🔗 Share this article

A pair of youngsters experience a private, gentle instant at the neighborhood high school’s open-air pool late at night. While they drift together, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene captures the fleeting, exhilarating excitement of adolescent romance, completely caught up in the present, ramifications forgotten.

About half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the core of the movie. The love story became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories I had gleaned from the series’ first season proved to be largely irrelevant. Although it is a official installment within the series, Reze Arc offers a easier starting place for first-time viewers — regardless of they missed its prior content. The approach brings advantages, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the film’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils embody particular dangers (including ideas like Aging and obscurity to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, he forms a contract with his loyal devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the dead as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the horrors they signify from existence.

Thrust into a violent conflict between devils and hunters, the hero meets Reze — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly secret — sparking a heartbreaking clash between the two where affection and survival collide. This film picks up right after season 1, delving into Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his manipulative boss, his employer, forcing him to choose between passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

An Independent Love Story Amidst a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our fallible protagonist Denji becoming enamored with Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a isolated boy seeking love, which makes his heart unreliable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Director the director recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since such details really matters to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his understanding of morality. His desperate longing for affection portrays him like a infatuated puppy, even if he’s prone to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a perfect pairing for him, an effective femme fatale who finds her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see the main character win the ire of his love interest, even if Reze is obviously hiding something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, audiences can’t help but hope they’ll in some way succeed, even though internally, it is known a positive outcome is not truly in the plan. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they ought to be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to the first season, leaving little room for a love story like this amid the darker developments that followers are aware are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Technical Execution

This movie’s graphics effortlessly combine 2D animation with 3D environments, providing impressive eye candy prior to the excitement kicks in. Including vehicles to small office appliances, 3D models enhance realism and detail to every scene, making the 2D characters pop beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its digital elements and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its explosive finale, where those models, though not unappealing, become easier to identify. Such smooth, ever-shifting environments render the film’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly simple to follow. Still, the technique excels most when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, probably resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a standalone story limits the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a successful television series with a movie isn’t the optimal approach if it weakens the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up several seasons of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by serving as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a bit foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a memorable romantic tale.