How Did Denji Kill His Dad? A Boy’s Inescapable Trauma

If there is one thing consistent about Tatsuki Fujimoto’s work, it’s grief. The Chainsaw Man’s author is an expert in using dark emotions to elevate his stories. Whether it be a loss of a friend to a loved one, he never misses. In the series, there are at least three different deaths that affected the characters. Denji was no exception. In this article, we will be talking about the truth of his past.

Let this serve as your spoiler and trigger warning. This article gets heavy.

Further Context for Denji’s Childhood

Denji did not live a good life at all. As a child, he lived in poverty with his father. The latter was the only living relative he had left. At some point, before the events of Chainsaw Man, his mother died. While there are no indications of how she died, it is likely she had died from childbirth. She carried a heart disease that made her cough up blood. Birthing Denji must have been too taxing for her and she may have died afterward.

This left Denji’s father to be the only one raising the kid. It was likely that his parents had been in debt long before his birth. After all, the yakuza knew of his mom’s condition. He inherited the debt instead of his mother. Paired with the costs of raising a child and the debt, his father had gone into alcoholism. The beer cans scattered in their home indicated that Denji’s father had sunk into the vice.
It wasn’t long until his father had enough.

How Did Denji Kill His Dad?

It is unknown how Denji managed to overpower and kill his father. However, in the manga panel we’ve been shown, we can at least infer. There are two possible ways how Denji killed his father.
The first is Denji was able to get the jump on him. He killed his father by throwing something on the back of his head. It is consistent with how his father is sprawled on the floor with blood on his head. The shattered wine bottle further supports this theory. However, there are holes in this theory. The neck and capsule of the wine are intact. This meant that the wine bottle had to be thrown body or heel first.

This leads us to the second and most possible way of how Denji killed his father. Denji had picked up a wine bottle and smashed his father’s face with it. This stays consistent with how the blood pools on the other side of his father’s head. The fact the father’s face hadn’t been shown may indicate the wounds were too gruesome for Denji’s mind to process.

Why Did Denji Kill His Dad?

As a kid, Denji didn’t understand why his father would hit him. Though, it is consistent in the manga that Denji had a strong will to live. Perhaps it is with that and a mix of fear that Denji struck back. Sadly, things went wrong for him. Denji killed his father as an act of self-defense.

How Did Denji’s Father’s Death Affect Him?

The death of his father had left a lasting mental scar in his mind. Unable to process what he had done, he chalked up his father’s death to suicide. Seeing death so close to him made him cling to life and escape reality. The yakuza’s loan sharks didn’t help the situation either. All of this piled together made him yearn for a normal life. One that he knew he didn’t deserve.

While it had been a simple wish at first, it had become his obsession. He became fixated on trying to live a normal life. He had gone as far as selling his own organs to keep his status quo, even if it may not matter in the end. When given the chance to live normally, he immediately jumped on it.

This is why his descent had been devastatingly effective. After realizing he had been led on, he lamented greatly that he wished for a normal life. This is why he is relentless in his pursuit to be acknowledged by the public in Part 2. He knew that the only life he would live is to be Chainsaw Man. Thus, he at least wants everyone around him to know that he is the hero they praise.

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