Note: Spoilers are present for the movie, but not the following manga arcs
Note: Some images may be NSFW
Introduction
Greetings. I recently watched Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc and decided to jot down some of my initial responses. First and foremost, I enjoyed the movie immensely. Audiovisually, it was a feast fit for royalty. Just like with the first season of Chainsaw Man, I appreciated the characters and the dark fantasy elements like devil powers. When I first watched season one in 2022, I thought it would be stupid. I was surprised by the masterful execution of the story and the psychologically intriguing character writing. The movie was also excellent in these regards. Now let’s move on to a few specific character notes.
Aki and the Angel Devil
I was quite fond of the character Aki Hayakawa in the first season. He didn’t see quite as much character development in this movie as some of the other cast members, but his appearances were still interesting to me. Aki is processing the fact that he only has a year to live. He doesn’t seem to be panicking or even grieving at this point; he’s trying to act like nothing has changed so he doesn’t have to explain himself to others. The last thing he would probably want is pity from others. As long as he is alive, Aki is focusing on training, work, and hunting for leads about the Gun Devil.
As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Aki was assigned to a new fiend partner: The Angel Devil. The two did not get along. The Angel Devil looked like an androgynous teenage boy, but in contrast to his beautiful appearance, his attitude was foul. He didn’t have any motivation to work and said he would rather die. Aki is a hard worker by nature, so of course this lazy devil boy would piss him off. Then, on a devil hunting mission, the Angel Devil refused to put a dying human out of his misery. Aki quickly killed the suffering man and told the Angel Devil that he didn’t even want to fake getting along with him. As a deeply moralistic person, Aki can’t stand devils.
I’m not entirely sure what is up with the Angel Devil and his character arc in this movie. At first, it seemed like he legitimately didn’t care about his job and had the typical devil’s disregard for human life. In the middle of the movie, he was interested in the idea of death and wanted to know when his time would be. In the final battle with Reze and the Typhoon Devil, the Angel Devil helped by giving someone a peaceful death and feeding their blood to Denji so he could revive. He seemed dedicated, even warning Denji to make a decision to minimize the carnage. Then, when he was in danger of being carried off into a stormy inferno, the Angel Devil asked Aki to release him and let him die. What does all this mean? What kind of person is the Angel Devil really?
There’s almost certainly more about the Angel Devil in the source material, but I have to go off what I see in the anime/movie since I haven’t read the manga. My interpretation is that the Angel Devil seems eager to die because he wants to be reunited with someone he lost in the past – like the young woman he saw in his vision when he thought he was dying. However, the Angel Devil doesn’t truly want to die, and appreciated Aki’s rescue. I also think he was mostly lying about not caring about his work, since he seemed to be invested in the final battle. Alternatively, being around good humans like Aki made the Angel Devil begin to care about the lives of others for the first time.
I may not know the whole deal with the Angel Devil, but I enjoy his character. Also, I appreciated the attention he brought to Aki. I especially loved the scene where Aki saved the Angel Devil’s life by grabbing him and pulling him to safety. Since touching the Angel Devil drains life, Aki lost another two months of time just by touching his partner. It was a beautiful scene that reaffirms the altruistic nature of Aki Hayakawa. Remember – he recently saw his previous partner, Himeno, get slaughtered right in front of him. He now understandably fights to avoid seeing colleagues die before him. I look forward to more interesting moments with Aki Hayakawa and the Angel Devil in future seasons.
Beam and Power
I have a few notes about the more minor characters in this movie. First, there’s Power. She didn’t have much screen time. There was a reason she was not on any missions. After she sprouted an extra pair of red horns, she needed to have blood drawn from her by Makima to prevent her fiend powers from getting out of control. Power hated dealing with this, seeming genuiunely scared of Makima (and with good reason, from what I suspect). It was great to see Power in any capacity, but I wish more attention had been given to her in this movie. It’s one of my only complaints.
With Power out of the picture for a bit, Makima assigned a new fiend partner to work with Denji: Beam, the Shark Devil. The first obvious thing about Beam – besides him being in swimming trunks with a partial shark head over his features – was that he was voiced by Natsuki Hanae. This is the famous seiyuu who voiced Tanjiro in Demon Slayer, Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul, Shinpei in Summertime Rendering, and several other main roles across anime. He has a distinct enough voice that I could tell it was Natsuki Hanae without looking it up (though I did double-check with MAL). For an enthusiastic, hyperactive character like Beam, Hanae is a great fit.
So far, Beam seems like a fun new fiend to have around. He is a big fan of the Chainsaw Devil for some reason and wants to follow him around and wait on him like kind of minion. I honestly don’t think Beam has the cognitive faculties to be planning anything bad for Denji. I think he just loves the Chainsaw Devil for his own reasons. It was great when Beam became a shark monster and let Denji ride him into battle like a steed. This was also prime setup material for various gay jokes. For example, if Denji isn’t bisexual, why did he have so much fun riding another man? XD Ehh? Ok, let’s move on.
Denji and Reze
Now let’s discuss the two main protagonists of this movie. To start with, Denji is a loveable main character. He does objectify women a lot in his head, but he never touches them without consent. I have some extra tolerance for his horniness because he’s canonically a traumatized sixteen-year-old boy. It tracks for a character like that to be sexually focused. More importantly, despite his own doubts, Denji has a good heart. He cares about others even when he says he doesn’t. He is the kind of boy who would give some of his own blood to a cute devil dog who was starving.
In this movie, Denji struggles with powerful sexual and romantic feelings after meeting an attractive girl named Reze. I didn’t read the manga, but it was immediately obvious to me that Reze had ulterior motives. At least I’m smarter than Denji, who didn’t realize until much later that every woman he meets tries to kill him. Anyway, Reze is a terrific character. In terms of design, she looks a bit too young, even passing for a highschool girl. However, we do know by the end that Reze is a Devil who’s been alive several decades minimum. Reze is not actually a teenager, which makes her sexualization slightly less uncomfortable.
Putting aside the sexualization that’s sadly standard for anime women, I think Reze is a great for her interesting personality and origin story. It’s a shame that she won’t be a recurring character in future seasons. Reze is extraverted, confident, and clever. She has a dirty sense of humor, likes to tease others, and is quick laugh to make social moments smoother. Knowledgeable and a good teacher, Reze is quite intelligent. She’s an interesting blend of laidback, carefree, and extremely capable. Since she was raised as an experimental weapon, and is a Devil, it makes sense that she doesn’t have much capacity for caring about others. She can also be petty and vindictive, as we saw when she bit off Denji’s tongue after discovering he liked another woman.
Reze was clearly well-written and multi-faceted. One of the most interesting parts of her character is her sympathetic human side. Reze is as human as Denji, except that she’s killed tons of people. Throughout the movie, Reze shows an interest in escaping the harsh world of the city and running away with Denji. By the end of the movie, we know Reze did actually like Denji to some degree and wanted a fresh start. She came back to meet him at the café only to be stopped and killed by Makima and the Angel Devil. On the one hand, Reze’s life should have ended because she killed so many innocent humans. On the other hand, her death is tragic because she wanted to be human and didn’t ask for any of this. Reze was just a girl who was turned into an experimental weapon without her consent.
Going back to Denji for a bit, I can’t help wondering how he will react to knowing Reze is dead. I wonder if Makima will even tell him. As for Denji’s character development in this movie, he hopefully became a little less naïve, but stayed true to himself and tried to save Reze. He wasn’t going to turn her in even after everything she did. Denji also did some growing up, learning that he can be in love with multiple people at once, and suffering heartbreak from Reze’s rejection. Since we saw him casually eating flowers and teasing Power at the end of the movie, I think Denji will recover without any problems.
Makima and Closing Notes
Makima didn’t have as much screen-time as I would have liked, but I still enjoyed the scenes that showed her. I have suspected since the start that Makima is a Devil of some kind, though I’m not sure what kind or if she’s secretly against humans. Even if she was truly gung-ho humanity, she’s still creepy for coming on to Denji when he is so young. Makima is definitely manipulating Denji for her own ends and sexualizing a minor, but I find her character fascinating and can’t wait to learn more. She’s so interesting to me – and of course, her voice and character design are hot as hell.
There’s still a lot that can be said about this excellent movie, but hopefully you’ll check it out for yourself. Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc is extremely well-made – everything from the stunning animation and kick-ass music to the compelling character writing and urban dark fantasy setting. One of my favorite aspects of the film was the recurring theme about the city mouse and the country mouse. Most people want to be the country mouse, including myself, because it’s safer. The country mouse represents a safe and comfortable life while the city mouse represents an exciting but dangerous life. I enjoyed this underlying theme throughout the movie, but especially when Makima broke the metaphor.
Makima said she gets a sense of relief when she roots out and hunts down the country mice at her relative’s farm. In other words, even if Reze and Denji ran away, they wouldn’t be safe from Makima. Also, we can definitely gather from this that Makima enjoys uprooting those who feel safe. As long as she’s going after Devils, I suppose it’s fine, but it still shows anti-social thinking patterns. Plus, I seriously doubt Makima is 100% on humanity’s side. Once her goal is secured or she is discovered to be a Devil, she will be capable of untold evil. And that fills me with both excitement and dread.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
Anime Rants 