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A pair of youngsters share a private, gentle instant at the local high school’s outdoor swimming pool after hours. As they float together, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the night, the sequence portrays the ephemeral, exhilarating excitement of teenage romance, completely engrossed in the moment, consequences forgotten.

Approximately half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized 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 initial episodes turned out to be largely unnecessary. Despite being a official installment within the series, Reze Arc provides a easier starting place for first-time viewers — regardless of they missed its prior content. This method brings advantages, but it also hinders a portion of the tension of the film’s story.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils embody particular dangers (ranging from concepts like getting older and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). When he’s deceived and murdered by the yakuza, Denji makes a pact with his loyal companion, his pet, and comes back from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy Devils and the horrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between devils and hunters, the hero meets a new character — a charming coffee server hiding a deadly secret — sparking a tragic confrontation between the two where love and existence collide. The movie picks up right after the first season, exploring the main character’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his manipulative superior, his employer, forcing him to decide among passion, faithfulness, and self-preservation.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Broader World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist the hero becoming enamored with his counterpart right away upon introduction. He’s a isolated young man seeking love, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and guarantees the romantic arc is at the forefront, rather than weighing it down with unnecessary summaries for the uninitiated, particularly since none of that really matters to the overall storyline.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He’s after all a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his sense of morality. His desperate longing for love makes him come off like a lovesick dog, even if he’s prone to growling, snapping, and making a mess along the way. His love interest is a perfect pairing for him, an effective seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our protagonist. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his love interest, despite she is obviously hiding a secret from him. Thus when her true nature is revealed, audiences cannot avoid hope they’ll in some way succeed, even though deep down, it is known a happy ending is not truly in the plan. Therefore, the tension don’t feel as intense as they should be since their relationship is fated. It doesn’t help that the movie acts as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing minimal space for a romance like this amid the darker events that followers know are coming soon.

Breathtaking Animation and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s visuals effortlessly combine 2D animation with 3D environments, providing impressive eye candy even before the action begins. Including vehicles to small desk fans, digital assets add depth and texture to every scene, making the animated figures stand out strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc employs them less frequently, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. These fluid, dynamic backgrounds make the movie’s battles both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Impressions and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, probably leaving new fans satisfied, but it additionally carries a downside. Telling a self-contained story limits the tension of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why continuing a successful anime season with a movie is not the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by concluding multiple installments of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the problem entirely by acting as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a slightly recklessly. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a enjoyable experience, a terrific introduction, and a memorable romantic tale.