DEATH DEVIL CONFIRMED! Chainsaw Man Chapter 196 Review!

In the previous Chainsaw Man chapter, Asa warns Denji of Yoru’s plan being far worse than death, just in time as we meet a new transfer student, who might as well be Death herself.

Is she the final boss of Chainsaw Man?

Chainsaw Man Chapter 196 is titled, “Chainsaw Man to the Rescue!”

This chapter has 14 pages.

The chapter continues where we left off with the new student, saying she feels bad for the students

As she sees the students not pay attention to her, she begins crying due to being nervous in front of others.

She believes that certain tasks like taking out the trash are beneath her just because she has superpowers, so the students do it instead, which is “one less worry” for her.

This indicates that she does not want to be bothered yet she insists on interacting with the students to “save them”. Odd.

One male student with a bandaged on his cheek invites her to help organize the school festival, which she agrees with as long as it helps her save them.

Some of you may think she is Kobeni, except with an ego.

The girl who bullied Asa before tells the newcomer that everyone else is freaked out by her and that she is better off squishing ants outside

As the rest of the students look at each other with discomfort, the same girl who bullied Asa tells the transfer student that everyone’s starting to feel super uncomfortable around her, and that if she really wants to help she should be squishing ants outside, which she actually does.

The bandaged boy does come to sympathize with her, wondering if she left town due to a devil-related tragedy, which is the same for everyone.

The Academy Saga is a new laboratory for Chainsaw Man as while Public Safety or Part 1 shows us the lives of devil hunters who see death all the time, Part 2 of the story reveals the longing to escape from reality.

So for the student, school was that escape and if there was a way the student could feel relevant or useful, it would be through smiling.

The mood shifts as the transfer student, still teary-eyed, says that the festival will fail regardless of what happens, as if she has some gift to see the future or due to the calamity of the Death Devil’s arrival.

But she can still save them

….by freeing them from suffering through death, confirming that this girl IS the Death Devil, the final villain of Chainsaw Man.

Resting her hand on the boy, she plans to use him as an example, but she pauses as she notices a silhouette above the school.

The chapter ends with the Fake Chainsaw Man finally reappearing since Chapter 134: “Ordinary Happiness” and for once, he actually acts like a hero, stopping the Death Devil from “saving” the poor guy.

This might not bode so well for the Fami or Fire Devil pawn, unless there is something bigger afoot.

Can the real Chainsaw Man even handle the ultimate devil, the King of Terror herself?

Who is the Death Devil?

The Death Devil’s introduction is surprisingly perfect for the type of character Chainsaw Man wants.

Aside from being a cute girl, she is also one of the most bizarre and beyond understanding.

The previous three Horsemen expressed a desire for normalcy and although Yoru might be hinted to be the even bigger threat in the last chapter, she did express some form of feelings for Denji and concern for Asa, something Sukuna was the complete opposite for Yuji and even Megumi in Jujutsu Kaisen.

However, the Death Devil so far seems completely cut off from the concept.

Although she wants attention and has the desire to be a heroic figure, she also kills people for the sake of “peace”.

The way other people are not paying attention to her could also be part of her devil nature, such that they even “trivialize” her presence to “killing ants”.

There are a few ways to read this line from Asa’s bully:

If speaking from her perspective, she is seeing the life of this newcomer as redundant and worth nothing that she is better off just squishing ants, an action that has no consequence to the school or to both the bully and the new student.

If speaking from the Death Devil’s perspective, this is also another way of shelving off the idea of death to something that “just happens to other people”.

People are “less afraid” of death in the modern world, mostly the privileged classes towards the outside world’s poor and minorities.

The fact the Death Devil squishes ants even if common sense dictates there is no point to the action also speaks to how the Death Devil sees no difference between killing ants and humans, except for the Death Devil, humans are a superior race that “need saving”.

At the same time, there is more intentionality to the act of killing ants than the way most kids would when they do it out on a whim.

Chainsaw Man does see plenty of death and thus a fear of that motivating humans to make deals with the Aging Devil and such.

However, it would also be interesting to see death be trivialized or treated as “less of a primal fear” due to the advancements in healthcare and lifestyle.

If she has a fear, it is the fear of becoming less relevant and that is why people are not paying her mind, which she interprets also as the loss of her supremacy as the Great King of Terror.

Perhaps Death, the ultimate fear of all life, is afraid of life itself and finds peace, for both the suffering of life and her own, in the loss of life.

In meeting the fake Chainsaw Man, perhaps we can see a confirmation of the Fire Devil’s deal and its own concept of justice that it usurps from the real Justice Devil.

Fire and Death, Justice and Fear.

What a clash that would be.

Chainsaw Man Chapter 197 will be released on March 25, 2025.

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