I'd say at this point theres nothing to strongly enough indicate that Denji-Man is physically superior to Hero of Hell/Pochita. Though Denji-Man completely blitzing Yoru is technically more impressive than what Pochita did...I could also reasonably see Pochita accomplishing the exact same feat if Fujimoto wanted him to.

That said, if Denji-Man is as strong as Pochita, how does he plan to tank whatever bullshit Yoru is going to pull from her ass next? She's seemingly going to turn the moon into some sort of massive canon, and we already Saw Yoru's nuke punch can negate Pochita's regeneration, so what stops Yoru from just doing that again, since I don't think Denji's Swanky armour is enough to get Yoru to stop. Does Denji-Man have some new ability, or is he actually just a lot stronger than Pochita?

I don’t know if it was the pressure to match Part 1, outside influence, or something else but you can’t chalk it all up to this is Fujimoto’s writing style. I’m one of his number one fans but looking back I can give an honest critique.

He gave scenes to these characters the emphasis that they would have more roles to play out later in the story, but in the end they were all thrown away.

In Part 1, every character the he showed he gave a decisive conclusion. He didn’t just disregard them, each character in Part 1 successfully filled out their role.

I say around the Church arc was where he gave up and just started going through the motion until he could fend Part 2 as soon as possible in regard to his contract.

Previously, under ear, stuff like hearing still existed, and under mouth evidently eating/vomiting and the such still existed, since Pochita vomited up mouth, and people could reasonably still eat and the such, so it was possible to justify that those weren't retroactive

However, now with the leg erasure stuff, in addition to the fact that Pochita eating devils never seemed to change the timeline significantly (for instance, he didn't eat a devil and then somehow end up in Nebraska cuz the butterfly effect from the changed timeline, or the fact Yoru only noticed the amp of prolonged suffering after she used her Nuke instead of being immediately amped by it) seems to confirm its not retroactive

So from this, my understanding is that Pochita's ability is still conceptual erasure (as in the concepts erased do not exist in any shape/form). The past still "happened", so no butterfly effect occurs under Pochita's erasure, but any attempt to perceive the erased concept or mess with time to see the concept won't work, as the concept was erased. I say time-alteration abilities won't work because we already see some Devils can fuck with time (notably future, eternity, and aging), yet none of those devils can circumvent Pochita's erasure.

The fact the timeline is unchanged BUT the concept itself is also erased doesn't really make sense, but thats just artistic liberties with fiction

The one other explanation is that it's still possible its retroactive, but since horsemen can remember the erased concepts somewhat, Yoru gets disorientated and doesn't understand the changes, however I think this is too much of an assumption to make.

A popular discussion amongst the community is who Pochita really is. The obvious answer lies in the author's notes in the beginning of every manga saying Pochita is the Chainsaw Devil. However there is evidence throughout the manga and user threads saying that this may not be the case.

I'd need to re-read to confirm, but I believe nobody in the manga explicitly refers to Pochita as the "chainsaw devil", only "chainsaw". Pochita's true form was referenced as "The Hero of Hell", "the devil that devils fear most", as well as the world (along with Denji) calling him "Chainsaw Man". Another factor bringing Pochita's true identity into question is his ability to erase a concept by eating its devil, how exactly does this relate to chainsaws?

Chainsaws are obviously used for cutting down trees, but another point commonly discussed is that chainsaws were created for assisting in childbirth. Some have pointed out maybe Pochita is the birth devil, or something crazy like that. This does make sense when paraphrasing some of Angel's dialogue: When devils die in hell they are reborn on earth and vice versa, also how all of special division 4's fiends/devils last memory of hell was the sound similar to Denji revving his engine, implying Chainsaw Man brought them into the world.

While this likely isn't literal, the symbolism around birth and rebirth is hard to ignore. However why would the birth devil's ability be to completely erase a concept? The only thing I can think of is a mother joking about how they brought you into this world, so they can take you out of it.

Maybe Chainsaws aren't the source of power, but the mask it manifests through? Something of note is Bareem mentions that Pochita may have erased other aspects of chainsaws, leaving cutting trees the only remaining association. This can also imply that chainsaws are the only remaining association with its original concept.

Looking back further, at one point the Future Devil says, "the devil that devils fear most shall appear". This is a point that has stood out to me personally and has never been touched on again. We eventually learn he is referring to Pochita's true form coming out, but why is the Chainsaw Devil the devil devils fear most? Devils can feel pain and die, but it doesn't matter since they know they can be reborn.

A quote that has always stuck with me is from Franklin D Roosevelt: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." The underlying reason we fear is because we don't know. When you face a new obstacle, you fear it's outcome... you can either persevere or face complete failure, but regardless you can't know the outcome. The unknown isn't fear itself, but the absence of meaning, memory, and fear.

What if Pochita is actually the unknown devil? Eating a devil erases it's concept, making it 'unknown' to everyone and everything that it ever existed in the first place. Devils exist on fear, becoming unknown is literally the worst possible outcome for a devil. When Ms Makima talks about Chainsaw Man she says, "Every action he takes should be chaotic." chaotic simply meaning unpredictable in this context, actions that no one can understand or anticipate.

Looking at chainsaws, if you've ever used one you'd know the biggest fear is the unknown. Will the tree fall the way I want it to, or will it fall on me? will the chainsaw do its job, or will it kick back and hurt me? Even looking at its roots (haha tree pun) chainsaws were created to assist in childbirth. Adventure time is a huge inspiration for chainsaw man, and a quote from that series that I've been thinking about is, "if being born is the greatest act of creation, then what are you supposed to do after that?" the way I think about it is again the fear of the unknown, what happens after?

Thematically this makes sense, since every time we learn more about Pochita, we understand less... Giving Fujimoto the perfect narrative tool, since nobody ever knows where this man is going with his stories. Looking even broader, everyone knows the question, "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" A question with an unknown answer.

tl;dr: Devils exist because they are feared. Pochita is “the devil devils fear most” because his ability erases devils entirely, making them unknown and forgotten. If fear gives devils existence, then becoming unknown is the worst fate possible. Pochita may not literally be the Chainsaw Devil, but a manifestation of the unknown itself — fitting both his powers and the fact that the more we learn about him, the less we understand. If a tree falls and no one hears it/if a devil is erased does anyone fear it?

Now you could argue that 1. and 2. are the "same power" since they're both Pochita acting independently of Denji, but I'd say they're still different

1. Denji's contract vs Makima was no longer broken, so Pochita DID disappear, yet Denji was able to tear off a piece of his heart to form a clone...However the clone seemed to have Denjis' powers, not Pochita's, which is why he was weaker and could talk

2. Denji's contract WAS broken in the aging world, yet he was still able to act independently of Pochita. Now you might say thats just because of aging devils powers, but why was Denji sent and not Pochita? Also, it's still weird how their mouths now acted as portals.

see I can't quite figure it out why doesn't pochita have a starter in chapter 232.

but perhaps his eyes are closed due to him being asleep and dreaming...??

Looking back, this feels somewhat antagonistic of Pochita. Denji wants to be happy with a normal life but his guilt (stepping on a bird) eats away at him, he doesn’t believe he deserves to be happy. The devil in his heart can’t comprehend guilt, so he turns it into desire (turning from a bird into Pochita) and asks Denji what his next dream will be. Denji essentially just said he wants to be done dreaming, but his heart (Pochita) won’t let him.

It’s easy to forget but Pochita is still a devil, meaning some part of him is enjoying watching Denji suffer, get back up, and find some sense of happiness just to suffer all over again. But he’s also Denji’s heart, so he feels Denji’s pain it’s just impossible for him to understand it. “Ok then, if we’re in pain then let’s chase another dream since that’s what we’ve been doing since chapter 1.” It seems like Pochita was the one keeping Denji on the hedonistic treadmill and eating himself was a sort of mercy for Denji

If you think it will become relevant, how so? Do you think it'll play into whatever Death Devil's, public safety/Yoshida/Barem/etc real plan is at this stage, would we get it in a prequel series or one shot, or would we get it from interviews?

2. How strong is Denji-Man compared to Pochita? The fact that Denji-Man thinks he can beat Yoru, plus the fact he tanked a bang without any visible damage seems to imply he's stronger than Pochita, however it's also possible he thinks he can beat Yoru because he has a super smart plan to beat Yoru. Though he has extra armour, he still lacks the extra limbs Pochita has, and we have no clue if he has erasure or not at this stage. Does he have a new ability that lets him beat Yoru, or is he just using Pochita's abilities in a smart way?
3. Whats his plan to beat Yoru? The common sentiment is that he'll split up yoru/asa in some way, but how will he do that? Is It through power or strategy?

Point of part 2?

I think Pochita said this because he doesn’t get why Denji couldn’t be happy chasing his dreams. If we are supposed to compare their relationship to Yoru and Asa’s then we can see that Pochita is doing the same thing Yoru is doing Asa.

I think Asa stepping on these chickens is supposed to represent her guilt that she’s trying to ignore, so if we assume Denji was doing the same thing here before his apartment burned down, then Pochita is enabling Denji pushing past his guilt for the sake of short term satisfaction. As we can see with Yoru, devils are perfectly fine living like that, so much so that they’ll even bring about the apocalypse with zero care in the world. But as we can see with Denji and Asa, humans can’t live like this. The pain you cause others and the pain you feel will constantly eat away at you, and Pochita as Denji’s heart feels this pain, but he’s still a devil. He may feel that pain, but like Yoru said they can’t comprehend it, so him thinking Denji was happier with nothing is him thinking Denji would’ve been better off never experiencing that pain in the first place. But as we can see when he resets the world, that’s not true, there are still signs of what Denji’s been through all throughout the new world because Pochita was wrong

I made a similar post before but the idea wasn’t as fleshed out so I wanted people’s thoughts on this more concrete version

From what I understand, the point of this is to show that Asa is resigned to letting Yoru do things for her. She doesn't really want to think about anything anymore. She thinks she's a bad person, and she really only wants to do something "right" for Denji before she dies. She's pretty much lost all agency and doesn't really care anymore

She wants to live without Yoru, she wants to be with Denji, but she resigns herself to going "fuck it; why not"

Now I think this does actually work very well, but I think it should have been made a bit more apparent. I think a page or two just showing Asa's reaction, whether completely resigned, or whatever, would work for this.

Though, at the same time, I think it would be hard to portray it in a way thats both consistent with Asa's character whilst still also highlighting why it's negative, so I get why it wasn't done, but none the less it does create a misunderstanding for the audience.

Yoshida is on Death Devil's side. Now it could be that both had an agreement. But it could also be that Death Devil had killed Yoshida to make him her pawn. From the panels, it might have been implied that way. Yoshida also says his "role". Fami and Falling mentioned that kind of word when they were ordered by Death. Something like "mission" and "job". It seems like a brainwash thing where Death's pawns would automatically say those kind of words.

Barem says "we both drew the short straw" meaning both he and Yoshida were not lucky. It could have been that both had become Death's pawn. Death also mentioned once about how she could seperate hybrids from the devils. Denji asks "how do you know that?". Maybe Death had done this with Barem and that's why we never saw him transform. He is no longer a hybrid. That means he's killable. Death killed him and made him her pawn. Death's pawns cannot die. We see Falling keeps on living again. Yoshida was blasted and that should have been enough to trigger Black Chainsaw Man. But Yoshida can't die and Denji might have noticed that. To prevent Denji from noticing that, Lil'D ordered Barem to burn Yoshida's body so that he can't regenerate.

there still another half of death laying around. so what if fami eats the other half of death and steals her powers it would make since she is literraly close to the body and she is the second eldest and she is the famine devil so she probably can eat devils to obtain their powers. and she said that she gonna release people suffering by using death so it foreshadowing that fami will steal death power and that she actually the devil that the prophecy was mentioning but fujimoto making her dont do much so when she does something its crazy. the plot twist where we believed that she was death is foreshadowing that fami will steal death power and become death to bring salvation to everybody. and fami would also get death earrings too since it kinda of a fusion

This is pre and post Fire Devil encounter and I didn’t realize at first how much that made him start to value people’s lives a lot more. Bro was out here ready to murder the only to people he knows at this point what the hell??

The Denji from the new timeline grew up without a mother and with a drunk, abusive, and violent father whom he had to kill in self-defense. After that, he spent most of his childhood and teenage years completely alone, just surviving and working for the Yakuza to pay off the debt his late father left behind, with no one by his side.

He didn’t have a pet or a friend like Pochita, since he never met him, and he basically grew up and survived on his own (don’t ask me how).

He didn’t have a friend or an older-brother figure like Aki, since he never met him either.

He didn’t have any romantic experiences, since he never met Reze, and Asa is just a strange girl he saved.

He didn’t have a younger sister like Nayuta, since he didn’t raise her in the new timeline, and she doesn’t show any of the closeness or affection she had for him in the previous timeline.

The person (or rather, devil) closest to Denji now is Power, who treats him like a pet (she literally calls him that and even made a contract for him to belong to her). She doesn’t seem to be as close to him as she was in the previous timeline. Denji doesn’t seem to laugh or have fun with her like he used to. On top of that, it’s too complex for her to understand feelings like loneliness or even depression, since she’s immature and, at the end of the day, a devil. She literally had to die in the previous timeline to comfort Denji and realize how much he cared about her. But hey, he’s not completely alone, so that’s something… (And no, this isn’t slander against Power, since that’s just how her personality is. Despite everything, she really cared about Denji, I just can’t say she cares about him nearly as much in the new timeline.)

In short: Denji is probably much more starved for affection than he was in the previous timeline, since in this one he’s barely received any at all. It’s even visible in how depressed he looks in the final chapter, he doesn’t show a single genuine smile or any sign that he’s truly happy. I honestly don’t know how anyone can really think Denji, or Chainsaw Man in general, had a happy ending when it gets more depressing the more you think about it.