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Anyway I said I could so here's a rambling Plurk Essay summarizing the impossibly dense wild shit of the Chainsaw Man OP
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manga spoilers
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not gonna break down every single movie reference because fuck off but
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https://images.plurk.com/3HtwYiyAiXIbDkxYOMWFvN.png second one and I already have to go DEEP
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https://images.plurk.com/409JliUke46P678lUMtXbe.png this is the painting in question
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it depicts a scene from the Divine Comedy where a sinner is being tortured in hell, in a circle for the greedy and corrupt
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who tricks the demons tormenting him and escapes from their grasp, but has to jump into a lake of boiling pitch
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Denji, at the start of CSM, is in deep debt with the Yakuza and living a hellish life, which he escapes by leaping into a world of nightmarish devil battles
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https://images.plurk.com/2zrow06j3GjcXrfyHbL9gr.png following this is a rapid-fire sequence of about three hundred movie references
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with shots from the movies recreated using the CSM cast
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in order: Reservoir Dogs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pulp Fiction, Sadako VS Kayako, No Country for Old Men, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Don't Look Up, Jacob's Ladder, Constantine, The Big Lebowski (pictured)
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which ends with Aki bowling with a golden bowling ball
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which is the first piece of sexual imagery, which is gonna be a Whole Thing in this psychosexual hellscape of an OP
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kintama, or golden ball, is Japanese slang for testicles
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that's why Power is pointing and laughing in the background
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https://images.plurk.com/7JtSx0Sc8jIjJUQMAkOroj.png Just before that is the theater shot, which has a lot of subtle stuff going on most of which I don't follow
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I think one of the characters is from one of Fujimoto's earlier manga, but the gag I'm highlighting is Kobeni (second from the right)
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who looks visibly uncomfortable before leaving the theater, probably to go to the bathroom
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https://images.plurk.com/6BEJbOkZzh711EyV6UASuC.png only to have her seat stolen by Power while she's up
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and fail to do anything about it
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a great summary of the two characters and their roles in life
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https://images.plurk.com/44b5eI8MBRKS45QRBa8wvP.png the bowling leads into the Power pin-up shot, which focuses on, well. it's foreshadowing, for one of the best scenes in Denji's character arc, you'll just have to trust me
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what's going on with makima and denji in the background? don't worrry about it
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then we shift from the First Part to the Middle Part
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which I'll talk about in more depth later
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https://images.plurk.com/7iyNjaAGNuJT4H389U0Mb9.png but the main imagery of it is denji in makima's lap being fed... this thing
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which is not just a snail
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but a specific species of snailborne parasite that infects its eyestalks and controls its behavior like that weird ant zombie parasite
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to make it more visible and vulnerable to predators
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which is very appropriate imagery for the relationship between denji and makima
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blood splatter and we enter the Last Part
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big action scene cool etc
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when Chainsaw Man gets his shit wrecked by being throw into walls repeatedly
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the craters in the walls spell out
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https://images.plurk.com/6rOQ7WTulSkQFaAoLoCLgl.png https://images.plurk.com/567iaFYrr8YpduLm19UTi5.png https://images.plurk.com/2fxwueN9KQYVGh2eUsePsC.png C S M
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https://images.plurk.com/5ouRMm8f1OUXpzf3Paxt0q.png the next shot is mostly just cool as shit, but is also I believe a reference to evangelion, for the episode where Unit 01 claws its way out of a bloody sphere
TWO OF THEM
yes
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https://images.plurk.com/jQa5VtaPBPllWw8Y3qcy8.png then Denji sees the orb
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which is both a Fight Club reference
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and our second testicle
Gabiluzbad
oh I actually thought it was a reference to Soul Eater, which had a similar shot
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and then denji and power concoct a genius plan
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of Soul crawling out of Maka's stomach, I think?
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https://images.plurk.com/3IfSJkrwWjALWsS3U4xWq5.png https://images.plurk.com/zRJtkRifDvvkB3e60RaJg.png
Represented by exploding galaxy brain denji and super smart genius power
Gabiluzbad
Eva feels more plausible though
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the plan is just for power to roll the orb at the devil and then chainsaw man jumps off it and attacks normally
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which is a delightfully asinine plan
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then after a bit more Imagery you get the final rapid-fire montage
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https://images.plurk.com/5gDLlp0XWrLyqGh3j3PIsc.png this shot is another reference to a different Fujimoto work, the one-shot "Goodbye, Eri"
TWO OF THEM
Gabiluzbad : https://images.plurk.com/eBm5q6x7sRsJULK9UEdWd.jpg
it's eva
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https://images.plurk.com/3bFijkqeDHX86hpcgxzS8n.png and this image, my favorite thing in the whole OP
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it's a layered reference
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https://images.plurk.com/5fOxMiNUaqjhmX6hIcvLIL.png on its face a reference to this imag
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e
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where someone dumb sees a nice world but someone smarter, standing on a pile of knowledge, sees how shitty the world is
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but it's actually not that
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it's a reference to a specific MEME EDIT of that image
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https://images.plurk.com/11WPCeZopgu76b11jQfWW8.png
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which added a third pile
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but beyond that it communicates a massive amount about the characters
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Power and Denji are at the bottom, living in their little fun playground
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Aki towers above them, seeing over the wall to the dystopian true world
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except that what Aki's seeing isn't the real world, it's another wall
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and Makima is the only one truly seeing over the wall and into the true nature of reality
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which we are not permitted to see
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https://imgs.plurk.com/QBu/KUU/6ZmwDQEoLAM3o9eSFCZiAcwvmel_lg.gif you end on The Dance
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https://images.plurk.com/4dBDEzqcZdLVrSc3AmDusU.png and this last shot, which is, if you know how Aki's power works
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Aki killing the cameraman
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but let's step back a bit
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and talk about how the entire OP is one massive dick joke
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we pointed out the two nuts, one in the first half and one in the second
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but in between we get the makima/denji scene
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where you see
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- denji in makima's lap
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https://images.plurk.com/7c9QfsRr1C58x7n2MDkfIE.png denji's 'chainsaw' coming out as he gets a nosebleed
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https://images.plurk.com/1XowfTIx7woJsAZTat8hMA.png denji reaching for makima's body
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--I just noticed there's an ant on his hand??? what does it mean
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more parasite imagery?
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https://images.plurk.com/75rQfupQxMimgBrVOrDILj.png and at the climax, a bunch of 'blood' splattering all over
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all sandwiched between the balls
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https://images.plurk.com/2iHFlAwqyDmOvRqYxX3JSb.png the last thing I want to do is talk for an hour about this single shot
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Denji stumbles towards Makima, reaching out to her, and then his hands reach something like water and it ripples, revealing he was reaching for a reflection
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while the lyrics say
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"I want to take hold of it - what's in your chest"
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first of all denji reaching for an illusion that he thinks is makima is already extremely on the nose imagery for how he knows fucking nothing about her and her true motives
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but also the lyrics are a TRIPLE ENTENDRE
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on the 'normal' layer, it's about capturing makima's heart
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on the sexual layerr, it has a much more literal meaning
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but on the third, hidden spoiler layer
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you reverse the assumptions of who the line is talking about
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and it's about Makima, taking into her hands
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https://images.plurk.com/4NFsq9brNXUN4HRGKjcNAo.png what's inside his chest
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Kick Back is, in terms of hidden meaning and jokes and symbolic density, one of the best anime OPs of all time
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thanks for coming to my ted talk
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I gotta catch up on this shit
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incidentally a small thing that's indicative of the just absurd level of detail throughout the OP
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in the big lebowski shott
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https://images.plurk.com/7wmqu7iBjcHiG0ATlSnyDY.png you can see the lane in the reflection off of the bowling ball
BattroidBattery
the denji/makima scene is all parasitic organisms, yeah
BattroidBattery
or things that ensnare like the flytraps
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