Spoiler Warning: This characteristic will focus on scenes and plot factors from Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc in spoilerific element.
Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc left me heartbroken, which, for the typical Chainsaw Man fan like myself, is about par for the course. At its core, the movie is a tragic love story between two people who find themselves completely good for one another however can’t be collectively due to the horrible circumstances and violent environments that have an effect on their lives.
However what makes Denji and Reze’s romance so compelling that it drove me to see the film in theaters twice? In the end, what separates their love story from different typical shonen motion titles is the extent of complexity that Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto put into this relationship.
Lower from the identical fabric
One of the vital haunting traces in Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc is Reze’s closing one, by which she ponders, “I’m wondering why I didn’t kill you the primary time we met? Denji, to be sincere… I’ve by no means been to highschool both.” This one line encapsulates all the pieces about her and Denji’s relationship and why she fell in love with him: they’re primarily mirror photos of one another.
Within the college scene, Denji confesses to Reze that he has by no means attended college in his life and that he chooses to place his life on the road to kill Devils for the Public Security Division in change for 3 meals a day and a spot to sleep. This is smart contemplating that, up till not too long ago, he’s lived in poverty, the place he needed to kill Devils to repay his father’s debt. One thing so simple as meals and shelter appears like a luxurious to a struggling teenager like Denji.
Denji’s lack of any semblance of a standard life deeply connects with Reze, which is very apparent in a rewatch, as a result of it’s throughout this second that she actually sees herself in him. Through exposition from Kishibe, we uncover that Reze was a guinea pig experimented on by the Soviet Union and would later go on to develop into an murderer for the Russian authorities.
Each Denji and Reze have lived most of their lives with none actual love or heat, at finest being handled as human weapons that can be utilized at any level for the federal government our bodies they work for, and solely receiving the naked minimal in change. They don’t actually have a lot else going for them as a result of they’ve by no means been given the prospect to do the rest. Subsequently, when Reze realizes how related she is to Denji, she connects with him in a manner she seemingly has by no means had with anybody else.
This context is what particularly makes the scene the place Reze pleads to Denji to run away along with her so devastating, as a result of she envisions a brighter and happier future with Denji by her facet. That’s why when Denji hesitates and hints that he likes one other girl, she feels not solely betrayed but in addition offended that Denji’s not as dedicated to this relationship as she is.
Love over responsibility
All through their climactic showdown, Reze feedback repeatedly about how she needs for Denji to die already, even going as far as to say that she by no means beloved him and that her affections have been simply an act. Nevertheless, it’s clear that these statements are false and that she’s merely venting after her “break-up” with Denji.
Even Denji sees by means of these lies, commenting about how if that’s the case, then she ought to have killed him the second they met, and that she shouldn’t have taught him find out how to swim. Reze deflects these statements as a result of, in her coronary heart, she is aware of that he’s proper. She even admits this when she remarks to Denji throughout their struggle that she actually appreciated him. It doesn’t matter what she tells him or herself, Reze’s love for Denji was actual.
The second Reze arguably first fell in love with Denji was when he carried out the flower “magic trick” within the telephone sales space and gave it to her. Later within the movie, we see that she retains that very same flower in a glass of water. What kind of tactical benefit does that serve in her mission to kill Denji? Equally, how does happening a date to the competition with Denji assist her assassination job?
Essentially the most notable instance of affection getting in the best way of responsibility is when Reze and Denji go skinny dipping within the college pool. That is Reze’s most intimate romantic gesture as a result of we be taught in a while that her primary weak spot is water. The truth that she’s placing herself in as weak a place as being bare in a pool of water goes to indicate simply how a lot she’s fallen for Denji. When she tells Denji that she’ll educate him all the pieces, she is able to give all the pieces up for him.
It’s not simply Reze who’s prepared to betray her mission and authorities for an opportunity at love and a standard life, as Denji makes an identical proposal to Reze close to the top of the movie. Even after their intense struggle and all of the dying and destruction they precipitated throughout it, Denji by no means stopped loving Reze. He forgives what she’s completed and nonetheless desires to be along with her as a result of, like Reze, Denji additionally desires an opportunity at a greater tomorrow with Reze by his facet.
Love is a harmful sport
If the pool scene is Reze’s most intimate proclamation of affection, then Denji’s most weak romantic gesture is the second the place he tells Reze that he’ll give up the Public Security Division and run away along with her. Even after she rejects him by snapping his neck, Denji doesn’t surrender, screaming that he’ll await her on the cafe to have lunch once more.
It is a notably profound second as a result of, up till his encounter with Reze, Denji’s affection solely belonged to Makima. He even states that his coronary heart belongs to her and that his want is to be in a relationship along with her if he will get all of the items of the Gun Satan’s flesh. Makima is Denji’s entire world, and the truth that he can disregard all of that for a possible life with Reze goes to indicate simply how a lot she means to him.
That is what makes the ending of the film particularly tragic as a result of not solely does Reze’s demise squash out any fortunately ever after, nevertheless it additionally signifies that Denji will inevitably return to being in love with Makima, a lady who clearly doesn’t care about him. At finest, Makima views Denji as a pet that she will command to “do methods” in change for a “deal with,” however there’s no actual love there.
To Makima, Denji is just invaluable as a result of he has the Chainsaw Satan, and so she makes use of her sexuality as a method of controlling him. Denji himself even considerably realizes this when he screams within the second half, “Everybody at all times desires Chainsaw’s coronary heart! Doesn’t anybody need Denji’s coronary heart?” Makima solely presents the potential of romance as one thing to dangle in entrance of Denji, equivalent to happening a film date with him in the beginning of the movie.
They don’t seem to be on any equal footing, which is the precise reverse relating to Reze, who loves Denji for who he’s, not what Satan he’s certain to. Denji has with Reze what he lacks with Makima, and that’s pure chemistry. In virtually each scene within the first half, Denji and Reze at all times make one another smile, blush, and chortle. They’re in all probability the primary and solely folks they’ve met who they’ve beloved and been beloved again unconditionally with no strings connected.
In one other life, they might have ended up collectively and lived a cheerful, regular life. Sadly, they don’t stay in a standard world with regular circumstances; they stay within the violent, absurd, and nihilistic world of Chainsaw Man. Naturally, all the pieces at all times ends with some stage of tragedy, and sadly, that additionally applies to the love story between Denji and Reze.
For extra, here is all the pieces it’s essential find out about a possible Chainsaw Man season 2, or try our Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc overview.
