Title: Chainsaw Man Vol. 9
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
The Story
Three volumes in a row where Chainsaw Man has taken a pretty shocking turn! In volume 9, we see the aftermath of the assassin arc and things have changed as certain hunters have either been killed or retired. Power is suffering from visions of the Darkness Devil, feeling that he’s always there in some form or another watching her. Denji ends up canceling his trip with Makima in order to take care of Power while her mind recovers.
Meanwhile, after seeing the aftermath of the assassination attempts, Aki decides that he’s going to stop pursuing the Gun Devil! He delivers the news and is summoned my Makima along with Denji and Power. Makima accepts his resignation from the operation; however, she says that Denji and Power are under her command and that they will be joining in on the mission regardless. This causes Aki to change his mind and go along with the operation anyway.
Makima then reveals the details of the operation which is a major shock to everyone.
The volume ends with Makima confronting the Gun Devil and while she is incredibly powerful, she admits that the Gun Devil ended up taking a corpse to escape. Under the guise of the person it took over, it pays Denji a visit, resulting in a pretty epic battle to close out our volume.
Characters
While there were a lot of shocking moments in this volume for our characters, there were some rather heartwarming ones as well… especially between Denji and Power. The two of them have become as much of a couple as a guy and girl can be… without actually being a couple. Denji himself admits that despite doing things such as feeding her, bathing with her, sleeping with her, and protecting her, he doesn’t feel any sort of romantic attachment to Power at all. It’s kind of super weird as you would think Denji would just fall in love with Power after everything he has done for her but he ends up as more of a big brother to her and there’s a reason for that.
That reason is Makima. We finally get to understand why Denji has such an infatuation with Makima. In addition, we learn about the source of Makima’s powers and why she’s as strong as she is. While I’ll let you discover those details for yourself, it was just another interesting twist in this volume.
Aki has also grown closer to Power and Denji. Even when he’s talking to Kishibe about things, Kishibe can tell right away that something has changed with Aki and he’s not the same person that he used to be. The fact that Aki wanted to pull out of the Gun Devil operation for Denji and Power’s sake and then rejoin it when he found out his efforts were futile just shows how attached he has become to those two… almost like a big brother role for them both.
Final Thoughts
While volume eight was incredibly confusing at times, we get back to a sense of normalcy here. There are a lot of developments that happened; however, some things leave a lot of questions heading into the final two volumes. While the fight against the Gun Devil was pretty epic in the way that it was told, I cannot imagine that it is truly over based on what Makima had said earlier in the volume.
In addition, there are things that the Future Devil had stated that have not yet come to pass yet so we still have some things that we need to explore. Plus, there is another potential major event that was set up in this volume which also needs to be resolved.
With two volumes left, I feel there is a good balance of things that need to be tied up in relation to how much material is left. It doesn’t feel rushed right now and I hope that’s how it stays as we head towards the series’ conclusion. The twists and turns in this volume have me excited to see how things end!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
