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Two teenagers share a private, gentle moment at the neighborhood secondary school’s open-air pool late at night. As they float together, hanging beneath the stars in the quietness of the night, the sequence captures the ephemeral, heady thrill of adolescent love, completely caught up in the moment, ramifications overlooked.

Approximately half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the core of the movie. The romantic tale became the focus, and all the contextual information and character histories I had gleaned from the series’ first season turned out to be largely irrelevant. Despite being a official installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a easier starting place for first-time viewers — even if they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a universe where demons represent particular dangers (ranging from ideas like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or World War II). After being deceived and murdered by the criminal syndicate, he makes a pact with his loyal companion, his pet, and comes back from the dead as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to permanently erase Devils and the terrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a brutal conflict between devils and hunters, the hero meets a new character — a charming coffee server concealing a deadly secret — igniting a heartbreaking clash between the pair where affection and existence intersect. The movie continues right after season 1, exploring Denji’s connection with Reze as he grapples with his emotions for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, his employer, forcing him to choose between desire, loyalty, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Love Story Amidst a Larger World

Reze Arc is inherently a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our fallible main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He’s a lonely young man looking for affection, which renders him unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate mythology and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the new viewers, especially when none of that really matters to the overall plot.

Despite the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He is after all a teenager, stumbling his way through a world that’s warped his sense of morality. His intense craving for love makes him come off like a lovesick dog, although he’s likely to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a ideal pairing for him, an compelling femme fatale who finds her mark in our hero. You want to see the main character win the ire 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 wish they’ll somehow make it work, even though deep down, it is known a positive outcome is not truly in the cards. Therefore, the tension don’t feel as high as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. It doesn’t help that the film acts as a immediate follow-up to Season 1, leaving little room for a love story like this among the more grim events that followers know are approaching.

Stunning Animation and Artistic Execution

The film’s graphics seamlessly blend traditional animation with 3D environments, providing stunning eye candy prior to the excitement begins. Including vehicles to small office appliances, 3D models add depth and texture to every shot, allowing the animated figures stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its 3D assets and changing backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. Such smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds make the film’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the method shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Concluding Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid starting place, likely leaving new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a drawback. Telling a standalone narrative limits the tension of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why continuing a popular anime season with a movie isn’t the best approach if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding multiple installments of animated series with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue entirely by acting as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, maybe a bit foolishly. But this does not prevent the film from proving to be a enjoyable time, a terrific introduction, and a unforgettable romantic tale.