5 Most Terrifying Devils In All of Chainsaw Man

Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man never shies away from grotesque body horror. The story opens with the tragic, impoverished life of a teenager named Denji, who ends up making a contract with Pochita, the dog-like Chainsaw Devil.

After Denji is killed by zombies, Pochita replaces his heart, transforming him into a hybrid entity. This metamorphosis is both painful and life-changing, as Denji is forced to join the Public Safety Devil Hunters in exchange for a dignified existence. Although Devils have always been a part of this dangerous world, Denji’s Chainsaw heart becomes the prime target for more than one Devil lurking in the shadows.

The Chainsaw Man manga features incredibly frightening Devils who serve as metaphors for human fragility, and at some points, the loss of bodily autonomy — those terrifying entities become even scarier in the anime. They’re also representative of deep-seated human fears, where abstract concepts like darkness or eternity end up manifesting in physical form. Pointedly, a Devil’s power corresponds precisely to how much people fear the concept they represent. Denji’s place in such a complex and volatile world provides the story with the necessary impetus to constantly push its limits.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Chainsaw Man

Some Devils are allies, like the Blood Devil — better known as Power — who gradually becomes Denji’s closest companion in the series. Others, like the Bomb Devil (revealed to be Reze, one of Denji’s early love interests), share a complicated relationship with our protagonist while carrying out a mission to eliminate him. Every Devil has varied motivations, where some crop up as wild cards and others play the long game to set their grand plan in motion.

Here are the five most terrifying Devils in the entirety of the Chainsaw Man manga, ranked.

5 5. Control Devil (Makima)

Image: Shueisha/Viz Media

Even before Makima is revealed to be the Control Devil, her apparent kindness towards Denji feels deeply manipulative from the get-go. This uneasy feeling only grows more sinister and oppressive once Makima starts leveraging Denji’s need for connection to exploit and threaten him, deliberately enforcing a power dynamic that leaves Denji desperate and dependent. Once we learn her true identity, she feels more formidable than ever. Makima’s core ability, Control, allows her to use Machiavellian techniques to “brainwash” living beings. Her strategic contract with the government also reroutes any damage inflicted on her to random citizens, symbolizing the terrifying extent of her apathy.

But what makes Makima such a compelling villain? While she absolutely does wield brute strength, her clinical approach to control and destruction makes her the epitome of bureaucratic evil. Makima ultimately wishes to erase the concepts of war, death, and hunger by using the power of the Chainsaw Devil. While such a utopian dream feels well-intentioned at first, Makima’s fundamental lack of empathy means that this “peaceful” vision can only be achieved through great human suffering. Part of this desire stems from Makima’s inability to form equal, reciprocal relationships, which is why she is willing to ruthlessly strip people’s autonomy and command them to her will.

4 4. Falling Devil (Primal Fear)

Image: Viz Media

Nothing is more frightening than an instinctual human fear suddenly coming to life. All of us are scared of the act of falling from a great height, given the helplessness of the situation, but we’re also scared of “falling” into a deep depression that’s difficult to escape. The Falling Devil, who represents this Primal Fear, becomes the major antagonist of the Academy Saga, which follows Asa Mitaka (the host of the War Devil Yoru) seeking out Denji in the same school as her. The first act of cruelty that the Falling Devil inflicts on Earth is to influence humans into taking their own lives. As if this isn’t horrible enough, the Falling Devil also triggers traumatic memories and sends several people flying towards the gates of Hell soon after.

As she enjoys nigh-absolute immortality and immense regenerative abilities, the Falling Devil is a menace to fight. She can manipulate a victim’s thoughts, inducing psychic assaults by preying on a victim’s guilt or insecurities. On top of that, she can twist the laws of physics with her gravity manipulation and cause widespread natural disasters with ease. Although the combined efforts of Denji and Yoru help subdue the Falling Devil, she was enough of a threat to obliterate the Justice Devil with a singular beam of energy.

3 3. Gun Devil

Image: Shueisha/Viz Media

A Devil that embodies the concept of firearms is undoubtedly scary, but the Gun Devil takes this fear of widespread chaos and devastation to extremes. It doesn’t help that the Gun Devil does not engage in verbal dialogue of any sort, pointing towards the absence of an ideology that can be understood via human parameters. That said, the Gun Devil is single-mindedly dedicated to cataclysmic destruction, as the entity doesn’t seem to have any regard for human life. Countless lives, including that of children, have been lost due to its malevolent nature — a staggering 1.2 million people in just five minutes, to be exact.

This horrific global event occurs on the same scale as an impersonal natural disaster, but the brutality lies in the senseless violence of it all. The Gun Devil also has various physical forms: it sported the barrel and slide of an M1911 jutting out of its face when it took over Aki Hayakawa's body and had M4 Carbines (among other weapons) for arms when 20% of its body was summoned by the President of the United States. These physical forms evoke sheer terror, adding to the psychological impact of living in the midst of widespread panic. This collective fear is heightened by the fact that fragments of the Gun Devil were constantly coveted by global superpowers for their own schemes.

2 2. Darkness Devil (Primal Fear)

Image: Shueisha/Viz Media

Arguably, the Death Devil should feel more terrifying as the conceptual root of all human fears. Every deep-seated insecurity stems from the inevitable reality of death, which is constant and unavoidable. While the Death Devil holds tremendous power over everybody, some fates are worse than death, such as the agony of being subjected to the unknown. This is the primary essence of the Darkness Devil, an entity that embodies a concept of darkness that feels uniquely Lovecraftian. Apart from possessing unknowable god-like powers, the Darkness Devil taps into the universal fear of concepts that are far too twisted for the human mind to comprehend.

The Darkness Devil can also manipulate objects with a flick of a wrist, which includes effortlessly severing limbs or obliterating a living being by uttering a single word. While Makima was able to cause damage to the entity, its incomprehensible form (which evokes a Cthulhu-esque cosmic dread) used a Blade of Darkness (which can induce violent hemorrhaging) and slashed her at the last moment. It also possesses absolute regeneration, allowing it to heal from even grave wounds instantly, rendering any attacks ultimately meaningless. Any primordial force that cannot be subdued or defeated by conventional battle tactics is a serious threat that should be considered virtually unkillable.

1 1. Chainsaw Devil (Pochita)

Image: Shueisha/Viz Media

As a Devil that is an existential threat to all Devils, the Chainsaw Devil (Pochita) is the most unpredictable wild card in the world of Chainsaw Man. Almost every conflict that drives the narrative stems from a desire to either use or eliminate the Chainsaw Devil, and by extension, Denji. Pochita embodies the concept of existence and memory, possessing the absolutely terrifying power of permanently obliterating a Devil from human history. This can be understood as the power to rewrite reality and delete events, concepts, or objects as if they never existed in the first place.

The Chainsaw Devil’s combat prowess is also an added threat, which feeds into his reputation as someone capable of upsetting the order of things beyond recognition. These powers, however, do have potential limits. Pochita had erased the concept of nuclear weapons after consuming the Nuclear Weapons Devil at one point, but the bombs were recreated later on as the radioactive components and armaments needed to make them still exist in the world.

Despite this potential loophole in his powers, the Chainsaw Devil plays a seminal role in the manga’s much-debated ending, where Pochita erases the concept of Chainsaw Man to save Denji from an endless cycle of suffering. This soft reset of the timeline might not feel super cohesive to one and all, but it does tie into the themes of choosing the mundanity of emotional bonds over the spectacle of power and unchecked chaos.