Chainsaw Man’s New Pochita Proves How Asa is Different Than Denji

The protagonist of Chainsaw Man’s second part, Asa Mitaka, differs from Denji in a myriad of ways, but one subtle detail perfectly sums up what makes her unique. While Chainsaw Man may not be a series known for its subtlety, author Tatsuki Fujimoto often uses minor details to imply or foreshadow major ones. And it seems that he is carrying over this technique into Part 2 as well.

Part 2 began rather differently than most fans expected it to, introducing a new protagonist Asa Mitaka. Asa is around the same age as Denji and is also an orphan, but from there the similarities largely end. In Part 1 of Chainsaw Man Denji is driven by simple dreams born from his impoverished childhood, but Asa doesn’t really have any overarching motivation of her own. Instead, she largely tries to help the War Devil achieve its dream of killing Chainsaw Man.

Yoru Became Asa’s Brain While Pochita Became Denji’s Heart

The way the War Devil manifests itself in Asa is actually a brilliant illustration of how she and Denji are different. In Chapter 98, when Asa first makes a contract with the War Devil, she suffers a serious head injury which causes the War Devil to inhabit Asa’s brain instead of her heart like Pochita does for Denji. This makes the War Devil a more active presence in Asa’s life, always being with her as a hallucination and even taking over her body at times. In contrast, Pochita almost never actually talks to Denji in Chainsaw Man except for in his dreams. Pochita and the War Devil also value their hosts in different ways. Whereas Pochita wants to enable Denji to live his dreams of a better life, the War Devil doesn’t really care what Asa wants and is just using her to further their own goals. She even subtly established herself as Asa’s opposite, naming herself “Yoru”, which has the opposite meaning from Asa’s name in Japanese.

Yoru and Pochita’s Differences Show How Asa and Denji Are Unique

The differences between Yoru and Pochita serve to set their respective hosts apart but also establish tantalizing possibilities for future characters. If the body part that a Devil resides in affects how they manifest in their hybrid form, then becoming other body parts besides the heart or brain could have interesting consequences for any future new Devil hybrids in Chainsaw Man. Perhaps if the series has more parts after its second ends their protagonists could be hybrids in this sort of way.

Whether the differences between Asa and Denji’s hybridization will have more serious ramifications later on remains to be seen, but it has already made Part 2 feel unique from Part 1. It has also let Asa remain an active character without having to join a larger organization like Denji did, making the plot unique from most standard Shonen stories. So the differences between Yoru and Pochita have both highlighted the differences between Asa and Denji and enabled her to take the plot of Chainsaw Man’s second part in a much different direction than its first.

Chainsaw Man is available to read from Viz Media.