🔗 Share this article

A pair of youngsters share a private, tender moment at the local high school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. As they float together, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the sequence portrays the ephemeral, exhilarating excitement of teenage love, completely caught up in the present, ramifications overlooked.

About 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the movie. The romantic tale took center stage, and every bit of background details and backstories previously known from the anime’s first season turned out to be largely unnecessary. Despite being a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a more accessible starting place for first-time viewers — even if they missed its single episode. This method brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where Devils represent particular evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and killed by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his loyal companion, his pet, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy Devils and the horrors they represent from existence.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, the hero encounters Reze — a alluring barista hiding a lethal mystery — igniting a heartbreaking confrontation between the pair where affection and existence collide. The movie picks up right after the first season, exploring Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative boss, Makima, forcing him to decide among desire, faithfulness, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our imperfect protagonist Denji becoming enamored with Reze almost immediately upon introduction. He’s a lonely young man seeking affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex mythology and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is very 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, particularly since none of that really matters to the overall plot.

Regardless of Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His desperate craving for love makes him come off like a infatuated dog, although he’s likely to barking, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for him, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our hero. You want to see the main character win the ire of his affection, even if she is clearly concealing something from him. So when her real identity is unveiled, you still can’t help but wish they’ll in some way succeed, although internally, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the plan. Therefore, the tension fail to seem as intense as they ought to be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a love story like this amid the more grim developments that fans know are approaching.

Breathtaking Visuals and Technical Craftsmanship

The film’s graphics seamlessly blend 2D animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive visual appeal even before the excitement kicks in. Including vehicles to tiny office appliances, 3D models add depth and detail to every shot, allowing the animated figures pop strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and changing settings, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its action-packed climax, where such elements, though not unappealing, become easier to identify. These fluid, dynamic environments make the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to understand. Nonetheless, the method excels most when it’s invisible, enhancing the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good starting place, probably leaving new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Telling a self-contained narrative restricts the tension of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. It’s an example of why following up a popular television series with a movie isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up several seasons of anime television with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a bit foolishly. However this does not prevent the movie from being a great time, a excellent point of entry, and a memorable love story.