Chainsaw Man the Movie: Reze Arc (2025)

Chainsaw Man the Movie: Reze Arc (2025)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Kikunosuke Toya

Reina Ueda

Fairouz Ai

 

Directed by: Tatsuya Yoshihara

 

Spoiler Alert

It is not often you get an anime movie that feels like a continuation of something big and not just a filler. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is that a full continuation of the series, and it is fun.

The moment Reze showed her true colours, and Denji was saved from being killed, and we see the wonderful animation of Reze morphing into the Bomb Devil, the tone and pace of the movie changed.

Before watching this movie, I stayed far away from the trailers because I wanted to experience it fresh, and I am glad I did. The animation here is slick, but the movie does start slow and feels a bit uninviting at first, because you sit there expecting Chainsaw Man’s dark, gory, action-packed energy, and instead you get forty-five minutes of Denji and Reze connecting emotionally and getting a bit intimate.
That slow start is what you have to bear through before the tone shifts.

This movie picks up after the events of Season 1, with Denji trying to live a normal life despite everything he has been through. Then comes Reze, a girl who seems to understand him, laughs at his jokes, and finds him interesting. That is the first warning sign, the moment you realize something is up. In the world of Chainsaw Man, when things seem too peaceful, you should be suspicious.

If you have read the manga, you know that Reze is the Bomb Devil, trying to cut out Denji’s heart, so all her intimate play is just a setup to get close enough to do it.

Now, I will say this movie is not for anyone who has not seen the anime series or read the manga. You need that background to understand what is happening and why it matters. For those who know the story, though, watching Makima’s manipulative hold over Denji, and how she continues to twist him, is as fascinating as ever. Her control over him is chilling and the movie does a good job showing how trapped Denji still is, even when he thinks he’s free.

The focus here is very much on Denji and Reze. Their chemistry is believable, and the build-up to what eventually happens is handled well. But it also makes Denji feel one-dimensional at times, stuck in that loop of wanting love, attention, and something physical. That focus slows the film’s pace during the middle section, where it becomes mostly about emotional tension, dark themes, and quiet dialogue. The action takes a while to come, but when it does, it delivers hard.

The fight scenes are brilliant, exactly what you would expect from a Chainsaw Man project. They are brutal, fast, and beautifully animated, giving the movie a powerful punch in its second half. The explosion of chaos when Reze’s real identity as the Bomb Devil is revealed is one of the highlights. It turns what looked like a love story into heartbreak and carnage.

As expected, the voice acting is great. Everyone brings their A-game and helps you connect with the emotion and madness of the scenes. It is easy to get lost in the sound of it all, from Denji’s frustration to Reze’s charm, to the dread that lingers in the quiet moments.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc does what it needs to do. It moves the story forward, develops the characters, and keeps the world of Chainsaw Man alive. It is not perfect, the pacing could be better, and some parts feel stretched, but it never feels pointless and I recommend you see it.

 

Your Name (2016)

 

Your Name (2016)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Ryunosuke Kamiki

Mone Kamishiraishi

 

Directed by: Makoto Shinkai

 

The anime Your Name is a very good film. I’ll be honest, I was not hooked from the start the way I expected myself to be, as the pacing starts slow. The body swapping and what they did in each other’s bodies were not well detailed enough for me to catch interest, but I continued to watch, and I was glad I did. The moment we got to the point where we discover that they are three years apart, the pacing picked up, and so did my interest.

The anime changed gear around halfway in, and now we are trying to see how to make these two be around the same time to meet. There are so many clues dropped along the way about their paths crossing at one point, you just have to watch until it all comes together.

The anime is about two people, Mitsuha, a high school girl from Itomori, and Taki, a high school boy and part-time waiter from Tokyo. Both intermittently switch bodies, and when they wake up back in their normal bodies, we see the difficulty they have in tracking what the other has done.

This body-switching thing is not explained in detail, it seems to happen on Mitsuha’s side of the family, but the ambiguity is one thing I like about the anime. It’s a phenomenon that just happens, so deal with it.

They start to leave notes for one another and set ground rules on how to behave so they can keep track of things, then all of a sudden it stops. So Taki decides to go find Mitsuha and realizes that he doesn’t know where she lives. Using drawings from memory, he tracks her rural area down, only to discover that nobody is there anymore. Then he realizes she was living three years behind him.

Now he’s bent on finding a way for them to meet. How the writers handled the situation to make this happen may not be the best writing I’ve seen, but I guess they wanted to add some mystic feel to the crater scene when both were there at the same time three years apart and also create a happy ending. I think I would have loved it more if the anime had gone with a never meeting flow, where each changed the other’s life and they moved on separately. I guess I’m just sad like that.

Your Name has fantastic animation, wonderful voice work, and handles its character development very well. It was suggested to me on TikTok, and I’m glad I watched it. I recommend that you do too.

A Silent Voice (2016)

 

A Silent Voice (2016)

 

9/10

 

Starring the voices of

Miyu Irino

Saori Hayami

Aoi Yūki

Kenshō Ono

 

Directed by: Naoko Yamada

 

It is not easy to make a movie like this, where you are touching on very delicate issues like suicide, bullying, and redemption. There are many redemption arc movies out there, and A Silent Voice is to me one of the best.

This animation takes you through the motions, from different angles, the bully and the bullied and shows how each thinks the best way out of everything is if they are not around anymore to cause problems. Life can drag you to such a point, and the way Shoko smiles and carries on with her head held up, you would not know that inside, she is broken. She blames herself for everything and just wants to be accepted by everyone.

This 2016 anime is about Shoya Ishida, a boy who used to bully a deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya. When the bullying got intense and a scapegoat was needed, his classmates turned on him, and he became the outcast. The same way he isolated her, the world now isolates him.

The animation then jumps ahead some years, and Shoya is still living in guilt. He has not been able to get over the pain of isolation and, in a way, understands the pain he caused someone else. He decides to try and make amends. The anime now turns into a redemption story.

But what makes this anime powerful is not just the story but how real it feels. The depiction of bullying, depression, and loneliness is handled with so much care. The movie doesn’t shy away from showing how one cruel action can destroy someone’s spirit and how hard it is to fix what’s been broken.

No amount of “sorry” can whitewash the damage done to a soul from isolation and bullying. We see that even when you are on the path of redemption, you still have to face up to the public for what you have done. And even then, not everyone will be on your side, that is what Shoya learns.

The suicidal themes in this movie are handled with care, and that is what makes it touching, we see how one person’s actions can actually destroy not just their own life, but that of their friends, families, and even the families of the ones who feel responsible.

Shoko and Shoya’s growth in this movie is massive. Watching them try to rebuild their connection, to forgive, and to find peace is powerful. Yuzuru, Shoko’s little sister, is amazing too, protective, strong, and always trying to keep her sister safe even when she doesn’t know how.

The animation is beautiful. The color work and subtle sound design make every emotion hit harder. You will love the voice acting as the cast did their very best to capture all the needed emotions and the difficulty of being deaf. Now, I have to say, the movie is long, it is like two hours and ten minutes, and at some points, it drags.

I liked that not everyone in the story magically becomes good. We still see Shoko face challenges from some of Shoya’s old friends when things were at their darkest.

I will say, A Silent Voice is a hard watch, but it’s worth it. It’s about pain, guilt, and forgiveness, and how even when life gets dark, you can still find your way back to the light.