Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, the adaptation takes full advantage of the size and scope of a big screen, fashioning a large-scale adventure.
Denji’s in love.
Spending an entire day watching movies with Makima, the head of a Public Safety Devil Hunting division, Denji discovers that they have the same reaction to the movies: indifference to all, except the last one of the day, which makes them both cry. This accomplishes two things.
First, it assures Denji that he has a heart, which has concerned him ever since he became a hybrid creature, Chainsaw Man, with the ability to transform parts of his body, including his head, into a literal chainsaw. Second, it convinces Denji that he must be in love with Makima.
For Denji, this makes meeting Reze in a telephone booth during a rainstorm immediately confusing. He’s only just concluded that he is in love with Makima, and now Reze bounces into his life, a ray of sunshine on a dark day who brings further joy. She is ready and eager to embrace Denji in a new relationship; after all, they attend the same high school and have many of the same interests.
She even offers to teach him to swim! Even more bewildering to the innocent Denji, Reze strips naked in front of him — don’t worry, nothing intimate is revealed — and encourages him to jump into a convenient swimming pool with her.
This swirl of events thoroughly complicates Denji’s life. He’s told Reze that he’s just an ordinary high school boy, not a Devil Hunter in (temporary) hiding. Reze has told Denji that she is just an ordinary high school girl; she just wants to be friends! What could be wrong with that?
Very soon, however, Reze reveals her true nature to Denji, and things take a serious turn that will be frightening, upsetting — and possibly terminal — for young Denji.
A direct sequel to a 12-episode season of an anime adaptation that debuted on the Crunchyroll streaming service in 2022, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc might sound confounding to new viewers, but my experience was that it’s very easy to slip into the sounds and colors in director Tatsuya Yoshihara’s adaptation. I only sampled a few episodes of the series, and it’s been three years since then, but I recalled a darkly comic, sometimes savage tone that is not immediately apparent in the movie version.
Instead, the movie is quite welcoming to newcomers. True, the characters’ personal histories play an important role, and it certainly helps to have some knowledge of anime and this series in particular, if not the manga books by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The beguiling, cheerful romance won me over in the first part of the film, which sets up its descent into murkier waters.
Or make that murkier tidal waves, because once the fighting begins, it’s drawn up on a large scale. The movie becomes a veritable explosion of action that is overwhelming in its complexity and scale. It’s not necessarily easy to identify who is doing what to whom, but the key point is the great artistry on display on a large scale, especially on an IMAX screen, which is how I saw it.
On an IMAX screen, the movie uses every inch of the giant screen to impress with the fury of its motion and the splendor of its animation. I can’t imagine that fans will be disappointed; for newcomers who are open to anime, it’s a battle-fueled epic that is seasoned with humor and romance.
The film opens Friday, October 24, in select area theaters. For more information about the film, visit the official site.
Dallas Film Now. 