Answer: one special lil’ guy.
While Bond Forger is currently anime’s champion borfer, a special little dude named Pochita from Chainsaw Man may contest his title. Pochita is a cute lil’ dog with a chainsaw face that serves as the heart of the series. Literally. He’s actually the protagonist’s heart. And he’s really adorable.
But he wasn’t always that way…
You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but Pochita was once the most feared devil in all of hell. In those glory days, he was known as the “Chainsaw Devil”, and was the embodiment of the fear of chainsaws. A fear that I did not know I had until gazing upon his true form.
Apparently, I’m not the only person who was a lil’ freaked out by Pochita. The other devils of hell were pretty spooked by this dude too. That’s mostly because he was able to permanently kill devils by consuming them. See, the thing about devils is that they reincarnate. They’re not humans, they’re spirits. If a devil dies, big whoop, it’ll just come back after a break commercial break. But if Chainsaw Devil decided to kill a devil, that devil was erased forever, along with the fear it represented. So if Chainsaw Devil decided to kill Prolonged Eye Contact Devil, then P.E.C.D. would be dead forever and we could all stare into the windows of each other’s souls without feeling a little bit uneasy.
Naturally, this freaked ol’ ProEyes out, along with the rest of devil-kind. So they killed him. But the problem is he came back. The devils killed CD a bunch of times, but it didn’t matter. CD was the only devil who could kill other devils permanently, so he could effectively fight forever. However, eventually some of the higher-up devils got sick of CD’s shit, and decided to see if they could end him once and for all. The Four Horsemen of Hell and the Weapon Devils (i.e. Bomb Devil, Katana Devil) launched an all out assault against Chainsaw Devil, and they were able to grievously wound him.
Little did they know, they would turn him into something cute enough to die for.
After he was wounded, Chainsaw Devil reverted to his “near death form”, which a lil’ dog with a chainsaw for a boopsnoot. Pochita eventually found his way to Earth, where he came across Denji kneeling at his recently deceased father’s tombstone. Pochita was initially ready to cut Denji’s fingers off, but quickly keeled over due to his injuries. Denji took pity on the lil’ thing and offered Pochita some of his blood to drink, on the condition that the two would become partners. Unbeknownst to Pochita, Denji is in debt to some pretty scary yakuza dudes, and intends to make some cash as a devil hunter in order to pay off that debt. You’d think there’d be an easier way to make money, but in today’s economy, I don’t fault his decision.
Unfortunately, the devil hunting doesn’t go as planned. Denji and Pochita are mortally wounded in a battle with the Zombie Devil, who has taken control of the yakuza. Luckily for Denji, the once human-hating Pochita develops a soft spot for the kid for saving his life. Before the two succumb to their injuries, Pochita offers to fuse with Denji and become his heart in order to help Denji achieve his dreams. Isn’t that just the sweetest thing? The fusion works, and Denji (now Chainsaw Man) is able to kill the Zombie Devil by putting a chainsaw through its face. That is also the sweetest thing.
The good news is that Denji’s fusion with Pochita allows him to tap into the skills of the most formidable devil killer in existence. The bad news is that all the devils that wanted the original Chainsaw Devil dead now want Denji dead as well. Denji and Pochita have to use their combined wits in order to slay devil after devil for their mysterious employer Makima. The job is exactly what Pochita is made for, sure, but it’s not exactly what he wants in life. In a moment of total adorableness, Pochita tells Denji that he actually dreams of being hugged. Yes, hugged. Being a denizen of hell, Pochita has probably never had a hug in his life. I’d hug him if I could, but I’m still a little afraid he might murder me.
(featured image: Shueisha)
