Episode 1

Dog & Chainsaw (犬とチェンソー) is the first episode of the Chainsaw Man anime series.

Synopsis
Denji is a teenager who lives his life as a Devil Hunter. Aiming to pay off the debt he inherited from his father, he starts hunting devils for the yakuza with his buddy Pochita, a "Chainsaw Devil", while living a tragically poor life. Just when things seem like they couldn't get any worse, Denji gets betrayed and killed by the yakuza. As Denji starts passing out, he hears someone calling from inside his head...

Summary
Denji dreams of being in a back alley, where he finds a door and reaches for it. He then wakes up and decides to go to work for the Yakuza. On his way, he calculates how much money he got from cutting trees and selling his kidney, right eye, and one of his testicles, however, he still owes a lot more money. Pochita barks and Denji realizes that there is a devil nearby, which excites him as he earns a good sum for a dead devil. He sees the Tomato Devil and using Pochita as a chainsaw, he manages to kill it. The old man that hired him explains that he will pay him 400,000 yen, more than Denji expects, but after taking various fees and interest, he gives Denji only 70,000 yen. After paying his bill and for other things he owns, Denji ends up with only 1,800 yen.

The old man's driver wonders why he would hire someone like Denji. The old man explains that Denji is paying them back what his father owned them. The real devil hunters won't give them the devil carcass and Denji is also doing what he is told. The driver offers 100 yen to Denji if he eats his cigarette and Denji gladly accepts. After they leave, Denji spits out the cigarette.

While eating bread at his place, Denji tells Pochita that he heard people put jam on it, but that's just a dream for them. He guesses he will die before he repays the debt and probably won't even get a girlfriend and recalls standing in front of his father's grave with the old man complaining that his father killed himself before paying his debt and tells Denji to gather 700,000 yen by tomorrow or he will chop him to pieces. As the old man leaves, Denji sees a devil with a chainsaw and as he feels dead already, he is fine being killed by it. However, he then sees the devil is bleeding and offers to bite him and drink his blood. As Pochita bites him, Denji states that Pochita needs to pay him back and help him as well. The next day, Denji kills the Marshmallow Devil and gives it to the old man, asking him to hire him as a devil hunter.

Being too hungry, Denji is unable to sleep. He tells Pochita that he dreams of having bread with jam, flirting with a girl, playing games with her and then falling asleep while they hug each other. Denji then coughs blood and tells Pochita that he heard his mother had a heart disease that made her cough blood. The old man then comes and picks Denji, as he found some devil hunting work for him.

The man takes him to an abandoned factory and they enter, but Denji is unable to see any devil. The man tells Denji that he is grateful to him as he is loyal as a dog and works for cheap, however he can't stand the dog stench. In that moment, a man with a sword stabs Denji and Pochita from behind. The man explains that even yakuza dream of getting bigger and make more money, so they made a deal with a devil. They wanted power, and the devil wanted dead devil hunters. Zombie Devil then reveals itself and states that the yakuza are dumb and for a bit of power, they chose to become his slaves as his power turns them into zombies. The Zombie Devil doesn't like devil hunters as they kill other devils, and orders his new zombie army to kill Denji. Heavily bleeding, Denji attempts to run, but the zombies catch up to him and start stabbing and chopping him to pieces.

Cut to pieces, Denji is thrown into a dumper with Pochita. Some of his blood reaches Pochita's mouth and Pochita awakens. Pochita recalls spending time with Denji cutting trees. Denji tells him that he might die while fighting a devil and one of his regrets would be that he would leave Pochita alone and starving, or that other devil hunters might kill him, and that he once heard that some devils can take over dead bodies, then tells Pochita to have his body if it’s something he can do, so Denji can live a normal life and die a normal death. In the dumpster, Pochita fuses with Denji, combining his chopped pieces and healing him. Denji awakens and wonders if Pochita took over his dead body. Pochita states he loved hearing Denji talk about his dreams. Pochita decides to give him his heart and in exchange, he wants Denji to show him his dreams.

Denji awakens healed in the dumpster, and sees Pochita's tail coming out of his chest. The Zombie Devil is surprised to see Denji alive and tells the zombies to eat him. Denji wonders if he is the same as the yakuza and wasn't satisfied with the happiness he had with Pochita, but kept dreaming for more. He thinks that in that case, he couldn’t blame them, but if they were in his way, they would die. Denji then pulls the cord from his chest as the zombies jump on him. Moments later, he bursts out from the zombie pile transformed, his arms and head having become chainsaws. After chopping some zombies, Denji jumps on the Zombie Devil and starts cutting him. The Zombie Devil manages to push him back and throw zombies at him to keep him away. Continuing to cut down the zombies, Denji jumps on the Zombie Devil and slices him in half. Seeing the remaining zombies, Denji notes they became devils, and they hired him to kill devils. He proceeds to cut them all, stating that once he does, he won't owe them any money.

Early in the morning, a car stops in front of the abandoned factory. Makima and two men then enter and see the bloodbath inside. She sees Denji and approaches him, stating he has a strange smell, neither human nor devil, guessing that he did all of this. Denji asks to be hugged and Makima hugs him. Denji returns to normal and Makima notes he is human and explains he isn't possessed. She also explains that she came to kill the Zombie Devil and that she is a devil hunter with Public Safety. She gives Denji two options, to get killed as a devil, or to be kept as a human. She states that if he decides to be kept by her, she promises to make sure he is fed. Denji asks what he would be given for breakfast if he agrees, the reply from Mariam being ‘bread with butter and jam, salad, coffee, and maybe some dessert’. Denji finds that awesome and agrees.

Characters

 * Denji
 * Pochita
 * Makima
 * Tomato Devil, (Death)
 * Debt Collector, (Death)
 * Marshmallow Devil, (Death)
 * Zombie Devil

Staff Illustrations
Épisode 1