Chainsaw Man‘s Ending has left long time readers stunned. In hearing of the ending and the backlash surrounding it, I decided to dive right in and see what could have happened?!
I had previously only watched the first season of the anime up until now. The first animated season was a wild ride following the early adventures of Denji, Power and Aki – overseen by their boss Makima. It was definitely a very unique premise from it’s inception. In a world of Devils and Devil Hunters – young Denji makes friends with a wounded small devil, Pochita – and make a friendly pact. Later on, when Denji is dying, Pochita returns the favor by becoming Denji’s heart – allowing him the ability to turn into Chainsaw Man.
Denji learns he can activate his hybrid form and become Chainsaw Man, taking swift revenge on the Zombie Devil and his army that took him down initially. This kicks off the rest of the series of events during it’s run – Makima finds Denji after the battle and recruits him for Public Safety, leading his meeting of both Aki and Power.
The world of Chainsaw Man is fascinating, with the Devils becoming stronger, even massive threats, if they are truly feared by humans – which explains the power level of Gun Devil presented as the main antagonist. As the story goes on, we find that Devils are now hunting Chainsaw Man and trying to obtain his heart, which leads into more unexpected reveals about the lifecycle of Devils; including them hearing a chainsaw upon their death in Hell. Chainsaw Man seems to be able to erase a devil completely if he eats them, even from human consciousness and memory. This kind of power is definitely way above a regular chainsaw’s pay-grade – and raised many questions.
During Part 1 it is eventually revealed Makima is actually the main antagonist and trying to obtain his heart, in Part 2 Denji strives to become a household name superhero as he tackles attending high school. Oh, by the way there’s also the potential apocalypse coming during the summer of 1999.
Part 2’s series of events upped the stakes by introducing Nostradamus’s prophecies, heralding the end of the world. Introducing a brand new character – Asa, an awkward high school girl who has her own issues and problems including taming the War Devil who gave her a second chance while dying to a classmate’s devil. You could even debate if Asa was the main protagonist of Part 2, as Denji and his character arcs seemed sidelined completely at times.
But the entire series of events of Part 2 lead into such a whiplash ending, it’s really not even worth debating.
Chainsaw Man’s Ending Using His Own Power
There is a (valid) major upset on the execution that makes it so incredibly controversial.
With the stakes at an all time high, and even the Primal Devils showing their faces and powers during the climax of the story – Death, Famine, Fire and others – leads eventually into an all out battle between Chainsaw Man/Denji and Yoru, the War Devil who is apart of Asa.
As the world is falling apart around them as they fight, even Death is taken out – the entire world is continuously losing all sense of reality. People are gruesomely laying in the streets, sick or dismembered but with no release of death. They can merely watch as the fight continues destroying the landscapes around them, Denji enraging Yoru as he plays childish games and taunting her more by even using her own friends as shields. The perfect world according to Yoru arrived, and Denji swiftly began to pull it apart – randomly eating Devil Pawns and even temporarily removing concepts such as Legs, before throwing them back up later which brings them back to existence. The story gets to such an absurd state, even as Yoru and Denji are getting along again and calling a truce, it takes getting annihilated by insect devils who are overrunning the world to end the fight – even the world?
As the world ends, Denji and Pochita have their final 1 on 1 chat, Pochita revealing that their “Dream Life” is completely over. Even as Denji objects, Pochita decide to eat “Chainsaw Man” as he feels it’s the only way to give Denji any sense of normalcy back. Pochita isn’t even sure what will happen after, and peaces out with a GG vibe.
We are brought back to Denji’s shack from Chapter 1 all over again – he laments having a “good and bad dream” as he envisions a future with a girl beside him again. The chain of events that would have led to his awakening as Chainsaw Man – getting killed by the Zombie Devil first – come to pass, but without Pochita it is actually Power who saves Denji in this new timeline. When Public Safety show up and realize they were too late to take out the Zombie Devil, they recruit them into Public Safety once again – but instead of Makima as the Control Devil, it is Nayuta her reincarnation who is recruiting.
Denji still joins Public Safety and is Power’s partner in crime. They continue on Devil Hunting missions together, and Denji even saves Asa from tripping over a classroom pet-devil that had originally sprung the events leading to her joining with the War Devil.
A Happy Ending – But Is It Really?
An entire “world/story reset” understandably did not sit well with most long time readers.
Throughout the story was many details that were never fully explained by the end… Why did Pochita have the ability to Erase things from literal existence? Was the Blood Devil in Hell waiting for Denji to come befriend them? What happened to certain secondary characters from Part 1 that never even made an appearance throughout Part 2? Who was Kobeni’s devil contract with?
Pochita did what he thought was right, even if it meant pissing off the audience.
There are honestly a lot of questions still left open, and there are fresh rumors that an additional chapter or epilogue will be released with the final Volume release in June. Unsure if that will come to pass, the lack of a Part 3 announcement is still deafening.
It seems like Denji’s main story is definitely over.
Many think that Fujimoto got bored or wrote himself into a hole – which honestly there was no realistic way to get out of the situation they were in. Denji and Yoru could have run away and regrouped for another major fight, but if it would have led to the same conclusion of a world reset, then what would have been the point?
Did Pochita allow Denji to get to the point of reaching a true “Dream World” with no basis of reality before calling it quits?
Rebirth of Chainsaw Man
During the story, although the concept of Nuclear Weapons seemed to have been removed at one point and verified even by the end of Part 1 – we see that they can be rebuilt from the ground up when they make a return in Part 2. Without removing all the dangerous chemicals behind them, it does stand to reason that they can simply be remade through the ingenuity of humans.
In the final chapter Denji is shown to use a chainsaw weapon made from Power’s blood during a hunt at the school. After Denji saves Asa from tripping after dropping his weapon to the ground, she says “Thank you, Chainsaw Man” which visually appears to awaken Pochita in his heart. However even before this happens, Power mentions Denji smells like a dog when she first meets him. Does this mean they are in an endless loop? Could Chainsaw Man be reborn and we end up with some sort of prequel series? Will an epilogue chapter maybe clarify what Pochita really is, along with who is Chainsaw Man?
While I think there is some merit to the ending itself being the only proper conclusion to the insane and unique storytelling that is Chainsaw Man, I can agree that the lack of many basic answers has left many with a sour taste in their mouth.
Insane Backlash
Fandoms can truly be the bane of any popular title, and even Chainsaw Man can’t avoid the emotional response.
One person setup a funeral, one of the final pages became the Meme of the Month for March 2026, and some have even posted violent-sounding comments of what they would want to do to Fujimoto. Majority are left disappointed and stunned at how quickly things seemed to wrap up, most criticism based on “the speedrun ending” and believing he gave up.
While some fandoms make an issue out of anything, Chainsaw Man’s ending is definitely incredibly divisive. As the audience puts down the copium and starts processing the ending, some have even gotten a new perspective on things.
Maybe it’s less about the journey and more about Denji is just a regular guy? Maybe he never needed Chainsaw Man to achieve his dreams.
