Title: Chainsaw Man Vol. 7
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: October 5, 2021
The Story
Volume seven of Chainsaw Man took a bit of a surprising turn. With not that many volumes left in the manga, I thought that was going to go straight into the Gun Devil arc and start building to the final battle but… I was wrong!
Denji’s face got all over television and now he’s the most wanted person in the world. America, Germany, and China send assassins to Japan in order to kill Danji and/or take him back. The assassins include China’s Quanxi who has incredible speed and masterful skills with a sword, Santa Claus from Germany who turns anyone he touches into dolls (who also turn humans into dolls upon touching them), Tolka and his partner from Russia who can kill people by stabbing them with a nail four times, and three brothers from America who all believe that they are invincible who also have a contract with the skin devil so they can take on the appearance of anyone they kill.
Everyone is converging on Japan at the same time so, naturally, there is going to be a point where Denji gets cornered and all hell will break loose. Anticipating this, Makima postpones a planned PTO holiday trip to Enoshima and hires some top protection for Denji. While Denji and Power are eager to join the battle and kill all of his assassins, things reach that boiling point where Santa Claus and Quanxi end up attacking at the same time. With their minions following their commands, the whole city turns into a battleground!
The volume concludes in the middle of this battle!
Characters
Oof. We were introduced to an entire manga series worth of new characters in this volume.
Quanxi is one of the assassins from China who likes to have lesbian sex with female fiends that she keeps as slaves. Yes… you read that opening sentence correctly. Do not take her lustful nature for granted… with her speed and sword skills, she was able to singlehandedly wipe out a massive portion of Santa Claus’ doll army and significantly reduce the number of special agents before making her way to Denji’s location! She is, without a doubt, the strongest assassin of those that were introduced… there is; however, one interesting aspect about her. When she runs into Kishibe, she would much rather sit down and have a discussion than fight which speaks to Kishibe’s true power level! However, Kishibe has something rather interesting to say to Quanxi and I’ll just leave it at that.
Next up is Santa Claus. The compensation for taking on this mission is four good-looking children. Three to fulfill his contract and one for pleasure… gender doesn’t matter. Yes… you read that opening sentence correctly. Santa doesn’t really have much emotion to him, though. He’s rather calm and collected throughout this whole ordeal which also boasts confidence. He reminds me a bit of Pain from Naruto in the sense that all of his puppets are controlled with him nearby which could be seen as his weakness. However, his power to turn anyone he touches into a puppet and anyone his puppets touch into a puppet is pretty powerful but it makes you wonder what he, himself, can do if he were backed into a corner and forced to fight!
Next up is Tolka and his partner who I don’t recall ever gets a name but we quickly learn the name of her partner since she opens up every sentence to him with “Tolka… do you…” Her power is to prick a person with a nail four times and then that person will die… but at a cost to her. While passing through a restaurant, she pokes Denji three times unexpectedly and then tells Tolka that she is leaving the last one up to him… and then we don’t hear from these two for the rest of the volume. I have a feeling that once all the dust settles from the other assassins, Tolka will show up for the final poke.
Next are the brothers who are contracted to the skin devil. They feel that they are immortal after all of the stuff they’ve been through in life including their house burning down, food poisoning, and other pleasantries. They end up setting a trap for some of the investigators and kill them. One of them takes an identity (not spoiling who); however, Power sees through the disguise and kills him, bringing the brothers numbers down to two. They kind of fall back after that and we don’t see much of them for the rest of the volume.
Final Thoughts
Okay… so this volume took an unexpected turn and now we are in the middle of all-out warfare to try and protect Denji from the rest of the world. One of the interesting tidbits talks about how it’s futile to kill devils because when they die in the real world, they get reincarnated in hell but when they die in hell, they get reincarnated in the real world again. Much like how a human doesn’t remember being inside of the womb, a devil doesn’t remember much once they die; however, they all remember one thing before they die in hell… the sound of a chainsaw starting up! This doesn’t really make you question anything about Denji but rather Pochita… the devil that he fused with. This also provides a huge clue as to why Denji’s heart is wanted. Everyone wants Pochita.
It was just a short conversation in the volume but it had a profound impact on everything. One simple line made sense of 6 volumes worth of content!
Now… I’ve been wrong about my prediction before but here goes! With only four volumes left to go, I’m guessing we will wrap up this assassin mini-arc next volume and THEN head into the Gun Devil story! Right? RIGHT!?
In before Volume 9 is completely dedicated to a beach episode in Enoshima…
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
