Going into Chainsaw Man Chapter 188, “Octopus, War, Chainsaw,” I knew to expect more insanity from Tatsuki Fujimoto.
I had seen a preview of the first few panels so knew that Denji would throw up Yoshida but to see it actually happen sure was something.
Yoshida is quick to understand the situation and suggests working together to escape.
Asa refuses to accept Yoshida’s apology for cutting off her arm but he humorously twists this into a handshake.
Denji is also reluctant to work with Yoshida, but he uses a bear analogy, stating they should put aside their differences to return to the outside world.
Now working together, Yoshida quickly proves his worth.
Knowing that Denji’s stomach is connected to Chainsaw Man, he asks to put his hand down his throat, to which Denji smiles, ending the chapter.
From here, things only get weirder with Chapter 189, “Heart, Pass, Octopus,” as our heroes continuously shove themselves down Denji’s throat in their attempts to escape.
First, Yoshida shoves his hand in, using the Octopus Devil to attack.
Then, Yoru fires blindly before, in one of Chainsaw Man‘s most bizarre panels, she climbs through Denji’s mouth to get a clear shot at the Aging Devil.
All of these attempts fail, with Yoru’s attempt resulting in the Aging Devil warping her into an old woman.
Thankfully for her and Asa, the aging fades when she returns to the other dimension.
Following all of these failures, help arrives from an unexpected source: Fumiko.
As she lies bleeding on the ground, both she and the Aging Devil see what appears to be a hallucination of herself, which announces that she promised herself she would side with the winner in her final moments.
Fumiko then gives her heart to Yoshida, who feeds it to the Octopus Devil, powering it up.
The Octopus Devil then leaves through Denji’s mouth and crashes through the building in the chapter’s final panel.
This whole ending scene is weird, but I don’t mean that in a praiseworthy way.
I actually have no idea what is even going on with Fumiko.
If she was hallucinating herself, then why could the Aging Devil also see the hallucination?
Also, Fumiko’s motives just seem all over the place.
First, she’s a creep who touches Denji without his consent.
Then, she has an emotional backstory about why she wants to help Denji.
Next, she abandons him and Nayuta to save her own skin and is fine with Denji being ripped apart.
Then, she’s willing to sacrifice her own body to stop the Nostradamus Prophecy.
Finally, she switches sides and helps Yoshida because she thinks he’s going to win, even though they were losing up until that point.
Her whole character seems pretty inconsistent, unless we get some context, but that seems unlikely since she just literally gave up her heart in a contract.
Still, despite my issues with Fumiko’s character, these were some really good chapters.
Once again, Fujimoto proves himself to be creatively insane with the concepts he comes up with.
Interested to see if Yoshida’s alliance with Denji and Asa still holds after they escape.