26-10-2025, 11:46 PM
Saw Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc with a group of friends in the cinema on Saturday.
![[Image: %24_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F]](https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMTMx/z/AnwAAOSwniJn0m74/%24_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F)
Sometimes being a manga reader can take away some of the magic of watching an anime adaptation. Sometimes it feels a bit like you've read the TV Guide before watching the show and any surprise or wonder or emotion has already been spent. Moments that were shocking or exciting when first experienced end up boiled down to an "I remember this" or "ah yeah this part's good" and no amount of window dressing can bring that same excitement back. You've been here before.
...but I did not have this issue with Reze Arc. Every beat and every moment still hit like it was the first time. I knew what was coming but that didn't take away from the anticipation building while watching. I think in large part this was due to the smart decision to adapt Reze Arc into a film rather than several episodes of a second season of Chainsaw Man. Don't get me wrong, the excitement of a weekly anime to watch isn't something that can be understated-it's a beautiful thing to have in this day and age. But Reze Arc being a film meant there was no duration of end credits or opening theme song for you to sit there remembering what happens next-it just happens. Beats are instantly followed up on and the calm before the storm seamlessly bleeds into the storm so you're never sat there thinking "ah and next is when-".
The more filmic form also works great with this arc regardless. The basic plot sees main protagonist Denji unsure what to do when a new cute girl comes into his life given that in his mind he's hopelessly devoted to his boss Makima, while his colleague Aki who is hopelessly devoted to finding and defeating the story's main big bad, the Gun Devil, navigates being partnered with a new buddy that's seemingly hopeless and not devoted to anything, Angel Devil. I was impressed by how much of the essence of Chainsaw Man is on display here as a complete artefact. Both Denji's and Aki's struggles and character arcs are fully realised without needing all the backstory-it never feels like you're missing part of the picture, even if you are! It works both as a small part of a wider story but it also functions incredibly well as a self contained tragedy. While the anime was never shy to give us moments of calm, Reze's longer runtime offers ample time to linger and draw out every emotional and comedic moment to really deliver on all fronts.
Reze also looks great (and I don't just mean the character!! 🤣). The change of style at first struck me as a studio bowing to viewer pressures after outcry in response to Chainsaw Man's more realistic rendering compared to the manga's "scratchy" art style, but the film manages to still be just as cinematic when needed and the more cartoonish visuals really let the animators run wild with the action sequences and visual gags. The fights are incredibly bombastic and with the addition of full motion compared to the manga (where readers can spend as long as they need comprehending each panel's action) it could have easily become hard to keep track of what is happening and for the explosions and whirring of chains to blur into one long homogenous mess, but thankfully Reze's scenes frequently mix up how they're colouring and animating their fights to keep it fresh and engaging. The fights are frantic and fun, and Chainsaw Man's cool factor is fully on display here. The main antagonist remains one of the most striking designs even 120 chapters after their arc and this film does them justice-they're incredibly cool and the animation does well to showcase that.
The score was especially good and does a lot of heavy lifting for elevating the story's key moments. The best example of this for me was the pool scene which was scored with a tender melody which suits the scene perfectly and is among the best kensuke ushio has yet provided for the series. The scene in general is probably my favourite and I loved the little additions the filmmakers made. While a spider capturing a butterfly in its web can be called heavy handed symbolism, the film's plot at this point is vague enough that it doesn't feel too much like being bludgeoned over the head-you know something is wrong, even if you're not entirely sure what it's going to be yet. Everything came together to really convey both the importance of the moment for Denji as well as the underlying feeling of unease that his euphoric moment wouldn't last. The film had its own opening which was a great touch. I'm not sure if that's the norm for anime series films but it really suited, and while the song wasn't as good as "Kick Back" I still liked it a lot and the sequence that accompanied it was a great start to the film. To top everything off a classy song from Hikaru Utada works wonderfully for the ending credits, the way a classy song from Hikaru Utada always does.
Seeing this in the cinema really did a lot of the legwork for making it feel grandiose and part of me does wonder if it would have hit the same watched at home. I was dead set on seeing this in the cinema from the moment it was announced and I'm very thankful to have managed to pull off seeing it with a group of friends when I'm currently working somewhere that's so in the sticks I'd be hard pressed to even see Tron: Ares at the cinema, yet alone an anime film only being widely shown for one weekend only. I may or may not have turned down a day of work that would have paid me nearly £500 so as to not miss the screening...but something about seeing it properly felt important to me.
It's hard to divorce nostalgia from experiences. I'm not convinced such feelings should necessarily be a heavy factor when critiquing art...but we're only human. I read Chainsaw Man during a brief 2 months stint where I was staying with my mum. It's the only time in my life where we've shared a roof besides when I was a newborn. I'd just been evicted from my home, all my friends had moved away, my job had ended and I didn't know when or where I'd next get work, I'd broken up with the girl I'd been seeing for a year as she wasn't a nice person, and my sister was dying. I had no idea what my life would look like in a year, month, or even week. I read the manga during the quiet days alone during that summer at my mum's flat while she was out looking after my sister. After she died I vacated the flat within two weeks and moved to London to make the room available for my nephew she'd left behind. I had no job, no money, no plan, and just had to take the leap. Those early days of fumbling through my introduction to being a city mouse I really did find myself relating to Denji. I wasn't quite so teenage but I felt just as much a fish out of water. I didn't necessarily know how to navigate meeting so many new people at once and felt like I had no clue how to pursue any romantic feelings (...though again I wasn't quite so teenage about it). The anime aired during those first few months of me living in London and the period was really coloured by that. Compared to the lonely and introspective experience of reading the manga to get away from what was going on and fill my time alone, the anime felt like a real social outlet. It came up at parties and some of my first discussions with people who would soon be new friends were about it, and I watched it through with old and new friends alike-I think I watched the first episode with four different people. Chainsaw Man is so intrinsically tied to that period of my life and that does make it hard to judge Reze without those feelings of nostalgia bubbling up, but interestingly I found that it was the first film in a long time that I let myself just be incredibly excited for. I try not to let myself put too much stock in media these days as the feeling of disappointment can be too great and it feels silly to be so bothered when something doesn't live up to expectations-but for this I just let myself get swept up by the hype. I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed. This simple story about two people who think they know what they want from life while not really knowing at all, about senseless love and baseless devotion, vulnerability and directionless yearning, really worked for me back then-and still works for me right now. Anyway sorry for the long post, to put it more concisely...
8/10 it was da bomb
Sometimes being a manga reader can take away some of the magic of watching an anime adaptation. Sometimes it feels a bit like you've read the TV Guide before watching the show and any surprise or wonder or emotion has already been spent. Moments that were shocking or exciting when first experienced end up boiled down to an "I remember this" or "ah yeah this part's good" and no amount of window dressing can bring that same excitement back. You've been here before.
...but I did not have this issue with Reze Arc. Every beat and every moment still hit like it was the first time. I knew what was coming but that didn't take away from the anticipation building while watching. I think in large part this was due to the smart decision to adapt Reze Arc into a film rather than several episodes of a second season of Chainsaw Man. Don't get me wrong, the excitement of a weekly anime to watch isn't something that can be understated-it's a beautiful thing to have in this day and age. But Reze Arc being a film meant there was no duration of end credits or opening theme song for you to sit there remembering what happens next-it just happens. Beats are instantly followed up on and the calm before the storm seamlessly bleeds into the storm so you're never sat there thinking "ah and next is when-".
The more filmic form also works great with this arc regardless. The basic plot sees main protagonist Denji unsure what to do when a new cute girl comes into his life given that in his mind he's hopelessly devoted to his boss Makima, while his colleague Aki who is hopelessly devoted to finding and defeating the story's main big bad, the Gun Devil, navigates being partnered with a new buddy that's seemingly hopeless and not devoted to anything, Angel Devil. I was impressed by how much of the essence of Chainsaw Man is on display here as a complete artefact. Both Denji's and Aki's struggles and character arcs are fully realised without needing all the backstory-it never feels like you're missing part of the picture, even if you are! It works both as a small part of a wider story but it also functions incredibly well as a self contained tragedy. While the anime was never shy to give us moments of calm, Reze's longer runtime offers ample time to linger and draw out every emotional and comedic moment to really deliver on all fronts.
Reze also looks great (and I don't just mean the character!! 🤣). The change of style at first struck me as a studio bowing to viewer pressures after outcry in response to Chainsaw Man's more realistic rendering compared to the manga's "scratchy" art style, but the film manages to still be just as cinematic when needed and the more cartoonish visuals really let the animators run wild with the action sequences and visual gags. The fights are incredibly bombastic and with the addition of full motion compared to the manga (where readers can spend as long as they need comprehending each panel's action) it could have easily become hard to keep track of what is happening and for the explosions and whirring of chains to blur into one long homogenous mess, but thankfully Reze's scenes frequently mix up how they're colouring and animating their fights to keep it fresh and engaging. The fights are frantic and fun, and Chainsaw Man's cool factor is fully on display here. The main antagonist remains one of the most striking designs even 120 chapters after their arc and this film does them justice-they're incredibly cool and the animation does well to showcase that.
The score was especially good and does a lot of heavy lifting for elevating the story's key moments. The best example of this for me was the pool scene which was scored with a tender melody which suits the scene perfectly and is among the best kensuke ushio has yet provided for the series. The scene in general is probably my favourite and I loved the little additions the filmmakers made. While a spider capturing a butterfly in its web can be called heavy handed symbolism, the film's plot at this point is vague enough that it doesn't feel too much like being bludgeoned over the head-you know something is wrong, even if you're not entirely sure what it's going to be yet. Everything came together to really convey both the importance of the moment for Denji as well as the underlying feeling of unease that his euphoric moment wouldn't last. The film had its own opening which was a great touch. I'm not sure if that's the norm for anime series films but it really suited, and while the song wasn't as good as "Kick Back" I still liked it a lot and the sequence that accompanied it was a great start to the film. To top everything off a classy song from Hikaru Utada works wonderfully for the ending credits, the way a classy song from Hikaru Utada always does.
Seeing this in the cinema really did a lot of the legwork for making it feel grandiose and part of me does wonder if it would have hit the same watched at home. I was dead set on seeing this in the cinema from the moment it was announced and I'm very thankful to have managed to pull off seeing it with a group of friends when I'm currently working somewhere that's so in the sticks I'd be hard pressed to even see Tron: Ares at the cinema, yet alone an anime film only being widely shown for one weekend only. I may or may not have turned down a day of work that would have paid me nearly £500 so as to not miss the screening...but something about seeing it properly felt important to me.
It's hard to divorce nostalgia from experiences. I'm not convinced such feelings should necessarily be a heavy factor when critiquing art...but we're only human. I read Chainsaw Man during a brief 2 months stint where I was staying with my mum. It's the only time in my life where we've shared a roof besides when I was a newborn. I'd just been evicted from my home, all my friends had moved away, my job had ended and I didn't know when or where I'd next get work, I'd broken up with the girl I'd been seeing for a year as she wasn't a nice person, and my sister was dying. I had no idea what my life would look like in a year, month, or even week. I read the manga during the quiet days alone during that summer at my mum's flat while she was out looking after my sister. After she died I vacated the flat within two weeks and moved to London to make the room available for my nephew she'd left behind. I had no job, no money, no plan, and just had to take the leap. Those early days of fumbling through my introduction to being a city mouse I really did find myself relating to Denji. I wasn't quite so teenage but I felt just as much a fish out of water. I didn't necessarily know how to navigate meeting so many new people at once and felt like I had no clue how to pursue any romantic feelings (...though again I wasn't quite so teenage about it). The anime aired during those first few months of me living in London and the period was really coloured by that. Compared to the lonely and introspective experience of reading the manga to get away from what was going on and fill my time alone, the anime felt like a real social outlet. It came up at parties and some of my first discussions with people who would soon be new friends were about it, and I watched it through with old and new friends alike-I think I watched the first episode with four different people. Chainsaw Man is so intrinsically tied to that period of my life and that does make it hard to judge Reze without those feelings of nostalgia bubbling up, but interestingly I found that it was the first film in a long time that I let myself just be incredibly excited for. I try not to let myself put too much stock in media these days as the feeling of disappointment can be too great and it feels silly to be so bothered when something doesn't live up to expectations-but for this I just let myself get swept up by the hype. I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed. This simple story about two people who think they know what they want from life while not really knowing at all, about senseless love and baseless devotion, vulnerability and directionless yearning, really worked for me back then-and still works for me right now. Anyway sorry for the long post, to put it more concisely...
8/10 it was da bomb
