Chainsaw Man chapter 188: Release date and time, countdown, what to expect, and more

According to the official MANGA Plus website, Chainsaw Man chapter 188 is set to release on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 12 am JST. With Denji and Pochtia’s plan set to pivot in the upcoming issue, the series’ fanbase is understandably desperate to learn what Denji will throw up next.

Unfortunately, fans cannot know what will happen, with no verifiable spoilers for Chainsaw Man chapter 188 and beyond at the time of this article’s writing. What fans do at least have is confirmed release information for the issue, which is set to be released in a matter of days rather than weeks.

This article fully breaks down the latest release information for Chainsaw Man 1188, as well as speculates on what to expect from it.

Chainsaw Man chapter 188 release date and time

Major questions about Pochita's powers may be answered in Chainsaw Man chapter 188 (Image via MAPPA Studios)

Chainsaw Man chapter 188 is set to be released on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 12 am JST. This means a local daytime release for most international audiences on Tuesday, December 31, 2024. A select few international audiences will instead see the issue released in the extremely early morning hours of Wednesday, January 1, 2025, like Japanese readers.

Chainsaw Man chapter 188 is set to release at the following times in the corresponding time zones:

Timezone	Local date and time
Pacific Standard Time	07:00 am, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Eastern Standard Time	10:00 am, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Greenwich Mean Time	03:00 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Central European Time	04:00 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Indian Standard Time	08:30 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Philippine Standard Time	11:00 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Japanese Standard Time	12:00 am, Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Australia Central Time	01:30 am, Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Where to read Chainsaw Man chapter 188?

However, it's just as likely that Pochita is unable to execute Denji's plan in Chainsaw Man chapter 188 (Image via MAPPA Studios)

Fans can read the issue on either Viz Media’s official website, Shueisha’s MANGA Plus service, or Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app. The former two are free services that grant readers access to a series's first and latest three issues. The lattermost is a paid, subscription-based service that grants readers access to a series in its entirety.

Chainsaw Man chapter 187 recap

Chainsaw Man chapter 187 begins with Pochita’s heart arriving at the governmental building where the Aging Devil and its allies are. Aging Devil ordered the Public Safety Agents present to stomp out Pochita’s heart. However, Denji pulled his ripcord in time to fully let Pochita regenerate his body from his heart. Pochita then attacks Aging, but it regenerates and says it can’t be killed that way despite feeling intense pain from Pochita’s assault.

Aging touches a finger to Pochita’s head as it says this, seemingly turning him into a tree via his powers, which may imply some agency in the fates of the humans in its world. In the Aging Devil’s world, Denji moves onto a new tree after eating everything inside the first one. As he goes to cut open another tree person, the Devil Hunter stuck in Aging’s world reprimands him, saying he has no right to kill those who’ve spent millennia trying to escape this place.

However, Denji pays him no mind, saying he’s thankful for the food and eating it with gusto so he’s sure those he’s killing are forgiving him. The Devil Hunter calls Denji a Devil as he pulls his ripcord, freeing Pochita in the real world. Aging then tells Pochita that consumption and erasure are the only ways he can actually kill it. However, the issue ends with Denji telling Pochita to throw up a useful Devil, with Denji’s face in the final panel suggesting he does just that.

What to expect from Chainsaw Man chapter 188 (speculative)?

Generally speaking, Chainsaw Man chapter 188 will likely follow one of two major routes. The first is that Pochita does have Denji throw up a useful Devil. In this scenario, fans should get significant lore information on Pochita’s erasure abilities, which he can apparently control at will if this does indeed pass.

The other major route for chapter 188 is that Denji isn’t throwing up a useful Devil but is sick from binge-eating raw human meat. Such a bait-and-switch would fit well with mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto’s approach to comic relief. It would also make Aging versus Pochita more interesting in the short term and potentially allow for the return of Kishibe as a means of achieving victory.