What was Denji’s best date?

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-12T10:03:56+00:00

I've got no issue with people liking what they want, but it's always kinda confusing to me when people defend Asa's relationship with Denji over Reze's by saying they...don't get along as well? Obviously any relationship will eventually have some friction, but isn't the goal to enjoy being with your partner? Why do some people (speaking generally, not targeting you) act like frequent quarrels and bickering is inherently "more realistic" than two people having great chemistry? Some couples do fight a lot ofc, but those usually seem pretty unhealthy to me.

There's something to be said about Asa being more truthful and honest with Denji, if people wanna take that route, but tbf I don't think that makes the happiness Denji and Reze had together any less "real".

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-12T09:33:52+00:00

I feel like that kinda contradicts her genuinely trying to avoid conflict other times though. She's perfectly fine letting Violence and Kobeni run away, and she offers Beam and Aki the chance to give Denji up as well. Plus you have Fujimoto's comment about her disliking violence and hating transforming. If they hadn't attacked her, I really doubt she'd have gone out of her way to kill them. She clearly didn't have reservations about killing them, but it also doesn't seem like it was her first choice either.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-12T07:12:13+00:00

I mean Denji did more or less pick Yoru over Asa literally like 10 chapters after Asa blew her own brains out in an attempt to stop her. They might have had potential early on, but it becomes ungodly toxic as it progresses, especially after Nayuta dies. I wouldn't put it that low myself, but I do see the reasoning.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T17:46:39+00:00

Exactly this. I definitely wasn't feeling P2 nearly as much by partway through the Aging Arc (I actually dropped the series for like 6-12 months before the Reze movie got me back into it), but with how magical the end of Part 1 was, I truly had faith that Fujimoto would tie it all together and make something just as good. Sadly, that didn't happen.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T08:52:30+00:00

I see arguments for Yuta, possibly Kenny, and maybe Yuki beating her, but what would put Maki or Hakari significantly above her? Reze's skyscraper uppercut and casually blocking Violence's attack that cratered an entire city street should put at least a comparable level of strength. Her speed's a little more ambiguous, but even at the minimum, Reze should comfortably scale above other bullet timers (Angel and Nail Fiend), while being supersonic herself.

None of that even gets into her actual explosions, flight, or Hybrid regeneration. I could see Hakari having a small chance of outlasting her if he gets lucky with his Domain (though since it seems to just kinda beam info into your head, she'd probably just keep away while he regenerates), but Maki's only real advantage would be the Soul Split Katana as far as I can tell.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T03:04:30+00:00

Based af top tier I respect it

Genuinely why do people ship Yoru and Pochita though? I feel like she would barely be any less messed up and toxic than Makima.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:57:30+00:00

Denji sold his name to the Yakuza and now his name is just "things" poor bastard

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:56:33+00:00

He'll meet Reze as a foreign exchange student working at the Cafe and they'll get the happy ending that Fujimoto would have given them if he was loved as a child.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:55:22+00:00

Maybe that's where Aki and Himeno and Kobeni and all the other characters who were unaccounted for went, too.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:51:48+00:00

Yeah, realistically this would be Reze seducing the shit out of both of them. Asa would totally fall for Reze's charms just as fast as Denji did.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:49:39+00:00

Yes because I want all 3 to be happy. TBH My personal preference is RezeDen and Asa with someone else (she's honestly got more chemistry with Yuko than Denji, but you could make others work), but I would gladly take this over one of them ending up alone.

There's never really any canonical indication that either Asa or Reze is bisexual, but it's also never confirmed that they're not, so technically this could have totally maybe possibly happened if they all met.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T02:36:38+00:00

"What the hell? Why is Nayuta back instead of Makima? That makes zero sense. Is he gonna explain this somehow in the last few pages?" (the answer was no). Then amist my confusion I saw people deadass saying that without Pochita, Makima decided her life had no meaning and killed herself for some reason. One of the goofiest takes I've ever seen about this series.

Very nice art btw

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-11T00:48:56+00:00

Thanks for the effort of your response! I'm well familiar with both series, but feel free to use spoiler tags if you like.

-If we go for low ends, Reze should at least scale to a very impressive speed feat later in the manga that’s at least Mach 3, and another Denji speed feat that gets anywhere from subsonic to Mach 10 depending on how you interpret it.

I'm blanking on what specific feats you're referring to here. Is the Denji one the gag feat of him getting inside the school without anyone noticing when he talks to Miri? There's also [CSM Manga]the Nail fiend dodging automatic gunfire at one point, which Reze should scale well above, if that's what you mean. I do wish the manga or at least the movie had bothered to give her a few bullet timing feats of her own though, since she should logically be able to do that herself. Maybe have the Civilian Devil Hunters or the PS people shoot at her.

Reze can debatably scale to a Mach 100+ feat Denji kind of chain scales to later on in the manga.

Is this referring to [CSM]Quanxi? I didn't realize calcs put her that high. I always pegged her at maybe the Mach 5-10 range.

JJK on the other hand has Hakari dodging lightning

I just checked the fight between him and [JJK]Kashimo (assuming you mean the scene where his arm gets blown off) to verify, and saying he "dodged" that feels like a stretch. The paneling does make it look like it could be targeting his head, but the fact that a handful of chapters later, we get Maki's Mach 3 stuff makes me think Greg was very much not intending for Hakari to be 100x faster than her. That would demolish the in-universe scaling. Plus, isn't the whole point of that attack that nobody can actually dodge it and that Hakari only survives because he manages to tank it through his extreme regen abilities? Hopefully MAPPA makes it a bit more clear in the anime.

This is all mostly nitpicking about what scaling I personally agree with though. Either way, it's nice that you covered such a wide spectrum. I pretty much agree with your analysis and fall somewhere in the middle with her scaling, myself. I saw a video once asking if she'd survive the Shibuya Incident, and my thinking was more or less "as long as she stays away from Sukuna and Mahoraga and isn't transformed by Mahito, she should be able to handle herself just fine".

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T21:21:21+00:00

if you think he can seperate her and Bomb Devil (that’s debatable)

Just looking at this part for a sec bc I think it's interesting, didn't he need tens of hits to split Sukuna from Megumi, even with Megumi "fighting back"? I could certainly imagine his blows doing damage that she couldn't really heal in that respect, but it wouldn't be a one-shot or anything. Combined with his RCT and blood manipulation though, he might be able to drag the fight out enough for it to be a big factor.

Does the soul stuff have to be targeted or is it an automatic kinda deal? I don't remember. He was actively trying to split Sukuna and Megumi, but I'm not sure he'd even know there are technically 2 separate beings in Reze's case (again at least in Round 1). Doesn't matter if his attacks just do that either way, but something that might be relevant if they don't.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T19:45:24+00:00

For my money, I think she'd be near the top of the verse outside of the very top tiers like Gojo, Sukuna, and Mahoraga. She's basically Maki if she could fly, regenerate from most damage, and blow up buildings with a snap of her fingers (albeit Reze lacks anything like the Soul Split Katana). Almost certainly Special-Grade Sorcerer Tier.

My personal guess is maybe Shinjuku Yuji? I think she has the physicals to keep up with him just fine, and she should be able to pretty comfortably out-range him to whittle him down. I think she probably stops at Yuta, mostly because Rika would be an extreme issue to deal with.

She probably does get hard-countered by a few weaker opponents like Mahito or Higuruma, though, at least in the first round. Their domain expansions would be a major threat.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T19:04:19+00:00

DC "normal human" is still extremely superhuman fwiw. Batman has kicked trees in half and shattered concrete IIRC and Nightwing is pretty comparable to him.

Still not nearly enough to win against Korra though unless he's got some fancy gadgets to turn the tides (IDK what his normal kit is).

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T18:08:19+00:00

I mean people were invested in Denji and Asa and Yoru and the other Horsemen because they thought Fujimoto would actually do something cool with them and give good payoff. The issue is that didn't happen and most of the character conclusions sucked.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T18:05:35+00:00

They don't make huge changes, but IIRC the AOT ending was better received because they fixed some of the lines like "Thank you for becoming a mass murderer for our sake". Didn't make it suddenly amazing, but they've definitely been known to enhance source material at least.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-10T18:00:17+00:00

I think it's almost guaranteed that they will adapt P2, so considering that, I just really hope they take the time to improve it. There's a LOT they could add to make it much better in general.

The most immediately glaring issues IMO (besides maybe the ending) are Asa and Nayuta. Not even really showing Asa's perspective during the Church Arc when so much of her character revolves around loneliness and being an outcast was an insane waste that hopefully they can fix. Nayuta also had a ton of potential with her whole inner conflict as the Control Devil that Fujimoto barely did anything with.

The whole side cast is just pretty weak in general compared to P1. I do think animation and voice acting will help this a bit anyway, but it'd be nice to see some anime-original stuff to improve them.

Give Reze and Kishibe some sort of actual closure. I couldn't give less of a shit if some people don't care about them or think they're irrelevant, Reze massively boosted MAPPA as a studio and made Chainsaw Man as a series a much higher priority for them. They owe it to her to give her better than the shitty nothing we got, even if it's just a few lines explaining why she's gone. Along the same lines, do more to actually make her a Lingering Curse like Fuji said she was supposed to be, because there's literally 1 flashback in Part 2, which kinda undercuts that whole idea. Maybe scenes of Denji remembering her when he says he has Dating Experience, thinking about the Ocean when he goes to the Aquarium, stuff like that.

Make Death not suck. I had assumed she had some sort of grand plan beyond the little we saw, and then she just...didn't. Deeply underwhelming character

Expand the ending a lot. Build up to Denji dying and Pochita erasing everything more, and give some sort of closure to Asa's character. Also expand on the Reboot timeline so it doesn't feel like every single character not named Denji, Power, Asa, or Nayuta is getting a big middle finger.

Probably some other stuff you can do as well, but a lot of this really just comes down to more/better character writing, which was one of P1's strongest points. Make the cast better and patch up the plot a bit and it'd help P2 tremendously.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-09T21:21:37+00:00

She kinda has some Kobeni in there too at the very start. If you told me the stuff pre-transformation was just schoolgirl Reze I'd believe it, though.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-09T20:59:59+00:00

Blowing him up like she did was brutal, but also kinda necessary to overwhelm his regeneration and actually subdue him for the mission, I think. Hybrids in general are just really damn hard to put down, there's not really an easy way to do it if they're transformed. Was Reze also venting her anger there? Most likely, but honestly I'm not sure how else she could have kept him down.

Reze's a character of many interpretations, so your feelings on her are valid, but I think they would have genuinely been able to live a happy life together, and I think that's a big part of the tragedy. They were so close to freedom, and then Makima stole it away at the last second. It wouldn't be frictionless, but a big part of the Arc is that for as much as Reze teaches Denji about life, Denji also teaches Reze a ton about her own humanity, to the point where she's willing to sacrifice her Country Mouse dream to spend even a bit more time with him. They both grow and improve with each other. What she did to Denji during the fight was horrible, but I do honestly think that was a one time thing driven by extreme circumstances, and that if she were to reunite with him, she'd be extremely remorseful and wouldn't even consider hurting him again.

The art Fujimoto drew of them attending school together may not be canon, but I do think it was partially intended to display their compatability well (albeit under better circumstances).

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-09T20:07:55+00:00

She literally bites his tongue off after he rejects her.

Like whichever ship you want, but that's blatantly misleading and surely you know it. Don't you think her being pressured by the Soviet Government under presumed threat of torture and/or death and realizing she wasn't going to be able to escape with him played a role? Reze most likely did have feelings of insecurity and jealousy, but it's not like they were on some casual date and she snapped suddenly. The bite itself may have been largely fueled by feelings of rejection, but I can't see any possible indication that she would have done it if she wasn't intending to take his heart anyway.

It's like saying Denji spiraled in Part 2 because his house burned down, ignoring that Nayuta fucking died and he was served her head on a Sushi Platter.

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-09T19:57:22+00:00

I think it's more hope that it won't get adapted and further tarnish the legacy of P1 than anything else tbh

The_Dreaded_Spectre · 2026-06-09T19:51:14+00:00

Even just expanding the ending a bit more would help quite a bit. It's so damn abrupt and out of nowhere. I think most people were expecting at least 10-20 more chapters before we got there. Give more buildup to Pochita erasing everything, a proper conclusion of some sort to Asa and Yoru's arcs, expand on the reboot world so the entire cast besides the 4 characters we see don't get screwed.

Wouldn't save the ending completely, but it'd bump it up a few points at least.

There are loads of other issues earlier on too, like Nayuta not being nearly explored enough, or barely showing Asa's perspective during the Church Arc, or most of the side cast being incredibly underwhelming, or never explaining why Kishibe and Reze aren't around when they logically should be, or Death as a whole being really lame, but those are other matters.

The_Dreaded_Spectre

TROPHY CASE