Does Aki die in ‘Chainsaw Man’? Answered
Chainsaw Man is one of those rare series that shows you what kind of hand it could be holding right up front. In other words, relatively early on in the series, you find out that main characters—ones you really like—can die.
I appreciate this upfront-ness, because it sets your expectations. Chainsaw Man creates a deep, emotional tie between the reader and its characters, and so laying the ground rules lessens the likelihood that there will be “cheap shot” deaths later on.
But, of course, it also creates cause for concern, whether you’re reading the manga or watching and waiting for more of the anime. The waiting is awful, I know. Especially because early on in the story—early enough to be covered by season one of the anime—Aki meets the Future Devil. And the Future Devil laughs in Aki’s face and gives him a notably chill contract, asking merely to live in Aki’s eye so that he can witness Aki’s death. The Future Devil tells Aki that he will die “in the worst way imaginable.”
This is obviously a deeply troubling prospect. Manga readers have considerably more information than anime watchers as to whether or not the Future Devil’s full of shit. So if you’re watching the anime and really, truly want to know what you do and don’t need to brace for, read on.
Did the Future Devil speak the truth?
Major, big-time spoilers for the Chainsaw Man manga and future anime seasons ahead.
When Aki meets the Future Devil, the devil is jovially shouting “The future rules!!” over and over again. Whether or not you have enough personal optimism to agree with that statement, the Future Devil was unfortunately not wrong when he told Aki he dies “in the worst way imaginable.”
The short answer is yes, Aki does die in Chainsaw Man. And he dies before the first saga is over. Hell, his death is the preamble to the final fight of the saga.
There’s a lot of shock around when and how this all arises, so for those of you that haven’t read the manga, I’ll keep some of the details vague. But if you’d like to now a little about how it happens, read it.
As a refresher, Aki’s whole origin story is that, as a child, Aki sent his brother to fetch something in the house so the two of them could play together in the snow. Right at that moment, the Gun Devil blew through his entire home, killing his brother and both of his parents in an instant, right before his eyes.
Suffice it to say that, through various Makima-instigated and cruel twists of fate, Aki becomes the Gun Fiend. Remember, a “fiend” is a human corpse which is taken over and animated by a devil. Sometimes, aspects of the human’s personality or consciousness linger, as with the Violence Fiend. Once transformed, Gun Fiend Aki goes on a rampage, killing scores of civilians and leveling parts of Tokyo. Denji is forced to transform into Chainsaw Man and stop the utter destruction … by killing Aki.
You’ll never see a snowball fight the same way again. There’s a reason manga-readers reacted strongly to a shot in the Chainsaw Man OP showing Aki with some snow on his shoulder.
Worst for who?
As Aki’s dying, the Future Devil comes out of his eye and clarifies that Aki “died in the worst way possible … for the Chainsaw Boy.” Because of course Denji is an absolute wreck after this. But I personally don’t really buy that this is completely exclusionary. The dark irony of Aki’s death being instigated by his transformation into what he hated most also counts as a death “in the worst way possible.”
Additionally, it’s worth noting that there’s different kinds of “death” in Chainsaw Man. Devils don’t “die” in the same way that humans die. For the most part, when devils die, they get sent to Hell. When they die in Hell, they get sent back to earth. Their form might change and their memories might be murky, which raises some interesting questions about what “death” means for them. But they don’t truly die.
Humans, on the other hand, die. There’s no room left in Chainsaw Man for Aki to come back, unless there’s something about fiends we don’t know about.
Whenever the anime gets to this, it’s going to be rough. It’s arguably the hardest moment in Chainsaw Man to witness. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s so thoroughly heartbreaking. Have tissues at the ready.
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