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Two teenagers share a private, tender moment at the local secondary school’s outdoor pool late at night. While they drift together, hanging beneath the stars in the stillness of the evening, the scene portrays the ephemeral, heady thrill of teenage love, completely caught up in the moment, consequences overlooked.

Approximately half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the core of the film. The romantic tale took center stage, and all the contextual information and backstories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes proved to be largely unnecessary. Although it is a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a more accessible entry point for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its single episode. This method has its benefits, but it also hinders a portion of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a indebted Devil Hunter in a world where demons represent particular evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s deceived and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, Pochita, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy fiends and the terrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, Denji encounters Reze — a charming coffee server concealing a lethal mystery — igniting a tragic confrontation between the pair where love and survival collide. This film continues immediately following the first season, delving into the main character’s connection with Reze as he grapples with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his controlling superior, Makima, compelling him to choose between passion, faithfulness, and self-preservation.

An Independent Romantic Tale Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our fallible main character the hero falling for his counterpart almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a isolated boy looking for affection, which renders him unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite 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 romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, especially when none of that is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his understanding of morality. His desperate longing for love portrays him like a lovesick dog, even if he’s prone to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for Denji, an compelling femme fatale who finds her mark in our hero. Viewers hope to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, even if Reze is clearly hiding something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, you still can’t help but hope they’ll somehow succeed, even though deep down, it is known a happy ending is never really in the plan. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their romance is fated. It doesn’t help that the film serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, leaving little room for a love story like this amid the darker events that fans are aware are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Craftsmanship

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, delivering impressive eye candy prior to the excitement begins. Including vehicles to tiny desk fans, digital assets add depth and texture to every shot, making the 2D characters stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its digital elements and changing settings, Reze Arc uses them less frequently, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. These fluid, dynamic environments make the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the method excels most when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid point of entry, probably leaving first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a drawback. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a expansive animated saga. It’s an illustration of why following up a popular anime season with a movie is not the optimal strategy if it weakens the series’ overall storytelling potential.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding multiple installments of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a slightly recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great time, a terrific introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.