DenMaki

"All my life people have avoided me, saying I'm filthy and smell bad. No one's ever been this nice to me before. Much less a girl who looks this good! I love her!"

- Denji's thoughts after Makima offers him her coat in Chapter 2

DenMaki is the het ship between Denji and Makima from the Chainsaw Man fandom.

Canon
Denji and Makima first meet after Denji slaughters a mass group of devils. As he's in his hybrid form, Makima approaches Denji and realizes he doesn't smell like a devil nor human. Denji begins to lose control and tells Makima to hold him, she listens and holds onto Denji, accomplishing his dream of hugging a woman. After the hug, he breaks free from his hybrid form, turning back into a human. She holds onto Denji as he's exhausted and she tells him that she came in order to kill the Zombie Devil, as well that she's a Public Safety Devil Hunter.

Makima gives Denji two choices, either to be killed as a Devil or he'll be kept as a human however he must act like her pet, also that she'll provide him food. Denji questions about the food and Makima continues telling him about the food she'll provide for him. They both enter a car and Denji begins to starve, Makima notices how they haven't had breakfast and offers to take Denji to eat. Denji tells Makima that he doesn't have any money however she tells him she'll pay for the food and he can eat what ever he wanted. Makima then gives Denji her coat as he happened to be shirtless. After Denji realizes that he is in love with Makima.

The two then go eat until a man comes into the restaurant begging for help as his daughter was taken into the woods by a devil, Makima's food was already prepared and asked Denji what was his name. She tells Denji that she didn't want her food to go bad and tells him to go kill the devil by himself. Denji tells Makima that he wanted to eat as well until she reminds Denji that he is her pet. As well that he should only respond with the words "yes" or "woof", and that he isn't allowed to say no towards her. Confused, Denji asks what she meant by that, she tells Denji that she'll put him to "sleep" or in other words kill him. Denji then goes into the forest to kill the Devil.

After touching Power's breasts Denji goes into a state of confusion, later he can be seen with Makima as she teaches Denji how to properly do paper work. However, Makima notices Denji's strange behavior and asks him what was bothering him. Denji explains to Makima about the experience he had about touching Power's breasts, Makima responds by telling Denji that touching someone you know better will make him have a better experience. As the two are close together, Makima takes Denji's hands and placing them from her ear, mouth, and then Breast. Denji becomes flustered and then falls back.

It's eventually revealed that Makima never cared about Denji and only took him in for the sake of destroying his contract with Pochita. She traumatizes Denji by forcing him to kill Aki Hayakawa after arranging for the Gun Devil to possess his corpse. When Denji falls into a deep depression, she brings him over to her apartment. After taking advantage of his mental state to make him entirely surrender to her, she calls Power over and murders her in front of Denji.

In reality, Makima was obsessively in love with the Chainsaw Devil, Pochita, viewing Denji as nothing more than an obstacle standing in her way. This ultimately turns out to be her undoing, as Denji figures out that she never even bothered to remember his face or smell, allowing him to ambush her during Makima's fight against Pochita. In spite of the horrific trauma Makima put him through, Denji later admits that he still has feelings for her, as regardless of her motives she was still the first person to ever treat him like a human being. It's for this reason that Denji is able to kill her after slicing her body into pieces and cannibalizing her corpse, as in his mind it's not an attack but rather an expression of love. Following the events of Part 1, however, Denji does appear to hold more ambivalent feelings towards her, as he's visibly bothered when Asa Mitaka shows traits similar to Makima during their date.

Following Makima's death, Denji takes it upon himself to raise her reincarnation, Nayuta, viewing her as his responsibility. However, Denji's relationship with Nayuta is later shown to be drastically different from the one he had with Makima, with he and Nayuta being more like siblings than anything else.

Quotes
"(I thought she was nice. I even liked her a little. I can't believe she was that scary! Treatin' me like a damn dog...)"

- Denji's first thoughts about Makima in Chapter 2

Fanon
The ship itself is seen somewhat highly controversial amongst fans, especially in the Western fandom, due to their age gap and the fact that Makima manipulated Denji for the sake of her goals. While the ship did have something of a following while Part 1 was ongoing, it more or less disappeared after Makima's true nature was revealed. There isn't as much fan written works or artworks with the two in a romantic scenario on AO3 with the exception of Denji being submissive to Makima.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

FAN ART

TWITTER