Side Character Spiral: Kobeni Higashiyama

And the survivalist award goes to...

There is one thing Chainsaw Man does more than any other manga—kill characters. Just, left and right, dropping them all. Major characters, minor characters, favorite characters, bit-part characters. Dead. There was a point when I asked myself if anyone besides Denji survived the first arc and, well, we’ll get to that shortly.

There are so many characters I still mourn. Power, mostly. Shark, mostly. And they also don’t shy away from major dramatic deaths.

Chainsaw Man is all about death.

And then there’s Kobeni Higashiyama. Outwardly cowardly (what a cool rhyme), Kobeni first appears in the very first part of the very first arc. She’s a new recruit, the kind that has no discernible qualities and will probably die right away. But for Chainsaw Man mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto, that was an opportunity.

Everyone is dying, these devils are making humans look like they’re made of silly putty, and yet through it all, Kobeni presses on. Sometimes by luck sometimes by sheer happenstance.

But when she truly starts to shine is that burger scene.

Just when you’ve forgotten about Kobeni. Just when Chainsaw Man has gone full hog wild in his grief (Power and Aki have just died) and just when Makima shows her full colors, Kobeni re-enters the story in what is my favorite scene in manga history, and one that I’m doing a much deeper dive on later.

In summary, Chainsaw Man, fully deployed and looking gnarly as ever, is sitting alone at a burger joint, ready to finally have the burger he’s wanted all this time. And all Kobeni has to do is deliver him his meal.

But she trips and spills it on him.

And then again.

And then a third time.

It’s peak hilarity. It’s comedic brilliance. It bangs its head on the tension from Chainsaw Man’s grief and anger but never fully cuts it. And while this scene would have been funny no matter who was wielding the value meal, the fact that it’s Kobeni multiplies the effect the same way that Kobeni always multiplies the effect simply by still being alive.

From the moment she was trying to kill Denji for the Eternity Devil up until the present day, Fujimoto has her so well paced that she only appears when you’ve forgotten about her. When the emotional arc of the story has taken you so wholly away from thinking about her last appearance that her next one is so unexpected that it feels fresh.

That is some kind of storytelling brilliance, but that’s Fujimoto. Tell me why Kobeni is still alive. She shouldn’t be. She should have died long ago. And the story would have pressed on same as usual. Kobeni gives it one more spritz of brilliance though. One more thing to showcase just how wonderful this story is.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, Fujimoto covered his tracks, because from the off, he established that Kobeni was “naturally gifted.” Didn’t say any more than that. Didn’t need to say any more than that. Sometimes we see her natural gift of knife fighting, but not too much. Just enough to remind us that she has skill. And that’s for those of you who can’t suspend your disbelief that she’s still alive. Fujimoto has that covered.

Kobeni may not be a secret anymore, but she’s still a surprise.