English Dub Review: Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Carrying on the trend of adapting manga arcs into movies as was popularized by Demon Slayer, the rising star Chainsaw Man also has its theatrical debut with the Reze Arc, an arc whose name had to be changed because its first name would basically give away the whole movie…not that the advertising didn’t do its damndest to accomplish that anyway. For those not in the know, Chainsaw Man follows Denji, a teenage boy who was sold into debt slavery after his dad died and eventually winds up in the service of the Public Safety Devil Hunters, who (true to their name) hunt monsters called Devils that threaten public safety. Denji himself has a Devil power of his own, having made a contract with a tiny dog creature named Pochita who becomes Denji’s replacement heart and giving him the ability to become the titular Chainsaw Man. However, being not raised like a normal kid and with his teenage hormones very much in gear, Denji’s mind is partly on just having food, but mostly getting laid for the first time, which makes him very easy to manipulate by the brash and strong willed women he works with, including his boss, the enigmatic Makima, whom Denji is hopelessly in love with.

Taking place just after the anime’s twelve episode first season, Denji’s weakness for women is at the forefront of this movie, as he meets the sweet and encouraging Reze seemingly by pure happenstance. From the jump, Reze seems like everything Denji would want in a girlfriend: flirty, touchy, affectionate, and apparently down for just about anything. But as Denji should be well aware by now, the devil is in the details. This leads to many insane action scenes against more Devil powered humans, including the monstrous Typhoon Devil and explosive Bomb Devil, though Denji has his allies in Aki, Power the Blood Devil, and new comrade Beam the Shark Fiend, who could easily be considered the MVP of the movie. As with the anime it carries on from, the animation is stellar, and the fights escalate even further than the previous season’s finale, which makes it a hell of a ride to see on the big screen. While it will require watching the first season to get fully caught up, twelve episodes shouldn’t take too long to binge, and it does help to understand the slight nudges forward for each of the character arcs impacted by this specific story.

Though the big question raised with this movie is…why this arc? What was so special about this stretch of story that it should be a film? I have my theories, one of which being that it is mostly self contained, with a lot of things ending as they started. Another possibility is content, as this does get a bit more raunchy than the previous parts of the story, though said previous season was violent as hell so who knows where the line was drawn for TV versus movies. And this may be a stretch, but it could also clear up some time for the second season (which has not been announced at the time of this writing) to end on a major turning point in the manga. Or heck, it could just be a hope to make enough money and buzz to get that second season fast tracked if it does well enough. Whatever the case, or whatever the future holds for this series, this movie is a bloody fun time at the cinema, so check it out if you’re so inclined and then check out the show if you get the taste for it.