Makima

The calm, smiling officer who finds Denji standing over a devil's corpse and offers him a choice: die as a monster or live as her dog. She leads Special Division 4, keeps Denji obedient with gentle praise and small rewards, and openly plans to use Chainsaw Man to destroy the Gun Devil. Her warmth never quite hides how easily she spends the lives around her.

A composed young woman with reddish hair kept in a low braid, with loose strands framing her face. Her most arresting feature is her eyes: pale gold irises circled by faint concentric rings that resemble ripples in water, a detail the anime lingers on whenever she turns her attention on someone. She dresses in plain office wear, a white button shirt with a dark necktie, dark trousers and a long coat, so that she reads as an ordinary civil servant until the series makes her otherwise. Her expression rarely changes beyond a mild, pleasant smile, and she tends to tilt her head slightly when speaking.

Outwardly gentle, patient and unfailingly polite, Makima speaks to subordinates in a warm register that makes brutal instructions sound like friendly suggestions. Beneath that is a cold utilitarian mind that measures people by usefulness; she assigns recruits to lethal missions without visible hesitation and treats casualties as data. She is skilled at identifying exactly what a person wants and offering it, which is how she secures loyalty from the desperate. With Denji in particular she adopts an affectionate, teasing register, praising him, feeding him and framing obedience as devotion. She shows almost no fear, reacts to violence with the same calm she brings to paperwork, and keeps her true aims hidden even from her own department.

Before the story begins, Makima has risen to command of Tokyo Special Division 1, the elite unit of the Public Safety Devil Hunters, an organisation created after devils born from human fear became an everyday threat. She reports to senior government figures and is granted unusual latitude in how she handles personnel, contracts and civilian sacrifices. Her stated obsession is the Gun Devil, the entity responsible for a mass-casualty event that left survivors, including Aki Hayakawa, orphaned and vengeful. She recruits such people deliberately, building a department of damaged volunteers bound to her by debts and promises. How she acquired her abilities and her position is left unexplained during this season.

1. Introduction

   Arriving after Denji fuses with Pochita and tears apart a Zombie Devil, Makima restrains him, smells him, and offers a stark choice: be put down as a monster or live as her dog. She brings him into Public Safety, gives him food, a bed and a sense of worth, and places him under Aki Hayakawa's supervision.

2. Bat Devil and Eternity Devil

   She assigns Denji to Division 4 and pairs him with the Fiend Power, pushing both into increasingly dangerous field work. When Denji and the squad are trapped by the Eternity Devil in a looping hotel floor, Makima works the problem from outside, and afterwards rewards his survival with the attention and promises he craves.

3. Katana Man attack

   The Gun Devil cult strikes Public Safety directly, slaughtering officers and tearing out Denji's heart. Makima is caught in the ambush and shot at point-blank range, yet emerges unharmed, a moment that quietly reframes everything the audience assumed about her. She cradles the wounded Denji and keeps the department functioning through the aftermath.

4. Retaliation and training

   Makima identifies the cult's hidden collaborators and eliminates them remotely through a ritual involving names, a telephone and condemned prisoners, demonstrating lethal reach without leaving her chair. She then hands Denji and Power to Kishibe for brutal training and sets the hunt for Katana Man in motion, assembling a strike team from across the country.

Denji

Handler and object of his devotion

She spares his life, feeds him and dangles romantic attention as a reward for obedience, calling him her dog. Denji's loyalty to her drives nearly every choice he makes across the season.

Aki Hayakawa

Subordinate and long-serving hunter

Aki joined Public Safety for revenge on the Gun Devil and has worked under her for years. He trusts her judgement while remaining visibly uneasy about how freely she spends the lives of her people.

Power

Subordinate Fiend

Makima permits the Blood Fiend to operate as a hunter and pairs her with Denji, tolerating her chaos because it produces results. Power fears and obeys her in a way she obeys nobody else.

Kishibe

Veteran colleague

She entrusts the department's strongest and most cynical hunter with training Denji and Power. Kishibe openly voices suspicion about her methods yet still carries out the assignment.

Himeno

Division 4 officer under her command

Himeno serves in the squad Makima builds around Denji and dies in the Gun Devil cult's assault, one of many casualties absorbed into Makima's larger plan without visible grief.

• Her first appearance, where she pins the newly transformed Denji and offers him the choice between being killed as a devil or living as her dog.
• Taking Denji on a day out that functions as both reward and leash, cementing his attachment to her.
• Surviving a volley of gunfire during the cult's raid on Public Safety and showing no wound at all.
• Holding the gravely injured Denji in the aftermath of the attack while calmly issuing orders.
• Executing the Gun Devil's hidden backers through a phone-line ritual that consumes condemned prisoners in their place.

• She is voiced by Tomori Kusunoki in Japanese and Suzie Yeung in English.
• The faint rings in her irises are a visual motif the anime emphasises in close-ups, distinguishing her from ordinary humans.
• Her office manner, plain suits and clipboard-style briefings deliberately contrast with the gore of the missions she assigns.
• Much of her true nature is withheld during this twelve-episode season and only hinted at through what she survives.

• Denji
• Aki Hayakawa
• Power

• Pochita

Back to the Chainsaw Man guide