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| “ | Just you wait, Chainsaw Man! I'll make you vomit nuclear weapons back up! | „ |
| ~ The War Devil, with her new body, declaring war against Chainsaw Man. |
Yoru, also known as the War Devil, is the tritagonist of Chainsaw Man: Part 2: Academy Saga. She is a member of the Four Horsemen, who embodies the fear of war.
Appearing before high schooler Asa Mitaka after she is killed by her class representative, the War Devil takes over her body and becomes the War Fiend. She vows to destroy her old enemy and rival, Chainsaw Man by attending the same school as his host, Denji, through the body of Asa.
Appearance[]
The War Devil's true form is only shown briefly, but it appears to have an owl-like body, similar to a dark-colored owl or a potoo.
Asa Mitaka, her host body, is a young teenager in her mid to late teens Asa’s a high-school girl with long, black hair that is styled in twin tails behind the back of her head. She's frequently seen dressed in a regular Japanese school uniform with a skirt and lace for a tie. She also seems to wear sneakers instead of regular schoolgirl shoes. Whenever Yoru possesses Asa's body, the three scars on her face appear, with one located on her nose, one on her left cheek, and the other located under her left eye, crossing with the other two scars. Yoru's scar is similar to the simplified version of the kanji radical (戈 hoko?), which means "halberd" or "arms". The same radical is used in the kanji (戦 sen?), which means "war". Her scarlet eyes have multiple rings or circles in a similar fashion to Makima's, and her hair is also set loose, with her no longer having twin tails.
Personality[]
War Devil threatening Asa.
Yoru appears to be confident and prideful, treating its opponents as a mere warm-up and confidently vowing to take vengeance against her old enemy. And like any other of her kind, she takes extreme delight in killing humans as she views them beneath her. Treating them as tools and a means to end her eventual goal of war and vengeance against Chainsaw Man. Unlike other Fiends, Yoru shows herself to be cunning and intelligent as she leaves Asa's brain intact in order to ingrate herself into human society and is able to deduce that Chainsaw Man's host is a high schooler.
Yoru, as a Devil, holds little to no attachment to human beings. The day after she enters into her contract with Asa Mitaka, Yoru makes it clear that she won't hesitate to end Asa's life if she refuses to go along with her plans of defeating Chainsaw Man. Likewise, Yoru attempted to coerce her host into taking Yuko's life after Asa became friends with her. However, Yoru's lack of attachment to human beings is ironically a major obstacle for her. Yoru is able to turn anything she "owns" into a weapon, but the power of her creation's scales with the guilt the user feels at needing to give them up. As a result, Yoru's weapons are actually far weaker than those created by her host, Asa Mitaka.
In contrast to Makima before her, Yoru is immature and prone to childish outbursts. After she's saved by Chainsaw Man shortly after coming into contact with Asa Mitaka, Yoru throws a tantrum about it when she and her host return home. Likewise, Yoru is actually rather naïve despite her lofty status as the War Devil, immediately taking Denji's claim that he's Chainsaw Man at face value (Though, to be fair, Denji's claim was, in fact, true). When Asa laid out reasons why Denji probably wasn't telling the truth, Yoru immediately took offense and repeatedly yelled at Asa that she wasn't stupid, showing that Yoru is pretty insecure and bad at taking criticism. This, ironically enough, is actually a trait that she shares with Asa. With that being said, Yoru still does have enough sense to know when she's outmatched, outright admitting to Asa that she's not strong enough to kill Chainsaw Man on her own and is going to need to rely on Asa if she's going to accomplish anything. Furthermore, Yoru is extremely inept at handling human social situations, as seen by her comically bad attempt at romance with Yoshida--another trait that she shares with Asa.
While Yoru's goal is to force Chainsaw Man to vomit nuclear weapons back up, she isn't motivated by any desire for power, as seen by how she wanted Asa to kill Chainsaw Man during the fight with Falling. Rather, it's implied that Yoru is simply scared of being forgotten. Because Chainsaw Man ate parts of her body during their fight, Yoru is far weaker than she used to be, and as a result, mankind has not had a single war since the World War. Hating the idea of being relegated to a thing of movies and video games, Yoru simply wants some kind of war to break out for the sake of maintaining relevance.
That said, Yoru is not devoid of good qualities. As time goes on, Yoru does seem to develop some empathy for Asa, even if the relationship between the two can't exactly be characterized as healthy. Given that Yoru and Asa are technically sharing the same body, it could be argued that Yoru's concern for Asa is a byproduct of her own selfishness. However, even Yoru is disturbed by her older sister Fami, calling her crazy and advising Asa to stay away from her.
Despite Yoru's hatred for Chainsaw Man, she has a sense of honor in how she wishes to kill him. After Chainsaw Man has been completely dismembered and parts placed in boxes, Yoru doesn't take the opportunity to easily kill him when helpless, rather demanding that he be reassembled so she can kill him at his best. Granted, it may also be simple pride, in that her ego wants the satisfaction of knowing she defeated him, nevertheless, the aversion to killing a helpless foe indicates at least some virtue, whether it be selfish or noble.
Yoru appeared to lack any real sentimentality, however, there are hints that she was growing to sympathize with Asa, for more than simply the host's emotions flowing into her, since they were both isolated loners who felt rejected and yet unseen by the world. A more human quality to Yoru was displayed when she was revealed to be the mother of the Gun and War Devils; she showed a vulnerable side, as she was deeply reluctant to use the concept of "greater the emotional attachment, the greater the grief and guilt, thus greater the power," if it required sacrificing her own children, regardless of her prior dismissal of compassion. Yet it appeared that ultimately her pride was stronger, as she summoned both to transform them into her weapons; while callous, it was arguably a pragmatic strategy, as converting already powerful entities, combined with her own feelings of loss, would create weapons strong enough to actually threaten Chainsaw Man. However, she has also referred to her children as her "property" when Asa questions if she was fine with using them as weapons.
Relationships[]
Asa Mitaka[]
Yoru's and Asa's relationship is initially a purely antagonistic one. While Yoru saves Asa from the Student Council President, she does it to force Asa to help her in her goal of killing Chainsaw Man and threatens to take her life should she disobey. Yoru makes it clear to Asa that she's being kept around only as a means to guide her way through social situations so that she can uncover Chainsaw Man's identity and ultimately kill him. Asa does cow to Yoru's threats at first but, as Asa never placed much value on her own life to begin with, she only does so very begrudgingly and even outright disobeys Yoru at points.
Asa and Yoru calling each other by name for the first time.
After the incident with Yuko, however, Asa's and Yoru's relationship becomes less of a hostage situation and more of a partnership, for a number of reasons. Their fight against Yuko highlighted how Asa's weapons are vastly superior to Yoru's, even if the former lacks the physical fitness to use them as well as Yoru can. Yoru, understanding that Asa is needed if she is to have any kind of chance at defeating Chainsaw Man, loses the bargaining power to really back up any kind of threat she can give towards her. Asa, for her part, becomes more willing to go along with Yoru, as the incident with Yuko made her realize that the people around her are going to suffer as long as Yoru is present.
Yoru and Asa are forced to rely on each other in different situations. Generally speaking, Asa is able to create extremely powerful weapons, but lacks the physical fitness or the combat skills to use them very well. Yoru, on the other hand, is far faster and stronger than her host, but is only able to create weapons of average strength. However, the personality flaws of both frequently end up making things harder for each other. While being attacked by the Falling Devil, for instance, Yoru attempts to act rationally, but can't take control of the body due to Asa panicking, which wasn't helped by Yoru's misguided attempt to calm Asa down by cutting her hand.
As time goes on, Yoru and Asa do show an increasing amount of empathy towards one another, such as when Yoru attempts to comfort Asa after Denji seemingly stands her up on a date. In general, both have slowly grown to accept the other's presence, with both being willing to work within the boundaries that the other finds acceptable. For example, when deciding on a victim to turn into a weapon, Yoru accepts Asa's unwillingness to kill a cat, with the two of them coming to an agreement on "someone between cat and criminal." While their relationship is still rather toxic, at the end of the day Yoru is the closest thing Asa has to a friend.
While Yoru still acts superior to Asa, there is evidence that as time went by, she grew to value her vessel's thoughts; even if Yoru is sometimes dismissive of Asa due to perceived ignorance as the girl is a mere teenager, whereas Yoru is at least as old as human civilisation itself. There are also hints that Yoru's growing sympathy to Asa is partly due to her similarly being a lonely outcast, whose bluntness belies that she craves companionship, too.
Famine Devil[]
Yoru advising Asa to stay away from Fami.
Not much is known about Yoru's and Fami's history, although it's clear that the two of them do not have any sort of real affection for feach other. When Asa fumbles her date with Denji, Fami attempts to help her by way of brute force: using the Eternity Devil to trap Asa and Denji in the aquarium until Asa can turn Denji into a weapon. However this is called into question somewhat by the fact that later events imply that Denji, as a hybrid, can't be turned into a weapon. Furthermore, Fami is shown to have been aware of Denji's true nature as Chainsaw Man, indicating that her true goal may have been to starve Asa. Yoru, likewise, is outright disturbed by her older sister. When they encounter each other in the aquarium, Yoru outright panics and tells Asa not to listen to her. Afterwards, Yoru advises Asa to stay away from Fami, saying that Fami's crazy even by her standards.
Unbeknownst to Yoru, Fami plans to use her to stop the apocalypse, as she believes Yoru and Asa to be the only people capable of stopping the age of the Devils. Based on their interactions, Fami seems to see Yoru as little more than a means to an end, and Yoru only agrees to work with her very begrudgingly.
Chainsaw Man[]
Yoru considers Chainsaw Man to be her archnemesis and seems to have a one-sided rivalry with him. Chainsaw Man, having consumed several devils that were associated with war, significantly weakened Yoru's power as the War Devil by making mankind less scared of her. Despite Yoru's claim that she wants to force Chainsaw Man into spitting out nuclear weapons, when she has him (Or rather Denji) at her mercy while being chased by the Falling Devil, Yoru immediately tries to get Asa to kill him right then and there, suggesting that she resents him out of pride more than anything else.
Unbeknownst to Yoru, Chainsaw Man's true identity is Denji. As Yoru and Asa share a brain, Asa's feelings for Denji carry over to Yoru. However, Yoru's feelings of affection for the young boy seem to be very shallow, as she doesn't hesitate to turn him into a weapon moments later.
When she and Asa are saved by Chainsaw Man during the Falling Devil arc, Asa ends up falling in love with him, much to Yoru's annoyance.
After finding out that Denji was actually Chainsaw Man all along she appears to have begun to vent her feeling of hatred towards the real Chainsaw Man into him. She immediately kicked him in the balls as soon as he woke up and demanded they fight. She even was inconsiderate towards his emotional state. When they got trapped in the Aging Devil’s world she began smacking Denji blaming him for their predicament even calling him “Chainsaw” as if he is the actual Chainsaw Devil.
To break Denji out of his stupor, Yoru takes the idea of sexual release seriously, thereby to make him recover the mental stability to summon his Chainsaw Man powers, she took him into an alley to deeply kiss him and began masturbating him. Despite her indifference, Asa's feeling, Yoru's curiosity and perhaps her own feelings, made Yoru become somewhat enthusiastic about the activities. Once Denji achieved climax and leaves stunned, Yoru appeared surprised by her own actions, and examined the seminal excretions on her palm.
Despite Yoru's curiosity, or arguably interest, her primary goal was stronger, as once Chainsaw Man manifested again, she kept her focus on defeating, if not killing, him as to save her allies from his guts, and largely just to prove herself the stronger Devil, apathetic to Denji's fate. When Yoru, Asa and Denji get trapped in the Aging Devil’s world, Yoru showed a more sentimental side to him. She kissed him when he began crying because he looked “cute” even appeared to blush. She showed sympathy for Denji’s sadness after he lost Nayuta. Encouraging him to move on from her death like she had once done when she was forced to turn Gun and Tank into weapons. However, despite her good intentions in the matter her words were still quite inconsiderate.
Powers and Abilities[]
War Devil turning Mr. Tanaka's head and spine into a sword.
- Weapon transformation: Yoru, and by extension Asa, can turn whatever is "hers" into a weapon. This can be anything from an object, like a pencil or a pair of clothes, to a human being. In the case of human beings, they qualify as being "hers" if Yoru or Asa believes that the other person possesses sexual or romantic attraction to herself, as was the case with Mr. Tanaka.
- Whether or not something is "hers" depends entirely on Asa's or Yoru's personal perception. Even if something obviously doesn't actually belong to them, as long they view it as theirs, they can turn it into a weapon. In the case of the Aquarium arc, for example, Asa was able to convince herself that she "bought" the entire building by collecting a million yen scattered around the building and offering it up in return for ownership of the aquarium.
- The power of any weapon created by Asa or Yoru scales with the guilt they feel at needing to sacrifice whatever is that they're transforming. As Asa has something of a guilt complex while Yoru is sociopathic, Asa's weapons are far more powerful than Yoru's.
- Enhanced strength and agility: Yoru is faster and stronger than Asa is when she's in control of the body.
- Fear empowerment: As a Devil, Yoru is able to get more powerful by feeding on humanity's fear of war. Part of Yoru's motivations in forcing Pochita to vomit the Nuclear Weapons Devil is to reignite fear in them, thus building fear of War, thus planning to challenge other Devils once she gets stronger.
- Contract creation: As a Devil, Yoru is able to make "contracts" with humans in which she can offer her power to them in exchange for something of the human individual. The prices can usually range from being body parts of the contractor for them to eat or even some of the human's lifespan.
- Regeneration: As a Fiend, Yoru is able to regenerate or heal Asa's body by drinking blood. Because of this, she can sustain all kinds of lethal injuries, such as beheading.
- Immortality: As a Devil and now a Fiend, Yoru cannot die of old age and will live on forever if given the chance. However, she's still much weaker than her base Devil form and can still be killed by external factors, which then causes her to revive in Hell.
- Reincarnation: If Yoru is killed on Earth, the War Devil will reincarnate in Hell, making her essentially immortal. The War Devil can return to Earth if she is killed in Hell, which causes them to reincarnate to the human world, now with a completely different appearance, without any of her prior memories and also no longer attached to Asa's corpse.
Quotes[]
| “ | I am the War Devil. I claimed your body. | „ |
| ~ Yoru to Asa. |
| “ | I'm not stupid! I'm not! | „ |
| ~ Yoru defending herself against Asa. |
| “ | Yoru: There are two weapons I could make... Just two that would be far more powerful and fearsome than yours. Asa: Then why didn't you make them in the first place?! I gave up even my home and my college fund to make into weapons! |
„ |
| ~ Yoru and Asa debating the price of defeating Chainsaw Man, which also indicates that Yoru has emotional vulnerabilities despite her ego and callousness |
| “ | For that... would I even turn my own children into weapons? Well... I guess I would. | „ |
| ~ Yoru pondering what she would be willing to sacrifice to defeat Chainsaw Man |
Trivia[]
- She and the host she possesses, Asa Mitaka, shares traits with all four of the major characters of Part 1 Denji, Power, Aki and Makima. Like Denji and Aki, Asa was a human who became orphaned/loss family and got possessed by a devil. On Denji's side she was a lonely teenager who got killed and betrayed by someone she was associated with, who never cared for them to begin with and got resurrected by a devil. On Aki's end both are brunettes with "edgy", mature and brooding personalities who come to hate devils especially since they killed their families. For Yoru, she shares the violent, childish, immature, unintelligent and brutish traits of Power while representing a fear associated with violence (blood and war) and like Makima both are Four Horsemen but Yoru is the complete opposite of Makima and serves more as an "Anti-Makima" being a villain with a contrasting personality and motivations.
- Yoru can largely be seen as a selfish reflection of Asa. While Asa has practically nonexistent self-esteem, Yoru is confident and self-assured. While Asa is constantly wracked by guilt for things completely out of her control (Such as her mother's death), Yoru is completely fine with taking lives or threatening others. While Asa puts way too much importance on what other people think, Yoru simply doesn't care about other people at all. They even share a number of personality flaws, such as immaturity and an unwillingness to take criticism. This ties into how, right before dying, Asa expressed a desire to live her life more selfishly. Yoru, at least symbolically, is that version of Asa made manifest.
- Yoru's name, 夜, can be translated to "night," clearly as a counterpart to Asa's name, 朝, which means "morning."
- Chapter 167's first panel, when Yoru was sexually touching Denji, may be referencing a scene from the 1997 anime movie The End of Evangelion, when Shinji Ikari was jerking off upon perceiving an unconscious Asuka at the hospital.
- In the English translation of Chapter 168, while the translation makes it look as if Asa is angry at Yoru for making her come across like a "slut" to Denji the actual word used in Japanese is actually a word used to mean "female molester" but can get translated as "slut." So, the more correct context is that Asa fears that Yoru made her look like a "molester" and that she (even if unintentionally) framed her for Yoru's own sexual assault.
- Whether in a literal or abstract sense, it was revealed that Yoru is the mother of the Gun Devil and the Tank Devil.
- This is also serving as a reference to: War has “always been the mother of invention,” as written by the historian A. J. P. Taylor.
External Links[]
- Yoru on the Chainsaw Man Wiki
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