When Denji is faced with a moral dilemma in Chainsaw Man Chapter 102, his ultimate choice subverts the one made in 2002's epic Spider-Man film.
The following contains spoilers for Chainsaw Man Chapter 102, "Save the Cat," by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Amanda Haley and Sabrina Heep, available now in English from Viz Media.
Chainsaw Man is a best-selling manga series that recently returned for Part 2 and stars an all-new cast of characters, including the noble female lead Asa Mitaka. Asa is unsure of her new role as a devil fighter and feels rather squeamish about the whole affair, but the legendary Chainsaw Man has no such hangups.
In Chapter 102, a massive skull-headed devil bursts onto the scene to wreak havoc. Like most devils, it recognized Denji as Chainsaw Man and even tries to exploit his heroic nature. However, this devil learns the hard way that Denji is no ordinary superhero as its Green Goblin-style hostage scenario soon goes sideways.
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Chapter 102 of Chainsaw Man finds Asa in dire straits. More devils are emerging but she cannot bring herself to kill other people to weaponize them, even when the war devil inside Asa urges her to. As she is only taking her first steps as a reluctant hero in a dark world haunted by devils, she is not the one who can save the day from these monsters. Asa still risks her life to save the innocent during the disaster though, and nearly loses her life until the world's most popular hero -- Chainsaw Man himself -- arrives out of nowhere.
The media and masses all hail Denji as a great superhero, their friendly neighborhood Chainsaw Man, but they chose the wrong person to put on a pedestal. Denji does save Asa's life from the devils but it's incidental; his real goal is simply to slaughter his enemies. The skull-headed devil hopes to manipulate the supposedly noble Chainsaw Man with a hostage situation, but Denji is actually an antihero. Just like the Green Goblin in 2002's Spider-Man movie, the devil takes two sets of hostages and tries to force Denji to choose between them, thus causing psychological damage from allowing the other hostage party to die.
Instead, Chainsaw Man recklessly breaks free of the situation by ignoring both sets of hostages entirely, thus robbing the skull-headed devil of its only tactical advantage. As the hostages fall to their deaths, Chainsaw Man simply attacks the devil to finish the fight, then goes after a Siamese cat that's about to suffer a fatal fall nearby. While all six human hostages perish, Denji holds the rescued cat in his arms, commenting how the foolish devil had not realized there were three parties who stood to be rescued. Devils don't seem to realize how much humans value housepets, and the skull-headed devil pays for its ignorance with its life.
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On the face of it, Chainsaw Man Chapter 102 is a bloody and darkly funny subversion of superhero tropes, such as villains taking hostages to take advantage of a hero's need to save every life they can. In 2002's Spider-Man, audiences were thrilled when Spider-Man faced a similar hostage situation, only to use sheer grit and ingenuity to have it both ways and save everyone after all.
Even in the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen, the hammer-wielding Nobara Kugisaki hesitated when a curse took a young boy hostage; the situation was only resolved when Yuji intervened and helped rescue the boy. Most of these stories find the heroes saving -- or attempting to save -- as many lives as possible, but Chainsaw Man sees fit to shred the rulebook, and to great effect. It makes Denji more amusing and less predictable than ever.
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However, Chainsaw Man does more than subvert superhero and shonen expectations. Chapter 102's events are also a touching tribute to Denji's fallen friend Power, a fiend who had loved her pet cat Meowy far more than any human, even Denji himself. Over time, he came to respect Power's point of view and likewise developed a cynical, even dismissive attitude toward humanity. Denji didn't totally give in to the dark side, but he values his own interests more than human society, especially since he's been such a reject for so long.
Antiheroes like Denji and Power find comfort and friendship wherever they can, including cats and dogs as they never judge people or express intolerance. With that in mind, it's little wonder that Denji sacrificed six human lives to win the battle and rescue the cat. Power would have been quite proud.
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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