🔗 Share this article

Two teenagers experience a intimate, gentle moment at the local secondary school’s open-air pool late at night. While they drift as one, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the night, the scene captures the fleeting, heady excitement of teenage romance, utterly caught up in the present, ramifications overlooked.

Approximately half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the movie. The love story became the focus, and every bit of background details and backstories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season proved to be largely unnecessary. Although it is a canonical entry within the series, Reze Arc offers a easier starting place for first-time viewers — regardless of they missed its single episode. This method has its benefits, but it also hinders a portion of the tension of the film’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where Devils embody particular evils (including ideas like Aging and Darkness to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). When he’s deceived and killed by the criminal syndicate, he forms a contract with his loyal devil-dog, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy Devils and the terrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a charming barista hiding a lethal mystery — igniting a heartbreaking clash between the pair where affection and existence intersect. The movie picks up right after the first season, exploring the main character’s relationship with Reze as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his devotion to his controlling superior, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character Denji becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He’s a lonely young man looking for love, which makes his heart vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, especially when none of that is crucial to the overall storyline.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s still a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His desperate longing for love makes him come off like a infatuated puppy, even if he’s likely to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a ideal match for Denji, an effective seductive antagonist who finds her mark in our protagonist. You want to see Denji earn the affection of his affection, even if Reze is obviously concealing something from him. Thus when her true nature is unveiled, you still cannot avoid wish they’ll in some way succeed, although deep down, it is known a positive outcome is never really in the cards. As such, the stakes fail to seem as intense as they should be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, allowing little room for a romance like this among the more grim events that fans are aware are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Technical Execution

The film’s visuals effortlessly combine 2D animation with 3D environments, providing stunning visual appeal even before the excitement kicks in. From vehicles to small desk fans, 3D models add depth and texture to each scene, allowing the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. Such smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds make the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the vibrancy and movement of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a good point of entry, likely leaving new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a self-contained narrative limits the tension of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. This is an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a film is not the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding several installments of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by acting as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a slightly recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from proving to be a great time, a terrific introduction, and a memorable love story.