🔗 Share this article

A pair of youngsters share a private, tender instant at the neighborhood high school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. While they drift together, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the night, the scene captures the ephemeral, heady thrill of teenage romance, completely caught up in the present, ramifications forgotten.

Approximately half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the film. The romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season turned out to be largely unnecessary. Despite being a official entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a more accessible entry point for newcomers — regardless of they haven’t seen its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils embody particular dangers (including ideas like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s deceived and murdered by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his faithful companion, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy fiends and the terrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a violent conflict between demons and hunters, Denji encounters Reze — a charming coffee server hiding a deadly secret — igniting a heartbreaking confrontation between the pair where affection and existence intersect. The movie picks up immediately following season 1, exploring Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative superior, Makima, forcing him to choose between desire, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist Denji falling for Reze almost immediately upon introduction. He’s a lonely young man seeking affection, which makes his heart vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the love story is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when none of that is crucial to the complete storyline.

Regardless of the protagonist’s flaws, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He is still a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s warped his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a infatuated dog, even if he’s prone to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for him, an effective femme fatale who targets her mark in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his love interest, despite Reze is obviously hiding something from him. Thus when her real identity is revealed, you still can’t help but wish they’ll in some way succeed, although internally, you know a happy ending is not truly in the cards. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing little room for a romance like this among the darker developments that followers know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive eye candy even before the action begins. From vehicles to small desk fans, 3D models enhance realism and detail to each scene, allowing the 2D characters pop beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed climax, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. Such fluid, dynamic backgrounds make the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly easy to follow. Nonetheless, the technique excels most when it’s unnoticeable, improving the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Impressions and Wider Considerations

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 self-contained narrative restricts the tension of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. This is an example of why following up a successful television series with a film is not the best strategy if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding several installments of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue entirely by acting as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a slightly recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great experience, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable love story.