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A pair of teenagers share a private, gentle moment at the local secondary school’s outdoor pool after hours. As they float together, hanging beneath the night sky in the stillness of the evening, the sequence captures the ephemeral, exhilarating excitement of adolescent love, completely engrossed in the moment, consequences forgotten.

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 love story became the focus, and all the contextual information and backstories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes turned out to be mostly unnecessary. Despite being a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a more accessible starting place for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it also hinders a portion of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a world where demons represent specific evils (including concepts like Aging and obscurity to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). After being deceived and killed by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his loyal devil-dog, his pet, and comes back from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to permanently erase Devils and the horrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a violent conflict between demons and hunters, Denji encounters a new character — a charming barista hiding a lethal secret — igniting a tragic confrontation between the pair where love and survival intersect. This film picks up right after the first season, exploring the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his emotions for her and his devotion to his controlling superior, Makima, forcing him to decide among passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our imperfect main character the hero falling for Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a isolated young man seeking love, which renders him vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is very independent. Director the director understands this and ensures the love story is at the center, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since none of that is crucial to the overall storyline.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His desperate craving for affection makes him come off like a infatuated puppy, although he’s prone to barking, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for him, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her mark in our protagonist. You want to see Denji earn the affection of his affection, even if she is obviously concealing a secret from him. Thus when her real identity is unveiled, audiences can’t help but wish they’ll in some way succeed, even though deep down, you know a happy ending is not truly in the plan. As such, the tension don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their relationship is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, allowing little room for a romance like this amid the more grim events that followers know are coming soon.

Stunning Animation and Technical Execution

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive eye candy even before the excitement kicks in. Including vehicles to small office appliances, digital assets enhance realism and detail to every scene, making the 2D characters pop strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and shifting settings, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to spot. These fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds make the movie’s battles both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to follow. Nonetheless, the method excels most when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely leaving new fans satisfied, but it also has a drawback. Telling a standalone story restricts the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. It’s an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a movie isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the series’ general storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding multiple installments of animated series with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by acting as a prequel to its well-known show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a bit foolishly. But this does not prevent the film from proving to be a enjoyable experience, a terrific point of entry, and a unforgettable romantic tale.