Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc released this year. We loved it a normal amount. And ever since it hit digital platforms, Mappa’s adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s madcap manga about a boy with a chainsaw for arms and a head has felt almost illegal to own and watch whenever you want.
Naturally, after rewatching the film roughly 10 times (chump numbers, we know), we’ve uncovered small details that make an already phenomenal film truly even better upon rewatch. So here are five small details about Reze Arc that have our brains in a perpetual loop of producing happy and melancholic chemicals.
All the references, cheeky animation sequences, and cute impact frames
Reze Arc fits a bunch of rad moments in both innocuous and obvious places. Key among them are neat references to Fujimoto’s other works, Goodbye Eri and his one-shot 17-21 as posters during the opening song; impact frames showing Pochita’s giant orange doggo face; and a black-and-white sequence that for damn sure put the Uzumaki anime’s one good episode to shame.
Somehow, the film manages to go above and beyond with a litany of movie references without feeling derivative, while also honoring Fujimoto’s unbridled love of cinema—something the 2022 anime’s opening did brilliantly. Among Reze Arc‘s pop culture references are nods to:
- Constantine
- Bande à part
- Us
- 28 Days Later
- Sallie Gardner at a Gallop
- Saving Private Ryan
- Sharknado
- Blue Spring
- Leon: The Professional
- No Country for Old Men
- Battle Royale
Reze’s reluctance to fight Denji to the death
You don’t have to be a genius to discern that the Bomb Devil, aka Reze, makes a lot of explosions in the Chainsaw Man movie. It is such an obvious point of the film that the official X/Twitter account posted a teaser showing just how many explosions she used. With literal bombast in animation being a key selling point for impact frame and sakuga lovers of anime, Fujimoto sharing the small detail in the companion booklet for Japanese audiences that she actually feels immense pain whenever she explodes, and that she prefers to avoid conflict, adds a whole new layer of texture to her as a character.
When you can watch it over and over, the explosions are UNLIMITED.
Be one of the first to bring home the anime event that audiences are raving about. Sub and dub versions of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc are (cont) https://t.co/3naL4DMY5v pic.twitter.com/0u1vtiZMw2
— Chainsaw Man EN (@Chainsaw_EN) December 9, 2025
With that context in mind, when she pulls the pin from her choker necklace, exploding herself into her Bomb Devil form (a character design the manga has yet to top); propels herself forward in combustive bursts; or blows her head off to throw like a grenade, it is an immensely painful act of passion for Reze.
Having that all be spurred by her feeling rejected for putting herself at risk, knowing he worked for devil hunters, and asking Denji to run away with her—with the added sting that Makima (whose motives the anime has yet to divulge, but the movie hints at being the most untoward) is the reason why Reze would hurt herself to at least kill her darling—is romantic in a messed-up way. And boy, does she put Denji in a blender the entire movie.
But in freeze-framing moments of the film where she’s running the dozens with Denji, Mappa went out of its way to showcase that Reze was still avoiding hurting Denji even if she was beating his ass from ass to appetite to the point where he’d try to rev his engine, believing he was cooked preemptively.
She’s kicking him in his legs, using her forearms and the palms of her hands in many instances that’ll surely hurt, but knowing he can regenerate, the only thing that’ll kill him is taking his heart. In an impact frame, we can see that she avoids piercing even when she transforms her fist into a missile, piercing his ribcage. It’s all very romantic, we swear.
The pool scene
The pool scene will probably be primed for dissection until the heat death of the universe. It’s an intimate scene in which Reze teaches Denji how to swim, a life skill that’ll help him survive. Aside from it being a racy scene where they skinny dipped, it also leans into the vulnerability of the whole moment—a moment in which she drops her manic pixie dream girl veneer to voice genuine sadness about Denji being happy with a bare-minimum existence. An existence, mind you, that she also feels trapped in as a child soldier.
That, coupled with their moment being juxtaposed by the image of a spider ensnaring a butterfly in its web (a clever analogue of their whole relationship), only for both to be killed by a tsunami, is as on-the-nose a metaphor for their summer romance as any. Seeing Denji take a moment to sniff the chlorine on his skin, a sensation he’s never felt before because he’s never been in a pool, is heartwarming to rewatch every time.
And despite Reze claiming at the end of the film that she learned to blush and that her flirting was all an act, she still voluntarily chose to put herself in a weakened state, drenching herself in water, so she couldn’t transform into the Bomb Devil to kill Denji like she claims she was out to do the whole time. Still, for a moment, the scene, scored to perfection by series composer Kensuke Ushio, was perfect for Reze and Denji.
The countdown
You know how office buildings in cities sometimes use their lights to write a holiday message for folks to see as they drive by? Well, Reze Arc did that too, in the most blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way possible. Toward the film’s climax, Denji and Reze have a standoff where the pair of jilted lovers slowly raise their arms as we frantically cut back and forth to them.
In the background, a giant building is counting down toward their big “draw” moment. It even stays at zero as Denji does his harebrained chain maneuver to defeat Reze. It’s probably one of the more minor details in the film that doesn’t make logical sense, as the whole city descends into disaster-film pandemonium. One can’t think office workers would be cheeky enough to do this while a giant baby engulfs the town in a tsunami. Still, it’s a flourish where the animators at Mappa clearly had fun thinking of every possible way to elevate the film’s cool factor.
The lyrics and performance of Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada’s ‘Jane Doe’
The thought of Chainsaw Man opening theme artist Kenshi Yonezu and J-pop regent Hikaru Utada working together on “Jane Doe,” the ending theme of Reze Arc, could cause an anime fan’s brain to explode. Their song features Yonezu’s gruffer voice as Denji, while Utada’s restrained yet emotional vocals portray Reze. As the film’s final note, the pensive love song continues to resonate with the core emotional anguish and yearning of its doomed lovers, and learning more about the musicality of Utada and Yonezu’s song only adds a layer of beauty to the film’s ending theme.
Things I learned while voluntarily hurting myself scrolling through YouTube videos of professional musicians breaking down the science and artistry of their songs: the call-and-response in its bridge is less of a duet and more like lyrics that brush up against each other. The moment after they harmonize, Yonezu continues alone, just like Denji does at the end of the film.
Where are you? (I’m here)
What are you doing? (I’ve always been watching over you)
Let’s fill this world with mistakes
Stay by my side, let’s go have some fun
Where are you?
Another thing I learned is that Utada used a vocal technique called a “pop scoop” (or vocal scoop), in which a performer sings a note below where they intend their pitch to slide up toward. Musically, their decision perfectly captures how Reze will put on a shallow front before inevitably breaking down her walls and being earnest about her feelings for Denji.
Likewise, Yonezu would use something called a head voice, the high register, while occasionally cracking into a mixed voice (a blend of head and a richer chest voice) when belting out his emotional lyrics throughout the song.
This, too, is a perfect representation of Denji’s struggle to suss out the dangerous feelings swelling in his heart for Reze, his attempt to match her cadence, and his barreling into his unbridled emotional expression of them. For a character questioning whether he has a heart or a mind to think for himself, Yonezu did a superb job putting those messy feelings to song.
Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg of small details we’ve made a mountain out of from our rewatches of Reze Arc. Feel free to sound off in the comments with any neat details from the film you’re currently infatuated with as we await Chainsaw Man‘s second season.
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Isaiah Colbert
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