“Chainsaw Man” Episode 8 left us on a cliffhanger where Himeno loses herself to the Ghost Devil as she sacrifices herself to save Aki. Aki loses himself to trauma as he tries to process her death while the Snake Devil attacks and kills the Ghost Devil. As Himeno slowly succumbs to her inevitable destiny, Power escapes the situation, and the Katana Man advances toward Denji, who lies unconscious. Meanwhile, on the train, Makima is shot dead along with her assistant on their way to Kyoto.
Spoilers Ahead
Was The Ghost Devil Able To Honor Himeno’s Sacrifice In “Chainsaw Man,” Episode 9?
“Chainsaw Man” Episode 9 begins with the sacrificial scene of Himeno as she slowly loses her body, limb by limb, along with her soul, to power up the Ghost Devil so that the Devil could get a chance at killing off Katana Man. The Ghost Devil slowly engages him in battle and finds his weakness easily while pushing him into a corner, hard enough to injure him badly. However, the Ghost Devil is stopped when the mysterious girl summons the Snake Devil to finish off the Ghost Devil as it severs the Ghost Devil’s head from its body, ultimately killing it. Amidst all this, Power fled the scene as it was impossible for her to go against either Katana Man or his partner, leaving behind a traumatized Aki, who had shut down trying to process Himeno’s death. He still could not swallow the fact that he saw another of his loved ones meeting their untimely death and leaving him behind as the survivor. Here, Himeno sacrificed herself so that Aki could live and shed tears for her untimely death, as she leaves behind nothing of herself except the eye patch and her clothes to remember her by. Before she completely vanishes, as the Ghost Devil dies too, a hand of the Ghost Devil heads towards Denji to help him out.
Did Denji Die While Fighting?
The hand quickly tried to head towards Denji to wake him up from his unconsciousness. It used the wire to kickstart Denji’s chainsaw. After his chainsaws are activated, he quickly tries to get rid of the Katana Man. After an intense fight between Denji and Katana Man, where Denji clearly overpowers him, Katana Man brings in two of his other partners, who help him shoot Denji so that he can clearly slice Denji in half, killing him yet again. This deprives Denji of blood, and he is rendered useless for the rest of the episode. This leads to the Katana Man, with the help of his partners, dragging Denji’s top half away, leaving his bottom half behind because he only needs his Chainsaw Devil Heart. Denji loses a lot of blood in the process, and as his halves are separated, he cannot reattach his parts. He would be able to reattach any of his severed body parts as long as they were intact and near him. His devilish heart and the blood running through his veins made it possible for him to do so. The Katana Man could have easily ripped his heart out by now, but instead, he decided to drag his top half to most likely deliver him to what one could only assume was the Gun Devil. The Girl, whose identity is still obscure, helps Katana Man drag Denji away, only for them to stop in the middle as, one by one, all of their thug partners get mysteriously crushed to death.
Is Hirokazu Dead Or Alive?
As we had witnessed earlier in “Chainsaw Man” Episode 8, an old lady fired shots at a person who seemed suspiciously like Kobeni; in this episode, it was revealed that the gunshots were indeed fired, but rather one of the shots was at Hirokazu, and the other was at Kobeni, but Hirokazu after being hit intercepted the other shot saving Kobeni but ultimately succumbing to his wounds. As the old woman tries shooting Kobeni again, something snaps in Kobeni, and she dodges the bullets and kills the old woman with the woman’s revolver in one clean move. Although she panics and cries, she still displays her badass skills when she arrives at the scene where Katana Man and the Mysterious Girl are trying to drag Denji after their partners get crushed. Katana Man and the Girl get overpowered by Kobeni’s moves as she simply dodges the Snake Devil and instead shoots Katana Man. As Katana Man struggles to stay alive, the girl drags him to the car and quickly exits the scene, leaving Denji’s top half with Kobeni. Kobeni swears to tell Himeno that she’ll leave this job, while her panic-stricken grief reveals the death of Hirokazu in a flashback. Kobeni starts bawling as she clutches on to Denji’s top half while the rest of the teams of thugs have been mysteriously wiped out by Makima.
‘Chainsaw Man’ Episode 9: Ending Explained – Who Is Makima, And What Is Her Power?
In this episode, they portrayed Makima as every bit as unhinged, cold-hearted, and calculating as she seems in the manga. Only in the anime did they get her detached personality down to a t. At first, due to the sudden assassination, Makima was shown shot dead. However, this episode explores her insane powers and her suspicious existence. Makima is portrayed as a mysterious officer, and her Power is withheld from all of the agents who don’t have a high enough position. As we are introduced to two new characters, Tendo and Korose, who are based in Kyoto and are seemingly waiting for Makima to arrive, we lose two of the older characters in the process, Himeno and Hirokazu. While waiting for Makima, they are informed about the assaults that have taken place on the teams of Devil Hunters based in Tokyo. They also hear of the assassination attempt on Makima, which makes them wonder if they waited in vain. They still wait for the train carrying Makima to arrive and are shocked to see an uninjured Makima exiting the train with blood all over her. She confesses to the blood not being hers, as the next scene shows the gory scene left behind as the assassins have been killed, and a gaping hole is left behind on their chests. She then orders Tendo and Korose to arrange for a number of convicted felons equal to the number of thugs involved in the assaults that took place back in Tokyo to be brought to the shrine where she is currently residing in Kyoto. She then proceeds to blindfold all of the felons, as well as Tendo and Korose, and begins her mysterious Jutsu. After she performed a hand gesture in the form of a mysterious jutsu, she would bend down and sit in front of one of the felons and ask him to repeat the name she said. Repeating the process over and over again as the felons all die one by one, and all of the thugs whose names were said get crushed to death as well.
Her Power seemed to work with the help of crows, as in every scene where the thugs get killed, a crow was certainly in the vicinity. She also sacrificed the felons in Kyoto to get rid of the thugs in Tokyo, making her power simple, powerful, and also connected to the weight of names. While Denji was being dragged off, one of the thugs just immediately got crushed and exploded into nothing. This immediately triggered the girl, and she rushed to get a read on the team sent to assassinate Makima, only to audibly witness the death of the thug talking to her on the walkie talkie. She then realized that Makima was alive and well, which instilled in her sheer panic, and Kobeni’s arrival only served as the cherry on top as she rushed to escape the situation with an injured Katana Man. While Makima finished her little ritual, she then met with Madoka, who informed her that with the exception of the non-humans, the rest of the members from Divisions 1, 2, 3, and 4 perished in the gun assault. This clearly points to the doings of the Gun Devil, as per Makima. Madoka also informs her that the higher-ups have decided to absorb Divisions 2 and 3 into Division 4, which will be headed by Makima. The episode ends with Madoka turning in his resignation and Tendo and Korose making it clear that they will not join the current division. Makima accepted all of this while maintaining a detached and cold personality.
Final Thoughts
At the end of “Chainsaw Man” Episode 9, what Madoka said stuck with me the most. He asked Makima how much of the incident she knew from before. This makes me wonder if the reason why Himeno and Hirokazu were the ones to die among the major characters was due to their closeness to Denji. Hirokazu took care of Denji after the drinks, while Himeno kissed Denji in front of Makima. Although, Aki escaped relatively less injured, along with Kobeni, who was unharmed as well. This could be because Kobeni was not close to Denji, and Aki was assigned by Makima to take care of Denji. Denji could be a common reason pointing toward their deaths, but it does not make sense. Her obsession, as well as the Gun Devil’s and the rest of the Devils’ obsession with Denji’s heart, surely makes it very suspicious as to what exactly Makima knows about. Either the Devils are afraid of Denji, or they simply want his heart; this makes me wonder if the Chainsaw Devil was indeed part of something big. Because in the first episode, little Denji met an injured and hungry Chainsaw Devil, and Pochito was wary of him at first but then started living with him as his pet. This sheds light on the question, “Why was Pochito hurt in the first place?” They really seem to drag poor Denji into various situations where he ends up hurt or insane beyond reason due to his bloodlust; however, “Chainsaw Man” Episode 9 really made him take a step back and evaluate his strengths as he gets sliced in half. He will be reattached to his bottom half, of course, although the question is when. “Chainsaw Man” Episode 10 might just shed some light on Power, who fled the situation to save her own life while Aki deals with his grief and his injuries.
Another thing that was really intriguing since the first episode was Makima’s eyes. Her eyes were really eerie from the very beginning. They spoke of calm yet screamed of chaos and were simply unnerving, which really added to her detached personality. Although in the recent episodes, mainly “Chainsaw Man” Episodes 8 and 9, her eyes promise a certain type of calamity while maintaining a detached and bored expression as if she is nearly tired of what has been happening around her lately. Her eyes regained a little animation and made her less detached only during the time she was around Denji. This could be a fascination that a person feels around a new toy. She is one well-animated and well-written character with an aura even colder than the version in the manga. I really can’t wait to see her absolutely unhinged and reigning terror over the officials just because she can.
