Since are we basically at the end of Chainsaw Man, i tried thinking again about what real concept could be behind Pochita, and the concept that came to my mind is the concept of “Loss”.
Chainsaws were used at first to help with births. Chainsaw man has that umbilical cord thing around it’s neck. So just by only its desing this could mean that Pochita represent the most real and painful sense of loss. The Loss of a child.
He eats devils which makes the world lose part of itself and rids devils of their existence and by eating himself Pochita creates a world where there is no loss and in that world Dennis doesn’t have to experience said loss anymore.
This was the premise now let’s further investigate around why Pochita, is the Loss Devil
Let’s assume that Pochita is originally the Loss Devil, then after he erases the various meanings all related to this concept (loss of a parent, loss of a friend, loss of a lover, loss of an ally, loss of an enemy, etc..) all that is left is the primordial concept related to the loss of a child that both humans and devils have (Yoru for example had Gun Devil and Tank Devil as childs), once you erased that, the only things remaining are the chainsaws that were used originally used to give life to unborn childs, and if something could go wrong then you could blame them, if you are a pregnant mother you will be scared of them. Now there’s only a question to solve: did Pochita erase the concept of Loss in Chainsaw Man and what could happen in this case?
Following Fumiko’s reasoning, if the concept of Loss is erased you could still lose someone (losing someone would still be a thing), people could remember the moment someone died (Asa’s mom for example), people could still cry or feel sorry for those deaths, or for people being killed (Aki, Himeno, etc..) for example, people can still sacrifice other people or devils (Yoru with her childs), the only real thing missing would be that the concept of loss would be erased and people couldn’t be able to refer to that. Now I don’t know if it is always like that, but the majority of the time people and also devils in Chainsaw Man World only talk about humans and devils being “killed, dying, or erased”, but they never talk about “losing someone”
What does Pochita do when a devil disappear? He “erases” them (so even devils still experience the loss of someone, even though the concept is no more there, so there really is no more the concept of loss, but the world is still working) and when he throws them out, people and others devils starts to remember them!
All the people I love DISAPPEARED, DENJI DIDN’T LOOSE THEM, THEY DISAPPEARED!!
What is the complete opposite of the Chainsaws (Loss)? THOSE TREES!!! If humans start aging those same people will be at the point to experience the loss of their life: the body starts to lose its strength, the brain loses his memory and also starts to lose the concepts he once remembered, people around you will experience your loss when you die. In Aging Devil world people can’t die by aging, they don’t lose their memories, and they continue to think. It’s a mechanism innate to humans. All the humans end up becoming trees, they are still part of that world they just don’t get lost, they are there and their memory and ability of thinking just expands, if they are not able to lose anything, then they can even find new concepts!!!
Chainsaw Man is not the Loss Devil now, but it is Chainsaw Man, so it shouldn’t be a big strong devil, because it isn’t the most feared by humanity (and humanity still has concepts like Death, Famine, War that they can fear), but Chainsaw Man is the devil that devils fear the most, because only Chainsaw Man is able to make humanity LOSE THE ABILITY TO REMEMBER THAT FEAR (inside Aging Devil world, where Chainsaw Man can’t go, where all the humans that are there become trees, they don’t lose anything and start even to discover new concepts and new devils could be associated to those concepts!!!).
When Pochita is sent into the Aging Devil world the people there that talks to the Aging Devil, said to him:
The only devil that would be able to destroy that deathless paradise, to cut those trees, to make people lose those new concept they discovered, it’s Pochita, the LOSS DEVIL!!!