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A pair of youngsters experience a private, tender instant at the local secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool late at night. While they drift together, hanging beneath the stars in the quietness of the night, the scene captures the fleeting, heady thrill of adolescent love, utterly engrossed in the moment, ramifications overlooked.

About 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the film. Denji and Reze’s love story took center stage, and every bit of contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Although it is a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc offers a more accessible starting place for newcomers — even if they missed its single episode. This method brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the urgency of the movie’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a world where demons represent particular dangers (ranging from concepts like getting older and obscurity to specific horrors like cockroaches or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his loyal devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they signify from existence.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a charming barista concealing a lethal mystery — igniting a tragic clash between the pair where love and survival collide. This film picks up immediately following season 1, delving into Denji’s relationship with Reze as he wrestles with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his manipulative boss, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Love Story Within a Broader World

Reze Arc is inherently a romance-to-rivalry story, with our imperfect main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a lonely young man seeking love, which makes his heart vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come, first-served. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s complex mythology and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the center, instead of weighing it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, especially when such details is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His desperate craving for affection makes him come off like a lovesick dog, although he’s likely to growling, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an compelling seductive antagonist who finds her mark in our hero. You want to see Denji win the ire of his love interest, despite she is clearly hiding something from him. Thus when her true nature is revealed, you still can’t help but wish they’ll somehow succeed, although internally, you know a happy ending is not truly in the plan. As such, the tension don’t feel as high as they should be since their relationship is doomed. This is compounded by that the movie acts as a direct sequel to the first season, leaving minimal space for a romance like this amid the more grim developments that fans are aware are coming soon.

Stunning Animation and Technical Execution

This movie’s graphics seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, providing stunning visual appeal even before the action kicks in. From cars to small office appliances, 3D models add depth and detail to each shot, allowing the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its digital elements and changing settings, Reze Arc uses them less frequently, most noticeably during its explosive finale, where such elements, though not unappealing, become easier to identify. These fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds render the movie’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly simple to understand. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Final Thoughts and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc functions as a good point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it also has a downside. Presenting a self-contained story restricts the tension of what should feel like a expansive animated saga. It’s an example of why following up a successful television series with a movie isn’t the best strategy if it undermines the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up multiple installments of animated series with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by acting as a prequel to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a bit recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great experience, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable love story.