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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 one of the main antagonists of the Chainsaw Man Part 2: Academy Saga. She is a member of the Four Horsemen, who embodies the concept 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 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 red 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
| “ | You may look cute but you were a Devil all along. | „ |
| ~ Denji calling out Yoru for her two faced nature. |
Yoru like many devils is a murderous, ruthless sadist with a love for death and mayhem. She is more than okay with killing innocent people whether for her own gain or her own enjoyment reveling in the conquest and glory of her kills. The first thing she did when she got Asa's body was to turn Mr. Tanaka into a weapon and mercilessly kill and mutilate the Class Representative (Although to be fair the latter did kill Asa earlier.) She even sits upon their remains in triumph afterwards. She also aphetically claims she intended to turn multiple humans into weapons as well to "go to war" with Chainsaw Man. She is also more than okay with coercing and threating people to get what she wants as she basically took over half of Asa's body and threated to take over the other half (essentially killing her) if she did not assist in her goals. She also demanded Haruka, Nobana and Seigi help her put Denji back together under the threat of death. She even treated Asa like garbage by verbally abusing her and showing no consideration towards her feelings and morality, she even initially only referred to her as "girl" rather than her real name. Although she did allow Asa to argue with her and defy her it was only for pragmatic purposes as she needed her for her goals.
Due to Yoru's arrogance and ego she has various flaws that get her into trouble. She constantly and arrogantly insisted upon her strength and dominance (even though she was in an extremely weakened state) which resulted in her underestimating her opponents and getting in huge trouble. She tried to fight Chainsaw Man/Pochita (who was in an empowered state no less) with little prep time and weak weapons. This nearly resulted in her and Asa getting killed. She even repeated the same exact mistake with the Falling Devil but refused to admit that she lost. On top of her ego she is quite childish, immature and even dimwitted. She almost threw a tantrum when Asa implied she was stupid vehemently denying her statement, screamed into a pillow when she got saved by Chainsaw Man, kicked Denji in the groin and even threw a cake at Yoshida just because. Unlike Makima, she couldn't tell the difference between Pochita and Denji assuming the latter was the same Chainsaw Man she fought in hell even though they are nothing alike (although it’s implied this is because the Horseman don’t memorize faces). She also shows herself to be narcissist and vain as she was mad at the Aging Devil for using his powers to age her up thus "marring her beauty" (even though it's Asa's beauty as it's her body).
Once she became more powerful following the world being plunged into chaos by the Chainsaw Man church she became even more heinous and reveled in her newfound power and showed little regard for Denj and Asa. She was so desperate for victory and revenge against Chainsaw Man she turned her own "children" the Tank and Gun Devils into weapons. When Asa calls her out for it she apathetically justified it saying that "children are their parents property". She went on to murder over nine hundred people and mutilated several others in her attempts to kill Chainsaw Man and even laughed maniacally when she beat him not caring about the destruction she caused. She outright began to deceive Asa by turning Chainsaw Man into a weapon lying that doing so would save Denji. She also emotionally manipulated Asa into giving her control of her body back by stating she was hurt by the fact she was afraid of her only to immediately go back to trying to finish off Chainsaw Man. She also murdered countless people in front of Denji for fun not caring about his displeasure. Additionally doing so also went back on her word as she claimed she was not going to take anymore lives to avoid Asa having a mental breakdown. She is disturbingly enough quite perverted and lustful. Due to Asa's feelings for Denji mixing into her as she kissed Denji several times without his consent and at one point touched him inappropriately in his private area.
However despite how ruthless she is, she has redeeming and somewhat sympathetic qualities. She has genuine insecurities and a crippling fear of being forgotten which is why she wanted another war to break out and was shown to be satisfied when her and Asa were becoming famous with the public. She even suffers trauma from nearly being eaten alive by Chainsaw Man in Hell which makes her hatred for him somewhat justifiable. She is somewhat honorable to a degree. After Denji 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 at full strength, nevertheless, the aversion to killing a helpless foe indicates at least some virtue, whether it be selfish or noble.
Despite not willing to admit it she also cares for several people or at the very least is occasionally affable towards them. Despite being at odds with Asa she does have respect for her commending her for her willingness to fight in dangerous situations and her abilities. She also comforts Asa at some points and gives her some consolation when needed albeit very rarely. She also genuinely cared about both the Tank and Gun Devils viewing them as her children because they were from war itself. This why she was hesitant to turn them into weapons to beat Chainsaw Man. However despite being apathetic to it at first it's implied she does feel remorse for doing so as she seems somewhat sad when talking about them to Denji later on and her claims that she “got over it” were portrayed in an insincere and insecure manner.
While their relationship is very toxic, controlling and is mainly the result of Asa's feelings spilling out into her own Yoru genuinely loves Denji. She comforted him over his loss of Nayuta for no pragmatic reasons, seemed to enjoy spending time with him, assisted him in fighting the Fake Chainsaw Man and was horrified and concerned when he was attacked by the Falling Devil. Even when the two were cornered by Falling she refused to turn Denji into a weapon like she did her "children". However true to Yoru's nature as the War Devil, upon remembering the Nuclear Weapons Devil and the many war crimes committed by America, Yoru abandons her feelings for Denji and declares America as her true love fully intending on continuing continuing her plan to wage an endless Wolrd War II and settle the score with Pochita.
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 initially 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 was one of the closest thing Asa had as 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 civilization 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. Despite this Yoru is still fully willingly to ignore and manipulate Asa into allowing her control over her body to better engage in various acts of destruction and sexual assaults against her wishes. Despite this, Yoru has appeared to no longer view Asa as vessel and more so her "other half". as she has on one occasion referred to herself as the alternate personality of Asa. While willing to put her own desires over Asa, Yoru is capable of begrudgingly taking Asa's mental health into a account, as she temporarily refrained from taking lives in mass as to avoid breaking her mind (though quickly goes on to kill again). As Asa has expressed a desire to commit suicide in order to get rid of Yoru and in turn Yoru has resumed attempting to get Asa to refrain from doing anything that could put her life at risk. During the conflict with Fake Chainsaw Man, Yoru uses Asa being forgotten by the world at large as justification for not sparing the humans trapped inside his body, though it is unclear if this was Yoru genuinely sympathizing with Asa or projecting her own insecurities of War having being forgotten onto her. After remembering the Nuclear weapons Devil, Yoru sets out to enact her initial "Endless World War" plan ignoring Asa's concern.
Death Devil
Yoru advising Asa to stay away from "Fami".
Not much is known about Yoru's and Death Devil's history and she seemingly was not aware of her true identity at the time of meeting her again in 1998, although it's clear that the two of them do not have any sort of real affection for each other. When Asa fumbles her date with Denji, Death under the identity of "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. After regaining most of her strength, Yoru intended on; later transforming Denji into a weapon so she can kill Death herself and wage endless wars. While Death has abandoned all pretenses of pretending to be "Fami" and recruits Denji into stopping Yoru from killing them. When confronting Death, Yoru reveals she had her devil comrades capture her human friends and uses them as hostages to ensure she wont be able to kill her and divert the current prophecy
Denji
Yoru considers the original 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 at the time, 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 and told him that Nayuta was dead and he needed to accept reality. 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.
However due to Asa's feelings mixing with her own she has begun to fall in love with Denji having passionately kissed him several times, emotionally comforted him and made him a meal. She also offered to have sex with him if he kills the Death Devil though has admitted if he fails she will kill him by turning him into a weapon to kill Death herself. As such their relationship is ultimately toxic and controlling (in no short terms due to Yoru's nature as a Devil) as she claims she likes seeing him miserable and pitiful as it makes her want to "cheer him up" showing a very sadomasochist nature towards him. She even killed a woman Denji attempted to save out of jealousy claiming that she is "the only woman he needs". When up against Fake Chainsaw Man Yoru offered assistance displaying a degree of concern for Denji as he was not being able to kill him while civilians were trapped in the devils body. When up against the Falling Devil for the second time, when Yoru was driven into a corner and attempted to turn Denji into a weapon against the wishes of Asa, she ultimately stops herself admitting she can’t bring herself to do so, blushing as she confessed her unwillingness. However, after discovering America reinvented Nuclear weapons sparking her memories of her favorite weapon the Nuclear weapon Devil, Yoru denounces her feelings for Denji and embraces America as her true love, leaving his body behind.
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. When pierced through the head by the Falling Devil her speed and strength are greatly enhanced to the point of out speeding the primal fear and single handedly killing her in a focused strike, something she was unable to do prior.
- 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.
- Gun/Tank Devil Gauntlets: Following the removal of both Asa's arms, and the restoration of them due to Yoru sacrificing the Tank and Gun Devil's lives, she is gifted the ability to use their forms as replacement arms and can fire powerful bullets capable of eviscerating Devils, people, and buildings. Via the Tank Devil Gauntlet Yoru can stockpile all her previous weapons she created and fire them all at will in a bombardment.
- Nuclear Weapons: Following a brain injury inflicted onto her by the Falling Devil, Yoru regains access to and memories of the Nuclear Weapons just as newly invented one is deployed on the Soviet Union.
Weaknesses
- Arrogance: Due to the belief in her own supremacy, she frequently overestimates herself and underestimates her enemies and in turn is often left at their mercy.
- Impatience: While initially planning to gradually rebuild her power, her lack of patience drove her into conflict before she was ready. She can also perform impulsive actions to force a change, rather than wait for it.
- Emotional weight of weapons: The weapons she could create have potentially boundless power, however, due to needing an emotional investment in an object, place, or entity, Yoru mostly depends upon her human host Asa's sense of morality to have guilt that would convert the chosen thing into its most powerful weapon.
- Aging Devil's Dimension: Devil powers are completely nullified in this special realm, with even its eponymous owner being powerless if within it.
- They could, however, achieve connection back with Earth as Denji in the realm and Chainsaw Man in reality could create a dimensional bridge through their mouths.
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 |
| “ | Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! She-she screamed "Nyo waaay!" Ah ha ha ha ha ha! | „ |
| ~ Yoru cackling maniacally as she sent one of Falling Devil's victims to her death |
| “ | I'm the only woman you need, aren't I? | „ |
| ~ Yoru playfully flirting with Denji in response to his disgust over her psychopathy |
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 manifested, as in Chapter 191, Yoru had referred to herself as "Asa's other personality".
- 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
