The following contains spoilers for Episode 12 of Chainsaw Man, “KATANA VS. CHAINSAW,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Season 1 of Chainsaw Man saw Denji and his colleagues at Japan’s Public Safety Division face many threats. However, the unseen one orchestrated by the Samurai Sword (aka Katana Man) and Sawatari was the most devious. This led to the deaths of many agents, including Himeno, which broke the likes of Hayakawa.
Denji was almost maimed by the Sword but luckily, Kobeni managed to save her colleague. This event proved the Sword was indeed the better warrior and that Makima needed new tactics to suss out the danger to national security. It culminated in the Season 1 finale where Denji got a rematch against the Sword, which led to a remix of a superhero battle trope aboard trains — with a bloody twist to cap it.
Superhero Movies Love Train Battles
It’s safe to say that train scraps have become a staple of many superhero films. It’s been seen with Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, while Carol Danvers brawled with Skrulls aboard one in Captain Marvel. Marvel Studios also had Shang-Chi fighting Wenwu’s thugs; Batman Begins had the Bat fighting Ra’s al Ghul and his ninjas; X-Men: Dark Phoenix had Vuk attacking a train to get to Jean Grey; Hugh Jackman’s Logan took on the Yakuza aboard one in The Wolverine; while movies like Snowpiercer, The Incredibles and Wanted had scraps on locomotives, too.
Simply put, adaptations based on comic book movies deem these kinds of kinetic fights as high-octane, action-laced sequences that will provide cinematic spectacle. As such, it’s no surprise to see studios intent on these visually dynamic scenes, although they do seem to have run their course. That’s because they mostly follow the same choreography and have the same endings with the heroes emerging victorious which, honestly, end up feeling tame.
Chainsaw Man’s Train Scrap Gets Gory
Chainsaw Man, however, paints its train fight with crimson effect when Denji goes after the Sword again at a Tokyo hotel. They end up pummeling through buildings and the streets before careening into a train. There, the one-on-one gets graphic as the Sword slices Denji’s saws off his hands. It follows the series’ knack of focusing on over-the-top brawls rather than hand-to-hand action, as these hybrids are weapons of mass destruction.
But rather than a PG-13 conclusion or the fight finishing elsewhere, Denji goads the Sword to attack, the latter believing he’s out of saws. However, as Denji sacrifices the saw on his face, he reveals he has one on his leg — which slices Sword down the middle. It’s one of the bloodiest scenes in the series, nodding to a Fatality in the Mortal Kombat franchise.
It caps a dark rivalry, and proves how fearless the anime is in terms of bringing closure to its nastiest brawl. This allows Denji to later brutalize Sword’s human form, coaxing Hayakawa into kicking him in the jewels a few times. But more so, while it does keep Sword alive, Chainsaw Man mutilates the terrorist while adding an R-rated spin to a trope the genre doesn’t usually have such harsh resolution for.
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