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A pair of youngsters share a intimate, tender instant at the local secondary school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. While they drift together, hanging beneath the stars in the quietness of the night, the sequence portrays the fleeting, exhilarating thrill of teenage love, completely caught up in the present, consequences overlooked.

About 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, it became clear these scenes are the heart of the movie. The love story took center stage, and every bit of background details and character histories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season proved to be mostly irrelevant. Although it is a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a more accessible entry point for first-time viewers — regardless of they haven’t seen its single episode. This method has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits some of the tension of the movie’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where Devils embody specific evils (ranging from concepts like Aging and Darkness to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). After being deceived and killed by the yakuza, he makes a pact with his faithful companion, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy Devils and the terrors they signify from existence.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring barista concealing a lethal mystery — sparking a tragic confrontation between the pair where affection and existence collide. The movie continues immediately following the first season, exploring the main character’s connection with Reze as he grapples with his emotions for her and his devotion to his manipulative superior, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, faithfulness, and self-preservation.

An Independent Love Story Within a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist Denji falling for his counterpart almost immediately upon introduction. He is a isolated boy looking for affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex mythology and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly independent. Director the director recognizes this and ensures the love story is at the forefront, instead of bogging it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when such details is crucial to the overall storyline.

Despite Denji’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He’s after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate longing for love portrays him like a infatuated puppy, even if he’s prone to barking, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for Denji, an effective femme fatale who targets her prey in our hero. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, even if she is clearly hiding a secret from him. So when her real identity is unveiled, you still cannot avoid hope they’ll somehow make it work, although internally, you know a positive outcome is never really in the cards. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the film serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, allowing minimal space for a romance like this amid the more grim events that followers know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Visuals and Technical Execution

This movie’s visuals effortlessly combine 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive visual appeal prior to the action kicks in. From vehicles to tiny office appliances, digital assets add depth and detail to every scene, allowing the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them less frequently, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where such elements, though not unappealing, become easier to spot. Such fluid, ever-shifting environments make the movie’s fights both visually bombastic and remarkably simple to understand. Still, the method shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, improving the dynamic range and motion of the 2D animation.

Final Thoughts and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely leaving first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a standalone story restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a film is not the optimal strategy if it undermines the series’ overall storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple installments of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a slightly recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the film from being a enjoyable time, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.