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Two youngsters share a intimate, tender moment at the neighborhood secondary school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. While they drift as one, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the sequence portrays the fleeting, heady excitement of teenage love, utterly caught up in the moment, ramifications overlooked.

About 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the heart of the film. The love story took center stage, and all the contextual information and character histories previously known from the series’ initial episodes turned out to be largely unnecessary. Although it is a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a easier entry point for first-time viewers — even if they missed its prior content. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the tension of the movie’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a universe where Devils embody specific dangers (including ideas like Aging and Darkness to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). When he’s deceived and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a violent conflict between devils and hunters, Denji encounters a new character — a charming barista concealing a deadly secret — sparking a heartbreaking confrontation between the two where love and survival collide. This film picks up immediately following season 1, exploring the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his controlling superior, Makima, compelling him to choose between desire, loyalty, and survival.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist Denji becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He is a isolated boy looking for affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is very independent. Filmmaker the director understands this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, especially when none of that really matters to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s flaws, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his sense of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a infatuated puppy, although he’s prone to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for him, an effective femme fatale who targets her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see the main character win the ire of his affection, even if Reze is obviously hiding something from him. So when her true nature is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll in some way make it work, although deep down, you know a happy ending is never really in the plan. Therefore, the tension don’t feel as high as they should be since their romance is doomed. It doesn’t help that the film serves as a direct sequel to the first season, leaving minimal space for a love story like this among the darker developments that followers know are coming soon.

Stunning Visuals and Artistic Execution

This movie’s visuals effortlessly combine traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering stunning visual appeal prior to the excitement begins. From cars to tiny office appliances, digital assets add depth and detail to each shot, allowing the 2D characters pop strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often highlights its 3D assets and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, are more apparent to spot. Such smooth, ever-shifting environments make the film’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid starting place, probably resulting in new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Presenting a self-contained story restricts the tension of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. This is an illustration of why following up a successful television series with a movie isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding multiple installments of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a bit recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the film from being a great time, a excellent point of entry, and a memorable romantic tale.