fuck makima
or, i have a lot of thoughts about chainsaw man's first villain
Obligatory spoiler warning: I talk about almost everything that happens in the Chainsaw Man manga up to June 6th 2024 (PLEAAAAAAAAAAASE GO READ IT I BEG OF YOUUUUUUU)
I love Chainsaw Man. Anyone who knows me knows my love for it runs deep. I honestly feel like it’s one of the best stories out there right now, and a top tier newgen manga and anime. I could write thousands of blog posts on everything that’s happened in it, from the dog motifs to the depiction of trauma and war to Denji’s character as a whole.
Honestly, I kinda hate that I’m starting with my least favorite character in the series. Because while I love her as a villain, as an antagonist whose actions don’t just haunt the narrative, but actively terrorize it, I also fucking hate her.
I fucking hate Makima.
I won’t lie and say I’ve never hated a character like I hate her because I am, first and formost, a certified hater. But there are honestly very few characters that ignite such deep-seated rage in my heart the way Makima does. Honestly, the only character that comes close is Garp (and we will get to him one of these days TRUST ME).
She symbolizes everything I hate. She does the worst shit in the series and faces barely any repercussions for the longest time because she plays her cards right. She’s an abuser. She’s a groomer who toys with the people under her care. She’s a manipulator who destroys everything she touches.
You could pin it as a trauma response, because I hate any abusive character by default. Growing up around people like that gives you an incredibly tiny tolerance window for any abusers you encounter in the future, fictional or not.
You could pin it on my deep love for Denji as a character. Normally, when you love a character, you hate anyone who fucks with them. I hate Sukuna because of what he did to Yuji and Megumi. I hate Endeavor for how he treated his children AND his wife. I hate Nehza because of how he treated Rin. I hate Discord because of how he treated the Mane Six, especially Fluttershy (and no I do not care about his redemption arc.) I hate Miguel because of how he treated Miles. And Makima is no different. Hell, I loathe Himeno for the same reasons I hate Makima.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s a phenomenally written character. I do appreciate her, and honestly consider her one of the scariest villains in media right now, up there in the ranks with Homelander, Thanos, Adora Crellin, and Doflamingo. I love her as a villain. I hold a deep appreciation for how Fujimoto wrote her, giving her a semi-understandable backstory that puts some things in perspective, but makes zero excuses for how she has weaponized her abilities as the Control Devil to raise hell in her search for Chainsaw Man or what she’s done to get ahold of it.
My feelings about Makima are strong. But as much as I hate her, I’m also terrified of her.
Villains like her are the scariest to me; manipulative, powerful people who will destroy whoever and whatever to get what they want. The lack of care they hold towards their actions is horrifying. The lack of consideration is unnerving. Who cares who or what gets caught in the crossfire, so long as they get what they want.
Makima wanted Chainsaw Man, so she ruined Denji’s life to get it. She knew what kind of buttons to press to get Denji to do what she wanted. She knew what to use against him, what to manipulate in his “favor”. He was a boy in poverty, working himself to death to pay off his parent’s debt, and who never had access to the basic essentials. She gave him a stable job, clothes, a place to call home and people to call family. Makima positioned herself as an ally to him, someone in his corner, and used the fact that he’s a traumatized teenager with no real definition of love against him to groom him for the future.
Makima propped him up for success, gave him everything he ever wanted, and then ripped it to shreds in front of his eyes. She killed Aki, and sicked his puppetted corpse onto him. She destroyed his home, tore down the foundations of a life he’d finally gotten settled in; sunk him back to the desperate, lonely kid he was when they first met and waited for him to come crawling to her. And when he did, she slaughtered the only person he had left, so he would be wholly dependent on her.
And she was so close to succeeding. Thank god for Kishibe. Thank god for Kobeni.
She masterminded Denji’s life. She manipulated and toyed with him for months, played with his life and him as a person like she was playing the Sims.
And it pisses me off. Maybe it’s me getting too invested in a fictional series, but I have strong feelings about Denji as a character. And reading the amount of torment he suffered at her hands, and how the trauma of it all has followed him into Part Two, breaks my heart and angers me even more.
I hate Makima. There aren’t enough words in the English language (or in ASL) to properly explain it. I hate her because of her actions, I hate her for what she stands for, and I hate how we can’t get rid of her, even with her being dead.
By that, I mean I hate how Fujimoto has written a painfully realistic character in the form of Denji, who’s spending Part 2 having to grapple with everything she put him through. He’s having to confront the fact she ruined his life, destroyed his concepts of healthy sex and relationships, and left him more fucked up than he already was. It's devastating, and every chapter released makes me hate her more. Half of the situations Denji has been in would never have happened had Makima left him alone. It’s hard to read.
And honestly, I say that’s part of why she’s a great villain. Because as dead as she is, the effects of her actions are alive and well. She haunts the narrative in the form of Public Safety being in absolute shambles in the aftermath of her revealing herself as a devil. She was an official in their ranks, and a high ranking one at that. Their entire system is destroyed because of her, they’re running around Japan like chickens with their heads cut off.
She haunts the narrative in the form of the current state of Japan. Overrun with Devils, with Public Safety being about as helpful as a rusty nail. Without her control, without her iron grip on the state of things, the world has spiraled into unadulterated chaos.
Makima haunts the narrative in the form of Denji. He carries the burden of her actions, lives with the trauma of what she’s done. He’s Chainsaw Man. He’s the personification of everything she wanted. He’s the victim of so much of her cruelty. He’s the sole survivor of his found family, and he’s Makima’s killer. Hell, he positioned Chainsaw Man as a local superhero to (in my opinion anyway) make up for what he’s done, make something positive from all he’s suffered. He shoulders the weight of all she ever did.
Makima haunts Denji in the form of Nayuta; the literal reincarnation of Makima, and the child he’s raising to be better than her predecessor. He’s doing what he can to prevent the repetition of the past, and he’s doing a damn good job at it.
I’m not sure how to cap this off but fuck Makima, if I ever catch her in the streets of hell she WILL be dealt with.
- Elena