Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc Review
Continuing Denji’s journey from the end of the first season of Chainsaw Man, the next chapter of the manga, the Reze Arc, comes to audiences in the form of a 100-minute feature film, with dynamic action worth of the big screen experience, but a story that may have better been suited in episodic form.
Still on the hunt for the Gun Devil, but feeling more accepted by his friends and workers at the Public Safety Division, Denji is living a life he never could have dreamed of before becoming a devil hunter, but still struggles to find what his true purpose for existence is outside of his job. As he tries to naively navigate his way through adolescence, and still fuelled by an obsession with Makima, Denji meets Reze – a bright, energetic student who takes an affectionate liking to Denji.
As Denji and Reze spend more and more time together, a conflict arises in Denji – his heart is set on Makima, but his mind can’t help but be infatuated by Reze. However, all is turned upside down and inside out for Denji when the arrival of the Bomb Devil leads to a brutal and explosive face-off in the streets of Tokyo.
Despite only clocking in at 100 minutes (or about 4-5 episodes length in show terms), Chainsaw Man: The Movie suffers from pacing issues that lead to the first half of the film feeling far too long and repetitive, and the final 40 minutes doing a lot of the heavy lifting to make the entire experience feel worthy of the cinema.
Whether or not the whole idea of Denji (a teenager himself) having an uncomfortable obsession with wanting to fondle women, or the fact that adult women are abusing his teenage perversions to get him to do their bidding, is something that will make or break the overall enjoyment factor of Chainsaw Man as a whole, the slowly paced, drawn out back and forth between Denji and Reze that takes up the majority of the opening hour’s runtime feels like it could have benefitted from playing out over 2 or 3 episodes, just to break up the monotony. Especially considering there are other characters’ side stories that take a heavy back seat during this arc, leaving the possibility for the show to do small cutaways to them and feel overall more interesting.
But, when the action begins (and it begins with a brilliant and shocking bang), the final 40 minutes of Reze Arc are a wildly dynamic and beautifully animated action set piece that has everything from devil powers, a typhoon demon, seas of blood, and one of the most exhilarating, explosive car chases that’s ever been created in anime form.
Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc won’t win over new fans with its story, nor is it a good entry point for newcomers to this world. Its pacing and content issues are both things the show struggled with, and if longtime fans are happy to deal with it, then the action packed payoff featured in the back end of this film will be more than worthy of a trip to the movies for the die-hards.
Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc is in Australian cinemas October 23
