>>280189592
The entire Church arc was about Denji choosing between Chainsaw Man and his normal life.
It IS a theme. It's just poorly handled because it's undercut by the actual events of the story.
>>280189610
My problem with this is that what follows after the Church is so fucking disproportionate to what Denji actually did.
Denji has a mental breakdown and crashes out, and in response he's presented with his sister's decapitated head on a sushi platter.

Yeah yeah Denji wanted to be punished and everything, but so what? What he goes through is not proportional to what he does, so the idea of it being a "punishment" in the first place flies out the window. He's still a perpetual victim, just with a different attitude towards his victimization.

Fuijmoto wants to have his cake and eat it to. He wants to have a flawed, selfish MC who fucks up, but he doesn't want to risk him being unsympathetic so Fujimoto writes him as a perpetual victim who gets bullied by literally everyone he comes across (hence why Helluva Boss is the perfect comparison)
It comes across as dishonest.