What is Nostradamus's prophecy in Chainsaw Man? Explained

One of the most ominous narrative threads of Chainsaw Man is concentrated around a so-called Nostradamus prophecy that reemerged in Part 2 and influenced the social and governmental reactions. The prophecy itself is presented in the form of a conversation on a well-known quotation of Nostradamus and is in-universe considered a possible omen of a disastrous event. The manga sets the prophecy in a contemporary setting, in the 1990s, and it is not in the background, but it is an actual plot point. This treatment gives the Nostradamus passage immediate relevance to characters, agencies, and the development of later arcs in Chainsaw Man.

The Nostradamus prophecy in Chainsaw Man warns that “in the seventh month of 1999 a great king of terror will descend,” a passage presented in-world as predicting the arrival of a supremely terrifying entity (interpreted in canon as the Death Devil) whose coming could presage the end of humanity. The prophecy is directly quoted in Chapter 122, and it is addressed by the characters who do not consider it a mere superstition. The prophecy is acted upon by Public Safety as well as other actors who explore risky phenomena associated with primal fears and apocalyptic conditions.

The manga gives the prophecy concrete on-page authority by connecting it to specific incidents and experiments. In Chapter 122, characters discuss experiments by Public Safety and the Future Devil that tested convict death timings, with results that drew attention to July 1999; this grounds the prophecy in operational concern rather than mere rumor. Because Chainsaw Man places the quote in the mouths of informed characters, the prophecy functions as a trigger for plot decisions, including surveillance of primal fears and targeted Devil research. This institutional weight is central to how the prophecy drives subsequent narrative choices.

Within Chainsaw Man’s cosmology, the prophecy is explicitly linked to the Death Devil and the wider concept of the Four Horsemen. Sources inside the story describe the “Great King of Terror” as the being who could usher in an Age of Devils, overturning human dominance; the Death Devil is named as the chief candidate for that role. Characters like Nayuta and other plot figures later frame the Death Devil as an existentially consequential Devil whose arrival would reshape the world order. This placement of the prophecy against the franchise’s Devil hierarchy gives it thematic and narrative gravity.

How the Nostradamus Prophecy Functions in Chainsaw Man

Readers should note that Chainsaw Man’s use of the Nostradamus line is literary and functional rather than literal. The manga borrows the famous “1999, seventh month” phrasing and repurposes it to contextualize the rise of primal, apocalyptic-level threats in its fictional 1990s setting. Because the series mixes folklore, invented lore, and real-world allusions, the prophecy operates as a story device that raises stakes and motivates agencies to act. The linkage to the Death Devil -presented within the series as potentially the “Great King of Terror”- is therefore an in-canon interpretation rather than an external historical claim.

Analyses and reporting since Chapter 122 have repeatedly highlighted how the prophecy reorients both reader expectation and character behaviour in Chainsaw Man. Commentaries note that the prophecy explains why Public Safety and other institutions take certain preventative actions, including experiments and surveillance of devils tied to human primal fears. The prophecy’s inclusion is also used by the author to foreshadow later events, notably the increasing focus on War-class and Death-class devils as Part 2 progresses. Changing prophecy into institutional response, Chainsaw Man relies on the Nostradamus line to connect the mythic fear and bureaucracy.

Notably, the gaps in the meaning presented through the manga provide an interpretation that does not yield any definitive conclusion but instead encourages critical reading. Although in the text, the Great King of Terror is synonymous with the Death Devil in generalized terms, the story does not simplify all phenomena that are related to the prophecy to one simplified prediction. Chainsaw Man still demonstrates that in-world prophecies may be misunderstood, manipulated or even self-fulfilling and that characters act in practical ways instead of believing in them. This ambiguity is part of how the prophecy advances both mystery and plot momentum.

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In sum, the Nostradamus prophecy in Chainsaw Man is a deliberately invoked plot element - quoting “the seventh month of 1999” and the arrival of a “great king of terror”- that the manga frames as a foretelling tied to the Death Devil and a possible end-of-humanity scenario. The line appears in Chapter 122, is treated seriously by in-story institutions, and functions to escalate stakes across Part 2, while remaining narratively ambiguous enough to sustain multiple interpretations within the series’ fictional world.

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