My Afterthoughts After Watching CSM Movie: Reze-hen v1.1

TL;DR

• Adapted incredibly well with insane animations
• The soundtrack goes hard
• Nailed Denji’s emotions
• Reze cute, amazing VA
• Not the perfect story, it is character driven

Weighted Score:
50% → Plot + Cast & Interactions + Message
20% → Visuals & Animation + Production
15% → Feelings
10% → Music + Sound Design + Voice work
5% → Extras / Subjective stuff

Plot: 7/10: Better than average, but nothing incredible. It’s put together with care and has a nice structure. But, IMO still beats out JJK/Naruto/Overlord for me.

Cast & Interactions 8/10

• Reze: Starts by pretending to like Denji but slowly shows real feelings at the end. Her choice not to get on the train is both a clear sign.
• Denji: A horny boy. Shows growth by forgiving her and even asking to run away together. A huge step compared to how impulsive he usually is.
• Makima: Still pulling strings in the background
• Aki and Angel: Their bond grows when Aki chooses to protect Angel in the fight.
• Power: Brings comic relief
• Beam: Steps up when Denji needs help.
• Denji x Reze: Easily the strongest chemistry in this arc, though cut short.
• Denji x Makima: Opposite of Reze.

Message & Theme: 8.5/10: Makima’s manipulative control vs Reze’s “genuine” love for Denji. Reze offers warmth, teaching Denji, and a taste of normal life. Reze spending time with Denji is bittersweet, since Fujimoto does not like wholesome stuff. The reveal that Reze had never been to school before, just like Denji, makes it even more devastating.

Production: 9/10: The movie uses clever details: spider webs for Denji falling in love (and into a trap), rain signifying the typhoon devil, and wilting flowers symbolize Reze’s death (and show up again later in the cafe scene). The fights are overall amazing, slowing down at key moments and picking up speed when needed and the pacing is good.

Visuals & Animation 10/10:

• Animation: Incredible animation, smooth fight scenes. Hard to give this anything less than 10.
• Visuals: Incredible use of color palette to build atmosphere

Music 8.5/10

• Iris Out - Another incredible song by Kenshi Yonezu.
• Jane Doe - My Fav. Kenshi Yonezu x Hikaru Utada, amazing reflection on Dennis relationship with Reze.
• OSTs - Kenshi Ushio, the OSTs are solid.
• Sound design 8/10: Explotions, chainsaw revs, and environmental sounds hit hard.

Voice work 8/10

• Reze - Flawless.
• Denji - Embodies Denji's vibe.
• Makima - Not bad.
• Aki, Angel - Not bad.
• Power - Nails her energy perfectly.

Feelings 9/10: Denji experiences his first taste of genuine love: Being treated as a human rather than a tool, tasting a normal life, only to be betrayed. Reze’s brutal death by Makima and her glimpses of humanity at the end of the arc. Too short, so not that impactful.

Extras: 7/10: I love Reze’s Russian Singing and the swimming scene. The adaptation from manga is actually good, translates the manga scenes beautifully into motion and expands on Reze’s cuteness ngl. But lost the “grit” comapred to the OG.

Detailed:

My Favorite Scenes:

Conclusion: The movie is adapted incredibly well, with the panels animated masterfully with excellent direction, thanks to the people at MAPPA. The soundtrack goes hard too, from start to finish. What stood out most for me though was how it really nailed Denji’s emotions. For the first time, he gets a taste of what feels like real affection, and you can see how much that means to him. Reze is also incredibly cute, and her voice actor really brings out that side of her. Although not have the perfect story, it is made up by its characters. The addition of symbolism such as spider webs, the wilting flowers, even the rain scenes adds to the quality.

End

• All material used here is taken from MAPPA official channel/Kenshi Yonezu, manga art taken from the wiki.
• This is my first time doing a review, so i might make some mistakes.
• Feel free to argue/criticize with me but please give reasons and how I could Improve.
• Appreciate everyone to reading till this point. I’d love to hear what others thought of the Reze arc movie too.

Changelogs:
Changed some scores since i remember that anilist uses percentages