"The Future Rules!" That's the horror that awaits Aki when he enters the chambers of the devil he is asked to make a contract with, and in true "Chainsaw Man" fashion, the Future Devil is a character unto himself. Rather than a deep and sinister voice, he is a jolly good fellow with a high-pitch voice, a very cool and sinister Groot-like design, and an overly energetic attitude towards the future, which indeed rules. Granted, he seems to be mostly excited about the horrible, death-filled future that awaits the characters more than anything else.
This includes Aki, who is asked to look straight into the Future Devil's gut, which hides a giant eye, so the devil could look into Aki's future. What he sees is enough to offer Aki a contract, one that demands so much less than the literal arm and leg he asked the other devil hunters he has a contract with. You see, Aki's death is set to be so spectacularly awful and miserable that the Future Devil only wants front-row seats to watch it unfold, asking to borrow Aki's right eye to watch him.
Aki accepts, but when he is given the chance to look into his future, he says no. At this point, he knows he has rather little time left to live, and nothing to live for. He is not crazy like Denji and Power, but he doesn't have anything to bring him joy anymore, so he chooses to simply go out on his own terms and dedicate whatever time he still has left to killing the Gun Devil and die trying.
The Future Rules!
Elsewhere, we catch up to Denji and Power, who have apparently managed to actually get smarter and stronger, enough that Kishibe is moving them to only train (and die) once a week.
Anime Mads Mikkelsen then has dinner with Makima, and outright says what we've all been thinking the past couple of weeks — that there is something rather sus about her. He brings up the rumors that she knew about the attack on Public Safety and did nothing to stop it. Granted, she doesn't really give a response, and he is not out to get her, saying that he'll let it pass as long as her acts are in humanity's best interests, which she assures him they are.
Later, Makima goes out on a mission of her own and pays a visit to a very scary-looking group of mobsters, confronting them about the attack on Public Safety and the involvement of the Gun Devil. According to the mafia boss, the lady with the Snake Devil contract convinced some low-level mafia kids to get contracts with the Gun Devil, paying him 20 thousand yen for guns and ammo — he also notes that it's weird a devil needs money, and he's right, that is rather suspicious.
He also goes on to say that the mafia is a necessary evil in the world because they're a better alternative to foreign organized crime. Just like devil hunters keep the country safe from devils, so does the yakuza keep it safe from a foreign mafia, like the Chinese and the Soviets. This last bit is significant because it's the first time we get confirmation of the show's setting being in an alternate reality where the Soviet Union is still around in the late '90s.
New Faces
When we cut back to our favorite single-brain-cell duo, Power and Denji are preparing for the latest Special Division 4 operation — to find and capture Katana Man, Snake Lady and the other goons that attacked Public Safety, in a building they don't know is hiding a horde of zombies waiting to strike.
But since most of Special Division 4 got butchered a couple of episodes ago, we're introduced to some new faces, finally letting us meet everyone that appears in the opening sequence. As Kishibe explains, most of Special Division 4 is now non-human, and they are more dangerous than the terrorists if they escape.
This includes Beam, the Shark Fiend (really), a man with a human body and the half-face of a shark, who has the power to swim inside any surface and also turn into a shark for a little while. There's also the Violence Fiend, who wears a cool mask, and is so powerful the mask is actually filled with poison that is used as a deterrent. There's also the Spider Devil, a horrifying humanoid creature made with the stuff of nightmares, and also Angel Devil, which makes no sense, but is apparently a special case since he doesn't hate humans like the others — but still has the ability to automatically drain your lifespan if you come in contact with him.
As the group starts slaughtering the zombie horde, Makima forces the mafia boss into giving her the names of all his associates with Gun Devil contracts by showing him the cutout eyes of every one of his and his employees' loved ones. This allows her to seemingly give aneurysms to all the armed yakuza remotely, even the ones about to kill Aki, saving his life.
The Cliffhanger Devil
Like the rest of the season, this penultimate episode of "Chainsaw Man" focuses on character animation in the quieter moments, accentuating the drama and the despair that the characters are feeling.
And yet, when Aki faces against the Snake Lady, and she unleashes the Ghost Devil that once fought with Himeno, we get one of the most fluid and electrifying action scenes in the show so far, especially when Aki starts looking into the (very near) future with the help of the Future Devil.
Sadly, that is not enough, and he gets overwhelmed by the Ghost Devil, who starts to choke Aki, leaving the episode in the hands of the Cliffhanger Devil going into the finale next week.
But hey, at least we get another spectacular ending theme, this time by Queen Bee (whose lead vocalist, Avu-chan, served as the voice of the titular character in "Inu-Oh.")
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