Chainsaw Man Chapter 97 Discussion

Info-Chan said:
I absolutely hate reincarnation endings with a burning passion. Always have. No exception in this case. It's such an unrealistic and unbelievable resolution to a character. You talk about lazy... Rather than trying to redeem someone, you just kill them off and replace them with a different version of the person? That isn't redemption, rather it's dodging any attempt to do so. No one can relate to that. It's just make believe. And, I'm not saying that from a perspective of narrative realism, since obviously nothing in anime/manga is really meant to be fully realistic, but the actual meat of the matter (intended) is lost with this type of resolution.

Speaking of narrative though, the explanation, or lack thereof also wasn't satisfying at all. It's essentially just an admission that the author wrote themselves into a corner to the point of needing to just force what he wanted through vague unknowns. Obviously, the author could of went any way to go about the ending, but ugh, do I not enjoy it. I'm sure I'm not the only one. But, it's not like there was any way the author could please everyone, which should go without saying, honestly. So, don't take my discontent with the ending as some sort of call to arms or something absurd like that.

With that said, for my own personal hope, my desire was for a resolution to be thought of that could defeat Makima's fault in perspective, an ideological or perspective victory. Something like that would have been needed to lead to a resolution via (actual) redemption. I can only imagine the author either couldn't come up with that or that he just doesn't believe Makima was redeemable or that he just wanted a new character to work with or something else. Regardless, I'm not a fan of that type of resolution.

Although, I was much more bothered by it in But, regardless, it still comes off as the author giving up on a character I would of really liked to see actually redeemed rather than this fake reincarnation resolution BS. It just comes off as dodging the actual bullet of resolving her fault/struggle, something that takes truly hard work and heart, and just replacing them with an imitation. Which, yeah, the new character is her own person, and I'm sure she will be interesting and all, but that isn't a 1 to 1 exchange. Characters don't work like that, nor do people for that matter, but I digress.

For all intents and purposes, the actual Makima is dead, and we are forced to deal with someone new taking her place, and are expected to love her for it, or something, I presume. But, no, she will never replace Makima, and I will never endorse this kind of resolution. I will instead see this character as her own thing, and judge her completely by what she shows going forward. So, if she just ends up as someone with vague connections to Makima as her big character draw, that would just be pathetic to me. Another annoying thing is Denji thinking he became one with Makima or some BS; ugh, just accept that you killed the person you loved instead of lying to yourself. This self deception cope is so irritating to me, especially combined with this new character. It just is the tools given to Denji to not fully accept the reality of his own actions. He literally is lying to himself to deal with offing someone he loved, which to me, is messed up, even if you (the reader) didn't personally like Makima at all, it's a dumb immature way to deal with the acceptance of your (Denji's) actions.

While I said before I'm sure many aren't going to be happy with this ending, I'm also sure many will be happy with this ending too, and that's fine. It's a matter of perspective and focus which is true for just about all things with us humans. But, that of course goes all ways, and so I too will be open and honest of where I stand with this type of story resolution. As I said at the start, never could get on board with reincarnation resolutions. If it turns out I'm wrong and "Makima" ends up being this character all along through some other vague reasoning, and that this is actually an engine to resolve Makima's perspective fault through, and that the justification is that Denji, at this point in time, just isn't mentally equipped to do that, then, okay, I'll eat my words then and there. But, I'm like, 99.99% sure that it's more akin to what I was complaining about.

I still enjoyed the series overall, even though I hated the ending. Going forward, I'm just going to have a distinct bitterness in the back of my throat seeing this new character going forward, as it will remind me of the dumb reincarnation ending the author chose to go with. Oh, and, um, Power fans, looks like your hopes of Power coming back are now burned away forever. Expect another cheap imitation like Nayuta if anything. For those of you who will not self deceive themselves, well, we can suffer together and be better for it. Was fun following things with you all. Have a heart warming Christmas if you are celebrating it or some other seasonal celebration. Even if you aren't celebrating anything though, I still hope you have a good end of the year. Cheers.

orbiter said:
do we wanna talk about the fact that the one colored image we got, was of Cooking Mama: all the shades of Makima edition?
also, the whole thing about cannibalism being love and having to hug that kid was probably the most unsettling thing in this manga ngl... (and not in a good way).

spectrojan said:
Well what can I say? Shit took a dip in the middle there somewhere after Power died but it all worked out well in the end. Good manga 8/10, will look forward to see this animated. And Part 2. We'll meet again, Denji.

SteelingMax said:
Who would've thought that Chainsaw Man could come from the same fucked up head that gave us the shit show that was Fire Punch.

PS: For every one that doesn't seem to understand, Makima is DEAD, devils on the other hand don't really die, they just go to Hell when they "die", then reencarnate when they get killed in Hell as well, unless they are devoured by Chainsaw Man, which Denji isn't.

Makima = Control Devil
Nayuta = Control Devil
Makima =/ Nayuta

deg said:
wait Devils eaten by Chainsaw Man cease to exist right? so how come the Control Devil reincarnated? i hope there is an explanation about that or maybe because Denji is a hybrid of Human and the Chainsaw Devil so that may explain why for some reason

or maybe the blood of Power which disrupts the regeneration of Makima last so long until Denji's stomach was able to digest Makima

dang chapter 53 says by the Angel Devil that when a devil is killed on earth they get reincarnated in hell and when they are killed in hell they are reincarnated on earth, so how come the Control Devil that is killed on earth was reincarnated on earth again

Kuma said:
it was nayuta prologue all along? WOW

anyways, discounted Fire Punch, not bad but lack of same impact. doesn't mean it's bad. enjoy it very thoroughly and definitely it's own charming character conflict.

9/10