Chainsaw Man showed off some terrifying Devils , but still hasn’t scratched the horrifying surface. The concept of Devils gaining power through fear, explaining that the more fear of something, the stronger that Devil grows. While most of the Devils showcased so far have been garden variety fears to bats and leeches. The scariest Devils are still to come in the anime, with some just appearing in the manga.
Darkness Devil
- Concept: Fear of the Dark
- Strength: Primal Fear
- Danger Level: Extreme.
The Darkness Devil is one of only two Devils introduced so far that come from Primal Fears humanity feels. Fears that have been around since the dawn of time, engrained into the human psyche by generations. Darkness, the fear of the unknown abyss, the dark that hides horrors in the night, even just shadows. In turn, it becomes one of the most powerful Devils on earth or in Hell.
In International Assassin arc, Santa Claus sends many of the Public Safety team and other independent Devil Hunters to Hell. What follows is a depiction of humanity’s fear of the dark and all the power it holds over them. It wipes out human and Devil indiscriminately with some of creator Takashi Fujimoto’s best art contributing to it.
Hell Devil
- Concept: Hell and the Underworld
- Strength: Not quite Primal Fear Devil, but strong Intangible Fear
- Danger Level: Extreme. Causes mass casualties.
The Hell Devil is the concept of punishment in the afterlife made real. Their flaming torso and demonic appearance and strength of its powers terrify all who lay eyes on it. While it’s a powerful Devil, it doesn’t contract with many. Instead they work in the background, often not revealing itself unless necessary.
Hell Devil’s contract with Santa Claus was more deadly than any of the other assassins sent after Denji. Santa used the Devil’s ability to send Chainsaw Man and his teammates to the literal Hell, birthplace of all Devils. Hell Devil knows he’s outmatched, and runs away before Darkness can show up, proving which of them is more fearsome. While it embodies the concept of Hell and eternal punishment, it doesn’t seem to take any specific religious inspiration.
Doll Devil
- Concept: Fear of Dolls
- Strength: Tangible Fear
- Danger Level: Surprisingly Deadly
Who isn’t at least a little creeped out by dolls? Not the Barbie kind, obviously. No, the creepy porcelain dolls like an old lady with no family and too many cats would have on display. Doll Devil takes advantage of that fear, entering into contract with Santa Claus that turns others into dolls when touched. Living dolls chasing humans down are creepy enough, but that’s not half of what makes this Devil so terrifying.
While it makes one human into a doll and sets it loose, the transformation can spread through touch to anyone the doll comes in contact with. It spreads like a zombie plague, killing and transforming all it comes in contact with into plastic imitations of themselves. Now, imagine an army of dolls waiting just out of site and it’s understandable what makes this Devil so feared.
Curse Devil
- Concept: Fear of curses
- Strength: Intangible Fear
- Danger Level: Deadly, but not a major threat.
The Curse Devil is something that should be more powerful but has better things to do than go fighting Devils. It contracts with Aki through his sword, allowing him to curse enemies if he can stab them three times. The Curse Devil also feeds off the user’s lifespan in return, making it a double-edged sword in form and contract.
It’s no pushover when Aki pulls the pre-requisite attacks off, crucifying Katana Man before ripping him to pieces brutally. That would be impressive if Katana Man hadn’t immediately stood up and shrugged it off as if nothing happened. Nobody can fault the Curse Devil for underestimating one dude with half a sword sticking out of his head.
Gun Devil
- Concept: Fear of Guns
- Strength: Tangible Fear
- Danger Level: Mass Casualty Event
The Gun Devil is the focus of Makima’s Special Division, locating various pieces of it to kill for good. Pieces are hard to come by, various parts held by governments around the world, or some devoured by other Devils. It doesn’t take much for the Gun Devil’s power to cause problems like the massacre thirteen years before the story.
Twenty percent is held by the President of the United States, which makes sense in both the world of Chainsaw Man and real life and is used to carry out various contracts. Other pieces of the Gun Devil have proved deadly in small amounts, even giving the Eternity Devil a massive power boost and creating a fiend out of just twenty percent of the pieces.
Eternity Devil
- Concept: Fear of Time
- Strength: Intangible Fear, not quite Primal
- Danger Level: High, but not directly deadly.
The Eternity Devil was one of Denji and Public Safety’s first real cases, and one of the first to almost kill them all in one fell swoop. First found in a hotel where it caused the same floor to repeat over and over, this Devil is more fond of running its prey into exhaustion instead of the outright violent evisceration most other Devils go for. That’s not to say it isn’t dangerous though, as until Denji figured out how to beat the Eternity Devil at its own game, things were looking pretty grim for the Public Safety team.
Just because Denji beat it doesn’t mean that others wouldn’t fall victim to it easily, with multiple humans reportedly going missing on that floor of the hotel before Public Safety got there, and the Devil not giving up until Denji had massacred it for three days straight. As good as many of the private sector Devil Hunters are, it’s not likely many of them could have taken down the Eternity Devil without some major backup.
Cosmos Devil
- Concept: Existence
- Strength: Omniscience and All-Knowing
- Danger Level: Existential Threat.
Cosmos is one of Quanxi’s girlfriends and appears at first as the most harmless of the four despite her exposed brain (which she uses as a hair bow). With the appearance otherwise of a young woman and only capable of saying the word ‘Halloween’ over and over, she seems to not offer much in the way of a fight. Physically, at least.
What Cosmos does is bring others into her domain, speaking into their mind directly as she pulls them into an infinite field of stars where she speaks perfectly fine. It’s here that she pours all knowledge in the universe into her opponent, effectively melting their brains and rendering them incapable of speaking anything other than the word ‘Halloween’.
Chainsaw Devil
- Concept: Fear of the Dark
- Strength: Primal Fear
- Danger Level: Extreme.
Just because Pochita was a cute little fella doesn’t mean he’s not feared by even the worst Devils. When Denji and Pochita merge to form Chainsaw Man, it makes Denji the new target of Devils everywhere from the Four Horsemen to the Primal Fears, all afraid of the Chainsaw Devil’s ability to swallow other Devil’s leaving them forgotten to the passage of time.
Okay, so the anime hasn’t gotten there yet but the Chainsaw Devil’s list of defeated and erased foes is a list of everything from Nazis to Nuclear Weapons. Hell, he even destroyed the AIDS Devil, making him a number-one ally to the LGBT community!
Falling Devil
- Concept: Fear of Falling
- Strength: Primal Fear
- Danger Level: Extreme.
Falling has to be one of those Primal Fears that everyone has had at least once in their lives, whether it be the sinking feeling of missing a step on some stairs or hurtling from a plane toward the ground with nothing but a thin sheet of fabric to avoid death. That makes it one of the strongest, as well as the scariest in Chainsaw Man’s world.
This Devil is still relatively new, though it utilizes the power of ‘Falling’ in more ways than just a physical fall. She can make her victims spiral into a depression, going into a mental free-fall, and usually ending in the victims killing themselves while she barely gets her hands dirty. She’s a Primal Fear, and as such has existed longer than most other Devils, making her just as much of a fight as the Darkness Devil.
War Devil
- Concept: Fear of War
- Strength: Four Horsemen
- Danger Level: World Wide Threat
War is hell, and the War Devil intends to bring it back into style. While she’s recently taken the form of Asa in the manga and hasn’t shown a true form yet, she’s proved to be both a physically powerful and tactically savvy enemy no matter where she is. In the world of Chainsaw Man, there hasn’t been a real war since World War I thanks to the Chainsaw Devil partially eating part of the War Devil in the past, still leaving the idea of war but no actual happenings to strengthen her.
Naturally, her powers are not to be messed with, allowing War to create weapons from everything including her body and others. Though she’s dangerous enough as is with conventional explosives and weapons, her mission to make Chainsaw Man throw up the Nuclear Weapons Devil to regain their power makes her a massive threat to both Denji and humanity as a whole.
Chainsaw Man has plenty of terrifying Devils still to come in the story, as the second part is still ongoing in Shonen Jump. If it’s anything like the first part, the story is barely a third of the way over and will likely introduce plenty of new, even scarier Devils in time as it brings Denji and Pochita against all the powers of Hell who wish to kill them.
