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Two teenagers share a private, gentle moment at the neighborhood high school’s open-air pool after hours. As they float together, suspended beneath the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene captures the ephemeral, exhilarating excitement of adolescent love, utterly caught up in the present, consequences overlooked.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the heart of the movie. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and backstories previously known from the series’ first season turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Despite being a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a easier entry point for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its prior content. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the movie’s story.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where Devils embody specific dangers (ranging from concepts like Aging and obscurity to terrifying entities like cockroaches or World War II). After being deceived and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his faithful companion, Pochita, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to completely destroy fiends and the terrors they represent from reality.

Plunged into a violent conflict between devils and hunters, Denji meets a new character — a charming barista hiding a deadly secret — sparking a tragic clash between the two where love and survival collide. The movie continues right after the first season, delving into the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, his employer, compelling him to decide among passion, loyalty, and survival.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible main character Denji becoming enamored with his counterpart right away upon introduction. He’s a isolated young man seeking affection, which makes his heart vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the center, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, particularly since none of that really matters to the complete storyline.

Regardless of the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is still a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His intense longing for affection makes him come off like a lovesick dog, even if he’s likely to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a ideal match for Denji, an effective femme fatale who finds her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, despite Reze is clearly hiding a secret from him. Thus when her true nature is unveiled, audiences can’t help but hope they’ll somehow make it work, although internally, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the cards. Therefore, the stakes fail to seem as high as they should be since their romance is fated. It doesn’t help that the movie acts as a direct sequel to the first season, leaving little room for a love story like this among the darker events that followers are aware are coming soon.

Stunning Animation and Artistic Execution

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive visual appeal even before the action begins. Including vehicles to tiny desk fans, digital assets add depth and detail to each shot, making the 2D characters stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its digital elements and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed climax, where those models, though not unappealing, become easier to spot. Such smooth, dynamic environments render the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and remarkably easy to follow. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid starting place, likely resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a standalone story limits the stakes of what should feel like a expansive animated saga. This is an illustration of why continuing a successful television series with a film is not the optimal approach if it undermines the series’ overall storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple installments of anime television with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a backstory to its well-known show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a slightly foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from proving to be a enjoyable time, a terrific introduction, and a memorable love story.