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Two youngsters experience a intimate, gentle moment at the neighborhood high school’s open-air pool late at night. While they drift as one, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the evening, the sequence portrays the fleeting, exhilarating thrill of adolescent romance, completely engrossed in the present, ramifications forgotten.

About 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the core of the movie. Denji and Reze’s romantic tale became the focus, and every bit of contextual information and backstories previously known from the series’ first season proved to be largely irrelevant. Despite being a canonical installment within the series, Reze Arc offers a easier starting place for newcomers — regardless of they haven’t seen its single episode. This method brings advantages, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the movie’s story.

Developed by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a indebted fiend fighter in a universe where Devils represent specific evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s betrayed and murdered by the yakuza, he makes a pact with his loyal devil-dog, Pochita, and returns from the deceased as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the ability to completely destroy Devils and the horrors they signify from reality.

Plunged into a brutal conflict between demons and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a charming barista concealing a deadly secret — igniting a heartbreaking confrontation between the two where affection and existence intersect. The movie continues right after season 1, delving into the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his manipulative boss, Makima, forcing him to choose between desire, faithfulness, and survival.

A Self-Contained Love Story Within a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our imperfect main character the hero falling for his counterpart right away upon introduction. He’s a isolated young man seeking affection, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its extensive cast of characters, Reze Arc is highly independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the romantic arc is at the center, instead of bogging it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, particularly since none of that really matters to the complete storyline.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to feel for him. He’s after all a teenager, stumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his sense of morality. His intense craving for love portrays him like a infatuated dog, although he’s prone to growling, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a perfect match for him, an effective femme fatale who finds her prey in our protagonist. You want to see the main character win the ire of his love interest, even if Reze is clearly concealing a secret from him. Thus when her real identity is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll in some way make it work, although internally, you know a positive outcome is not truly in the plan. As such, the tension don’t feel as intense as they should be since their romance is fated. It doesn’t help that the film acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving minimal space for a romance like this among the darker developments that followers know are approaching.

Stunning Visuals and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s graphics seamlessly blend traditional animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive visual appeal even before the action kicks in. Including vehicles to tiny office appliances, digital assets enhance realism and texture to every shot, making the 2D characters pop beautifully. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which often highlights its digital elements and shifting settings, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive finale, where such elements, though not unappealing, become easier to spot. Such fluid, dynamic backgrounds render the film’s battles both visually bombastic and surprisingly easy to follow. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s unnoticeable, enhancing the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Final Thoughts and Broader Considerations

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a solid point of entry, likely resulting in first-time audiences pleased, but it additionally carries a drawback. Presenting a standalone narrative limits the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. This is an illustration of why continuing a successful anime season with a film isn’t the best approach if it undermines the franchise’s overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding several installments of animated series with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by acting as a backstory to its popular show, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, maybe a bit foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the film from being a enjoyable time, a terrific point of entry, and a unforgettable love story.