Bust out your Kevlar bodysuit, you’re gonna need it.
The Chainsaw Man anime just came out and already I’m horrified by some of the devils on this show. Makima is more conceptually horrifying, but plenty of the devils are also physically horrifying as well. Even our girl Power can be a little spooky sometimes! But in a charming way.
But no devil in Chainsaw Man is more horrifying than … the Gun Devil. *shudders*
If you’ve read the manga, you know what I mean.
Okay So Who Is He?
Like all the devils of hell, the gun devil embodies a deep seated human fear. In GD’s case, it’s the fear of (you guessed it) guns. And no, I don’t mean rippling biceps that you’d see on a man at Muscle Beach. I mean those things that you point at stuff to make it go BLAM! Those guns.
But Surely The Gun Devil Can’t Be THAT Powerful? Guns Are A Relatively Recent Invention!
That’s true. The Gun Devil doesn’t have the “primal fear” clout that say, The Darkness Devil (another creepo) has. However, considering all of the hideous violence guns have inflicted in the past few centuries, it’s safe to say that he made his impression pretty quickly. Ironically enough, it was the effort to defend against devils that caused the Gun Devil to become so powerful. In an effort to protect themselves from devils, people all around the world stockpiled guns. This led to a massive spike in violent crime and gun related deaths, causing the fear of guns to skyrocket. After a deadly terrorist attack in America, the fear of guns reached a breaking point, and the Gun Devil manifested himself in Japan. He attacked the country for 26 seconds, and killed 57,912 in that amount of time. He then attacked other countries across the world, leading to a death toll of 1.2 million people. In response, the governments of the world implemented extremely strict gun laws in order to quell the fear of guns across the world.
So What Is The Ol’ Boomstick Devil Doing Now?
He’s laying around. In pieces. Kinda like a disassembled gun.
At some point, The Gun Devil was taken down, and his body was divided up between the most powerful nations of the world. Â 20% of his body is owned by the United States. 28% is owned by the Soviet Union, 11% is owned by China, 4% is owned by other nations. The last 37% is in the form of strips of meat (gross), and is possessed by devils scattered across the world.
So We’re Safe?
Hardly. Although the Gun Devil is divided up, he still has power. In fact, the President of The United States meets with America’s 20% of the Gun Devil and offers him one year of the life force of every American citizen in change for killing Makima. What an asshole, right? Even 20% of the Gun Devil is enormously powerful. The 1/5th Gun Devil possesses assault arms the size of buildings and is able to cause untold destruction. On the path to hunting down Makima, The Gun Devil levels a few cities for before finally setting his sights on her. Makima barely survives the encounter, but ultimately fails to kill the Gun Devil. The 1/5th Gun Devil is able to possess the corpse of one of her squadmates and become The Gun Fiend. He’s less powerful as a fiend, but still not someone you’d like to meet in a dark alley.
So What Are We Up Against?
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, things are looking grim. The Gun Devil is one tough bastard. For one, he has super speed. Remember how I said he killed 1.2 million people in multiple countries at the height of his power? He did that in five minutes. One could say that he travels “faster than a speeding bullet”. He is also extremely durable, as his body is made up of literal guns. When The Gun Devil moves, pieces of his flesh fall off and take the form of nasty little bullets. When a devil consumes these bullets their power becomes greatly enhanced. The Gun Devil doesn’t even have to be conscious for this to work. Just break you off a piece of that fully automatic Kit Kat bar and you’ll be cooking with gas. His most devastating power, however, is shooting ability. He can fire a lot of rounds with extreme accuracy, enough to headshot ever single person within an area of 1,000 meters. At one point he even shoots every child up to 12 years old within 1,500 meters of himself.
HOW DO WE STOP THIS GUY?
Well, the good news is, the heroes of Chainsaw Man haven’t had to fight the Gun Devil at full power. Yet. Due to his unbelievable destructive abilities, the gang is trying to track down the pieces of the Gun Devil in order to diminish his power. Like I said before, the devils of hell are in possession of over a third of the Gun Devil’s body, and they are loathe to give it up without a fight. Thankfully, devils tend to prefer solitude, so Chainsaw Man and friends don’t have to go up against every devil with a piece of GD all at once.
However, this doesn’t mean that recovering the pieces of Gun Devil’s flesh is easy. Devils that consume his flesh become far more powerful than ever before, and cause quite a bit of grief for the Public Safety Devil Hunters. It’s also possible that the other nations of the world could utilize their pieces of the Gun Devil to further their own ends. Makima was barely able to defeat 1/5th of The Gun Devil. That means that roughly 80% of ol’ Boomstick is still out there, PLUS the Gun Fiend. If that 80% were somehow able to combine its abilities, the world would be in for a lot of trouble. It might be the time to start investing in bullet-proof vests. And jackets. And hats. And underwear. Bullet proof shower curtains. Bullet proof shoes. Bullet proof houses. Honestly, Gucci needs to come out with a luxury Kevlar line and the fashion industry will start making bulletproof everything. And not a moment too soon.
(Featured image: Viz Media)
