Whether it’s video games or comic books, media geeks love sexually awkward women. Or rather, the geekosphere loves only one type of sexually awkward woman. The ideal “woman” is shy, selfless, and generally uninterested in male attention until the main character comes along. Mitaka Asa on A man with a chainsaw it is neither of those things. She is rude, self-centered, and has a crush on anyone who shows even the slightest interest in her. Asa is the type of socially awkward woman who definitely exists in real life but is rarely portrayed in popular media. Watching him fail all his relationships A man with a chainsaw is both delightful and inspiring.
This manga has two arcs. In the first part of A man with a chainsaw, bounty hunter Denji becomes the eponymous Chainsaw Man to protect humanity from devils, who are beings who embody humanity’s fears. In the last arc, readers were introduced to a high school student named Asa. Possessed by the “War Devil” after her untimely death, she wants to collect swords to use against the Chainsaw Man.
There’s one big catch: Asa can only turn men into “Spinal Cord Swords” once they develop a romantic attachment to her. The more guilty she feels about a person’s death, the more powerful the resulting sword will be. Asa agrees to seduce male classmates so that their bones can be used to create powerful weapons. It’s not like she has any choice – giving War Devil the confrontation she wants is the only way to convince the monster to leave her body.
The key to any successful project is to start small. Asa randomly picks a victim and her eyes accidentally fall on Denji. He’s more of a loser than a sinner or a saint, and she’ll feel guilty if her devil snaps his spine. He is the perfect victim. She invites him on a date with an aquarium and he agrees. Despite being the Chainsaw Man, Denji is a pitiful insel whose main character motivation is to touch the chest. She couldn’t have chosen a better candidate for a sword.
It’s pretty dark stuff, but Asa’s attempts at seduction are pure comedy. She asks Denji out so the War Devil can eventually kill him, but she’s totally serious about being the perfect girlfriend. The meeting isn’t just about saving her own life. She wants to be really liked – to prove that she’s not the loser her abusers think she is. Here’s the problem: She’s a huge loser. When Denji tells her he wants to watch penguins, she ignores his earnest request and continues with a long explanation about sea anemones. It’s dry. It’s encyclopedic. It doesn’t take her partner’s wishes into account at all. Denji really wants to see the penguins, but Asa tells him to “shut up” and “stick to my plan.” Even the overseeing War Devil calls her a complete bore. Oh
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Unpopular girls are usually portrayed as too shy or unconventionally attractive (glasses, ugly hair, etc.). Asa is capable of feigning confidence. There is also nothing atypical in her appearance. She could get a boyfriend if her personality wasn’t so off-putting, and she knows it. However, she refuses to change who she is. She is not boredom. It is everyone else who is wrong Worst of all, she won’t give up even when her classmates agree she’s not boyfriend-worthy.
Yeah, it’s a huge problem that Asa’s body is taken over by War Devil. But A man with a chainsaw creator Tatsuki Fujimoto doesn’t like to settle for depicting a literal conflict. Each main arc of the manga is about how the characters react to social pressure. The Control Devil was able to exploit Denji because his crappy financial circumstances taught him to dehumanize himself for his next meal. In comparison, the Devil of War has a much harder time with his victim. Asa knows she doesn’t deserve a relationship. She screws up every challenge life throws at her, even in the face of mortal danger. She is mean to other people. She lives in a society where girls are not allowed to have sexual desires unless they are not worthy from love.
Instead of giving us sanitized characters with smoothed edges, Fujimoto is willing to depict their most awkward moments and lowest desires. The problem becomes apparent when Asa’s classmates laugh at her for asking another student, Yoshida Hirofumi, to be her boyfriend. Shame oozed from her every pore. Society tells her she must be good enough. Asa is not well. She is dead. She is damaged. She wants to trade the blood of a boy for her right to life. If he was a good person, he would just choose to die. Instead, she wants to choose life. She wants to choose love.
The heroine’s desires feel rebellious in the context of A man with a chainsaw. She cannot love others ethically. Her heart is just bait for the devil fish that lives inside her. But her heart beats despite common decency, despite rules, despite how others feel. Her encounter with Denji is the start of a car accident and I can’t look away.
Asa wanted his heart, but the creature in her wanted his spine. The War Devil tried to turn Denji into a sword using a spell. The spell failed to work on the Chainsaw Man and Asa took it as a sign of romantic rejection. After they parted ways, she became angry with Denji for not seeing anything in her. Girl, I think you should be more concerned that the lover might have been killed. She knows she’s only exploiting her classmate, but that doesn’t make her want his romantic attention any less. Her feelings are disgusting and I’m glad she has them. They make Asa feel more realistic than most shounen girls who would happily sacrifice themselves for their lover.
Unlike the typical shonen love interest, Asa’s romantic interest is not exclusive to Denji just because he is the main character of A man with a chainsaw. Asa ends up fixating on another boy who rejected her a few chapters ago, not because they share a strong bond (which is more typical of shonen), but because she craves friendship. She wants to believe that she can have a real relationship with another person. The manga never pretends that its characters are altruistic. They are out in uncomfortable, human ways. Even if they are teenage girls – a consistently marginalized demographic of characters in a genre marketed to young boys.
There is no future for any boy who falls in love with Asa. Despite the screwiness of these circumstances, Asa’s desirability becomes her obsession. Do guys think she’s sexy? Do they think she’s interesting? She is afflicted with normal human guilt, but her main concerns are Asa, Asa, and more Asa. When her classmate Hirofumi tried to have an unrelated conversation with her, she immediately thought he was trying to ask her out. Just like many guys react when a girl makes eye contact with them. However, there is a big difference. It’s understandable when a boy reacts this way to a girl. It is considered a pity when a girl behaves in the same way.
“I am quickly convinced [that] someone likes me Then when I’m wrong, my feelings are hurt,” she thinks to herself after being rejected. “A life alone would really be better than feeling like this. It’s not even good for me. Who am I even living for?”
I’ve read a hundred chapters of Denji, and based on that I assume Asa will similarly learn how to live freely in an unfree society. But the joy of A man with a chainsaw it’s not in watching characters radically transform. It’s watching them stumble and fall. It’s seeing them take ten steps back from what is good and healthy for them.
Asa is not always sympathetic. She prioritizes her feelings over other people’s feelings and more people will probably die by the end of the arc. Despite her fantastic problems with the devil, Asa’s story is remarkable because it is so ordinary. Audiences are often expected to sympathize with men who have large body counts. Just look at any villain who has been rejected by a lover. The same should be true of female characters who are self-centered and desperate. We have to empathize with girls who derive their dignity from the number of men who are interested in them.
A man with a chainsaw it doesn’t just allow a female incel to be disliked. He dares to explore her emotional complexities. And that makes it bolder than any current series in this year’s shonen manga series.