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A pair of teenagers experience a intimate, tender moment at the local secondary school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. While they drift as one, suspended under the stars in the quietness of the night, the sequence captures the fleeting, heady thrill of adolescent love, completely caught up in the moment, consequences overlooked.

Approximately half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the movie. Denji and Reze’s love story became the focus, and all the contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the series’ initial episodes turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Although it is a canonical entry within the series, Reze Arc offers a easier starting place for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits some of the tension of the movie’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a universe where demons embody particular evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to terrifying entities like cockroaches or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and killed by the criminal syndicate, he makes a pact with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and comes back from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they represent from reality.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, the hero meets Reze — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly mystery — igniting a tragic confrontation between the pair where love and survival intersect. This film picks up immediately following season 1, delving into the main character’s connection with Reze as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Within a Broader World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry story, with our fallible protagonist Denji becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He is a isolated boy seeking affection, which renders him vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the love story is at the forefront, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, especially when none of that really matters to the overall storyline.

Regardless of the protagonist’s flaws, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a world that’s distorted his sense of morality. His intense craving for affection makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, although he’s prone to barking, biting, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an effective femme fatale who finds her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his love interest, despite Reze is clearly hiding something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, you still can’t help but hope they’ll somehow make it work, although internally, it is known a happy ending is not truly in the plan. As such, the stakes fail to seem as intense as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a romance like this amid the darker events that fans are aware are coming soon.

Breathtaking Visuals and Artistic Execution

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering stunning eye candy prior to the excitement begins. From cars to small desk fans, 3D models enhance realism and texture to each shot, making the 2D characters stand out strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its digital elements and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them less frequently, particularly evident during its explosive climax, where those models, though not unappealing, become easier to spot. Such fluid, dynamic environments render the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the method shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid starting place, likely leaving first-time audiences pleased, but it also has a drawback. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the tension of what should feel like a expansive anime epic. It’s an illustration of why continuing a popular television series with a movie isn’t the optimal strategy if it weakens the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up multiple installments of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by serving as a prequel to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a slightly recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the film from being a enjoyable experience, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable romantic tale.