Japan gets it. While the US is making movies titled Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot or Causeway, Japan’s manga writers are like: it’s about Demon Slayers, let’s call it Demon Slayer. Or in this case, it’s part man, part, chainsaw: let’s call it, The Man with the Chainsaw Body Parts. Requisite Simpsons reference aside, Chainsaw Man should be a delight for the teens ready for the Reze Arc to make their bodies, um, transform too.
All you need to know about the lore is Denji (Kikunosuke Toya), our Chainsaw Man, is actually a Chainsaw teenager. A horny one at that too. When the likes of Power (Fairouz Ai) and Makima (Tomori Kusunoki) ask him out on dates, he’s instantly smitten, pledging his heart to these girls (apparently he has one). While transfixed by Makima, Denji avoids rain in a phone booth, where he bumps into Reze (Reina Ueda), a girl apparently as horny as he is. Lonely school girl Reze openly flirts with Denji, as he explains how he eschewed school to fight various devils with his sidekick half shark Beam (Natsuki Hanae) by his side. I don’t know how you fill that job in on Bumble.
Like Demon Slayer earlier this year, Chainsaw Man is another manga series hype movie: a tease for fans before more TV episodes come. I applaud writer Hiroshi Seko for at least trying to not have this thing be all fluff, and actually tell as close to a full tale as possible. The story streamlines and strips down the Reze Arc to its basics: It’s got Denji and Reze, our 2 leads, Makima and Beam the key supporting players, and side hunters Aki (Shogo Sakata) and Angel Devil (Maaya Uchida) there because they’re necessary for the plot/act as the tie in to the bigger world. These changes however, make the movie feel smaller, subduing some of that horny teenage hype all over my theater. Seko makes up for it with an overtly flirty first half, with manic pixie dream girls of all types throwing themselves at Denji, and the clueless dipsh*t boy totally unprepared for their advances, to the audience’s amusement and excitement. The arc is basically over at the halfway point.
Enter director Tatsuya Yoshihara. A director on the TV Series, he takes us to a literal firework display edging the audience until they can’t take it anymore. That’s when the real fun kicks it up a level, and my eyes started to bulge at the transformations taking place. With the Reze story basically over, it’s time to fight the Devils! The main devil in this movie is awesome, with the big revel sequence a chase and explosion fest that caused heart chases and explosions in my theater. Character design is twisted but also a little hot? I don’t know what that says about me, but it’s probably not good. The combat sequences are over edited at times, but when you see a giant half man, half chainsaw riding a shark into the middle of a Typhoon, I just turned off my brain and let the blood flow like the rivers of Babylon through my body. Nodding and smiling like a friggin idiot.
So, mission accomplished? Chainsaw Man is for the kids, but I get the appeal, which is basically a ringing endorsement! If I went again, I would laser in on the chaperone parents of 2 teens on a movie date to THIS film, just to see their likely appalled reactions to what is happening. One of them is gonna have a stroke.