The Small Particulars in ‘Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc launched this yr. We liked it a normal amount. And ever because it hit digital platforms, Mappa’s adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s madcap manga a couple of boy with a chainsaw for arms and a head has felt virtually unlawful to personal and watch everytime you need.

Naturally, after rewatching the movie roughly 10 instances (chump numbers, we all know), we’ve uncovered small details that make an already phenomenal movie really even higher upon rewatch. So right here are 5 small details about Reze Arc which have our brains in a perpetual loop of manufacturing joyful and melancholic chemical compounds.

All the references, cheeky animation sequences, and cute impression frames

Reze Arc suits a bunch of rad moments in each innocuous and apparent locations. Key amongst them are neat references to Fujimoto’s other works, Goodbye Eri and his one-shot 17-21 as posters throughout the opening track; impression frames displaying Pochita’s giant orange doggo face; and a black-and-white sequence that for rattling positive put the Uzumaki anime’s one good episode to shame.

By some means, the movie manages to go above and past with a litany of film references with out feeling by-product, whereas additionally honoring Fujimoto’s unbridled love of cinema—one thing the 2022 anime’s opening did brilliantly. Amongst Reze Arc‘s popular culture references are nods to:

• Constantine
• Bande à half
• Us
• 28 Days Later
• Sallie Gardner at a Gallop
• Saving Non-public Ryan
• Sharknado
• Blue Spring
• Leon: The Skilled
• No Nation for Outdated Males
• Battle Royale

Reze’s reluctance to battle Denji to the loss of life

You don’t have to be a genius to discern that the Bomb Satan, aka Reze, makes plenty of explosions in the Chainsaw Man film. It is such an apparent level of the movie that the official X/Twitter account posted a teaser displaying simply what number of explosions she used. With literal bombast in animation being a key promoting level for impression body and sakuga lovers of anime, Fujimoto sharing the small element in the companion booklet for Japanese audiences that she really feels immense pain whenever she explodes, and that she prefers to keep away from battle, provides an entire new layer of texture to her as a personality.

When you possibly can watch it again and again, the explosions are UNLIMITED.

Be one in all the first to deliver residence the anime occasion that audiences are raving about. Sub and dub variations of Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc are (cont) https://t.co/3naL4DMY5v pic.twitter.com/0u1vtiZMw2

— Chainsaw Man EN (@Chainsaw_EN) December 9, 2025

With that context in thoughts, when she pulls the pin from her choker necklace, exploding herself into her Bomb Satan type (a personality design the manga has but to high); propels herself ahead in combustive bursts; or blows her head off to throw like a grenade, it is an immensely painful act of ardour for Reze.

Having that each one be spurred by her feeling rejected for placing herself in danger, figuring out he labored for satan hunters, and asking Denji to run away together with her—with the added sting that Makima (whose motives the anime has but to expose, however the film hints at being the most untoward) is the motive why Reze would damage herself to at the very least kill her darling—is romantic in a messed-up means. And boy, does she put Denji in a blender the total film.

However in freeze-framing moments of the movie the place she’s operating the dozens with Denji, Mappa went out of its means to showcase that Reze was nonetheless avoiding hurting Denji even when she was beating his ass from ass to urge for food to the level the place he’d strive to rev his engine, believing he was cooked preemptively.

She’s kicking him in his legs, utilizing her forearms and the palms of her fingers in lots of cases that’ll absolutely damage, however figuring out he can regenerate, the solely factor that’ll kill him is taking his coronary heart. In an impression body, we will see that she avoids piercing even when she transforms her fist right into a missile, piercing his ribcage. It’s all very romantic, we swear.

The pool scene

The pool scene will most likely be primed for dissection till the warmth loss of life of the universe. It’s an intimate scene wherein Reze teaches Denji how to swim, a life ability that’ll assist him survive. Apart from it being a racy scene the place they skinny dipped, it additionally leans into the vulnerability of the entire second—a second wherein she drops her manic pixie dream woman veneer to voice real disappointment about Denji being proud of a bare-minimum existence. An existence, thoughts you, that she additionally feels trapped in as a toddler soldier.

That, coupled with their second being juxtaposed by the picture of a spider ensnaring a butterfly in its net (a intelligent analogue of their entire relationship), just for each to be killed by a tsunami, is as on-the-nose a metaphor for his or her summer time romance as any. Seeing Denji take a second to sniff the chlorine on his pores and skin, a sensation he’s by no means felt before as a result of he’s by no means been in a pool, is heartwarming to rewatch each time.

And regardless of Reze claiming at the finish of the movie that she realized to blush and that her flirting was all an act, she nonetheless voluntarily selected to put herself in a weakened state, drenching herself in water, so she couldn’t rework into the Bomb Satan to kill Denji like she claims she was out to do the entire time. Nonetheless, for a second, the scene, scored to perfection by series composer Kensuke Ushio, was excellent for Reze and Denji.

The countdown

You understand how workplace buildings in cities typically use their lights to write a vacation message for people to see as they drive by? Properly, Reze Arc did that too, in the most blink-and-you’ll-miss-it means attainable. Towards the movie’s climax, Denji and Reze have a standoff the place the pair of jilted lovers slowly elevate their arms as we frantically minimize forwards and backwards to them.

In the background, a large constructing is counting down towards their large “draw” second. It even stays at zero as Denji does his harebrained chain maneuver to defeat Reze. It’s most likely one in all the extra minor details in the movie that doesn’t make logical sense, as the entire metropolis descends into disaster-film pandemonium. One can’t suppose workplace employees could be cheeky sufficient to do that whereas a large child engulfs the city in a tsunami. Nonetheless, it’s a flourish the place the animators at Mappa clearly had enjoyable considering of each attainable means to elevate the movie’s cool issue.

The lyrics and efficiency of Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada’s ‘Jane Doe’

The considered Chainsaw Man opening theme artist Kenshi Yonezu and J-pop regent Hikaru Utada working collectively on “Jane Doe,” the ending theme of Reze Arc, may trigger an anime fan’s mind to explode. Their track options Yonezu’s gruffer voice as Denji, whereas Utada’s restrained but emotional vocals painting Reze. As the movie’s closing observe, the pensive love track continues to resonate with the core emotional anguish and craving of its doomed lovers, and studying extra about the musicality of Utada and Yonezu’s track solely provides a layer of magnificence to the movie’s ending theme.

Issues I realized whereas voluntarily hurting myself scrolling by way of YouTube movies {of professional} musicians breaking down the science and artistry of their songs: the call-and-response in its bridge is much less of a duet and extra like lyrics that brush up towards one another. The second after they harmonize, Yonezu continues alone, similar to Denji does at the finish of the movie.

The place are you? (I’m right here)
What are you doing? (I’ve all the time been watching over you)
Let’s fill this world with errors
Keep by my aspect, let’s go have some enjoyable
The place are you?

One other factor I realized is that Utada used a vocal approach referred to as a “pop scoop” (or vocal scoop), wherein a performer sings a observe under the place they intend their pitch to slide up towards. Musically, their determination completely captures how Reze will put on a shallow entrance before inevitably breaking down her partitions and being earnest about her emotions for Denji.

Likewise, Yonezu would use one thing referred to as a head voice, the excessive register, whereas often cracking right into a blended voice (a mix of head and a richer chest voice) when belting out his emotional lyrics all through the track.

This, too, is an ideal illustration of Denji’s battle to suss out the harmful emotions swelling in his coronary heart for Reze, his try to match her cadence, and his barreling into his unbridled emotional expression of them. For a personality questioning whether or not he has a coronary heart or a thoughts to suppose for himself, Yonezu did an excellent job placing these messy emotions to track.

In fact, these are simply the tip of the iceberg of small details we’ve made a mountain out of from our rewatches of Reze Arc. Be happy to hold forth in the feedback with any neat details from the movie you’re presently infatuated with as we await Chainsaw Man‘s second season.

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