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A pair of youngsters experience a private, tender instant at the neighborhood secondary school’s outdoor pool late at night. As they float together, suspended beneath the stars in the quietness of the night, the sequence portrays the fleeting, heady excitement of teenage love, utterly caught up in the present, consequences overlooked.

Approximately 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the film. The love story became the focus, and all the contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the series’ first season turned out to be largely unnecessary. Despite being a official entry within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible entry point for first-time viewers — even if they missed its prior content. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders a portion of the urgency of the movie’s narrative.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a world where Devils represent specific evils (ranging from ideas like Aging and obscurity to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). When he’s betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy Devils and the terrors they signify from existence.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, Denji encounters a new character — a alluring coffee server concealing a lethal secret — igniting a tragic confrontation between the pair where love and survival intersect. This film picks up immediately following the first season, exploring the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, Makima, compelling him to decide among passion, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Romantic Tale Amidst a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our imperfect main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon meeting. He’s a isolated young man seeking affection, which renders him unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the love story is at the center, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, especially when such details really matters to the overall storyline.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a adolescent, stumbling his way through a world that’s warped his sense of morality. His desperate longing for love portrays him like a infatuated dog, although he’s prone to barking, biting, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a ideal match for him, an effective seductive antagonist who finds her prey in our hero. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, even if she is obviously concealing a secret from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, you still cannot avoid wish they’ll somehow succeed, even though deep down, you know a positive outcome is not truly 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 acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a romance like this among the darker developments that followers know are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Execution

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, delivering impressive eye candy prior to the excitement kicks in. From vehicles to tiny office appliances, digital assets enhance realism and detail to each scene, making the 2D characters stand out beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. Such fluid, dynamic backgrounds render the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and surprisingly easy to understand. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid point of entry, likely leaving first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a self-contained narrative limits the tension of what ought to seem like a expansive anime epic. It’s an illustration of why continuing a successful television series with a film is not the optimal approach if it undermines the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up multiple installments of anime television with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by serving as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit foolishly. However that doesn’t stop the film from being a enjoyable time, a excellent point of entry, and a unforgettable love story.