A pair of youngsters share a intimate, gentle moment at the neighborhood high school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. As they float together, suspended beneath the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene captures the ephemeral, heady thrill of teenage romance, completely caught up in the moment, ramifications forgotten.
Approximately half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the core of the film. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and backstories previously known from the series’ first season proved to be mostly unnecessary. Although it is a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible entry point for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. This method has its benefits, but it also hinders some of the tension of the film’s narrative.
Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a world where Devils embody specific evils (ranging from ideas like Aging and obscurity to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). When he’s betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, he makes a pact with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the dead as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to permanently erase Devils and the horrors they represent from reality.
Plunged into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring coffee server concealing a lethal secret — igniting a heartbreaking clash between the pair where love and survival collide. The movie picks up immediately following the first season, exploring Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, his employer, compelling him to choose between passion, faithfulness, and self-preservation.
Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry story, with our fallible main character Denji falling for his counterpart almost immediately upon introduction. He’s a lonely boy looking for affection, which renders him vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Filmmaker the director understands this and guarantees the love story is at the center, instead of weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when such details is crucial to the complete storyline.
Regardless of the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s still a adolescent, stumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His intense longing for love makes him come off like a infatuated dog, even if he’s likely to barking, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our hero. You want to see Denji earn the affection of his love interest, even if she is obviously hiding something from him. So when her true nature is revealed, audiences cannot avoid wish they’ll somehow make it work, even though internally, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the plan. As such, the tension don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their romance is fated. This is compounded by that the film serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a love story like this among the darker developments that fans know are approaching.
The film’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, delivering impressive visual appeal even before the excitement kicks in. From vehicles to small office appliances, digital assets add depth and texture to each shot, allowing the animated figures stand out strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, most noticeably during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, are more apparent to identify. These smooth, ever-shifting environments render the film’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to understand. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the 2D animation.
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a good point of entry, probably resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Telling a self-contained narrative restricts the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. It’s an illustration of why continuing a successful television series with a film is not the optimal approach if it weakens the series’ overall narrative possibilities.
While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up several seasons of animated series with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the problem completely by acting as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a slightly foolishly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great time, a excellent point of entry, and a unforgettable romantic tale.
A digital artist and writer passionate about blending technology with creative expression in everyday life.
