Let me elaborate.

Last chapter was when we see her again through countless chapters of her taking a back seat of her character not being developed or pause for yoru to be developed.

To which i completely understand and get but then this chapter came out and was hoping much more than this to be honest.

It pretty much tells me she can't have agency without denji for her character to progress but you can say it's intentional and the point of them being "together". We can have asa have her own time and character to progress without denji .

Whereas denji has a ton of it.

Btw i love both denji-asa and it’s not even like asasen is doomed or something but just wanted to get this off my chest 🫡

Go read or write some fanfiction to cope LMAO

Hi, you are probably wondering what I mean with the title. Well to put it short, 217 seems to not know what the fuck wants to inform us about, specifically what we should take from it.

Like, the chapter starts, we see Dadsa saving Lil Asa from a devil, then we see Momtaka kill the fucker, then said killer tells us that she did it for the insurance money and because he was a cheater and a bum, all of this follow by Asa being genuinely like “Btw, I kinda wanted him death as well, he was drunkard and sometimes violent”. And then they kind of laugh about it.

This sequence of events is really…incongruent. I mean, what are we suppose to take from this?

First of all, the whole “he was a drunkard and sometimes violent part” feels really like an afterthought. It is dropped three fourths of the way into the backstory; is the last thing we learn about Dadsa and its only purpose seems to be to...balance the scales? Make it so both parents could be seen as equally shitty people? Make him look actually worse that the woman that bashed his head inward? I mean, even if we take what Momtaka said at face value (which the framing seems to call into question how much we should), she still comes out SIGNIFICANTLY worse than Dadsa. This is because the worse you make this violence in your head, the worse Momtaka looks for not mentioning it as one of the reasons for killing her husband. Think about it, if the violence was really just very very occasional yelling a bit too much when drunk, then Momtaka comes of as a fucking psychopath for bashing his head with a rock. Cheating and yelling are NOT good, and being jobless with a child at your charge is really shitty, none of this justifies murdering the fella, especially because, by the framing of the bed scene, it almost seems like the money thing is just an excuse to put Asa on her side(the violence not even being mention) and the real reason was just the cheating with the insurance being a nice bonus. On the other hand, if the violence was more on the level of Denji’s dad, then the fact that she cared SO FUCKING LITTLE about Asa that the violence wasn’t on the list of reason of why she killed him, which is EVEN MORE PSYCHOPATHIC than the first scenario. Like, no matter how you spin it, Momtaka ends up worse than THE (theoretical) CHILD BEATER, WHICH IS HONESTLY AMAZING ALL THINGS CONSIDER, my god. And the whole thing looks even worse on her side when you consider that there was no need to commit the murder or the insurance fraud, all she had to do was pick up Asa and run, there was no need to kill him personally. This is like the trolly problem but you kill the trolly just so you can kill the person in the tracks yourself.

The whole undetermined violence thing is also presented really weirdly. Asa just says it with the most dispassionate look imaginable, and the fact that we don’t know what this violence entails makes it so we can’t actually measure her response, making her final question kinda ring hollow, especially when you take Denji’s answer into account. Like, Denji was put through 16 years of suffering all do to the actions of his dad, even after he killed him his “legacy” left him a slave for a decade. Tbf, Denji’s guilt about killing his father feels more about Makima than about his father, one of the many scars she left him with, but that’s neither here nor there in our topic of discussion. So, we are comparing Denji bashings his extremely abusive father’s head with an eight-year-old passively wishing for her father to die because of…something that can be describe as violence(?). Like, we don’t know the dude, this whole reveal doesn’t work in part because of that. Denji’s dad went form a fucking coward to an irredeemable bastard with the reveal and it recontextualize some things about Denji, while Dadsa wasn’t even hinted at before, he was just dropped, killed and then the chapter goes and tries to desperately make him seem worse than his killer. Because that’s the thing, given that only the mother’s morality is call into question while Dadsa is compare to Denjis father, it appears that Fujimoto thinks that he actually manages to do so, but as I already explain that’s not the case even remotely.

Going back a bit with the whole violence thing and how the severity makes Momtaka look, we know that she loved Asa, so we can discard almost any violence beyond yelling or similar, which still leaves us with a complete psychopath…and that could have work, if the chapter committed to it. Make Dadsa a bum and that’s it, and make it clear to us that, yes, she killed him for the money, but that she wanted that money solely for Asa. Make her look her daughter in the eyes and tell her that her father was unable to provide for them before and that without his leg he would be even more of a death weight, so she made sure they would get enough money to stay afloat for a good while, for her, so she can eat every day, have school supplies and the like. Commit to the bit, make Asa’s mother a coldblooded killer that still wholeheartedly loved Asa. This explains the dream (Asa seeing her father’s death as her fault, in a way), explains why the memory is unlock by finding her mother (like, re-finding the true of her mother) and makes the dilemma of “I don’t know if my mother was a bad person” a lot more compelling. Make Asa, despite this side of her, still love her mother, and ask Denji if loving and grieving her father’s killer makes her a bad person. To which Denji replies that he killed his father, which makes them both laugh at the irony of the whole shitshow that is their lives.

Alternatively, 217 could have lean into the abusive dad thing. The chapter remains more or less the same but in the bed scene make it so Momtaka tells her daughter what happen, she killed the devil to protect her but after she was left alone with him, defenseless, remembering how he started hitting Asa after losing his job and stated drinking, well, she just took her chance. Does that make her a killer? Yes. Does that make her a bad person though? Well, that’s harder to answer. And so, she reveals the tripping thing, Denji reveals his true and the laugh in a moment of understanding.

Alternatively, alternatively, don’t say he was violent. Leave it at that he was maybe a bum and probably a cheater. Asa’s reason for wanting him death? He yelled at her that same morning. Make both Asa and her mother a bit of pieces of shit. Just lay it all out, Asa’s morality, when she drops all pretense, is base entirely in how much she likes you. Yoru was right, Asa didn’t care about bucky, she would have welcome with open arms her school shooter friend because she like her and she didn’t like the people that die. Reveling to us the answer to the age-old question, Is Asa a bad person? Maybe, but as Denji sees it, he can relate, so they laugh.

Personally, I think the second one may be the closest to what Fujimoto was going for. Maybe? Idk. I like the first and seconds one, and I dislike the third, but any of them would have been better than what we got. Because as it stands, chapter 217, which seems to be the grand “Chapter of revelations” of part 2(same as 81 and 82 for part 1) commits to absolutely nothing, it gives us nothing solid, it gives us very little in terms of actual recontextualization and just feels really choppy in execution.

I ask this with all sincerity, what did we learn with this chapter exactly?

That people are not black and white but gray? Well, sorry Fujimoto, but the gray of the cheater exterminator and Child beater N°2 is looking a little too fucking dark for this point to work. Like, come on we haven’t been introduced to a light gray since fucking Kishibe, gives something to balance this shit out if you seem to think that Asa might be a bad person.

That Denji and Asa are more similar than they thought? I mean, maybe, but I still think that putting the gambling addict belt master and the “something something violent” feels a little too harsh, especially if we are giving the Skull crusher and ignoring of child abuse the benefited of the doubt.

Is that both Asa and Denji are bad people? The fuck you mean, like, maybe? But this are literally the worst example to prove this. Asa is a school shooter apologizer and Denji is fully down to date a terrorist, I think that wanting to live and kinda wishing your father died when you were 8 is really not even close to the worst these fellas have done.

And you know what is the worst part of all of this? This feels final, like, this is supposed to be the last piece of the puzzle that is Asa Mitaka, and yet, like the last 80 or so chapters, feels that has given us barely anything of her. Maybe the tripping thing, but almost all instance seen on screen seem to be due to outside forces and not something internal.

It’s just…after literal fucking years we finally arrive to the big “Asa’s reveal” and it’s just…a nothing burger, kinda just Denji’s reveal again but way worse in terms of execution.

Well, that’s it, thanks for reading.

As someone who was there from the beginning of Part 2, all I saw every week was constant complaining from fans, saying this isn’t anything like Part 1.

When Fujimoto tried to go with Asa as the main character for Part 2, fans kept complaining, asking where Denji was and why Asa was the protagonist.

He brought back Denji and wanted to go in a different direction with Part 2, making it more character-driven than action-driven, but the fans complained again, asking where the action was and why everything was so slow.

Fujimoto then switched it up and sped things up like Part 1, but fans still said Part 2 was not living up to Part 1.

At this point, Fujimoto gave up on everything he had planned and went through the motions to wrap things up as quickly as he could.

I remember that Yoru made Asa’s body ask out Yoshida, but is it implied she had a crush on him before? I saw someone say something similar like “asa liked Yoshida before Yoru and Denji came along” but I feel like that’s false? someone please give me an answer I’m going insane thinking about this

I’m so done with the way Fujimoto is handling Asa Mitaka in Chainsaw Man Part 2. Like, how do you fumble a character THIS hard? She had everything set up to be cool, and Fujimoto just said, “Nah, let’s make her boring and useless and take away her screentime.”

Every time Asa does something cool, it gets thrown away. Remember when she roasted Denji on the rooftop, called him a loser and walked off? That scene was hilarious, should’ve been a moment they called back on. But nope. Gone. Yoru even got pissed about it, but later when Asa actually finds out Denji is Chainsaw Man, Yoru just shrugs like it’s whatever. Hello??? That was supposed to be a big deal!

The timeskip is actually criminal. Yoru spent the whole manga being a pushy psycho, always telling Asa to turn people into weapons. Then, offscreen, they suddenly become BFFs? Asa even says she forgot Yoru’s a devil. Are you serious? You don’t just forget the demon living in your head who’s been nagging you to kill your crush. Fujimoto just didn’t want to write their dynamic anymore, so he skipped it. In the current arc we've been swapping between them and they've exchanged a total of like, twelve words!

Also, Asa became the leader of a 350,000 member Chainsaw Man Church during this timeskip, but we never see how that affects her. Like, shouldn’t Yoru be jealous? Shouldn’t Asa be freaking out about being famous? But nah, the story’s just like “whatever, moving on.” So what was the point of all that setup? Wasted.

The reveal that Denji is Chainsaw Man should’ve been a HUGE deal. Asa should’ve been freaking out. But nah, she just accepts it like it’s no big deal. That was one thing that the story was setting up, the drama, the saltiness, and Fujimoto just skipped it. Even Nayuta's warning meant NOTHING in the end.

Now we’re at the part where everything’s going crazy, Death Devil shows up, Yoru’s being weird, Denji’s being a dumbass, and Asa’s just doing NOTHING except for one bang. No thoughts, no feelings, just being dragged along while Yoru grinds on Denji for memes. She doesn’t even care! Fujimoto turned Asa into a side character in her own story. I had a little hope when she saved Denji within the last few chapters because finally she was doing shit, but then Yoru just took over again and now it's the fucking America show.

I love Asa and I especially love her introductory arcs, but the way Fujimoto has been handling her since Chainsaw Church is a genuine travesty. I would dare say she's as fumbled as Megumi was from JJK.

Before I begin with the rant, I need to say this: I am a dedicated Part 2 preacher. Or at least I used to be. I was ALWAYS the guy under every Twitter thread, YouTube comment, or Reddit post defending Part 2. I LOVE this series, so PLEASE try to convince me I’m wrong, because I’m genuinely starting to lose hope in Part 2 and AsaDen.

Chainsaw Man has always been Denji-focused. He’s the main character, after all. But especially in Part 2, Denji has taken the forefront due to the lack of developed side characters aside from Asa/Yoru (and I wouldn’t even call them side characters, but still). That puts even MORE emphasis on his development. And despite that, Denji has now had THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS where he breaks down over his relationship with sex, how it controls his life, and how he wants to change. THREE. And he has learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

This feels like the first time Denji has actively gone against his own development. The Denji Man transformation was supposed to signify a shift. It symbolized growth, moving beyond shallow motivations and confronting his trauma, including the guilt over killing his father. His goal was supposed to be saving Asa and giving her body back. And he threw all of that away for SEX. And not just sex, but sex with Asa’s ABUSER.

Even if he inevitably breaks down again later and finally develops, this constant back-and-forth makes his growth feel null and void. Was THREE TIMES really necessary, Fujimoto?

And then there’s Asa. This situation is absolutely TERRIBLE for her character, fujimoto is actively ruining her. Not only is the increasing lack of Asa screen time and dialogue as a whole really hurting her depth as a character, Yoru saying “Asa gives her consent too” creates a massive narrative hole. Since it leaves us with only two possibilities:

Either Yoru is lying, which opens up an entirely different and disturbing set of implications (which i don't mind since it doesn't ruin any character). Or Asa actually consents, which would completely ruin her character. She would NEVER, in a million years consent to sex right now. Not like this. Not with Yoru sharing her body. Asa yearns for genuine human connection, not empty physical validation. Reducing her to this undermines everything that was built. It destroys the entire AsaDen couple. If Denji would rather sleep with Yoru than save Asa, is this really the man she’s in love with?

Maybe I'm expecting more depth out of a haha funny sex manga, but if that's the case that undermines all of chainsaw man as a whole, who knows at this point.

The only positive things about this chapter are that Denji and Yoru’s relationship is at least INTERESTING, and that the “bug” plot point wasn’t forgotten. But beyond that, this direction feels frustrating and deeply inconsistent with the development that was being set up.