Wake up, it’s time to praise Fujimoto again.
Summary:
- Devils’ powers depend on fear.
- Chainsaw Man’s power scaling system is based on vibes.
- It has certain rules, but can be played with a lot.
The author of Chainsaw Man, Tatsuki Fujimoto, has done a lot of things right with the series. The world he’s created and the concepts he keeps exploring are incredible, but what we’d like to talk about today is the power scaling in the series and how unusual it is.
Devils and Fear
The devils in Chainsaw Man highly depend on fear. They can only live as long as people know their name and are scared of the concept they represent. Moreover, the stronger the fear of the concept is, the stronger the devil itself is.
For example, there’s the Tomato Devil, but since being afraid of tomatoes is a very specific and rare thing, this devil can’t possess much power. But things such as guns and war are scary for most people, indeed, so their devils are truly strong.
By the same logic, the Chainsaw Devil embodies the fear of chainsaws. It’s one of the most powerful devils in the series, and while fans think that it doesn’t make any sense, they absolutely love it.
Although chainsaws are pretty scary because we’ve seen plenty of horror movies with them, there’s no way that more people are afraid of them than of guns or airplane crashes, for example. To be honest, fans think that Fujimoto just thought chainsaws were cool and thus decided to go with this idea.
Rules That Can Be Played With
Fans joke that the power scaling system in Chainsaw Man is based on vibes, and this is a very good metaphor actually. It’s really impossible to say which concepts are more feared than others. It’s just something that we feel. Like, for example, we can assume that tomatoes are less scary than knives.
And this is what makes this power scaling system so unusual and unique. There are certain rules about it, and yet there are no rules at the same time. Every devil has the potential to become the strongest, it just needs to know how to instill fear.
Moreover, such a system also provides space for interesting ideas. Let’s go back to the Chainsaw Devil for a second and imagine that only a few people fear chainsaws.
Then imagine them seeing a man on national TV who slaughters a couple dozen people with a chainsaw. It would change the perception of chainsaws drastically and make the Devil more powerful just like that.
There are basically endless opportunities for such a power scaling system, and fans absolutely love it.