Lightning strikes a lone tree next to a dilapidated church sitting precariously close to a seaside cliff. The windows, once stained glass, are now sealed by nailed plywood. Inside, a man kneels, eyes squeezed tight, afraid of what he may see. He has planned for this moment. The words he whispers are more ancient than he could guess—the figure stepping out of the shadows more dangerous than he could imagine.
A starved artist slinks out of a side door into the dark alley, desperate for her big break. “You’re good,” she’s been told a million times, “but not great.” From behind her, she hears a voice. “I think you’ve got something there, and with my help, you’ll be huge.” She’s handed a card, it looks official enough, but the corporate name sounds ominous, most likely something in Latin. “You’ve got talent, trust me!” The stranger continues, “everything you’ve dreamed of and more can be yours. All you need to do is make a deal.”
The deal with the Devil is a classic moral dilemma placed throughout folklore. Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga Chainsaw Man takes Faustian bargains, a classic horror element, and attempts to recontextualize it, applying the modern conception of “the deal” to this paradigm. As it classically plays out, the Faustian bargain is heavily rooted within a strong class system and a puritanical view of the cosmos. These deals often have desperate people trading significant hypothetical assets such as an eternal soul or the life of a future child for worldly assets like wealth, political power, or superhuman skill. The other parties to these deals are wholly malicious demons, every word dripping with malice. As a source of power not created and managed by established channels, they must represent “the other thing,” Evil.
Like most other folklore, these stories intend to teach the mores of a particular time and place. Tales of demonic deals are largely about accepting your lot and fearing that golden opportunity. One cannot underestimate the power of such concepts as access and knowledge in a society in which they are fundamentally not free. These deals seem to yield excellent short-term returns. The bargain itself is often followed by a period of extravagance where the human’s expectations for their gains are met or even exceeded. After some time, these joys feel hollow as the enormity of the upcoming price starts to weigh.
Bargains made with the Devils which populate Chainsaw Man, shake out differently from the classic concept of the deal. Within this universe, there are basically three different ways for a human to gain abilities, though making a deal with a Devil is the only way to remain human in the eyes of the public. Government employees of all levels, from disposable Public Safety Devil Hunters to the President of the United States, partake in these bargains, using supernatural power to fight for the safety and stability of their homes. High-status individuals like the President don’t shoulder the costs themselves, instead sacrificing a year of every American’s life in an assassination attempt on a neigh-immortal target. This attempt fails as the target can shift all damage to random Japanese citizens thanks to a deal with the Japanese Prime Minister.
Individuals deemed expendable, like the Public Safety Devil Hunters featured in Chainsaw Man, don’t have the luxury of pushing the cost onto others, they must pay with their own lives. For some Devils, the cost is blood. For others, it’s time. There are multiple cases of senses being removed in exchange for abilities. The Hunters presented to us are all broken in some way, new recruits are easily recognizable by their unmarred bodies and reasonable emotional reactions to the terrors they fight. Those in Tokyo Special Division 4 who ONLY have deals with Devils have by far the most of their humanity intact. This group contains several childlike yet vicious fiends, the result of a Devil inhabiting a corpse. The final type is the rare Devil-Human hybrid, resulting from a Human physically fusing with a Devil, the best example being the titular “Chainsaw Man” himself, Denji. At the head of this organization is the mysterious Makima, whose social magnetism guarantees the loyalties of Chainsaw Man’s main characters.
Watching over the far more uncommon hybrid is Aki Hayakawa. Initially introduced as Denji’s direct superior, his tragic tale sets the tone for the series. The only survivor of a Devil attack that wiped out his entire family, Aki’s every decision is motivated by his feelings of responsibility. These strong convictions lead him to make deals with three separate Devils during his tenure. His first two deals each exact lifeforce in one form or another— one taking time, the other inflicting physical damage with each use. To Aki, Devils are hateful beings and, regretfully, the only path to the power necessary to gain his revenge on and eventually watch over those he holds dear.
The main character Denji didn’t have any better of a shot at happiness than Aki. Denji inherited a fatal heart condition from his mother, and all his father left was insurmountable debt. He survived on the fringes of society, hunting Devils for pocket change instead of attending school. His pitiful life comes to an end when his creditors sacrifice him to the Cronenbergian Zombie Devil. Where Denji’s heart used to beat, now rests what remains of Pochita, the kind, dog-like Chainsaw Devil. As Denji’s only friend at the beginning of the series, this Devil provides him with both his life and his fierce devil abilities. This partnership and those abilities catch the eye of Makima, who recruits him to be part of her experimental Devil hunting unit.
The most significant deal Denji makes is not with Pochita. As part of his efforts to procure sexual favors from Makima, he makes a bargain with his boss; if he can kill the Gun Devil, the target of Aki’s revenge as well as that world’s equivalent of a global nuclear deterrent, she will grant him any one wish. His journey to meet these seemingly insurmountable expectations takes the reader through the recently completed part 1 of this manga. His motivations are predominantly sexual until he grows into more of a well-rounded person because of his growing number of human relationships.
The power and influence provided by Devils in this universe is treated like any other natural resource in the world. Its use is controlled by having a standing capture or kill order on all Devils. The costs are pushed onto the masses, whether it’s through the government’s Devil hunters or citizens paying the cost of their leaders deals. These bargains are the only true power in this world, and the governments have trapped all its users in a loop of hunting more Devils. Like with oil, gas, metals, or any other resource people are killed over, the people fighting are the ones who shoulder the burdens, never aware of what they are truly fighting for. The resource, in this case, is not found by drilling into the earth or farming fields; it’s human life and happiness.
TheChainsaw Man anime is set to release later this year, based on the popular manga. Check out the trailer below.
