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How Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc was received

2025 · Tatsuya Yoshihara · Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc on Sightlines

The arc

Landed in 2025 as the redemption arc for the anime itself: after the 2022 TV series split fans over its subdued, live-action-styled direction, the film was greeted as MAPPA course-correcting — louder, more manga-faithful, and vindicated by a monster global box office.

What’s debated

The perennial fan fight it reignited: was the TV series' 'cinematic' approach actually a mistake, or did the movie just prove Denji plays better big and unhinged?

Its footprint

Kenshi Yonezu's theme song 'IRIS OUT' became a chart-conquering phenomenon in its own right, and Reze instantly re-colonised fan-art feeds — the rare anime film whose needle-drop discourse rivaled its fight discourse.

Where it stands

A centerpiece of 2025's 'anime owns the multiplex' moment alongside Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle — already a Letterboxd fixture rather than a niche fandom event.

Did you know? It opened at #1 at the U.S. box office with $17.25M — only the fourth anime film ever to do so, after Pokémon: The First Movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle — and its American opening roughly doubled its Japanese one.