Chainsaw Man: Exploring the Meaning Behind the Loss of Asa's Cat

Chainsaw Man's anime might be missing in action for now, but Studio MAPPA had a hit on its hands with the first season of the anime adaptation. As fans wait on word for a second season, creator Tatsuki Fujimoto is taking the opportunity to release new chapters of the bloody manga series. With Denji taking a backseat to the new star of the series, the War Devil named Asa Mikata, a new flashback has given us a tragic look at her early life and how a friendly feline taught the protagonist a harsh lesson.

Warning. If you have yet to read the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man's manga, Chapter 123, be forewarned that we'll be diving into spoiler territory for this article. Presently, Asa has a major problem on her hands with her latest encounter with the "Falling Devil", a primordial fear who has humans around her dying in rapid succession. With the devil having the ability to also infect its targets with some serious fear, Mikata, unfortunately, must relive her days in an orphanage following the death of her mother at the hands of a terrifying supernatural force. It might be quite some time before we see Asa appear in the Chainsaw Man anime following her Chainsaw Man manga debut, but the second season will have plenty of new characters to introduce. 

When Asa MIkata's mother died, it was thanks to the future War Devil attempting to save a cat from the devil's path, causing Asa's parent to spring to her aid, but lose her life in the process. Adopting the cat and naming it "Crambon", Asa's maternal figure at the orphanage explained that it was "unfair" for her to have a feline while all the other orphans had no family of their own. Of course, Asa would learn a harsh truth about the world that was affected by devils, as the matriarch of the orphanage decided to kill Crambon by throwing it into the river.

The lesson that Crambon taught Asa isn't a great one but it feels "right" for the world created by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Despite saving this cat and losing her mother in return, Mikata would ultimately lose the feline as well, showing how dire the circumstances of this world are for normal people attempting to live their lives. In previous chapters of Chainsaw Man, readers were informed that large swaths of the population were dying regularly thanks to Devil attacks and it doesn't seem as though that trend will be stopping any time soon. As the Primordial Fears begin to arrive, Denji and Asa are going to have some work ahead of them.