The latest chapter of Chainsaw Man is here and it proves once again how controversial of a writer Tatsuki Fujimoto really is. Fans of both the MCs for the show finally got to see them get together, albeit in the worst way possible. We’re going to go over the build-up to this moment, the sequence of events, what went down, and how people are reacting to Chainsaw Man Chapter 167. We’ll also go over whether it was Asa or Yoru who kissed Denji and why.
First off, we have the leadup for this chapter, with an extremely depressed Denji, reassembled after being surgically separated into bits and stuffed into boxes, trying to get over the potential death of his adoptive daughter/little sister Nayuta and their pet dogs. That’s a hell of a sentence and poor Denji has dealt with all this trauma in the span of a few short days. However, even now he can’t seem to get over his hormonal urges when offered a trip to the brothel by the Katana devil.
Once he’s there and finds it destroyed, he realizes how messed up his thinking process has been and how his urges are constantly responsible for messing up things around him. At this point, he wishes he could get rid of it all, and to put it lightly, Yoru offers to permanently rid him of this issue with a quick castration as the best solution. Yes, you are reading that correctly.
All of this leads up to Chainsaw Man Chapter 167 where Yoru is suddenly able to see the memories of their previous kiss deleted by Nayuta in earlier chapters. This prompts a strange reaction from her where, despite the situation, she suddenly forces herself on Denji and kisses him, leaving him shocked. All the while, she has her other hand poised to crush Denji’s little chainsaw. Suddenly, the entire chapter takes a turn for the better or worse (depending on who you ask) in one of the most uncomfortable romantic scenes we’ve seen in any manga recently.
What many might not have noticed in all this drama is that this probably means that Nayuta is still alive somewhere. So maybe Denji didn’t actually lose her and their pets. This could also be a segway into the next section of the story. That aside, the encounter still left fans with many questions.
Did Asa or Yoru Kiss Denji?
Both Yoru and Asa kiss Denji, however, Yoru is the one who initiates the kiss while in control of Asa’s body. In this case, Asa was unwillingly put into this situation by the War Devil. During the chapter’s final pages, we can see the scars around Asa’s face disappear, signifying that she has regained consciousness and control of her body.
As for why Yoru kissed Denji, it’s most probably due to Asa’s feelings for Denji leaking to her and influencing her to act upon those impulses. Even the fearsome War Devil falls victim to the romantic desires of a teenage girl. So while Yoru was the one who took action and forced herself on Denji, she was influenced by Asa’s feelings. When Asa regains control in the middle of all this, she’s stunned to find herself in this bizarre and uncomfortable situation.
We won’t go into the details, but let’s just say the chapter ends with an Evangelion reference to the Hospital scene. All of this has left the community shocked, with many up in arms about this turn the manga has suddenly taken. Fans of the Denji and Asa ship got their wish fulfilled in the worst way possible. Meanwhile, others are repulsed due to the overtly sexual themes and the controlling and coercive nature of the whole scene.
While all of these concerns are somewhat valid, Tatsuki Fujimoto is known for being a bit of an oddball when it comes to his stories and he’s not one to shy away from the most uncomfortable of scenes and taboo of topics. Those familiar with his previous work Fire Punch consider all of this par for the course, and indeed many Chainsaw Man fans insist that psychosexual themes were already pretty prevalent in the first half of the story and people have just forgotten. All of this has led to a situation where there’s a lot of discourse from fans on whether such scenes are necessary or add to the themes of the story productively.
Most fans say “Let Fujimoto cook” as he has handled such topics with delicacy in the past already and handled psychosexual themes in his media. So we’ll have to wait on the next chapter to see where things are really headed. Chainsaw Man chapter 168 comes out next week and there won’t be a one week break in the middle. So luckily, we won’t have to wait too long to find out what Tatsuki Fujimoto is planning with all of this. You can read the latest Chainsaw Man chapters for free on Manga Plus.
