Chainsaw Man #39-43 (part three)

The school break-in date is some of Fujimoto's strongest work thus far. So many layers of symbolism, so many layers of irony, so much tonal complexity. And it's just two teenagers being goofy in an empty building.

Starting with the painful irony of Denji trying to stay true to a woman who's really just a manipulative deceiver, against the temptations of another woman who's really just a manipulative deceiver, without having any idea what either of them are.

And the sad, almost eerie thing? When Reze pulls him into a classroom and starts making a silly, flirtatious game out of teaching him school stuff, it's heartwarming. You see it, and you want it to be innocent teenaged goofiness. You really want to believe that Reze is interested in Denji, and you find your mind trying to come up with excuses and justifications for how she could maybe, just maybe, somehow be genuine.

Or maybe he can read and write in Japanese, but not in English?​

The really sobering part? Understanding that that's just how you feel from reading this on a comic book page. With the prior knowledge of Reze's suspicious timing during past appearances, furtive expressions in panels where Denji isn't looking at her, etc. If you, or I, or almost anyone else was in Denji's place, we would fall for this. Especially if we were as lonely and put-upon as Denji is. We would want it to be real so much that we'd gloss over any misgivings or suspicious details. Denji isn't biting because he's stupid and gullible, this time. He's biting because he's human.

After getting him really invested in the bait, Reze starts deploying the moving parts of the trap. Commenting on his ignorance of things like basic literacy, and using that to juxtapose the life he lives now against the life that she's offering him.

Just look at this next page, where - after Denji is getting visibly stressed by the implications of what she's been saying - Reze escalates things by leading him to the school swimming pool for some skinny-dipping.

♫ I can take the suffering from you. ♫​

Just look at Reze in the first and last panels of that page. Especially how the coloration of her skin and hair works with the reflections on the water to create this idea of a shining, radiant veneer over a deep, black unknown.

And, somehow, after he does jump into the pool after her, the art builds on that illusion rather than giving it up. Denji's closer to Reze now, in the water next to her, but what he sees is totally different.

Look at the second to last panel. She's not a lure over a deep darkness anymore. She's like an open gate. A doorway out of what Denji knows, and into something much vaster and brighter (maaaybe its just supposed to be the distortion from the water's surface making it look this way, but...look at Reze's torso below the surface. Just look at it).

There's some really mystical imagery going on here. Which is, again, made tragically ironic by how insincere Reze's performance actually is.

Also, Fujimoto might not be great at showing action in comic format, but he's just ace at drawing almost anything besides that. Just look at the ripples on that pool, and how they interact with the lighting. Or the water running down Reze and Denji's hair. The fact that there isn't supposed to be too much motion going on in this scene really lets his background as a landscape artist shine through.

Before the conversation can go any further, another flash rainstorm drives the two of them back inside the building. And then persists, preventing them from calling it and heading home until it lets up.

...

There's a little aside here that seems out of place for now, but which I assume is thematic foreshadowing for something later in the comic. While they're rained in either at the school or at HQ, we cut between two conversations, one between Denji and Reze and another between Aki and Angel. Both coincidentally discussing what I assume is a Japanese mutation of one of Aesop's fables, because it's not the version I read growing up.

Within that framework, it's obvious who the city and country mice are between Aki and Angel, with Angel even extending the metaphor with the words "Makima captured me and dragged me to the city." Actually, it doesn't even extend the metaphor for the Angel Devil so much as literalize it, considering that he was first "born" (whatever that means for devils) in a rural area. Aki, meanwhile, was not only literally born in a big city, but also is actively planning on a short life full of great dangers and great accomplishments.

Meanwhile, Reze tries to get Denji to recognize the superior way of life of the country mouse. Seeming to not realize just how deprived he was before becoming a devil-hunter, or how little context he has for what a genuinely peaceful existence would even look like (once again, the country vs. city settings are literal for Denjo, only they don't mean the same things to him). It's the first time since her introduction that Reze's manipulations are actually flat-out failures, on account of gaps in her understanding of the mark. She does use what she learned from this, though; her next tac is to start planning her next date with Denji to be at an upcoming street festival with lots of good food and creature comforts.

Anyway, the whole city mouse and country mouse thing is framed as being pretty important, seeing as it interrupts the entire date sequence just to show Aki and Angel's side of it, so I figured I should talk about it. The reason it's important, I predict, will make itself known in the next five-odd chapters.

...

Anyway, we segue from #42 "Teach Me How to Swim" to #43 "Jane Fell Asleep In the Church" as, while still waiting out the storm with Denji, Reze eventually has to go to the bathroom. Plot twist: it turns out she isn't in league with the Typhoon Warlock.

He ambushes her by the bathroom and chases her out onto the rooftop, under the rain, where he and his weather-manipulating devil friend have the greatest advantage. A tactic that Reze counters by knocking the knife out of his hand, stunning him with a sudden leap onto his torso, and then choking him to death with her bare hands like she's done it a million times before.

He thought he was chasing her into a place where Typhoon could give him more help. She thought she was leading him somewhere where the noise wouldn't bother Denji. Turns out, she was the more correct of the two.

The Russian song she's singing to herself while killing the guy is apparently the titular "Jane Fell Asleep In Church." I was wondering what that chapter name could be referring to, heh.

We quickly learn why the Typhoon Devil didn't take a more active role in this fight. Turns out it's not quite a coincidence that these two both targeted Denji at the same time; they're not working together, but they come from the same information brokering network, and Reze and Typhoon have history.

I'm surprised by how generally submissive the Typhoon Devil seems to be, given how much global fear of hurricanes there is. He's much more deferential to Reze, but he was also surprisingly low-key and undemanding with the late Typhoon Warlock. I wonder if, perhaps, this devil is in a bound or weakened state, like the ones that the Japanese government has imprisoned for pact-making purposes, and Reze has more pull with his jailors than that other guy did? That would make sense.

Anyway, as for Reze herself...the story is treating her language as part of the big reveal, so I don't think her being Russian is coincidental. I'm thinking she's either part of a Russian crime syndicate, or a Soviet agent. Whether she's a human or a humanoid devil or something else, I couldn't yet say.

Likewise, it remains to be seen if she's trying to steal Denji himself from Japan's Public Security Directorate, or just the thing in his chest. I'm kinda leaning more toward the former, though. If she just wanted to rip Denji's heart out, she'd be trying to get him asleep, not trying to convince him to run away from his servitude to the Japanese government. Maybe that's just me being overly optimistic and being desperate to see some positive element in her interactions with Denji thus far. Though of course...even if she's trying to turn him rather than kill him, who knows if her organization would treat him any better than Makima's does. It's a question whose answer is most likely depressing.

For now, Typhoon obediently washes the body away and Reze heads back downstairs before Denji can miss her. She's sopping wet, but explaining that away to him probably isn't too hard. On the next page, they're already having their second date at that street festival.

I'm starting to have some questions about the timeline. Like, weren't they about to attack the Gun Devil? Maybe they're still working on triangulating its location with the casing-mass? I guess that might realistically take a while, depending on how far away it is.

After enjoying the food and games, the duo go up onto a nearby overlook to watch the scheduled fireworks display. Reze butters Denji up with some subtle reminders of how much fun they've been having, before shifting subjects to how much she objects to his situation as an unschooled, socially invisible slave to Public Security, and then finally takes the plunge.

This panel ends both the chapter, and the volume.


Quite a lot of moving pieces being set up. The imminent raid on the Gun Devil's ostensible lair. There being both a Typhoon Devil who causes rainstorms and a Shark Fiend who goes wild for rain operating in close proximity to each other. The Gun Devil potentially only being one of several entities who's after Pochita (it's possible that Typhoon is in cahoots with Gunny, but somehow I don't think so), with others perhaps waiting to take advantage on the upcoming battle. Aki's fated doom, Denji having to ask himself what it is he really wants out of life and what he should be willing to settle for. And, of course, everything to do with Reze and the implications of her representing foreign interests, whether national or otherwise.

The story seems like it's trying to set the Angel Devil up to be important too, but I couldn't guess why yet. I just hope we get Power back before the next major event happens, the comic really isn't the same without her.

"Chainsaw Man's" ability to be self-parodying juvenile action comedy, heartstring-tugging high stakes drama, and shonen puzzle-fight vehicle all at once, while only barely ever stepping on its own toes, is nothing short of mind boggling.

Also, I couldn't really fit it into the review, but I just had to share this little inner monologue of Denji's that he has while Reze is fighting the Typhoon warlock.

Apart from the nice reminder that Denji has a pretty legitimate grudge against Kobeni, I love him calling back to the "All About Power" interlude when he's listing everything wrong with her. Also, Denji being more turned off by the Angel Devil's alleged maleness than the fact that skin-to-skin contact with him is instant death is just so, so, so Denji lol.