Denji

Denji is a teenage devil hunter drowning in debt, living in squalor with his pet devil Pochita, doing brutal, degrading jobs just to eat. His dreams are small and desperate: bread with jam, a girlfriend, a normal touch of comfort. Then a betrayal and a merger with Pochita turn him into something new, and he keeps wanting those same small things anyway.

The gag of the premise is a chainsaw-headed monster whose deepest ambitions are breakfast and a hug, and Toya's performance leans into that gap without winking at it. His hunger sounds real, his joy sounds real, and the violence never talks him out of either. That sincerity, played completely straight, is what makes him funny and unexpectedly moving at once.