Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc Movie Review – A Wildly Provocative Anime Masterpiece

Most romantic comedies start with lovers meeting in the rain. But then there’s Chainsaw Man. Here, a rainy encounter leads to a fireworks kiss, followed by a swift attempt to tear each other to shreds. Welcome to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s idea of a summer romance.

Despite being an anime focused on a boy who literally has chainsaws for limbs, Chainsaw Man has always harbored a remarkably vulnerable core. This new film pushes that emotional depth even further, showcasing a heart that beats more intensely and bleeds more openly than ever before. It functions brilliantly as both a direct continuation of the beloved anime series and a wild, standalone exploration of loneliness, intense desire, and the sheer impossibility of finding peace when you’re host to a demonic entity.

Denji, a teenage devil hunter whose primary aspirations in life are touching breasts and enjoying good food, encounters Reze, a purple-haired barista with emerald eyes and a captivating, teasing laugh. She seems almost too perfect to be real. Their initial flirtations are filled with charming coffee dates, daring midnight skinny dips, and fireworks exploding beautifully overhead. However, it’s not long before the illusion shatters, and Reze reveals her true nature: a living weapon of mass destruction.

The film’s first act shimmers with the delicate charm of a classic rom-com, featuring intimate handheld shots reflecting on wet sidewalks and Denji’s endearing, adolescent internal monologues about his body moving on autopilot. The real subversion lies in how genuinely tender these moments feel. Reze teaches Denji to swim with the gentle patience of a typical teen movie heroine, only to, ten minutes later, literally pull a pin from her own neck and detonate, transforming into a human bomb. This sudden, brutal juxtaposition is initially funny, like a slapstick fall, until you realize the ‘pratfall’ now stands before you, holding the severed heads of your former colleagues.

MAPPA, the animation studio renowned for pushing boundaries while notoriously overworking its animators, orchestrates this entire affair with a level of artistry that verges on masochism. The opening act glides with soft pastels and the inviting warmth of old movie theater marquees. By the second act, these same hues violently erupt into sharp, chaotic explosions and oppressive grays, with the screen barraged by flying body parts and shrapnel. This shift feels intentionally cruel, strikingly similar to the emotional and visual trauma MAPPA masterfully crafted for Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season.

The exceptional voice cast expertly maintains the dark humor. Kikunosuke Toya perfectly captures Denji’s lovable naivety – a boy convinced that any pretty girl he meets might finally see him for who he truly is. Reina Ueda’s Reze is a captivating, velvety threat, smoothly transitioning from flirtatious first-date giggles to full-body detonation without missing a beat. And the ever-reliable Natsuki Hanae, known for his katana-wielding heroics as Tanjiro in Demon Slayer, offers delightful comic relief as the shark-headed Beam, ever-ready to sacrifice himself for his chainsaw-headed comrade.

Kensuke Ushio’s score acts as the film’s unspoken strength. His compositions range from subtle, distorted whispers during Denji and Reze’s intimate moments to grandiose operatic crescendos as entire city blocks crumble. Even the sound of a sizzling fuse feels laden with suggestive double entendres, almost like foreplay.

Beyond the action, Reze Arc also subtly presents a heartfelt homage to cinema itself. Think of that memorable matinee marathon where Denji and Makima immerse themselves in films, finding solace and a reason to live in the flickering light of a projector. It’s unassuming, almost disarmingly sincere, and cleverly sets up the devastating punchline that their own story’s “final scene” will be one that quite literally blows them away.

The film’s anarchic climax feels like a deity doodling at 3 AM. It’s packed with nods to blockbuster classics, seamlessly blending elements of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Jaws, throwing in a tornado or two straight out of Twister, and unleashing more gratuitous explosions than even Michael Bay could cram into a summer movie. It’s unhinged, over-the-top, and playfully campy. Yet, it also feels like Fujimoto’s respectful salute to the absurd, transformative power of movies – reminding us that moving pictures are capable of doing exactly what they were never (or perhaps, always) meant to do.

Comparisons to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle are unavoidable. Both films were released in quick succession, each flaunting cutting-edge animation. While anime cinemas often become a venue for recycled “event arcs” cynically stretched into feature films, Reze Arc stands out as a rare creature, fueled by genuine devilish energy rather than mere brand strategy. It effortlessly surpasses the high bar set by Demon Slayer’s recent blockbuster, thanks to the sheer fluidity of its hand-drawn animation. Every frame pulses with an authenticity that CG simply cannot replicate.

The true triumph of Reze Arc is that it wasn’t crafted for a broad, mainstream audience. If Demon Slayer’s grand, operatic scale featured characters openly lamenting their sorrows in frequent bursts of shounen melodrama, then Chainsaw Man’s spectacle is corrosively designed to leave you with a delicious unease about your enjoyment. This film is a wild fever dream tailored for the unconventional, the perpetually online, and the wonderfully strange individuals who find a peculiar, broken kind of sanctity in Denji’s raw, distorted longing. Chainsaw Man is truly something stranger, funnier, and more brutal. Chainsaw Man is undeniably for the freaks.

Is it wrong to forge such beauty from such profound despair? Perhaps. But therein lies the essence of Chainsaw Man. It’s grotesque, thrilling, cynical, passionate, raw, and deeply meaningful all at once. One might be tempted to call it excessive, but that would be a mistake. Instead, hail it as the definitive anime film of the year—not merely because it’s perfect (though it arguably is), but because it’s far too gloriously deranged to be anything less.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is currently running in theatres