Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (out of 5)
When Chainsaw Man first hit TV screens, its blend of savagery, sorrow, and absurd humour felt like nothing else in anime. Now, with The Reze Arc, studio MAPPA makes the leap to the big screen and transforms one of the manga's most emotionally charged chapters into a cinematic experience that's both explosive and unexpectedly tender.
Denji (Kikunosuke Toya/Ryan Colt Levy) is still the same teenage devil hunter trying to figure out what "normal life" even means. What makes him so endearing is his ordinariness — he's just a teenager with teenage problems. Think Peter Parker and you'll get the idea. He's fought monsters, but what he really wants is not saving the world; it's something small and ordinary, like finding someone to share his life with.
Enter Reze (Reina Ueda/Alexis Tipton), bright, kind, and mysterious, a girl who seems to see the human beneath the chainsaws. Their early encounters are tinged with warmth and awkward innocence. The film's opening half-hour follows their fleeting connection as Denji begins to believe he might finally have found something worth living for — only to realise that in his world, nothing pure stays unbroken. Around them swirl the familiar faces of Public Safety Division 4: Aki's (Shogo Sakata/Reagan Murdock) calm, stoic presence, Power's chaotic energy, and the ever-watchful Makima (Tomori Kusunoki/Suzie Yeung), whose motives remain as unclear as ever. There are also brief but memorable moments for side characters like the melancholic Angel Devil (Maaya Uchida/Casey Mongillo) and Beam (Natsuki Hanae/Derick Snow), and the exuberant Shark Fiend (Yuya Uchida/Josh Bangle), whose loyalty to Denji provides some much-needed comic relief.
Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc is an animated feast for the eyes, and I was fortunate enough to see it on IMAX, where every frame can be truly appreciated. The colour palette shifts beautifully between moments of fragile intimacy (soft, pastel dawns) and bursts of chaotic crimson and black during combat. The movie doesn't kick into full action mode until after the half-hour mark. Still, that deliberate buildup pays off, lending emotional weight to the battles that follow. The action choreography is dazzling, fluid and kinetic, with an excellent bombastic soundtrack to punctuate the impact — you feel the grind of metal and the thundering boom of explosions.
I came into this as a newcomer to anime, so your mileage may vary. Still, I was genuinely moved by the tenderness of the early scenes and heartbroken by what follows. Yes, it can feel like being dropped into the middle of a story—it is a continuation of the series—but the characters are quite distinct, and their emotional arcs are easy to follow. The film works because it never forgets the human story amid the mayhem. Beneath the insanity of exploding villains and blood-soaked battles lies a tender core of two damaged souls trying to connect. So underneath it all is a story we can all recognise: the search for connection and love. Denji, starved of affection, clings to any spark of kindness. Reze, torn between duty and desire, yearns for freedom. Their tragic connection, though doomed from the start, nevertheless reminds us of the very human need for connection.
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REEL DIALOGUE: The Longing to Be Known
The ache that drives Denji — the desire to be seen and loved unconditionally — is a longing as old as humanity itself. The Bible tells us that "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). Yet human connection, as precious as it is, can never fully satisfy this longing, because we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. Like Denji, we all yearn for someone who will not betray or abandon us. And in the person of Jesus, Christians believe that longing finds its answer — a love that knows us completely, yet still chooses us despite our flaws.
"I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)
