Making a villain for the protagonist can be very difficult. It takes a lot of thematic correction, and character design to make them convincing. Developing their powers is another thing entirely. There are a lot of ways to go about it. You might want to give the villain powers opposite of the protagonist. For example, Ddraig and Albion from Highschool DxD. Other times, you make them too strong so the protagonist needs to train to beat them. This is a formula used often by most Shounen mangaka. In Chainsaw Man, Tatsuki Fujimoto took on a rather novel approach.
Makima’s powers are not based on how powerful Denji scales or what’s the opposite of his power. Instead, her powers lie solely on what can threaten Denji the most. She was given the power of Control and Domination to manipulate Denji’s life to fall on her lap. She had almost succeeded if it weren’t for Pochita’s intervention. Unlike most villains though, we only barely got to scratch the surface of Makima’s powers! So, in this article, we will be talking about everything she’s got. Spoilers ahead!
What is Makima’s Power?
Control and Domination
Makima’s primary power is her ability to dominate and control those who she sees as lesser than her. We see this ability of hers in action multiple times in the manga. The most notable victims are Denji, Power, Aki, and the Angel Devil.
Her power of control is often used to force someone into making a contract with her. The contract is binding and strips them of their free will to serve her forever. Even in death, they can be brought back and used until Makima dismisses them. As beings stripped of free will, Makima can change them and manipulate their memories. Other than eternal servitude, she gains access to their abilities and existing contracts. This means that Makima is capable of using other Devil abilities as long as they are contracted to her.
How Does Makima’s Power Work?
It appears that Makima’s power of control is conceptual in its basis. It works similarly to Zatanna’s Magic from the DC Universe. The more she appears to believe in her superiority, the likelier the control works. It is unknown how it’s applied, but we do have two separate instances of how she controls people.
The first instance is when Makima takes control over Aki. It appears that Makima needs someone to be on their last legs and desperate enough to control them. A clear sight of her eyes and hearing her words seem to be needed. Unfortunately, this gets debunked in the second instance.
The next time we see Makima try to control someone is with Power. While she doesn’t make the latter desperate, she can control her with a few words. This makes it clear that Makima’s powers work like a compulsion imbued in her words.
Unfortunately, these theories are guesswork. Until we see Nayuta use her abilities in the manga, we can only guess its limits and application.
What Human Does Makima Have?
It is estimated Makima has been around for as long as Aki. Perhaps she has been around for even longer than that. This gave her the chance to make contact with numerous people and Devils in her life. In the manga, we have a few major ones that Makima displayed to have potentially contracted with. Here are the following:
Humans
As one of the leaders in the Public Safety Devil Hunter Bureau, Makima made some contracts with a few people.
Prime Minister Contract
This is the contract that keeps Makima alive. Her contract with the Prime Minister gives her the ability to redirect any wound or attack meant to kill her. A random citizen in Japan will instead receive the blow in various forms.
The forms appear to stretch between diseases to bad luck and accidents. However, this is not always the case. As shown in Chapter 95, a Devil Hunter got his head cut off instead of Makima. This lets her regenerate Pochita’s attempted decapitation.
This contract gives her roughly 121 to 126 million lives.
Devil Hunters
Most of those in the Devil Hunter Tokyo Headquarters are contracted with her. It is unknown if the Kyoto branch may be included, but it is very likely. She drags them along with chains in the later chapters.
While this is guesswork, the chains are there for the instant transmission of injuries. The only times Makima was shown to immediately recover was when she was connected to them. When she was injured in other chapters, such as the Katana Man Arc, it took her a while to regenerate.
The most notable Devil Hunters who used to be under her contract are Aki, Denji, and Quanxi.
What Devil Does Makima Have?
Confirmed Devils
These are the notable Devils we have strong confirmation that Makima has used.
- Future Devil. This contract gives Makima the ability to see through a few seconds ahead in the future. However, it appears that she can use this to predict future events. For example, she was able to predict when the Gun Devil arrives. It is implied that she used the Future Devil to know this.
- Spider Devil. This Devil is one of the few Devils Makima had an actual use for. Unlike the Violence Devil, this Devil gives her the ability to travel anywhere. As long as the Spider Devil is alive and able to unzip, Makima can travel. The dimensions don’t matter for this ability.
- Bomb Devil. While Makima’s contract doesn’t explicitly give her this one’s abilities, Makima does gain the ability to control her. Under Makima’s influence, Reze will fight tooth and nail for her.
- Crossbow Hybrid. This Hybrid falls under the same category as Reze. She is manipulated by Makima and is physically stronger than most Devils. Quanxi is fast enough to run dozens of meters before anyone could react. Each arrow she fires is strong enough to critically injure Denji.
- Snake Devil. This Devil gives Makima the ability to heal the Devils under her.
- Katana Man/Hybrid. This Hybrid is the same as Quanxi. The only difference is Katana Man is weaker and uses a katana instead of a chainsaw.
- Punishment Devil. This Devil is supposedly the Devil that spawned on top of the Gun Devil. We have no idea about its strengths, but it should be strong enough to beat the Gun Devil.
- Zombie Devil. This is one of the first few Devils Makima made a contract with. After being slain by Denji, the latter took this Devil under her wing. With its abilities, she can revive and control zombies. In typical zombie fashion, anyone bitten can be turned into a zombie.
Angel Devil
This gives Makima the ability to steal life force and convert it into weapons. A physical touch can steal two months of the target’s life. She can also use this ability to create weapons such as the following:
- Swords that can instantly kill upon contact.
- Create spears that can mortally wound people and launch in a matter of seconds.
- Create magical weapons that can contain special properties. An example is Aki’s sword which was able to cut through the Ghost Devil.
Gun Devil
While it’s not shown that this Devil is under Makima’s control, its defeat under her hands guarantees it. It has the following abilities:
- Within a 1000m proximity, those born in January to March, May to June, August to September, and November to December will be shot through the heart.
- Can kill every male and child within a 1000-1500m proximity with a shot through the head.
Gun Fiend
This Fiend is Aki possessed by the Gun Devil. While weaker, he is still incredibly strong. The strength of its bullets can flatten streets and buildings.
Other Devils
These are the Devils that other Devil Hunters had made contracts with, but were not shown to be used. As part of Makima’s powers, these are, by extension, usable by her.
- Mold Devil. This Devil can create mold inside a target. The result causes internal bleeding and kills the victim inside out. This ability was shown once when a pair of Devil Hunters used it against Reze.
- Stone Devil. This gives Makima the ability to petrify targets by blowing wind through her fingers. This ability will only work if Makima was able to set up a sigil under her in time.
- Fox Devil. This is the most used Devil by Devil Hunters. It can eat anything in front of it, but it is very picky. If used to eat something it doesn’t like, it cannot be used again.
- Shark Devil. This Devil is also called “Beam”. He can swim through surfaces, turn parts of his body into a shark or turn entirely into one.
- Blood Devil. At one point, Makima was able to control Power. However, she would soon break free from her.
Makima’s Possible Contracts
We have already established that Makima is responsible for Denji’s difficulties. The Devils that went after him are part of them. While they are not present in later chapters, it doesn’t mean they are not contracted with Makima. With the Zombie Devil’s appearance after its death in Chapter 1, anything goes.
- Pingtsi. This Devil was part of Quanxi’s group. She can determine the contract of a Devil, their abilities, and the condition of a body with a look.
- Cosmo Devil. This Devil is arguably the most dangerous on the list. One utterance of the word “Halloween” can bring people inside her mental space. In there, the Cosmo Devil overloads their mind with information. While this does not kill them, it drives them insane to the point they can only think of “Halloween”.
- Eternity Devil. So, you know the Backrooms? This is that personified. This Devil can create a frozen time dimension with looping corridors and rooms. It can choose to increase its size and change the direction of gravity.
- Hell Devil. As seen in the conflict with the Darkness Devil, Makima used to have a Devil Hunter who had a contract with this Devil. This, in turn, gives Makima the possibility to send anyone to Hell.
- Animal Transformation Devil. It is never explained how Makima can turn into a group of rats. But we can attribute this to a Devil.
What Can Makima Do?
Other than Makima’s power over Control and Domination, she also possesses other feats. As a Devil, Makima has access to other abilities that complements her powers.
What Demon is Makima?
Much like Power and Denji, she shares the traits of other Devils. As the Control Devil, she has absolute immortality. This causes her to reincarnate upon death. There is no way to kill her for good unless eaten out of existence by Chainsaw Man. While it is not demonstrated, she likely can regenerate through blood consumption. Her contract with the Prime Minister is likely done to circumvent that weakness.
Makima’s Devil Physiology
Strength and Durability
As a Devil, she has strength feats higher than a human. With her strength, she could fight a stronger Denji and overpower him. Her firsts have enough durability to destroy the latter’s Chainsaws. The force behind her blows is enough to tear his heart out. For comparison, Denji survived the force of 10kiloton of TNT while fighting Typhoon Devil. A weaker version of Denji also survived a point-blank blast by the Bat Devil. Said blast destroyed the building behind him.
In terms of durability, it’s hard to determine. It is safe to say that Makima scales with Denji. The latter was able to tank a bullet from the Gun Field wherein each blast could level a street.
Eyesight, Hearing, and Smell
As a Devil, Makima gains enhanced senses. Her eyesight, among others, receives a huge upgrade. She can see Pochita from Earth after blasting the latter to space. On land, she can see Devils from more than 500 kilometers away. As if that isn’t enough, Makima has the ability to control animals all over the country. This lets her eavesdrop on conversations despite the distance of kilometers.
Finally, she possesses an excellent sense of smell. She can differentiate humans and Devils by using their unique scents.
Speed and Reflexes
Makima has an incredible reaction speed. Despite a bullet traveling dozens of kilometers in a second, she had the time to activate one of her abilities. She can also react to the Darkness Devil. The latter is fast enough to travel hundreds of kilometers in 3 seconds.
Her speed feat isn’t shown much in the manga. However, she is faster than Quanxi, who would have been able to blitz a weaker Denji.
Additional Perks as the Control Devil
Makima can read minds through physical contact. We can see her do this with Denji, with whom she was able to read what was happening. It is also implied she can plant suggestions in a person’s mind. For example, she was able to have Aki fall in love with her. As a superior race, she can control animals all over the planet.
In terms of communication, she also has a different ability in her arsenal. She can communicate with telepathy across dimensions.
Finally, she can remember some events and memories that others can’t. It appears she shares this trait with other Primordial Evils just like the War Devil.
Biological Manipulation and “Bang”
Makima possesses a hard-to-describe ability which she used throughout the series. On multiple occasions, we can see her manipulate the insides of people with a stare. This gives her some degree of biological manipulation that we don’t understand. It was first used against a Yakuza who started crying blood. The next time we see this ability is when it’s used against the Darkness Devil.
While people contributed the Darkness Devil being injured to the “Bang” ability, I disagree. After reading through the manga again, I noticed a pattern. Each use of her “Bang” requires Makima to verbally state the attack. That is when the telekinetic force releases a blast that penetrates a target. Then again, I could be wrong.
Makima’s “Bang” attack has enough force to send Denji to space after consecutive attacks.
Ritual
While its origins are unknown, Makima does have access to a rather powerful ritual. However, there are a few conditions to perform this. First, she and her selection of people must be placed at a high altitude. A mountain platform is preferable. Then, she must blindfold the group of people she has chosen. She must make a blindfolded person utter the name of the person she wants to kill. After a hand gesture, the blindfolded person dies and the target also dies as well.
The method of the target’s death can vary. Their body can be twisted like a cloth until they no longer exist. Others are flattened by an invisible force similar to Junji Ito’s victims of “Splatter Film”.