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A pair of teenagers experience a intimate, gentle instant at the local high school’s outdoor swimming pool after hours. While they drift together, suspended under the stars in the quietness of the night, the scene captures the ephemeral, exhilarating thrill of adolescent love, completely caught up in the present, ramifications forgotten.

About 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized such moments are the core of the film. The romantic tale became the focus, and all the background details and character histories previously known from the series’ first season proved to be mostly unnecessary. Despite being a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc provides a easier starting place for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by the original creator, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a universe where Devils embody specific evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like insects or historical conflicts). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, he forms a contract with his faithful companion, his pet, and comes back from the deceased as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they signify from existence.

Plunged into a brutal struggle between demons and hunters, the hero encounters Reze — a alluring barista hiding a deadly mystery — sparking a tragic confrontation between the two where love and existence intersect. The movie picks up right after the first season, exploring Denji’s relationship with Reze as he grapples with his feelings for her and his loyalty to his controlling boss, Makima, compelling him to decide among desire, loyalty, and self-preservation.

An Independent Love Story Within a Larger World

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies plot, with our fallible main character the hero falling for Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a lonely young man looking for affection, which renders him vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come basis. As a result, in spite of all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its extensive cast of characters, Reze Arc is very independent. Filmmaker Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of weighing it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, especially when none of that is crucial to the complete plot.

Regardless of the protagonist’s imperfections, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He is still a adolescent, stumbling his way through a reality that’s distorted his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate craving for affection portrays him like a lovesick puppy, although he’s prone to barking, snapping, and causing chaos along the way. His love interest is a ideal pairing for Denji, an compelling femme fatale who targets her prey in our protagonist. You want to see the main character win the ire of his affection, despite she is obviously hiding something from him. So 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 cards. Therefore, the stakes don’t feel as intense as they should be since their romance is fated. This is compounded by that the film serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving minimal space for a romance like this amid the more grim developments that fans know are approaching.

Stunning Visuals and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s graphics seamlessly blend 2D animation with computer-generated settings, delivering impressive visual appeal prior to the action kicks in. Including vehicles to tiny desk fans, digital assets enhance realism and texture to each scene, making the 2D characters pop strikingly. In contrast to Demon Slayer, which frequently highlights its digital elements and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its action-packed finale, where those models, though not unappealing, are more apparent to identify. These fluid, ever-shifting environments render the film’s battles both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to follow. Nonetheless, the method excels most when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and motion of the hand-drawn art.

Final Thoughts and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, probably resulting in new fans pleased, but it also has a downside. Presenting a self-contained narrative restricts the tension of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. It’s an illustration of why following up a successful anime season with a film isn’t the optimal strategy if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by concluding several installments of anime television with an grand movie, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 sidestepped the issue completely by serving as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit foolishly. However this does not prevent the movie from proving to be a enjoyable time, a terrific point of entry, and a unforgettable love story.