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The end of Chainsaw Man is another sign of the end of the current shonen manga era, but it doesn’t mean that Chapter 232 is the last time we’ll ever see Denji in action. Aside from the upcoming Season 2 of the anime, we’re likely to see Chainsaw Man referenced in manga in the coming months and years. In fact, a rumored bonus chapter in the upcoming DanDaDan volume shows Denji and his shark sidekick, Beam, not only exist in the DanDaDan universe but were involved in one of the manga’s most bizarre fights.

The chapter in question comes at the end of DanDaDan volume 23, which hit Japanese shelves last week (but, importantly, not on April Fool’s Day). As often happens, it includes a bonus chapter, which is usually considered a non-canon bit of fun from Yukinobu Tatsu, the mangaka behind DanDaDan.

The bonus chapter here shows Denji riding atop Beam, his Shark Fiend companion, during the events that took place between Chapters 190-200 of DanDaDan. For manga readers, this includes the infamous Sharknado scene, so it probably isn’t surprising that Denji and Beam are involved. Interestingly, Denji seems uninterested in saving the people on the plane (which includes the main DanDaDan cast) until he spots Vamola, the cute alien girl introduced in the final episode of DanDaDan Season 2 through an airplane window. 

What follows in the chapter is some silly but very fun Chainsaw Man action as drawn by Tatsu, ending with Denji drooling over a female lifeguard on a beach because that guy has exactly one thought in his head at any moment. Now, we haven’t been able to confirm this DanDaDan bonus chapter yet because it hasn’t been localized yet, but we’re inclined to believe the images that have popped up on social media over the weekend for a couple of reasons.

First is a tweet by DanDaDan editor Shihei Lin, which says that fans won’t want to miss the bonus chapter in Volume 23 because of a cameo by “that character.” While Chainsaw Man wasn’t referenced directly, few characters have been on manga fans’ minds more than Denji with the sudden end of his manga last month.
The second thing that makes us think this is a legit bonus chapter is that Tatsu began his career as an assistant to Fujimoto, so of course he’d want to include a homage to his mentor’s most famous character weeks after his story ended.

Again, we haven’t seen the bonus chapter in DanDaDan Volume 23 for ourselves, but everything we’ve seen makes it seem like a legitimate Chainsaw Man cameo in the DanDaDan universe. We’ll just have to wait until the eventual English translation comes before we’re able to read Denji’s actions for ourselves.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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