Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – Blind Love of a Devil’s Touch

In the mind of an imaginative person, one seeks to find creative ways to explore.  From books to comics, the surreal aspect that can be made is a matter of how far you’re willing to bend reality.  In films, there are many ways to explore fantastical journeys.  One of those ways is through anime.  To animate a tale provides a window of possibilities, but with anime … it is another realm where a great time can be found in the irony of realism and obscurity.  In this review, I look at the latest anime to hit the big screen.  In the ‘further adventures’ of a devil hunter, we embark on a path of personal feelings … in a bombastic way.  For all the oddities that may be had, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is an interesting next chapter in devil hunting … and finding love. 

In a world of devil hunting, one boy seeks to find a reason to live.  When a new romantic interest comes to be, has he found the right match … or something else?  Anime is an abstraction of the creative spirit, one where the only limit is your own imagination.  This medium is a place where logic and reason can be thrown out, and still make sense.  For Chainsaw Man, it showcases a deeply bombastic sense of the medium, but the charm that grips is in the personal touch of human worth.  With this latest film, we pick up after the first season of the anime.  As we come into this world, we drop back into Denji’s life, a 16-year-old who has finally settled into his role of devil hunting for Japan’s Public Safety Department.  After a series of homely scenes that reintroduces us to other characters from the series (you can view the cast list at the film’s IMdb Page – link), he randomly encounters a strange woman by the name of Reze.  After a series of awkward conversations, he realizes that this woman actually likes him, creating a space that fills a ‘want’ in Denji’s life.  After a few more encounters, Denji begins to have an internal conflict of the heart and mind, one that bends into a roller coaster of emotional fervor.  As this continued romantic twist continues, it spurs through a mixture of anime and teenage romance motifs, while also hinting at something ‘darker’ at play.  This subtle foreshadowing begins to peel back from the personal, leading to a muddling of duty and emotions.  The unraveling of circumstance begins to lead back to the obscurity (of this world), turning the journey from its characterized building to an imaginative and bombastic conflict. 

From the relationship to the revelation of what is at play, the blending of reality and creativity becomes an abstraction of the medium.  From the methodical layering of the heartiness to the blending of the world building, what comes to be true is the innocence of personal worth.  This leads to a place where action and emotions are on full display, a visual spectacle of the medium’s artistry.  As worth and duty come about for Denji, it brings him into confrontation with dark forces through crazed animation and over-the-top action sequences.  As Denji faces certain truths, we head into an all-out crazy finale that showcases the strength of the series, both visually and emotionally.  Chainsaw Main – The Movie: Reze Arc is a good adaptation of the next arc in the series.  If you are a fan of the property, anime or obscure tales, this is one for you.  I say there is enough here, even if you’re new the property, for a good time.

Full Score – 3.5 out of 5 (Matinee)