Chainsaw Man #29-30: "Perfect Score" and "Bruised and Battered"

This review was commissioned by @Bernkastel


Last time on Chainsaw Man, in the wake of the Fireteam attack on the agency and Makima's horrifying counterattack against Fireteam, the few remaining official devil hunters in Tokyo have been reconciled into a remade Division Four under Makima, who seems to have gained more freedom of action and freedom from oversight in the process. It's been heavily hinted that while she may not have planned the attack, Makima was at the very least aware that it was coming and chose not to warn anyone in order to exploit the fallout.

Himeno is dead (well, probably. The ghost devil took her whole body, and I doubt she survived being taken, but there's still a lot about devils we don't know). Aki was badly wounded, lost his closest friend and mentor, and also sacrificed even more of his lifespan to use the Curse Spike for hardly any benefit. Arai and Kobeni also managed to survive, but the former is now quitting the agency (the latter, meanwhile, proved to be surprisingly badass when she's not having a panic attack). Fireteam lost a lot of mooks, but their heavy hitters both got away (Makima's complicity in this seems possible, but not probable). The Gun Devil, or whoever is really behind Fireteam, is still out there trying to get Denji's heart, and they've proven that they can learn from their failures.

In general, things are looking grim as we dive into issue 29 of Chainsaw Man.


"Perfect Score" starts out with a more detailed tally of the damage, especially from Aki's side of things. He mourns Himeno in his quietly traumatized way, smoking cigarettes in her honor. The significance of the smoking, from the beginning, was something she introduced him to with the justification that they're not going to live long enough for lung cancer to happen anyway. Himeno's own death sharpens the burn of these smokes. So, too, does a short conversation Aki has with the Curse Devil.

After this latest use of Curse Spike, he has a maximum of twenty-four months left to live. Even for a man who places no value on his own life except insofar as he can use it to kill Gunny, this is disheartening. Just two years to figure out how to kill the strongest monster in the world, on top of finding the damned thing in the first place.

The fact that this latest shortening of his remaining time was made to save Himeno, and that it didn't even work on account of Sawatari's resurrection hax, and that the archvillain behind the attack appears to have been the Gun Devil itself...well, "disheartening" is a massive understatement. For all that he's labored, all that he's sacrificed, he's only let Gunny take even more away from him - and from people that he loves - without inflicting any damage at all in return.

And, as the deadline approaches, he'll doubtless be thinking more and more about what he could have chosen to do with his life. What his parents and his little brother who he's doing all this for would have wanted for him (in a way that directly mirrors the terms of Denji's own pact with Pochita. Denji, who Aki has always looked down on for exactly the reason that he lives for simple pleasures). He's going to start having very serious doubts. And the days just tick down, and down, and down.

Well, after that line of thinking here are some circus clowns to cheer us up:

It's almost hard to remember that Aki isn't the main character and Denji isn't a whacky recurring side-character, at this point.

Aki does get to have a serious character moment following this, to be fair. After leaving the hospital room with a belly full of pillaged fruit, he looks back through a door-window and sees Aki permitting himself to cry now that he thinks no one is looking. This prompts Denji to wonder about something.

Denji wonders what it says about him, that he doesn't think he'd be anything more than "put out for a few days" by the death of any person that he knows. Was he always like this? Is this something that happened to him at some point? When Pochita replaced his physical heart, did it also remove his capacity for love and empathy?

I'm pretty sure that the answer to all of those questions is no. Denji showed a ton of empathy for Pochita both before and after the symbiosis. The fact that he hasn't spent much time with anyone else worth loving since then is down to circumstances. But without more context and life experience, and with Makima keeping him in a situation where he can only get a very skewed impression of what people and relationships are like, Denji has no way of knowing this. He's essentially trapped in a pond-sized illusion world and being kept from outgrowing it.

A mirror to Aki, creating a limited space for himself to occupy both in lifestyle and in time. Aki was more complicit in doing this to himself, but both of them were very young and had manipulative adults involved in pushing them.

But, once again, this is becoming a downer. Even Denji is sharp enough to point this out.

And, sure enough, he and Power run off to meet the goofiest, most post-ironic character in the entire comic so far, and that's not a description one can make lightly. Makima has brought in a devil-hunter legend to bring her newer, tighter Division Four up to snuff to deal with the enemies they're now facing, and he's amazing. When we're first introduced to him, we see this:

But then, after cryptically quizzing Power and Denji on their allegiances, snapping both their necks, and pouring a bottle of blood into each of their open mouths to heal them (wait, I thought Denji needed to be in chainsaw mode to do that?), he gives us this:

He's like if Van Helsing was written as the lead poisoned old coach from "Dodgeball." Only he also has superhuman strength for some reason.

Continuing a silly variation on the theme for these chapters, this 2000's shock comedy sketch come to life almost seems like he could be what Denji is at risk of eventually becoming unless he gets out of this life. Emotionally stunted and childish well into middle age while having his ability to care about anything but fighting and consumption erode even as his bitterness at not being able to ever have what most of the people around him have grows. I doubt it would be pleasing to Pochita riding in his chest.

As the issue ends and we move on to #30, "Bruised and Battered," he explains that he's going to be training them by killing them as many times as he can, whenever it occurs to him to do so. They need to avoid being killed. Of course, killing him back is - while not explicitly forbidden by him - clearly not an option for them. He can't be brought back with a blood drink the way that they can, and he's also a legal person who they'd go to jail for killing. In order to graduate from his training, they need to nonlethally outfight him, and for all their strength and toughness this guy is just too much for them. Well, if Denji went chainsaw mode maybe he could overpower him, but it's virtually impossible for Chainsawman to do nonlethal takedowns, so that isn't an option even if he won.

So, that puts Power and Denji in an unpleasant position.

It makes their lives so hellish that they strongly consider running away. And are only stopped by the realization that if they fled, Makima would probably just send this guy after them anyway.

Then, Power has the worst idea she's ever had. Her idea is for the two of them...to come up with ideas.

The guy is almost always drunk, and when he isn't drunk he's hungover, and he probably wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with even without the booze. So, by pooling their collective five brain cells and working them for long enough, maybe Denji and Power can come up with some strategies and ploys that will enable them to defeat their intellectually impaired opponent.

...yeah, no, sorry kiddos, you two are really better off just brute forcing it until you roll a nat 20 and he rolls a nat 1 in the same round. Your odds are better this way.

...

You know, I doubt Denji and Power would ever think of this, but were I in there place I'd start experimenting with some kind of safety brace for Chainsawman's hands. Some sort of rigid frame that's heavy enough to hit with some real force that can stand between the chainsaw blade and the target. That would enable Denji to use his alternate form's strength and endurance while dialling down the lethality.

He'd still need to be careful, but nonlethal takedowns in chainsaw mode would at least be theoretically possible now.

...

While this is going on, our last development for the chapter involves another pair of visitors to Aki's hospital room. Those two pencil-pushers who Makima strongarmed over from Kyoto are here, and their visit brings even more bad news for Aki to light. Since getting used recklessly to swallow an opponent Aki didn't know anything about and being grievously wounded as a consequence, the Fox Devil has terminated his contract with Aki. I'm not sure if that's an exit clause that the two of them had in their agreement to begin with, or if it's just something that can happen if one or both parties gets disillusioned while they're both square with each other, but regardless. Without Fox, and without enough lifespan left to make another use of the Curse Spike, Aki is magicless. Which means there's no place for him in the special division. Especially with the intensity and focus of the threats they're facing on the rise due to the Gun Devil and its agents.

Unless, of course, he were to sacrifice even more of the little he has left.

I don't think Aki actually wants to accept. I don't think he actually has any hope that something will come of it, as far as avenging his family is concerned. He's cultivated an image of himself as a doomed, oathbound warrior, and letting go of that image would mean surrendering his pride. And also no longer being able to look down on people who are willing to live for themselves.

...

It can be hard to remember that Aki is an asshole, now that we've seen in detail how and why he became the way he is. How the systems and people around him essentially groomed him into this when he was a grieving teenager and he never had a chance to resist. How little room for self-awareness his situation leaves him. How much adult socialization he never received.

But he is still an asshole. Describing what he is, regardless of the causes and underlying nuances, whether or not he's justified in being this way and how sympathetic of a character he is, Aki is in fact an asshole. Like Drunk Van Helsing, Aki represents a potential bad ending for Denji.

...

So, Aki agrees. And, once he's healthy and able-bodied again, is taken to a facility where the agency holds captive or cooperative devils who they think can be worked with.


It's mostly just new plot points being introduced this chapter, so theres not much more for me to say about them until they get some exploration and payoff. Nice ping-ponging between heavy broody stuff with Aki and slapstick goofiness with Power and Denji while still tackling the same themes, but I've already said that.

Next time, more Chainsawman.