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Two teenagers experience a private, tender instant at the local secondary school’s open-air pool after hours. As they float as one, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the scene captures the ephemeral, heady excitement of teenage romance, completely engrossed in the present, consequences overlooked.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the movie. The 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 unnecessary. Despite being a official entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a easier entry point for first-time viewers — even if they haven’t seen its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders some of the tension of the movie’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a indebted Devil Hunter in a universe where demons embody specific evils (ranging from concepts like getting older and obscurity to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s betrayed and killed by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his loyal devil-dog, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to completely destroy Devils and the horrors they represent from reality.

Thrust into a brutal struggle between devils and hunters, the hero encounters a new character — a alluring barista concealing a deadly secret — sparking a tragic clash between the pair where love and survival intersect. This film picks up immediately following the first season, exploring Denji’s connection with his love interest as he grapples with his emotions for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, Makima, forcing him to decide among desire, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character Denji becoming enamored with Reze almost immediately upon introduction. He’s a lonely boy looking for love, which renders him unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is highly independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of weighing it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when such details is crucial to the overall plot.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He’s still a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His desperate craving for love makes him come off like a infatuated puppy, even if he’s likely to growling, snapping, and making a mess along the way. Reze is a perfect match for Denji, an effective seductive antagonist who targets her mark in our hero. Viewers hope to see Denji earn the affection of his affection, even if Reze is clearly concealing something from him. So when her true nature is unveiled, you still cannot avoid wish they’ll in some way make it work, even though deep down, you know a happy ending is never really in the plan. Therefore, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they ought to be since their romance is fated. This is compounded by that the movie serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, allowing little room for a romance like this amid the darker events that fans are aware are coming soon.

Breathtaking Visuals and Artistic Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with 3D environments, providing stunning eye candy even before the action kicks in. Including cars to small desk fans, 3D models enhance realism and detail to every scene, making the 2D characters pop beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and changing settings, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, most noticeably during its action-packed finale, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. These smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds make the film’s fights both visually bombastic and remarkably simple to understand. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good starting place, likely resulting in new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a expansive animated saga. It’s an illustration of why continuing a successful anime season with a film isn’t the best approach if it undermines the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding multiple seasons of anime television with an epic movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a slightly recklessly. But this does not prevent the film from being a enjoyable experience, a excellent point of entry, and a unforgettable love story.