poverty all because Pochita was by his side. To that end, Pochita willingly sacrifices his existence to give Denji a chance to live his life without anyone holding him back ever again.
- His inability to pick a side during dilemmas. This wasn't a flaw in Part 1, as he could still pick a side when he gets an idea of the stakes (such as choosing to run away with the Muscle Devil girl in Chapter 2 and with Reze at the end of their arc, choosing to stay and support Power instead of going on a trip with Makima, and killing Makima so he can continue being Chainsaw Man), but it became more prevalent as he gained more agency over his own life. As Chainsaw Man, his ability to think outside the box gives the needed edge on decisive victories against foes, such as Makima and Aging Devil, but it falls apart when it comes to his personal life in Part 2, doubly so with Pochita enabling him. Denji tries to look for a third option when faced with stark choices, but the context just as often cannot accomodate a third choice that isn't worse off for everyone. From deciding to fight the Cockroach Devil instead of making a choice between saving one young man or a car full of old people, which led to retaliation from the Fire Devil, to picking "two choices" when forced to choose between being Chainsaw Man and a family man (though the ordeal was a Morton's Fork anyway), to refusing to settle between Asa and Yoru and going against both of their wishes in the process. While he wasn't in control of himself when Pochita ate the Death Devil, he also told Asa that he was planning to create a new world and invite Asa into it, which he had no way of accomplishing as Pochita had already created a different type of apocalypse by eating the Death Devil. Ultimately, while Pochita did create a new world where the two of them could live happier lives, it wasn't the one Denji envisioned, as it forced Denji to forget about him and Chainsaw Man and settle for a normal life.
- His obsession to be loved and gain affection is where these flaws culminate. Owing to his horrible childhood, Denji is desperate for affection, preferably from a woman. To that end, he becomes loyal to Makima in hopes of gaining her affection and throw what little pride he has for any form of companionship. This naturally blinds him to the fact Makima is clearly using him, something many characters have called him out, but he refuses to listen. This proves to cost him dearly, as Aki and Power are killed precisely because of his devotion to Makima, something the latter mockingly tells him they both would have survived if he listened to them. After regaining his will to live thanks to Power's sacrifice and Pochita saving him, Denji avenges their deaths and kills Makima. In Part 2, Denji learns to better himself and not let others control him, but this does not last as he still obsesses with getting a girlfriend thinking it will help him emotionally. It becomes obvious he just wants to fill the hole in his heart Makima put there by taking everything away from him. Unfortunately, his desire to gain affection through Chainsaw Man - even when strongly advised not to turn into him - costs him again, losing his apartment, his pets, and Nayuta. By that point, Denji finally realizes how much he screwed up and can only cry in self-pity blaming himself for all the tragedies around him.
Fearless Fool: Has shades of this trope, being one of the least (conventionally) intelligent characters in the cast and simultaneously the bravest. It's actually reasonably justified, as Aki learns from Denji after mistakenly assuming this trope is in effect (and subsequently getting kicked in the nuts by Denji multiple times), Denji isn't stupid and he knows when he's being taken advantage of, it's just that the standard of living he's used to is so utterly horrible that literally nothing he encounters as a Devil Hunter can intimidate him anymore.
Fire-Forged Friends: Describes basically all of Denji's major relationships. He doesn't seem immediately likable in-universe with Pochita revving his chainsaw at him during their first meeting, Aki beating him down in an alley, Power trying to sell him to the Bat Devil, and so on, but after he stands up for himself and maybe kicks you in the nads to reciprocate your aggression, Denji can prove to be a true companion.
First-Episode Resurrection: Denji is brutally murdered by the Yakuza-turned-zombies and left to rot in a dumpster. A contract with Pochita resurrects him as the immortal Chainsaw Man.
Flash Step: As Chainsaw Man, he can appear and disappear between panels of the manga, usually with the the opponent shredded into pieces.
Foreshadowing:
- During the aftermath of his last training session with Kishibe before his rematch with Katana Man, Denji's pants sleeves seem to be randomly torn, hinting at how he's learned how to create chainsaws along his legs.
- Throughout Part 2, there were several hints that suggested not only was Denji not happy with his life, but he was undergoing Character Regression due to all the trauma around him.
  - If you look at his facial expressions, he's usually shown with Exhausted Eye Bags and his mouth open most of the time and hunched over. This is the first hint that he's worn out from being Chainsaw Man and unhappy.
  - Denji tries to give up being Chainsaw Man for Nayuta's sake, but after the Church burns down his home and kills his pets, he gives into temptation and gleefully butchers all the Hybrids present except Barem. This shows that Denji is addicted to being Chainsaw Man to a unhealthy degree.
  - After Nayuta dies, Denji hits rock bottom and, even with Asa managing to help him regain his will to live, the way Denji just accepts to the Aging Devil he'll just find another family no matter how many times he loses his loved ones shows how mentally broken he's become at this point and that he's accepted he's doomed to lose his loved ones.
  - When Fami tries to convince Asa to join the Church claiming that Denji, having Pochita's heart inside him makes it impossible for him to have a normal life. Come the climax of Part 2, Pochita realizes that him becoming Denji's heart is the root cause of all the trauma and pain that has happened to his best friend, having indirectly made his life worse than it was prior, which is what motivates him to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to erase himself from existence and give Denji a chance on finding true happiness.
Friendless Background: Denji grew up with no friends until he met Pochita, which makes it all the more devastating when Pochita does his Heroic Sacrifice in order to help Denji live out his dreams of a normal life.
Freudian Excuse: He's a hero, not a villain, but he spending the majority of his formative years as a miserably-treated debt-slave is a pretty solid explanation for why he starts his “heroic career” as an amoral, hedonistic jerk. Coupled with the fact he has never had any parental figures to raise him his entire life makes it obvious he wouldn't know how to properly act like one even with Character Development for him.
Fusion Dance: Him and Pochita doing this is what helps kick off the main story.
Gallows Humor: When Denji BRUTALLY mauls Sword Man, Spear Man, and Whip Woman for burning down his apartment and killing his pets, the horrified mob watching mistakes him for one of the Pseudo-Chainsaw zombies and immediately attacks him. When one of the mob pours gasoline over him and asks if anyone has a lighter, Denji, already blown WELL past the Despair Event Horizon, bitterly laughs and yells that if they need an open flame, they should just grab something from his burning apartment.
Good Feels Good: Especially when Denji sees, after God knows how long of feeling like he'd been doing a thankless job, literal parades of people celebrating the Chainsaw Man for defeating the Gun Devil and for saving some of them individually. It helps that there are girls carrying signs asking for the Chainsaw Man to be their boyfriend.
A Good Way to Die: Begins the manga as a bit of a fatalist, taking comfort in his informal contract with Pochita that his companion will take over his body as a Fiend and live a new life when he dies.
- After he raises the bar of optimism a little, Denji's preferred way to die becomes getting killed by a girl he likes; he revives Reze with full knowledge that she could try to kill him again, telling her that he would be okay if she did so, and later gambles his entire plan to kill Makima on her not being able to recognize his scent, accepting the possibility of her killing him if she did.
Good with Numbers: Despite his general Idiot Hero status and total lack of education, he's very good at keeping track of his finances right from the first chapter.
Go Mad from the Isolation: Denji is...not exactly a stable individual at the beginning of the story, thanks to growing up without literally a single friend except a dog-like Devil that can't speak, and zero human contact except for his brutal Yakuza slavedrivers who worked him to the bone just to survive.
Go Out with a Smile: When he first dies and sees Pochita before him, Denji smiles and assumes that Pochita had complied with his wish for him to take over his body as a Fiend, clearly happy that at the very least his best friend can survive. However, his relieved smile very quickly fades when Pochita turns the deal around to become his heart and resurrect him.
Greed: Justified by his history of poverty, but Denji will do almost anything for money.
Grew a Spine: While he's still kind of a loser, by the time of Part 2 Denji displays a healthy amount of self-respect that he didn't have before that point. He actually tells Asa off during their date at the aquarium after she repeatedly dismisses his input, quite a notable deviation from his usual desperation with women.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Katana Man defeats him in their first battle by bisecting him horizontally at the waist.
Happiness in Slavery: Downplayed. Though Denji was far from happy while working for the Yakuza, Pochita reveals in Chapter 231 that Denji was actually at his happiest back then, since he kept himself content with dreaming of a better life, and seeing his dreams consistently get shattered one after the other brought him more misery than the Yakuza or his dad ever could. In the revised timeline, he's essentially Power's glorified pet and Nayuta's errand boy, but while he still has regrets such as not going to school, he appears to be somewhat satisfied, as they're still better companions than the Yakuza were.
Harem Seeker: Tearfully breaks down in front of Kishibe expressing his wish to get five - no, TEN girlfriends - upon seeing how much the public, and especially the ladies, have come to love him as Chainsaw Man. It's clear he'd be satisfied with just one girl, but also that he wouldn't say no if given the opportunity for more.
Has a Type: While his self-proclaimed type is “any girl that's really desperate for a boyfriend”, Denji repeatedly displays a strong preference for aggressive, sexually-dominant women. Comically, he seems to lack any awareness of this, expressing disinterest in Kobeni not for her timid personality but for trying to kill him - even though pretty much every woman he likes has done the same at least once. When Asa Mitaka takes him on a date in Part 2, one of the reasons it goes disastrously for her is because, in addition to taking a flying elbow drop onto his Trauma Button, she's actually even more hopeless at talking to the opposite sex than he is. Then Denji manages to restore her confidence and he suddenly likes her a lot more.
Hates Being Alone: Owing to his desire for love and companionship, Denji seems to really want to have people in his life, even ones who only want to manipulate him. He comes to enjoy his bonding with Aki and Power, even viewing them as family. losing them to Makima nearly has him give up all together on life and becoming her slave. Even in Part 2, with Nayuta and the pets he takes care of has him thinking he's achieved his dream of living a normal life at last. Once they are killed by the Chainsaw Man Church, Denji becomes even worse to the point he lets Yoru, the Big Bad of Part 2, have her way with him because he'll accept any companionship at this point. Pochita even realizes this in the climax of Part 2, saying that Denji basically settled for Asa and Yoru as companionship because he didn't want to be alone and by the time of Nayuta's death, they were all he had left..
Hates My Secret Identity: While Asa Mitaka isn't very friendly with Denji, she's really not that friendly to much of anyone. It's Chainsaw Man that she despises, enough that she decides to turn Denji into a weapon so she can use him to kill "Chainsaw Man."
- Becomes even more apparent when Asa begins to genuinely fall for his human traits that have nothing to do with his Chainsaw Man persona.
Hates Wasting Food: Denji grew up in poverty where he ate very little, so he values food a lot. As a result, he gets angry at Power for throwing away her vegetables because she hates them, telling her to respect the farmers who grew them, and is mortified when he sees a large cake get shoved in someone's face rather than eaten.
Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Denji is quick to refuse to hold another man's hand, even for a handshake. He also yells that he's not into guys when Beam jumps out to hug him.
Heartbroken Badass: Denji overcomes all challenges in his way and becomes powerful as Chainsaw Man, but he's a massively Troubled Teen with deep insecurities and desire for love and companionship. This is especially true in regard to his attempts to romance, that every girl he meets all have tried to kill him, and by Part 2, in spite of his growing attraction to Asa Mitaka, Denji has all but given up ever finding romance. He was broken by Makima, who Denji was deeply infatuated with, only to learn that not only did she never gave a damn about him, but robbed him of his surrogate family of Aki and Power which left him with an enormous hole in his heart. This is especially true with Reze, the first girl he genuinely fell for far beyond mere attraction. They bonded with each other and slowly fell in love, only for Reze to be revealed an assassin sent after his heart and tries to kill him. Even then Denji believed in her and promised he'd wait for her at the cafe she worked at, but she never showed up, which left him heart broken and became much more cynical from then on thinking she never loved him. Tragically, Reze really did love him and tried to return to be with him, only for Makima to rob it for the both of them and cut her down. Even in Part 2, Denji still has feelings for Reze unaware of what Makima did to her. By the climax of Part 2, Denji realizes that deep down, in spite of his obsession of wanting sex and a girlfriend, he really just craved not being alone. Pochita points out that Denji was happier when he was living in poverty with him because he had nothing to lose, and being Chainsaw Man made him miserable because of all the pain and suffering he endured. Realizing how much pain he put Denji through, Pochita sacrifices his very existence to give Denji a chance on a normal life with nothing to hold him back.
The Hedonist: Tends to be more driven by a desire for luxury, good food, and the opposite sex than by any higher motive, although he's got a perfectly good reason for it - as a debt-slave, even buttered bread was an impossible dream. Once he gets the bare minimum of these, however, it's clear he feels the prices he had to pay aren't really worth it and even laments what he had to go through to achieve them. While his "No More Holding Back" Speech shows that he still wants more (as anybody would), he's ultimately learned to settle for and enjoy what he has.
Henshin Hero: A Decon-Recon Switch of one. He can transform into his Devil form with a drawstring on his chest, but this comes with the caveat of his current blood count. If Denji doesn't have enough blood, his Devil form is incomplete and he is miles weaker than his full Devil form. Give him the blood he needs however, he's in top form, shredding through Devils like butter.
Here We Go Again!:
- Having been imprisoned by the Eternity Devil and possibly due to spending time in actual Hell, Denji's reaction to Fami trapping him in yet another endless Eldritch Location is frustrated boredom.
- His lot in the new timeline caused by Pochita's erasure isn't very different from where he was at the start of Part 1: he's contracted to a Devil, was press-ganged into joining Public Safety under the leadership of the Control Devil, and is a Devil Hunter who has to risk life and limb on the job. However, Pochita no longer being in his life resulted in him being in a contract with Power rather than Pochita, working under a more benevolent Nayuta instead of Makima, and living life as a run-of-the-mill Devil Hunter instead of someone who was targeted by enemies all over the world for being Chainsaw Man. Being able to live a (comparatively) more down-to-earth life without having his more toxic qualities amplified by people manipulating or harming him, much less his self-defeating mindset from his friendship with Pochita, allows Denji to now live and pursue a far better life.
Heroic BSoD:
- Played for Laughs when he touches boobs for the first time, and is so underwhelmed that he maintains a Thousand-Yard Stare for several panels.
- Played straight after he is forced to kill Aki. He becomes so depressed that it makes even Makima put in a little more effort to try to cheer him back up.
- Gets hit with it even HARDER in Chapter 82 where Makima reveals that she orchestrated Aki and Power's murder, and then forces Denji to remember he murdered his own father, all to make Denji think that he can never live a happy, normal life. Poor kid gets left broken on the couch after that.
Heroic Safe Mode: His lack of reaction towards the deaths of Himeno, Arai, and several fellow Devil Hunters makes him concerned that he's incapable of feeling or caring for others. It's actually due more to an example of this trope, as losing even more people in his life starts to wear on him with Makima's killing stroke outing this behavior as an attempt to suppress his guilt and horror over killing his abusive father.
Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Despite the Yakuza actually paying him for Devil hunting, in Part 2 he gets no remuneration for his hero work, forcing him to resort to stealing and scamming to get by. While this may seem strange since Civilian Devil Hunters still get paid, given that Public Safety is the only organization that knows his identity and is actively trying to dissuade him from being Chainsaw Man, this makes sense.
He's Back!:
- In Chapter 91, Power's Heroic Sacrifice followed by seeing how the general public now love him inspires Denji to want to live again, even if it means taking Makima down to do it.
- After spending several chapters having begrudgingly given up being Chainsaw Man, the Chainsaw Man Church's actions eventually forces Denji to come out of retirement. Unlike last time, Denji is a hell of a lot more bitter since he just lost not only his and Nayuta's house, but also their pets, including Meowy, his one last link to Power.
- After falling past the Despair Event Horizon from seeing Nayuta's severed head and letting Pochita control his body once again, Denji finally regains his will to continue living after Asa gives him a pep talk, then barfing out the Snow Devil and Bitterness Devil and remembering his lost loved ones, concluding that so long as there's good things he likes such as food and girls, he still has something to live for.
Hero with Bad Publicity: In Part 2, Denji's becoming something of a Base-Breaking Character in-universe. While he has no shortage of fans, he also has several detractors who rightfully point out the copious amounts of collateral damage and death that follow in his wake when battling some of the more dangerous Devils out in public, with the Falling Devil being one of the most catastrophic Devils to ever appear since the Gun Devil. Chapter 146 has Fami exploiting this by using the Chainsaw Man Church to boost people's fears of the Chainsaw Devil by turning its members into Chainsaw Man-like facsimiles and have them run amok.
Hidden Depths:
- As much of a hedonistic, Hormone-Addled Teenager he is, Denji proves to be a surprisingly philosophical thinker. One example is, right before slaughtering his zombified Yakuza superiors, he questions why people so fortunate would still demand more from life rather then just relishing the chance for revenge on his abusive bosses. And later, after Power lets him cop a feel, he finds the experience dull and concludes being in a sexual relationship with a girl won’t be fulfilling unless he likes that girl as a person with little prodding. He’s also savvy enough to realize that everyone is constantly trying to manipulate him. While he admits frustration sometimes, he has so little to lose that the Comically Small Bribes that drive his actions are enough for him to charge headfirst into danger.
- Though Denji struggles with voicing his desires out loud, he's actually much less perverted than he comes across as; he never takes advantage of a woman and only expresses his sexual desires when they initiate with a proposal (unless he's thinking them out loud and embarrassing himself), and he has enough self-awareness to know or at least suspect when a girl is taking advantage of him, just not enough self-respect to act upon it. He's also perfectly able to form close bonds with girls without being attracted to them, as shown with Power, Nayuta, and Asa, can be understanding of his love interest's feelings outside of liking their body, as shown with Reze, and he has a better grasp on consent than most characters around him, as he kills two Devils so Power would give him her consent to grope her, instead of Copping a Feel on his own. At his absolute worst, he ignores the Questionable Consent of wanting to have sex with someone when they are controlling someone else's body, though at least he waits for Yoru to voice both her and Asa's consent before letting out a cheer (not that he seemed to have thought about it beforehand).
- Though Part 2 focuses mainly on his flaws and self-destructive tendencies, Denji nevertheless managed to balance both his family life and his superhero life for an entire year without Yoshida's intervention, raised enough money to pay for the apartment, Nayuta's education, his own, and maintain seven dogs and a cat, and kept a very healthy potted plant. He also caught up on his studies extremely quickly, going from barely grasping the basics of grade-school level knowledge when he met Reze to entering high school sometime during the Time Skip, and somehow avoided getting outed as Chainsaw Man at any point despite clearly wanting to.
- Chapter 231 implies deep down, Denji was happier before he became Chainsaw Man. While it did give him power and attention like he wanted, he was more miserable than ever, being betrayed, abused, and losing people he loves all the time and was better off living in that rundown shack and eating stale bread fighting Devils with Pochita and dreaming of a normal life. The fact that Denji can't refute what he says proves Pochita is right.
Hidden Disdain Reveal: A more subtle and downplayed example. While Denji DOES love Nayuta, it's heavily implied that Denji holds a lot of repressed anger towards her under the surface that he doesn't have any kind of emotional outlet for. At the climax of the Church of Chainsaw Man arc Denji flies into a blind rage and lets out all of the repressed emotions he had been keeping locked up, at which point he tells Nayuta to leave him. Even though their relationship is, overall, positive, Denji's anger towards her makes a lot of sense when looking at the circumstances of their relationship. Denji is still a teenager and Nayuta is a major responsibility that was thrust onto him without even his own input. As the Control Devil, Nayuta is a very domineering and controlling figure in Denji's life, for better and for worse. When Denji starts to experience a budding romance with Asa Mitaka, Nayuta forcibly breaks them up out of (from Denji's perspective at least) jealousy, and makes Denji promise her that he won't ever interact with Asa again. The whole reason why Denji needed to give up Chainsaw Man, one of the few things he finds enjoyment in, is because Nayuta was threatened. Finally, there's the elephant in the room that Nayuta is the reincarnation of the woman who ruined Denji's life, with all of the turbulent emotions that are obviously going to come along with that.
His Heart Will Go On: Deconstructed. After what he went through in Part 1 with his failure at love with his love interests, Denji is doing his best to try to find a girlfriend in Part 2, willing to throw away what little pride he has in an effort to find love. All of this is to fill the hole in his heart Makima left him after taking everything from him and Reze leaving him after their fight, unaware that Makima captured her. He agrees to date Asa Mitaka, and after a while the two slowly bond and gain feelings for each other to the point he admits to Nayuta he likes her. However, it becomes a case of Loving a Shadow, that Denji more or less likes Asa because of the sexual things she did to him (which was really Yoru forcing Asa to do the deeds) in her body and that Denji barely knows anything about her. By the time of Chapter 183 heavily implies deep down, he's more broken by Reze's absence, as Denji still loves her and misses her, wanting to move on but at the same time is unable to forget about her. By the climax of Part 2, Denji's forced to accept that his feelings for Asa were never romantic, he just didn't want to be alone and settled for her (and Yoru) because by the time of Nayuta's death, he had no one else in his life to call a friend.
His Own Worst Enemy: Denji desire to have love and acceptance living a normal life, yet for him to have any chance at having any of this amount to him making the changes in himself to achieve this. His desperation for affection and addiction to being Chainsaw Man and his general immaturity always gets the better of him and is the root cause for all the tragedies around him. He loses his family figures Aki and Power because of his inability to listen to others seeing Makima was using him the whole time and never cared for him, and in Part 2, he gives in to being Chainsaw Man after losing everything again resulting in Nayuta's death and Denji being labeled as a monster in the public because the world now fears Chainsaw Man. Yoshida even calls him out on this, that he tried numerous times to help Denji and warned him what would happen, but Denji is unable to change himself and it results in his own downfall. Denji is then forced to confront his own inner demons by Pochita reminding him of the good times for Denji to finally realize if he wants to have any chance of a normal life he needs to overcome his own trauma's and learn to forgive himself for all the bad things in his life. By the climax of Part 2, Denji is forced to realize from Pochita that being Chainsaw Man will always make him miserable and Pochita decides to remove himself from Denji and give him a chance to live free from the burden of all the pain he's been through.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Denji is sixteen and very easily lead along by his libido. Makima, Himeno, Reze, and (early on) Power end up freely exploiting this to their advantage. He doesn't really grow out of this, because he's still desperately trying to get a girl in Part 2 and even Asa acknowledges that Chainsaw Man mostly saves women.
Horrible Housing: For most of his life, Denji lived in a run-down shack in the middle of nowhere. After joining the bureau, he’s overjoyed to finally live in a normal apartment.
Horrifying Hero: Denji's Devil form consists of a chainsaw with teeth replacing his skull and chainsaw blades bloodily ripping out of his arms. While crass and impulsive, Denji is an empathic person at heart, doing his very best to save as many people as he can despite his callous demeanor.
Horrifying the Horror:
- Even Devils who don't recognize his link to the original Chainsaw Man gradually begin to fear Denji when they see that his size belies his immense strength, vindictiveness, and determination, eventually screaming "Stay back! / Get away!" before he cuts them to pieces.
- Whip Woman, a sadistic Smug Super who laughs at Denji's horror at seeing his house burned down, is reduced to screaming in horror at seeing Denji not only brutally rip Spear Man in half but start eating him while he's still alive.
Human Doorstop: In Part 2, Denji accepts money in exchange for being used as a chair, which one of his female classmates, Yoshida, and Fumiko took advantage of. Yoshida even quips that he's surprisingly comfortable.
Humble Goal: Despite (quite deliberately) fitting the Stock Shōnen Hero to a tee, Denji has zero ambition To Be a Master, become the strongest Devil Hunter, or get anything like that: he just wants to live in a decent house, eat decent food, and date a hot girl. This ends up biting him in the ass multiple times throughout the series, because his sheer lack of ambition makes Aki refuse to take him seriously and also makes him extremely easy to bribe and manipulate, especially if you're a hot girl.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: After spending much of his youth making a meagre living hunting Devils, Denji spends the rest of the series being pursued by demons, assassins, and other hunters for his association with the Chainsaw Devil. Of all his opponents in Part 1, only four of them (Zombie, Muscle, Bat, and Leech) weren't out to get him specifically.

I-O

I Am a Monster: After Aki and Power's deaths, the final straw for Denji is remembering that he killed his father. He finds this act so heinous and unforgivable that he agrees with Makima that a murderer like him doesn't deserve the normal, happy life he dreamed of. Chapter 155 shows that he still carries his mentality, believing that because he killed his father, he has no right to have a family.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: When asked which side he is on, he says this to Kishibe, though it is more about fighting for whoever is taking care of him and less about fighting for whoever is the strongest.
I Just Want to Be Loved: Part of Denji's dreams of having a normal life includes basic companionship. He's distraught that he's now alone when Pochita merged with him and Makima showing him an adequate amount of physical affection started him down the road of doing her bidding. Seeing all of the world loving him and revering him for his heroic actions as Chainsaw Man gets him out of his Heroic BSoD and decide that he really does want to live and aim for even bigger dreams even after all he's been through at that point. By Part 2 becomes even worse for him, wanting all the attention and love from the public to fuel his loneliness and desire for a girlfriend. By the time of Nayuta's death, he can only cry when Yoru tells him Asa likes him happy that there's someone who still likes him and doesn't want him dead. By the end of Part 2, Pochita resolves to sacrifice himself to give Denji another chance to find love.
I Just Want to Be Normal:
- The dreams Denji details to Pochita are ultimately mundane but otherwise leagues above the poverty he was stuck in at the beginning of the story. He only agrees to Devil hunting and using his Hybrid abilities because doing so gives him a close semblance to the normal life he desires. When Denji despairs that he'll only ever have control over the smallest parts of his life, Kobeni shocks him by pointing out that is normal.
- This begins getting deconstructed in Part 2. Denji's wish for normalcy was ultimately subverted by him becoming a Celebrity Superhero with a Secret Identity he's actively trying to expose. So in order to keep him under Public Safety's thumb and no longer be Chainsaw Man, Yoshida forces him into a more definitive mundane life as a simple high-schooler... and Denji ends up feeling unfulfilled and even more miserable as he finds himself fading away into the background as basically an extra as opposed to the protagonist of his own story, having to sit by and watch as someone else poses as Chainsaw Man and receives the adulation Denji enjoyed until now. By forcing him to do this, Yoshida spells out what a truly "normal" life entails: having to live with the world getting by just fine without knowing that you exist. With much reluctance, Denji decides he cannot accept that.
- The finale of Part 2 reconstructs this, as Pochita proclaims that Denji really wants to be normal, but was still somewhat unhappy with his life throughout Part 2 because being Chainsaw Man was anything but normal, and for Denji to have the life he truly wants, Pochita decides to give his life to save Denji and the world.
I Just Want to Have Friends: With Pochita as the only friend he had growing up in poverty and never interacting with others aside from the cruel Yakuza, Denji is a very lonely individual who longs for companionship. He even admits to Aki he'd be ok with being friends with a Devil or a Fiend, as he's used to being around such dark and gory things he's used to it. Over time in Part 1, he gradually forms a bond and friendship with Aki and Power, viewing them as family, and when Makima gets them killed, he becomes unresponsive and submissive to her demands. Even in Part 2, he still desires friendship. However, as he continues to have one traumatic event happen after another, Denji becomes willing to view anyone as a friend no matter how desperate he is. By the time he learns of Yoru's existence, he accepts her and Asa as the only friends he basically has since Nayuta is dead, Yoshida and Fumiko were never his friends (not that it stops him from clinging to the latter two again when they give him a pizza and a nude photo respectively, only for this to be used against him once more), and he just doesn't want to be lonely. In Chaper 230, he admits he really just wants a friend to have sex with which is why he brings up the deal with Yoru again, not even caring about the fact she's been trying to kill him countless times. Largely, he also admits deep down, he hopes Yoru would be like Power, who liked animals like her.
I Will Wait for You: In the aftermath of his fight with Reze, who does everything in her power to keep Denji safe claiming she never loved him and resorts to breaking his neck to keep her from following her proclaims he'll wait for her at the cafe to run away together. He waited the entire day for her, only for her to never show up, leaving him heartbroken thinking she never cared for him. Tragically, Reze really did return, but Makima robbed them of their chance to be together because Reze did love Denji. Chapter 183 heavily implies he's still in love with her and wishes to see her again.
The Idealist: It's easily overshadowed by his hormonal and crass behavior, but Denji is remarkably optimistic.
- Not many people get told that they are trapped in an Unnaturally Looping Location with no means of escape or calling for help and see it as an opportunity to take a nap as long as they want, rationalizing that they'll figure out a way eventually anyways.
- He even saw earning only 100 yen as a victory since it meant he and Pochita would get to eat for another three days.
- His optimism sometimes tragically gets used against him; his reaction to seeing Power killed by Makima right in front of him is to try to laugh it off as a bad dream, only for it to come crashing down as Makima laughs in his face and completes her plan to tear his hopes and dreams into dust.
- In the climax of Part 2, Pochita actually spells out to Denji that despite all the good things in his life by then, whether it was his family or school life or connection with Asa, Denji never felt fulfilled because he was happier as a destitute, starving debt slave to the yakuza before he became Chainsaw Man. As Pochita puts it, Denji had a good heart that let him find happiness despite suffering so much, but that mindset warped him to the point he'd only find true satisfaction at rock bottom, content to dream of a better life instead of truly living it. Pochita believes that being Denji's best friend back then is why that mindset came to be and why he'll never truly be happy no matter how much better his life becomes, and as a result, Pochita devours himself to create a world where Chainsaw Man doesn't exist, hoping that Denji will be able to chase his dreams of a better life without anything holding him back.
Idiot Ball: While he was never exactly the brightest guy out there, Denji not picking up on the many red flags surrounding Asa Mitaka in Part 2 is pretty glaring. Even after the Falling Devil, a Primal Fear, tells him that she's specifically going after Asa and when he later sees Asa kill devils on live television, Denji never suspects that she's anything more than just another civilian.
Idiot Hair: It's hard to notice, but Denji usually has one small strand of hair on his head sticking up in most scenes he's in, adding to his status of being a simpleton.
Idiot Hero: Deconstructed in that his idiocy comes from a horrific childhood of isolation and poverty which has left him with No Social Skills, uneducated, illiterate and extremely poor impulse control. While Denji does have his moments where he gets to show that he can be quite clever and insightful when it comes down to it, long term planning and careful judgement are not his strong suit, and he's rather vulnerable to any form of emotional manipulation, especially if it comes from an attractive woman.
Ignored Epiphany: Largely due to the trauma surrounding his life, Denji has a very bad habit of burying his trauma rather than dealing with it, which is very harmful for both himself and the people around him.
- When he finds himself Unable to Cry about Himeno's death, he realizes that he might be losing his humanity after fusing with a Devil. He very quickly shrugs it off because he didn't feel like dealing with negative thoughts.
- During his fight with Bomb Girl, he's come to realize that all the women he's met so far had manipulated him, tried to kill him, or both, and he includes Makima among these women. He's quickly back to being head over heels for Makima by the very next arc, and seems to completely forget about Reze in spite of the impact she made on him in the short time they knew each other. Part 2 reveals this is because he's been subconsciously trying not to think about Reze because it hurts too much to think about her. Chapter 183 reveals he considers her, alongside Aki, Power, and Nayuta among those he loves, heavily implying he still is in love with Reze and doesn't want to think about her because it causes him pain.
- Even back in Chapter 2, Denji seems to have been quick to figure out that Makima is not as nice as he initially assumed, but quickly goes back to being smitten with her and figuring he has a shot when she cheekily suggests she might be attracted to him.
- He doesn't seem to learn anything from Part 1, as Part 2 shows that his new goal is to expose himself as Chainsaw Man to the public in the vain hopes of finding a girlfriend. This is in spite of the fact that, to reiterate a point from above, almost all the women who knew that he was Chainsaw Man tried to kill him and take his heart. Sure enough, his efforts to reveal his identity has caught the attention of the War Devil, who's infiltrated his school to confront him. In reality, this is more a result of his desperation than any genuine sexual desire, as he wants to fill the hole in his heart Makima left him after taking away his home and loved ones. Chapter 231 has Pochita realize that he himself is the cause of it all because Denji is Chainsaw Man, which motivates him to remove himself from existence to give Denji the chance to live his life with nothing holding him back.
- Despite defeating Makima, he never learned to stand up for himself, as by Part 2, he still allows women to use him as they please, and degrades himself for Fumiko's amusement despite his own thoughts being proof that he knows better. He also continues viewing sexual favors as a transaction, despite learning all the way back in Part 1 that sexual encounters mean nothing if he doesn't have a close relationship with his partner.
- Halfway through Part 2, Denji internalizes that his libido is his Fatal Flaw as it overrides his judgement, and he recognizes that thinking with his dick ruins everything around him. A chapter later, he gets a handjob from Yoru and his brain craps out again. Everything gets worse after Nayuta dies, as Denji triples down on his Quest for Sex and becomes almost completely unable to make a decision unless he's motivated by the premise of coitus with a pretty girl, which overrides his brief moment of lucity where he promises to help Asa escape Yoru. During their last conversation, Pochita flat-out tells him that having sex with Yoru wouldn't have solved anything, and Denji still doesn't get it. By the end of Part 2, his obsession for sex ultimately costs him everything, as the world is in anarchy and, after being devoured by a Devil and Death erased, Pochita erases himself to save Denji to start over so that he'll have a chance to live his life the right way.
Ignored Expert: Ironically, he becomes this in the Aquarium Arc in part 2: since he's an experienced Devil Hunter who's not only killed many Devils before but this specific Devil in particular, he calmly and accurately explains what's going on only for Asa and the Devil Hunter Club to reject his advice and insist he stop making stuff up.
Ignorance Is Bliss: Subverted. Learning the truth about those around him and his own past destroys him, but not utterly, as the connections he made over the course of the series help him recover and ultimately grow stronger after overcoming the aforementioned revelations.
Image Song: Most of the ED tracks of the anime adaptation are sung from Denji's perspective regarding his thoughts on the events of Part 1 and his complicated relationship with Makima.
Insecure Love Interest:
- It's strongly implied part of the reason he initially rejected Reze was out of the belief she's too good for him, who's never been to school and can barely read. Becomes worse when he agrees to elope with her and meet her at the cafe in the aftermath of their fight, only for her to never show up making him think it was all his fault. Part 2 seems to imply further that he's still in love with her, and that he blames himself for her leaving him, unaware that Makima captured her and that Reze did love him back and tried to reunite with him.
- Asa declaring that she hates him and that she only agreed to the movie date at his home for a distraction genuinely depresses Denji, who genuinely thought she liked him and whose mind begins wandering to figure out exactly what he did wrong. He doesn't know that she's actually trying to avoid getting attached to him so Yoru can't turn him into a weapon despite her growing crush on him.
Irony:
- After Himeno's death, Denji concludes that he wouldn't cry if Aki or Power were to die, but would be down in the dumps for a while if Makima were to die. Denji is outright sobbing when he's forced to kill Aki and later sheds tears when Power gives up her life to revive him, but isn't nearly so emotional when he kills and eats Makima.
- Started the series willing to work for anyone who would take care of him, whether they be human, Devil, or the government. He winds up as the sole breadwinner of a new household featuring several dogs and a young girl Devil by the end of Part 1.
It's All My Fault:
- He completely blames himself for Aki and Power's deaths, having killed the former to stop his rampage as the Gun Fiend and inadvertently allowed Makima to murder the latter. The idea that both were his fault was placed in his mind by Makima in order to break him into an Empty Shell so Pochita could return.
- Denji ends up tripling down on this after waking up in the aftermath of Nayuta's death, with Yoru's blaming him for her getting stuck in Aging's world with no way out, despite him not even being conscious while Yoru provoked the Aging Devil. Denji doesn't even argue back, instead apologizing that every single person involved with him ends up miserable, and can only say sorry as Yoru gets mad at him for crying.
It Gets Easier: His hesitation to give it his all during his climactic battle with the Gun Fiend out of the hope that he could save Aki indirectly resulted in tremendous collateral damage and would have killed him if not for some brave bystanders giving him some blood. Fast forward to Part 2, and he has an easier time making hard decisions to end Devil battles quicker, willing to sacrifice the lives of several civilians to prevent the Cockroach Devil from wrecking the city further. And to save a nearby cat.
It's Personal: Denji usually doesn't let others get the better of him, but when they do, he will take it personally
- He considers Katana Man a personal enemy not only for getting Himeno killed, but for being the grandson of the Yakuza boss who made his childhood and living hell. Denji then smugly gets revenge against him by repeatedly kicking him in the balls with Aki to avenge Himeno.
- Although he can't bring himself to hate her, Denji considers Makima this. After learning she orchestrated the deaths of Aki and Power by using Denji for her own ambitions, Denji resolves to face her and kill her to stop her plans. It's all but confirmed after hearing her brutal breaking speech as she fights Pochita learning how much she held Denji in contempt, resulting in Denji using Powers blood to make a chainsaw and defeat her when her guard was down and kill her.
- After burning down his home, killing all his pets, and getting Nayuta killed and presenting her severed head to Denji in a twisted joke, Barem Bridge is unanimously Denji's most hated enemy to date. Upon seeing him later kill Yoshida in the school, a furious Denji lets Pochita gain control and brutally devour Barem and erase him from existence making him suffer every second until he's devoured in penance for all the horrible things he did.
It's the Journey That Counts: Deconstructed. As Pochita explains to him in Chapter 231, Denji is always unfulfilled after accomplishing his dreams and his main source of happiness comes from longing and chasing for more dreams rather than enjoying those he's already accomplished. It's exemplified early in the series after he finally gets a chance to touch a woman's breasts vis-a-vis Power. It's such a middling and mundane experience compared to what he was expecting and how hard he worked to attain it (not helped by Power's chest not being as big as advertised), that's he's left dreading if any other goal he tries to attain will turn out just as unfulfilling once he achieves them. Pochita goes on that he believes being Denji's friend in his life gave him this mindset, thinking that his existence is what gave Denji the mindset of wanting rather than having. To that end, he sacrifices his life to give Denji a true chance at chasing after his dreams the right way.
"There's something I was chasing after, and I finally managed to get it. But once I did, it wasn't... as big of a deal as I thought. Now I'm wondering, if I go after something else, and get my hands on it, am I just gonna think I was happier during the chase?"
Jerkass Has a Point: Denji is immature and can be a big jerk when he wants to towards others, but he does make a valid point at times.
- When he meets Aki for the first time, Denji accuses him of liking Makima just like him and wants to get rid of Denji for competition. The fact Aki doesn't refute he likes her proves Denji is right. Unfortunately, this was a tragic example, that Makima was using her powers to brainwash Aki into loving her.
- When Katana Man argues that Denji should pay for killing his grandfather, Denji points out how stupid he is for wanting to avenge a murdering Yakuza like him, especially since he made Denji's life a living hell. the fact Katana knows his grandfather did horrible things shows he's just making excuses for himself and oblivious how much a monster his grandfather was.
- When Asa and her friends rescue him from Public Safety and she tells him to listen to her idea, Denji refuses rightfully pointing out she first kicked him in the groin and now suddenly wants him to listen to her without properly explaining her crazy behavior. Worse is Asa knows he's right but can't bring herself to reveal Yoru without causing problems.
- When Asa begs Denji to kill her to stop Yoru because she's too much of a coward to do the deed herself, Denji tries to smash her with a chair. When Asa demands why he did that, Denji points out she's lying about wanting to die and is right that if she dodged that attack she's clearly lying to herself and wants to live.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he has terrible manners and isn't above threatening others to get an advantage, he's not a bad person at heart. The "heart of gold" part becomes more apparent as the series goes on, as he shows himself to be able to form close relationships with others without lusting for them, while also having some self-imposed lines that he won't cross. Ultimately Deconstructed after losing his family and becoming friends with Yoru in Part 2, as while Denji is still able to listen to his heart from time to time, and he can still show care for others and remorse for his actions, when push comes to shove he always ends up "thinking with his dick" and dismisses those who are trying to help him in favor of pursuing his shallow desires, and Pochita has to actively alter his brain (by making him forget about Chainsaw Man) to give him a chance to improve.
Karmic Jackpot: For giving Pochita the companionship and hugs he longed for the most, Denji gets a contract from the devil on very generous terms. Pochita fuses with him to provide his heart, making him effectively an immortal juggernaut, and all his best friend asks of him is to work towards his dreams, which he was going to do anyway.
Kick the Dog:
- While fighting the Bat Devil, he saves a civilian inside a car that was being thrown at him. When questioned on this, Denji retorts that he doesn't care about that guy and throws the car back at the Devil. Luckily, the man manages to exit before the car explodes on Bat's face, but he's left rather bitter about the experience.
- When killing the Cockroach Devil in Part 2 with the choice of saving an innocent civilian or a bus of elderly civilians, Denji lets them both die to kill the Devil and save a cat instead. This later bites him in the ass, as a copycat killer Fakesaw Man comes in, who's the brother of the civilian Denji let die and the Fire Devil helped to get revenge against.
- It's revealed in Part 2 that one of his ways of making money is scamming homeless old people by selling them used cigarettes he picked from the streets as if they were brand new.
Kick the Morality Pet: When he transforms again to fight Whip, Spear and Sugo for burning down his home and killing his pets, Nayuta tries to reason with Denji, only for Denji to tell her to piss off and she's annoying, leaving her hurt by his words. He then proceeds to brutally cut down his enemies in sadistic glee as revenge all the while ignoring how Nayuta feels. By the aftermath of it, which results in her death, he deeply regrets his actions.
Kid Hero: Heavily deconstructed in Part 1. Denji, despite appearances, is only 16, and has lived through absolute hell before and after becoming "Chainsaw Man". He is incredibly immature and simple minded, but that stems from having even the most basic of necessities denied to him and lacking any real parental figures or emotional connections for most of his life. He's rather upbeat and energetic, because he's forced to ignore negative emotions and embrace ignorance just to keep himself sane, which only ends up disturbing him and making him think he lost his humanity after becoming a Hybrid and leaves him ill equipped to deal with his boatloads of trauma. He's The Idealist, but only because his life was so shitty already anything ends up being better looking to him than that, and holding on to the dream of something better is all he has to keep him going. He suffers countless mental tribulations over his original dreams when seeing they weren't what he expected. His nature as a Determinator stems more from desperation over not losing the happiness he's finally gotten than from any form of sheer will power. Denji's demonstrating traits of the Kid Hero is used more to highlight just how terrible his lot in life is and how much he suffered, while also highlighting how horrible Makima is for building up his life just to tear it all down, with Denji himself ultimately being an extremely broken and tortured kid, which is carried over into Part 2 where he loses most of these traits, having Took a Level in Cynic and looking perpetually exhausted and depressed, all while still dealing with the trauma and trying to make due with his current lot in life.
Killed Offscreen: While unable to fully die due to death being erased from existence, Denji gets eaten by a swarm of Devils inbetween chapters 230 and 231, landing him and Pochita in a Dying Dream.
Kill the Ones You Love:
- He kills Aki during his rampage as the Gun Fiend. The aftermath has Denji utterly broken having to basically kill a man who he came to view as a brother.
- He also does this with Makima in the climax of Part 1 in revenge for her getting Aki and Power killed (as well as Himeno and Reze). However, Denji still loves Makima to his disgust, but knows she has to die to stop her insane plan and later decides to raise her reincarnation Nayuta with the love Makima never had.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Upon his return in Chapter 2, Denji casually lets half a dozen civilians die just so he can save an endangered cat that the kaiju-sized devil he's fighting hadn't even noticed. Rather tragically, it's implied that this is because he's still not gotten over Power's death, and is taking care of cats as a way to honor her memory until he's able to go down to Hell and find the Blood Devil again.
Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: What drives Denji to fully surrender himself to Makima is remembering that he killed his father, and doesn't even find doing it in self-defense justifiable in any way. Part 2 eventually shows that although Denji rarely dwells on it, he will never forgive himself for his patricide at all. When he is separated from Nayuta, Denji even has a nightmare where his child self concludes killing his father means he will never have a family.
Knight in Sour Armor: He grows into this by the time Makima reveals herself as the Big Bad. He's immensely saddened that his quest for a normal life had led him astray into misery, but seeing how many people revere the Chainsaw Man for his heroics as well as a talk with the equally despondent Kobeni makes him accept that bad things in life are perfectly normal. This is best exemplified when he and Pochita finally decide to kill Makima when she admits she'd also erase bad movies from existence. As Kobeni told him, wanting to live in a world where there is no bad to highlight the good is unrealistic. By Part 2, the sourness is more on display ironically along with his greater capacity for outward kindness. He's lost the manic energy he had in Part 1 and is far more muted and wary in his interactions with the opposite sex despite his continued desire to hook up with a girl, but he's still trying to do good as Chainsaw Man and wants to be acknowledged as a hero.
Lack of Empathy:
- Discussed, causing him to begin questioning his own humanity after becoming a hybrid. Denji realizes he doesn't feel much over the death of Himeno, and wonders if this really does mean he's become a monster. More than likely, as a result of his upbringing leaving him devoid of emotional connections outside of Pochita and filled with nothing but death and poverty, combined with his desire to ignore negative thoughts overall, he's become Conditioned to Accept Horror and finds it harder to express empathy, only doing so when his emotional dam is pushed to its absolute brink. Prime example being when he's forced to kill Aki turned into the Gun Fiend, and completely breaks down afterwards.
- Part 2 however plays this in a very dramatic case. After losing everything again at the hands of the Chainsaw Man Church and Nayuta is killed, Denji is brought down to his lowest again. After the ordeal with the Aging Devil and learning of Yoru's existence, Denji just stops caring about everything around him, even when Yoru kills innocent people in front of him, while he gets angry at her, he later gets over it the following day. This shows he's so used to suffering he just can't bring himself to empathize anymore and is an empty shell at this point. Worse is when Asa is crying to him begging him to stop Yoru's plan, he later just goes on a bike ride with Yoru killing zombies laughing like crazy completely ignorant to her suffering.
Laughing Mad: When he transforms in Chapter 151, a very concerned Nayuta notes that he's laughing. By this point, Denji has seemingly lost everything that could allow him the normal life he wanted, and has reached such a point of despair that he embraces the fact that he has nothing left but to be Chainsaw Man.
Legacy Character: He's not "Chainsaw Man" because he's an Artificial Hybrid between the Chainsaw Devil and a human. He's the second Chainsaw Man, as that was Pochita's moniker back in Hell.
Light Is Good: In his fight with Doll Woman, he uses light (from gasoline fires) to counteract her darkness powers that she got from consuming a piece of the Darkness Devil. Also, Denji is usually depicted as a Light or Electric type in gacha games where he appears as a Guest Fighter.
Lightning Bruiser: As Chainsaw Man, he is incredibly fast despite the weight of his chainsaws, striking at Devils with a monstrous amount of power along with his speed. His speed and strength is still applicable even when he isn't in full Devil form, albeit less insanely powerful due to a lack of blood. This trope is taken to its extreme when Pochita assumes control.
Like Father, Like Son: As much as Denji would never admit it, he's more like his father than he knows. His father had a gambling addiction that Denji inherited at the start of the series, and Denji himself is an addict when it comes to wanting to live being Chainsaw Man in spite of the danger it poses. Yoshida even calls out this to Denji, that people he loves will die because of him being Chainsaw Man, yet Denji always gives into his impulses, which results in the death of his pets and Nayuta.
Living Forever Is Awesome: Deconstructed. Denji relishes in being Chainsaw Man, and it's subtly implied that part of it is the immortality that being a Hybrid entails. However, this is portrayed as a very self-destructive addiction that stunts his maturity and judgement because the inability to die means he's free to reassure himself that he can move on and engage in his impulses however long he wishes. After Nayuta and their pets are killed, Denji eventually decides that he can just find replacements for his loved ones, completely disregarding all the emotional connections he's made throughout the series because he's clearly more interested in pushing his trauma away rather than confront it. Furthermore, even if he can come back to life, his many deaths still physically hurt him, and he tells Asa that he never got used to them enough to consider himself Not Afraid to Die. Pochita comes to realize this and erases himself from existence, resulting in a revised timeline where Denji is back to being mortal and sickly, but it's implied that not having Chainsaw Man's abilities at his disposal means he can properly grow and learn to healthily cope with whatever troubles his current life brings him because dying for others is now a possibility again.
Living MacGuffin: Due to having Pochita's heart as a result of their Fusion Dance. Many of the conflicts during the series specifically centre around Devils targeting him over his heart.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- It's highly unlikely that he ever managed to glean that Reze was abducted and brainwashed by Makima, and didn't abandon him like he initially thought, since Pochita was the only one who ever fought her when she was under Makima's control and Denji didn't appear in the final battle with Makima until after Pochita had killed all the Hybrids.
- Chapter 170 confirms that he was unaware of Pochita's true power up until Barem explained it to him]].
Logical Weakness:
- Though Denji can extend his time as Chainsaw Man by drinking blood, it's still too exhausting and painful to keep up full time. He has no powers when not transformed and can easily be prevented from pulling his starter, making him vulnerable to ambushes, especially from people who knows his identity and where he lives. After he leaves Public Safety, Yoshida has Denji kidnapped in his sleep to show he can't ignore their demands.
- Pochita creates a contract and becomes his very heart, keeping him alive after the events of chapter 1. The contract depends upon Denji living and working towards finding his dreams. Should he ever suffer a Heroic BSoD or Despair Event Horizon, it threatens to nullify the contract and he will perish. This nearly ended up being the case at the end of Part 1. Horrified, Pochita takes extreme measures to enforce the contract personally.
- Slashing his brain to shake off mental attacks works well since his reflexes and fighting instincts can keep him in a battle, but he still needs at least one arm to do this as seen when his attempt to rescue Asa from the Falling Devil goes terribly wrong.
Loophole Abuse:
- How did Denji manage to get around Makima’s contract with the Prime Minister of Japan, where any attack against her is transferred as appropriate illnesses or accidents among the Japanese people? By taking advantage of the fact that the contract specified any attack. Denji didn’t consider his consuming Makima as an attack in any way, rather he considered it an act of love and thus found a way around Makima’s contract to kill her.
- He manages to eat the Aging Devil, despite its contract that Japanese children would be sacrificed for every bite he took. By swallowing it whole.
- He defeats Yoru by getting her to hurt herself, as her contract only allows her to heal from attacks dealt by her enemies.
Loser Protagonist: Albeit a very sympathetic example. Not only was his father an abusive alcoholic, he was previously an orphan living in extreme poverty only barely scraping by due to working for the Yakuza. It's only until he bonds with Pochita that his life starts to get better, and even then it's not a cakewalk.
Love at First Sight: He fell for Reze the moment he saw her. It took some time for him to understand this, but he eventually realizes his feelings for her in the school. Even after learning of her true nature, he still has feelings for her, reminding her she had several chances to kill him, but she never did it because she also fell for him. Tragically, he waits for her the entire day at her cafe to run away together, but she never shows up, unaware Makima killed and enslaved her for her own agenda, making him believe she never cared for him, ignorant Reze always reciprocated his love and wanted to be with him.
Love Hurts: He fell for Reze during their time together and began to really question himself on how he feels about her compared to Makima. Even after learning of her true nature, Denji still has feelings for her and offers to take her up on her offer to run away, only for her to break his neck and leave him on the beach to keep him from being hunted and her guilt over trying to kill him. Even when he offers to meet her at the cafe later, she never does and he's left heartbroken, unaware she did return to run away with him to live a normal life together only for Makima to kill and enslave her. Part 2 heavily implies Denji still loves Reze, as during his time in the Aging Devil's world, he thinks of her among those he loved that are gone, implying he's been deliberately trying not to think about her because it hurts too much to remember her as someone he fell in love with.
Love Martyr: He has a pretty huge crush on Makima, who at best uses these feelings to manipulate him in to taking increasingly risky and suicidal missions in an attempt to gain her approval. He finds that he still loves her even after she's arranged the deaths of his friends and tried to emotionally break him, and only reluctantly decides that she needs to die after she reveals that she intends to use the Chainsaw Devil for reasons that are much less altruistic than she originally lead on. His motivation for consuming her in the end is partially so that she can be a part of him forever. Part 2 seems to have him break away from this, as when he remembers his loved ones he lost, Makima is not shown.
Loving a Shadow: Because of his inability to differentiate between sexual and emotional attachments, Denji can be quite shallow in regards to his attraction to women.
- Makima in Part 1, largely because of how controlling, vexing, and pretty she it. It should also be noted Denji barely knows anything about her and has seen first-hand she has manipulated him into doing favors, but he never catches on. A number of characters even call him out on this but he never listens. It takes Power being cruelly killed in front of him by Makima and her revealing herself as the Big Bad having orchestrated her and Aki's death for Denji to finally realize how badly he messed up and resolves to kill her to stop her plans.
- Zig-zagged with Reze. Despite her being the person he felt the most romantic attraction to throughout his life, most of their happy times together were spent when she was putting on a façade as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and the rest was her trying to kill him. Despite Denji being sure that at least some of their bonding was real, he ultimately never knew the real her or her past, making it easier for him to ultimately come to believe that she's abandoned him, which isn't helped by her intentionally pushing him away in their last interaction to protect him, and he's quick to get over her (or pretend that he's over her) when Makima enters the picture again. However, by part 2, with Makima and all his other friends gone, part of him clearly still longs for Reze, as she was the first person who had ever shown him any kind of genuine romantic affection.
- It's a little more complicated in Part 2, as many of the positive experiences he thought he was having with Asa were actually spent with Yoru. After he learns they're different people inhabiting the same body, he gradually starts drifting towards Yoru despite how violent she is because she's less of a downer than the girl she's partially possessing. Chapter 230 heavily implies this to be the case for both of them, as when he brings up the deal to have sex with Yoru, Denji admits he mainly just wants to have a friend to have sex with, not a lover. With all the betrayals and heartbreaks he's been through, it's heavily implied that Denji has given up on ever finding love and is just interested in the idea of sex with a pretty girl, whom he can just view as a friend. Pochita even lampshades this in Chapter 231, saying that part of Denji was still unhappy even when bonding with Asa and Yoru, and making him realize that deep down, he never had any real feelings for either of them, but he just didn't want to be lonely.
Lust Makes You Dumb: His attraction to Makima largely amounts to this. He barely knew her but was head over heels for her and willing to humiliate himself for her sake. Naturally, she takes advantage of this, sexually seducing him and preying on him like a predator to further her control over him. He finally wises up after learning of her true nature and she is responsible for the deaths of Aki and Power, though Denji still feels terrible knowing he still has feelings for her after everything she did to him.
Magic Pants: Averted, which is why Denji is the only Public Safety agent who always fights with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, as otherwise his chainsaws would cut his clothes to ribbons. Oddly played straight with the saws on his legs, as no mention is ever made of of him needing to acquire new slacks or sneakers after his saws shred through them. That said, he only ever fully extended a blade from them once as a Finishing Move against Katana man, and has otherwise only partially extended the tips of the chainsaws through the soles of his feet as a means of gaining purchase when doing a Wall Run, keeping his shoes relatively intact.
Man of Kryptonite: To the Typhoon Devil. Denji even admits how easy it is to defeat him since all he needs to do is extend his chainsaw and Typhoon does all the spinning.
Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Denji is chronically incapable of landing a romantic relationship and mentions he's masturbates regularly, even wondering if he's feeling depressed because he was left unable to for longer than usual.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Denji at one point Flash Steps in human form to intercept Miri Sugo, so fast that Sugo legitimately wonders if he teleported. Similar to Quanxi's own Super-Speed, it's not clear if Denji has access to Chainsaw Man's speed in human form or if this whole scene was just Rule of Funny.
Meaningful Name:
- His name (spelled "デンジ") is a play on "tenshi (テンシ)"; the Japanese word for "angel". It makes him as a warrior that defends humanity from Devils, as well as fitting the angelic Theme Naming of Makima’s Devil minions (the archangels being the one type otherwise missing).
- It also a homophone for "electromagnetism", with some similar related words being "denshi (electronic/electrical)" or "denchi (battery)". Denji is the battery that birthed the second coming of Chainsaw Man, he is the one Pochita choose to steer them forward with ever developing dreams.
Messianic Archetype: Throughout the series and as Part 2 goes on, one of the increasingly prominent subtextual themes of the series is showing Denji In-Universe and out as a twisted Christ figure:
- Like Jesus, Denji was born to extremely humble beginnings, but unlike the manger, Denji never left his birthplace and spent his entire childhood to age 16 living in the same cramped shack.
- As a child Denji was visited by a metaphorical "angel" in the form of Pochita, who, fittingly for the Christ figure, later turns out to be a figure that all Devils fear more than anyone else.
- In the final battle of Part 1, Denji and Pochita fight Makima in a graveyard - what appears to be a massive field filled with nothing but endless crosses.
- The Chainsaw Church arc is basically this from start to finish. Barem specifically mentions that what he admires most about Denji is that Denji fights, suffers, dies, and rises again, darkly mirroring the resurrection of Christ.
- Jesus suffered and died on the cross for man's sins to save all humanity and granting them eternal life in paradise. Barem and Fami's plan is to literally make Denji suffer until he has no choice but to become Chainsaw Man and grant mankind eternal life by literally defeating the embodiment of Death in battle.
- When he transforms into Chainsaw Man again after the Church burns down his apartment, Denji is separated in the frame by a telephone pole shaped like a burning cross.
- After killing Spear Man, Whip Woman, and Miri Sugo, an angry mob of citizens attacks Denji like the crowd at the crucifixion of Jesus. One of them even stabs him in the side with a spear, and when Nayuta mind-controls one of them to carry Denji to safety, she carries him in a Pietà Plagiarism.
- In Chapter 174, the Japanese government makes plans to use Pochita to erase the devils of Aging and Death, another twisted comparison to the Chirstian belief of eternal life in heaven through Christ.
- The first person to find Jesus' tomb empty after his resurrection was the prostitute Mary Magdalene. Asa Mitaka, who was murdered by her class president for "being a slut" because a grown man found her attractive, finds him "entombed" in the Public Safety detention center.
Mighty Glacier: The anime adaptation makes his chainsaws more weighty to use, causing him to run more heavily and sometimes even reorient himself after he swings them.
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Though not given an explicit relationship, Denji seems far more aggressive and sadistic in Chainsaw Man form. His threatening Trash Talk sounds outright deranged, even if he still has the composure to protect nearby civilians.
Minor Living Alone: At the start of the series, Denji is on his own with only Pochita to keep him company.
Morality Pet:
- To Pochita in a sense. Being Denji's heart stops him from becoming the most feared Devil in existence.
- To Reze as well. Despite her life prior to meeting him consisting of killing people (including many innocents) for the Russian government, she's only motivated to leave her life as a weapon behind thanks to Denji's influence on her. What's more is that he does this completely unintentionally simply by being himself.
- He becomes this to both Aki and Power throughout Part 1. The former only gives up his lifelong and self-destructive revenge quest against the Gun Devil because he's afraid for Denji and Power's lives, and the latter is motivated to defy Makima to save Denji, whom she refers to as her first real friend, and he's ultimately what causes her to get over her nihilistic and misanthropic mentality.
- Even as Nayuta gains more Makima-like qualities come Part 2, she's kept from being as bad as Makima was by her legitimate attachment to Denji.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: His chainsaw head has a full mouth of pointy fangs.
Morton's Fork:
- The Yakuza tell him to pay his father's debts or they'll cut him into pieces. Denji does everything in his power to settle the debt, even risking his life to kill Devils for them, but he ends up cut to ribbons anyway because the Yakuza had made a deal with the Zombie Devil who sought the death of a Devil Hunter in return.
- Yoshida warns him to never become Chainsaw Man again or he will lose his family. Denji reluctantly agrees, and his house and pets are burned down by Barem and his weapons regardless, with Public Safety or his "friends" doing nothing to stop it. Later, Nayuta does die after Denji gives in and becomes Chainsaw Man again because of this, but it's likely she would've been killed regardless, especially since Yoshida ends up working with Barem to cause Denji more misery and bring out Chainsaw Man one last time in Chapter 213.
Mundane Luxury: Due to living in abject poverty his entire life, he sees being able to eat three meals a day and having a place to sleep as a dream come true. Before the series begins, he'd never even eaten udon noodles before.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Denji is an outright malnourished young man and the Super-Strength he gets in his Devil form doesn't seem to provide increased muscle mass, with the result that he can go toe-to-toe with opponents like Katana Man who are much bigger and buffer than him physically. However Denji is noticeably buffer by the time of Part 2, no doubt due to living on a good diet for once.
My God, What Have I Done?: When he ends up getting Nayuta killed because of his impulsiveness and wrath towards the Hybrids for burning down his home and killing their pets, Denji can only weep in guilt and shame blaming himself in the aftermath of it all.
Negated Moment of Awesome: Nearing the climax of Part 2, Denji resolves to fight against the Pest Devils much like he did with the zombies at the start of the show, but not only does he fumble what was supposed to be his Pre-Asskicking One-Liner because the word "die" no longer exists, but he gets absolutely demolished and eaten by them offscreen, apparently before he even realized it, since once he wakes up in his Mental World, he has no idea what happened. It's Played for Laughs in the chapter itself, but retroactively made much more cruel with Pochita's erasure, meaning that Denji lost his final chance to become Chainsaw Man and kick ass again.
Nerves of Steel: Years of hunting Devils has hardened Denji's resolve, and while he'll retreat to regroup from an untenable situation, he never shows fear when it comes to facing demonic forces.
Never Hurt an Innocent: Denji genuinely doesn't want to hurt innocent people—human or devil—if he can help it. When Santa Claus's Dolls are given back a small amount of their humanity to freak him out, he seems genuinely scared to as he flees from the Doll Devil's dolls while screaming that he's not a murderer. An important caveat is that Denji doesn't feel obligated to save everyone he sees in danger, which makes blatant hostage coercion ineffective.
Never Suicide: During his conversation with Asa in their shared mental world as Pochita and Yoru fight to the death in Hell, he tells her that he actually made his killing of his father look like a suicide after the fact. Sure enough, though the yakuza believed he hung himself, Denji's memory of the incident shows he killed him by smashing a bottle over his head.
Never Learned to Read: Due to his rather...poor upbringing, Denji never went to school as a child. In the present day, his literacy is too poor to read most of the items of a restaurant menu (though he can at least read the word "balls"), though he can do some clerical work. He seems to slowly grow out of this after finally going to school at the end of Part 1.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
- By wistfully listening to Makima throughout Part 1, he tragically costs the lives of Aki and Power, to which Makima warned Denji she would kill Power if he opened the door in her apartment.
- In Part 2, he lets a civilian die to kill the Cockroach Devil. Turns out that civilian was the brother of the man who would go on to become Fakesaw Man via a contract with the Fire Devil, resulting in him killing Yuko and causing problems for Denji, the Chainsaw Man Church and making an enemy out of the Fire Devil who intends to make Denji suffer.
- Because he refused to run against the hordes of Devils after his fight with Yoru, he gets eaten and it forces Pochita to sacrifice himself to reset the world so that Denji can live a normal life, but without his best friend.
"No More Holding Back" Speech: His realization that the world at large loves the Chainsaw Man, coupled with Kobeni telling him that a troubled life is normal, gives him the drive to keep on dreaming and living even when he's at his lowest point at the moment by Chapter 92.
Denji: The real truth is I'm tired of eatin' stuff like toast with jam for breakfast! What I really want... is to eat steak for breakfast every morning! I know I shouldn't! I know it's terrible! But it's the same when it comes to girls too! Deep down... I want five! No, ten girlfriends! I WANNA HAVE TONS OF SEX!!! That's why... That's why I... I wanna be Chainsaw Man!
No Place for Me There: Works tirelessly and shamelessly to save up a future college tuition fund for Nayuta with no designs to do so for himself due to monetary issues and how he struggles academically.
No-Sell: As a Hybrid, Denji is inherently immune to the effects of certain Devils' powers. Santa Claus was unable to turn him into a doll. Makima's Compelling Voice did not affect him due to her love for Pochita, which extended to Denji. Finally, Yoru can't turn him into a weapon, though the exact reason for this hasn't been revealed: Asa believes it's because he isn't emotionally attached to her.
No Social Skills: He has terrible social skills as a result of his upbringing, though being next to Power constantly makes him look downright normal by comparison.
Nominal Hero: Early on, his only real motivation upon joining the Bureau is to enjoy the good life now that he has it. Most of his missions are explicitly fueled by some stripe of hedonism or self-fulfillment (like getting to grope breasts or kiss someone), and he doesn't show interest in the idea that his actions serve to benefit anyone but himself. As the story goes on, though, his good nature and empathy start to come to the fore... but only so much. He ends up snapping back to this fully after Nayuta is killed by extremists. In the arc's aftermath, he goes on a "date" with Yoru and can barely bring himself to be upset when Yoru starts gunning down random people, including the manager of the Chinese restaurant he liked. The following morning, Yoru finds him eating dumplings right next to the man's corpse without any concern.
Non-Human Head: Whenever he turns, Denji's head turns into a chainsaw, with all the properties it entails. Notably, his head is now made of metal, giving him the ability to resist bullets aimed at his face.
Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Spends the final battle of Part 1 without a heart, which is lethal for hybrids, all for the slimmest chance of defeating Makima.
Not Distracted by the Sexy: Played straight when he sees Yoru (by way of Asa) in her underwear. He gives her a lookover, but he doesn't seem too impressed by what he sees. When the bully he was trying to rescue pops out of Yuko's guts, she instead gets Denji's full attention in his bid to reveal his identity, opening him up to being sneak attacked by Yoru, who might have mortally wounded him if Yoshida hadn't extracted him.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the revised timeline, most of his achievements are kept off-panel, but he killed enough Devils to attract the attention of the Zombie Devil while half-blind and dying from heart disease, and without Pochita to help him out. He also survived for way longer than your average human Devil Hunter despite his contract with Power only seemingly granting him access to her blood weapons.
Offscreen Teleportation: A reoccurring gag in the series is Denji somehow appearing in front of people despite it otherwise being literally impossible for him to do so, such as when he appears at Reze's cafe before she arrives there, as well as when he somehow overtakes Miri on the rooftop stairs despite there only being one entrance.
Off with His Head!: Denji suddenly gets his head sliced off by Quanxi as he's celebrating his victory over the real Santa Claus.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: A nasty rumor about Chainsaw Man circulating in Part 2 is that he eats humans like most Fiends and Hybrids. Due to how Part 1 ended, Denji can't fully refute these claims.
One-Man Army: In Part 2, he gets ambushed by a group of around twenty thugs armed with bats while on a karaoke date. He makes quick work of them all while in human form.
Only Mostly Dead: Has traded places with Pochita after Pochita is forced to take control of their body. Comments from Pochita imply he is still alive but not for long if Makima gets her way. He comes back later thanks to Power.
Only One Name: Denji admits to Power in the anime that he "doesn't really have a last name," and just uses Aki's when he needs to fill out paperwork.
Only Sane Man: Takes Aki's place as this in the Part 2 trio of protagonists as a struggling and chronically exhausted single father who is a stabilizing presence when put alongside the manic-depressive Asa/Yoru and the enigmatically sinister dandy that is Yoshida. He also shows himself as this when he's introduced to the Chainsaw Man Church. Despite wanting to have sex with a girl, he rejects the idea of immediately marrying the girl he has sex with. He's able to understand how completely stupid the idea of an American ultraviolet weapon in the air diminishing the mental faculties of adults sounds, and can see how morally reprehensible it is to have teenagers get married. Once Barem introduces himself and tells Denji to kill Asa Mitaka to bring back Chainsaw Man, that's the last straw for Denji to leave, accurately describing the church as a crazy place.
OOC Is Serious Business:
- To show that Reze had gotten through to him, Denji momentarily rejects Makima in favor of running away with her. This is all especially in spite of the fact that he's previously shown to understand the risks doing so would entail as well as refusing to literally the night before. He even bought her a bouquet of flowers, something he has never done for any girl, not even Makima, further showing how much his feelings for Reze are.
- While it was Through the Eyes of Madness as he's rampaging as the Gun Fiend, Aki realizes that something is wrong when Denji is crying during their Snowball Fight, noting that he's never seen him cry before. This gives Denji an opening to kill him, which very clearly destroys him emotionally.
- Denji usually goes catatonic with a Thousand-Yard Stare whenever in situations where he's clearly terrified out of his mind. But when the Falling Devil uses her Emotion Bomb powers to conjure images of Aki as the Gun Fiend and Power bringing him a birthday cake, Denji screams in terror.
- When Asa Mitaka asks him out on a date to turn him into a weapon by Yoru, Denji just lets out a simple "ok". The amount of betrayal he's experience from all the women left him not the same energetic guy he used to be and just accepted it with a tired expression accepting just the fact any girl is interested in him. Worst, it's implied he's subconsciously aware she has ulteritive motives. He was right.
- Denji is generally a very easygoing guy, rarely losing his temper even when staring down enemies trying to kill him. He is absolutely livid at Yoshida when the latter tells him that his organization placed Nayuta and their dogs under "protection" and outright threatens to kill him if his organization harms them. To say nothing of the absolutely brutal beatdown he gives the Church members after they burn his house down with his pets inside.
- The fallout of the rise of the Church of Chainsaw Man, the Copycat stealing his identity, and Asa stealing credit for his past heroisms depresses Denji so much that when Yoshida presents him with a girl who specifically wanted a date with him, Denji can only politely ask her to leave him alone due to his downtrodden mood.
- By the time after the Aging Devil Arc, Denji has regressed to his old behavior back in Part 1 and does nothing when Yoru sexually molests him for her enjoyment, even giving in to his libido at the idea of having sex with her under the promise of eating the Death Devil.
Out of Focus: He's conspicuously absent at the beginning of Part 2, since the focus has shifted to the new Villain Protagonist Asa Mitaka, and her unwilling partnership with the War Devil. When he does return, he instead takes on the role of deuteragonist, his story shown parallel to Asa's and occasionally intersecting, at the cost of the Sympathetic P.O.V. shifting to Asa. This is fully subverted come the "Chainsaw Man Church" arc, upon which Denji reclaims the position of main character whilst Asa has shifted to being the deuteragonist. That does not mean he has it good though, he gets put through an absolute wringer of time with his pets and Nayuta getting killed by Barem before completely snapping in despair and letting Pochita back on the driver's seat again.

P-Z

Painful Transformation: Downplayed. Becoming Chainsaw Man hurts due to the blades bursting out of his skin, and it's unpleasant enough that he prefers hunting Devils with regular weapons if that's possible, but he doesn't find the pain so unbearable that it prevents him from fighting while transformed.
Painting the Medium: Denji's dialogue is often written in a looser, messier font than the other characters to reflect his total lack of formal education. Interestingly, Asa also briefly speaks in this same messy font when she fucks up their date in Part 2, hinting at how they're both friendless losers with zero social lives.
Parental Abandonment: Denji's mother died from disease when he was very young and his father later committed suicide, literally abandoning him with a mountain of debts to the yakuza he was obliged to pay by hunting devils. Except we learn that he actually killed his father and repressed the memory of it.
Parents as People: When raising Nayuta, Denji struggles to keep her on the right path, but otherwise is a good parental figure and older brother figure to her who loves her and, in spite of her own problems, genuinely loves Denji as her older brother in spite of controlling his dating life solely because she wants him to be safe.
Patricide: It turns out that Denji's father didn't kill himself, but rather Denji killed him in self defense, as his father was an abusive alcoholic. The memory was horrible enough that Denji mentally repressed it until Makima forces him to remember.
Pay Evil unto Evil: While he's terrified of hurting innocent people, Denji loves fighting truly reprehensible opponents like Katana Man and the Yakuza because nobody will care if he brutally chops them up.
Perpetual-Motion Monster: Denji's chainsaw-engine runs on blood, so as long he can drink, it won't ever stop running. When the Eternity Devil set after him with an enormous mass of regenerating flesh, it basically provided all the fuel Denji could ever wish for while engaged in a fight with it, much to the Devil's immense grief. He even calls himself "a fucking perpetual-motion machine" when he's fighting it.
Perpetual Poverty:
- Up until the story's beginning, he made plenty of money hunting devils, but his debtors took nearly all of with arbitrary fees and interest for his debt.
- In Part 2, despite receiving Aki's inheritance, Denji is no longer being paid by the agency and part-time jobs are not allowed by his school. His increased domestic responsibilities see him taking on various side hustles such as scamming homeless people with recycled cigarettes and letting people sit on him for a modest fee.
Personality Powers: A temperamental, brutish boy with the power to sprout chainsaws all over his body. The later reveal of Chainsaw Man’s cataclysmic true power also serves as a mirror to how Denji can become far more competent and threatening then his moronic demeanour suggests when he feels pushed into a corner.
Pet the Dog: Despite his rude behavior and general selfishness, Denji does have a heart.
- Back when he used to work independently alongside Pochita, he would share the pleasures of what few meals he had with his partner despite having limited supplies and the fact that Devils don't need regular food to survive.
- In Chapter 2, he actually defies Makima's orders to kill a Devil who befriended a girl and offers to run away with them, essentially being willing to throw away the normal life he was wishing for out of kindness.
- Denji is often apathetic to the lives of people he doesn't know, but when he sees them where he fights, he'll scream for civilians to run away to safety as he battles Devils, and will sometimes shield them with his own body to protect them, although his enemies shouldn't try to exploit this. If it's a woman (or an animal), he will go out of his way to save them, but will never ask for anything in return.
- Despite not caring much for Himeno when she died and having a less than stellar relationship with Aki by that point, Denji offers to give him a chance at revenge by making a contest out of kicking Katana Man, who got the former killed, in the nuts.
- To prove to himself that he has a heart, he gives a donation to a charity for Devil attacks, and later gifts the flower they gave him to Reze when they first meet.
- Even though Power has treated him horribly for most of their time together, Denji gives her emotional support and helps her through her trauma after the confrontation with the Darkness Devil, and he cancels his anticipated date with Makima so she doesn't feel lonely.
- At the end of Part 1, he adopts Meowy (despite not liking cats much), Makima's dogs, and Nayuta, and despite not always being happy with them, their close relationship with him throughout Part 2 implies he was at least a very caring and devoted owner.
- As much as Asa bored him, he did pay attention to her ramblings during their date, and called back to some of the information she told him about starfish when she was feeling down.
- For as apathetic as he became after losing Nayuta, when Denji gets up to see Yoru/Asa sleeping next to him, he tucks her in with a blanket instead of Copping a Feel like it seemed he was about to do.
Phrase Catcher: "Dog" by those who look down on him. "STAY AWAY!" from Devils who realize that he's immensely skilled with his chainsaws.
Pinball Protagonist: Starts to catch on that he's one of these during his clash with Bomb Girl, and this awareness doesn't prevent him from getting knocked around even worse in the following arcs. Denji ultimately manages to regain control over his own life at the end though, when he chooses to hunt down Makima rather than run away from her for the rest of his life. However, Part 2 strips him from his newfound autonomy and leaves him once again in a position where he and his dreams are stuck between the fight between the plans that Public Safety, the Chainsaw Man Church, Yoru, and the Death Devil have for Pochita, who in turn also has more agency than Denji, being the one to change the world twice, first by eating Death and later by eating himself.
Please, Don't Leave Me:
- After the fight with Reze, they talk on the beach as Denji agrees to run away with her, but Reze tries to convince him otherwise that she's killed a lot of people, but Denji retorts she still taught him to swim, indirectly letting her know he sees her as nicer than she claims. She resorts to breaking his neck to protect him as he begs her not to leave but vows to wait for her at the cafe. He does just that, but she never showed up, leaving him heart broken. Tragically, Reze did return for him realizing she loves him, only for Makima to cut her down outside the cafe.
- In Chapter 231, Denji is in a dream world with Pochita after being devoured by a Devil. Pochita tells Denji this is it for them both as he prepares to sacrifice himself to save Denji. Denji begs him not to, not wanting to lose his best friend. Pochita returns to his true form and hugs Denji one final time letting him know how happy he was being with Denji and encourages him to keep dreaming on as he eats his heart to erase himself from existence as Denji cries out for him.
Plot-Triggering Death: His death at the hands of the Zombie Devil's minions and resurrection by merging with Pochita is what starts the plot as Makima picks him up to join Public Safety soon after his revival.
Positive Friend Influence: His inherent good nature is not always at the forefront, but whenever it's shown it's quite obvious that he has a very positive effect on others.
- Both Aki and Power are changed for the better and the two that originally started off fairly selfish end their respective journeys having learned to love Denji and become willing to sacrifice themselves for his and others' happiness. In the revised timeline, Denji's positive effect remains on Power, as she ends up retaining her Character Development and quickly takes a liking to him because he smells like a dog, which is out of character for Power before she bonds with him, but absolutely in character for the Power that is willing to sacrifice herself for him.
- Denji's kindness earned him the love, affection, and loyalty of the Chainsaw Devil who becomes a pet he names Pochita. While already remarkable due to Pochita being a Devil, Denji's effect on him takes on much bigger meaning once it's revealed that Pochita is in fact The Dreaded Chainsaw Man, who is responsible for erasing some of the most dangerous Devils and their respective fears from history. While Pochita had always wanted a hug he was still Ambiguously Evil, but Denji's influence has led Pochita to try to be more heroic towards others, Taking the Bullet for Kobeni and even encouraging Denji to adopt Nayuta despite all that the Control Devil had done.
- Kishibe looked genuinely taken aback by Denji's promise to spare him as thanks for training him if Public Safety ever decided to turn on him. Based on his meeting with Makima not too long after, there's implications that this made Kishibe realize Denji was ultimately just another innocent life under Makima's thrall, making him more determined to retaliate against her if she ever showed her true self and turned on humanity.
- Hanging out with him also seems to have given Reze enough courage to make a try for abandoning her mission and life as Bomb Girl just to be with him.
- After Makima is reincarnated into Nayuta with all of her previous personality wiped, Denji is entrusted with raising her so she doesn't become another monster like Makima. With his track record, it's very likely Nayuta will grow up having the friends and family Makima had yearned for. Part 2 shows that there are some major bumps in the road due to Nature Versus Nurture, but Denji's effect on Nayuta is positive enough for her to see him in a genuinely loving light and for the moment give up on wanting to kill humans just for his sake. This is especially shown in the revised timeline, where in spite of being raised by the government again this time around, Nayuta's personality is still the Mouthy Kid Denji ended up raising, and she's much kinder and more honest than Makima despite supposedly having the same backstory.
- Asa Mitaka starts falling for him after seeing past his crass and greedy exterior and learning about his capacity for earnest kindness, and falls so hard that even Yoru can feel it. She also ends up falling for his Chainsaw Man form, mostly in part due to Denji managing to convince her to find the will to live again while under the Emotion Bomb effects of the Falling Devil. In the revised timeline, it's subtly implied that Denji's more positive influence on her remains, as she's less reserved and openly thanks him for saving her from falling and accidentally killing Bucky again.
- Subverted with Miri Sugo, aka Sword Man. It's heavily implied based on his standoffish behavior when introducing himself to Denji's class that Sugo might not have been the friendliest guy to hang out with. But Sugo is sincere when he says he feels he owes Denji for freeing him from Makima, and wants to repay him by befriending Denji as well as help others in his name. Unfortunately, he's joined the very cult-like Chainsaw Man Church, and though he insists that he's doing what he feels is right, the Church is clearly untrustworthy and does not have altruistic plans for humanity. So while Denji seemed to have genuinely inspired him to try to be a better person, Sugo ended up being the pawn of the bad guys again anyways.
Promotion to Parent: Becomes Nayuta’s guardian at Kishibe’s request and is asked by both Kishibe and Pochita to take care of Nayuta and show her lots of love to ensure she doesn’t become another Makima. Made all the more bizarre considering Nayuta is something of his and Makima's child, coming into being after he ate her. To a lesser extent, he also adopts all of Makima's dogs.
Properly Paranoid: Getting brutalized every time he lets his guard down has led Denji to be very cautious about enemies with abilities he didn't see coming. When Katana Man wakes up after Denji cuts him in half, he's already tied up and restrained from transforming even though Denji wasn't sure he would actually wake up at all.
- In a darkly humorous manner, in Part 2 when Yoru kisses Denji, he keeps his lips tightly closed. The poor boy has clearly learned his lesson from his kisses with Himeno and Reze and is not taking any chances.
Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Very downplayed. Denji's cord remaining on his chest in both his states makes him unique among hybrids as it can be pulled multiple times even while he's transformed. This can rev up his blades or even heal some of his wounds faster at the cost of some of his blood. Someone else can even pull it to revive him if he's unable to reach the cord himself, like when Himeno did so during his fight with the Eternity Devil to help him recover from a Neck Snap that left him otherwise immobile.
Psycho Sidekick: It transpires that he was actually this for Pochita. Even as Chainsaw Man, there are some lines his friend will not cross, even to protect Denji. Conversely, there's nothing Denji wouldn't do for his partner, including taking an ax to a helpless human being.
Pulling Themselves Together: When first ripped apart, Pochita revives Denji by pulling his pieces together with his chains. By Part 2, Denji can do the same at will, instantly recovering from both decapitation and bisection without even pulling his starter.
Quest for Sex: Denji is obsessed with the idea of having sex, going as far as admit to Himeno he hopes to have his first time with Makima. After seeing her kill Power in front of him and learning she never cared for him, he loses all interest in her. Even well in Part 2, he still desires sex, but it's made clear deep down he just longs for companionship and to him, sex would cure him of his loneliness. Chapter 230 heavily implies that deep down, Denji admits to Yoru he just wants to have a friend to have sex with, even willing to do it with Yoru who promised such a thing if he ate the Death Devil. With all the horrors, betrayals and losses in his life, Denji just craves any form of intimacy, even from a Devil like Yoru who has tried to kill him countless times. However, as stated by Pochita in Chapter 231, deep down, Denji doesn't really want sex, but more just companionship and love, even if it's with someone who he doesn't love, pointing out that even if he had sex with Yoru, nothing would make it better.
Rage Breaking Point: Transforms sparingly and only during moments when the enemy he's facing is too strong to defeat with his usual weaponry and skills, or if they've irrevocably cheesed him off. More specifically, while he's often quick to forgive or ignore attempts on his life, Reze trying to kill him causes him to lose it and rant to her about how every single woman he's met has tried to kill him and how everyone seems to only pursue him for his Chainsaw heart.
Red Is Heroic: His Chainsaw Man form is depicted with a red or orange chainsaw head to match Pochita. Just like another working-class teen superhero, this is color-coordinated with the hair color of his main squeeze (Makima).
Refuge in Audacity:
- He kills Makima for good by cooking and eating her for dinner over the course of several weeks, rationalizing that she wouldn't come back from this because it was an act of love and not an attack. Kishibe theorizes that Denji basically lucked out, and that his methods of killing her were so extremely specific that likely it wasn't covered by the terms of her contract and thus circumvented her effective immortality.
- He circumvents Yoru's attempt at turning a defeated Pochita in to a weapon by playing an impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors and declaring he'd "won" the game, rationalizing that Yoru's power only work on those she believes she owns and that she won't be able to do so to Denji now that she perceives herself as having lost to him. It works, and buys Denji just enough time to pull his starter and activate his new Super Form with Pochita.
Removed Achilles' Heel: Removing his head or snapping his neck is Denji's main weakness, since he needs his brain to control his body… at least until Part 2, when he's learned to keep his head chained to his body even when it's severed and keep on fighting.
Replacement Goldfish: Gets a bunch of dogs in Part 1's epilogue which, as a dream sequence stresses, are meant as stand-ins for Pochita.
Required Secondary Powers:
- The Super-Strength he gets in his Chainsaw Man form isn't just an extra bonus, but a pretty essential part of his fighting abilities. Chainsaws are, after all, extremely heavy and not meant to be swung around like broadswords, so Denji needs to be abnormally strong just to be able to lift the weight of his own head and arms when transformed. The anime even plays up how heavy his chainsaws are by having Denji mostly make slow, lumbering movements and throwing much of his body weight into wild swings when fighting.
- At the end of Part 2, when he finally gains access to Pochita's abilities, he doesn't gain the Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory that Pochita and Makima seem to have. He can't remember the Devils he consumes, meaning that he repeatedly gains the upper hand over Yoru by erasing various concepts while neither of them have any clue what's been deleted.
Retirony: Just when it seems like he's accepted letting go of seeking fame and fortune as Chainsaw Man in favor of living a peaceful ordinary life with Nayuta in Part 2, the Chainsaw Man Church makes their play and Denji learns about the coming apocalypse.
Retractable Weapon: Not only can Denji deploy chainsaws in his legs, but also the chainsaws in his arms can actually retract if need be, which Denji discovered by total accident while catching a car.
Revenge Is Sweet: Deconstructed. Since Denji had been looking for an excuse to become Chainsaw Man, the Weapon Hybrids destroying his house, killing his pets, and attacking him, gives him the perfect excuse to do so, and the sheer thrill he gets from unleashing all of his pent up anger on those bastards overshadows any grief he would've otherwise felt for his pets, something he recognizes during the actual fight. Once the thrill is over and Nayuta goes missing as a direct result of him neglecting her during the fight, Denji returns to his ruined house and is forced to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't even close to worth it.
Right Man in the Wrong Place: A poor teenager with no future and humble aspirations unwittingly becomes the guardian of the world's most powerful Devil, and ultimately overcomes many of its worst villains.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Barem burns down his home with his pets inside, Denji absolutely loses it and brutally beats down Sugo, Whip Woman and Spear Man with them only barely surviving because of the crowd's intervention... Which Barem uses to his advantage by ramping up the fear of Chainsaw Man by letting them believe that their hero is a ruthless monster.
Satisfied Street Rat: Subverted. Denji is introduced as a self-sufficient guy who takes on illegal Devil hunting jobs to pay off his debt to the Yakuza, and who voices that his biggest regret would be leaving his pet Devil Pochita alone if he died, but he still never stopped yearning for a normal life, and his willingness to submit to the exploitative gangsters is implied to have been a way to punish himself following the murder of his father, the original debtor. However, Pochita states in Chapter 231 that deep down, Denji was happier living in poverty than he was being Chainsaw Man, and that since then, his life has been worse; he's been abused, hunted, gotten his heart ripped out (both literally and metaphorically) and lost people he loves all the time, something Pochita takes note of and decides to erase himself to give Denji a proper chance to live his life to his fullest.
Save the Villain: After defeating them, he revives Reze in Chapter 51 and Yoru/Asa in Chapter 229 by feeding them some of his blood, because he's still attracted to them despite how much trouble they've given him, and he's not willing to give them up just yet. He also revives Katana Man after slicing him in half because Public Safety wanted him alive, and also so he could go "Testicle Devil" on his nuts with Aki.
Sawblade Anatomy: After merging with Pochita, Denji can pull on a ripcord in his chest to make chainsaws protrude from his arms and head, which he uses to slice devils up into bloody pieces.
Scary Teeth: He has a bunch of teeth that are unusually demonic looking even before becoming Chainsaw Man.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After realizing what the Chainsaw Man Church does to its members (with their members proposing teen marriage) and Barem suggesting him to kill Asa, Denji (despite supposedly in a place where he is universally adored) refuses their offer and doesn't give any other thought to join it.
Sealed Good in a Can: When Public Safety finally turn on Denji, they're either unable to kill him, expect they may need to his power, or want to avoid a new Chainsaw Devil being born. So they sedate Denji and cut him into pieces to put into long-term storage.
Secret Identity: Chainsaw Man becomes a well-known public figure, but there are only vague rumors about what he's like beneath the "mask". Denji doesn't try to keep his identity secret, it's mostly thanks to the government's very tight media control, which could have kept the public from being aware of Chainsaw Man at all if Makima didn't want it to.
Secret-Identity Identity: In Part 2, Denji becomes conflicted on prioritizing his life as Denji, the ordinary high schooler and Nayuta's big brother, or the famous superhero Chainsaw Man. Denji does feel "ordinary" life is incredibly boring and frustrating, seeing Chainsaw Man as his only way to earn more praise or attention. On the other, Fumiko seeing herself as a "Denji fan" (empathizing with the vulnerable human under the mask) is portrayed more positively than Barem being a "Chainsaw Man fan" (who'll do any horrible thing to see him fight again), until it's revealed that Fumiko was lying to him regarding everything she told Denji and her interactions with Yoshida confirmed she's only a Chainsaw Man Loony Fan through and through. The two don't only get what they want, Denji shamefully admits that's also what he wanted.
Self-Made Orphan: Denji killed his abusive dad in an act of self-defense when he was a child. This, however, led him to inherit his father's large gambling debt with the yakuza.
Serious Business: He tells Asa that abiding by his house rules is mandatory or else she runs the risk of death. Asa is understandably confused but knowing that he's undoubtedly talking about Nayuta, a natural Control Freak whose power rests heavily on how she perceives others and how one treats her, he's entirely justified in giving such a grim warning.
"Shaggy Dog" Story:
- It is at the start of the series, but fully spelt out only in the International Assassins arc, that Denji doesn't want to be a murderer. That is, he doesn't want to ever kill a human being, as death works differently for Devils, Fiends, and Hybrids like him. Makima's deals a blow to his very spirit with the revelation that he was one all along due to having killed his father years ago.
- In the new timeline, he never breaks free from his life as a servant, as he's enslaved by Power and later Nayuta seconds after the Yakuza betray him, and he likely spends the rest of his life as a Devil hunter for them. However, it's implied that this life may not be as unfulfilling for him as it seemed, as he and Power hit it off well, and Nayuta isn't as nasty of a boss as Makima was.
Shark-Toothed Humanoid: He has sharp teeth despite being human, having them ever since he was a child. In any case, his sharp teeth are thematically fitting with his rough and wild personality and his alter-ego as the chainsaw-headed Chainsaw Man.
Shōnen Hair: A more realistic take as Denji has hair that just looks like it doesn't know what a comb is yet.
Shirtless Scene: He often is seen without a shirt after transforming back from his Devil form, though it's more of a visual indicator than true fanservice.
Shoot the Hostage Taker: Denji is immune to conventional hostage situations, and has shown this as early as his battle with the Bat Devil. During his first major fight in Part 2, Denji blows right past the Cockroach Devil's attempt at pulling a Sadistic Choice and just rips it to shreds in seconds (letting all the hostages die in the process) so he can save an endangered cat that the Devil hadn't even noticed.
Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Denji has never had a formal education, because his caretakers (gangsters and then Public Safety) use him as a tool with no concern for his long-term wellbeing. The final page of Part 1 shows him in a school uniform, and speech balloons indicate that people are catching onto rumors that the Chainsaw Man is actually a high school student.
Ship Tease: Denji has horrible luck with women, but in spite of this, he does manage to have a fair share of genuine romantic moments with women:
- Subverted hard with Makima. While Makima teased him and did seem to show interest in him and his ambitions, she was nothing but a sadistic sexual predator who abused Denji repeatedly. When Makima reveals herself as the Control Devil and orchestrated the deaths of Aki and Power, Denji resolves to kill her to stop her plan of ruling the world. While Denji himself feels terrible for still loving her, part of his growth is learning to overcome her toxic influence she had on him.
- Zigzagged with Power. Denji was attracted to her when they first met, but after she betrayed him to save Meowy from the Bat Devil, along with seeing how immature and selfish she is in spite of letting him grope her as promised, Denji loses all romantic interest in her and views her as more of an annoying bratty little sister. Over time however Power does come around, and in the aftermath of the Darkness Devil incident, she becomes much more humble and caring to Denji and even being a little offended when he admits he's not attracted to her even when bathing naked with her to calm her down. On his birthday before Makima killed her, she even went out to buy him a birthday cake as her first ever genuine kind-hearted act for him, something Denji was sincerely touched by. When Power returns thanks to Pochita, she sacrifices her life to save Denji and their last moment together is portrayed as rather sexual, with Power looking like she wants to kiss him. Denji is left deeply hurt by her death and vows to find her reincarnation in Hell someday. In honor of her memory, he raises her pet cat Meowy.
- With Reze. Denji all but fell for Reze upon meeting her and gave her a flower to cheer her up. After meeting her he regularly goes by the cafe she works at daily spending time with her with her sympathizing how he never went to school. She teaches him how to swim via skinny dipping and tries to encourage him to see how messed up his situation is being a Devil Hunter at the age of 16 not being allowed to go to school. The two later go to a festival afterwards which causes Denji to seriously question if he really loves Makima or not, having experience a genuine romantic form of love he's never felt before. When Reze makes a heartfelt plea to run away together vowing to protect him she admits she likes Denji and wants to be with him, but Denji can't bring himself to accept because he likes his life now. In the moment, a heartbroken Reze kisses Denji only to bite his tongue off revealing herself as an assassin and tries to kill him but is saved by Beam. After recovering, Denji goes on a angry rant how all the women he meets all try to kill him only after his Chainsaw heart and not Denji's heart. Reze tries to ease his pain admitting she really does like him, but upon learning he likes Makima, she reveals her desire to elope was sincere but pointless now knowing Makima would hunt them down. In the aftermath of the fight, Reze dismisses Denji revealing she never loved him and was faking it all. Denji however refuses to believe it, reminding her she had several chances to kill him but didn't and taught him how to swim and offers to run away together because he still has feelings for her. Reze runs up to hug him and has an Almost Kiss with him but breaks his neck to keep him from going after her and protect him from Makima. Denji offers to meet her at the cafe, to which Reze has a change of heart and returns there to be with Denji, only for Makima to kill her. As she bleads out and "dies", she silently admits she also didn't get to go to school. Denji waited there all day and was left with a broken heart believing Reze never loved him. In a tragic form of irony, Reze really did love Denji and sympathized with his plight being more alike than he knows and wanted to live a normal life with him. While Denji hasn't seen her in more than two years, in Chapter 183 he remembers her alongside Aki, Power, and Nayuta as the people he loves most in his life. This strongly implies deep down he still loves Reze and is deliberately trying to not think about her because it hurts too much to.
- With Asa Mitaka. He initially agreed to date her at Yoshida's advice solely because he wants a girlfriend, but their first date is a disaster due to Asa being rude and grumpy with her attempts to impress him. After the incident with the Eternity Devil does Denji start to like her, admitting she's fun and reminds him of Power. However, this is later zigzagged, as when Yoru, the War Devil takes over Asa's body and does thing to him like kiss him or try something sexual to him causes Asa to try to regain control and tell him off that she hates him in an effort to protect him from Yoru due to her newfound feelings for him. Denji later even tries to date other girls (largely due to Nayuta's interference) because he loses interest in her, but in the aftermath of the Aging Devil Arc to which Asa and him finally have a much-needed heart-to-heart moment do they finally properly bond with each other realizing they have more in common than they think. However, in spite of later learning of Yoru's existence, Denji seems to be more attracted to Yoru over Asa because she's less of a downer compared to the War Devil. It's not until America nukes Russia reinventing nuclear weapons and seeing how genuinely evil Yoru really is does Denji wise up and loses interest in the latter and, after helping Asa regain her will to live in the world he and Pochita want to make together does Denji resolve to live his life the way he wants and offers a hand to Asa to live a normal life. However, by the climax of Part 2, Pochita reveals that deep down, Denji's feelings for Asa were more platonic than romantic, that he just didn't want to be alone and settled for her and Yoru because they reminded him of Power. In the new timeline, while neither remember each other, the two sport a brief blush when Denji saves her from tripping and nearly killing Bucky. His heart briefly flutters, possibly due to a part of Pochita still being inside him, but they go their separate ways, with Denji receiving satsifaction from seeing Asa happy finally having friends.
- Zigzagged with Yoru, the War Devil. In spite of her desire to kill Denji and turn him into a weapon, Asa's influence on her causes her to gain feelings for Denji in the process. Once Denji learns of her existence, he starts to favor Yoru over Asa because the latter is too much of a bore to hang out with. However, it's clear Yoru is abusing Denji for her own good, such as kissing or touching him in inappropriate ways when Denji is too traumatized to resist. She even makes a deal with Denji that if he eats the Death Devil, she'll agree to have sex with him. Upon the climax of their final battle, when Denji tries to cash in on the deal, Yoru breaks into hysteric laughter, to which she questions why Denji refuses to kill her. Denji admits she reminds him of Power due to her trying to kill him so much and her soft spot for animals and wants to have a friend to have sex with. Yoru is amused by his answer and agrees to have sex with him, but they are interrupted by hordes of Pest Animal Devils and are Eaten Alive offscreen. Pochita however, proclaims it's good Denji didn't get to have sex with Yoru, since neither loved each other and it's unlikely Yoru was being sincere about any of it, especially claiming Asa gave her consent.
Signature Laugh: When he laughs, he makes a distinctive, boisterous "Gya ha ha ha" sound that other characters don't make. Nayuta inherits this quirk of his, indicating how he influenced her behavior by raising her.
Signature Move: A flying knee/kick to open enemies up to his chainsaw strikes.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: He is incredibly foul-mouthed most of the time, rarely speaking formally to his seniors despite his youth and inexperience.
Skewed Priorities: Played for Drama.
- Denji enters a state of melancholy as Nayuta's fate following the Chainsaw Man Church attack is unknown. Katana Man decides to help him out by taking him to a brothel, causing Denji to light up and momentarily put aside his concern for his adoptive sister in favor of getting laid. However, once they find out that the brothel has been destroyed, Denji collapses into absolute despair as it dawns on him that his hypersexuality has led to his home being burned down and his sister possibly dead, and he's horrified that he briefly disregarded Nayuta when the chance for sex came up.
- It becomes even worse after finally defeating Yoru and sparing her, he brings up her promise to have sex with him, completely forgetting how he promised to save Asa from her in favor of getting laid. When Yoru agrees and calls a truce, he jumps for joy like he used to before hordes of pest animal Devils show up and devour him because he let his sex drive get the better of him.
Slasher Smile: Sports one whenever he realizes that he can't opt out of a fight, so he might as well enjoy being part of it.
Smarter Than You Look: Despite having no formal education, Denji is cunning, imaginative, surprisingly perceptive, and has an excellent memory.
- As a kid, he tricked Pochita into helping him fight Devils by offering his blood and then establishing the terms of the contract afterwards, likely a trick he learnt from the Yakuza.
- In the first chapter alone, he shows that he has a good head for numbers; a necessity for keeping track of his debt to the yakuza.
- As enamoured as he is with Makima, he's smart enough to understand when she's being blatantly abusive to him, and in Chapter 2 he begins to resent her for treating him like a dog and considers leaving her behind.
- He falls for Power's trap when she lures him into the Bat Devil's hideout to sacrifice him, but the moment he spots an inconsistency in her story, he realizes she's tricking him and tries to attack her, forcing her to knock him out.
- He's the first in his group to figure out that he can beat the Eternity Devil at its own game by letting it eat him and then hurt it endlessly while regenerating from its blood until it wants to kill itself.
- He defeats Samurai Sword by baiting him into paying attention to the wrong appendage, surprising him with a new trick he just picked up.
- When fighting Reze, he figures that she can't explode when wet, so he tosses her into the ocean.
- In his fight with Doll Woman he figures out that she's invincible in the shadows and only a strong light source will make her vulnerable. Denji's solution? Light himself on fire so she'll always be illuminated.
- Rather impressively, he was able to figure out Makima only recognizes people based on smell and was able to defeat her by guessing she never remembered his smell, just Chainsaw Man's.
- Even if he was completely bored, the fact that he offered Asa a starfish to eat after she mentioned it briefly proves that he was listening to her.
- While Asa and Yoru gave up ever escaping the Aging Devil's world, Denji only needed to analyse his and Pochita being interlinked via their bodies, his surroundings and the fact that he can get tired to build up an impressive plan to power Pochita without making him accept the Aging Devil's deal to sacrifice children at all.
- His quick thinking in Pochita's fight against Yoru allows him to beat her at her own game when it comes to the semantics of her powers, preventing her from turning him into a weapon by winning an impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors and making her believe she'd lost to him, which buys him enough time to get a Heroic Second Wind in a new Super Mode.
- He finally defeats Yoru by puking out a pigeon, which causes Yoru to remember how Bucky died via Asa's memories and crash critically injuring herself. When she questions why she isn't healing, Denji correctly points out the loophole in her contract with the governor of California that she can heal from any attack and an American will take the damage instead, but not if Yoru hurts herself. The end result is Yoru is bleeding out and Asa able to finally end the conflict with Yoru once and for all.
Spider-Man Send-Up: It's not as immediately obvious as some other examples, but Denji has a surprising number of traits in common with the Wall-Crawler. Aside from the overlapping powers of Building Swinging, Super-Strength, and sticking to walls, Denji is also a strongly red-colored teenaged superhero who's in love with a redheaded woman, constantly broke, and perpetually struggles with the exaggerated work-life balance that comes with being a hero. This being Chainsaw Man, he can also be seen as a dark exaggeration, such as Spidey-likes' usual struggles with love becoming Denji's obsession with sex, their struggles with money being his absolutely bleak financial situation prior to becoming Chainsaw Man, and the redheaded Mary Jane love interest figure also being the wealthy, psychopathic Arch-Enemy Norman Osborn figure. What isn't an exaggeration compared to Spider-Man however is how much crap and hardships Denji also goes through. Denji even has the animal theming (via Pochita) and a Venom-like Evil Doppelgänger in Samurai Sword.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Reze, as neither of them wanted anything more than to live a normal life and go to school together. They bond quickly upon meeting each other and slowly fall in love as they get to enjoy a brief time of normalcy and having fun as two abused teenagers. While Reze understands how messed up his situation is, Denji sadly is too abused and used to his condition to see the bigger picture, especially since Makima would never let either of them be happy without being hunted down like animals. Even after learning of her true nature, Denji refuses to give up on her, knowing what they had was real, even pointing out that Reze still taught him to swim and didn't try to kill him at first when she had numerous chances to. By the time she tries to return for him at the cafe, Makima cruelly kills her merely yards away, leaving Denji believing she never loved him. Even well into Part 2, Denji hasn't been able to move on from Reze in spite of his bonding with Asa, as he labels her among those he loves in his life.
Stock Shōnen Hero: Denji shares some traits of the archetype initially, however their origins stem from depressing circumstances. He's a Big Eater, but it's because he lived in abject poverty and frequently had to eat from the dumpster to survive, so when given the chance to indulge he can't help it. He often comes across as an Idiot Hero but that's largely because he had no access to education or any real parental figures or intellectual stimulation, so he's emotionally and socially underdeveloped. His general stock shonen-ness is something that slowly changes across the series as Denji becomes more self-actualized. Notably, one typical trait that he lacks entirely is the desire To Be a Master; Denji doesn't have any grand ambitions or goals, as all he wants in life are simple things like food, a roof over his head, and a girlfriend if he's lucky.
Stomach of Holding: While separated from Pochita in the Aging Devil's pocket dimension, Denji ends up realizing that he's now Pochita's stomach and contains everything he's eaten.
Street Urchin: For most of his early teenage life, Denji was deprived of pretty much all of his material possessions, having to sell his own body parts to make ends meet, and though he does have a job as an illegal Devil Hunter, most of his pay is substracted by his boss. He's also willing to eat (but not swallow) a cigarette in exchange for 100 yen, which is the only reason he gets to eat that day at all.
Strong Family Resemblance: What little we see of him suggests that Denji looks like a younger version of his father.
Super Mode: After a lot of character development and finally understanding that giving in to his base urges and following Yoru or Death's wishes will never allow him to achieve his and Pochita's dream of living a normal life, Denji makes a comeback against Yoru by blindsiding her and pulling his starter to become a large, heavily-armored, and horned version of Chainsaw Man that combines "Pochita's strongest Devil powers and [his] high school-educated genius". Most notably, he has Pochita's ability to erase concepts from existence by eating them in this form.
Super-Strength: In addition to its built-in chainsaws, Denji’s Devil form is supernaturally strong. For reference, his first scene in Part 2 after growing much stronger shows him launching the Cockroach Devil (a monster the size of a large mansion) halfway across the city with a kick.
Supporting Protagonist: In Part 2. While he is still an important character his Reintroduction happens in chapter 102 (Chapter 5 of part 2) and he only gets one chapter completely dedicated to himself, leaving Asa and Yoru as the Protagonists, with Yoru hunting down Chainsaw Man as the main narrative of Part 2. This does start to balance out however after the conclusion of the Falling Arc where Denji again begins to have the primary focus as multiple parties all try to steer him either towards abandoning his life as Chainsaw Man or committing to it full time.
Sympathetic Murderer: Denji is haunted by his father's death and tries very very hard to forget his hand in it. Even if it was to defend his own life, he still killed his family and can never forgive himself for it.
Sympathetic P.O.V.: As the protagonist of Part 1, his deeper thoughts and emotions make a strong contrast with his crude words and slovenly behavior. In Part 2, with Asa taking the spotlight, the reader gets to see what Denji looks like from an outsider perspective, and he looks to be a loud, awkward loser.
Take a Third Option: Denji is very good at thinking outside the box during combat, and when given a Sadistic Choice between two options, he's often unable to settle. This emerges as a Fatal Flaw as the series progresses, however, as his decisions don't always lead to the best outcomes especially when faced with a choice that has no room for other alternatives.
- After trapping his group inside of an apartment floor, the Eternity Devil gives the humans the choice of either sacrificing Denji or starving to death inside of its stomach. Denji decides to let himself get eaten and start swinging his chainsaws continuously at the Devil until it begs him to kill it and escape.
- A literal example when fighting Katana Man. After losing both of his arm chainsaws, Denji tells him that he still has one left, implicitly talking about his head chainsaw. When Katana Man aims for the head in his next attack, Denji instead pulls out a chainsaw from his leg and chops him in half.
- When Kishibe asks him if he's on the side of the humans or the Devils, Denji casually retorts "the one who treats me better". As it turns out, it was the kind of answer Kishibe was expecting.
- Minor example. It's implied through his thought process that he couldn't bring himself to choose between Reze and Makima, and when the former offers him to run away together, Denji refuses because, even if he's fallen for Reze, he doesn't want to give up what he already has in Public Safety. Reze tries to kill him for this, and when he realizes that he'll lose her forever if he doesn't give everything up, Denji ultimately chooses her, but it's too late.
- For Makima's final fight with Chainsaw Man, she anticipated that the fight would end with either her controlling him or him erasing her. Denji instead finds a loophole in her contract and eats her alive while in his human form, killing her but allowing her to reincarnate as Nayuta.
- His way of handling Nayuta is also this; once the Control Devil reincarnates on Earth, the only valid options for humanity would be to either kill it and wait for its next reincarnation or keep it locked up until it inevitably escapes its confinement. Denji instead chooses to raise her as his little sister, which actually works, as Nayuta is revealed to have given up her predecessor's ways.
- When the Cockroach Devil tries to force him to choose between saving a teenager and several old people to test his morality, Denji kills him on the spot and saves a cat that was dangling from the roof of the school (which later brought him retribution from the Fire Devil and the brother of the teenager he let die).
- Yoshida forces him to choose between being Chainsaw Man and getting to keep his family, and Denji responds that he chooses "two options". He ultimately chooses the latter reluctantly, only to go for the former again after Barem burns down his house and pets, which gets Nayuta killed due to Denji getting too high on his own power to worry about her.
- Shortly before the climax of Part 2, Denji is forced to choose between eating the War Devil and the Death Devil, and starts contemplating this decision solely on the sexual appeal of the girls who support each decision instead of judging the potential world-changing consequences. Pochita ultimately eats the latter for Denji's sake but he still defeats the former anyway by getting her to hurt herself, before reviving her so she can have fulfill her promise of having sex with him.]]
- Once he realizes that Asa and Yoru are two separate entities, one of which gave him emotional support and many bonding experiences and the other of which he's attracted to and has more fun with, Denji seems content with spending time with both but refuses to settle for either of them throughout the entire story, fighting Yoru and trying to force her to free Asa but also reviving her to cash in on her offer for sex at the very end of their battle. If Yoru's claim is any indication, he would've actually succeeded in being with both of them, until the Pest Devils interrupted them.]]
Talking Is a Free Action: Gets away with a lot of trash talk for half of Part 1, but his luck runs out as he's exchanging post-fight banter with Doll Woman. He's so focused on trading barbs that he leaves himself open to Quanxi decapitating him from behind.
Tears of Joy: Rather poignantly after spending most of the series Unable to Cry, Denji happily cries when he sees that the whole world is celebrating and loving him for his heroic deeds as Chainsaw Man.
Tempting Fate: After a date with Makima he thinks that he would never fall for anybody else. Almost immediately after he runs into Reze, who provides a significant challenge to that assumption.
Terror Hero: He fully dives into this in Chapter 152 as everything finally collapses in on itself within his sanity: transforming into Chainsaw Man after a long hiatus, his behavior isn't cool or badass or even entertaining, but horrifying as he goes to such brutal lengths to attack Spear, Whip, and Sword that even Nayuta is horrified by the sight.
Think Happy Thoughts: As they're sent tumbling into the sky towards a door to Hell by the Falling Devil's despair-triggered powers, Denji tries to bring Asa and himself back down to earth by thinking of pleasant things like pets and ice cream. While doing this is enough to stop his own tumble, it just barely slows down Asa's, and he's forced to engage in a longer conversation about why even a life full of hardship is worth sticking around for.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Pulls his punches against human opponents in Part 1, which indirectly costs him his first fight with Katana Man.
Timed Power-Up: After he transforms, he has a few minutes where his chainsaws spin automatically before they slow to a halt. While he can still fight like this, if he wants to restore his optimal cutting power, he has to pull on the cord of his chest again. This will make his blades spin, but they'll cut him up further and consume more of his blood.
Too Dumb to Live: When confronted by several pest animal like Devils after his fight with Yoru, Denji refuses to run because of his desire for sex. But due to Death being erased, Denji gets eaten alive, which forces Pochita to sacrifice himself to save Denji.
Took a Level in Badass: While Denji’s fighting style initially consisted of wailing on his opponent until either he died or they died, Kishibe’s brutal training methods gradually force the boy to evolve past basic brawling and rely more on his knack for coming up with insane, baffling plans mid-fight. This comes to a head with his final battle with Makima. She might've had more power, but she never counted on Denji on creating a chainsaw out of Power's blood to disrupt her healing factor, allowing for Denji to finish her off once and for all. At the start of Part 2, Denji's growth is showcased by killing the Bat Devil (his first real challenge in Part 1) by accident while fighting a much larger and more fearsome Devil, one that he not only defeats but completely overpowers. Later in Part 2, he defeats Sugo, Spear Man and Whip Woman all with little effort despite the three of them attacking all at once. By the time of his climactic battle with Yoru, Denji's bond with Pochita has reach a point Denji can now transform into a new form, dubbed Denji-Man, that is not only able to overwhelm a powered-up Yoru, but now has access to Pochita's Devil erasing ability.
Took a Level in Cynic: Depressingly, the events of Part 1 have clearly plumb worn him out when we get to see him in his civilian identity again. He displays little of the manic enthusiasm he showed off before and whereas previously Denji managed to maintain a surprisingly upbeat attitude even in horrible circumstances, here he looks visibly haggard and has Exhausted Eye Bags even when he's in a good mood. Tellingly, when Asa asks him out on a date, his response is not shouting for joy at a girl displaying attraction to him, but a rather muted "ok" as if he's given up all hope on ever finding happiness with a woman. Becomes worse after Nayuta's death, as Denji is more depressed than ever, not even bothering to put up a struggle when Yoru kills innocent people in front of him or when she sexually torments him. By the end of Part 2, Pochita realizes he's partly to blame, and decides to sacrifice his life to give Denji a chance to find true happiness.
Took a Level in Jerkass: A tragic example. Following Nayuta's death, Denji has regressed to rock bottom like never before, and has become even more apathetic and hormonal than he used to be even at his lowest. When he starts bonding with Yoru, he doesn't care when she molests him or when she kills people in front of him, and accepts a request in exchange for sex because he just doesn't want to be lonely, at no point considering how Asa feels about it. After this, Denji talks to Asa and she has a nervous breakdown over all the people Yoru has killed and the Fate Worse than Death she plans to enact on humanity. Denji, in response, goes on a romantic bike ride with Yoru a few chapters later. By the time he defeats Yoru and wants to cash on the offer of sex, he basically ignores how Asa's feelings are in this, in spite of having learned of her crush on him.
Took a Level in Kindness: By the time Part 1 ends, Denji decides to shed his Jerkass attitude after the massive Trauma Conga Line he went through. While understandably dour, he is far kinder to the world around him. During Part 2's aquarium arc, Asa finally gets to experience the heart that the audience has known Denji's had the entire time; he cares enough about this girl who's placed him in an impossibly dangerous situation, and, in his own Denji way, tries to cheer her up by offering her a starfish to eat. It's weird, it's more than a little unhinged, but it's unapologetically Denji.
Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Hilariously enough, this is how Denji manages to defeat a Primal Fear, the Aging Devil, for the first time. When Yoshida suggests a lopsided contract where it frees Denji and their group from its Prison Dimension and gets nothing in return, Aging still chooses to agree to the contract because the alternative is being stuck with Denji for eternity.
Tragic Hero: Denji is the protagonist of what is ultimately a Tragedy, and the choices he makes leads to The End of the World as We Know It as well as the loss of his loved ones (namely Aki and Power platonically, Nayuta and Pochita familially, and Reze romantically).
Tragic Keepsake: At the end of the final chapter of Part 1, Denji is taking care of Meowy, Power's old pet.
Tranquil Fury: Denji is a hotblooded loudmouth at the best of times, so when he gets quiet, it's officially time to start running. If you, or anyone you're associated with, has hurt him or the people or the considers family, don't even bother running, it's too late for you.
- He's eerily calm in Chapter 96 when he slashes Makima up with a chainsaw made of Power's blood, and calmly explains to her, "I'll be taking Pochita back now, thanks."
- After transforming back into Chainsaw Man when Barem and his hybrids burn Denji's apartment down, Denji's voice is completely calm when he orders Nayuta to get out of his way and then tells the Hybrids he can't wait to be Chainsaw Man again before he proceeds to brutally rip them all to pieces in a matter of seconds.
Denji: Nayuta. Get out of my way. (to the Hybrids) I feel like a million bucks. Thanks to you guys, I get to be Chainsaw Man again.
- Denji sports a cold and quiet yet no less furious expression on his face as he nearly attacks Barem in Sushishi. When Barem then shows him Nayuta's head on a sushi plate, Denji's expression is completely flat when he grabs Barem by the throat and rips his head off with one hand without even transforming.
Transformation Trinket: A Body Horror version, with him having a chainsaw ripcord stuck in his chest that he has to pull to transform into his Chainsaw Man form.
Trauma Button: In Part 2, he does not take kindly to Asa telling him to blindly follow her game plan for their date and that he doesn't need to think about anything. For as much as he's willing to degrade himself for money and for any kind of attention from girls, the moment someone genuinely threatens his individuality like Makima did will be the last straw for his patience in spite of his desire to be loved.
Trauma Conga Line:
- His mom died when he was a kid. His dad was a drunk who followed shortly afterwards after Denji was forced to kill him in self-defense and left Denji saddled with a mountain of debt and left at the mercy of vicious Yakuza thugs and with a Devil as his only friend. He spent his entire childhood as an indentured servant to the Yakuza surviving on garbage and scraps of bread, and eventually they murdered him anyway and threw his body in a dumpster. The woman who found him made him into a slave for the government with veiled threats to kill him if he ever disobeyed her. The first girl he found attractive betrayed him so she could get her cat back. The second girl he fell in love with also betrayed him. The third girl he fell in love with murdered the aforementioned second girl, breaking Denji's heart because he thought that she abandoned him, turned his adoptive brother into a monster that Denji was forced to personally put down, then murdered his adoptive sister in front of him on his birthday to utterly destroy his spirit and convince him that he would never be happy and that it was all his fault for his siblings' deaths. And even after finally overcoming that obstacle, he got saddled with caring for a ten-year-old girl who was the reincarnation of the woman who ruined his life, plus seven dogs and a cat, while still trying to attend high school at the same time, and without being allowed to hold a job.
- Part 2 isn't much better after the first half. After rejecting Miri Sugo's offer to join the Chainsaw Man Church, he finds his home burnt down with Meowy and his pets inside, at the hands of Barem Bridge. While on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Church members, his actions are witnessed by civilians causing them to fear him again, causing them to attack him and Nayuta. At which point he gets nearly killed by Barem and the mob, only for Nayuta to protect Denji as her true family and presumably sacrifice herself to save him, after which he is captured by Public Safety. He is then drugged and dissected to prevent his re-awakening, while his child self basically mocks Denji for adopting Nayuta in the first place and declares he never is fit to have a family. By the time Denji is rescued by Asa, he's practically broken and in a state of ennui, initially trying to find Nayuta before having a breakdown over his libido constantly getting in his way, culminating him nearly having his dick torn off by the fourth girl he fell in love with before they suddenly start making out and being given an involuntary hand job, left confused beyond belief due to her seeming mood swinging and seeming like she's the Master of the Mixed Message, then Barem shows him Nayuta's decapitated head. After then getting on his lowest point and going back him, Yoshida gets killed by Barem, which causes Denji to become Chainsaw Man once more, this leads to the serious of events that causes death to be erased from the world just to save Asa, but making the world worse due to pest animals now eating people without the capacity of dying, which happens to Denji, and Pochita had to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to erase himself and help Denji be more happy.
Troubled Teen: He's only 16, and as the rest of this page shows he is laden with deep psychological issues that are only exacerbated by the people around him. In addition, his 17th Birthday goes beyond terribly, and his life manages to get worse when he's 18 in the later events of Part 2.
Two-Person Love Triangle: In Part 2, Asa Mitaka ends up falling for Denji and his alter ego Chainsaw Man, having no idea that they're the same person.
Unable to Cry: Due to being Conditioned to Accept Horror, Denji finds himself unable to muster up tears even though he does actually feel bad whenever he loses people he cares about. A notable exception is when he's forced to fight Aki, showing that he's extremely broken up over having to kill him.
Unscrupulous Hero: Even putting aside his rather shallow motivations and general lack of concern about civilian casualties, Denji is never afraid to take a cheap shot in a fight if he sees an opening. His response to being outmatched by Katana Man in a straight-up fight is to immediately take one of his goons hostage, not that Katana Man cares about the lives of his own men. He ultimately defeats Makima by getting her to wear herself out in a brawl with Pochita and then ambushing her from behind with a weapon that stops her regeneration.
Unskilled, but Strong: When he first starts out, Denji is just a sickly teenager with no real fighting skills, but that doesn't really matter quite as much when you can just rip everything that comes at you to shreds with chainsaw arms. Kishibe teaches him and Power to start thinking tactically as well, by repeatedly killing them over and over until they learn to start fighting smarter.
Use Your Head: The chainsaw affixed to his skull is as lethal as the ones on any of his limbs, although it sees more action in the animated adaptation for smaller fight scenes between the big action shots.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Power and, after a bit of Character Development, Aki as well, as they never truly stop bickering or messing with each other but they genuinely grow to enjoy their time living together. After a very rough start, he also becomes friends with Asa as well, but their contrasting personalities often lead to them clashing.
Volumetric Mouth: When Denji pukes up the devils that Pochita ate, his mouth stretches in order to fit around them. Then he ends up puking out Yoshida, and his mouth has to manage fitting around someone's leg. Then Yoru sticks her entire upper body into Denji's mouth and out of Pochita, causing an absurd amount of warping to Denji's mouth and jaw while Yoru's butt pokes out.
V-Sign: He has a habit of making a v-sign as a non-verbal response, usually as an agreement to something.
Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Deconstructed. For an entire year, Denji managed to balance both his normal life and his superhero life with relative ease, somehow not getting found out by the press despite wanting to, and keeping up with his studies well enough while saving up for Nayuta's education and maintaining his pets. Then people begin needing Pochita's Ret-Gone abilities and it all comes crashing down, in part due to his refusal to give up either lifestyle.
Wall Run: Denji is able to run along vertical surfaces by using the chainsaws in his legs to embed himself into them.
Wanting Is Better Than Having: In chapter 231, Pochita says that Denji was actually at his happiest before becoming Chainsaw Man, as despite living as an impoverished orphan exploited by the yakuza he was content to simply dream of a better life. Actually having his desires realized left him dissatisfied and unhappy deep down, and he quickly become ensnared in a destructive cycle of either losing his loved ones or getting hurt and exploited by those with selfish or ill intentions.
Was It All a Lie?: Despite his love for her, Denji has to come to terms with the fact that Makima never actually cared for him in return, she only ever cared for Chainsaw Man, aka Pochita, who was inside him. After the reveal of her plan, she shows nothing but contempt for Denji himself. And Denji's ultimate plan for beating Makima relies on her having forgotten what he smells like, as she doesn't bother remembering the smells of people unimportant to her, which allows him to get the drop on her.
Weak, but Skilled: Interestingly, Denji is both this and Unskilled, but Strong as the series goes on. Despite being a sickly teenager with no formal combat training, he repeatedly demonstrates that he has a keen tactical mind that allows him to outwit and outmaneuver opponents far more powerful (and frankly intelligent) than he is. Over and over he shows himself to be clever enough to identify, and then exploit, the weaknesses of far more powerful Devils, and he ultimately manages to defeat Makima (herself a devil powerful enough to defeat the Gun Devil with ease) by hiding amongst her slaves, waiting for her to tire herself out in a fight with Pochita and then launching a sneak attack from behind while she's distracted, which disables her long enough for him to put his real plan into action.
Weapons of Their Trade: Having to survive with Pochita as his only tool during his childhood of debt-slavery to the Yakuza has left Denji extremely skilled at using chainsaws as a weapon, allowing to get a handle on dual-wielding them as Chainsaw Man very quickly.
What Is This Feeling?: Denji becomes immensely confused by his feelings for Reze after having believed himself to be in love with Makima, behaving as if his body was acting against his will when spending time with her.
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: One of Denji's biggest flaws is his inability to understand the concepts of love. To him, he can't tell the difference between romantic and sexual love, as his infatuation with Makima is for shallow reasons in spite of the fact in the back of his mind he knows she's just using him. He always is trying to get a girlfriend thinking it will solve his problems ignorant of the concept of what love really is in a relationship. Even in Part 2 has him trying to score a girlfriend, largely due to the sheer trauma he endured due to Makima and the heartbreak he endured from all the betrayals in Part 1 thinking it will solve his problems. It doesn't, if anything, this causes even more problems because he's using his secret identity as Chainsaw Man to get popular with girls, which the Chainsaw Man Church is keen on exploiting for themselves and out to ruin his life. While Denji still struggles with this concept, the only love interests he's shown genuine romantic interest in beyond lust are Reze and Asa Mitaka, and even then he hardly knew the former beyond her Manic Pixie Dream Girl façade and ultimately chose his shallow relationship with Yoru over the latter.
What You Are in the Dark: The series intentionally breezes by them but there are many notable moments of Denji saving people of his own volition without asking for rewards. These simultaneously bite him in the ass and raise him up as his off-handed heroic deeds severely weaken Pochita due to lack of fear of him, but encourages Denji to give dreaming of a happy life another chance.
When He Smiles: For such a crass and abrasive young man, Denji actually has a wonderful smile when he's genuinely happy, that's all the more beautiful for how little we actually see it. Despite their ulterior motives for going out with him, both Reze and later Asa are shocked upon seeing Denji's smile because of how lovely it is, and start genuinely warming up to him afterwards. It's so lovely that Asa Mitaka falls asleep just thinking about his smile, while telling herself she hates him.
Why Can't I Hate You?: Even after seeing Makima for what she really is and killing her for it, Denji is disgusted in himself for still loving her.
Wistful Smile: The final volume of Part 1 has Denji sporting one of these, a visual metaphor for how much he's grown and how much he's lost over the course of the story.
Wolverine Wannabe: Denji shares certain traits with a certain adamantium-clawed mutant: retractable blades, canine-motif, fighting in a wild, savage manner, tense partnerships with straight-laced comrades (Aki and later Yoshida) and the aforementioned attraction to redheads. On a darker note Denji also shares Logan's abysmal luck with women, with many a potential love interest dying messily.
The Worf Effect: As powerful as he is as Chainsaw Man, (and especially as Denji-Man), he doesn't last long against the plague Devils that had taken over the world following the erasure of the Death Devil, and he doesn't get to pull on his cord before he's torn to shreds offscreen.
Work Off the Debt: Denji spends his youth indebted to yakuzas who demand outrageous sums to pay for his father's debt. He begins devil hunting, sells part of his organs, and even humiliates himself in public to amuse the goons while barely keeping up with the interest. In the end, they sacrifice him to a Devil anyway.
Worst News Judgement Ever: At the start of Part 2, with the government's devil hunters decimated and his reputation still riding high after supposedly defeating the Gun Devil (read: Fiend, actually), Chainsaw Man becomes a local celebrity and controversial hero figure for being the most visible and effective-looking demon slayer. The media, desperate for a scoop that isn't depressing, makes reports for when he hasn't been seen in a while and tends to downplay the collateral damage that happens as a result of his battles.
Would Hit a Girl: Denji is generally far more lenient to and considerate of women, but that doesn't stop him from doing his best to defend himself when a woman charges at him with intent to harm such as Power, Kobeni, Reze, Doll Woman, and Makima.
Xanatos Gambit: Pulls off a rather impressive one for someone so seemingly unintelligent in the climax of Part 1, when he separates Pochita from his body and sends him out to fight Makima, then disguises himself as one of her slaves so he can sneak up and get the drop on her. If Makima had somehow caught him hiding amongst her slaves, then trying to kill Denji would leave her open to an attack from Pochita. If Makima defeats Pochita, then that's no biggie because she'll have worn herself out in the fighting and let her guard down long enough for him to deal a mortal wound to her - which is exactly what happens. If Pochita had won the fight with Makima, well...he'd have won the fight with Makima and Denji could put his real plan into action regardless.
Yandere: His love for Makima would be the case for this. Even after all the horrible things she did to him, Denji still finds he loves her still but resolves to kill her to stop her plan and avenge his loved ones she killed. To that end, he eats her remains so she can become one with him. To his credit, when Kishibe is disturbed by his plan, Denji admits he's not proud of himself. By Part 2, he still has a lingering attraction to her to an extent, but part of his Character Development is him overcoming her toxic influence on him and trying to become his own person.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Denji might as well be the poster boy of this trope.
- The entirety of Part 1 up until Chapter 82 is Makima orchestrating all of Denji's happiness so she can systematically rip it all away from him and make him lose the will to live; his friendship with Aki and Power, his romance with Reze, and his attempts to repress his murder of his father were all taken away from him at a point where he was at his highest, so the incoming fall hurts more.
- Part 2 doesn't get any better for him at all. Absolutely everything he had left from Part 1 is taken away from him at a moment when it seemed like things were about to get slightly better for him, including Pochita, and most of the new friends he makes either betray him or try to kill him at some point. To rub salt on the wound, he's also eaten by a pest Devil just as he was about to accomplish his dream of having sex, though Pochita believes it was a positive outcome for him.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Having been put through the wringer of having to kill his surrogate brother, his surrogate sister sacrificing herself for him, remembering that he killed his own father, and still loving a woman who's done nothing but hurt and manipulate him, Denji is shocked and driven to tears to discover from the news that the world at large loves him as Chainsaw Man.
- In the climax of Part 2, Pochita tells Denji that no matter how harsh his life was, he has a good heart and encourages his best friend to keep on dreaming as he does a Heroic Sacrifice to save Denji and the world believing Denji will be able to achieve true happiness without him.
You Killed My Father: Tragically averted. In spite of how he avenges Aki, Power, and Reze (though she's still alive) when he defeats Makima, he's unable to rightfully hate her for killing them. He also holds no hard feelings for the Yakuza even though they forced Pochita to become his heart, empathising with their zombies and never bringing up their crimes when justifying killing them to Katana Man. Notably, Denji is actually grateful to the Hybrids for killing his pets and giving him an excuse to fight, and it's always Pochita who attacks Barem to avenge Nayuta and Yoshida, not Denji himself. Part of this is can be traced back to his self-loathing, as part of Denji always believed that he didn't deserve to have people who loved him or to be happy.
You Remind Me of X: In Chapter 230, he tells Yoru that she reminds him of Power, which is part of the reason why he drifted so much towards her despite having a much more genuine connection with Asa.
You Will Be Spared: An anti-hero variant. As thanks for Kishibe training him and Power, he promises to spare him should the Public Safety try to put him down. Along with hearing Kobeni's cry for help, this is also one of the reasons why Chainsaw Man didn't try to kill Kishibe.
Your Days Are Numbered: At the start of the series, he's inherited a lethal heart condition from his mother which he's very certain will kill him young. Fusing with Pochita cures him of it though.

"As long as the world has grub and girls... I still have something to live for."

Chainsaw Man - Denji

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Denji / Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Hybrid (formerly)

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Characters / Chainsaw Man - Denji 17 Following

Denji / Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Hybrid (formerly)

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Chainsaw Man - Denji

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