Makima

 Warning: This page contains major spoilers for the Chainsaw Man series. Please read at your own risk.

Makima (マキマ) is a Public Safety Devil Hunter, who took Denji as her human pet. She is later revealed to be the Control Devil (の) which embodies the fear of control. She serves as the overall main antagonist of the Public Safety Saga.

Appearance
Makima is a beautiful woman who appears to be in her mid-twenties. Her hair colour is a light red, usually kept in a loose braid with bangs reaching just past her eyebrows and two longer side bangs that frame her face. Her eyes are yellow with multiple red rings within them.

Personality
During her first appearance, she was portrayed as the seemingly Big Good of the manga, even managing to save Denji from his hellish life and tries to make him happy by coddling him and even made a companions just for him to form a rather big and strong family that were integrated together while Makima acts as a motherly figure or an actual ideal girlfriend towards Denji. Her motherly figure can be shown when Makima attempts to cheer up Denji by either inviting him on a date to watch movies together or letting him stay at her home when he fell asleep in the park bench. Makima also shows herself to be a dog person as she owns several dogs in her own apartment.

It is also stated that she is on the humanity side, claiming that she attempts to save the humanity from the devils that were plaguing this world. Despite some of her ruthless behavior, she has no hesitations to call out several hypocrite Yakuzas about justifying themselves being a necessary evil as she needed their cooperation to further her own plans seemingly saving humanity. In addition, Makima also shown a bit of a glimpse of the humanity in her when she cried during her time with Denji watching the third film about a man seemingly reconciling with his lost friend. Makima is also shown to be serious and calm person on her job as she made herself as a no-nonsense authority figure for the Devil Hunter bureau itself while mostly spend her time as a person who has limited emotions over the course of the story. Despite this, Makima is shown to be a respected figure by the Devil Hunters as according to one of them, Aki Hayakawa, he owed Makima deeply because Makima saved her life from a dark and troubled past while another one, Madoka, also respected Makima due to her respecting the decision to quit the bureau after the massacre towards the Devil Hunters happened.

However, at the same time, Makima is shown to be ruthless in her job, having no hesitation to threaten Denji by euthanizing him or treat him like a devils if he decides to disobey her orders after he already made him as her pet while also shows her ruthlessness nature towards people who were against her such as the assailant that nearly kills her or Denji or the aforementioned Yakuza by brutally wounding or killing them. In addition, Makima shows herself to be a rather shady figure as she conspired with other members of the bureau in order to further the goals of the Japanese Government especially the mission to obtain several Gun Devil fragments. In addition, Makima's accomplice and the strongest devil hunter ever lived, Kishibe, also suspects Makima is a compulsive liar as he suspects that Makima disguises her true intentions under the guise of being a benevolent savior of humanity. Makima can also be considered as a jingoistic person, willingly following her superior orders in order to obtain the fragment for gun devil to ensure Japan become a superpower country trumping over the likes of America, Soviet Union or China, even having no hesitation to start a war with other countries just to get the gun devil fragments to control the Gun Devil for their nefarious purposes.

At the same time, Makima also shown to performs several sketchy and inhumane behavior across the manga due to her seemingly immortal nature, being able to control other animal life itself to perform her bidding, managing to wound one of the Primordial Devils and also had a rather creepy Orwellian approach to increase her knowledge towards other surrounding which makes her rather frightening for a good reason.

In truth, all of the inhuman and ruthless things she had done over the course of the manga are the foreshadowing to revealed that she is something worse: It was revealed that she is actually The Control Devil who exists a long time ago and was feared across the globe by humans and devils alike with the intention of bringing the worst kind of peace into the world. Her true personality were revealed to be that of a compulsive liar and manipulative sociopath who willingly use other people and devils as mere chess pawns to further her own goal while in addition, revealing herself to be a huge sadist as it was revealed that Makima had groomed him to have a happy life at first before crushing it all to pieces as she gaslights him for all the seemingly terrible things she had done so that she could sever the pact between Denji and Pochita.

In Chapter 84, it was then revealed that all of the atrocities that she committed was for her own agenda alongside the Japanese's Prime Minister to bring a better world towards humanity to flourish which clearly correlates with her earlier personality seemingly care towards humanity as she attempts to use the power of the Chainsaw Man in order to get rid all of the devil including the powerful ones that has plaguing the existence of humanity and was feared by them. It was also revealed that she also admires Chainsaw Man to the point it's borderline obsession for her, blatantly saying that she was a number one fan of him, due to its powers being able to make a devil ceased to exist as this was proven by several people forgetting tragedies or fears that the devil possesses such as Nazi, World War II, Nuclear Weapons, Four Fates besides death, stars that break children's minds and so on. Her obsession with Chainsaw Man was also shown in Chapter 87 as she become overjoyed on reuniting again with him after the big battle that she had during the past and attempt to settle the long fight that they had.

Makima is also shown to possess an omniscient level of memory as it was shown that she is aware of the tragedies and fears that happened in the past despite humanity forgot about it due to the powers of the Chainsaw Man that made the devils ceased to exists. In addition to all of this, she also possesses a rather calm, collected demeanor and a shrewd mind as if she failed to do something or losing against someone in the battle, Makima uses several backup plan as she attempted to win in the end as her calm and collected behavior was also shown during the battle in Chapter 87 until chapter 88 as while she knew fully well she will lose the battle against Chainsaw Man with the hybrids, Makima stays very calm as she uses her backup plan by shooting Chainsaw Man to the space when her plan to defeated him by using Hybrid Devils that she had brainwashed seemingly failed while fully aware that she could possibly lose the battle against Chainsaw Man.

However, at the same time, Makima's calm and collected demeanor led to her absolute apathy on winning and losing the battle as in the end, Makima also perceives some of her losses as an absolute win in the end especially when it comes to fighting the Chainsaw Man which she obsessed at. This was shown where she dismissed Kishibe warnings about if she lost the battle against the Chainsaw Man and will be eaten by him in which she still considered it as an absolute win because she intends to become part of the Chainsaw Man itself and still tries to harness his powers. Her calm and collected behavior was also shown during the battle in Chapter 87, seemingly apathetic if she doesn't win the battle against Chainsaw Man or not despite using hybrid devils on her own disposal to defeat Chainsaw Man, knowing full well that she will lose the battle. Makima also possesses a huge sadomasochistic tendencies during the fight against Chainsaw Man as during Chapter 88, she is seemingly possessing a rather elated face as Chainsaw Man tied her and the brainwashed hybrids before cutting them off, indicating that she had a lot of fun during her battle against Chainsaw Man.

In the end, it was then revealed that around Chapter 89, her calm and collected behavior during her battle alongside the hybrid devils against Chainsaw Man were paid off in the end because the gambits that she had pulled such as having him to fight against Aki was revealed to weaken Chainsaw Man itself as Makima is aware that Chainsaw Man was powered by the fear of devil so as a result, she uses the power of adoration of the humans across the world in order to weaken the Chainsaw Man himself so that she could have an easier time to attack him.

At the same time however, Makima also reveals her sociopathic tendencies in the similar chapter when she weakened Chainsaw Man: While she clearly loves humans, she perceive that kind of love as humans fondness with dogs as humans according to Makima are loyal, easily handled, clever and stupid as watching their movements is a rather fun thing to experience with Makima herself embracing the adoration and praises that the humanity had for her. As Makima easily attacks Chainsaw Man with the Spear of Longinus with the help of Angel which causes Chainsaw Man to be gravely wounded, instead of being happy, Makima felt disappointed possibly because of the Chainsaw Man wounding himself to protect Kobeni instead of being submissive towards her.

In addition to all of this, Makima also shows a rather condescending and elitist behavior, viewing Denji as nothing but an obstacle for her to meet Chainsaw Man and also viewing him as unworthy for the title due to his appearance and mannerisms alone. When Denji asks her if bad movies will exists in her utopian world, alluding to their date in the cinemas, Makima then answered his question by saying that she has no hesitations to remove all the bad movies from earth, reflecting her determination to bring a world where human race experience no suffering and misfortunes.

During the battle against Denji who now becomes Chainsaw Man in Chapter 94, it was heavily implied that despite she gains tons of advantage during the battle against him, she also possess a personal code during the battle as she prefers to battle one-on-one against Denji as she was rather bored after overpowering Chainsaw Man several times. As a result, Makima decides to revive Denji by giving him her blood in order to have a one last battle against her. Despite this, Makima still shows her petty grudge as she still holds a contempt against Denji after seeing Pochita chooses him more compared to her, even perceiving him as an unworthy person holding a title of Chainsaw Man because he didn't fill the criteria of what Chainsaw Man was according to her while also having no hesitations sending death threats towards him because he is in her way.

At the end of the day, it was then revealed that Makima herself only views Chainsaw Man as a possession that she was obsessed with while revealing that her seeming goal to make a better world is just a mere second objective for her as she contemplated to live with Chainsaw Man in a happy live together forever. Her trait on severely underestimating Denji as nothing but an obstacle comes bite her hard at the end as she was killed by the thing that she hated in the first place and was turned into a minced meat to be eaten Denji despite that he ate her to show love for her.

However, at the same time, after the final chapter of part. 1 hits, it was revealed that Makima is nothing but a tragic figure herself who still wants to create an utopian world in her own way by creating a world where she can be equal to others and also yearning a familial relationship that she never has despite building the relationship through fear and trying to create said world with a wrong method. This is due to the fact that she was never taught to feel love and empathy as she was raised to be a cold, ruthless and no-nonsense woman that leads the Public Safety Division in order to exterminate devils and bring a better world for humans which in turns shows her distaste with the members of the Government and the Bureau itself.

Her behavior through nurture was shown when she is reincarnated as Nayuta who is essentially the more docile and weaker version of Makima while keeping her innocence still intact as Kishibe tells Denji to not let her to be given by the government to be raised and her distaste towards the Bureau was also shown in Chapter 22 where she expresses a displeasure on meeting with the Kyoto Bigwigs as she wanted to enjoy her hobby in peace. Her wish to yearn something for a familial relationship was also shown during her date with Denji as she was shown crying after seeing a movie about two people hugging with each other.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: Makima possesses a great deal of physical strength allowing her to fight effectively in hand-to-hand combat without relying on any of her subordinates. Her strength was great enough to overwhelm Pochita and shatter his chainsaws with her physical strikes.

Enhanced Smell: According to Denji, Makima differentiates others through smell primarily. In their first encounter, she was able to detect through scent that Pochita still existed within Denji.

Supernatural Abilities
Control Devil Abilities: The extent of Makima's abilities are mostly unknown. She has shown variety of abilities which can be her default ability as a Control Devil or an ability of another devil she controls. The list of her shown abilities:


 * Makima has shown to control any being who she believes is inferior to her, even being able to force them into making contracts with her or another devil. It seems as though once placed under her control, the victim subsequently loses their memory. This ability works on humans, devils, fiends and hybrids. She can channel the power of her victims by summoning them through a chain connected to her body. It has been shown that she can use the abilities of Angel Devil, Future Devil, Snake Devil, Punishment Devil and Zombie Devil. Even deceased individuals can be controlled in this manner. Makima was able to form a squad of weapon hybrids, three of which (Reze, Quanxi, and Katana Man) were former enemies who now behaved affectionately towards her. This suggests Makima can control individuals outright as well as changing their personalities in subtle ways.


 * Makima has shown to cause her target to be crushed by an invisible force. In order to use this technique, Makima appears to require a higher place, the name of a target and a human sacrifice. Makima forms a symbol with her hands and instructs the sacrifice to utter the name of the target. The sacrifice then dies and the target subsequently is crushed, leaving only a splatter of blood behind and their clothes. While she is using this ability, the people around herself close their eyes with a black cloth.


 * Makima has shown to kill her targets if she looks at a person, seemingly being crushed from the inside. She has also shown to inflict damage to targets she points at with her index finger which is strong enough to kill Power in instant and send empowered Chainsaw Man to outer space. She has also shown to remove the heads of her targets in vicinity from a short-to-mid range by using a sword; similar to her crushing ability, the people around herself close their eyes with a black cloth. These abilities are similar to the Darkness Devil's and Gun Devil's, though it's unknown if Makima gained them.


 * Makima has shown to transmit her voice into in others by placing her hand on his or her head even if the person is dead. She uses this to command the devils that the person is currently contracted with.


 * Makima has been shown to control a large number of rats which allow her to travel around using them. These rats can then cluster together to form the shape of a human and thus allow for Makima to be transported to that location instantly.


 * Makima borrows the hearing of rats, birds, and other lower life forms to hear conversations remotely, seemingly anywhere on the planet and possibly extending into Hell itself. She was able to spy on Denji's and Reze's conversation and was listening in on Kishibe's conversation with Quanxi. This ability can be circumvented by communicating nonverbally such as writing on a piece of paper.

Contract Creation: As a devil, the Control Devil can bestow contracts upon humans for a price. Thanks to her ability to control humans, she can force them to make a contract with herself. The Control Devil has a contract with the Prime Minister of Japan in exchange of working for Japan.
 * As a result of her contract with the Prime Minister, any fatal damage inflicted to Makima is transferred into a appropriate illness or ailment effecting a to random citizen of Japan. She was shown to have been shot in the back of the head and seemingly killed, only to stand up later with no visible wounds. She stated that she was merely grazed by a bullet, however, this is unlikely given the placement of the gun when it was fired, as well as the location of the blood from the exit wound. Later, she has been killed by Gun Devil after it fires a gunshot through her head. It is confirmed that she has been killed twenty-six times up until the attack of Gun Devil.

Blood Consumption: As a devil, the Control Devil should be able to restore its health by consuming blood. She has shown to regenerate her arm that has been damaged by Darkness Devil, however it is unknown that whether this ability is derived from her regeneration ability or her contract with the Prime Minister.

Revival: As a devil, the Control Devil should revive in Hell after being killed effectively making it immortal. After she has been eaten by Denji, she has reincarnated in China as Nayuta.

Other Abilities
High Alcohol Tolerance: Makima has an exceedingly high tolerance for drinking alcohol; able to out-drink both Aki and Himeno without showing any signs of being debilitated by the vast quantities of drink.

Trivia

 * Makima's ranking in the Popularity Polls are as follows;
 * Makima ranked 2nd in the First Popularity Poll, with 27,224 votes.
 * Makima ranked 2nd in the Second Popularity Poll, with 76,733 votes.


 * Makima smokes "hi-fight"s, likely a reference to the Japanese tobacco brand "hi-lite."
 * Makima was the first character Fujimoto had a solid image of as she is a character in "Breath of The Stars", one of the serialised works in Fujimoto's head, out of many fantasy stories he imagined in Junior High.
 * Makima was partially based on "Benten", a character in "The Eccentric Family" that Fujimoto liked, for she is an unfathomable higher being, with her own sadness we lowly humans can't comprehend. Something Fujimoto wanted to convey in Makima.
 * Fujimoto has mentioned FLCL as a source of inspiration for the girls of Chainsaw Man and Makima is likely based on Haruko from FLCL who is a manipulative, unpredictable being.
 * According to Fujimoto, if you remove the -ki- from Ma-ki-ma's name, you're left with Mama. Which ties in with Denji, who has always been pursuing Maternal things since the death of his mother at a young age.
 * Makima's final battle at the end with Chainsaw Man was inspired by the Shinobu vs Araragi fight in the Kizumonogatri III movie according to a tweet by Fujimoto.