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A pair of youngsters share a intimate, gentle moment at the neighborhood secondary school’s open-air pool late at night. As they float as one, hanging under the night sky in the quietness of the night, the sequence captures the fleeting, heady thrill of teenage love, utterly caught up in the moment, consequences overlooked.

Approximately 30 minutes into The Chainsaw Man Film: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the movie. The romantic tale became the focus, and every bit of contextual information and character histories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes turned out to be mostly irrelevant. Despite being a canonical installment within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a more accessible entry point for first-time viewers — regardless of they haven’t seen its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it simultaneously limits a portion of the tension of the film’s narrative.

Developed by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils embody specific evils (including concepts like Aging and Darkness to terrifying entities like insects or World War II). After being betrayed and murdered by the criminal syndicate, Denji makes a pact with his loyal devil-dog, his pet, and returns from the dead as a part-human chainsaw wielder with the power to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they signify from existence.

Thrust into a brutal conflict between devils and hunters, the hero encounters Reze — a charming barista concealing a deadly secret — sparking a heartbreaking confrontation between the two where affection and existence collide. This film picks up right after season 1, delving into the main character’s connection with his love interest as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative boss, his employer, forcing him to decide among desire, loyalty, and self-preservation.

An Independent Romantic Tale Within a Larger Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible main character the hero becoming enamored with Reze right away upon introduction. He is a isolated boy looking for affection, which renders him unreliable and easily swayed on a first-come basis. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large ensemble, Reze Arc is very independent. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara recognizes this and ensures the romantic arc is at the center, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, particularly since such details really matters to the complete storyline.

Regardless of Denji’s imperfections, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He is after all a teenager, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his understanding of right and wrong. His desperate craving for love portrays him like a lovesick puppy, although he’s prone to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a ideal match for him, an effective seductive antagonist who targets her prey in our hero. Viewers hope to see the main character win the ire of his love interest, despite she is obviously hiding something from him. So when her real identity is unveiled, you still cannot avoid wish they’ll somehow succeed, even though internally, you know a positive outcome is never really in the plan. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their relationship is fated. It doesn’t help that the film serves as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving little room for a love story like this among the darker developments that fans are aware are coming soon.

Stunning Visuals and Artistic Execution

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with computer-generated settings, delivering stunning eye candy prior to the action begins. Including vehicles to tiny office appliances, 3D models enhance realism and detail to every scene, making the 2D characters pop strikingly. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often highlights its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive climax, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. Such smooth, ever-shifting environments render the film’s fights both visually bombastic and surprisingly simple to understand. Nonetheless, the technique excels most when it’s invisible, improving the vibrancy and motion of the 2D animation.

Concluding Impressions and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good starting place, likely leaving first-time audiences satisfied, but it also has a drawback. Presenting a self-contained narrative restricts the stakes of what ought to seem like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why continuing a popular television series with a movie is not the best approach if it undermines the series’ overall narrative possibilities.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up several seasons of anime television with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue completely by acting as a backstory to its well-known series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit foolishly. However that doesn’t stop the film from proving to be a great experience, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable love story.