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A pair of teenagers share a private, tender instant at the neighborhood secondary school’s outdoor pool after hours. As they float together, hanging beneath the night sky in the stillness of the evening, the sequence portrays the fleeting, exhilarating excitement of adolescent love, completely caught up in the moment, ramifications forgotten.

Approximately 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the core of the film. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories previously known from the anime’s first season turned out to be largely unnecessary. Despite being a official installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — even if they missed its single episode. This method has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits some of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where Devils embody particular evils (including concepts like Aging and obscurity to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his loyal companion, his pet, and comes back from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to completely destroy Devils and the horrors they represent from reality.

Plunged into a violent struggle between devils and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a charming barista hiding a lethal mystery — sparking a tragic confrontation between the pair where affection and survival collide. The movie continues right after season 1, delving into Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative boss, his employer, compelling him to choose between desire, faithfulness, and survival.

An Independent Love Story Within a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our fallible main character the hero falling for his counterpart right away upon meeting. He’s a isolated boy seeking affection, which makes his heart vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex mythology and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the center, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when such details really matters to the complete plot.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He’s still a adolescent, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a infatuated dog, even if he’s prone to barking, biting, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for him, an compelling femme fatale who finds her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see Denji earn the affection of his love interest, despite Reze is obviously hiding something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, audiences cannot avoid hope they’ll somehow succeed, even though deep down, it is known a happy ending is never really in the cards. As such, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they should be since their relationship is fated. It doesn’t help that the movie serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, allowing minimal space for a romance like this among the more grim events that fans know are approaching.

Stunning Visuals and Technical Craftsmanship

The film’s graphics effortlessly combine 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing stunning visual appeal prior to the excitement begins. Including vehicles to small desk fans, 3D models add depth and detail to each shot, allowing the animated figures stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its explosive finale, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. Such smooth, dynamic backgrounds render the movie’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to understand. Still, the technique excels most when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the vibrancy and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid starting place, likely resulting in new fans pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a standalone story limits the stakes of what should feel like a expansive anime epic. This is an example of why continuing a successful television series with a film isn’t the optimal approach if it undermines the series’ general storytelling potential.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding several installments of anime television with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the problem completely by serving as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a slightly foolishly. But this does not prevent the movie from being a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable love story.