I must confess that I am not a main target audience of Japanese animation feature film “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc”, which happened to be released in South Korean theaters in last month. In fact, right before watching the film itself, I only knew that it is the direct sequel to the first season of the anime television series “Chainsaw Man”, which is based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s popular manga series of the same name.

Although I do not think I wholly understand everything presented during the rather short running time (100 minutes), the film still engaged me nonetheless thanks to its colorfully vibrant mix of style and action. Sure, it took some time for me to absorb and then process the background information of the main characters of the story, and I must point out that the movie seems to spin its wheels at times during the first half. However, there come a series of spectacularly electrifying action sequences to behold during the second half, and that is more than enough to compensate for several notable shortcomings including its rather thin characterization.

The center of the story is a 16-year-old boy named Denji (voiced by Kikunosuke Toya), who has worked as one of the demon hunters under the special branch of the National Police Agency in Japan. As revealed later in the story, Denji is actually a hybrid entity between human and demon, and his heads and limbs can be transformed into chainsaws whenever he has to confront those demonic entities out there.

Anyway, the story begins not long after the end of the first season of the TV series (Please don’t ask me anything, because I have not watched that yet). Denji’s witch supervisor Makima (voiced by Tomori Kusunoki) decides to separate Denji from his demon partner Power (voiced by Fairouz Ai) for a while because Power needs to decrease her power fueled by an excessive amount of blood right now, and Denji is not so amused about being assigned to a shark demon named Beam (voiced by Natsuki Hanae) because, well, his new partner is too eager to accompany and assist him all the time.

When Makima also seems very interested in getting closer to Denji despite officially being his supervisor, Denji cannot possibly say no because he has been smitten with her for some time. During his movie marathon date with Makima, Denji is surprised to discover that his demon heart can actually feel something, and that certainly makes him feel a little better about his peculiar existence at present.

However, he also finds himself quite attracted to a pretty young girl suddenly coming into his life. Her name is Reze (voiced by Reina Ueda), and it seems that she is really interested in getting to know him right from their first encounter at her little workplace. While still liking Makima as before, Denji also cannot help but drawn more to Reze, and we later get a silly but intimate scene where they happen to spend their little private time at the swimming pool of a nearby high school. As a boy who has never had a normal life throughout his whole lifetime, Denji finds some solace and comfort from Reze, and it seems Reze is quite ready to respond more to his growing affection toward her.

Meanwhile, the story also focuses on whatever is going on between that special branch for demon hunting and those powerful and dangerous demons out there. Aki Hayakawa (voiced by Shogo Sakata), who is another close colleague of Denji besides Power and is as gruff and stoic as Keanu Reeves’ character in “Constantine” (2005), happens to be assigned with an entity named Angel Devil (voiced by Maaya Uchida), and they do not get along that well with each other right from the start. Despite her considerable power and ability, Angel Devil is usually aloof and uncooperative without much care or attention, and this certainly exasperates Aki more than once.

These two main plots eventually converge upon the climactic part driven by heaps of chaotic action unfolded across the screen, and that is where the film pulls all the stops simply for captivating and then exhilarating us. I especially like a certain lethal female figure with a deliberately grotesque head which will instantly remind you of “Alien” (1979), and the movie does not disappoint its main target audiences at all once its hero finally reveals his freakish qualities hidden behind his boyish appearance. Some of you may think the finale is a bit too excessive, but the resulting excess of style and action gives us a number of stupefying moments of visual and sound to remember, and I admire how flexible the animation style of the film is during this part. Like Oscar-winning animation film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), it is quite willing to embrace its busy and chaotic energy to the end, and it also shows some little poignancy as arriving at the ending which expectedly opens the door for the upcoming season of the TV series (Please stay until its end credits is over, by the way).

On the whole, “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc”, directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, will require you to have some background knowledge before watching it, but it is another entertaining animation film of this year besides Netflix animation film “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), which is also incidentally about demons and some mighty hunters coming after them. I wish it took more time for more depth to engage us in terms of story and characters, but I was constantly impressed by its stylish mood and striking visual moments from throughout its running time, and that is enough for recommendation in my inconsequential opinion.