Chainsaw Man Episode 12

Aki and the Ghost Devil

Chainsaw Man Episode 12 is the final episode of the anime’s first season. I don’t know if there’s been confirmation of a second season or movie yet. But, I’m sure there will be one at some point.

Anyway, at the start of Episode 12, Aki cuts down the Ghost Devil. This was a powerful scene for a number of reasons. Part of it had to do with Aki beginning to come to terms with Himeno’s death. And part of it had to do with Aki overcoming his fears.

There’s something I don’t quite understand, though. Aki explains that because the Ghost Devil doesn’t have eyes, it “sees” based on fear. This means if you don’t fear the Ghost Devil, it doesn’t know where you are and can’t attack you. And, the implication here was that Aki was able to defeat it because he overcame his fear.

However, it seemed to me like this isn’t how Aki was able to defeat the Ghost Devil. It looked a lot more like the Ghost Devil chose to let Aki kill it. And, if that’s the case, I’m not entirely sure why it chose to do that.

My understanding of this whole scene is that the Ghost Devil wanted to help Aki because of Himeno. It gave him the cigarette from her, which helped calm his nerves. And, even if it couldn’t see his fear, it should have been able to feel him literally walking on it.

So, if that’s all true, why did the Ghost Devil do this? You could argue it liked Himeno and so it wanted to help Aki. But, does that make sense? Shouldn’t a Devil not have an emotional attachment toward humans? I don’t feel like the Ghost Devil should be one of the friendly Devils.

Katana vs. Chainsaw

Denji finally beats the Katana Devil guy (Katana Man) in Episode 12. And, it’s in this episode that we finally learn the name of his Devil — the Katana Devil. Of course, people had left me comments saying that he’s the Katana Devil before this point.

I’d like to address those comments here. I understand that you knew what his Devil was because you read the manga. But, I don’t care. His Devil wasn’t stated until this episode. And in the OP, we saw him with other kinds of blades, not just Katana.

Even if I know things about a series, if they haven’t been revealed yet, I don’t spoil them. I see spoilers for the series I review all the time. It’s inevitable. So, you don’t need to comment spoilers to make yourself feel smarter. Odds are I already know and I’m not going to respond to you.

With that out of the way, Chainsaw Man vs. Katana Man didn’t interest me that much. It was a decent fight. But, it’s the whole Chainsaw Man vs. Katana Man thing that bored me. I’ve said it before, but No Guns Life did a lot of the same things before Chainsaw Man.

Because of that, I find Denji’s use of the Chainsaw Devil to be some of the most boring parts of the series. I’m way more interested in the other various Devil powers. And the more unique and niche the power is, the more I enjoy it.

The Chainsaw and Katana Devils don’t matter. Give me more stuff like the Ghost, Angel, Curse, and Makima’s Devil. I don’t even know what the Angel Devil does other than suck life force. But, he’s different and weird so I like him. Chainsaws and Katana? Boring.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

I was uneasy during most of the post-credits scene of this episode. While the credits were running, we got to see Denji, Aki, and Power having fun and living their lives together. So, I thought something was going to have to go wrong.

This is Chainsaw Man, after all. We can’t end the season without something terrible happening, right? At first, I thought something was going to happen to Aki. When he went out on the balcony to smoke, I thought, “this is where he dies.” That would have been a crazy end to the season.

And, I know you may be thinking that Aki wouldn’t die here because he’s one of the main characters. But, we already know the author of this series is fine with killing characters off. And we know Aki doesn’t have much longer to live.

Though, I will admit that if Aki “died” at the end of this episode, I wouldn’t expect it to be permanent. I’d expect it to be more like a close call and that we were led to believe he died until next season. But, that didn’t happen.

Then, we got to see Denji’s dream with Pochita behind a door in some alley. This scene is also in the OP, so it’s going to be important. My guess is that this door represents the Chainsaw Devil’s “true power” sealed inside Denji. You know, like how Naruto had Kurama’s “true power” sealed inside him in the form of a prison.

If Denji opens that door, maybe he won’t be able to control himself when in his Devil form.

And at the very end of the episode, we got a teaser for a new character, Reze. I know nothing about her other than that she exists.

Conclusion

What do you think of Chainsaw Man Episode 12? Do you think the Ghost Devil let Aki kill it because of Himeno? How do you feel about Katana Man being a clone of Chainsaw Man? And did you think something bad was going to happen at the end of the episode? Let me know in the comments.

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