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Two teenagers experience a private, tender moment at the local secondary school’s open-air pool after hours. As they float together, hanging beneath the night sky in the stillness of the evening, the sequence captures the ephemeral, exhilarating thrill of teenage love, completely engrossed in the moment, 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 romantic tale took center stage, and all the background details and backstories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season proved to be mostly irrelevant. Despite being a canonical entry within the series, Reze Arc offers a more accessible starting place for first-time viewers — even if they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the tension of the film’s story.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a indebted Devil Hunter in a world where Devils represent specific dangers (ranging from concepts like getting older and obscurity to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). When he’s betrayed and murdered by the yakuza, Denji forms a contract with his faithful companion, his pet, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to permanently erase fiends and the horrors they represent from reality.

Thrust into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring coffee server hiding a lethal mystery — sparking a tragic confrontation between the two where love and survival collide. The movie continues right after the first season, delving into the main character’s connection with Reze as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative superior, his employer, forcing him to decide among desire, loyalty, and survival.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is inherently a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our fallible protagonist the hero becoming enamored with Reze almost immediately upon introduction. He is a lonely young man seeking love, which makes his heart vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Filmmaker the director recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the center, rather than bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when none of that really matters to the complete plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a teenager, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his sense of right and wrong. His intense craving for affection portrays him like a lovesick dog, even if he’s prone to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a perfect pairing for Denji, an compelling femme fatale who finds her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see Denji earn the affection of his affection, despite she is obviously concealing something from him. Thus when her true nature is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll somehow make it work, even though deep down, it is known a happy ending is never really in the plan. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they ought to be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving minimal space for a romance like this among the darker events that fans are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Craftsmanship

This movie’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive visual appeal prior to the excitement kicks in. From cars to small office appliances, digital assets add depth and texture to each shot, making the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its action-packed climax, where such elements, while not unattractive, are more apparent to identify. These fluid, ever-shifting environments render the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and remarkably easy to follow. Nonetheless, the technique excels most when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Telling a standalone story restricts the tension of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. It’s an example of why following up a successful anime season with a film is not the best approach if it undermines the series’ general narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up several installments of animated series with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue completely by serving as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a slightly foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the film from proving to be a great experience, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable love story.