Chainsaw Man is somewhat of an anomaly as a shōnen action series. In structure, it's a hero's tale like any other, yet its subject matter often reads like a story found in a seinen magazine. It's cruel, crude, and violent, while peddling incredibly human themes of perseverance and the importance of being alive. The main difference between Chainsaw Man and other shōnen titles within the same genre begins with the series' protagonist.

Shōnen manga and anime have survived and thrived for as long as they have by following a structure that is proven to sell. A generally moral main character has a clear-cut goal, which they pursue on a long journey of self-improvement while making some new friends along the way. Goku, Luffy, and Naruto, three of Shōnen Jump's most iconic protagonists, are prime examples of the formula leading to overwhelmingly positive results. Chainsaw Man's Denji is not one of those characters.

Rude, uneducated, morally gray, and overly horny, Denji is the antithesis of the typical shōnen hero. For that reason, the series' protagonist is somewhat divisive. Some adore the one-of-a-kind leading devil hunter, while others are quick to write him off as a perverted teen whose mind is cluttered by nothing but women. While that may be true, there's one thing that cannot be denied: he's a wonderfully complex character. While other series disguise shallow writing by appearing to have depth, Chainsaw Man has a habit of disguising its depth under seemingly shallow writing, and Denji is proof of that.

There's More to Denji's Perversion Than It Seems

Denji Is a Complex Character With Trouble Identifying His Needs

A generally overlooked characteristic about Denji is that he is naive. From the time he was a small child, the boy was forced to live only in the company of a nonverbal devil. He had no education, and likely only learned about life from the yakuza who enslaved him. He has no memories of his mother, who died when he was a child, and his father abused him to the point that Denji was forced to kill him in self-defense. Intimacy of any kind is foreign to Denji when the audience is introduced to him at the beginning of the series.

A goal that is centered around something as shallow as "touching boobs", as one of Chainsaw Man's earliest chapters depicts as Denji's dream, isn't very interesting. But the sentiment behind that goal changes somewhat when rephrased as, "I want someone to love me the way no one ever has before." Being uneducated, deprived of social experience, and deeply traumatized, the series' protagonist cannot voice or even understand his own impulses or desires. And that goes for most of what Denji says.

When he claims to want sushi every day, or that good food is enough to keep him content, those desires stem from not wanting to go hungry anymore, or having to eat toilet paper to keep himself full. He may seem like a sex-crazed, impulsive, out-of-control teenager based on what he says, though his actions tell a different story. Having the chance to grab at Power, he realizes that his dream wasn't quite what he wanted, as there was no intimacy involved. The same goes for Himeno, who openly offered what Denji thought he wanted, and he didn't take the opportunity.

Chainsaw Man can be a strange series, bordering on absurd at times, but its characters and themes are overwhelmingly human, and Denji isn't an exception. He may seem stupid and perverted, but in truth, the protagonist is simply a scarred child grasping at the only idea of normalcy he has.

Denji Isn't Typical, But He's a Hero

He May Have His Own Reasons For Being One, But Denji Is a Hero

Another criticism of the series' main character is that he is far too morally gray to be a hero, and that isn't exactly true either. The world of Chainsaw Man is brutally cold and unforgiving, and death lurks around every corner. Though Denji may have his own motivations for his actions, he saves the lives of many people throughout the story. The best example would be during the Gun Devil arc, in which Denji is forced to kill the only person who had ever been like a brother to him, in order to prevent any more senseless violence.

He isn't typical by any means, but there is far more to Chainsaw Man's Denji than most think. Arguably the most mischaracterized protagonist in modern shōnen anime and manga, much of what defines Chainsaw Man himself comes from a desperate desire to survive and fulfill needs he doesn't quite understand. When the series returns with the Reze Arc film in 2025, fans who are only familiar with the anime's version of events will hopefully be able to understand him just a little bit better.