{"id":8018,"date":"2022-11-18T11:23:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T16:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8018"},"modified":"2022-11-18T11:23:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T16:23:17","slug":"chainsaw-man-episode-6-kill-denji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/18\/chainsaw-man-episode-6-kill-denji\/","title":{"rendered":"Chainsaw Man – Episode 6 – “Kill Denji”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Worst convention hotel ever.<\/p>\n

Picking up from last time, panic slowly begins to set in as Special Division 4 confirms their suspicions that they\u2019ve been trapped in an endless loop on the hotel\u2019s eighth floor. Aki and Himeno attempt to keep everyone level-headed and on the same page, but it doesn\u2019t work out very well. Kobeni\u2019s extreme anxiety causes problems for the team, and on top of that Denji decides that apparently, it\u2019s a good time to take a nap.<\/p>\n

Denji is later awakened from his slumber by Himeno and is updated on where things currently stand: Arai and Kobeni are too scared to act, while Hayakawa has been patrolling the floor for any sign of the enemy devil. Eventually, their target makes itself known: a gigantic hideous mass of flesh appropriately referred to as the Eternity Devil. The group\u2019s meddle is tested further as the Devil makes its demands known: it wishes to take the life of the Chainsaw Devil. Kobeni and Power are the most agreeable to this idea, but the rest of the group tries to figure out another way. Fear and panic causes the Devil\u2019s power to escalate, eventually growing so strong that it shifts the entire hallway vertically creating a bottomless pit into its multi-layered maw. After enough annoyed deliberation, the episode ends with Denji volunteering to take care of things himself, cutting to black as he dives into the Eternity Devil\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s quite a lot to dig into with this episode, but I want to hone in for now on what stands out most from this series of maddening events. If there\u2019s something that I think this episode does exceptionally well, it\u2019s to capture the appeal of Chainsaw Man\u2019s<\/em> character writing as we\u2019re given insight into everyone\u2019s emotional states and how their personalities play off each other. The episode dedicates a great chunk of time to Aki and Himeno\u2019s backstory as he started getting accustomed to being a Devil Hunter. His personality is naturally very aloof, still living with the horror of seeing his family killed by the Gun Devil, and Himeno\u2019s attempts to bond with him taking a while to get anywhere, her smoking habit playing a big role in their interactions. Aki is hesitant to accept any cigarettes from her at first claiming it\u2019ll \u201crot your bones\u201d, but as we see in the present day, he\u2019s very much accustomed to a good smoke every now and then, even engaging in what\u2019s basically a variation on the famous Black Lagoon <\/em>cigarette kiss.<\/p>\n

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Himeno\u2019s nicotine dependency is a great way of highlighting her personality and attitude towards her life as a devil hunter: nothing matters, we\u2019re all gonna die anyway, might as well have a smoke. The constant death of her fellow devil hunters is something she\u2019s supposedly used to by now, shown in a scene where she gets slapped in the face by the partner of one of her deceased allies. When people are constantly upset at you for failing to protect the lives of those at your side\u2026 yeah, light a cigarette, what does it matter? But there\u2019s a humorously charming moment during the flashback where Aki gets so frustrated by this that he sticks a wad of gum to the person who slapped her, a scene that adds a great deal of humanity and warmth to his usual stoic demeanor, and thus helping to build out their friendship. Additionally, Aki\u2019s sense of humanity is further reinforced towards the end when Kobeni attempts to violently stab Denji and he intercepts the blade, deciding that he needs our protag alive in order to have a fighting chance against the Gun Devil. The way he phrases it is utilitarian on a surface level, but it\u2019s easy to see an attitude there best described as \u201che\u2019s a pain in the ass\u2026 but he\u2019s my<\/em> pain in the ass so back off!\u201d He\u2019s even willing to sacrifice his own life through using his sword which has some kind of life-stealing curse attached to it, but this causes Himeno to constantly tell him not to do so, because for the first time in a while she feels this genuine attachment to him and, despite her carefree nihilism, couldn\u2019t bare to possibly watch him die.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of Kobeni, she\u2019s another character whose personal tragedies and psychoses are elaborated on in detail. I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised that the broader discourse at the moment has labeled her character as only<\/em> just being annoying and whiny (in the same way that people seem to think that\u2019s all that there is to a character like Shinji Ikari), but as someone who really liked her character ever since the initial manga\u2019s publication, I see that there\u2019s more to it than just bog-standard whininess. Hell, she has every reason to be acting the way that she does in this situation: she literally had no real choice in becoming a devil hunter. Her parents forced her into the job to pay for her brother to go through college, because apparently Kobeni was just so unworthy of living a normal life like that. To make matters worse, her only other option was becoming a sex worker, and since this is 1997 and OnlyFans doesn\u2019t exist yet, I highly doubt she would\u2019ve experienced any safe working conditions doing so. It\u2019s easy to imagine how abusive her home life is and how this manifests in her being an utterly anxiety-driven trainwreck of a person.<\/p>\n

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Power this is not the time for puns!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Of course, I think part of the reason why she has this particularly reputation is how the arc plays her anxiety for humorous effect. In addition to the horror of the scenario, this episode takes the team\u2019s predicament and leverages it for a lot of effective dark comedy. Most of this stems from how badly she\u2019s unable to handle the situation, apparently going so far as to drink from a toilet on top of constantly trying to shank Denji. Not to mention, many of the jokes here also reflect how utterly unserious the Terrible Twosome are, with Power constantly mocking Kobeni\u2019s anxiety (and making plans to run for prime minister) on top of the fact that Denji, amidst the existential horror of the current situation, just goes \u201cfuck it, nap time!\u201d like he\u2019s Hypnos from Hades<\/em> or something. The face he makes during this scene is so hysterical, I had to pause and take a walk around the room to calm down from laughing.<\/p>\n

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Production-wise, the episode does an excellent job exacerbating the terrors of the situation. There are extreme levels of tension to the abstract geography of the hotel as one tries to parse out its layout. One particular influence that comes to mind is the Silent Hill <\/em>series, which is fitting since the second game featured the Lakeview Hotel as its last level. The dim lighting of the hotel\u2019s lighting fixtures, the one shot of the pipes overhead, and the numbing industrial drone of the music creates this constant sense of unease that is impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

And then the Eternity Devil shows up and shit hits the fan even more! The sound mixing of its voice layers a maddening cacophony of voices together in a way that, personally speaking, drove up my own anxiety to an almost Kobeni-esque level. The sound effects of its pulsating flesh doesn\u2019t help ease things, and neither does the hideous appearance of the Devil as its form expands and grows throughout the episode. There\u2019s even a specific shot that occur twice in the episode where it zooms into its form to show this dark void punctuated by an infinity symbol formed by its flesh, and it\u2019s a very surreal image. All that being said, I\u2019d be lying if I said I didn\u2019t think the episode ended off in a really weird place, saving the big fight against the Eternity Devil for the beginning of next week, but I\u2019m still looking forward to its resolution. Now for Kanaria to play us out!<\/p>\n