Chainsaw Minute: Chapter 151: The Return of Chainsaw Man

[00:00:00] So, you know, Jordan, I was watching a really interesting YouTube video on the best type of box mac and cheese. And interestingly, they said the Carbo one was the best. And I really have to agree. Well, yeah, it is an extra dollar. David! David! What?

[00:00:11] Look at the fucking time. It's, uh... The Chainsaw Minute! I'm David, and this is your dose of Chainsaw Man. You can join us every Friday where we see what masterpiece Fujimoto put out.

[00:00:41] I'm Jordan, and if you're looking for regular Shonen Flop goodness, you can find our next episode to hear our full thoughts on Icehead Gill featuring ZZ Digital this Monday. Woop woop woop!

[00:00:53] And just a heads up, these recordings are open to everyone, so listen and chat along with us on the Shonen Flop Discord every Tuesday at 3.30 p.m. Eastern when there's a new chapter out, which, by the way, there will not be one for three weeks.

[00:01:03] So we'll see y'all in the new year. You can find a link to it in the show notes or on our site. I guess Fujimoto's taking off for the holidays. For Krimbus. For Krimbus. Merry Krimbus. Yes. For the rest of us.

[00:01:15] I can see Fujimoto being a Seinfeld fan. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh God, I don't know how culturally that translates. So just imagine they have to... Uh, I mean, what's the deal with Chainsaw Man? What's the deal with devils and Jordan? What is your devil this week?

[00:01:30] So my devil this week was the tooth devil. Oofie ouchie. I just got a cap on one of my teeth. I have needed that the permanent cap for almost a decade since I got my root canal.

[00:01:43] I haven't been able to afford dental work because America, for some reason, has decided that that is not health care that should be covered by your usual insurance. So... Premium bones. Oh yeah. Did you go to the Penn Dental School? No, I did not.

[00:01:59] I just ended up finding a way to get dental insurance. Oh, that's even better. Yeah. Mine was the tummyache devil. My tum-tum's been hurting. It's been rumbling. I'm trying to be brave about it though, as you know.

[00:02:10] David, this is not the first time that you have fought this devil. No, you're right. It's been rough. Ravioli actually, to make it worse, Ravioli also has had a rumbly-tumbly. No! Most of the food we eat doesn't overlap, so I'm not sure why we both have tummy aches.

[00:02:25] Oh, you mean you're not eating dog food like she is? Not anymore. Though I do have a story about that where I liked eating Reese's Puffs and I remember my old dog Jessica came in seeing me eat Reese's Puffs and she looked at me and

[00:02:36] she looked at her food and I think she thought I was eating dog food. Oh, Jessica. She was a really smart dog. She was very smart. Very mean to everybody who was not in your family though. Yeah. Very beautiful though.

[00:02:50] Oh yeah, they actually did say she would have been a supermodel dog if we had wanted, but again, the whole she hated everyone thing was an issue. It was the opposite of your other dog. Very strange. Jake. Oh yeah. Who was the sweetest dog.

[00:03:00] Well, Ravioli is even sweeter than Jake. Oh my God. No way. That's I don't know if I believe that. She just runs up to you and then immediately she asks you to give her belly rubs. Aww. She's, she's a little baby.

[00:03:12] Unfortunately, speaking of dogs, we uh, oof, we gotta. Yes, that's the noise they make. Yeah, that's exactly it. They go boof. Anyway, yeah, we got to get into the plot summary for chapter 151. The return of Chainsaw Man. Oh God. I wonder what happens in this chapter.

[00:03:32] I don't know. Also, yeah, 151 that's how many Pokemon there are David and there have never been any more. Yeah, gold and silver are legit. Nah, you're right. Gold and silver. Nah, I'm not going to get into the one. I don't, I'm not one of the gen one-ers anyway.

[00:03:47] What happened this chapter buddy? Fujimoto, not Fujimoto. Fumiko has been taken hostage by the fiends. The broad sword guy whose name I forget explains that they set Denji's house on fire to save the world and stop Nostradamus's prophecy, which Denji thinks is insane because it is.

[00:04:04] Meanwhile, Barim is on the ground after getting shot a bunch of times by public safety. Nayuta tries to control him with her chain, but it apparently doesn't work. And Barim suggests that maybe it's because his mind and body still belong to Makima. Popcorn David.

[00:04:20] Barim grabs Nayuta and explains that these flames are Denji's punishment for killing Makima and living in peace. Nayuta controls a public safety guy and has him shoot Barim in the head. She calls the dentist for help. He sees a vision of Puchida and rips his starter.

[00:04:31] Finally, Chainsaw Man has returned and he is laughing. I think he's a little bit joker-fied, David. That explains that we live in a society bottom text. I had to explain that to my girlfriend today, what the we live in society thing was.

[00:04:47] I can't believe you said it in the Snyder code. He did? Oh yeah, he did! God, fucking Zack Snyder. You know, bravo, Nolan. I can't wait for Zack Snyder to adapt the live action Chainsaw Man. I would love that.

[00:05:02] Honestly, I think Quentin Tarantino would do an excellent Chainsaw Man adaption, but imagine how many times you'd see Makima's feet. Oh God. She would definitely have a scene where Denji like bites her foot or something. Oh my God. Uh, yeah, they're fighting the foot devil in this one.

[00:05:16] That's very strange. I always fight the foot and the mouth devil, but Jordan, why do you think this chapter was a 10 out of 10? Well, this one was kind of crazy. You know, everything's on fire and shit. We got to see our buddy transform, David. We got him back.

[00:05:31] Dennis is back. Dennis man back. Is that a Kiryu Kojima production? Dennis Chain Man. Yeah. No, his name is, his name is Saw Chain Man. Yes. Die, die Chainsaw Man. Actually that's the German title of the series. DJ Chainsaw Man.

[00:05:53] I think it's very interesting how Barum's plan really mimics Makima's, where when Denji's life gets too happy, devils just completely ruin it. Like remember that was the whole point of the end of act one was Makima wanted

[00:06:05] to set up Denji to be happy so she could destroy it, much in the way though that Barum is trying to abuse the fact that Denji's emotional state after having his life destroyed in a similar manner. It seems to be the opposite though, isn't it?

[00:06:16] Because like, was she, wait, wasn't she, was she trying to make Chainsaw Man stronger or weaker? No, I think you're right. I think you're right. Yeah. She wanted to control Dennis by just completely destroy, by providing him happiness and destroying it. Right. Much in the same way.

[00:06:29] So it's ultimately just trying to manipulate Denji by giving him the false belief that his life is going well and that he's really kind of hit the next stage of development through, you know, the hierarchy of needs only to kick

[00:06:40] him down and really utilize, kind of using the energy of him falling down the pyramid to power a generator of devil killing. Well, except for the fact that Makima gave him dogs and Barum took the dogs away. I know it's so sad. No.

[00:06:56] Can't believe they killed those doggies. Oh, I know. And Meowie. Oh, Meowie. I'm surprised you didn't think about naming your cat Meowie. Uh, we did, but the whole joke in Chainsaw Man is that that's a terrible name and power is not very creative. Fair enough. Fair enough, friend.

[00:07:13] I decided not to do that. Yeah, it sounds like past love of Makima is what powers him. I did see a theory online that it's not even that it's you have to believe that you're below the control devil.

[00:07:23] And so it's really hard for an adult to think that a child is above them and that may also be. But it also does explain, though, that why Dennis is immune to Nyota's effects, it looks like because he still loves Makima. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing.

[00:07:34] I buy the connection to Makima more because, I mean, she immediately controls an adult in this one to fire, to shoot Barum with a gun. That is a great point. Yeah. It makes more sense to me that like the more powerful form of the control

[00:07:50] devil would be able to be better at controlling. Crazy. Yeah. And then was there any observations you had this chapter? So it seems like the broadsword guy is like the only one who's believing the bullshit. Yeah. Isn't he like Sword Man or something? He's broadsword man. Yeah.

[00:08:09] A Hideo Kojima production. Because he's like, we're doing this to save you. We're doing this to save the world, Denji. And then what's her face? The whip devil is like, yeah, he still believes that. That's fucking stupid. Even though she's really stupid too. Yeah. She's really stupid.

[00:08:25] But like even she doesn't believe that. I also thought it was interesting to have Fujimori's discord panels during the more psychological moments of Denji really deciding, is he going to transform? And then once he pulls the record, it starts changing into different shapes.

[00:08:40] So you see it becomes much more angular and like non-traditional shapes for panels. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I mean, Fujimoto is like one of the best people at doing that of utilizing like, someone pointed out there's a diegetic gutter at the last channel

[00:08:53] with the burning house that physically separates Denji and Nogita from the hybrids through the use of like the burning thing that kind of looks like a cross. Yeah, I was gonna say the burning cross. Yeah. Because Denji's fighting the KKK now. Gut.

[00:09:07] Chainsaw Man versus the KKK would be pretty sick. I'm not gonna lie. The last thing I noticed is, do you think the dude who sees Denji transforming will have plot significance? Because again, no one actually knows he's Chainsaw Man. Uh, which dude?

[00:09:19] There was a dude who was like hiding in his house. You can see him like peeking through a door while all this is going. That is like the first time someone may unquestionably have seen Denji transforming to Chainsaw Man. Let me check that out actually. One sec.

[00:09:31] Cause I really want to know what you're talking about. Uh. Oh, that dude. Oh shit. I didn't even notice that guy. Yeah. I mean, I think he's at least going to be relevant soon. I think at least he's going to be relevant at some point.

[00:09:45] That feels like foreshadowing. I don't know why Fujimoto would have him there if he wasn't some kind of Chekhov's gun thing. I genuinely think that's the purpose of this character is to now have a witness and tell people that who Denji is. Yeah.

[00:09:58] Unless it turns out that he's like secretly the voyeur devil. The peeping Tom devil. The peeping devil. There probably is a peeping Tom devil. People are kind of scared of that. I don't even know what to do with that piece of information.

[00:10:13] Do you have anything else you want to toss in about the discussion of this chapter, Jordan? No. All right. Well then, Jordan, I want to say thank you so much for all of your hard work on the show and being a fantastic co-host. Thank you, David.

[00:10:22] I appreciate all the work that you do and the quality of co-hosting that you bring to this flop right here. No problem. I also want to say you can find us on Twitter at Shonan Flopcasts, Tumblr, Shonan-Flop, our website, ShonanFlop.com.

[00:10:36] We're also on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Props to Shannon for the awesome cover. Find her online at Luma.t. Just a reminder, you can join us recording every Tuesday at 3.30pm Eastern when there's a new chapter out.

[00:10:45] Find a link to it in the show notes on our site. Just adds up. No chapter for like three weeks. Sorry, friends. Can't do anything about it. And stay tuned for Monday as we give our full thoughts on Icehead Gill featuring ZZ Digital this Monday. Oh yes.

[00:10:58] And so Jordan though, you know that they dropped a little trailer out of a movie and it's all about Reeves and it feels like, I mean, if there's to take a book out. David, what did you call her? I'm sorry. No. What did you just call her?

[00:11:08] Sorry, Reeves-A. Reeves? Sorry, Reeves-A. No, absolutely not, David. Too late. The Chainsaw Minute is over and I'm angry anyway. Bye. Bye.