Who Is Beam in ‘Chainsaw Man’?

It’s Shark Week on Chainsaw Man. Beam is the shit. He’s hot, he’s fun, and he’s got a shark for a face. What is there not to love about this guy? Apparently, some of you haven’t fallen head over heels for this guy yet, as you don’t even know who he is. Next you’ll say you don’t even know who Power is. What, you need a refresher on Denji, as well? Get out of here, poser. Real devil worshippers only. That sounded wrong, but in this context, I don’t wanna be right.

But seriously, who is Beam?

Beam is a mean green Shark Fiend killing machine. Well, he doesn’t KILL shark fiends, he IS the Shark Fiend. Know what I mean? Some of you may be wondering what exactly a fiend even is. I’ve written a whole ‘nother article on that, but I’ll give you the gist. A fiend is a devil that has been weakened to a state where it needs to possess a human corpse in order to survive. Fiends are not nearly as powerful as they were in their original devil forms, but they still retain some of their abilities. They also tend to take on the personality of the pervious owner of their corpse of choice. Lucky for us, whoever the original owner of the shark fiend’s body was, they were a super chill bro.

As of now, Beam the Shark Fiend works as a Public Safety Devil Hunter as part of Division 4. He is a buff young dude with a spiky black hair, sharp teeth, and shark snout and fin coming out of the top half of his head. He also never wears clothes and prefers to only wear a pair of swim trunks, no matter the situation. In his devil form, he turns into a monstrous shark-beast with three pairs of googly eyes and two pairs of fins that function like creepy spider legs. In this form, he makes a perfect steed for Denji, and the latter sometimes ride him into battle. It’s really cute, considering they’re basically best friends.

Personality-wise, Denji and Beam are perfect for one another. The Shark Fiend is wild and full of energy, but also shares Denji’s naïveté. He will quite literally follow Denji into the mouth of Hell due to the respect that Beam has for the Chainsaw Devil. Beam is fiercely protective of Denji, as well, and offers his hybrid blood in order to heal Denji’s wounds. Beam will do this for Denji even when it could cause him serious physical harm; his love for the Chainsaw Devil is just that great. Aside from being head over heels for Denji, Beam doesn’t take many things too seriously. He fights devils simply because he loves to and is a big fan of eating what he kills. He will eat anything, including zombies. Yuck.

What does the future hold for Denji and Beam?

While they haven’t taken their relationship to the next level yet, Denji often requests Beam to be his partner on dangerous missions. Beam is extremely thankful and continuously calls Denji “Lord Chainsaw” when he is graced with his presence. During the Bomb Girl Arc, Beam even manages to save Denji’s life when he realizes that Denji’s new date, Reze, is not who she says she is. Beam fights tirelessly to defend Denji from Reze (discovered to be the Bomb Devil hybrid) and offers Denji his blood so Chainsaw Man can keep fighting.

Beam also performs a critical role in the International Assassins arc, where he helps Division 4 in their battle against Santa Claus. Yes, I did just write that sentence. Santa Claus, the man who comes down the chimney and says “ho ho ho,” in the Chainsaw Man universe is rather a collective hive mind of a worldwide web of doll assassins controlled in part by the Doll Devil. Beam saves Denji’s life multiple times throughout this arc, always at the expense of his own body.

As far as fiends go, you really can’t do much better than Beam. Once you look past the whole “murderous man-shark” aspect, he’s actually a pretty sweet guy—to Denji, at least. But be warned, he does anything that Denji asks him to do, so he probably would have no qualms about eating you if Denji decided he wanted you gone. Figured I’d tell you now before you fall too head over hells in love.

(featured image: MAPPA)