Denji

"What, the old man never taught you? The prey must never trust what a hunter says!"

Denji (デンジ) is the protagonist of the Chainsaw Man manga series. As a young boy, he inherits his father's debts from the Yakuza. After meeting Pochita, he becomes a Devil Hunter for the Yakuza in an attempt to clear his debt. Once the Yakuza, under the control of a Devil, betrays him, he dies and Pochita becomes his heart. He now becomes the Chainsaw Man by pulling a cord on his chest. After meeting Makima, he became a Public Safety Devil Hunter.

Human Form (Pre-Fusion)
Denji is a teenage boy with blond and scruffy hair. He has yellow-brown eyes and bags underneath, resulting in a dazed and tired expression. His teeth are noticeably sharp and angular. Due to malnutrition in his childhood, he has a scrawny build with protruding ribs. Before becoming a hybrid, Denji was missing his right eye and several other non-essential organs, including a testicle and a kidney. He covered his missing eye with an eyepatch. He also wears a loose white tank top, a green jacket and black pants during this time.

Human Form (Post-Fusion)
After Denji forms a contract with Pochita, his heart is fused with Pochita, a chainsaw cord forms in the middle of his chest and he regains his lost organs.

He now spends much of his time wearing the standard Public Safety Devil Hunter uniform, consisting of a white shirt, tie, and slacks. He wears the uniform carelessly, his shirt wrinkled and sleeves rolled up. During Operation: Super-Smart, Denji donned a pair of fake glasses.

Hybrid Form
If his chainsaw cord is pulled while he has enough blood for the transformation, then his head will morph into a demonic, mechanical shape with long, jagged fangs and a chainsaw handle on the back. Large chainsaws will emerge from his forehead, arms and legs, if he desires it. If Denji's chainsaw cord is pulled while he does not have enough blood, then a chainsaw blade will partially emerge from his face.

Devil Form
After surrendering himself to Makima, Denji transformed into a Full Devil, completely losing his human consciousness and letting his devil counterpart take over. Prior to the transformation, his intestines emerge from his stomach and wrap around his neck, resembling a scarf or a collar. Once transformed, his body is black, looking to be covered with either armored plates or scales. He gains spikes on his shoulders and the back of his head, the handle on the back of his head disappears. He becomes much larger and bulkier, towering over the average human. His arms split at the elbows, each with two forearms equipped with their own Chainsaw Blade.

Personality
Denji is both brash and naive as a result of being unable to have a formal education and socialize due to living in severe poverty. His personality comes off as rude and harsh in an almost childish way. However, he has a good sense of empathy towards other people, willing to save those in danger as much as he could, showing he is a kind hearted person despite his shortcomings.

While Denji doesn't necessarily possess the highest intelligence, he is capable of clever ideas to take down devils, such as lighting himself on fire and using the light emitted to weaken Santa Claus enough to kill her.

After becoming a Public Safety Devil Hunter and fulfilling his basic needs, Denji is unsure of what he wants in life. While he initially wanted to fill his basic desires, such as feeling up Power, he later realized and laments that the satisfaction from that intimacy is fleeting. Denji also fears his lack of empathy and attachments after his transformation. He fears becoming emotionless.

While transformed in his hybrid form, Denji becomes extremely ruthless, aggressive, bloodthirsty and sadistic, releasing his most deranged side while facing other demons, to the point of enjoying killing them.

As the story progresses, it becomes more evident that Denji is emotionally damaged, and desperate to feel love and be loved by someone. He clings to Makima as a coping mechanism, even going to far to state his wish to her was to just be a mindless dog, so he would not feel hurt from losing the things and people he loved. This backfired, as watching Power die was enough for him to surrender himself to Makima completely, essentially erasing his personality and mental state. This is still evident when Denji tells Kishibe that he did not set out to kill Makima, but rather become one with her, allowing him to defeat her.

Pochita
Pochita was saved by Denji when in his time of need by feeding him his blood to recover from a injury, leading to them befriending one another Devil and Human alike. This allowed the debt that filled young Denji to be dealt with by becoming a young demon hunter with the help of Pochita. Later after being a Demon Hunter his whole life Denji was betrayed by the debt collector and brutally murdered by zombified humans. This death caused Pochita to become Denji's heart due to a contract making Denji a Human and Demon hybrid.

Makima
Makima and Denji shared an asymmetrical relationship: whereas Denji was greatly infatuated with Makima and willing to go to great lengths to serve her, Makima saw Denji as nothing more than a pet and tool, taking interest in him solely for the fact that the Chainsaw Devil Pochita resided in his heart. To this end, Makima masterminded a plot to control the Chainsaw Devil by manipulating Denji, setting up circumstances that would allow Denji to experience love, companionship, and comfort that he had craved his entire life, before violently stripping him of everything he cared about in an attempt to break him and bring out Chainsaw Man. Despite discovering her plot, her identity as the Control Devil, and the fact that he meant nothing to her, Denji would still continue to love Makima. To him, although she had betrayed him and had brutally slaughtered his closest friends, she had been one of the few people in his life to show him affection.

Denji's love toward Makima and her apathy towards him would prove key in her defeat. Makima was ambushed by Denji with a chainsaw, as he realized that she only remembered people she was interested in by their scents, and thus would not be able to recognize Denji because she had never memorized his scent. Following this ambush, Denji successfully killed her by committing cannibalism and eating her body. By doing so, he was not attacking Makima, but was instead "becoming one with her", which bypassed the conditions of her contract with the Prime Minister of Japan that made her impervious to fatal injuries.

After Makima's death, Denji would end up becoming the caretaker of her dogs and her reincarnation Nayuta. Having been told by Pochita that the Control Devil's greatest dream was to form equal relationships with others, Denji dedicated himself to granting the Control Devil's dream by lovingly raising Nayuta and becoming her family, lest she become another version of Makima.

Aki Hayakawa
Aki and Denji initially began as distrustful teammates, as Aki strongly disliked Denji: he despise Denji for his Devil nature, and his bold, crass personality. Aki would openly state to Denji that he had no qualms about killing him if he became useless. In turn, Denji reciprocated Aki's hostility. Though hostile, they would still begrudgingly cooperate with each other, as both were commanded to do so by Makima and Aki recognized Denji's utility as a tool.

Overtime, however, their relationship would change: after being forced to live each other by Makima and working with each other on missions, Aki and Denji slowly became close, and would eventually become best friends. In the face of tragedies and sadness, Denji and Aki comforted one another, such as when Denji gave Aki an apple after Himeno's death, or when Aki comforted Denji over their cancelled trip with Makima.

After becoming the Gun Fiend, during his murderous rampage and battle with Denji, Aki would end up hallucinating, perceiving everything as a snowball fight with Denji. Tragically, Aki's love for Denji proved to be the catalyst for his defeat at the hands of Denji: Aki stopped his murderous rampage after hallucinating Denji crying during the snowball fight, ceasing his deluge of snowballs (which, in truth, were bullets) because it was the first time he had ever seen Denji cry. This pause was enough to allow Denji to pierce Aki's body with his chainsaws, killing him.

The death of Aki led Denji into a deep spiral of grief and depression, with Denji losing his will to live, unable to cope with the reality that he had murdered his best friend. Denji's despair would lead him to extreme decisions, such as relinquishing his free will and subjugating himself to Makima so that he could escape the painful reality that Aki was dead.

Power
Beginning as partners assigned by Makima, Denji initially viewed Power as a nuisance, whilst she attempted to use him for her own gain. Power initially betrays him, bringing him as a trade-off for the Bat Devil to return her cat. After she is rescued from the Bat Devil by Denji, she apologizes and begins to warm up to him, offering him to grope her as a means to apologize. Despite a rough start, their shared stupidity, apathy and hedonistic tendencies make the two quickly grow close, often playing games and arguing at times others find inappropriate. Denji develops the nickname 'Powy' for her, whilst she refers to him as her 'Buddy'. Their relationship becomes comparable to that of siblings, with Denji specifically noting a lack of romantic or sexual connection between the two. It is later implied that Power did develop romantic feelings for Denji, though these feelings weren't reciprocated by Denji likely due to his then-fixation on Makima. Both are intensely protective of the other, as seen when Denji and Aki looked after her following the Darkness Devil attack in Hell, also protecting her physically from Aki when he was possessed by the Gun Devil. Likewise, Power agreed to take part in the hunt for the Gun Devil despite her apprehension, purely out of her desire to continue working with Denji.

Power's friendship with Denji shows when she turns into the Blood Devil against Makima, and fights her and her men. When Power is about to die after saving Denji from Makima, Power forms a contract with Denji by giving him blood in return for him finding the blood devil again.

Supernatural Abilities
Hybrid Transformation: By pulling on the cord emerging from his chest, Denji can transform into a bloodthirsty Chainsaw Devil. Denji needs blood in order use his abilities, so if he does not have enough he can't fully transform, he can still manifest chainsaws but they are much shorter and weaker. This ability is revealed to be a result of his contract with Pochita. In exchange for living a "normal life", Pochita became the heart of Denji.
 * Enhanced Strength: Denji has enough strength to catch a thrown car out of the air without staggering and throw it back equally as hard. He was able to throw his own heart hard enough to go through the Earth's atmosphere to prevent himself from being lost in space.
 * Enhanced Durability: Denji withstood a point-blank blast from the Bat Devil that destroyed the building behind him. Denji was able to stand up and continue fighting despite being hit by the attack. He has survived multiple explosions, and being on fire for extended periods of time.
 * Enhanced Endurance: Denji is able to withstand in a fight while being set on fire. He has recovered from decapitation, and nearly every part of his body being cut off in at some point, repeatedly.
 * Chainsaw Manifestation: As part of his transformation Denji grows fully-functional chainsaws from his arms, legs, and head. These chainsaws are extremely effective at cutting through devils, being able to slice straight through the Bat Devil's arm. He is able to manifest short chainsaws under his feet, which he can stick onto walls and even walk on them.
 * Chainsaw Retraction: If he needs the full use of his arms and legs, Denji's chainsaws automatically retract into his body. This has not been seen in his full Devil Form yet.
 * Chain Entanglement: Denji is able to disconnect his chains from his chainsaws to wrap around his opponent's body. He uses this to pull them closer to him. If Denji's arms get torn off but are still connected to his body, he can still use his chain like body tissue to wrap his enemies around.

Devil Transformation: After surrendering his contract with Pochita, Denji transformed into a Full Devil. In this form, Pochita displays incredible speed and strength, easily defeating multiple Hybrid-Devils in a matter of seconds. Though he has been shown to have taken damage, and even been slowed by being sent to Hell and blasted into Space, these acts merely delayed him for a few minutes before he returned unscathed. His immense power is further highlighted in Hell, where it is implied he defeated every Demon residing there. Makima stated that he has killed her 26 times in this form. The form seems to lack Denji's personality and awareness, though it has been shown to retain some memories and frequently acts in accordance with them. After defeated by Makima to save Kobeni and later rescued by Power, Denji transformed back to normal and regained his consciousness.

Blood Consumption: Denji is able to heal completely from nearly any fatal injury, and in some instances recover from death, so long as he consumes a sufficient amount of blood. After losing his arm to Bat Devil, Denji's arm re-attached itself after he received a blood transfusion. With his fight against Santa Claus, he consumed one of her doll's blood to keep fighting while still being on fire. As a full Devil, he regenerated from just his heart after Pochita threw it from space. After noticing this method to regenerate, he is able to remove Pochita from his body and regenerate it as a separate entity which allowed him to foul Makima.

Chainsaw Devil Contract: In exchange for living a normal life, the Chainsaw Devil became Denji's heart and turned him into a hybrid. All of his hybrid abilities are originated from this contract.

Blood Devil Contract: In exchange for finding reincarnated Blood Devil and befriending with them, Power gave all of her blood to revive Denji.
 * Blood Chainsaw: Thanks to blood gained from Power, Denji is able to manifest a chainsaw from her blood. It has similar design of Power's horns. By using her blood manipulation ability, Denji is able to disturb regeneration of Makima which allowed him to defeat her.

Skillset
Hand-to-Hand Combat: Even without his transformation, Denji is a capable unarmed and armed fighter. Against the Leech Devil- which was many times his size and weight- he was able to easily block her blows, whilst delivering punches and headbutts with enough force to damage her. His skills improved further after training with Kishibe, in which he learnt to rely more on strategy instead of blind-strength.

Trivia

 * Denji's ranking in the Popularity Polls are as follows;
 * Denji ranked 5th in the First Popularity Poll, with 18,302 votes.
 * Denji ranked 4th in the Second Popularity Poll, with 59,130 votes.
 * Denji appears in the background of My Hero Academia chapter 259.
 * Fujimoto revealed that his favorite character is Denji.

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