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 particulars that make an already phenomenal movie really even higher upon rewatch. So listed here are 5 small particulars about Reze Arc which have our brains in a perpetual loop of manufacturing glad and melancholic chemical substances.

All of the references, cheeky animation sequences, and cute influence frames

Reze Arc matches 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 tune; influence frames displaying Pochita’s giant orange doggo face; and a black-and-white sequence that for rattling certain put the Uzumaki anime’s one good episode to shame.

Someway, 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 Personal Ryan
• Sharknado
• Blue Spring
• Leon: The Skilled
• No Nation for Outdated Males
• Battle Royale

Reze’s reluctance to combat Denji to the dying

You don’t should be a genius to discern that the Bomb Satan, aka Reze, makes a whole lot of explosions within the Chainsaw Man film. It’s 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 influence body and sakuga lovers of anime, Fujimoto sharing the small element within 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 may watch it time and again, the explosions are UNLIMITED.

Be one of many 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 kind (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’s an immensely painful act of ardour for Reze.

Having that each one be spurred by her feeling rejected for placing herself in danger, understanding 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 disclose, however the film hints at being probably the most untoward) is the rationale why Reze would harm herself to at the least kill her darling—is romantic in a messed-up manner. And boy, does she put Denji in a blender the whole film.

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

She’s kicking him in his legs, utilizing her forearms and the palms of her palms in lots of cases that’ll absolutely harm, however understanding he can regenerate, the one factor that’ll kill him is taking his coronary heart. In an influence body, we are able to 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 dying of the universe. It’s an intimate scene through which Reze teaches Denji find out how to swim, a life talent 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 through which she drops her manic pixie dream woman veneer to voice real disappointment about Denji being pleased with a bare-minimum existence. An existence, thoughts you, that she additionally feels trapped in as a baby 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 season romance as any. Seeing Denji take a second to smell the chlorine on his pores and skin, a sensation he’s by no means felt earlier than as a result of he’s by no means been in a pool, is heartwarming to rewatch each time.

And regardless of Reze claiming on the finish of the movie that she discovered to blush and that her flirting was all an act, she nonetheless voluntarily selected to place herself in a weakened state, drenching herself in water, so she couldn’t remodel 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 know the way workplace buildings in cities generally use their lights to write down a vacation message for folk to see as they drive by? Properly, Reze Arc did that too, in probably the most blink-and-you’ll-miss-it manner doable. Towards the movie’s climax, Denji and Reze have a standoff the place the pair of jilted lovers slowly increase their arms as we frantically reduce backwards and forwards to them.

Within the background, an enormous constructing is counting down towards their huge “draw” second. It even stays at zero as Denji does his harebrained chain maneuver to defeat Reze. It’s most likely one of many extra minor particulars within the movie that doesn’t make logical sense, as the entire metropolis descends into disaster-film pandemonium. One can’t assume workplace staff can be cheeky sufficient to do that whereas an enormous child engulfs the city in a tsunami. Nonetheless, it’s a flourish the place the animators at Mappa clearly had enjoyable considering of each doable method 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, might trigger an anime fan’s mind to blow up. Their tune options Yonezu’s gruffer voice as Denji, whereas Utada’s restrained but emotional vocals painting Reze. Because the movie’s closing be aware, the pensive love tune continues to resonate with the core emotional anguish and craving of its doomed lovers, and studying extra in regards to the musicality of Utada and Yonezu’s tune solely provides a layer of magnificence to the movie’s ending theme.

Issues I discovered 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 in opposition to one another. The second after they harmonize, Yonezu continues alone, identical to Denji does on 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 facet, let’s go have some enjoyable
The place are you?

One other factor I discovered is that Utada used a vocal method referred to as a “pop scoop” (or vocal scoop), through which a performer sings a be aware under the place they intend their pitch to slip up towards. Musically, their resolution completely captures how Reze will placed on a shallow entrance earlier than 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 combined voice (a mix of head and a richer chest voice) when belting out his emotional lyrics all through the tune.

This, too, is an ideal illustration of Denji’s wrestle to suss out the harmful emotions swelling in his coronary heart for Reze, his try and 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 assume for himself, Yonezu did an excellent job placing these messy emotions to tune.

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

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