“Your necessary evil is just an excuse to justify your own crimes. Those excuses are unnecessary to society. The truly necessary evils are always kept collared and controlled by the state”
Makima, also known as the Control Devil, is a member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the main antagonist and final boss of the Public Safety Saga. She is the first antagonist of the series.
She is a high-ranking Public Safety Devil Hunter who took Denji in as her human pet. She is later revealed to be the Control Devil who embodies the fear of control or conquest. Following her death, she is reincarnated as Nayuta.
As the Control Devil, she has a myriad of powers which involve being able to manipulate people to her will, and having masses of people carry out her every order.
Physical Appearance[]
Makima is a Devil resembling a human woman in her twenties of average build, and marginally above average height. She has long light red/pale auburn hair, normally kept in a loose braid with bangs reaching just past her eyebrows and two longer side bangs that frame her face. Her eyes are yellow with multiple red rings within them, making them the only visible sign of her inhuman nature. Her usual Public Safety uniform consists of a white long-sleeved shirt, a black tie, black pants and brown shoes.
Design Variants[]
In Dog & Chainsaw, Makima wears a black trench coat over her usual Public Safety uniform.
In This Kind of Taste, Makima wears a black long dress.
In the same chapter she appears with a halo made of flesh over her head.
Also later she appears with chains coming out of her body, controlling the Weapon Devils.
In I, Love, Chainsaw, Makima appears as cooked food, eaten by Denji to completely kill her.
In the same chapter, she is reborn as the Control Devil, Nayuta, with long black hair and the appearance of a child.
History[]
In the "Intro arc," Makima, a Devil Hunter, encounters Denji, now Chainsaw Man, after he defeats the Zombie Devil. She offers him two options: be killed or become her pet. Denji chooses the latter, and Makima introduces him to his new living situation with Aki Hayakawa and the Blood Fiend Power. During a car ride, Makima feeds Denji udon, showcasing her nurturing side.
In the "Bat Devil arc," Makima assigns Denji and Power a mission to patrol for Devils. Later, she admonishes them for recklessly killing a Devil but lets them off with a warning. Makima displays her strategic approach to Devil hunting and demonstrates her control over Denji and Power. She entices Denji with the promise of granting any wish if he can kill the Gun Devil.
The "Eternity Devil arc" sees Makima directing Division 4 to hunt the Eternity Devil and gather Gun Devil fragments. Her strong leadership and authority over the Devil Hunters are evident throughout the arc.
In the "Katana Man arc," Makima orchestrates the mission to capture the Katana Man and reveals her connections with the yakuza and her ruthless methods to achieve her goals. She maintains a dominant role in the Devil Hunting organization, utilizing her influence to control situations.
In the "Gun Devil arc," Makima's manipulative nature comes to the forefront as she controls events surrounding the Gun Devil's attack on Japan. She utilizes her powers and influence to protect Denji, further showcasing her strategic thinking and power over Devil affairs.
In the "Control Devil arc," Makima's true intentions and abilities as the Control Devil are laid bare. She orchestrates events to mentally break Denji and severs his connection with Pochita. Makima's cruelty and desire for control are evident as she uses Denji and other Devil Hunters as pawns.
Makima's demise and the emergence of a new Control Devil, Nayuta, mark a significant shift in the storyline. Despite her defeat, the impact of Makima's actions continues to resonate, leaving a lasting influence on the characters and the plot.
Powers & Abilities[]
Supernatural Abilities[]
- Domination: As Makima embodies the fear of control or conquest/domination, her abilities reflects this nature. Besides her manipulative way of thinking and acting, she is able to control any being who she believes is inferior to her, even being able to force them into making contracts with her or another Devil.
- She borrows the hearing of rats, birds and other small animals she controls to hear conversations remotely, seemingly anywhere on the planet and possibly extending into Hell itself.
- She has been shown to control a large number of rats which allow her to travel around using them.
- She has demonstrated the ability to make others hear her voice by placing her hand on their head even if the person is dead. She uses this to command the Devils that the person is currently contracted with.
- Force Manipulation: Makima has been shown to offensively manipulate an invisible force in a variety of way similar to Darkness Devil. This force can be used to damage her weak targets internally by simply staring at them. Depending on the situation, she can use this power in other various way such as:
- She has shown to cause her target to be crushed by an invisible force from over long distances.
- She has been shown to inflict damage by projecting an invisible force to targets she points at with her index finger which is strong enough to heavily damage Darkness Devil, who is a Primal Devil, kill Power instantly and send an empowered Chainsaw Man high into the atmosphere when she used it repetitively against him. She usually says "Bang!" while using this ability.
Personality[]
On the surface, Makima seems to be a nice, gentle, social and friendly woman who is almost seen wearing a smile on her face the entire time and acts relaxed and confident even during a crisis, speaking in a professional tone to her workers. As her natural appearance is nearly identical to that of a human, she avoids disclosing her Devil nature to most of her underlings and spends much of the series posing as a human contracted to a Devil rather than a Devil herself. However, this is only a façade that she uses to fulfill her ultimate goal: After the death of Aki Hayakawa, Makima begins to reveal her true colors to Denji. Makima's true face is of someone that is Machiavellian and calculating, who sees people around her as nothing more than "dogs" she can use as she much as she likes and must obey her without any hesitation.
Age[]
Makima's true age is unknown, as she is a Devil and takes the appearance of a young woman, but her age likely exceeds over 100.
Appearances[]
| Quick Jump | |
|---|---|
Part 1: Public Safety Saga[]
|
Buddy Stories[]
- Chapter 1: The Great Detective Power and Her Assistant Denji
- Chapter 4: Dream of Enoshima
Part 2: Academy Saga[]
- Chapter 7: Spoiler (mentioned)
- Chapter 42: A Chair's Feelings (mentioned)
- Chapter 50: Cremation (mentioned)
- Chapter 54: The Return of Chainsaw Man (mentioned)
- Chapter 58: Old Me (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- Makima's name is written in katakana (マキマ), though it seems to have no special meaning to it. However, the "maki" (マキ) in her name seems to be from "Makita", which is the name of a Japanese manufacturer of power tools that also creates chainsaws (noting her idolization of Chainsaw Man).
- Makima's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
- Makima ranked 2nd in the First Popularity Poll with 27,224 votes.
- Makima ranked 2nd in the Second Popularity Poll with 76,733 votes.
- Makima smokes "hi-fight"s, likely a reference to the Japanese tobacco brand "hi-lite."
- Makima was the first character Fujimoto had a solid image of as she is a character in "Breath of The Stars", one of the serialized works in Fujimoto's head, out of many fantasy stories he imagined in Junior High.
- Makima was partially based on "Benten", a character in "The Eccentric Family" that Fujimoto liked, for she is an unfathomable higher being, with her own sadness that we lowly humans can't comprehend—something Fujimoto wanted to convey in Makima.
- Fujimoto has mentioned FLCL as a source of inspiration for the girls of Chainsaw Man, and Makima is likely based on Haruko from FLCL who is a manipulative, unpredictable being.
- According to Fujimoto, if you remove the "ki" from Makima's name, you're left with "Mama", which ties in with Denji, who has always been pursuing maternal things since the death of his mother at a young age.
- The most common spelling of Makima in Japanese is 牧間, which can be read, as a play on 人間/"human", as "shepherd". Which can go with how she essentially can make people into her "sheeple."
- The two kana that form her name are homophones for "ma (魔)" and "ki (鬼)", both different words for "demon".
- Makima's Japanese Devil Name, Shihai (支配), uses the same kanji as the Japanese translation for the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Christian mythology. Given Makima's status as a member of the group, her name could also be interpreted as the Conquest Devil.
- In Japanese the word Shihai is an umbrella term for several similar concepts relating to control, conquest, rulership and domination .etc. So while in Japanese it was already clear what type of Devil she was as well as being a horseman upon the first time her Devil type was revealed, the umbrella term would be lost in translation and thus different languages would come up with different variations such as Control Devil and Domination Devil being the most notable examples.
- Makima's final battle at the end with Chainsaw Man was inspired by the Shinobu vs. Koyomi fight in the Kizumonogatari III movie according to a tweet by Fujimoto.
- In Makima's apartment (shown in Chapter 81), there is a painting showing "The Fall of Lucifer", similar to Gustave Doré's illustration for John Milton's poem Paradise Lost.
- In both the anime and the manga, Makima is often seen with pests and parasites.
- In the opening theme "Kick Back", Makima is allegorically represented by two animals: the jade wasp (Ampulex compressa) and Leucochloridium paradoxum, both parasites that control the actions of their host.
- Her association with pests could be reflective of how the Conquest Horseman is often interpreted as the Horseman of Pestilence. The reason for the Conquest Horseman being changed to Pestilence in some interpretations is because scholars found Conquest to be too similar to War. Pestilence was an easy change because at the time, bows and arrows were laced with poisons and toxins and the Conquest Horseman held a bow and arrow. Even though Makima's hands are in a more gun-like position, her "Bang!" ability can also be comparable to shots from an arrow.
- Makima's gut halo is often seen as being symbolic of the crown that the Conquest Horseman would wsear.
Cover Gallery[]
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Chainsaw Man Series
   | |
|---|---|
| Parts | Public Safety Saga ∙ Academy Saga |
| Protagonists | Denji ∙ Asa Mitaka |
| Antagonists | Makima ∙ Death Devil |
| Devils | Pochita ∙ Yoru |