Anime continues to rev up the box office, the latest example being Chainsaw Man.
The movie sequel to the first season of the rip-roaring anime series topped the U.S. box office with $17.3 million, bringing its already impressive global total to $108 million.
Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc, directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, continues the adventures of Denji (voiced by Kikunosuke Toya in Japanese and Ryan Colt Levy in the English dub), a Devil Hunter who can transform parts of his body into chainsaws.
While grappling with conflicting romantic feelings for both Makima (Tomori Kusunoki in Japanese, Suzie Yeung in English) and a new girl he meets named Reze (Reina Ueda in Japanese, Alexis Tipton in English), the unstoppable Bomb Devil arrives in the city to cut out Denji’s heart.
Courtesy of MAPPA
The Bomb Devil in ‘Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc’
The film’s success speaks to the rising popularity of anime in the U.S., especially among younger generations. A study released in January 2024 by Polygon reported that 42 percent of Gen Z watch anime weekly and 56 percent watch it at least once a month, compared to millennials, 25 percent of whom watch weekly and 41 percent of whom watch at least once a month. That popularity is now spilling over into the mainstream.
Earlier this year, Sony and Crunchyroll released Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle stateside as a direct continuation of the Demon Slayer anime’s fourth season, and it reigned over the North American box office for weeks. Chainsaw Man, also released through Sony/Crunchyroll, reaffirms that instance wasn’t a fluke.
“I think it’s both the theatrical release itself and the fandom itself,” Mitchel Berger, the head of theatrical at Crunchyroll, told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “From a theatrical perspective, one of the things about Demon Slayer specifically is it feels cinematic. It is a big story that needs to be told on a big screen, and I think that fans are responding to that. The deeper issue is that young fan base — Gen Z, Gen Alphas, and the Millennials to some degree — anime is just an intrinsic part of their personality.”
Courtesy of MAPPA
Denji rides Beam into battle in ‘Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc’
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Some of the creators behind Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc gathered at New York Comic Con earlier this month to both drum up buzz and speak to how they took advantage of the big screen. “The action scenes are like an amusement park ride. You can just empty your head and enjoy them,” character designer Kazutaka Sugiyama said.
“In Reze Arc, a completely new genre is born: Love, violence, action, romance, shark,” Yoshihara commented. The shark refers to Beam (Natsuki Hanae in Japanese, Derick Snow in English), Denji’s ally who can turn into a giant shark-life form with three eyes.
“You can feel the thrill and the tension throughout the action and you can also sense the preciousness of each character through the romance elements,” the difector continued. “In Chainsaw Man, Devils regain their strength by consuming blood. For Reze Arc, every member of the production team offered up a huge amount of blood and, as a result, the movie is bursting with energy.”
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