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A pair of youngsters share a private, gentle moment at the neighborhood secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool late at night. As they float as one, suspended under the stars in the stillness of the night, the sequence captures the fleeting, exhilarating excitement of adolescent love, completely engrossed in the present, ramifications forgotten.

Approximately half an hour into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the heart of the film. The romantic tale took center stage, and all the background details and backstories I had gleaned from the series’ first season turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Although it is a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it also hinders a portion of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a world where demons embody specific evils (ranging from concepts like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). After being deceived and murdered by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they signify from reality.

Thrust into a violent struggle between demons and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a charming barista hiding a deadly secret — igniting a heartbreaking confrontation between the pair where love and existence intersect. The movie continues immediately following the first season, delving into Denji’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his controlling boss, Makima, compelling him to choose between passion, loyalty, and survival.

A Self-Contained Love Story Amidst a Broader World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible main character Denji becoming enamored with his counterpart almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a lonely young man seeking affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and guarantees the love story is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, particularly since such details is crucial to the complete plot.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He is after all a adolescent, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His intense craving for affection makes him come off like a infatuated dog, although he’s prone to barking, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an compelling femme fatale who finds her mark in our protagonist. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, even if she is clearly concealing a secret from him. Thus when her true nature is unveiled, you still can’t help but hope they’ll in some way succeed, even though deep down, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the cards. Therefore, the tension don’t feel as intense as they should be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the film serves as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing minimal space for a romance like this amid the darker developments that followers are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering impressive visual appeal even before the action kicks in. From vehicles to small office appliances, digital assets add depth and detail to each scene, making the 2D characters stand out beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, most noticeably during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. These smooth, dynamic environments make the movie’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a solid point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it also has a downside. Presenting a standalone story limits the stakes of what should feel like a expansive anime epic. It’s an example of why continuing a popular television series with a film is not the best approach if it weakens the franchise’s overall storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding several installments of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue entirely by acting as a prequel to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a slightly recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the film from proving to be a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.