Chainsaw Man is more like Spider-Man than ever, and that includes his delicately-balanced life as the shonen Peter Parker.
The following contains spoilers for Chainsaw Man Chapter 103, "name," by Tatasuki Fujimoto, Amanda Haley and Sabrina Heep, available now in English from Viz Media.
The first major arc of Chainsaw Man was a total hit, selling millions of copies for Volumes 1-11 all over the world. Now it's time for Part 2, with Denji the titular hero embarking on all-new adventures after Makima's final defeat. However, for now, Chainsaw Man is actually a supporting character seen through the eyes of the new protagonist Asa Mitaka and the general public.
Asa and the public see Chainsaw Man not as some obscure monster only heard of in rumors but as a bonafide superhero. So far, Chainsaw Man is like a twisted Spider-Man in particular, as Chapter 102 showed, and Chapter 103 shows the Peter Parker side of this equation -- and Denji doesn't like it.
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In the first major story arc of Chainsaw Man, Denji and his late partner Power were both fairly obscure and rarely appeared in public. They were underground antiheroes figuring things out as they went, but by now, Denji has become a star, and the public has mixed opinions about him as a gory, brutal superhero. This is similar to how Peter Parker was once an obscure, homegrown fighter as Spider-Man but soon had the public catch on, especially given the Daily Bugle's unflattering coverage of him. Denji is in the same position here in Chainsaw Man Chapter 103, with many panels showing a news reporter interviewing people on the streets about their gory hero.
Some of the interviewees think Chainsaw Man is cool, some think he's a monster and yet others simply have the wrong impression about what Chainsaw Man is actually like. This not only feels realistic but also gives Denji a new battle to fight -- one that Peter Parker could relate to. They can both beat up villains, but can they win the battle for the public's favor? At times, Spider-Man commented, "They love me!" but in other cases, the people of New York City see Spidey as a freak or a menace. Spider-Man's public image is a work in progress, in short, and so is Chainsaw Man's.
The Peter Parker parallels don't end there for Denji. He and Peter are both striving to balance their everyday lives and their superhero lives, and it's not easy. Juggling those two lives puts serious strain on them, and if either of them has their secret identity revealed, there will be trouble. A young man named Yoshida tells Denji as much when the boys meet up to chat in Chapter 103, for example. It's one thing for Tony Stark to declare "I am Iron Man," but if either Peter or Denji out themselves like that, things will spiral into chaos quickly. There's no going back for either of them, and if they slip up even once, their careers might be over, their personal lives ruined for good. Both of them are responsible for keeping their private lives safe from all this -- an intriguing twist on Uncle Ben's "With great power comes great responsibility."
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In these ways and more, Denji has become the new Peter Parker, and the two of them would definitely relate if they somehow met up. However, the two characters also have some key differences, as Chapters 102 and 103 show. Denji is a deconstruction of the broader concept of superheroes and shonen heroes in particular, while Spider-Man certainly isn't. In Chapter 102, for example, Denji had a very antihero-style response to the cockroach Devil's Green Goblin dilemma during their fight. Instead of saving either or both hostage parties, Denji abandoned them to instead rescue an imperiled house cat. No Marvel hero would do that, but Denji cares little for the common people and care about a cat -- a fond reminder of his old friend Power.
Chapter 103 depicts Denji putting another twist on the Peter Parker formula. In his meeting with Yoshida, Denji does not take responsibility for his secret identity seriously. Instead, he revels in it, even telling Yoshida that he wants people to know who he is, consequences be damned. Once again, Yuji gleefully breaks all the rules and acts like the unpredictable antihero he is, mocking the Peter Parker formula. In fact, he was interviewed as himself on TV, talking about Chainsaw Man as though the hero were a different person. In that interview, Denji tried to give a high school girl his phone number when the girl expressed an interest in getting Chainsaw Man's phone number as a fan. Denji is playing fast and loose with the Peter Parker formula, but that sort of behavior is what Chainsaw Man fans love about their gory antihero. He's a Marvel-style hero like none other.
Louis Kemner has been a fan of Japanese animation since 1997, when he discovered Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z in elementary school. Now he's a bigger anime/manga fan than ever, and is ready to share what he knows with readers worldwide. He graduated high school in 2009 and received his Bachelor's in creative writing from UMKC in 2013, then put his skills to work in 2019 with CBR.com. He's always looking for a wonderful new anime to watch or manga series to read.
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