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Two teenagers experience a intimate, tender moment at the neighborhood high school’s outdoor pool late at night. While they drift as one, suspended beneath the night sky in the stillness of the evening, the sequence portrays the fleeting, exhilarating excitement of adolescent romance, completely caught up in the present, ramifications forgotten.

Approximately 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 character histories previously known from the series’ first season proved to be mostly unnecessary. Despite being a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for first-time viewers — even if they missed its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the urgency of the film’s story.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils represent specific evils (including ideas like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or historical conflicts). When he’s deceived and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji forms a contract with his loyal devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy fiends and the terrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a violent struggle between devils and hunters, Denji encounters Reze — a charming coffee server hiding a lethal secret — sparking a heartbreaking clash between the pair where affection and existence collide. This film picks up immediately following season 1, delving into Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his controlling superior, Makima, forcing him to choose between desire, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry story, with our fallible protagonist Denji becoming enamored with Reze right away upon meeting. He’s a lonely boy seeking love, which renders him vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the romantic arc is at the center, rather than weighing it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when such details really matters to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is still a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His intense longing for affection makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, even if he’s prone to barking, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for him, an effective femme fatale who targets her mark in our hero. You want to see Denji earn the affection of his love interest, even if she is obviously hiding something from him. Thus when her true nature is unveiled, audiences cannot avoid hope they’ll in some way succeed, even though internally, you know a positive outcome is never really in the plan. Therefore, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their romance is fated. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing minimal space for a love story like this among the more grim developments that fans know are approaching.

Stunning Animation and Technical Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals effortlessly combine traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering stunning eye candy even before the excitement kicks in. From vehicles to small office appliances, 3D models enhance realism and texture to every shot, making the 2D characters pop beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. These fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds render the film’s battles both visually bombastic and surprisingly simple to follow. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the vibrancy and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid point of entry, likely leaving new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a sprawling anime epic. This is an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a film isn’t the optimal strategy if it undermines the series’ general storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding multiple seasons of animated series with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by acting as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a slightly foolishly. However this does not prevent the movie from proving to be a enjoyable time, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable romantic tale.