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A pair of youngsters share a intimate, tender instant at the neighborhood secondary school’s open-air swimming pool late at night. While they drift as one, hanging under the stars in the stillness of the evening, the sequence portrays the fleeting, heady excitement of teenage romance, completely engrossed in the moment, consequences forgotten.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear these scenes are the heart of the film. The love story became the focus, and all the background details and character histories previously known from the series’ initial episodes turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Despite being a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a easier entry point for newcomers — even if they missed its prior content. The approach has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a universe where Devils represent particular dangers (including ideas like getting older and obscurity to specific horrors like insects or World War II). When he’s betrayed and killed by the yakuza, Denji forms a contract with his faithful devil-dog, his pet, and comes back from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they signify from reality.

Thrust into a violent struggle between demons and hunters, Denji meets a new character — a charming coffee server hiding a lethal secret — igniting a tragic confrontation between the pair where love and survival intersect. The movie continues immediately following the first season, exploring Denji’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his controlling boss, his employer, compelling him to decide among passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

An Independent Romantic Tale Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our fallible main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon meeting. He’s a isolated boy seeking love, which renders him vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and guarantees the love story is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when such details is crucial to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his sense of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a lovesick dog, although he’s prone to barking, biting, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for him, an compelling femme fatale who targets her mark in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see the main character earn the affection of his affection, even if she is obviously concealing a secret from him. Thus when her true nature is revealed, you still cannot avoid hope they’ll somehow make it work, although internally, you know a happy ending is never really in the plan. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a immediate follow-up to Season 1, allowing minimal space for a love story like this among the more grim developments that fans know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Visuals and Artistic Craftsmanship

This movie’s graphics effortlessly combine 2D animation with 3D environments, providing impressive eye candy prior to the action kicks in. Including vehicles to tiny office appliances, 3D models enhance realism and detail to every shot, allowing the 2D characters pop beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its digital elements and changing settings, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where such elements, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. Such smooth, dynamic backgrounds render the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and remarkably simple to understand. Still, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a standalone story restricts the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. This is an example of why following up a successful anime season with a film is not the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s overall storytelling potential.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple seasons 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 charges forward, maybe a slightly foolishly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great time, a excellent introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.