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A pair of teenagers share a intimate, tender moment at the local secondary school’s outdoor swimming pool after hours. As they float together, hanging under the stars in the stillness of the evening, the scene captures the fleeting, heady thrill of adolescent romance, completely caught up in the moment, ramifications overlooked.

About 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the movie. The love story took center stage, and every bit of contextual information and backstories I had gleaned from the anime’s initial episodes proved to be mostly unnecessary. Despite being a official installment within the series, Reze Arc offers a more accessible entry point for first-time viewers — even if they haven’t seen its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where demons represent particular dangers (including concepts like getting older and obscurity to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). After being deceived and killed by the yakuza, Denji forms a contract with his faithful companion, Pochita, and comes back from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to completely destroy Devils and the terrors they represent from reality.

Thrust into a violent struggle between demons and hunters, the hero encounters Reze — a alluring coffee server concealing a deadly mystery — sparking a heartbreaking confrontation between the two where affection and survival collide. The movie picks up immediately following the first season, exploring the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his controlling boss, Makima, forcing him to choose between passion, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our fallible main character Denji falling for Reze right away upon meeting. He’s a lonely boy looking for love, which makes his heart unreliable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive ensemble, Reze Arc is highly independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, especially when none of that really matters to the complete plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to feel for him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of morality. His intense craving for affection makes him come off like a infatuated dog, even if he’s prone to barking, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for Denji, an compelling seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our protagonist. Viewers hope to see Denji win the ire of his affection, even if she is clearly hiding something from him. Thus when her real identity is unveiled, you still can’t help but wish they’ll somehow succeed, even though internally, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the cards. As such, the stakes fail to seem as intense as they ought to be since their romance is doomed. This is compounded by that the film serves as a immediate follow-up to the first season, leaving minimal space for a romance like this amid the more grim developments that followers know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Artistic Craftsmanship

The film’s visuals effortlessly combine traditional animation with 3D environments, providing impressive eye candy prior to the action kicks in. Including cars to small office appliances, digital assets add depth and detail to each scene, making the animated figures pop strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often showcases its digital elements and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed climax, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. Such smooth, ever-shifting backgrounds render the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly easy to follow. Nonetheless, the method shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and movement of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Wider Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid starting place, likely resulting in first-time audiences satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Presenting a self-contained story limits the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a movie is not the best approach if it undermines the series’ overall storytelling potential.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple installments of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem completely by acting as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from proving to be a great experience, a excellent point of entry, and a memorable love story.