Chainsaw Man is a blockbuster shonen-action with a grim and bloody story in which the heroes are almost as bad as the villains whom they fight. This is a world where trust, love, and hope are all in short supply, and the anti-hero protagonist Denji proves this with his fun but dark character arc. He's an impoverished orphan who doesn't belong anywhere in the world, but he doesn't seem to mind.
Denji is more resilient than he appears, enduring both physical and mental adversity with little complaint. Denji has been by himself for years, with only Pochita to talk to. Surprisingly, Denji also has a few thoughts about his parents. Because, like the protagonist of Berserk, Guts, it's about where the hero is going, not where he came from, he rarely gives either of them much thought.
Denji & Guts Both Find Their Own Families
Most anime and manga series have a strong focus on family, from Ichigo Kurosaki discovering the shocking truth about his Quincy mother Masaki to Naruto Uzumaki's parents' selfless acts on the night of his birth. Nevertheless, not all seinen or shonen anime treat family in a "traditional" manner. Both Berserk and Chainsaw Man portray a grim but hopeful view of the theme of family, illustrating how many families are torn apart and how a hero, particularly a child, can do nothing to stop it. In the case of Denji and Guts, fate occasionally decides that a particular family is not meant to be.
Denji and Guts first encountered their new families at that time. Although the found families in these anime series are not as endearing as the Forgers from Spy x Family, the harsh treatment of the main characters only serves to highlight how unique they are. Denji lost his father years ago, and with no sign of his mother, he clung to his beloved devil dog Pochita, then warily accepted the fiend Power as a foster sister, and Aki as a tsundere older brother.
During the Golden Age arc, the Band of the Hawk became Guts' adopted family of companions. However, they were lost in the Eclipse. Years later, Guts forged new relationships with characters like Farnese the knight who had been redeemed, Isidro the young rogue, and Schierke the witch. Guts had a family now, a group of people connected to him not just by blood but also by trust and friendship, so he didn't give a damn about who his parents had been. Denji is gradually coming to see Power and Aki in the same light. Denji and Guts probably don't care about their long-lost parents in this situation, as cold as that may sound.
How Absent Parents Defined Denji and Guts As Characters
The fact that Denji and Guts don't think much about their parents is a result of both the fact that it doesn't matter to them anymore and the fact that they are too realistic and grounded to consider what might have been. The only exception is when Denji expresses how much he still misses his dad, as in memories of when he was younger and visited his grave. Apart from that, Denji and Guts are completely unconcerned with their long-lost families because it is simply unimportant to them. Denji and Guts aren't sentimental enough to think about their original families in a "what might have been" situation.
By the time Guts became a mercenary, he had already grown accustomed to this way of life and had neither the energy nor the desire to reflect on his first family. He simply didn't care, concentrating on how to get by in the present instead. Apart from holding onto his bitter desire to kill Griffith, Guts is a practical, hands-on person who rarely thinks about the future or his past. Guts won't be able to find allies, survive a battle, or accomplish anything by daydreaming about parents he has never met. He forced it all out of his mind because his what-if family has no place in his life. He doesn't show much emotion, only thinking fondly of friendship with a new family. Even then, he didn't give it much thought until other characters made him do so through their words.
Denji is also a realist and grounded individual with an ESTP "entrepreneur" personality type that values actual projects over hypothetical ones or daydreams. Although Denji misses the father he once knew, his sentimentality toward his relatives stops there. Denji, who is tough and realistic, knows that the world around him is all that matters and lives each day as it comes. He won't get caught up in hypothetical scenarios from the past or the present. The girls standing in front of him, the food, and the devils are everything.
