🔗 Share this article

Two youngsters experience a intimate, tender instant at the neighborhood high school’s outdoor pool late at night. While they drift together, suspended under the stars in the quietness of the night, the scene portrays the fleeting, exhilarating excitement of teenage romance, utterly caught up in the present, consequences forgotten.

Approximately 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the film. The love story became the focus, and every bit of background details and character histories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes turned out to be largely irrelevant. Although it is a official entry within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its single episode. This method brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the urgency of the film’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where Devils embody particular dangers (ranging from ideas like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or World War II). After being deceived and killed by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, Pochita, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a violent conflict between devils and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring barista concealing a deadly mystery — igniting a tragic confrontation between the two where affection and survival intersect. The movie picks up immediately following season 1, exploring the main character’s connection with Reze as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, Makima, forcing him to decide among desire, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Romantic Tale Amidst a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character Denji becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He’s a lonely boy seeking affection, which renders him vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the love story is at the center, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, particularly since none of that is crucial to the complete storyline.

Despite Denji’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He is still a adolescent, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, even if he’s likely to barking, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for Denji, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his affection, despite she is clearly concealing something from him. So when her true nature is revealed, you still cannot avoid hope they’ll somehow succeed, even though deep down, it is known a positive outcome is never really in the plan. As such, the stakes fail to seem as intense as they should be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the film serves as a immediate follow-up to Season 1, allowing little room for a romance like this amid the more grim events that fans are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Visuals and Artistic Execution

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive eye candy even before the action kicks in. Including vehicles to tiny desk fans, digital assets enhance realism and texture to every scene, making the animated figures pop beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its explosive climax, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. These smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds render the film’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to understand. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, improving the vibrancy and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid point of entry, likely resulting in new fans pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a standalone story limits the stakes of what should feel like a expansive animated saga. This is an example of why continuing a popular anime season with a movie isn’t the optimal strategy if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple installments of anime television with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by acting as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a slightly recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from proving to be a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.