Thoughts before the movie(spoilers free)

Around 3 years ago i read the chainsaw man manga, right after watching the series. I had a great time watching the TV series, so when i touched the manga i had pretty high expectations. Despite not being a fan of romantic stories in a traditional way i liked Bomb devil arc and kept thinking about it for quite a long time.

Announcement of the reze arc as a movie hit hard and i entered the waiting mode. To the point of movie release I already forgotten some parts of this arc and started wondering what could happen in the and how parts that I remember will be adapted.

So walking down the halls of the cinema i was wondering - “why I loved this arc so much?”. Is it because of the Reze's character development or maybe it's simply because I just like Tatsuki Fujimoto's works? The expectations that I had before movie were met and I definitely found answers on some of my questions. So let me start glazing over this movie :)

Story(minor spoilers!)

As I said before, I liked this story so much, that maybe I would be able to call it a masterpiece, but why? I think it’s because how well-written this story is - it is tragic, it is romantic, it has incredible character writing and a great impact on future events in Chainsaw man universe.

Spoiler, click to view

(What can we say if Denji remembers Reze like a regular girl, who was super close to him after all the events)

The whole story is built around Reze and her parallels with Denji. Almost every scene that we see in the movie or manga has some king of subtext - it helps viewer to understand Reze’s true feelings since she doesn't say it by herself. From the start of the movie we see how Denji is the only one who is being true to himself - everyone else is trying to be someone they are not. Reze is trying to hide her love and identity, Aki disguising himself as a cold man, despite being a caring teammate, the Angel saying that he doesn't want to live. It is all lies. They once again show that Reze Arc is not some romantic film with superficial story, but a strong, deep, violent and incomprehensible at first glance movie.

The movie has two big storylines going through it - Aki’s with the Angel and RezeDen lovestory. Both of them are quite amazing, since they are managing to give viewer a great time at the cinema and a time to try to comprehend these storylines at home.

Aki and Angel's story starts with them almost hating each other, since Aki is definitely an "employee of the month" and he's trying to cope with Angel's lazy and "idc" nature. Throughout the movie we see how they are becoming closer, mostly behind the scenes, since it's not the main storyline. It all goes to the moment in a span of fight with Typhoon Devil, where Aki grabs Angel, despite knowing the curse. It shows how Aki was hiding his true nature entire time - he truly cares about his coworkes and friends, even for devil ones.

Spoiler, click to view

(It makes me super sad, knowing what will happen in the future)

Even the Angel pays his debt, by doing the "dirty" work instead of Aki in the end of the movie. Their relationship has grown so much through the movie that I simply felt happy for them, as coworkers and friends.

RezeDen lovestory starts with the phone box, where they met, and grows into the one of the most tragic and heartbreaking stories in Denji's life. I still believe, that Reze was the only one, who truly loved Denji, so she paid for that, since Tatsuki Fujimoto hates happy endings. Their story keeps you interested throughout the manga and the movie, by doing an incredible writing of Reze. She was just a mysterious girl at the start of the arc, but she grows in your eyes till the moment when you are leaving the cinema. Reze stays true to herself at the end of the movie, true to her feelings, knowing that she goes just to the hands of danger - it is quite similar to Denji, isn't it?). They have quite a lot of parallels - they are just a weapons in the hands of government, they've never had a normal childhood and a lot more. These parallels show that their relationship was doomed from the start by their conflicting roles, but they still made an unbelievably strong bond between them. More about their story and Reze's tragedy i'll say in the next paragraph.

#The tragedy of Reze(spoilers!) Reze enters the story as a mysterious girl, who just happens to be in the same call-box with Denji. But as the story continues we start to see who she really is - weapon in hands of the Soviet Union. Beneath the beautiful girl's expression lies a cold-blooded killer, who just want to steal chainsaw man's heart - or does she? At the start of the movie we don't know who she really is, so when we are trying to learn, Tatsuki Fujimoto, shows us a Reze who is "just a girl", when she is around Denji and a Reze, who is a weapon, when she is alone. It clearly showed in the school - Reze goes with Denji in the pool, where she just enjoys their time and then she kills some bandit, that wanted to kill her. We have one interesting thing here, except of learning about her true identity. As killing him, Reze starts to sing a song about just a regular date with Jane. This song represents Reze's reality of life - she also wants to be a human and it truly hurts, when you understand that simple date is unobtainable for her. She is just a child, who wants to have a regular life, wants to live in peace, but she is never going to be able to do it.

The pool scene has more meaning to it than I said before. From the first view, Denji and Reze are just enjoying themselves, they are being humans for the first time in their lifes. Since Denji can’t swim she suggest teaching him, showing that she cares and has feelings to him. By jumping into the pool Denji shows that he fully trusts Reze, trusts almost with his life. Reze made him feel that way by putting an act? In my opinion, Reze in this scene is not acting anymore - she is just enjoying the moment and showing her true feelings to Denji.

After their trip to school starts festival sequence, which truly feels like a dream and makes viewer think - “Could they really have a happy ending in Tatsuki Fujimoto universe?”. And right after the viewer's question we get an answer - Reze tries to kill Denji. She was a weapon in the hands of the Soviet Union government all the time, but disguised herself as an ordinary Japanese student. Despite being ordered to steal chainsaw man's heart, she asks Denji to run away with her. This time she wasn’t lying and truly wanted to run away with Denji, so started fighting only after getting a reject. Interesting detail is that Reze doesn't want to kill Denji - she starts the fight in the moment of firework explosions, so people wouldn’t be scared of her so much and as a consequence she’ll have less strength. Despite that Denji wasn’t able to defeat her, because neither Reze, nor Denji didn’t want to kill each other.

At the beach after the fight Reze says that she was putting an act all the time - this once again was a lie, not only to Denji, but to herself. Then why she rejected Denji's offer to run away together? Because she knew that if they run away now they are going to die, public safety is definitely was interested in killing her after the fight with Denji. So, if they would run away at that moment, she'll put herself and Denji at risk - that's why she rejected.

Reze tried to leave the country by herself, but she just couldn’t, her love for Denji prevented her from doing this. Now we have the country mouse, who goes back to the city, because the one she loves is there and simply pays for that - what a magnificent and tragic lovestory.

Her last words, which was "Denji, I’ve never had the chance to go to school either" show that she loved Denji, cared for him, and 100% wasn’t lying about her feelings throughout the movie, Reze just thought she did. By these words the story of one of the most tragic characters in the chainsaw man universe ends. And the viewer is left with nothing, just like Denji, who thought that Reze simply abandoned him.

Spoiler, click to view

(Denji look back you idiot?)

Whole story keeps shouting at you that Reze, neither a weapon, nor "just a girl". She is something in the middle, but the most interesting thing is that she has real complex feelings. If she was just a Bomb Devil than why she didn't kill Denji long before even their date in the school? And yet if she was "just a girl", than why she started fighting anyway? She could have killed him easily, but she didn’t. Instead she laughed with him, found comfort in him. And in those stolen moments, she began to see herself in his loneliness. Both were products of cruel experiments — raised as weapons, denied the freedom to simply live. That’s why, when she asked Denji to run away with her, the moment felt so real. Only after Denji's reject she understood that it was already over. Reze’s story is more than a tragedy—it’s the catalyst for Denji’s emotional growth and the prism through which he views every relationship that follows. Her short time in the story still stands as a reminder that in Chainsaw Man, no one has a happy ending.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack in this movie is incredible. Kenshi Yonezu and Kensuke Ushio is the holy geniuses of music. I just can’t imagine that someone came up with an idea to put these two on the same project. They made the movie feel energetic, tragic, beautiful and defenitely stylish at the same time.

I had IRIS OUT on my playlist since it was released and every time I listened to it I was getting more and more hyped for the movie. Then I had a time listening only to JANE DOE and waiting for the movie to release. The thing i wasn't expecting is that I'll be absolutely destroyed be Kensuke’s work. “In the pool”, “the city mouse and the country mouse”, “in the see”, “Bomb” and the other songs simply blew my mind. What can I say if after the cinema and to this day I mostly listened to the songs from movie.

Just Masterpieces

IRIS OUT JANE DOE in the pool the city mouse and the country mouse

Animation(spoilers!)

The other thing that also put me in a shock is 100% an animation. I watched Demon Slayer movie earlier this year and thought that MAPPA definitely wouldn’t be able to surpass animation of that movie. Ohh boy, how wrong I was.

MAPPA delivered and did it in her own way. Studio changed the style: from realistic style that we had in the 1st season to more like JJK Shibuya incident arc and overall Fujimoto’s style in drawing. Personally, I like both styles, but as I heard, people all over the world except Japan thought that the style of the 1st season was better. As they say, everyone has different tastes, so that can’t be the point of discussion. Everyone knows that MAPPA delivered with mind blowing animation - doesn’t matter in which style.

Movie has a stunning level of details on every single frame: from frames of daily live, for example, as cafe, Aki’s house, school to marvellous frames of fights. They even managed to make ordinary manga omemnts sparkle with new colours. Let’s take, for example, moment when Reze chases Denji and Beam to the gym of special division 2. When the fight begins, she throws her head in the building and then runs with what was left of her body. In manga it was 1-2 panels that didn’t look like something scary or crazy, but in the movie we can see every Reze’s movement, her strange running technique - these details made 1 panel look super disgusting and disturbing, yet captivating.

Spoiler, click to view

(I hope that every MAPPA employee was able to at least see his family)

Closing thoughts

This movie was definitely an excellent cinema expirience, enjoyed it super much, as you can see. The movie made me laugh, cry and even made me question myself about the town mouse and the country mouse. Movie's success was pretty much expected, since this complex and beautiful story couldn't remain unpopular. It is definitely the must watch anime, that is going to be on my and a lot of other people minds really long time after the release.

Thank you, Tatsuki Fujimoto, ~~I hate you~~