Denji

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

Denji (デンジ) is the titular main protagonist of the Chainsaw Man manga and anime 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.

Following Makima's death by his own hands, he resigned from his position as a Devil Hunter but continues to fight as Chainsaw Man under the public eye, all the while being enrolled in Fourth East High School as a student. He is also the caretaker and adoptive brother of Makima's reincarnation, Nayuta.

Denji shares the protagonist role with Asa Mitaka in the Academy Saga as the main male protagonist.

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 sternum and he regains his lost organs along with having a muscular build.

He spent much of his time wearing the standard Public Safety Devil Hunter uniform, consisting of a white shirt, tie, and slacks. He wore the uniform carelessly, his shirt wrinkled and sleeves rolled up.

After resigning from as a Public Safety Devil Hunter, Denji now wears Fourth East High School's uniform, a black buttoned long-sleeved shirt (which he mainly wears unbuttoned) and black pants.

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, he is able to retract and extract any of them at will. 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 losing his will to live and surrendering himself to Makima, Pochita takes control over Denji's body and reveals the true Chainsaw Devil, completely losing his human consciousness and letting Pochita 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 Blades.

Personality
Denji is both brash and naïve 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. Many of Denji's said basic needs were fueled by sexual desire, going so far as to accept dangerous missions in exchange for some form of sexual gratification. One such case was feeling up Power in exchange for rescuing her cat, however he later realized and laments that the satisfaction from such intimate acts 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. He also displays a twisted and sarcastic sense of humor. The first he transformed into his hybrid form he found amusing that he could pay off his debt by killing all the Yakuza members who were turned into zombies dur to the power of the Zombie Devil. While facing the Eternity Devil he says that "its blood tastes like rat but drinking it while watching a son of a bitch suffering and feeling terrified makes it taste as delicious as a strawberry jam", and considering himself a genius for creating a "perpetual motion machine" worthy enough of a Nobel Prize.

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.

Near the end of the first part, as well as at the start of the second part, Denji starts growing more ambitious and lavish in his desires; whilst before he was happy with simply being able to eat jam on toast and feeling a girl's chest, now he desires to have steak for breakfast every day and to have numerous, lustful girlfriends. It's also shown he has grown more arrogant in his demon slaying, as he is willing to expose his identity if it means he'd get more attention from girls, despite how disastrous the consequences would be.

As such, Denji's personality has remained relatively stagnant in the second half compared to his old self, coming across as more desperate and openly leaving clues to point to him being the Chainsaw Man, such as leaving his school I.D. at the scene of his fight with the Cockroach Devil, or directly telling Asa Mitaka that he is the Chainsaw Man (to which she thinks he is bluffing). In addition, Denji has grown desperate for money and is willing to let others buy him as a "chair" for a few yen just for some cash, though he also seems to enjoy it far more when a woman uses him as a chair instead of a man. Denji is also willing to sell used cigarettes to the homeless, passing them off as new, in order to get money.

However, Denji has notably matured following the disastrous consequences of letting Makima groom, abuse, and control him in their relationship, becoming more independent and standing up for himself without allowing others to dictate his behavior. This development is reinforced during Denji's date with Asa, when Denji becomes flustered and angry at Asa when she told him he didn't need to think about a thing, likely reminding him of his relationship with Makima. He walked off to follow his own desire to see penguins even if it meant ditching her in the middle of the date.

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.

Reze
Much like with Makima, Denji had an asymmetrical relationship with Reze. While Denji becomes quickly infatuated with her, Reze was only manipulating him and saw him as nothing more than a tool. In order to kill him and steal his heart, Reze orchestrated a plan to make Denji fall for her, pretending to have a crush on him teaching Denji how to swim and giving him the experience of going to school. Even after knowing that she deceived and attempted to kill him, Denji still dreamed of escaping and starting a new life with Reze, thus he refused to kill her. He is later seen waiting for her in the cafe she used to work as a cover.

Asa Mitaka / Yoru
Asa and Denji share a strong bond, though neither fully knows it yet. Yoru, the War Devil who has taken Asa's body as a fiend, is extremely desperate to kill the Chainsaw Man in order to ignite the seeds of war in the world again, and shows an aggressive and deep loathing of him. Asa, while once holding strong negative feelings to the Chainsaw Man believing him to be a fraud and lumping him with the devil that killed her family, has become more neutral to him. After Hirofumi Yoshida introduced Asa to Denji, they immediately have conflicting attitudes and when Denji reveals himself to be the Chainsaw Man, she disbelieves him and calls him a loser. Later, she asks him on a date, which he reluctantly accepts. However, due to Asa's lack of dating experience and social skills with boys, he quickly becomes bored by her endless ocean facts and leaves her to go look at penguins.

Their relationship begins to soften after days of being trapped in the aquarium by Fami. Denji finds Asa sitting alone and asks how she is doing, to which she apologizes to him for the situation they are in and blames herself for asking him on a date in the first place. Denji tries to cheer her up by by smiling and finding her something to eat, then asks if she's ever had starfish before, which also implies that he was paying attention to her during her previous exposition on sea life.

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 and surrogate older brother. 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 by his hands.

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 “ fondle her chest “, as a means to apologize. Despite a rough start, their shared stupidity, apathy and hedonistic tendencies allow the two quickly grow close, often playing games and arguing at times others would 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. 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.

Beam
They first met after being partnered up by Makima, thought he offered himself as a volunteer due to being a big fan of Chainsaw Man. They don't have much interaction between each other, but they seem to get along well. Denji allows Beam to follow him with the only condition of not being seen by people. Beam is very protective towards Denji and he will put his life in the line to save Denji. He followed Denji when he was having a "date" with Reze and quickly jumped to save him from the Bomb Devil and took him to the Public Safety's headquarter. While being chased by Bomb Devil and the Typhoon Devil, Denji and Beam worked together as a team in order to defeat those devils.

Hirofumi Yoshida
Denji is aloof to Yoshida and views him as a nuisance. He forgot about Yoshida's involvement in protecting him from international assassins. When Yoshida attempted to make Denji listen to him by taking away his utensils, Denji ate his food with his bare hands, dismissing Yoshida. Yoshida finds Denji perplexing but is forced to protect him under the goals of an unknown organization. Since Yoshida knows Denji's secret identity as Chainsaw Man, Denji is more open with him than with others, openly stating his goal to "leak" his own identity to get women to fall for him, which confounds the latter. Denji let Yoshida sit on him, but only because he was being paid, and found a guy sitting on him to be uncomfortable. Yoshida also helped Denji find a girlfriend by introducing him to Asa, but not because he actually cared about Denji in any way, only for his mission to the organization.

Physical Prowess

 * Enhanced Human Condition: While Denji usually goes into his hybrid form when fighting, he was already very strong before even fusing with the Chainsaw Devil. In his human form, Denji is durable enough to survive being hit by Power with a hammer and getting squeezed by the Bat Devil, despite both individuals possessing immense strength. He is also very strong, being capable of decapitating a fiend with just one swing from his Axe.
 * Enhanced Endurance: Due to his rough childhood, Denji has developed a high tolerance for pain and stress, being able to still function as a devil hunter for the Yakuza despite having multiple of his organs missing at the time. His mental fortitude has allowed him to fight for three days straight while constantly being injured and remain conscious even after having multiple parts of his body cut or blown off.

Hybrid Powers

 * 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 of it in his body, he can not fully transform and will instead enter a pseudo-hybrid form. While Denji still has access to some of his powers in this form, they are considerably weaker and his chainsaws are shorter. If Denji runs out of blood, while already being fully-transformed, his chainsaws will automatically retract themselves.
 * Augmented Strength: After entering his hybrid form, Denji's physical strength is increased exponentially. He can break walls and kill most devil's with just one punch. On one occasion, he was able to catch a thrown car out of the air without staggering and then throw it back with an equal amount of force and on another occasion he was capable of lifting a car and then throwing it with enough force to make it explode.
 * Augmented Durability: While in his hybrid form, Denji's physical durability is increased to inhuman levels. He can fall from great attitudes and punch Devils through walls, without receiving any injuries. He also has survived a point-blank blast from the Bat Devil that destroyed a building behind him, multiple explosions from the Bomb Hybrid, being on fire for extended periods of time and being near the Typhoon Devil's tornado, which has been shown to be strong enough to lift cars. His head and chainsaws are far more durable then the rest of his body, due to being made of metal, being capable of deflecting bullets.
 * Augmented Stamina: Denji was capable of fighting the Eternity Devil for approximately three days. As long as Denji continues to drink blood to recover from his injuries, he is essentially a perpetual motion machine.
 * Chainsaw Manifestation: As part of his transformation Denji grows fully-functional chainsaws from his arms, legs, feet and head. These chainsaws are extremely effective at cutting devil's flesh, allowing Denji to sever limbs and bifurcate his enemies. They are also very effective at cutting other materials, such as stone and concrete, however they have shown to be incapable of cutting through metal. The chainsaws in his legs and feet are not usually active, however Denji can employ them just by willing it. Just like the rest of his body, these chainsaws are regenerated every time Denji pulls his cord and fully transforms.
 * Chainsaw Retraction: If he needs the full use of his arms and legs to do certain tasks while in his hybrid form, Denji's chainsaws can be retracted into his body, allowing him to perform mundane actions such as grabbing objects. While Denji can willingly retract his chainsaws, they can also be retracted automatically based on his instincts alone.
 * Chainsaw Wallcrawling: Denji is able to manifest short chainsaws under his feet, which he can use to stick onto walls and even walk on them. He used this ability once, in order to run away from a group of dolls that were created by Santa.
 * Chain Entanglement: Denji is able to disconnect his chains from his chainsaws to use them in combat. He can wrap his chains around his opponent's body and then pull them closer to him. Denji can also wrap his chains around objects to cut them, throw them or do both. 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. The chains can also be used as grapple hooks, allowing Denji to wrap them around a target and then pull his body closer to said target.
 * 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.
 * Nigh-Immortality: Due to being a hybrid, Denji is immortal and nearly unkillable. He can survive getting shot, being thrown from buildings and take all kinds of injuries that would kill most devils. Even if he dies, as long as someone pulls the cord on his chest, Denji can come back to life in perfect condition. Even after being decapitated, being cursed by the Curse Devil and having most of his body blown up, Denji still managed to come back to life with no lasting damage.

Devil Contracts

 * Chainsaw Devil Contract: In exchange for living a "normal life", Pochita 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.
 * Strategic Intelligence: Despite never receiving a proper education, Denji is very perceptive when it comes to ascertaining his enemies' weaknesses and how to exploit them. He managed to incapacitate Reze by using her weakness against water and defeat Santa Claus by abusing her weakness towards fire and light. He also managed to defeat the Katana Man by applying what he learned from Kishibe and deceived him by falsely claiming that he only had left the chainsaw of his head, when he also had one in his leg.
 * Swimming: After meeting Reze, Denji learned how to swim. He managed to use this skill to his advantage during his fight against her.

Weaknesses

 * Anemia/Low Blood Amount: Despite being turned into a devil hybrid, Denji will suffer from anemia when he was fatally injured by either a shallow cut or a heavy blow, which weakens his transformation into Chainsaw Man. To counteract this, Denji must consume many amounts of devil blood to refill his strength.

Etymology
Denji's name is likely an allusion to Kudou Denji, the protagonist of the manga Abara, which Fujimoto has cited as an inspiration for Chainsaw Man.

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.
 * Before becoming a hybrid, Denji suffered from a heart disease which he inherited from his mother. The disease caused him to vomit blood regularly and even managed to kill his mother. The disease is very likely mitral stenosis.
 * He is similar to the main character, Akira, of the series Devilman. Both are devil and human hybrids who became "superheroes" that take on the moniker of -Man relating to the demon they fused with and the titles of their respective series. They both have their own Devil forms they switch between as as a result of their fusions. Denji's dynamic with Makima was also similar to how the demon Silene/Sirene lured Akira but only because she wanted the demon she either admired or was in love with (depending on the version) that he fused with, Amon, and wanted to kill Akira. Only difference is Makima is more of a major character and has a more major impact on Denji.
 * Some translations use the term Devilman/Devilmen for fiends, which is often seen as hinting at obvious inspirations for the series itself. Later on in the story Denji gets called a "devil-human" by a news reporter in Chapter 103.

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