It has been quite a long time since I last wrote about Chainsaw Man on this site, with the 2022 anime television series still standing as an incredibly strong adaptation and one of the best shows of the decade. Of course the series has still remained in the conversation thanks to the currently still-ongoing second part of the manga, a run which has taken some absolutely buckwild story turns in the past year or so. However, it’s now been three years since we last witnessed Tatsuki Fujimoto’s chaotic world of devils, heartbreak, and super toast in animated form, so a comeback around this time was to be expected, and following in the footsteps of works like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Demon Slayer, Denji and company have made their way to the silver screen with Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.
Picking up right from where season 1 left off, the story finds our protagonist Denji further contemplating his sense of humanity and whether he has anything resembling a heart in the abstract sense. Finding himself with some down time while Power recovers from the events of Public Safety’s last mission, he soon befriends the titular Reze, a woman who works at a café in town. The two seemingly form an incredibly romantic bond with each other, constantly finding joy in their own company, but things take a tragic turn when Reze reveals herself to be a human-devil hybrid who was simply seeking the heart of the chainsaw devil this whole time.
The fundamental nature of the bonds shared between people and what it truly means to be human continue to be running threads throughout the course of the film. From the outset, Denji is still in conflict with himself over whether he can truly feel much of anything at all, although an all-day movie date with Makima kickstarts the idea that he’s not as inhuman as he may believe (which also happens to feed into Fujimoto’s recurring fixation not just with film as a medium but with the broader power of art as a whole). Once Denji meets Reze, he gradually opens himself up further and further to higher emotional states of being as they grow closer to each other, only for the horror of her reveal as the Bomb Devil to retroactively poison their happy moments with a sense of betrayal and tragedy. The film makes recurring allusions to this theme through Aesop’s Fable of The City Mouse and the Country Mouse, a story comparing the secure stable life of a country mouse to the high-risk high-reward life of a city mouse. While the original parable sides with the country mouse’s desire for a life free of troubles, the way this film applies said parable to notions of romance and human connection adds quite a bit of nuance to things.
Relationships of any kind are an uncomfortable thing. Whether it be an important friendship or a whirlwind romance, when people become close to each other, they inevitably open themselves up to a great deal of vulnerability. People can die unexpectedly, they can let you down or betray you in ways that are difficult to wrap your head around, and it’s never an easy thing to cope or deal with, and Denji’s not the only one grappling with these sorts of conflicts. Running parallel to the main story, his commander Aki Hayakawa ends up continuing a partnership with the Angel Devil formed in the first season, a devil whose attitude towards humanity are seemingly difficult to decipher. As the story goes on, Aki develops a complicated affinity towards him, culminating in a genuinely heartbreaking moment towards the film’s action-packed climax (Reagan Murdrock giving an amazing performance once again in the role).
Speaking of which, there’s quite a lot to say regarding the production/technical aspects of the film… … however, there’s some complications at play here, and I’m not entirely sure I can proceed forward in good faith without at least alluding to the elephant in the room. Trying to abridge this as best as possible, while the first season of the anime received generally positive acclaim, there was some backlash aimed at the production opting for a more filmic approach to things through its detailed character designs and realistic approach to movement/animation (much of this backlash coming relatively moreso from the Japanese side of the fandom, with a Japanese petition on change.org being one small example). Likely because of this, the original series director Ryu Nakayama was let go from the production, putting Tatsuya Yoshihara (credited as the action director for S1 alongside some storyboarding and episode direction) in the director’s chair with a seeming mandate from MAPPA to make a film that, at least visually, was closer to the original manga. This naturally falls into the sadly expected behavior from modern-day MAPPA of having little care for the artistic creativity and general well-being of their employees and choosing to chase the approval of a finnicky section of the fandom. I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure whether there’s a correct answer regarding the ethics of engaging with the studio’s works, but I don’t blame anyone who chooses to opt out in this case because of the behind-the-scenes issues. All that said, I’ll proceed on with trying to talk about the film on its own merits, mainly because I’m sure everyone involved in the production is simply trying to do the best work they can given their unfortunate employment situation.
Getting back on track, the shifts in overall style are apparent from the jump: character designs have more streamlined linework more in line with the rough draft aesthetic of Fujimoto’s art style (likely cribbing a bit from the release of the Look Back film adaptation), and the visuals shift from a desaturated color palette to something with a bit more visual pop. The animation can be a bit more loose a lot of the time with cartoonier movements during the sillier scenes (a few ripped straight from the paneling of the original manga pages), and when the action ramps up in the back half, the movie delivers some impressive spectacle that constantly sets off fireworks and carnage/debris while frequently diving into a kind of “runny egg” visual abstraction during many of the more hectic action beats. There’s some truly impressive action spectacle on display: explosions going off all over the place combined with the torrential winds plaguing the city and spreading debris all around once the Typhoon Devil enters the picture make for an absolutely chaotic action climax, and I mean that with the highest technical praise possible.
Despite these changes, at times it does feel like the creative DNA from the TV series still exists in the film in a few ways. In terms of writing and pacing, the movie does have an intentionally slow and subdued pace in the first half, taking its time setting up the character dynamics and letting things just play out naturally to great effect. Every scene in the first half with Denji and Reze spending time together is just so achingly sweet and earnestly romantic, it legitimately makes you want to root for them even if you’re aware that their “love” is a sham that wasn’t meant to be. The overall sense of lighting, while having some stylistic tinges like the occasional piercing blood reds in a few scenes, carries the kind of dramatic realism one would expect from the series. In particular, the pool scene in the abandoned high school stands as a testament to this with the stunningly beautiful reflections of moonlight across the water’s surface.
Speaking of the pool scene, if there’s one aspect of the production that I think truly stands out here, much like with the TV series, it’s the music. While there’s a lot to love about how S1 handled its production, I genuinely believe Kensuke Ushio’s music was the special bow on top that really tied so much of everything together, and the same holds true here. Ushio’s music brings an expected mix of melancholic keys, lush droning ambient synth pieces, and intense pulse-pounding industrial noise when things truly hit the fan, representing the most noteworthy indication of the television show’s lingering influence. Ushio’s compositions aid greatly delivering some of the biggest emotional impacts in the film, like the truly tear-inducing gorgeous piano piece “in the pool”, or at the literal turning point halfway through during the literal fireworks show, with the music rapidly shifting from beautiful pianos to deeply unsettling industrial noise. There’s a ton of other gems to be found throughout, such as the synthwave banger “leave the lights” or the eerie industrial tension of “Sweet danger” and “her strike.” There’s even some more orchestral work towards the film’s end, including a phenomenal new rendition of Denji’s theme “edge of chainsaw.” Outside of Ushio’s contributions, Kenshi Yonezu returns with some new tracks: the swinging ragtime-influenced electronics of the opener “Iris Out” and the beautiful Utada Hikaru collaboration “Jane Doe” for the end credits. We even get to finally here the full version of Maximum The Hormone’s ending theme from the original series, which is exactly as balls-to-the-wall as you’d expect.
The film’s an absolute riot as well when it wants to be. A lot of the devil characters featured throughout are so hysterically unserious a lot of the time, especially Beam who gets a ton of screentime as (essentially) Denji’s ride-or-die. The Violence Fiend as well is just such a bizarre entity for a character literally named after the concept of Violence, and even the central antagonist Reze is given room to pop off a few funny lines here and there. The voice cast for the film is certainly game for everything, bringing back everyone from the English dub to continue doing some incredible work. Not only do they match the manic energy of the story as it goes off the rails (with Derick Snow as the Shark Fiend really stealing the show a lot of the time), but they’re also able to capture the stark emotions and bitter tragedies inherent to a lot of the material. Alexis Tipton really shines in capturing the various nuances of Reze as a character, Ryan Colt Levy continues to be pitch-perfect casting as Denji, and Aki/Angel’s dynamic allows for a lot of great chemistry between Murdock and Casey Mongillo.
Overall, looking at the film as a whole, it is absolute cinema in the purest sense of the word. A piece of art that shines in every aspect and takes you on one of the wildest emotional roller coasters of any theater experience this year: all at once a gnarly action spectacle and an extremely heartbreaking story of false romance. A great adaptation of one of the best stories in one of the best comics of the past decade, if you still have a chance to see it in theaters and you haven’t by now, take the first opportunity you can to go see Reze Arc. As Denji would say: YEE HAW, MOTHERFUCKERS!
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is produced by MAPPA and licensed by Crunchryoll.