Mappa’s film adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Shonen Jump manga is a gift that keeps on giving.
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: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.
