There is an infamous saying among the Anime community. The Fate series’ protagonist, Emiya Shirou, blurted out a line to Saber. After realizing he had been abusing his healing factor, he resolved to never do so again. The epiphany made him acknowledge his own mortality leading to his infamous phrase. “People die if they are killed”. Of course, this is just a hilariously mistranslated line from Japanese to English. It was played off as a joke by many in the community. Tatsuki Fujimoto, however, had other ideas.
The Chainsaw Man author took offense to Shirou’s catchphrase. So, he did everything he can to prove it wrong. Yes, I’m joking, but it’s not wholly untrue. The Chainsaw Man series is littered with characters who can cheat death. Its main protagonist Denji survived after being shot in the head, had his heart ripped out, and cut into pieces. The Devils as a whole are able to reincarnate. However, no other character was able to cheat death more than Makima.
In this article, we will discuss Makima’s death, the circumstances behind them, and how it all began.
Who is Makima?
Before we discuss Makima’s death, it’s important to give a brief summary of who she is and what she’s done. Makima is the Control Devil. She acted as the overarching main antagonist of the series in order to achieve her dream. In the process, she has committed atrocious acts against humanity. Cold, meticulous, and calculating, she is the Anime equivalent of a James Bond villain. However, she is not without faults. Her arrogance and superiority complex are often on full display. This is more prevalent among those she fought.
As a Devil, Makima was created in Hell. She ruled over the dominion of Control which made her incredibly powerful. Lesser demons were no threat to her as she quickly scaled through the ranks of Hell. She had gathered the attention of primordial evils like the Darkness Devil. In later chapters, she showed she that could injure them. You might be wondering why I’m focusing on her Devil nature. The next sections will explain why.
Why Can’t Makima Die?
I’ve mentioned in the first part of the article that Makima cheated death. It wasn’t just a one-time occasion either. Multiple times in the series, Makima was shown to survive every encounter that killed her. So, how is she able to do this? The answer comes in two parts: Makima’s Devil Nature and her Contract with Japan’s Prime Minister.
Makima’s Devil Nature
As a Devil, Makima has the same traits as her kin. She has incredible endurance and regeneration that lets her survive fatal wounds. There are a few scenes in the series that show the latter ability. The most notable one was the assassination attempt. On Kishibe’s orders, he assembled a squad that was meant to take Makima out. One RPG blast later and we see her injured. The panel doesn’t show the extent of her injuries. But we can guess that her right arm was either missing or mangled by shrapnel. In the later panels, we see that her arm is back to normal as if nothing happened.
However, it’s her pseudo-immortality that makes it so Makima can’t die. If she ever gets killed, she will simply reincarnate in Hell with a new life. However, she does lose her memories in return. The only way to get rid of her is to make it so humans don’t fear the concept of Control.
Contract with Japan’s Prime Minister
For a brief explanation, Makima’s main ability is to subject beings under her control. This only works for those she sees as lesser than her. In return, she gains their abilities or the conditions of the contract is expanded. In this case, Makima’s Contract with Japan’s Prime Minister makes it so she will never die. In the case that an attack reaches her with the intent to kill her, a random Japanese citizen will die instead. The situation on how the citizen dies is up to chance. Sometimes it manifests in the form of an accident, bad luck, or an illness. In later chapters, the contract can happen instantaneously.
How Many Lives Does Makima Have?
Since her contract involves every citizen of Japan, Makima has quite the stock of one-ups. While it isn’t stated in the manga, we can at least research how many lives she would have. A quick search on Google returns that Makima has potentially 126.1 million lives at her disposal.
How Does Makima Come Back to Life?
The way Makima comes back to life is erratic in the series. She has been seen to be incapacitated on multiple occasions. For example, when she was shot in the head, she was out for a few seconds. But in another situation, she was able to instantly recover from multiple gunshots. Either way, we can at least make a solid conclusion. Makima is able to stitch herself back together in a matter of seconds to minutes. She appears to use her body’s muscles and blood in a similar way Venom or Carnage does. Small-scale injuries seem to get healed instantaneously.
How Many Times Does Makima Die?
Just because Makima is immortal, doesn’t mean that she hasn’t had her fair share of deaths. Her position as a public figure makes it so that there will always be people wanting to kill her. Upon my estimations, she has died 80 times at least. This does not include the canonical deaths that happened while Denji was eating her. So, to make it easier, let’s write them down. These are all the times that Makima “died”.
Katana Man Arc (Chapters 22 to 39)
An ambush setup by terrorists had taken Special Division 4 by surprise. While the main forces went for Denji and the gang, a separate force went for Makima. In Chapter 22, we see her “die” for the first time. She was shot in the back of her head with a pistol and was left to lean against her seat. However, we see in Chapter 26 that she survived the shot. The bullet hole that should have been there was gone.
This was one of the few times we saw Makima die on the page. We never see her “die” again until the Gun Devil Arc. It’s safe to say that her death by gunshot is her 28th death. Of course, unless a flashback happens that shows more of her deaths between arcs.
Gun Devil Arc (Chapters 71 to 79)
We see in Chapter 76 that Makima dies to the Gun Devil. The first death happens during their initial encounter when the Gun Devil found her and is shot immediately. The author marked it as her 29th death. It is unknown if she died more times during her battle against the Gun Devil. It is safe to say that she has, but we have no way to confirm.
Control Devil Arc (Chapters 80 to 97)
It’s funny that it’s during the arc dedicated to Makima when we see her die the most! Her first four deaths came in the hands of Kishibe’s squad who tried to shoot her down. She is seen to regenerate in between the gunfire. Before her third death, she was able to stir Pochita into action as Chainsaw Man.
Her next death came into the hands of Pochita. The latter sliced her to pieces, but she was able to recover from that. The battle that ensued afterward had been chaotic. Makima and her group of Weapon Devils did what they can to put Pochita down, but failed each time. To her own admittance, she has died 26 times.
She then battled against Power. Against the Blood Devil, Makima is seen to take some incredible damage. It is unknown if the attacks had been enough to truly kill her, but she at least died four times. There’s no surviving being used as a pin cushion after all!
Then finally, there was her climatic battle against Pochita and Denji. Her battling Pochita disguised as Denji led her to die four more times on screen. However, it’s shown at the beginning of Chapter 95 that she brought at least 17 people with her. The final bout between the two showed that everyone she had brought with her had died. The only one who hasn’t is Denji, who was able to deliver a critical blow.
It is unknown how many more times Makima died while Power’s blood was rampaging through her body. This also applies to the civilians that died while Denji took his time to eat Makima.
How Does Makima Die?
The biggest issue for Denji to deal with was how to approach Makima. By this point, he already knows all that she was capable of. She can detect people and Devils by smell as hinted way back in Episode/Chapter 2. So how could he get to her? Simple. He used her arrogance and goal against her. Makima never saw Denji as a threat, much less someone worth noting. All that mattered to her about Denji was the Pochita that lived in his heart. This is where Denji had an idea. Makima, the entire time, only smelled Pochita in him, and never him.
Who Killed Makima?
Now knowing what to gamble on, it was now a matter of how to kill her. By thinking things through, Denji managed to find a loophole around Makima’s contract. He had pursued Makima’s death as an act of love. He wanted to eat Makima so he could become one with her, not kill her. Since this doesn’t fall under the conditions of Makima’s contract, she got ingested without a problem.
Does Denji Kill Makima?
We never see the Control Devil come back the same way. Never once was she able to stitch herself together. Nor did she come back from Denji’s stomach. Denji actually manages to kill Makima and Kishibe confirms it.
She does return as the reincarnated Control Devil, Nayuta. But she possesses no memories. Her past life is gone and Makima is officially defeated.