The Chainsaw Man movie is perfect for newcomers, but may leave fans feeling frustrated

Two teenagers share a private, tender moment at the local high school’s outdoor pool after hours. As they float together, suspended beneath the stars in the quietness of the night, the scene captures the fleeting, heady thrill of adolescent love, completely caught up in the moment, consequences forgotten.

About 30 minutes into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, I realized these scenes are the heart of the film. Denji and Reze’s love story took center stage, and all the background details and character histories I had gleaned from the anime’s first season turned out to be largely irrelevant. Despite being a canonical entry within the franchise, Reze Arc offers a more accessible entry point for newcomers — even if they haven’t seen its single episode. The approach has its benefits, but it also hinders some of the urgency of the film’s story.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a debt-ridden Devil Hunter in a world where Devils embody specific evils (ranging from concepts like Aging and Darkness to specific horrors like cockroaches or World War II). When he’s betrayed and killed by the yakuza, Denji makes a pact with his loyal devil-dog, Pochita, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the power to permanently erase Devils and the horrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a violent struggle between devils and hunters, Denji meets Reze — a charming barista hiding a deadly secret — sparking a tragic clash between the two where love and survival collide. The movie picks up right after season 1, delving into Denji’s connection with Reze as he wrestles with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative boss, Makima, forcing him to choose between desire, loyalty, and survival.

Reze Arc is inherently a lovers-to-enemies story, with our fallible protagonist Denji falling for Reze almost immediately upon introduction. He’s a lonely boy looking for love, which makes his heart unreliable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served basis. As a result, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s complex lore and its large cast of characters, Reze Arc is very self-contained. Director Tatsuya Yoshihara understands this and ensures the love story is at the forefront, rather than bogging it down with filler recaps for the uninitiated, especially when none of that really matters to the overall plot.

Despite Denji’s flaws, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. He’s still a teenager, after all, fumbling his way through a world that’s warped his sense of right and wrong. His desperate longing for affection makes him come off like a lovesick puppy, even if he’s prone to barking, biting, and making a mess along the way. Reze is a perfect pairing for Denji, an effective femme fatale who finds her target in our protagonist. You want to see Denji win the ire of his affection, even if Reze is obviously hiding something from him. So when her true nature is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll somehow make it work, even though deep down, you know a happy ending is never really in the cards. As such, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their romance is doomed. It doesn’t help that the film acts as a direct sequel to Season 1, leaving little room for a romance like this amid the darker events that fans know are coming soon.

Image: Sony

The film’s visuals seamlessly blend 2D animation with 3D environments, delivering stunning eye candy even before the action kicks in. From cars to tiny desk fans, 3D models add depth and texture to each scene, making the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which frequently showcases its 3D assets and shifting backgrounds, Reze Arc uses them more sparingly, most noticeably during its explosive finale, where those models, while not unattractive, become easier to spot. These fluid, ever-shifting backgrounds make the film’s battles both visually bombastic and remarkably easy to follow. Still, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, enhancing the dynamic range and motion of the 2D animation.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely leaving new fans satisfied, but it also has a drawback. Telling a self-contained story limits the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling anime epic. It’s an example of why following up a successful anime season with a movie isn’t the best approach if it undermines the franchise’s overall storytelling potential.

While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle found success by tying up multiple seasons of anime television with an epic film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the issue entirely by acting as a prequel to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc charges forward, perhaps a bit foolishly. But that doesn’t stop the film from being a great time, a terrific point of entry, and a memorable love story.