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Chainsaw Man is home to many characters of varying intelligence. For every Makima being manipulative, there's a dummy like Power. However, most of the actual characters in Chainsaw Man have some kind of intelligence in certain specific areas, like fighting or cooking or battle strategy.
In this series, the scale isn't always tipped in favor of the strong person, or even the Devil. Despite having all the blood-soaked action one expects from a series of this calibre, Chainsaw Man often has characters relying on their wits to win the day. This article will chronicle 10 of the smartest Chainsaw Man characters, ranking them based on their intelligence.
Disclaimer: This article is subjective and contains major spoilers from the Chainsaw Man anime and manga. It also has mentions of violence.
10 of Chainsaw Man's smartest characters, ranked on the basis of how clever they are
10) The Yakuza that had Denji in debt
Despite stretching the term "characters" a little bit here, the Yakuza members that had Denji in debt in the beginning of Chainsaw Man deserve a token mention on this list. Why? Because they might've been tough enough to shake people down for money, cruel enough to keep the then child Denji paying off his father's debt until he's approximately 38 million yen in the hole, but were not smart enough to distrust a Devil.
That fact alone, shown in Chainsaw Man episode one, is what nets them at the bottom of the list. They may be smart, but that doesn't translate to intelligence when it comes to Faustian bargains. The Yakuza members decided the best way to acquire more power was to pray to a Devil.
This backfired hard when they made a Faustian bargain with the aptly named Zombie Devil, who promptly turned them into zombies. The good news was that Denji was able to kill them so he wasn't in debt anymore. The bad news was that he almost immediately got picked up by Makima afterwards.
9) Power
For the most part, most of the characters in Chainsaw Man are intelligent. Then there's the loud, rampaging demon berserker known as Power. Of all the Devil Hunters, barring Denji, she's probably the least intelligent of the bunch. This is exemplified by her berserker tendencies in battle, and her lack of anything resembling common sense outside of it.
Even her plans for the future include winning a Nobel Prize, and generally becoming a worshiped goddess, neither of which are rooted in reality. She's also used to living in houses, since she messes up Aki's apartment when she moves in with him and Denji.
Power's lack of intelligence is justified, however, as Power had no formal education and was living off the land before being picked up by Special Division 4. It was just her and a cat at first, and she nearly betrayed Denji for the cat's sake. It's clear she mellows out over time, but she's still pretty dumb even later on in Chainsaw Man.
8) Denji
Woe be to any enemy that gets in the titular Chainsaw Man's way. Likewise, woe be to anyone that has to interact with Denji on a regular basis. This isn't to imply that Denji isn't smart or crafty.
He's smart enough to act within his means, knowing the amount he still owes from when he wasn't part of Division 4. He likewise adapts to having a home quickly, and doesn't splurge company money, his own, or Aki's. So, he's at least money conscious that way.
That said, he's notably one-track-minded in his goals, wanting to sleep with a woman and especially Makima. He's likewise bull-headed in a fight. This is shown against the Eternity Devil, where Denji kept cutting at it for three days straight before it released him and his comrades.
7) Himeno
Because emotional intelligence does matter plenty when dealing with the traumatic and stressful job of Devil Hunting, early character Himeno gets on this list. While often shown to be inebriated or seemingly just having fun and hanging loose with the job, she's a survivor guilt-ridden woman who had to bury more partners than most.
Despite constantly drowning her sorrows in alcohol and smoking, she was one of the most genuinely kind characters in a series where that can often get someone killed. She helps Aki get out of his self destructive stupor, aids from beyond the grave with the Ghost Devil helping Aki defeat Sawatari, and cared about Aki more than she let on.
All of this means her death at the hands of Sawatari and the Snake Devil is extremely heartbreaking to everyone, the audience and her squad alike. Himeno posthumously would further be developed as someone who likewise was trying to keep it together, as revealed in letters to her family.
6) Aki Hayakawa
Being sensible when contrasted with Power and Denji, Aki starts out as a very icy member of Special Division 4 who is tasked with having Denji as his charge at the beginning of Chainsaw Man. It worsens when Power moves in, completely disrupting his peaceful morning routine with her shenanigans.
This is, much like Himeno's mask, a facade to conceal his own insecurities. He's absolutely smart enough when it comes to having to deal with two teen equivalent Devils and Fiends, and the Angel Devil as well. How he gets used to all that chaos is anyone's guess.
His survivor's guilt and subsequent revenge quest against the Gun Devil, however, denies him true peace and causes him to make quite a mistake when confronting Makima later on. It turns out trying to trade your life for your friends against a Devil doesn't work, and turns you into the new Gun Fiend.
5) Quanxi
A devil hybrid and devil hunter originating from China, Quanxi was contracted by the Chinese military to go to Japan and capture the Chainsaw Man himself. This is obviously easier said than done, but she and her harem of female Fiends were more than up to the job. She's already amply endowed with superhuman strength, speed, and practical immortality, but what makes her truly dangerous is her cunning.
Quanxi is adaptable, able to outfight even Kishibe and then Hirofumi even with the Octopus Devil aiding him, and then calling a truce when they're all dragged into Hell by the Doll Woman. Having to survive against the ruthless onslaught posed by the Darkness Devil and Doll Woman combined would skew anyone's priorities.
The truce works since they are able to fight off and finally defeat Santa Claus, but then Makima showed up. Not even Quanxi's cunning mind was a match for Makima's power, nor the Chainsaw Devil later on, when Quanxi was made into the Control Devil's puppet and used.
4) Kishibe
For being a normal human in a series that includes people and Devils with abilities to killing people in a violent fashion even when not in the same room, the fact that Kishibe has survived for as long as he has can largely be attributed to his intelligence. Having the patience of a saint to aid Denji and Power in their training is also why he ended up so high on this list.
Something to be restressed is that Kishibe is literally just a normal man who has survived Devil Hunting into his 50s. He's literally too old for any and all of the nonsense going on around him, and yet is still able to formulate plans and strategies to topple Makima, catching her off guard.
The point being, Kishibe earns the moniker of "the greatest Devil Hunter," even if his cynicism makes him unapproachable at first. He even ends up living to tell the tale following the fight against Makima, starting to put himself back together mentally afterwards.
3) Santa Claus/The Doll Woman
One of the more powerful Devils, second only to Makima and third only to the Darkness Devil, "Santa Claus" aka the Doll Woman has a contract with the Doll Devil and is quite freaky to behold. Like many Devils, her kindly demeanor is a facade and she is responsible for most of the assassins that go after Denji later on in the manga.
Makima herself was pretty worried about her, given her powers can forcibly alter anyone's minds to serve her whims. Not even Tolka was safe, as she turned him into a doll too. The Doll Woman proves to be a self-centered sociopath, whose only goal is the accumulation of knowledge.
Ironically, for all her smarts, The Doll Woman is still killed physically by Denji. She attempts a comeback, but gets a largely ironic comeuppance when Cosmo drives her insane by giving her all the knowledge in the cosmos. This stops her threat once and for all.
2) Makima
The Control Devil herself is an enigmatic mystery for the first part of Chainsaw Man. Always smiling, or otherwise being calm despite her menacing aura, Makima seems very much like the Doll Woman in that the two of them can wrap young men around their fingers. Her powers likewise proved unreal.
But what's truly terrifying about Makima is how smart she is. Plan for years to defeat her like Kishibe did? She turns it around in almost an instant. Prostrate yourself before her like Quanxi or Aki to save loved ones? She kills them and makes the traitor her puppet.
It should be noted that she planned almost everything perfectly, all the death and circumstances leading up to her and Denji's final duel. This was all for the sake of getting Pochita out of Denji, as she was only ever in love with Pochita. This backfires rather violently, but that happens much later.
1) Cosmo
As the list does concern the most intelligent members of Chainsaw Man, Cosmo aka the Cosmos Fiend would absolutely fit the bill. She doesn't look like much at first and is arguably one of the strangest Fiends, but her powers make her the most intelligent of Chainsaw Man's characters, barring Makima.
Cosmo might only have the ability to say "Halloween" on the outside, but on the inside she has all the knowledge in the cosmos. Her powers have led her to one conclusion: Hunting and persecution are fundamental to life. It's a cynical conclusion, but one she has reached nonetheless.
She uses it to dole out karmic punishments, teasing how The Doll Woman's knowledge wouldn't even cover a page of what Cosmo knows, and finally ending the former's threat by driving her insane. It's just too bad Makima killed her alongside the rest of Quanxi's harem.
To conclude, while Chainsaw Man may be more well known for violence moreso, it also has more than a few characters who are really intelligent.
The fact that everyone listed here is rather smart to some degree also highlights something else about Chainsaw Man: More often than not, smarts can help win the day or at least aid in survival.
