ultradaikichi

The Reze arc of Chainsaw Man was never my favourite - while stellar, I always felt that what comes before it, in volumes 3-5, and then in the volumes that follow it, to be more interesting and have more emotional weight. Maybe that’s just a symptom of binge-reading a whole series: the middle part gets overshadowed? I don’t know.

My opinion was changed by the movie. More tender scenes like the date, school, and fireworks scenes were done spectacularly, in no small part due to the score done by the amazing Kensuke Ushio (my goat). It was to the point where it made me rethink the importance of an arc that I’ve read multiple times.

Many people including myself have said that Fujimoto-sensei’s style, and panelwork is almost movielike. Certainly, Fujimoto’s works lend themselves to being animated - to say only that would be beating a dead horse. Manga is its own medium with its own advantages, and conversely, seeing it brought to life as a motion picture made it shine in ways I hadn’t considered before. All the jokes hit, and the theatre was cracking up.

It goes without my saying that the fight scenes in this are mind blowing. What do you expect? It was a cycle of me sitting there in awe, thinking to myself “how can it get better than this,” only for the animators to continue to one-up themselves. Utada Hikaru and Yonezu Kenshi’s outro song hit like a ton of bricks - that, too, goes without saying.

As a fan of the original work and anime as a medium, it was unbelievable to witness the work they’ve done here. This is the new standard for anime gekijouban. Amazing stuff.