Spoiler Warning: This feature will discuss scenes and plot points from Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc in spoilerific detail.
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc left me heartbroken, which, for the average Chainsaw Man fan like myself, is about par for the course. At its core, the film is a tragic love story between two people who are absolutely perfect for each other but cannot be together because of the terrible circumstances and violent environments that affect their lives.
But what makes Denji and Reze’s romance so compelling that it drove me to see the movie in theaters twice? Ultimately, what separates their love story from other typical shonen action titles is the level of complexity that Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto put into this relationship.
Cut from the same cloth
One of the most haunting lines in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is Reze’s final one, in which she ponders, “I wonder why I didn’t kill you the first time we met? Denji, to be honest… I’ve never been to school either.” This one line encapsulates everything about her and Denji’s relationship and why she fell in love with him: they’re essentially mirror images of each other.
In the school scene, Denji confesses to Reze that he has never attended school in his life and that he chooses to put his life on the line to kill Devils for the Public Safety Division in exchange for three meals a day and a place to sleep. This makes sense considering that, up until recently, he’s lived in poverty, where he had to kill Devils to pay off his father’s debt. Something as simple as food and shelter feels like a luxury to a struggling teenager like Denji.
Denji’s lack of any semblance of a normal life deeply connects with Reze, which is especially obvious in a rewatch, because it is during this moment that she truly sees herself in him. Via exposition from Kishibe, we discover that Reze was a guinea pig experimented on by the Soviet Union and would later go on to become an assassin for the Russian government.
Both Denji and Reze have lived most of their lives without any real love or warmth, at best being treated as human weapons that can be used at any point for the government bodies they work for, and only receiving the bare minimum in exchange. They don’t really have much else going for them because they’ve never been given the chance to do anything else. Therefore, when Reze realizes how similar she is to Denji, she connects with him in a way she seemingly has never had with anyone else.
This context is what especially makes the scene where Reze pleads to Denji to run away with her so devastating, because she envisions a brighter and happier future with Denji by her side. That’s why when Denji hesitates and hints that he likes another woman, she feels not only betrayed but also angry that Denji’s not as committed to this relationship as she is.
Love over duty
Throughout their climactic showdown, Reze comments repeatedly about how she wishes for Denji to die already, even going so far as to say that she never loved him and that her affections were just an act. However, it’s clear that these statements are false and that she’s simply venting after her “break-up” with Denji.
Even Denji sees through these lies, commenting about how if that’s the case, then she should have killed him the moment they met, and that she shouldn’t have taught him how to swim. Reze deflects these statements because, in her heart, she knows that he’s right. She even admits this when she remarks to Denji during their fight that she truly liked him. No matter what she tells him or herself, Reze’s love for Denji was real.
The moment Reze arguably first fell in love with Denji was when he performed the flower “magic trick” in the phone booth and gave it to her. Later in the film, we see that she keeps that same flower in a glass of water. What sort of tactical advantage does that serve in her mission to kill Denji? Similarly, how does going on a date to the festival with Denji aid her assassination task?
The most notable example of love getting in the way of duty is when Reze and Denji go skinny dipping in the school pool. This is Reze’s most intimate romantic gesture because we learn later on that her main weakness is water. The fact that she’s putting herself in as vulnerable a position as being naked in a pool of water goes to show just how much she’s fallen for Denji. When she tells Denji that she’ll teach him everything, she is ready to give everything up for him.
It’s not just Reze who’s willing to betray her mission and government for a chance at love and a normal life, as Denji makes a similar proposal to Reze near the end of the film. Even after their intense fight and all the death and destruction they caused during it, Denji never stopped loving Reze. He forgives what she’s done and still wants to be with her because, like Reze, Denji also wants a chance at a better tomorrow with Reze by his side.
Love is a dangerous game
If the pool scene is Reze’s most intimate proclamation of love, then Denji’s most vulnerable romantic gesture is the moment where he tells Reze that he’ll quit the Public Safety Division and run away with her. Even after she rejects him by snapping his neck, Denji doesn’t give up, screaming that he’ll wait for her at the cafe to have lunch again.
This is a particularly profound moment because, up until his encounter with Reze, Denji’s affection solely belonged to Makima. He even states that his heart belongs to her and that his wish is to be in a relationship with her if he gets all the pieces of the Gun Devil’s flesh. Makima is Denji’s whole world, and the fact that he can disregard all of that for a potential life with Reze goes to show just how much she means to him.
Where to continue reading in the manga after watching Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
This is what makes the ending of the movie especially tragic because not only does Reze’s demise squash out any happily ever after, but it also means that Denji will inevitably go back to being in love with Makima, a woman who clearly doesn’t care about him. At best, Makima views Denji as a pet that she can command to “do tricks” in exchange for a “treat,” but there’s no real love there.
To Makima, Denji is only valuable because he has the Chainsaw Devil, and so she uses her sexuality as a means of controlling him. Denji himself even somewhat realizes this when he screams in the second half, “Everyone always wants Chainsaw’s heart! Doesn’t anyone want Denji’s heart?” Makima only presents the possibility of romance as something to dangle in front of Denji, such as going on a movie date with him at the beginning of the film.
They are not on any equal footing, which is the exact opposite when it comes to Reze, who loves Denji for who he is, not what Devil he’s bound to. Denji has with Reze what he lacks with Makima, and that’s natural chemistry. In almost every scene in the first half, Denji and Reze always make each other smile, blush, and laugh. They are probably the first and only people they’ve met who they’ve loved and been loved back unconditionally with no strings attached.
In another life, they could have ended up together and lived a happy, normal life. Unfortunately, they do not live in a normal world with normal circumstances; they live in the violent, absurd, and nihilistic world of Chainsaw Man. Naturally, everything always ends with some level of tragedy, and unfortunately, that also applies to the love story between Denji and Reze.
For more, here's everything you need to know about a potential Chainsaw Man season 2, or check out our Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review.
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