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Two youngsters experience a private, tender moment at the local secondary school’s open-air pool late at night. As they float as one, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene portrays the ephemeral, exhilarating thrill of adolescent love, completely engrossed in the moment, consequences forgotten.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the core of the movie. The romantic tale took center stage, and all the contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the series’ initial episodes turned out to be mostly unnecessary. Although it is a official entry within the series, Reze Arc provides a easier starting place for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the tension of the movie’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where Devils represent particular evils (ranging from ideas like getting older and obscurity to terrifying entities like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s betrayed and murdered by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his loyal companion, Pochita, and returns from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to permanently erase fiends and the horrors they represent from reality.

Thrust into a violent struggle between devils and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly mystery — igniting a heartbreaking clash between the pair where love and survival intersect. This film picks up right after season 1, delving into the main character’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, Makima, compelling him to choose between passion, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Love Story Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character the hero becoming enamored with his counterpart almost immediately upon meeting. He is a lonely boy seeking affection, which makes his heart vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is highly independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the love story is at the center, rather than weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since none of that is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s flaws, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his sense of morality. His desperate longing for love makes him come off like a lovesick dog, even if he’s likely to barking, biting, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for Denji, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her mark in our protagonist. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, despite Reze is clearly hiding a secret from him. Thus when her real identity is unveiled, audiences can’t help but hope they’ll somehow succeed, even though internally, it is known a happy ending is not truly in the plan. Therefore, the stakes fail to seem as intense as they ought to be since their relationship is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving minimal space for a romance like this amid the more grim developments that followers know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Visuals and Artistic Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals effortlessly combine 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive eye candy even before the action begins. From cars to tiny desk fans, 3D models add depth and detail to each scene, making the 2D characters pop strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its explosive finale, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. Such smooth, ever-shifting environments make the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and remarkably easy to understand. Still, the technique excels most when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Final Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid starting place, likely resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a standalone narrative restricts the tension of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. It’s an illustration of why continuing a popular anime season with a film isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up several seasons of anime television with an grand 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, perhaps a slightly recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a memorable romantic tale.