Behind the blades: The directors of ‘Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc’ on crafting chaos and emotion

Following the explosive success of Chainsaw Man’s anime series, the world’s most unpredictable devil hunter returns in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara with Masato Nakazono as assistant director.

Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga, the film dives into the bittersweet and action-packed “Reze” storyline—where Denji encounters a mysterious girl whose charm hides a deadly secret. Blending visceral action with emotional depth, the movie promises a cinematic experience that expands the series’ universe with richer visuals and heightened drama.

Since its theatrical release in September 2025 in Japan and October 2025 internationally, the film has garnered more than US$100 million at the global box office. The film has a 97 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and ranks second on My Anime List’s “Top Anime Series” section.

In this exclusive interview, Yoshihara and Nakazono share how they reimagined key moments, played with colour and pacing, and guided their voice cast to bring out new layers of the characters fans thought they already knew.

What are some parts you “played around” with?

Nakazono: From among the units I directed, I would say the reaction Denji has when Makima appears in front of him during the date scene. This is something director Yoshihara also requested when he corrected the storyboards, there are multiple Denjis that appear in the background when he screams “cute!!”. We talked about how this could be the place to build on the source material and “amp it up” in the visuals. We thought that Denji would probably naturally switch to this level of excitement, and tried to express it in a way that’s unique to films.

Yoshihara: For Denji’s reaction scene, we made Denji’s coloring more vivid and closer to the comic covers, and shaped the visuals to match his inner feelings. For action scenes, we added super slow motion-like expressions and played around with colors and compositing. I hope these recurring playful elements serve as hooks and keep the audience engaged until the very end.

The elements you just now mentioned could be aspects the audience can enjoy to the fullest by watching the work several times.

Yoshihara: That’s true. The movie is called “Reze Arc”, so first of all, we would like the audience to follow the course of Reze’s story and experience a range of emotions through it. Then, when they go to see it for the second or third time, it could be interesting to try to zoom in on specific details. For example, try to focus on Denji and Beam, or try to focus on not only the main characters, but for example, try to look for people in the background making small gestures… I do have a personal preference for action scenes, and since the action scenes include the highest proportion of elements original to the movie, I think those sequences feel the most refreshing even for fans of the original work.

Nakazono: One aspect I’d like the audience to also observe is how the panels in the comic that rely solely on facial expressions, without any dialogue, are handled in the animated version. Especially the scene where Denji and Reze talk about “the country mouse and the city mouse” in the classroom after getting out of the pool. I feel like we were able to bring out the strengths of animation through the pacing of the dialogue and the way the time is used in this scene. I would be glad if everyone would be able to get the same feeling from this scene that they got when they first read it in the comics, and all the staff members really did their best to make that happen.

How did you direct Denji’s voice actor Kikunosuke Toya and other cast members during the recording process?

Yoshihara: We based the characters on each cast member’s own interpretation, but for some scenes we gave additional directions. For instance, for Denji, the request we made was basically to “empty your head a bit more, and when you turn to Chainsaw Man, empty your head even more”. We relayed the requests through sound director Yasushi Nagura, who helped break them down for the voice actors.

For Aki (Shogo Sakata), the base is the same, but for the scene where Angel Devil (Maaya Uchida) gets into a tight spot and Aki saves him, I requested him to “raise his voice by two levels.” For Reze, I requested that she would “sound cheerful when talking with Denji”, and she adjusted it immediately. As for Reze after the tone shifts, the way Reina Ueda played her was so excellent that we adopted the interpretation she brought to us almost completely as it was.

Nakazono: As director Yoshihara said, I also think the interpretations the cast brought to the table played a big part. Toya and Sakata had especially powered up during the years that had passed since the TV series. Makima’s voice actor Tomori Kusunoki, Power’s voice actor Fairouz Ai, Ueda, and all the cast members fully committed themselves to understanding and portraying the characters, and that helped us to create a solid foundation. Due to that, we were able to build on that foundation and have in-depth sessions where we discussed how “when speaking with this character, this character would probably have this kind of attitude” and such. As a member of the same team creating this movie, it was a lot of fun.