Chainsaw Man: Why Hasn’t Denji’s Last Name Been Revealed?
Denji #Denji
The following contains spoilers for the Chainsaw Man manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Amanda Haley and Sabrina Heep, now available in English via Viz Media.
A certain famous playwright once asked, “What’s in a name?” as a way to show how there was no meaning in names. But even Shakespeare might be a little nonplused to find that Chainsaw Man’s protagonist has a first name but no surname. He merely called himself “Denji” at the start and left it at that.
Despite readers having a pretty good sense of Denji’s personality, he doesn’t actually divulge a lot of personal information. That’s probably because even he doesn’t know much about himself; for example, he guesses he’s 16 years old. Although Denji is simplistic, the reason why Chainsaw Man has yet to reveal his last name may be deeply rooted to some issues he has yet to come to terms with.
RELATED: Chainsaw Man’s Most Heartbreaking Manga Moment Depicted in Tragic Fan Art
Chainsaw Man’s Denji May Want to Forget His Father
There might be more to Denji’s childhood that he’s keeping from Chainsaw Man fans and himself. Little is known about his family, and all he has at first is the devil-dog Pochita and the clothes on his back. His mother presumably passed away when he was younger, leaving Denji with a neglectful and alcoholic father who also left his son with an impossible debt to pay off.
Part 1 of Chainsaw Man showed Denji having recurring dreams of standing in front of a closed door. Pochita warned him not to open it but never told him why. It wasn’t until Makima convinced him to open it in Chapter 82 that Denji realized the door had been shielding him from the memory of when he killed his father in self-defense. Denji’s way of dealing with things he’d rather not think about is straightforward: if he doesn’t want to associate himself with his father, he just won’t use his surname.
RELATED: Hell’s Paradise Gets Shout Out From Chainsaw Man Creator
Denji Is Trying to Take on a New Identity
As unusual as it is for Denji to lack a last name, it’s actually more common in Chainsaw Man than it may seem. Most characters only have a first name because they’re minor and get killed off soon after their introduction. However, a look at all the Devils in the story reveals that none of them have last names either. It’s therefore possible that Denji is attempting to embrace more of his Devil side as a way to cope with pain.
A few short months was all it took to give Denji a taste of what a real family is like. Prior to meeting Aki Hayakawa and Power, his life was always filled with instability, loneliness and suffering — and he had accepted his circumstances. But connecting with Aki and Power — and not only losing them but directly and indirectly having a hand in their deaths — broke Denji fundamentally in ways he can’t quite understand yet. So he does the only thing he knows will stave off his grief and runs away.
Compared to Part 1, Denji grows far more reckless in Part 2 of the manga. He’s made it his mission to let the entire world know that he’s Chainsaw Man, even going so far as dropping his ID at the scene, hoping someone would pick it up and put two and two together. In Chapter 126, he even cut up his own brain to avoid thinking about what happened when the Falling Devil conjures up Aki and Power in the moments before they died. When Denji is Chainsaw Man, he doesn’t have to be Denji anymore.
RELATED: My Hero Academia, Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer Land Top Spots on NYT Bestseller List
Denji’s Last Name May Be Part of a Bigger Chainsaw Man Reveal
All that said, Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto may be saving Denji’s last name for a huge reveal later in the story. Fans have theorized, and hoped, the surname will be Hayakawa. After all, Aki was like his older brother and Power was like his younger sister. When Aki died, he left half the money in his bank account to Denji and Power. This led some fans to believe he might have left his last name to them as well, to further cement how they were all family.
Another possibility is that there might be a character readers have already met — or will meet later down the road — whom Denji is related to. Although he appears to be an only child, he might have siblings he’s forgotten, or shut out from his memories as a result of the abuse he endured.
When Pochita enacted his contract with Denji, he sacrificed himself to be the boy’s heart in exchange for him to live a normal life. Pochita is as close to Denji as anyone can possibly be, and he may know more about the protagonist’s past than even Denji does. Part of why so many Devils fear Chainsaw Man is because he has the ability to erase their names — and their existence — from the world when he devours them. Perhaps Pochita ‘consumed’ half of Denji’s name to give him the best chance of living the most normal life possible.