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A pair of youngsters experience a private, gentle instant at the local secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool after hours. As they float as one, hanging beneath the stars in the stillness of the night, the sequence captures the ephemeral, exhilarating thrill of adolescent love, completely caught up in the moment, consequences overlooked.

About half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the film. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and every bit of contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season turned out to be mostly unnecessary. Despite being a canonical entry within the series, Reze Arc offers a easier entry point for newcomers — even if they missed its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the urgency of the movie’s story.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a indebted Devil Hunter in a universe where demons embody particular evils (ranging from ideas like Aging and obscurity to terrifying entities like cockroaches or World War II). After being betrayed and killed by the yakuza, Denji forms a contract with his loyal devil-dog, Pochita, and comes back from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy fiends and the terrors they represent from reality.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a alluring coffee server hiding a deadly mystery — sparking a tragic confrontation between the two where affection and survival intersect. This film picks up immediately following the first season, delving into Denji’s connection with Reze as he grapples with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, Makima, compelling him to decide among passion, faithfulness, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Love Story Amidst a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry story, with our imperfect protagonist the hero falling for his counterpart right away upon meeting. He’s a isolated young man looking for love, which makes his heart unreliable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. Consequently, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Filmmaker the director understands this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since such details really matters to the complete plot.

Regardless of the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a teenager, stumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his sense of morality. His intense craving for love makes him come off like a lovesick dog, even if he’s likely to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for Denji, an compelling femme fatale who finds her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his love interest, even if Reze is clearly concealing something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, you still cannot avoid wish they’ll in some way make it work, even though internally, you know a happy ending is not truly in the cards. Therefore, the tension don’t feel as intense as they should be since their relationship is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a love story like this amid the more grim developments that fans are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Execution

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with computer-generated settings, delivering stunning eye candy even before the action kicks in. From cars to small office appliances, digital assets enhance realism and texture to every shot, allowing the animated figures pop strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its digital elements and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed climax, where those models, though not unappealing, become easier to spot. These smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds make the film’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Concluding Thoughts and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a good point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a drawback. Presenting a self-contained story restricts the tension of what should feel like a expansive anime epic. This is an illustration of why continuing a successful television series with a movie isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the franchise’s general storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding several seasons of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a prequel to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a slightly foolishly. However this does not prevent the movie from being a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a memorable love story.