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Thread on Katana Man and why I think he’s one of CSM’s best characters and a perfect rival for Denji
He’s first defined by his feeling superior to Denji, seeing him as some upjumped thug who killed his loving, honourable grandfather for no good reason. He’s lived an extremely privileged life, bought with blood money earned from the suffering of people like Denji
He often boasts of being more intelligent and honourable than Denji, looking down on him for his lack of education and claiming he feels terrible for killing people, when Denji isn’t too bothered. He sees himself as some sort of honourable anti hero, claiming revenge-
For the murder of his grandfather by some idiotic, immoral thug. He definitely watches too many samurai films, my headcanon is that he asked Akane to give him the Sword Devil over a stronger one. He’s wrong about this, and his view of morality is absolutely myopic
He’s somehow even stupider than Denji, he has no idea that his grandfather wasn’t some upstanding member of society but actually an exploitive, merciless monster. He feels bad for killing since he’s only killed devil hunters that contribute to society, when Denji has/
Only killed devils and murderous Yakuza, when faced with killing people who might not deserve it like Santa’s dolls he’s terrified of killing them. Katana Man tries to justify his grandfather as a good person by saying he’s ‘only’ killed 5 (young?) girls in his life
Worst of all, he buys into a concept as self destructive as revenge. Revenge ruins Aki’s life and he only realised it too late. Denji never buys into it and doesn’t let it affect him. Katana Man tries it and all it gets him is being tortured and made a slave by devil hunters
This is perfectly reflected visually. Katana Man’s (insanely cool) hybrid design screams traditional, with the imperial Japanese style cap and long coat and the swords. It’s also shown in his fighting style, he uses katanas (an actual weapon and japans national one at that)
Versus Denji who uses much more brutal and unelegant chainsaws to fight. He’s also a much more refined duellist than Denji, using actual techniques like Iaido and generally fighting much more skillfully, which allows him to beat Denji both times in a straight fight
It’s this duel like focus that is his downfall however, as it means that he never expects Denji’s much more underhanded tactics like lying or concealing weapons.
In conclusion, he’s a fantastic rival, he’s the reverse of Denji in such a cool way, a privileged rich kid hung up on complicated concepts who let’s looking cool get in the way of his own survival. Really hope he shows up in Part 2 and gets a real name
