Denji is the pleasure-seeking antihero of Chainsaw Man, and a wild personality like his can only be described with the most colorful MBTI type.
The following contains minor spoilers from the Chainsaw Man manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Amanda Haley and Sabrina Deep, now available in English through Viz Media.
Chainsaw Man is a best-selling shonen manga penned by author Tatsuki Fujimoto, a bloody and chaotic story starring the goofy antihero known only as Denji. Poor Denji grew up in misery and obscurity where he can't realize even his most humble aspirations, such as meeting girls or having good food to eat. Now his life is forever changed as the world's one and only Chainsaw Man.
Denji may be a powerful devil hunter as a half-devil himself -- even loaded with chainsaws and sharp teeth -- but he is more than a dog of war on Makima's leash. Denji is his own person whose practical, grounded personality can be neatly described with his unique MBTI personality type.
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Denji's carefree, reckless behavior and his grounded, practical mindset in Chainsaw Man mark him as an ESTP, or the Entrepreneur. This code stands for Extroverted Observant Thinking Perceiving, which all combine into a brave and creative personality type that loves taking bold risks. This personality type has much overlap with its cousin, the ESFP Entertainer, with both living in the moment and appreciating the joys of the real, tangible world around them without worrying too much about future possibilities.
The difference is that an ESTP Entrepreneur is more critical of what they see, improvising plans for a new project or leading a team of friends on a joint adventure. The Thinking trait makes an Entrepreneur a more project-oriented version of the Entertainer, someone who knows what they want and how to think up a cool plan to get it. Entertainers and Entrepreneurs both go with the flow, but ESTPs like Denji sometimes improvise to redirect that flow and accomplish something exciting.
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There are many positive aspects to the ESTP personality type, starting with sheer passion and enthusiasm for projects in everyday life. An Entrepreneur will never hesitate to launch a new project and make it up as they go, eagerly diving in to see what they can discover. This enthusiasm can help maintain forward momentum and keep them going until a project is finished, even if they suffer setbacks along the way. ESTPs are also highly practical, closely observing the world around them and making clever use of everything they find by combining their Observant and Thinking traits. Entrepreneurs also have solid social skills and great charisma with their Extroverted and Perceiving traits, and might make decent leaders for a team of like-minded people.
ESTPs have their weaknesses as well. Despite being so sociable, Entrepreneurs can be shockingly blunt and insensitive, accidentally upsetting or antagonizing others while pursuing their newest project, which can lead to problems. For that matter, ESTPs may have trouble expressing their own deep-seated emotions. They can also be a hassle with their independent mindset, making them poor team players if led by a more rigid type such as the ESTJ Executive. ESTPs might take on too many risks if they're bored and end up making a huge mess that they cannot easily clean up.
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As Chainsaw Man manga fans already know -- and anime fans will find out this October -- Denji is a boorish, headstrong boy with a blunt and selfish personality. This is what marks him not only as a self-absorbed, overly excited ESTP, but also as an antihero. Denji is crude and insensitive to others not out of malice, but because he lived alone in poverty and had no real education, meaning he adopted a practical, hands-on mindset to compensate.
That's the ESTP way, but unfortunately Denji has weak charisma as an ignorant, crude boy who has no social graces or modesty. He is the type to openly admit that touching a girl's chest is his greatest ambition, and is quick to fuss at other characters such as Power for not doing things his way. Denji is true to his own base feelings and desires, which makes him stable and predictable -- but it also makes him a real headache for most other devil hunters.
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On the plus side, Denji's ESTP personality means he can quickly figure out how other devils function and improvise creative, resourceful and often risky methods to fight them, which usually yields good results. Denji even admits that strategic planning and abstract theories are a weakness of his and rarely plans ahead. Instead he makes it up as he goes, Entrepreneur style, and his observant eyes miss nothing.
Every devil fight in Chainsaw Man is a project for Denji, and he'll use any resource necessary to complete it. A notable example was when he recklessly set himself on fire to negate Santa Claus' own darkness-based powers, a brilliant if daring move that a more methodical, theory-oriented character never would have attempted. All this pairs well with his natural boldness and passionate enthusiasm as a true ESTP. Work and play are one and the same for Denji, and he can't get enough of it.
Louis Kemner has been a fan of Japanese animation since 1997, when he discovered Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z in elementary school. Now he's a bigger anime/manga fan than ever, and is ready to share what he knows with readers worldwide. He graduated high school in 2009 and received his Bachelor's in creative writing from UMKC in 2013, then put his skills to work in 2019 with CBR.com. He's always looking for a wonderful new anime to watch or manga series to read.
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