As evil as she seems to us, it’s undeniable that Makima is one of the most interesting characters in Chainsaw Man (not a bucket, but a huge number of simpletons who adore her, including this unassuming writer). How to create such a magnetic character? Well, to give it shape, Tatsuki Fujimoto had different sources of inspiration and we’ll show you all of them below.
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s biggest inspiration for creating Makima was Nayuta, the protagonist of Yogen no Nayuta, a one-shot published by the mangaka in 2015. That’s right: the inspiration for her character was another character of hers, and not just in terms of design, but also aspects of personality. This inspiration reached such an extent (WARNING, SPOILER) that Fujimoto himself restored him as a reincarnation of the same Makima, with everything and with the same name: Nayuta. (END OF SPOILERS)
If we go even further back in time, we find that another big inspiration for making Makima was Fujimoto’s Breath of the Stars manga. What? Didn’t you read this? Well, there is a reason for this: it is only serialized in the imagination of the same author, who admitted that as a child he created this story as if it were a dream. In this supposed story, Makima was one of the main characters.
Now, when we talk about the works that inspired him, besides the author, we must mention the manganime “Uchoten Kazuku” by Tomihiko Morimi, especially the character Benten: a woman with supernatural powers, determined and in many cases quite selfish. Is this femme fatale calling you from somewhere else?
Finally, Makima was influenced by FLCL’s female character designs. Unsurprisingly, these characters were originally designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the same artist who created the Evangelions characters and whom Fujimoto greatly admires.
