Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc | The Explosion of Peak Cinema

(Reze by Kenshi Yonezu)

Written by: Joshua Atmadjaya

*** WARNING THIS BLOG WILL CONTAINS SPOILER FOR THE MOVIE AND THE MANGA ***

The second Tatsuki Fujimoto movie adaptation which directed by new charm from the director himself, Tatsuya Yoshihara. Although the style done by Ryuu Nakayama in realistic cinematic approach is nice, the Yoshihara's style is really the one for Chainsaw Man adaptation and what's the reason for that? If you have been a fan of the series you know that Chainsaw Man got the combinations of multiple movie genre ranging from action, comedy, horror, psychology and many more that the creator movie lover themselves, Tatsuki Fujimoto love.  And this movie adaptation could grasp and portray all those elements with different animation and art style,  direction choice and original soundtrack (OST). 

The start of the movie is accompanied by the opening song  "Iris Out" by Kenshi Yonezu, the Japanese artist and illustrator, the Reze art which you saw at the top of the post is drawn by no other than Yonezu himself. Not only he could make great music, but he also draw truly multi talented artist. He also did the music opening and art for season 1, "Kick Back". You could really feel that Yonezu is really a fan of Chainsaw Man works and it shows from the music. The opening of the movie started with the aftermath party right from when season 1 ended, with Denji waking up and Power's horns become bigger than usual, and with that "Iris Out" started playing. After we are back with Makima's first appearance in the movie. Understanding Makima's character from the manga really bring every word she said and action she took always put you on the edge and thanks to her voice actor, Tomori Kusunoki. Even though Makima's screentime won't be a lot in this movie, she'll always scheming everything behind the scenes and you can't take your mind off from it. 

The Makima's movie date is one of the most important scene for Chainsaw Man arc 1, doing all the movie marathon with Makima you could understand her character better and even understanding the author, Tatsuki Fujimoto himself. Out of all movies they had watched, only one movie stand out the most and it is at the ending where there's no dialogue at all, just a hug between two characters. There's a saying, "show don't tell", action is always more impactful than words and this will be relevant again at the end of Reze arc.

Back again with the plot, after Makima's movie date, we are finally moving to the start of Reze arc with Denji first encounter with one of Chainsaw Man best girl, Reze.

 

Everything about Reze in this movie adaptation from her character design, art, voice acting by Reina Ueda is just perfect. This post won't continue further to explain the plot because it isn't about that but the adaptation itself. 

The introduction of Reze started with slow pace, just your casual daily life meeting a new girl. One of the highlight of this pace is the conversation between Reze and Denji, you could see that Reze is already really really into Denji from the start (Tatsuki Fujimoto said from the movie interview). Another reason because voice actors are having an actual conversation together in same recording booth because this is movie adaptation unlike for TV adaptation they usually record their lines at different places and times. But not with this movie adaptation where Denji and Reze really converse at the same place, this is one of the charm of this movie adaptation. 

Moving on to the best scene in this whole movie, the pool scene. Despite it may be look so absurd and weird at first glance when you watched this movie blind but you'll immediately understand that it isn't just fanservice or cheap scene, the best way to describe it, the most intimate scene between Denji and Reze. Accompany by the most beautiful OST in the movie you could see every single staff who worked in this movie really love Chainsaw Man. 

After the pool scene, we also finally getting the horror scene, the chasing down and switching back to Denji's current mindset is quite a humor especially when you already read the manga you know that you are going to see another anticipated scene and it delivered also another appreciation to Reina Ueda. 

With the school scene over we are going to the festival, the climax arc of this arc. The way of the staff animated the festival scene introduction is also very creative, usually most anime will just show still shots, but we are getting creative low frame animation. "They really know what they are doing" as you have said this in your head over 20 times already while watching this movie. 

The slow and intense building up to the start of the first action which you know it's going to happen the moment the apple candy fell down and got stepped on, and BOOM. 

In just an instant this Chainsaw Man movie from casual daily life reminded you again that happy moments are not built to last forever. The bomb devil reveal is one the best and memorable reveal in Chainsaw Man even up to the latest manga chapter. The OST's bpm really kicked in when it's KABOOM and you know everything become high-stakes whenever Reze in. 

Once the action started, it can't be stopped by by any ordinary mean, the Weapon Hybrid Devils are always dangerous especially Reze. This is really the foundation of why so many people love Chainsaw Man. Tatsuki Fujimoto never hold back when it come to raw fight scenes but this movie adaptation directed by Yoshihara is just peak cinema. Every single hand drawn animation is worth to look up for every single frame, all the drawings are really strong whether it's non-action sequence or full-action bombastic sequence. 

When Reze said "I'll teach you everything" to Denji, she really meant it especially when they are fighting as Bomb Devil vs Chainsaw Man. This is really the key arc for the next big arc which double the action and higher stake again. The conclusion to this movie is also perfection as we are back to the last scene we'd see Reze being herself in Chainsaw Man and one of the most tragic and daunting moment in the series. 

The country or city mouse, the country mouse will always be safe but the food isn't good there while the city mouse will have good foods but always be in danger. So which one are you?