🔗 Share this article

A pair of youngsters experience a private, gentle moment at the neighborhood secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool late at night. While they drift as one, suspended under the night sky in the stillness of the evening, the scene captures the ephemeral, heady excitement of adolescent love, utterly engrossed in the present, consequences forgotten.

Approximately 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the core of the movie. The love story took center stage, and every bit of contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the series’ initial episodes proved to be largely unnecessary. Although it is a canonical entry within the series, Reze Arc provides a easier entry point for first-time viewers — even if they missed its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it also hinders a portion of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where demons embody specific dangers (ranging from concepts like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and killed by the yakuza, Denji forms a contract with his loyal companion, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to permanently erase fiends and the terrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a brutal conflict between devils and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly mystery — sparking a heartbreaking confrontation between the two where love and survival intersect. The movie picks up right after the first season, delving into the main character’s relationship with Reze as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling superior, Makima, forcing him to choose between passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry story, with our fallible protagonist the hero becoming enamored with his counterpart right away upon introduction. He is a lonely boy looking for affection, which makes his heart vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Filmmaker the director understands this and ensures the love story is at the forefront, instead of weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, particularly since none of that really matters to the complete storyline.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s still a adolescent, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His intense craving for love makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, although he’s prone to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a perfect pairing for him, an compelling femme fatale who targets her prey in our hero. You want to see the main character win the ire of his love interest, despite Reze is obviously concealing a secret from him. So when her real identity is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll somehow succeed, although deep down, it is known a happy ending is not truly in the plan. Therefore, the stakes fail to seem as high as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. It doesn’t help that the movie serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a love story like this among the more grim developments that fans are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Visuals and Technical Execution

This movie’s graphics effortlessly combine traditional animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive visual appeal prior to the excitement kicks in. Including cars to small office appliances, 3D models add depth and detail to each scene, making the animated figures stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often highlights its digital elements and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where those models, while not unattractive, are more apparent to identify. These smooth, dynamic backgrounds make the film’s battles both visually bombastic and remarkably simple to understand. Still, the technique excels most when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid starting place, probably resulting in new fans pleased, but it also has a downside. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a expansive animated saga. It’s an example of why following up a popular television series with a film is not the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding several seasons of animated series with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by acting as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a bit recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from proving to be a enjoyable time, a terrific introduction, and a memorable romantic tale.