Denji

Denji is the chaotic, id-driven protagonist of Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man manga — a young man living in extreme poverty who has merged with his devil dog Pochita to become the Chainsaw Man, a hybrid who can manifest chainsaws from his body and whose ability to consume devils gives him a unique position in a world where Public Safety Devil Hunters fight supernatural threats. His motivations are refreshingly ungrand: he wants to eat good food, sleep in a real bed, and experience the ordinary pleasures of life that his miserable childhood denied him.

Fujimoto writes Denji with a specific kind of pathos — his desires are so modest that they become touching, and his genuine bewilderment about the more complex emotions and situations he encounters gives the series its comedy. He is not a hero who wants to save the world; he is someone who wants simple things and keeps finding himself in catastrophically complicated situations.

The series evolves significantly across its two parts, with Denji's relationships — with Power, with Aki, with Makima — each contributing to his development in ways that the initially simple premise does not suggest. Chainsaw Man is one of the most inventive and emotionally affecting manga of its generation.

Begin with Volume 1, published in English by Viz Media.