When logging with a chainsaw, there is a risk of the tip of its guide bar suddenly hitting an object, causing the saw to “kick back.” This phenomenon is what gives the iconic opening credits song of the first season of “Chainsaw Man,” “KICK BACK,” its name.
The opening song for “Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc” has a similarly on-the-nose title, an iris out is the name for a scene closing with a circular black mask, like the iconic Looney Toons outros. “IRIS OUT” by Kenshi Yonezu is the perfect title to pair with an anime as in love with the medium of film as “Chainsaw Man” getting its own movie.
I first discovered “Chainsaw Man” back in 2022, when I was a sophomore in high school. The first season of the anime had recently come out, and the opening piqued my interest, so I headed in knowing three things.
One: Our main character, Denji, didn’t have a main goal like any of the other Shonen Jump protagonists. Instead of wanting to be the greatest hero or save the world, his main motivation was to touch a woman’s breasts. Two: the creators of the anime love movies. The animated opening credits scene references over a dozen movies, from “Pulp Fiction” to “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” and features the cast sitting in a movie theater. Three: there was going to be a man made out of chainsaws, a “chainsaw man,” if you will.
What I got, when I read the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, was one of the most beautifully heartbreaking stories about war and intimacy I’ve ever seen. It’s intense, all its themes layering together in an onion of the greatest shonen manga of our current era.
Movies are the perfect medium for this story, as proven by “Chainsaw Man: the Reze Arc.” The animation, of course, is gorgeous, but the art isn’t even the best part about it. Neither is the music, which was gorgeously scored by Kensuke Ushio and featured songs by Kenshi Yonezu. The story, which is my favorite arc in the entire “Chainsaw Man” manga, shines here.
Tatsuki Fujimoto is a brilliant character writer, and though most of his cast isn’t human by way of species, he portrays human struggles in a wonderfully compelling way. His characters are flawed, they’re messy, they’re allowed to be gross and weird and wrong. They’re allowed to fail. They’re allowed to be cowardly. They’re allowed to be selfish.
There is no character in “Chainsaw Man” who, by any moral standard, is a truly ‘good’ person.
Despite that, the narrative has a deep empathy and understanding allowed to each character. Every immoral act, though not excused, is given explanation.
“The Reze Arc” exemplifies this beautifully.
It follows Denji as he meets Reze, a high school girl around his age, and falls in love. For the first act, it follows a typical romcom structure, the meet-cute, the tension between Denji’s feelings for Reze and his feelings for Makima — his boss. When we first meet Reze, she seems to be your typical one-note love interest.
Reze is perfect for Denji. Unlike his other ‘love interest’, Reze is Denji’s age, which is an awesome start. She laughs at his jokes, and invites him to coffee. She’s a breath of normality in a manga filled with eccentric characters, and the only named character completely removed from Denji’s life of hunting the physical embodiments of human fear. More than sex, Denji’s one true wish is for a normal life. Reze gives this to him.
The B-Plot is as heartbreaking as the A, following Denji’s roommate and unwilling mentor Aki Hayakawa being paired up with the Angel Devil. The two’s story is commonly interpreted as romantic, something I am inclined to agree with.
The second and third acts break from this format, transitioning more into a classic shonen battle style, but the love story is still present at its core.
I don’t think words can truly capture how much I love this story. Ever since I first read it, I have recommended “Chainsaw Man” to anyone and everyone who I learn hasn’t experienced this incredible story.
As an artist and a cinephile, I hope to one day be able to create a story like “Chainsaw Man.” I hope one day I will have the skill to weave themes together like Tatsuki Fujimoto does, and to write characters as memorable and charming as the ones he does.
I give “Chainsaw Man,” overall, 10 devils’ hearts out of 10, to represent how it has captured mine.
