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Two youngsters experience a private, gentle moment at the local secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool after hours. As they float as one, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene portrays the ephemeral, heady thrill of adolescent love, utterly engrossed in the present, consequences forgotten.

Approximately half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the heart of the film. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season turned out to be largely irrelevant. Although it is a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the film’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a world where Devils represent particular dangers (ranging from concepts like getting older and obscurity to specific horrors like insects or World War II). When he’s deceived and killed by the criminal syndicate, he forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and comes back from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to permanently erase fiends and the terrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a brutal struggle between demons and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a charming coffee server hiding a lethal secret — sparking a tragic clash between the pair where love and existence collide. This film continues right after the first season, delving into the main character’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his controlling boss, Makima, forcing him to decide among desire, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Romantic Tale Amidst a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He’s a isolated boy seeking affection, which renders him unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the love story is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since such details is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His intense craving for love makes him come off like a lovesick dog, although he’s prone to barking, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a ideal match for Denji, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our protagonist. You want to see Denji win the ire of his affection, even if Reze is clearly concealing something from him. So when her true nature is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll in some way make it work, even though deep down, it is known a positive outcome is never really in the cards. Therefore, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the film acts as a immediate follow-up to the first season, allowing little room for a love story like this amid the darker events that followers are aware are coming soon.

Stunning Visuals and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s visuals effortlessly combine 2D animation with 3D environments, providing impressive eye candy even before the excitement begins. From cars to tiny desk fans, 3D models add depth and detail to each shot, allowing the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often highlights its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, are more apparent to spot. Such fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds render the movie’s battles both visually bombastic and remarkably easy to understand. Nonetheless, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid point of entry, likely leaving new fans pleased, but it also has a drawback. Telling a self-contained story restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a expansive anime epic. It’s an illustration of why following up a popular anime season with a movie isn’t the optimal approach if it weakens the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up multiple seasons of animated series with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a slightly foolishly. However this does not prevent the film from proving to be a great time, a excellent point of entry, and a unforgettable romantic tale.