Title: Chainsaw Man Vol. 13
Author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 185
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
The Story
Volume 13 of Chainsaw Man sees Mitaka and Yoku together just sitting down and having a conversation. Yoku’s legs are still injured and they get on the subject of sharing their deepest, darkest secrets. Mitaka talks about the time she peed herself in class while Yoku openly admits that she committed a murder yesterday.
Well, that escalated quickly.
Yoku then goes on to say that she made a contract with the Justice Devil to stay away from school tomorrow because she was going to do something to end her bullying for good. Meanwhile, Denji is trying his hardest to reveal his identity; however, Yoshida is there every step of the way to stop him as he reminds Denji that his goal is to make sure that he has a peaceful life. That peace is broken when Yoku transforms into a devil and begins killing all of Mitaka’s classmates… or at least the ones who bullied her.
Chainsaw Man shows up but Yoku escapes. Yoru wants Mitaka to make her a powerful weapon… one that can kill Chainsaw Man. Yoru offers up a few suggestions but Mitaka can’t do it with any of them. She suggests turning something into a weapon that is between a cat and a criminal… meaning something neutral that she could have a strong affection for… so her plan… is to go on a date with Denji!
Characters
Yoku was given a fair share of the spotlight in this volume. You kind of feel bad for her because she was friendless until she met Mitaka. She made a contract with the justice devil thinking that if she killed Mitaka’s bullies, it would make all bullies around Japan to stop out of fear of being killed by a devil. Plus, she did it for her own self-serving needs because she just wanted to be accepted. After her defeat, she even paid Mitaka a visit just to say goodbye, figuring that after what happened, there was no way she could stick around. She’s the perfect example of the lengths people will go to out of sheer desperation.
Yoru hasn’t really changed all that much. She’s still using Mitaka’s body as a means to get to Chainsaw Man; however, with her seeking a very powerful weapon (based on something Mitaka did in this volume), she seems to be getting a bit more serious about killing Chainsaw Man. With the way the volume ended, this looks to be the first phase of her plan; however, thanks to a bit of misdirection which I’ll get to later, the plan has already failed.
Not much has changed with Denji. He’s still trying to out his identity as Chainsaw Man and Yoshida is still doing his best to stop him. In a funny moment, he succeeds in telling Mitaka that he’s Chainsaw Man but since Yoshida first introduced him as a huge fan of Chainsaw Man, Mitaka doesn’t believe him. Now, she’s about to go on a date with Denji while still being completely ignorant of the fact that he wasn’t lying to her. There is a good reason for that though…
Final Thoughts
So, there was one interesting development in this book that I’ll refrain from spoiling but it really does make you wonder. It has to do with the Devil Hunter Club at school which just also so happens to be the Student Council Body. It’s kind of odd for the student body to also be the Devil Hunter Club but their leader has a bit of a secret and it made things rather interesting. If it’s not a ruse and turns out to be true, there are so many directions this story could go… one of which is a rather predictable fight in the future but I would like the answers to the questions before that eventually comes to pass.
Outside of that, I really liked Yoku’s development here and after she leaves, a certain scene lends itself to furthering the situation I mentioned in the paragraph above. I mean… you can’t really perform an act that requires you to be awake when you’re asleep, now can you? I’ll just leave it at that but Yoku’s loneliness drove her to desperation and that led to her making that contract with the Justice Devil. It also means that the Justice Devil is at their school, leading to more questions needing to be answered.
And still no Makima. Okay, we’re just going to ignore what she did, the fate of Power, and everything else, huh?
To be honest, I’m not really missing those unresolved plots because this new arc is just that good. We have a lot set up here pertaining to Yoru’s plan, what happened with Yoku, the identity of the Justice Devil, and that little interesting scene involving the Devil Hunter Club. For now, we’ll settle for Yoru’s plan backfiring in the next book. I mean, it has to, right?
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
