Who Is Denji’s Father in Chainsaw Man? Explained!
Denji, whose last name is unknown, is the protagonist of the Chainsaw Man manga and anime. This quirky young man came back from the dead to become one of the most dreaded Hybrids in the series. Denji’s story is the focus of the manga and that makes Denji a great character to write about, which is what we are going to do here. In this article, we are going to find out why Denji does not have the last name, i.e., what the deal is with his father, the mysterious character whose dead body we saw in one panel of the manga.
Denji’s father was an unnamed man who raised Denji for a short time before he died. He had a very addiction-prone personality and was an alcoholic; he was also indebted to the Yakuza, which is why Denji inherited his debt after his death. He was very abusive towards Denji and although it was initially thought that he committed suicide, it was actually Denji who killed him in self-defense, but blocked these events out of his memory.
The rest of the article will give you some more information on Denji’s history in the Chainsaw Man series, as well as answers to some important questions regarding Denji’s father, who was responsible for one of the most important moments in his life. The article is, of course, going to contain spoilers, so we just wanted to warn you.
Who is Denji’s father in Chainsaw Man?
In order to tell you about Denji’s father, we first have to tell you Denji’s story from the Introduction Arc so that you know where he was when the story began and how all of these events tie into the story of Denji’s father. At the beginning of the series, Denji is forced to do odd jobs and slay Devils for the Yakuza to pay off the debt for his late mother’s medical bills that his father failed to pay before taking his own life.
His closest companion is a Devil dog by the name of Pochita, whom Denji saved by making a contract with the Devil and donating some of his blood to help the wounded Devil recuperate. In order to continue seeing Denji’s dreams and defeat the Zombie Devil and his zombie army, Pochita transforms into Denji’s heart and revives him as the Chainsaw Devil when the Yakuza betray him and sacrifice him to the Zombie Devil.
When Denji first meets Makima, he gives him two choices: kill him as a Devil or retain him as a human and feed him as a pet; Denji chooses the latter because he knows he will be fed. When a bystander approaches to ask for assistance in rescuing his daughter from a Devil, Makima commands Denji to take care of the situation because if she doesn’t he will murder him. This is when Denji learns that he is in love with Makima.
Denji, after running into the forest, realizes that Makima is crazy and regrets having fallen in love with her by treating him like a dog; at that moment, he finds the daughter of the lord and the Devil playing together, to which Denji asks them to run away. However, the Muscle Devil was controlling the girl in order to trick and kill Denji, but Denji transforms and manages to kill the Devil and save the girl. After returning to Makima, Denji tells him how he became what he is, to which Makima confesses that his condition is not unknown but with a little history, in addition to confirming that he can smell Pochita inside his heart, so Denji is overjoyed knowing that.
When Makima arrives at the Tokyo Devil Slayer Headquarters, he bemoans the fact that he cannot work with Makima while giving Denji his uniform and introducing him to his new colleague, Aki Hayakawa. Denji responds by repeatedly punching Aki in the testicles, which leads to a fight between the two after Aki, irritated by Denji’s sexual interest in Makima, beats him up to get him to quit his job.
Upon returning to the headquarters, Makima assigns Denji to Aki’s brigade, and he can be killed if he does not follow orders; Denji goes to live in Aki’s apartment despite his refusal. Days later, Denji and Aki are called in for their first mission together to take on a Devil man, with the end result of Denji chopping off the Devil man’s head with an ax so as not to stain the pornographic magazines so he can take them with him.
After that moment, Denji begins to question if there is something else he wanted to accomplish, to realize that his objective and motive are the boobs. To end the day, Makima introduces Denji and Aki to her new co-worker, Power, a female Devil, and Denji is charmed by her when he realizes that he has boobs. So, Denji’s story, up to the point where he joined Public Safety, was a miserable story that saw him live in poverty and misery; were it not for Pochita, Denji would’ve been alone.
Namely, we found out – as we have said – that his mother died from a disease and that his father lent a large sum of money from the yakuza to save her, but she died nevertheless. His father, on the other hand, was a man prone to addictions, and in his case, he was addicted to alcohol. He did not care for Denji and abused him constantly, until, at some point, he died. This left Denji in an even worse situation, as he was now penniless and with his father’s debt that the yakuza wanted him to work off. But, how did Denji’s father die?
What happened to Denji’s father in Chainsaw Man?
Very little is known about Denji’s father, as we have said, and it was initially thought that he committed suicide, which left Denji an orphan indebted to the Yakuza. As we have elaborated above, with details from the story, he was responsible for Denji’s tragic life, as he was a violent and abusive alcoholic, but it seems that the story developed a bit differently than was initially thought.
Namely, during the Control Devil arc, when Denji learns Makima’s true motives, she confesses that his father’s death was not a suicide but rather the result of Denji killing him in self-defense. In truth, the Yakuza staged his alleged suicide as a ploy to have Denji inherit his debts. Denji had been suppressing this information behind a mental wall, and as the memory surfaces, Denji sees himself as a young boy standing over his father’s bleeding and wounded body.
