#ooOoOo lily gettin political !!

[silliergoober]

Chainsaw Man is about Capitalism, and maybe everything else is too.

a dumbass essay.

Full Spoilers For All Of Chainsaw Man.

Part 1

Control

The cold war was one fought in the mind.

A war fought using the stealthiest weapon of them all:

Fear.

It was called the Red Scare for a reason.

It’s hard to say if America has since engaged in such intense propaganda. People feared the straw-man of Communism. Communism became an evil, blasphemous thing. It wasn’t a flawed ideology, it was the opposite of all that was good and right and civil and god-damned American. It became a devil of sorts. Those who fell to it were unforgivable. Irredeemable. And anyone could fall, too. Friends, family, colleagues; all damned by a deal with the devil. 

Ironically, the land of the free used their antithesis to create a devil.

They exerted control. 

Why am I talking about this in a Chainsaw Man essay? 

Well, Makima is control. 

On a small scale, Makima is, as far as we see, the head of Tokyo’s Public Safety. Even her superiors seem to at least respect or even bend to her will. She uses this position of power to manipulate and, by proxy, control, most all of Part 1’s cast. 

In a more literal sense, Makima is control. She is the living embodiment of Control. She is the Control Devil. 

And as discussed, control can, when used correctly, create devils. 

We see this in a literal sense with Pochita.

But with the right plan, it can also create much, much worse. 

Public Safety is a corporation. 

Or, it can be read that way.

It has shareholders, the higher-ups.

It has a CEO, Makima.

And, most importantly, it has disposable, low-ranking and easily manipulated employees.

Part 2

The American Dream

Aki Hayakawa is, by all means, the most normal and average man in the series. 

Granted, the bar is low. But it’s a bar nonetheless.

Aki is a simple man. He wants revenge for his family’s death by killing the Gun Devil. That’s all he needs. Many have whispered rumours about the Gun Devil. Most of Public Safety’s hunters strive to face it. 

The American Dream.

Anyone can achieve it. 

Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and work hard. One day, the dream will be yours. 

Except it won’t. 

When it is closest to you, it will crumble in your hand. 

When Aki finally, finally reaches his chance to fight the Gun Devil, his dream, it is revealed he was deceived. The gun devil is no longer a threat. His chance crumbled to dust in his one remaining hand. 

All will strive for the American Dream, yet none will reach it.

The American Dream is a lie.

It is a lie sold in bulk by CEO’s and execs and the like. In its modern iteration, it lies in entrepreneurship. 

“You could be the next big thing! Pick yourself up by the bootstraps and work hard!” 

A carrot on a stick. Always walking, never reaching it. 

Because in truth, it isn’t there to reach.

The Gun Devil _is_ the American Dream.

Obvious American/Gun symbolism aside, the Gun Devil we see on page is commissioned by the American Government.  It’s tied with the American half of the dream are undeniable

During the Red Scare, America, more than ever, portrayed itself as the Icon of Capitalism. In a way, this wasn’t untrue.

America is a deeply marketised country. 

Even at the highest power in the country, money rules. Funding, gerrymandering, outright bribery. Capital and its exchange determines every aspect of America.

Its so deeply intertwined- the lines between government and corporation, public and private blurring- that, in my eyes, to critique America politically is to critique Capitalism itself. 

Its no secret that Capitalism does this. It rots its own system. It incentivises corruption. It’s been said a million times but truly, it is cancerous. 

So, on some level, The Gun Devil is, too, the Capitalist’s Lie. The false hope that keeps the workers working.  

Even if it kills them.

Part 3

The End of the World

In the end of Chainsaw Man’s first part, Makima is killed by Denji. 

She is chopped up and eaten to prevent her regeneration.

Not even a chapter later, she is reincarnated.

It is, as far as we see, impossible to have a world without Makima. A world without control. 

In part 2, the scale of the conflict is drastically increased. 

Now, the Death Devil threatens the entire world, not just Denji’s. 

And throughout the part, Nayuta, Control’s new form, is there. 

She couldn’t be gone.  

She can’t.

In the latest chapters, Nayuta is unceremoniously killed. This is enough to trigger Denji’s transformation into Pochita once more. The devil made by control defends and avenges it by any means necessary. 

Denji believed himself to be free from Makima. From control. But he isn’t. He can’t be. Ultimately, he is still her slave.

In Chainsaw Man, a world without the Control Devil is less likely than a world ended. In fact, a world ended is quite likely, given the foretold coming of the Death Devil.

Two people who are much, much smarter than me, Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek, once said, 

“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than a world without capitalism.”

I could delve deeper into CSM’s imagery and symbols, how Public Safety technically being governmental blurs the lines between public and private further, how the other three horseman play into all this, etc. But I believe my point has been made.

In a world where capitalism is so inherently intertwined with our every thought, so ingrained in society we cannot imagine a world without it, is anything not about capitalism?   I dont know.

All I know for sure is I fucking love this stupid chainsaw manga.