Chainsaw Man is an anime that was released in October 2022 and with it a new vibe and main character that was hyped and long-awaited ever since the Manga began serialization back in 2020. Denji, no last name, is the main character that isn’t exactly cliché or even conventional by most Shonen standards. However, despite how out there he is, the audience seems to find a lot of relatability with Denji’s personality and goals.
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Small Beginnings, Big Dreams
Denji certainly started from humble, some might say unethical beginnings, but he doesn’t have any big dreams, because we see him in a state where he metaphorically and literally can’t afford to. He lives alone with his chainsaw dog, named Pochita, and is in massive debt to the Yakuza, which consistently takes away his earnings leaving him with nothing but scraps. Despite working to pay off his debt as a Devil Hunter, he doesn’t see Devil Hunting as a dream to aspire to let alone has any desire to be the ‘greatest Devil Hunter’.
We see him during the first episode having realized that he’d much rather pursue simple dreams in life since he never had a chance to do so. He’d much rather dream of having better meals other than a single piece of sliced bread. If he could, Denji would have put jam and honey on such a meal. Who couldn’t endear themselves to such a simple desire? The closest thing Denji has to a ‘great’ dream in the story, is after he meets Makima, who offers him everything he ever wanted in exchange for his service as a Devil Hunter.
Novelty, And A Fresh Personality
Despite the nature of Chainsaw Man as a bloody Shonen Manga and a recently ongoing anime on Crunchyroll; it shines in how it portrays and introduces us to Denji when compared to the other Shonen characters that came before.
Naruto starts with the titular protagonist, whose dream is to become the Hokage so that he can be accepted by the village that ostracizes him. Then there’s Asta from Black Clover, who lives in a world of magic; and yet he has no magic at all. This sets him up as another outlier, and yet through gaining a 5-leaf grimoire, he has a chance to become the Wizard King, which is his dream.
Typically, the main character starts off with a big dream and a big ambition that drives their actions forward in the story, and along the way, they typically go out in long adventures as a result. However, Chainsaw Man doesn’t tell its story in the same way despite being in the same genre. The main point is, that its character is just as chaotic as the show itself, bloodthirsty as the monsters he fights, and often times rude and thinking about his own desires.
Denji starts us off with the goal of just paying off a debt, and eventually to live his own life with comfort. It’s a strong start in making us understand why Denji is refreshing and such a novelty. Denji is just a simple teenager, whose psychology and personality are dictated by the experiences and brushes with death he has experienced before being introduced in the story. Oftentimes, he switches his priorities at the drop of a hat but is a go-getter when he sets his sights on something. However, Denji also has several traits that make him unconventional.
Denji can be easy to dupe, somewhat simple-minded, and desperate to achieve his goals at the cost of being your typical hero. He doesn’t act as a Devil Hunter to save people, but rather to keep and earn enough income to live a simple life. When Denji does do his job as a Devil Hunter, oftentimes as Chainsaw Man, he becomes manic, hyper-aggressive, and bloodthirsty to the point of enjoying the violence. More than that, his greatest dreams are appropriately juvenile, at one point going so far as to save a cat just so he could get a chance to touch a fellow Devil Hunter’s chest. However, there is a determined persistence and single-minded focus on his goals that makes it almost hard to hate him.
Denji’s a novelty among most Shonen, characters, fitting more of the anti-hero archetype than anything else. However, even so, he is an extremely relatable character for a genre that is targeted towards teenagers around the same age range as Denji. This provides a level of merit to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s writing as the author and Manga artist of Chainsaw Man.
That’s probably the closest to what Shonen audiences get from Denji as a character, which is what makes him such a novelty in this season of anime. Denji’s unique role in the story, as well as his unique, raunchy, if also juvenile personality comes off as endearing at the end of the day. Denji is certainly an unconventionally popular Shonen protagonist, but it certainly makes him stand out from all the other protagonists in the latest seasons. His effect on the story can be felt from the very start, and even more than that, the narrative wouldn’t be as chaotic, refreshing, and awe-inducing with its bloody action and mature themes; if we weren’t exploring this through the novelty of a Shonen character that is the titular Chainsaw Man.
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