Chainsaw Man Movie: Reze-hen

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Reze movie... Late to the party, so I basically already knew what would happen beforehand. However, that didn't take away from my enjoyment of this movie. The characters' interaction and chemistry, action sequence, story, and the OST are very good. That being said, for me, there are still problems with this movie. For example, the pacing in some parts was a bit dragged out, abrupt character writing. Regardless, it's very entertaining to watch. It has good characters and beautifully animated fight sequences, which are the main selling points in this movie. This movie gets an 8/10 from me.

Here's my ... breakdown in detail:

Story 7/10:
The story takes place after the main series. If I'm being honest, the plot progression isn't significant. It's just like any other day for Denji where a devil or organization wants his heart. Nevertheless, it does develop Denji as a character as well as other side characters, despite limited screentime. The movie follows Denji's character closely, with some moments focusing on other characters, though minor

Characters 9/10:
In my opinion, this is the selling point of the movie. The interaction between Reze and Denji was really fun to watch. It didn't feel forced, rather their chemistry is amazing. For example, the cafe scenes, the pool scene, school scene, those scenes might feel like your typical romance-date moments, but the vibe from Denji and Reze is, as aforementioned, different from others. As mentioned earlier, the movie also progresses and develops Denji as a character as well as the side characters.

Development 8/10:
This is one of my favorite parts of the movie, seeing Reze and Denji's relationship develop throughout the movie was really an eye candy. Them going on dates together in different places and how they grew closer together.

Atmosphere 9/10:
This is one of the strongest suits of the movie, the atmosphere. Part of it is thanks to the OST playing. Kensuke Ushio, the person behind A Silent Voice, BokuYaba, Dandadan, really helps elevate the atmosphere, especially in the emotional or impactful moments, enhancing the immersiveness.

Storytelling 7/10:
This is the part I have a bit of a problem with. The movie can be split into two parts: The Relationship and The Action. The former, which I enjoyed quite a lot, lets the relationship build and settle. The latter is the one I have a problem with. While the animation and fight scenes are spectacular and all, it does feel really dragged out and overwhelming quite a bit. The fight lasts around 40 minutes, which is almost half the movie. Though at the end, Reze's character feels brushed off, with her character and story only being mentioned briefly before the movie abruptly ends her story.

Animation 10/10:
MAPPA deserves all the praise for animating those fight scenes. That fight scene was animated meticulously from start to finish. Not only the fight scenes, but also other moments as well. Most notable is the pool scene, the lighting, the characters, everything: perfection.

Personal Enjoyment 8/10:
I am not as big of a shounen fan as I used to be, preferring characters, drama, development over action sequences or flashy animations. Consequently, the fight scenes might not be for me. The movie did not exceed my expectations. Hearing all the praises the movie gets, I kind of set my expectations a bit too high. Regardless, I did enjoy the movie a lot, the fight scenes are good, but for me the chemistry between the two main characters is some of the best I have seen in this series so far. Regarding Reze's reaction, I know that Reze said that it's all a facade, but I feel like at least some of it was real. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to explain the last scene. All in all, the movie did meet my expectations, and I'm satisfied, and it's definitely worth watching.

16 year old me would have loved this movie, but now that I'm older it's easy to see where it falls short of being great.

The Good: The action and animation are hyperactive and incredible. There are some downright awesome sequences during the battles that feel fresh and have you glued to the screen. Colors are flying everywhere, and fights both feel and move FAST with artistic flair that you wouldn't get out of typical anime. The main characters feel well developed and have enough depth to draw you into the story. The ending is actually pretty decent.

The Bad: The main issue I have with both ... this movie and the TV series is that there's always just enough plot to make the action scenes work, but not enough to forge a really rewarding watch. The side characters feel like lame plot devices: especially Beam who seems to solely exist to show up out of nowhere and save Denji's ass right when he's in real trouble. A few other side characters get so little development that I'm not sure why they're in the movie at all. It all feels really forced and formulaic at times and the formula is simply hypersexuality meets ultraviolence.

The "romance" is super juvenile which I suppose makes sense as Denji is only 16, but feels very cringy to watch at times. Even though there's only a few love interests involved it still manages to feel like cheap harem in a way.

Summary: Overall, it lacks an actual compelling story but if you like action and flashy animation you'll probably enjoy this enough that it's worth the watch. It is far from a masterpiece however and I highly doubt people will talk about it 10 years from now. It's purely dumb fun.

7/10

Season one of Chainsaw Man was a bang, so naturally I expected this movie to deliver the same level of excitement. But I was wrong. This was so bad that I couldn’t even watch it in one stretch — I had to take multiple breaks just to get through the boredom. And this is coming from someone who usually waits for an anime to finish so I can binge-watch it without stopping.

The story was painfully slow, and in the entire 1 hour 40 minutes, there was nothing worthwhile except the final fight. That last fight was okay, but it wasn’t enough to save the arc ... from feeling flat and uninspired.

Verdict:
The Reze Arc completely shattered the expectations built by the incredible first season. Outside of the final battle, it was a slog with poor pacing and little payoff.