Kishibe

Name: Kishibe

Gender: Male

Affiliation: Public Safety Devil Hunters – Special Division 1 → Special Division 4

Age: 50s

Height: 194 cm

First-person Pronoun: “Ore” (equivalent to “I,” casual/macho)

Devil Contracts: Nail Devil, Knife Devil, Needle Devil (exact abilities unknown)

Favorite Things: Alcohol, women, and killing devils

Voice Actor (Anime): Kenjiro Tsuda

Stage Actor: Masashi Taniguchi

Kishibe is a tall, imposing man with a lean but powerful build and a height of 194 cm.

He wears his blond hair in a two-block cut and has multiple black piercings in both ears, giving him a rough, punk-like edge.

The most striking feature on his face is the stitched scar running along the left side of his mouth.

This scar comes from a past battle in which his mouth was ripped open all the way to his left ear, later sewn back together.

His facial expression is almost always flat and emotionless.

Because of this, people often find him unreadable and cold, unsure of what he is really thinking.

Kishibe believes that “the Devil Hunters devils fear most are the ones with a few screws loose in their head.”

From this philosophy, he concludes that no “normal” person can handle Devil Hunter work for long.

To keep his own “screws loose,” he drinks constantly, staying in a near-permanent state of drunkenness while on and off duty.

Despite this, he rarely appears obviously drunk and remains sharp and deadly in combat.

On the surface he is blunt, dry, and emotionally distant, speaking in a low-key, almost bored tone.

He can appear ruthless and indifferent, especially at work, where he calmly accepts lethal force as routine.

However, at his core, Kishibe is deeply human and surprisingly compassionate.

He genuinely cares about his subordinates, even though he knows they will likely die, and their deaths weigh heavily on him.

The repeated deaths of his students have become a major source of stress.

This guilt contributes to his alcoholism and may also explain why his training of Denji and Power is excessively harsh, with an element of misdirected anger over losing his “beloved disciple” Himeno.

He enjoys alcohol, women, and killing devils, and he freely admits it.

At the same time, he has a personal sense of justice and loyalty that makes him dangerous to anyone who threatens his “dogs,” as he calls his subordinates.

Kishibe openly calls himself the “strongest Devil Hunter.”

Although he acknowledges that age and heavy drinking have weakened him, he is still considered the most powerful Devil Hunter in Public Safety, excluding Makima.

He was born with abnormal physical strength and says he was the kind of child who would accidentally break toys just by playing with them.

Even as an older man, his raw power and speed are inhuman, easily surpassing most devils and hunters.

During training, he single-handedly overwhelms Denji and Power, both of whom are already strong non-humans.

He casually chokes them out, snaps necks, and stabs Denji multiple times in the chest and jaw in a single sequence, all while treating it as simple “practice.”

Denji and Power attempt to outsmart him by teaming up and using tricks, ambushes, and tools.

Even then, they fail to defeat him, showing just how far above them he is in experience, instincts, and overall combat prowess.

Kishibe’s durability is also monstrous.

He can take blows to the face that would kill an ordinary person instantly and walk away without real damage, making him almost a human-shaped tank.

He has contracts with the Nail Devil, Knife Devil, and Needle Devil, though the exact powers of these contracts are never clearly shown.

He mentions that he has paid so much of his body over his career that there is almost nothing left he can offer devils as a contract price.

Because of this, in the story we mostly see him fighting with knives and hand-to-hand combat rather than flashy devil powers.

His knife skills are expert-level: he can use them for offense, defense, and even to slow his fall by stabbing walls during a high drop.

Despite calling himself “the strongest,” Kishibe is not arrogant toward other skilled hunters.

When Hirofumi Yoshida calls himself a “third-rate” Devil Hunter, Kishibe drily replies, “Then I must be fourth-rate,” acknowledging both his age and Yoshida’s talent.

Another character later comments, “Even first-rate hunters can’t beat old age,” implying Kishibe was even stronger in his youth.

This suggests that his current monstrous level is actually him in decline, making his prime even more terrifying to imagine.

Early Mention and Mentor to Himeno and Aki

Kishibe first appears in a flashback, visiting Aki Hayakawa and Himeno as their mentor.

In this scene, he explains his philosophy of what makes a good Devil Hunter and scolds Himeno for holding on too tightly to the dead.

He criticizes Himeno for visiting her partner’s grave every month, saying that someone so attached is too “screwed tight” to survive long as a Devil Hunter.

Still, he quietly remembers the names of all the partners she has lost, showing that he himself cares deeply but hides it under a harsh exterior.

Himeno and Aki refer to him respectfully as “Sensei” (teacher).

He is clearly an established veteran who has trained multiple generations of hunters.

Trainer of Denji and Power

After the large-scale attack on the Special Divisions, Kishibe is assigned to turn Denji and Power into true elites.

He agrees, but only on the condition that he can “hunt them” freely as training.

He then subjects them to brutal daily sessions, literally “killing” Denji and Power repeatedly, reviving them, and doing it again.

He uses this extreme regimen to drill combat instincts, teamwork, and creativity into them, shaping them into much stronger fighters.

Over time, Denji and Power become capable of better coordination, traps, and feints.

Even so, they never truly beat him, which emphasizes the gulf between an experienced monster like Kishibe and even gifted rookies.

Later, at a dinner with Makima, Kishibe admits that he has grown attached to his “students.”

He complains that he no longer wants to see them die, hinting that their survival matters to him more than he wants to admit.

During this scene, he also reveals his suspicion and hostility toward Makima.

He essentially warns her that he will tolerate any cruelty she commits, even killing his “dogs,” as long as she remains a “friend to humanity,” implying that if she ever crosses that line, he will try to kill her.

Special Division 4 Captain

After the attack on Public Safety’s Special Divisions, the divisions are reorganized.

Kishibe becomes the captain of Special Division 4, the experimental unit that includes Denji, Power, and various fiends and devils.

As captain, he operates both in the field and from the shadows, deploying his team strategically.

His leadership style is pragmatic and ruthless, but ultimately aimed at protecting human lives and, in his own way, his subordinates.

International Assassins and Quasi-Diplomacy

During the international assassins arc, Kishibe functions as both a strategist and active combatant.

He works with Hirofumi Yoshida, discussing plans in a casual but knowing way that suggests they have a history or at least mutual respect.

When the Chinese Devil Hunter Quanxi arrives with her group of four fiends, Kishibe confronts them.

He manages to subdue the fiends while Quanxi is separated from them, using unconscious fiends as hostages to try to recruit Quanxi onto Public Safety’s side.

He attempts to persuade her to defect, showing he can be cunning as well as violent.

When negotiations fail, combat breaks out, and he is thrown off a building.

Even in that situation, Kishibe survives by stabbing the building with his knife to slow his fall.

As a final “cushion,” he lands on Kobeni Higashiyama’s car, completely destroying it but walking away unhurt.

Daily Life and Small Moments

Kishibe occasionally shows a softer, almost comedic side.

When Aki and the others travel to Hokkaido to visit graves, Kishibe takes care of Power’s cat, Meowy.

He later affectionately calls the cat “Nyanbo-chan,” a cutesy nickname that contrasts with his usual deadpan demeanor.

These small details reinforce that beneath the scarred veteran is someone capable of warmth and affection, especially toward animals and his “kids.”

Toward the end of Part 1, Kishibe’s suspicions about Makima reach a breaking point.

He becomes one of the few human characters willing to openly move against her.

After Makima resurrects Chainsaw Man in her own plan, Kishibe leads a raid on her apartment.

He organizes riot police and Devil Hunters to assault her directly, showing that he has both rank and trust within the organization.

The attack fails due to Makima’s overwhelming powers.

Despite this failure, Kishibe survives and withdraws, shifting to more covert methods.

He later helps Denji and Kobeni after they regain their own consciousness and free will.

Kishibe shelters them, giving Denji the time and space he needs to prepare for the final confrontation.

Kishibe then assists from the shadows during Denji’s last battle with Makima.

His role is not to fight directly but to enable Denji’s plan to succeed and ensure Chainsaw Man’s victory over her.

After Makima is defeated, the Control Devil is reincarnated as a new human child: Nayuta.

Kishibe travels to China, abducts the reincarnated Control Devil (now Nayuta), and brings her to Japan.

This shows that he has the connections and raw skill to operate internationally and secure one of the world’s most dangerous beings on his own.

He then entrusts Nayuta to Denji, telling him to care for her and, implicitly, to keep her from becoming another Makima.

Once he leaves Nayuta in Denji’s care, Kishibe disappears from the front lines.

In Part 2, he does not appear on-screen, but another character mentions someone who is almost certainly him, implying he is still alive and watching events from the background.

In bonus material, Kishibe’s younger self is shown.

As a young man, he has black hair and a handsome, sharp-featured face, with a vibe that somewhat resembles Hirofumi Yoshida.

In his youth he was called the “Mad Dog Kishibe” for his violent, reckless style.

He was more openly wild and womanizing, though his core love of fighting and devil hunting was the same.

For over nine years, he worked as a partner with the Chinese Devil Hunter Quanxi.

During that time, he fell in love with her and repeatedly tried to flirt and get closer romantically.

Quanxi consistently rejected him, usually by punching him in the face or otherwise beating him down.

Eventually, she told him directly that she prefers women, and Kishibe accepted this and gave up on pursuing her romantically.

Even so, this long partnership left a deep mark on him.

Their history explains why he seeks her out later, why he tries to recruit her diplomatically, and why he treats her with a mix of familiarity, respect, and frustration.

Kishibe is known for his short, blunt lines that capture his worldview.

A few standout quotes include:

“You two get a perfect score.”

Said to Denji and Power after acknowledging their growth and their willingness to keep getting back up.

“I’ll turn you two into the coolest badasses ever.”

His promise as a mentor, half threat and half encouragement.

“No matter what atrocities you commit, no matter if you kill my dogs, as long as you stand on humanity’s side, I’ll let you live.”

His cold warning to Makima, drawing the line at betrayal of human beings.

These lines show Kishibe’s core: a man who accepts horror and madness as part of the job, but who refuses to tolerate anyone who stops being a “friend to humanity.”