Now, now, we all know that Chainsaw Man manga has multiple layers to it, and most of these layers are just Makima. Kidding.
Or am i?
I mean, once we peel off the fast paced action, and protagonist’s degeneracy oriented goals from the surface, we stumble upon a more mature and complex theme, and also a plot, which more or less hinges on Makima’s actions.
Makima should have been the brooding mystery devil for all I know.
Also Read: What is Makima’s goal? Why did she want Chainsaw Man?
That said, let’s turn our focus to Makima’s death. There’s multiple questions we all have regarding the character’s demise, and most of them go like this: DID MAKIMA REALLY DIE? And some go like this: DID DENJI JUST EAT MAKIMA? And then there are: HOW THE HELL DID MAKIMA DIE?
Or maybe it was just me with these questions.
She left us confused while she was alive, and she left us confused in her death. There are many things that didn’t seem to fall in place when we first witnessed the manner of Makima’s death.
We know for sure that she was untouchable and that she had a contract that shielded her from any kind of damage. So what exactly happened here? Well, the answer to the question rests in a small loophole in the very contract that acted as Makima’s shield.
Keeping that in mind, allow me to elaborate on what happened and try to understand Makima’s death in Chainsaw Man!
Makima’s Death: How did Makima die?
To give you the shorter version of the answer, Makima died because Denji cut her up, cooked her and ate her.
Denji took a page out of how Makima went about achieving her goals, and cooked up (bad pun) one of the best diversions in Chainsaw Man manga’s part 1.
Tearing off a part of Pochita from his heart, Denji created a Chainsaw Devil to fight Makima and her lackeys. This served as the distraction.
Related: Why does the Gun Devil want Denji’s heart?
Makima succeeded in defeating this devil and took possession of Pochita. Thinking that she had won the fight, the Control Devil lets her guard down, and that’s when Denji strikes with a chainsaw created using Power’s blood.
Since Makima was always focused on the Chainsaw Devil and never Denji, she failed to notice him and his ruse.
Once he got her, Denji proceeded to cut her up into pieces with Kishibe. The job wasn’t easy apparently as we see the veteran Devil Hunter complaining about his back later in the chapter.
After everything is said and done, Denji cooked Makima and ate her. Who’s wondering about the recipe?
But then, if the answer is so simple, why did I hype up Makima’s death so much in the intro then? For starters, Makima had a contract with the Prime Minister of Japan, which made her almost immortal.
And riding on the terms of this contract, she managed to evade being pulled into hell a staggering 30 times (atleast).
The Gun Devil putting a bullet through her head? That was Makima’s 28th recorded death, and when the Chainsaw Devil cut her up in chapter 88 that was the 30th one that we know of.
She dies a lot of times in the final battle with Chainsaw Devil too (I shall leave the count to you)!
Here’s an Interesting tidbit for you to consider; in chapter 89 Makima says that she was killed 26 times by the Chainsaw Man himself. So I am assuming that the number of times she died is actually more than what is officially recorded.
That aside, let’s get to the important stuff. If her contract with the Prime Minister was still in effect, how did Denji manage to kill her? Why did she not just sprout back up from the cooking pan?
And no, it was certainly not because her contract broke at a very convenient time for Denji and co. This is where the complexity of Denji’s master plan kicks in.
Why did Denji eat Makima? How did it kill her?
Once again, let’s start with the short version of the answer: Denji ate Makima because he wanted to become one with her and also because that was the only way to kill Makima.
He did not ingest her with the intention of attacking her or killing her, but out of pure love; and this exploited the possible loophole in the contract that the Control Devil had with the Prime Minister of Japan.
This is precisely the reason for Makima’s death.
Related: Is Makima devil, fiend or a hybrid? Why does she look human?
For a better understanding of what happened, let’s split the whole process of killing Makima into two parts:
- Cutting up Makima & cooking her
- Eating Makima
Now, the cutting up and cooking part definitely counts as an attack, and while Denji and Kishibe were at it, countless innocent people were dying thanks to Makima’s contract being in effect.
Imagine all those people being cut up and dying just like that. A heavy price was indeed paid in getting the control devil to the dinner table, let’s not forget that. If you don’t believe me, here’s Kishibe saying the same thing to Denji!
The only reason Makima did not regenerate after being cut up by Denji was because Power’s blood was messing up with her body and hindering the process. This gave Denji and Kishibe enough time to go about their butcher business.
Take Power’s blood out of the equation, and Denji would never have had a taste of Makima at all.
Now, unlike the first part, the second part does not count as an attack on Makima at all.
As Denji himself said, even after everything Makima put him through, he still loved her from the bottom of his heart. He was ready to bear the burden of all her sins with her.
See, his intention was not to kill Makima, instead all he wanted was to be together with her.
Dying with her was out of the equation, as she was literally untouchable. So the only option left was to become one with her, and by cooking her up and consuming her, that’s exactly what Denji achieved.
So, to sum it up. Makima’s contract with the Prime Minister of Japan was still intact, but it did not work in this particular scenario because Denji eating her did not count as an attack, it was an act of love. It was all a matter of perception.
I can’t help but notice that Denji’s feelings for Makima are an uncanny parallel to Makima’s feelings for Chainsaw Man. And just like her, he had to go in a roundabout way to achieve his dream of being together with her.
Now, Denji’s act of eating Makima, and her subsequent death has also spawned numerous other theories and questions in the fandom. Let’s take a look at the possible repercussions of eating Makima, if there were any.
Why wasn’t the Control Devil erased?
The first and foremost misunderstanding or question that I intend to clear up is why the existence of the concept of control was not erased.
It’s common knowledge to manga readers by now that if Chainsaw Man eats a devil, their names get erased from existence. So, how did the Control Devil respawn?
Well, the answer is quite simple. It was Denji who ate Makima and not the Chainsaw Devil. Being a hybrid, both Denji and the Chainsaw Devil have their own separate existence within the body.
This is evident from the fact that Makima was trying to break Denji and Pochita’s contract in order to take out the human Denji from the equation and resurrect the Chainsaw Devil.
Also Read: What is Denji and Pochita’s contract? Did it break?
Since it was Denji, in his human form, who consumed Makima, he only ended up killing her and not erasing her existence completely. This is the reason why the Control Devil still exists, and was reborn in the world as Nayuta.
Considering how quickly she came back to the Earth, one can’t help but wonder who killed her in hell, and that too in an incredibly short span of time (unless the concept of time varies in hell). I would pin the responsibility of the murder on the Darkness Devil for the time being, but then, this whole discussion is for another time.
Now there are also readers who came up with theories that Makima’s death is what led to the events of Chainsaw Man part 2.
Consider how her goals involved killing off the War, Famine and Death devils, it is hard to completely ignore that assumption. Makima could have been a counter force that kept the horsemen at bay, and now that Denji took her off the picture, he gave those three an open field to put their plans into motion.
This could probably be the reason why the War Devil made an appearance in Chainsaw Man part 2. Well, to know for sure, we’ll have to wait and watch.
What are your thoughts on Makima’s death? Do you still have any nagging questions about it? Let me know all of it in the comments below and I’ll answer them to the best of my knowledge!!