Last month, an anime film accomplished the unprecedented feat of topping $100 million at the US box office, and that film featured a special trailer trailer for what Crunchyroll hopes to be the follow up hit to the monster hit that was Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. Turns out that the next major Shonen Jump film to hit theaters, Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc is a very different beast. Whereas, Infinity Castle was packed with wall to wall action, the Chainsaw Man film takes a very different approach. For roughly the first hour of the movie, there are no chainsaws and very little in terms of spectacle. What we get instead is a romance story in the first half of the film, and the Shonen Jump action fans expect in the last half of the film. This was a truly memorable Shonen Jump film that was well worth the theatrical experience. I am sure that fans are going to be strongly debating whether this film or Infinity Castle was better, but they both did what they set out to extremely well.

Yes, the one major problem I had with the film was that it takes a long time to get to the big action, but it is totally worth it. Okay, maybe my other major problem was that Power had barely any screen time in the movie, as her character is always a delight. The main conflict of the first half of the film is protagonist Denji dealing with his teenage desires, you know which desires I am talking about. He goes on a date with his boss Makima, something he has always dreamed of. The thing is that he meets a girl at a coffee shop who is very flirty and he develops feelings for her. Most of the first half of the movie is dedicated to developing the romance between Denji and Reze. Reze ends up being a very memorable love interest for Denji  as he wonders, in his words, “if he has a heart.” The plot centers around his divided feelings between the two ladies and him trying to come to terms with his feelings.

Okay, there are some horror elements in the first half too, which makes this a pretty twisted love story. There’s a subplot about a crazy serial killer and his scenes are pretty graphic. Another subplot involves Angel and his lack of empathy for humans and how this lack of empathy disturbs Aki. This is about as much as we get for side characters as Denji and his new love interest Reze are the real stars of this movie.

The Chainsaw Man television anime is well known for its stunning movie-like cinematography and this film takes advantage of the first theatrical Chainsaw Man experience. The swimming pool scene was absolutely stunning in terms of visual splendor. The visuals were truly great.

The second half of the movie is the big climactic battle against a new antagonist known as the Bomb Devil. As her name implies, she has explosion powers and blows lots of stuff up. She also wears a skimpy costume and provides plenty of fanservice, as expected of a Shonen Jump villainess. The action scenes ooze the coolness expected out of Chainsaw Man and we get to see things like Denji riding a shark guy with legs to climb a skyscraper. Yeah, more Shonen Jump ridiculousness. The big major plot twist of the film is something lots saw coming a mile away as the trailers heavily implied it, but even without the surprise, fans will have an emotional reaction to the twist because it was executed so well.

In conclusion, the movie was awesome and if like the series Chainsaw Man, you’ll love the movie. The franchise’s anime drought has been long (season 1 was 2022, but the wait was worth it.

 

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