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A pair of youngsters experience a intimate, tender instant at the local high school’s open-air pool late at night. While they drift together, hanging under the night sky in the stillness of the night, the sequence portrays the fleeting, exhilarating thrill of adolescent romance, utterly engrossed in the moment, ramifications overlooked.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear these scenes are the core of the movie. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes turned out to be mostly unnecessary. Although it is a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — even if they missed its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders a portion of the urgency of the movie’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where demons represent particular evils (ranging from concepts like Aging and obscurity to specific horrors like insects or World War II). After being betrayed and murdered by the yakuza, he forms a contract with his loyal companion, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between demons and hunters, the hero meets Reze — a alluring coffee server hiding a deadly secret — igniting a tragic clash between the pair where love and existence intersect. This film picks up right after the first season, delving into the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, his employer, compelling him to decide among passion, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Romantic Tale Amidst a Broader World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He’s a isolated boy seeking affection, which renders him vulnerable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. Consequently, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its extensive cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the love story is at the center, instead of weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, particularly since such details really matters to the overall storyline.

Regardless of Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is after all a adolescent, fumbling his way through a world that’s warped his sense of morality. His intense longing for love makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, although he’s prone to growling, biting, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an compelling femme fatale who targets her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his love interest, despite Reze is obviously hiding a secret from him. Thus when her real identity is unveiled, audiences can’t help but hope they’ll somehow make it work, although deep down, it is known a positive outcome is not truly in the cards. Therefore, the stakes fail to seem as high as they should be since their relationship is doomed. It doesn’t help that the film serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving little room for a romance like this among the more grim developments that followers know are coming soon.

Stunning Animation and Technical Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, delivering stunning eye candy prior to the action begins. Including vehicles to tiny desk fans, 3D models add depth and detail to each scene, making the animated figures pop strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to spot. These smooth, ever-shifting environments render the film’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to understand. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and movement of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Wider Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a drawback. Telling a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a popular anime season with a movie is not the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up several seasons of animated series with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by serving as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit recklessly. However that doesn’t stop the movie from being a enjoyable experience, a excellent point of entry, and a unforgettable love story.