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A pair of youngsters share a intimate, tender instant at the local secondary school’s open-air pool late at night. While they drift together, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene captures the ephemeral, heady thrill of teenage love, completely engrossed in the present, ramifications forgotten.

About 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the core of the movie. Denji and Reze’s love story took center stage, and every bit of contextual information and character histories I had gleaned from the series’ first season proved to be mostly irrelevant. Despite being a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a more accessible entry point for newcomers — regardless of they haven’t seen its prior content. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders a portion of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where Devils represent specific evils (ranging from ideas like Aging and obscurity to specific horrors like cockroaches or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, Pochita, and comes back from the dead as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, Denji encounters a new character — a charming barista hiding a deadly mystery — igniting a heartbreaking clash between the two where affection and survival collide. The movie picks up immediately following season 1, delving into the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, his employer, forcing him to choose between passion, faithfulness, and survival.

An Independent Romantic Tale Within a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our imperfect main character the hero becoming enamored with his counterpart right away upon introduction. He is a lonely young man looking for affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the center, instead of weighing it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when none of that is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He’s after all a adolescent, stumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his sense of morality. His desperate 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. His love interest is a perfect pairing for Denji, an effective femme fatale who finds her prey in our protagonist. You want to see the main character win the ire of his affection, even if Reze is obviously hiding something from him. So when her real identity is revealed, you still can’t help but 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 doomed. It doesn’t help that the film acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing minimal space for a love story like this amid the darker events that followers know are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s graphics effortlessly combine 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing stunning eye candy even before the excitement kicks in. From cars to tiny desk fans, 3D models add depth and texture to each shot, making the 2D characters pop beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and changing settings, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where those models, while not unattractive, are more apparent to identify. Such smooth, dynamic backgrounds make the film’s battles both visually bombastic and remarkably simple to understand. Still, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Impressions and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid starting place, likely resulting in new fans satisfied, but it also has a downside. Presenting a self-contained story restricts the tension of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. It’s an example of why continuing a popular television series with a film isn’t the best approach if it weakens the franchise’s general storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding several seasons of animated series with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by acting as a prequel to its well-known show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a slightly recklessly. But this does not prevent the movie from being a great experience, a terrific introduction, and a unforgettable love story.