Quick answer
- When Chainsaw Man eats a devil, the concept its name stands for vanishes from the world and from everyone’s memory (explained by Makima in Ch. 84).
- Before the story he had already erased Nazism, World War II, AIDS, nuclear weapons, the sixth sense and more; in Part 2 he erased ears, mouths, snow, bitterness, octopuses, legs, teeth and, in Ch. 219, Death itself.
- Erasure can be undone: Pochita can vomit a devil back up, and humans can reinvent a concept, as the US did with nuclear weapons (Ch. 209–210).
- In Ch. 231 Pochita eats his own heart to erase Chainsaw Man, and Ch. 232 shows a new world; the manga doesn’t list which erased concepts returned.
Chainsaw Man doesn’t just kill devils. When he eats one, the thing that devil’s name stands for disappears from the world and from everyone’s memory, as if it had never existed. By the end of the manga that list includes Nazism, World War II, AIDS, nuclear weapons, the sixth sense and, finally, death itself (Ch. 219).
Below is every erasure the manga confirms, with the chapter and whether the concept came back. Spoilers through the final chapter (Ch. 232, March 2026). None of this is in the anime yet: Season 1 and the Reze Arc movie stop long before Chapter 84.
How does Chainsaw Man erase devils?
Makima explains it to Kishibe in Chapter 84. In Hell, the Chainsaw Devil is known as the “Hero of Hell,” and any devil he eats has its name erased. Because a devil is its name, everything that name refers to goes with it.
The rest of the series adds three rules:
- The world rewrites itself around the gap. People don’t notice anything is missing. Kishibe has no answer when Makima asks what he knows about the Holocaust (Ch. 84). Even Makima says she can’t remember what the erased things actually were, only the fights.
- It follows the exact name. When the Ear Devil was erased, every creature lost its ears, but phones and radios stayed in the world (Ch. 172–174). Related concepts survive.
- Only Chainsaw Man can do it. A devil that dies normally just reincarnates. Denji ate Makima as himself, as an “act of love,” not as Chainsaw Man, so control wasn’t erased (Ch. 96–97). The Control Devil was reborn as Nayuta.
Pochita doesn’t need to finish the meal, either. Eating just the head was enough for the Ear and Mouth Devils.
Every devil Chainsaw Man erased (complete list)
Before the story: Makima’s list (Ch. 84)
These devils were eaten long before Denji met Pochita. Makima names them in Chapter 84.
| Erased devil | What vanished from the world | Did it come back? |
|---|---|---|
| Nazi Devil | Nazism and the Holocaust | No |
| World War II Devil | World War II (which is why the USSR still exists) | No |
| AIDS Devil | AIDS | No |
| Nuclear Weapons Devil | Nuclear weapons | Yes: the US reinvented them (Ch. 209–210) |
| Arnolone Syndrome Devil | “Arnolone syndrome” | No |
| SOA Devil | “SOA” | No |
| Mount Hio Eruption Devil | The eruption of “Mount Hio” | No |
| Sixth Sense Devil | Humanity’s sixth sense | No |
| Light of a Star That Breaks Children’s Minds Devil | A star whose light drove children mad | No |
| Four unnamed devils | Four “conclusions” to life other than death | No |
Arnolone syndrome, SOA and Mount Hio don’t exist in our world either. That’s the trick: from inside the story, we’re the ones who forgot them.
Chapter 87 adds one more. The real name for Hybrids (devil-humans like Denji, Reze and Katana Man) was also eaten. Makima calls them the “sole exception”: their name is gone, but they still exist.
Chainsaw Man also partly ate the War Devil in Hell. War still exists as a concept, but Yoru lost much of her power, including nuclear weapons. Fear of war shrank so far that she worried she would fade away (Ch. 104).
Part 2: the Aging Devil arc (Ch. 172–190)
After Public Safety took Denji’s body, a rampaging Pochita started eating devils in real time.
| Erased devil | Chapter eaten | Effect | Restored? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ear Devil | Ch. 172 | Every creature lost its ears | Yes: the Octopus Devil squeezed Pochita until he vomited the head (Ch. 173) |
| Mouth Devil | Ch. 174 | Every creature lost its mouth | Yes: Yoru’s gun tore the head out of Pochita (Ch. 176) |
| Snow Devil | Ch. 174 | Snow ceased to exist | Yes: Denji vomited it in the Aging’s World (Ch. 182) |
| Bitterness Devil | Ch. 174 | The taste of bitterness vanished | Yes: Denji vomited it (Ch. 183) |
| Octopus Devil | Ch. 174 | Octopuses vanished (swallowed whole along with Yoshida) | Yes: Denji vomited Yoshida and the Octopus Devil (Ch. 188) |
Chapter 174 also reveals Public Safety’s plan to have Chainsaw Man erase aging. The Aging Devil offered itself in exchange for the deaths of 10,000 children. That never happened: it was never eaten, and the arc ends with it bound by a contract not to fight Denji, Asa and Yoshida again.
Part 2: the War Devil arc (Ch. 219–227)
| Erased devil | Chapter eaten | Effect | Restored? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Devil | Ch. 219 | Death was erased, so nothing can die | Not before the ending |
| Moray Eel Devil | Ch. 223 | Denji ate it to taunt Yoru | Not shown |
| Legs Devil | Ch. 224 | Creatures lost their legs; birds fell off power lines | Yes: vomited (Ch. 225) |
| Teeth Devil | Ch. 225 | Teeth vanished; Yoru could barely talk | Yes: vomited (Ch. 225) |
| Locust Devil | Ch. 227 | Denji ate it (“tastes like shrimp”) | Not shown |
The Legs and Teeth Devils were small “pawn” effigies. The Death Devil had given them to Denji while he pretended to be on her side. Denji ate several more pawns in Chapter 225, but the manga doesn’t name them, and Yoru notes that not every erasure has an obvious effect right away.
Some fan lists also say flamethrowers were erased when Pochita ate Barem Bridge, the Flamethrower Hybrid. The manga never confirms this, so it’s left out of the tables.
Did Chainsaw Man erase death?
Yes. In Chapter 219, during his battle with Yoru, Pochita slices the Death Devil apart and swallows her whole while Yoru begs him not to. Death had already been trying to get herself eaten (Ch. 218), because the Nostradamus prophecy said her power would wipe out humanity.
Erasing death didn’t bring anyone back. It made things worse. In Chapter 230 Fumiko explains the result: nothing can die anymore, so insects and pests multiply endlessly and eat people alive while their victims go on suffering. That terror is what made devils like the Locust Devil so strong.
Death’s erasure is only undone by the ending.
Can an erased devil come back?
Yes. The manga shows three ways back:
- Vomiting it up. A hard enough hit makes Pochita throw up recent meals, and the concept returns at once (ears in Ch. 173, mouths in Ch. 176). He can also choose what to bring up: he returns snow and bitterness to help Denji remember Aki, Power and Reze (Ch. 182–183).
- Humans reinventing it. Nuclear weapons were never vomited back. The United States built them again from scratch and used them on Soviet cities. Only then did Yoru remember they had existed (Ch. 209–210).
- Erasing Chainsaw Man himself. See the ending below.
The manga never says whether Pochita could bring back devils he ate long ago, like the Nazi or AIDS Devils. Every regurgitation shown happens soon after the meal.
What happened to the erased devils in the ending?
In Chapter 231, Pochita meets Denji in his mindscape, tears out his own heart and eats himself. He says he is erasing Chainsaw Man to make a world where he never existed, and admits he doesn’t know what that world will be like.
Chapter 232, “Thank You, Chainsaw Man,” shows the new world. Denji is still in debt and about to die when Power saves him with her blood. Nayuta, not Makima, is the Control Devil in charge. Denji meets Asa at school.
The last chapter never lists which erased concepts came back. Devils are killed again and a corpse turns up at school, so death does seem to be back, and fans generally read the ending as a full reset. Oddly, chainsaws still exist: Denji fights with one. Anything beyond that is theory.
Why do devils fear Chainsaw Man?
Normally, dying is just a round trip for a devil: it goes to Hell and reincarnates. The strongest devils, the Primal Fears like the Darkness Devil, have never died at all (Ch. 64). Chainsaw Man is the one exception to that cycle. Being eaten by him is the only permanent death a devil can suffer.
That’s why he’s “the devil devils fear most.” It’s also why the Four Horsemen wanted him. Makima wanted to control him and use his power to erase things like war and death. Yoru wanted her nuclear weapons back. The Death Devil wanted him to eat her before the prophecy came true.
To see how human devil hunters borrow devil power, read our devil contracts guide. For the Bomb Hybrid from the arc before all this, see Reze explained. For the memory that snow brings back to Denji, see how Aki Hayakawa dies.
FAQ
What devils did Chainsaw Man erase?
Makima’s list in Ch. 84 covers the Nazi, World War II, AIDS, Nuclear Weapons, Arnolone Syndrome, SOA, Mount Hio Eruption, Sixth Sense and Light of a Star That Breaks Children’s Minds Devils, plus four devils of ‘conclusions to life other than death’ and the original name for Hybrids. In Part 2 he also ate the Ear, Mouth, Snow, Bitterness, Octopus, Death, Moray Eel, Legs, Teeth and Locust Devils.
Why can Pochita erase devils?
It is the Chainsaw Devil’s unique power. A devil is tied to its name, and when Chainsaw Man eats one, that name and everything it refers to are erased (Ch. 84). The manga never explains where the power comes from; in Ch. 170 Barem only speculates that it’s a leftover of chainsaws having once had many uses.
Did Chainsaw Man erase death?
Yes. Pochita swallowed the Death Devil in Ch. 219. Nothing could die afterward, which let insects and pests overrun humanity (Ch. 230). The world was only rewritten when Pochita erased himself in Ch. 231–232.
Can erased devils come back?
Yes. Pochita can vomit them back up (ears, mouths, snow, bitterness, octopuses, legs and teeth all returned this way), and humans can reinvent a concept from scratch, as the US did with nuclear weapons in Ch. 209–210.
Did Chainsaw Man erase Makima?
No. Denji ate Makima as himself, not as Chainsaw Man, so the Control Devil wasn’t erased and was reborn as Nayuta (Ch. 96–97).
More Chainsaw Man guides
How Does Aki Hayakawa Die? Chapter, Contracts & CauseAki Hayakawa dies in Chainsaw Man Ch. 79 as the Gun Fiend, killed by Denji. The cause, his Fox, Curse and Future contracts, the prophecy, and anime status.
Is Reze Dead? Does She Come Back After the Manga Ending?Is Reze dead in Chainsaw Man? Her three exits (Ch. 52, 88, 94), what became of Makima's hybrids, her only Part 2 appearance and the Ch. 232 ending.
Yoru the War Devil: Powers, Asa & Ending ExplainedWho Yoru, the War Devil, is in Chainsaw Man: her weapon powers and the guilt rule, how she took Asa's body, her war with Pochita, and what the ending shows.
Reze Explained: Powers, Real Identity & Fate With DenjiWho Reze is in Chainsaw Man: Bomb Devil powers with chapters, her Soviet past, a Denji timeline, whether she's dead, Part 2, and the Reze Arc movie vs manga.
Chainsaw Man Devil Contracts: Every Price & ContractorChainsaw Man contracts explained: every devil contract in the manga with its contractor, price and chapter, from Aki and Kishibe to Pochita, Makima and Part 2.
This guide is the English edition of a BuzzBeaver article originally written in Japanese: 日本語版を読む. Facts are checked against the official manga and anime; fan theories are labeled as such.