🔗 Share this article

A pair of youngsters experience a intimate, tender instant at the local high school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. As they float together, suspended beneath the stars in the quietness of the evening, the scene portrays the ephemeral, heady thrill of adolescent love, utterly engrossed in the moment, consequences overlooked.

About 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the heart of the movie. Denji and Reze’s love story became the focus, and all the background details and character histories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes turned out to be largely irrelevant. Despite being a official installment within the series, Reze Arc offers a more accessible entry point for first-time viewers — regardless of they haven’t seen its prior content. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the tension of the film’s story.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a world where demons represent specific evils (including concepts like getting older and obscurity to terrifying entities like cockroaches or World War II). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his loyal companion, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they signify from existence.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between demons and hunters, the hero meets Reze — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly mystery — sparking a tragic clash between the two where affection and survival intersect. This film continues immediately following the first season, exploring the main character’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Within a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist the hero falling for Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a lonely boy seeking love, which renders him vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex mythology and its extensive cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when such details really matters to the complete storyline.

Despite Denji’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He is after all a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate craving for love portrays him like a lovesick dog, even if he’s likely to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal pairing for him, an compelling femme fatale who targets her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see the main character win the ire of his love interest, despite Reze is obviously hiding something from him. Thus when her real identity is unveiled, audiences cannot avoid hope they’ll somehow succeed, even though internally, you know a positive outcome is never really in the cards. As such, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their relationship is fated. It doesn’t help that the film serves as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing little room for a romance like this amid the darker events that fans are aware are approaching.

Stunning Animation and Technical Execution

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive eye candy even before the action kicks in. From cars to small desk fans, 3D models enhance realism and detail to every shot, making the animated figures stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its explosive finale, where such elements, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. These fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds make the movie’s fights both visually bombastic and remarkably simple to understand. Still, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a good point of entry, likely leaving first-time audiences satisfied, but it also has a downside. Presenting a standalone narrative limits the tension of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a popular anime season with a movie isn’t the best approach if it weakens the series’ general narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding several seasons of anime television with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the problem completely by acting as a prequel to its well-known show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a bit foolishly. However this does not prevent the film from proving to be a enjoyable experience, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable romantic tale.