Chainsaw Man Chapter 140, Scales Review: Meeting Another Weapon.

I went into Chapter 140 of Chainsaw Man, “Scales”, excited to see if another Devil Hybrid would return to the story.
Sure enough, there was one, and an intimidating one at that.
The chapter begins with Denji and Sugo arriving at the Chainsaw Man Church, which has a giant model of Chainsaw Man’s face sticking out from the top of the building.
Sugo tells Denji that a cult used to own the building before the Chainsaw Man Church absorbed them, claiming they “vanquished evil.”
Well, it turns out that the cult elements of the Chainsaw Man Church are far from vanquished.
Before this is revealed, Sugo introduces Denji to his guide, the Kobeni clone from the Aquarium Arc.
He introdues himself as Nobana Higashiyama and, with this last name-drop, we finally know that Nobana is Kobeni’s brother and not just a weird male clone of her.
I wonder what Kobeni thinks of her brother joining the Chainsaw Man Church, and if we will see her again?
As for Nobana, he is exactly like his sister, stuttering over his words, as he gives Denji a tour of the Church.
When Denji notices that all of the Church’s members are students, Nobana says it’s because all of the adults’ minds have been altered by an American ultraviolet ray weapon hovering over Japan.
Why do the Church followers believe this?
Well, because Chainsaw Man discovered it with his super vision, of course.
So, basically, the fake Chainsaw Man is brainwashing his followers with outlandish conspiracy theories, which bear a strong resemblance to the extremist conspiracy theories of today, like the idiotic jewish space laser conspiracy.
This is not the only extreme thing the Church is doing because, when Nobana takes Denji to the Chainsaw Man Wedding Chapel, he tells Denji he will be having sex with a girl and then marrying her.
So the Chainsaw Man Church is also engaging in coerced underage marriages.
But, yeah, the cult elements have been totally vanquished.
Sugo said so.
Denji rightfully calls this cult behavior out, revealing to Sugo that he never found a ultraviolet weapon.
At this revelation, Sugo merely doubles down, saying it’s okay if one person gets screwed over so long as hundreds are saved.
Sugo is clearly brainwashed but he does seem like a good person despite this, so if his brainwashing is broken I could see him betraying the Church eventually to help Denji.
If this does come about, however, Sugo and Denji will have a lot to worry about from a particular member of the Church because this is the moment when one of the Devil Hybrids finally makes his appearance.
His name is Barem and he is the Flamethrower Hybrid whom Makima controlled to attack Denji.
He is also, clearly, a massive psycho, jabbing his fingers up Denji’s nose and then threatening the city and eventually Asa in an attempt to make Denji become Chainsaw Man again.
He then tells Denji to picture a pair of scales.
On the right side is Denji’s home, family, pets, a wonderful life, and on the left in Denji’s starter which transforms him into Chainsaw Man.
Barem asks Denji which side is heavier but, instead of answering, Denji pushes him off and storms off, while Barem cheerfully shouts out to Denji that he should, “Enjoy your normal life while you can!”
The chapter then concludes with this threat.
“Scales” had a lot of moments that are interesting to consider in their implications for the story,
chief among these being the introduction of Barem.
He is most likely going to be a threat going forward, and there are already quite a few theories about him already.
I have seen some theorize that he is the man who placed his hands on Haruka’s shoulder in a threatening way in Chapter 132.
This seems likely to me, considering he is introduced in almost the exact same way in Chapter 140, with him placing his hand on Nobana’s shoulder.
Another theory about Barem is that he was not actually under Makima’s control when he fought Pochita.
In that fight, all of the Hybrids are talking about how much they love Makima, while he simply states, “Hmmm. Everyone really loves Ms. Makima, don’t they?”
It is almost as if he is not under control like the rest of them and is just fighting because he enjoys it, which would certainly match up with his creepy personality we saw in his chat with Denji.
As for the other Devil Hybrids, with Barem’s introduction, there are now two unknown ones left who we have not been introduced to.
These are the Spear Hybrid and the Whip Hybrid, the latter of whom is already theorized to have shown up, which I mentioned in my previous review.
As for the other remaining Hybrids, Reze, Quanxi and Katana Man, I now do not see them being involved in the Chainsaw Man Church, given how much of a cult it is.
The fake Chainsaw Man, Fami, and the Justice Devil are clearly indoctrinating people to suit their own ends.
As for what this end is, I think a war with America is one possibility.
Makima mentioned that there might be a war in Part One of Chainsaw Man, and Yoru said “War draws nigh” in Chapter 135.
As for the American component, it seems like Fujimoto has been setting up a lot of anti-American conspiracies among his characters.
There is the random guy who says Chainsaw Man is just American propaganda in Chapter 103 and, of course, there is the Chainsaw Man Church spreading extremist conspiracy theories about America in this chapter.
A war with America would also make Yoru stronger as the War Devil, which may be a part of Fami’s plan to end the Nostradamus Prophecy, since the prophecy states that Mars, meaning Yoru, will reign.
Fami is also intertwined with justice as the Famine Devil, with justice being a big theme, what with the mention of scales from Barem in this chapter, like the scales of Lady Justice.
Like I said, there are a lot of implications which could be drawn from this chapter and other recent events.
We will just have to wait and see what these implications amount to.
Either way, this was another great Chainsaw Man chapter, which showed the indoctrination of the Church and introduced the new threat of Barem very well.