Chainsaw Man #28 ("Secrets and Lies")

The final Chainsaw Chapter of this order. An appropriate title, given everything that's just happened. We've already had so many secrets revealed. The Gun Devil is still active, or at least there are a bunch of people who think it is! You can get around the one-devil-per-warlock rule through certain means! Denji-Pochita aren't the only symbiont! Makima is even scarier than she seemed!

As for lies, well. I'm starting to wonder if anything we were told about this world in the early issues is actually true.


Yakuza-kun and Sawatari still have a dismembered Denji at their mercy, though they might not be able to escape with him after the loses they just took. They're still making a noble effort of hefting his surprisingly-body-even-without-the-legs body into their van when out of an alley comes...Kobeni.

It took me a minute to be sure it was her. Both because of the whole "not being dead" thing, and because of her behavior and body language in these panels. But, no, that really is her. We rewind a bit to see that when she and Arai were getting ambushed, Arai spotted the shooter at the last second and threw his body in front of Kobeni's, shielding her from the bullets meant for both of them.

And, um. Apparently she killed their assailant(s?) with a knife.

She turns back into Kobeni right afterward, but still, she actually did that. Huh.

After taking a minute to self-recriminate about how useless and pathetic she is and why it isn't right that Arai would have laid down his life for her, Kobeni switched back from depressive to manic and went running toward the sound of chainsaws and gunshots from across the neighbourhood. Then, she closes the distance with the baddies, slices Yakuza-kun up badly enough to drop him to his knees, grabs a dropped gun, and holds off Sawatari well enough to force her to abandon Denji and drag the wounded humanmode Katanaman into the van with her and flee.

Kobeni was lucky that Yakuza-kun had used up so much blood fighting Denji and Sawatari had used up so many fingernails fighting Himeno. She'd have gone down quickly if not for either of those things. Still though, she moved like grease lightning and attacked like an experienced killer there. Slashed Yakuza-kun like she'd done it a million times before, and would have actually put a bullet in Sawatari if the gun she picked up hadn't happened to be empty.

She apologizes to the unconscious Denji (whose body, incidentally, she's just used as a bullet shield) for that time she wanted to feed him to the Eternity Devil. Hopefully this will make up for it, at least a little bit.

So, yeah. Kobeni's got some wild DI shit going on, or something. Might have to do with her devil contractor, or it might not. I don't think we ever heard which devil she's bound to or what powers it gives her, so maybe it's something like brief periods of benign possession or the like.

Guess that would make her an exception to the "warlocks only produce external manifestations of their devil's power" rule that I commented on last post, depending. Again, assuming that what we just saw was a devil power and not all her.

So, Kobeni to the rescue. I didn't think I'd never end up typing that sentence, but I didn't expect for it to play out like this. Arai, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure is dead for realsies.

Back in Kyoto, Makima juggles some status updates and then boards another train back to Tokyo. Her intel guy, a rare Metuka who was never even offered the chance to become meguka, hands in his resignation. Not because he thinks he dropped the ball here, but because, after the near-eradication of four full squads plus several support staff today, he's decided that this line of work is just too dangerous for him. Makima shrugs and bids him goodbye. Their final exchange before he leaves is...well, it's peak Makima.

Not what she says, so much, but what he says and what's implied by it. Maybe she knew this was coming and chose not to prevent it for reasons of her own. Maybe she didn't, and was legitimately caught unawares by Fireteam's careful planning. But, Metuka has worked with her long enough and seen enough from her to think it highly likely that she knew in advance and just didn't think the lives of over a dozen of her underlings worth acting to protect. Such a decision would be emminently believable for Makima, based on his familiarity with her.

I'm not sure how old this guy is exactly, but he appears to be at least in his mid-to-late twenties. I think that's around the age when you start learning how to see through Makima. Devil-Hunters might die young, but I don't think that's the only reason why Makima's department consists almost entirely of teenagers.

The remnants of Tokyo's Public Security apparatus is being reconciled into a single division, due to the sudden manpower shortage. Makima is now in charge of the entire thing. Maybe this is the outcome she was hoping for, maybe not.

The pair of Kyoto agents who she's been dragging around after her since arriving, Tendo and Kurose, are told to accompany Makima back to Tokyo and help her rebuild the newly-reconciled department. The brass told them they'd be going to help with recruitment and crash training, and to fill bureaucratic manpower gaps until they get new people to fill them. A reassignment that shouldn't extend more than a week or so. However, Makima seems to disagree.

Ever since they followed her up to the shrine, Makima has been acting like they're already her official underlings. We don't see her face here, but there's an air of resentment when she gives her response. A "how dare you," or perhaps more like "oh, is that what you think?" I have no doubt that *something* will happen to force their relocation into her domain to be extended. Or that she'll dangle something in front of them that compels them to do it proactively. Not because she particularly wants these two, I don't think, but rather because she's simply loathe to let anyone out of her power once they've been in it.

I don't know. I'm reading a lot out of a very small number of panels. But the focus here seems deliberate, and meaningful.


I'm starting to think it more likely that Makima and Gunny are allied now. Or at least, that their relationship is more of a mutually beneficial rivalry than genuine antagonism. And, looking at their methods and motifs, I can see how they'd naturally feed on each other. The Gun Devil who rules over crime and chaos, scaring people into the arms of...for want of a specific name, I'm just going to say she's the State Devil. The State Devil who crushes and presses down and scares people at the margins of society into the Gun Devil's sway.

Going back to my musing over whether devils are actually just kami seen through an excessively negative filter, and whether awe and worship can empower them as well as fear...Makima is building a little cult of worshippers for herself, isn't she? The ambiguity of what it means to "fear your god" applies pretty much exactly the same to a government through the lens of nationalism. Worship it. Love it. Be terrified out of your mind of it.

And, looking at her opposite number...the Gun Devil has been not-so-subtly associated with America in its exposition chapter. What are guns, in the American national zeitgeist? Gunny's Japanese agents use firearms, but they also now feature a katana guy, and they seem to be tied up with the yakuza. What functions have the yakuza played in Japan's national consciousness over the last couple of centuries? Again, there are elements of that masochistic merging of self-identification and fear, the backhanded admiration for "our monster" that one more naturally associates with theism.

I could easily be wrong. Both about devilish nature, and about Makima and Gunny's relationship. But, these are the thoughts that this stretch of comic has left me with.