After the release of Chainsaw Man’s anime adaptation in Fall 2022, those who fell in love with Fujimoto’s devilishly gory and unique world have been waiting eagerly for the story’s continuation. With the Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc film releasing in US theaters on Oct. 24, It’s important we look back and reflect on the season this movie continues off of.
“Chainsaw Man” is the brainchild of author Tatsuki Fujimoto, published initially in Shonen Jump Magazine on Dec. 3, 2018. The manga would later go on to sell 30 Million copies across 21 currently released volumes, 19 in the United States. While the manga’s first part ended in Dec. 2020, the manga’s second part would start in July 2022, with the anime’s first season releasing later that year in October animated by Studio MAPPA.
The response to the anime was mixed, with most people having an issue with the anime’s more cinematic approach and overall cleaner look. Fujimoto’s linework is commonly recognized as sketchy and chaotic, which would have taken much more time to animate, so this change made sense. I understand what they were going for with the cinematic approach to things, the manga has a similar feel by depicting the little things like having characters actually stop and think for a second, as well as the manga being very reliant on visuals to show emotion. Reading the manga feels like watching a film and the anime captures that feeling perfectly.
The Anime also mimicked the manga’s pacing really well, with the anime covering 4 major story arcs from the manga:
The Introduction Arc (Episodes 1 and 2 being adapted from chapters 1-4)
The Bat Devil Arc (Episodes 2-5, Chapters 5-12)
The Eternity Devil Arc (Episodes 5-7, chapters 12-21)
The Samurai Sword Arc (Episodes 8-12, chapters 22-38)
While the anime did add some scenes and cut a filler moment from the manga, they made sure to keep the breakneck pace of the manga while keeping it coherent. However, the anime ending at the Samurai Sword Arc was both a blessing and a curse. The pros are that studio MAPPA set themselves up to adapt the Fairly short Reze/Bomb Girl arc into a movie, and then assuming they return to seasons, having part 1 of the story end smoothly with a season 2, assuming they keep up the same pace, (with the Reze arc film covering chapters 39-52, and season 2 covering 53-97).
The cons of ending the with the Samurai Sword arc is that when the stories set up ends and the emotional core and themes of chainsaw man start to blossom. There are still great moments in season 1 that convey the themes, but, essentially, they end season 1 right when the story gets into its groove.
Aside from the occasionally awkward animation with the CGI models, and the issues mentioned above, Chainsaw Man season 1 is more than worth your time. The Reze arc film is looking to be a success if the film’s release in Japan is anything to go by. It seems to improve massively on the mainly visual issues of season 1, matching Fujimoto’s saturated color palette and style as well as they could. The change in director from season 1 to this film is mainly to thank for that.
