Title: Chainsaw Man Vol. 21
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 193
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: June 2, 2026
The Story
We open with Denji and Asa trapped inside the Aging Devil’s world. There, Denji comes up with a plan and barfs up Yoshida. Obviously, seeing him isn’t exactly something that Asa wanted to see, but they discover that if they reach through Denji’s mouth, they can leave the Aging Devil’s world… but it’s not going to be that simple. So, they use this newfound information to their advantage to formulate a plan. Needless to say, it works, and they can escape the realm.
Here, they return to their “normal” lives, and while they do so, Asa takes Denji away to have a chat with him about the Death Devil. The plan is to turn Chainsaw Man into a mindless weapon that Asa controls to defeat the Death Devil, and while a deal is about to be made, Asa’s true personality comes out, and warns Denji that the War Devil is planning something more sinister than the extinction of humanity. She then begs Denji to kill her, but when he actually tries to, she chickens out.
We then skip forward a bit to a girl who transfers into a class at school in the middle of them preparing for their culture festival. She claims that she can save them all through death. This causes Denji to show up as a really gnarly-looking Chainsaw Man… one who is spouting really REALLY cheesy lines straight out of a poorly-written comic book. This devil reveals itself, but it’s a decoy! The true devil that shows up is…
Characters
It was nice to see actual Asa back instead of Yoru being in control, but it was a bit sad to see her so depressed and suicidal. Then again, Yoru has been having control over her body more and more, and as evident from this problem, she’s having a lot of fun going around and senselessly killing people. Since Asa can see all of that happening and being powerless to stop it, of course, it would take its toll on her. You could even see the pain and rejection on her face when Denji suggested that she should try to become friends with Yoru. That was when she asked Denji to kill her, too. Even still, what she desires isn’t death… otherwise, she wouldn’t have recoiled when he actually tried. You can’t help but feel bad for her, but at the same time, at least Yoru gave Denji some hope by admitting to him that Asa likes him.
Denji was a mixed bag in this volume. On the one hand, he looked very depressed and apathetic, but he turned right back into his normal perverted self after he had that little talk with Asa. He did show a moment of restraint when he tucked Asa/Yoru in rather than cop a feel of her chest, though. It’s almost the same dynamic that he had with Power at the beginning of the series. Although his character shift as Chainsaw Man near the end… saying those really cheesy lines… it left me wondering if that was actually Denji or another one of these pretender clones, but he was in his “true” Chainsaw Man form, so yeah… he was really being that cringy.
Yoshida being back was unexpected, but also expected given the random and unhinged nature of the series. It’s not so easy to forgive him, but he is willing to work towards War Devil’s plan of weaponizing Chainsaw Man against the Death Devil because even he knows that there is a bigger threat on the horizon that affects all of them. I wouldn’t call this a redemption arc for him… he’s just doing things out of necessity.
Final Thoughts
With the ending we received, things are heating up quite nicely, and with there only being four volumes left, it’s clear that the stage is set for the final battle. What happens remains to be seen because what Asa told Denji about Yoru tells me that the Death Devil isn’t truly going to be the final big bad here. The only way they end up being that way is if Asa/Yoru ends up dying during this battle, and given the history of this series, that’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. I mean, everyone who Denji felt some sort of romantic connection to has died, so history doesn’t exactly lead us to believe Asa/Yoru is going to have a bright future… but I could be wrong.
The battle ahead isn’t just going to be about the Death Devil, though. It was said that when the Death Devil descends, all of the top-ranking devils will come to greet them. If their power levels are anything like what they are being up to be, this could be one of the hardest battles Denji has ever faced, and it makes you wonder if he’s even capable of doing it. The fact that he almost semi-agreed to being turned into a weapon already foreshadows how they are going to win, but then again… Asa (as Yoru) did promise him the one thing he craves the most, should he beat the Death Devil without being turned into a weapon! That could give him just the right amount of motivation to pull through, and that would be the most Chainsaw Man thing ever if he were to do it.
We’ll see. The battle is about to start, so strap in!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
