Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc will be released in theaters in the United States on October 24.
From the black and white opening scene that recreates the visuals of creator Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc promises a different kind of shonen anime movie, one that plays and experiments with visuals and story. And while it accomplishes that for the most part, the worst thing about this movie is that it can at times feel safe in its action sequences.
Much like the recent Infinity Castle movie, Reze Arc is both a canon continuation of an ongoing series and also technically a movie that regular moviegoers can see on the big screen. Taking a story that is told in chapters and stitching them together for a single movie is inherently going to lose something in translation, but the biggest problem with Reze Arc is that it gives up interpreting the source material in lieu of a straightforward adaptation. Once the action kicks into full gear in the second half, it feels more like anime studio MAPPA's work on Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 than their work on the rather cinematic and experimental first season of Chainsaw Man — or even their masterpiece that was Vinland Saga Season 2.
That said, this is still the best-case scenario for an anime arc movie so far, the best shonen series movie in years, and the feel-bad rom-com of 2025. That speaks to the strength of the source material, but also how much the story of Reze Arc further develops Denji as a character. From the very first episode of Chainsaw Man, we are quickly shown just how much Denji has had to fight to survive, having lived in extreme poverty from a young age. His lack of social interactions and the very basic and instinctual lifestyle he leads has more in common with the devils he kills for a living than the humans around him. Denji literally cannot distinguish between pure sexual attraction and real love, having never experienced the latter. So when he meets a girl his own age who doesn't just treat him as a pet but seems enthusiastic about him, he has an existential crisis that makes him ponder whether or not he could imagine a quiet, normal high-school existence.
The love story plot comes closest to replicating the slow-burn, the meticulous attention to character acting, the deliberate silence and the exploration of mundanity of the first season.
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This is the crux of Reze Arc and what makes it stand out as an anime arc movie. It’s genuinely a self-contained story, even if it does nothing to explain the overall premise of the show, or the story so far, to newcomers, and the lack of huge developments for the overarching hunt for the Gun Devil make the film quite standalone. The focus lies squarely on Denji and Reze's love story, with Denji not even transforming into his titular alter ego until a whole hour into the film's 100-minute runtime.
This is where the movie comes closest to replicating the slow-burn, the meticulous attention to character acting, the deliberate silence and the exploration of mundanity of the first season. The small glances and touches between Reze and Denji, the way his demeanor changes and becomes less agitated and aggressive, or even the way the screen bursts with color and the movie becomes much more vibrant the moment Reze comes into the story… these all help sell Denji's first love.
It also doesn’t hurt that Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc features one of the best scores of the year, regardless of medium or genre. Kensuke Ushio (Devilman Crybaby, A Silent Voice) returns, and his score is what seals the hauntingly beautiful yet tragic love story between Denji and Reze, especially the piano-heavy theme for Reze that plays during a pivotal pool scene.
Then the horror begins.
It's a testament to Ushio's score that it manages to set the tone switch so well, with his whimsical, emotional tunes quickly distorting into a synth-heavy rave straight out of Devilman Crybaby as Denji and Reze's date is interrupted by a knife-wielding killer. In an instant, the movie goes from rom-com to horror, the visuals shifting to something straight out of a David Fincher movie, the camera moving like it’s handheld.
The rest of the movie delivers on the chainsaw action and the spectacle with loud colors, bombastic action and the incredible sight of a man made out of chainsaws riding a shark into battle — by far the most ridiculously fun thing any shonen anime has done since Luffy's Gear Five fight with Kaido. And yet, it is also here where the film's flaws become most glaring, with the focus on flashy imagery and the distracting use of big color splashes from the manga covers coming across as over-stimulating to the point where the fight becomes hard to follow at times. The fights are still thrilling, but they are a big departure from the style of the first season and feel like they’re playing it safe for a more mainstream theatrical crowd.
