#hyperfixated rambles

Okay, okay, so I just came back from watching the Reze Movie, and HOLY FUCK I need to talk about it. This is your official SPOILER WARNING because I'm going to talk about this scene and possibly more in this, so uh if you haven’t watched the movie, save this and come back later.

Good? You Back? Or perhaps you never left. Either way, let's dive into this. First of all, let's get started with context. Denji has met this girl named Reze, who is presumably someone his age who has lived a completely different life than him, going to school, living a normal life, etc, etc. They have been hanging out and talking for about a week at this point, and even though he doesn't want to admit it due to his loyalty to Makima, Denji has fallen in love with Reze. This, of course, is what Reze wanted, as we learn later, she also likes Denji. One of these days, Reze takes Denji to her school's pool to relax. I will be breaking this small rant into the 3 Tragedies of the scene, starting with:

The Tragedy of Love.

This is where one of the most tragic scenes in all of Chainsaw Man takes place as Reze gets naked, inviting Denji into the pool, and we see how mentally conflicted Denji is, conflicted between his feelings for Reze and his loyalty to Makima. The reason so far that I have only referred to what Denji feels for Makima as loyalty is for a reason Denji does not love Makima. At least not in a traditional sense. Makima has been grooming and taking advantage of Denji since she met him for some unknown purpose (If ykyk), and this has led to him developing a crush on Makima that is very one-sided, but Makima entertains him to keep Denji in line and on a leash. This crush isn’t a crush exactly; it's more a symptom of Makima's leading on and promises of a relationship and possibly sex, which is something Denji so desperately wants. Denji wants romance; he wants to be in love, but he does not know what that is, and so conflates that with carnal pleasure. The reason I bring this up is that it is what makes this so tragic. This is the first time he’s met someone his age, and he has connected with, not as a superior but as a peer, as someone who sees Denji and wants his heart, his love. And so Denji gets naked before he even realizes it; he has bared his body and symbolically his soul to Reze. Despite this vulnerability, Denji is still hesitant to enter, for while the act of being naked is him being vulnerable, the act of jumping into the pool is the act of trusting someone fully with his vulnerable self. Reze keeps goading Denji into the water with a smile on her face and, as we cut back to Denji, his mind says, ‘If I go, my heart will too!’ confirming that if he takes a step into the water, he will be trusting Reze with his heart, for the first time, he will experience love that isn't transactional. One that isn't motivated by self-interest. This puts a strain on his physical body as he bends over, almost clutching his head, stuck between loyalty and a real connection, in the end, Denji yells out and accepts the symbolic gesture of jumping into the pool, running and jumping into the pool. We then cut to Rize’s eye, seeing Denji's naked body jump in, showing how she is fully seeing the boy for who he is. This leads us to our second Tragedy:

The Tragedy of Life

Now Denji is in the water, he is playing around with a girl who he loves and loves him back, and that's when another Tragedy about this scene comes into play: Denji’s missed life. Due to his poor upbringing and horrible life up until then, he has never gone to school, never made friends his age, and never even eaten 3 stable meals a day until he turned 16. And this scene evoked something in me, as Denji was messing around with Reze, I couldn't help but imagine that this must be paradise for Denji, even if he doesn't realize it. He’s finally acting like a normal kid his age, he's being mischievous with the girl he likes, and in a school, no less. He is living what his life should have been for this brief moment. Denji should have had the chance to grow up normally, to be happy, to learn what true love was, and yet fate decided it had other plans for him. No such joy exists until now.

But then the final Tragedy strikes

The Tragedy of Lies

You see, there is something I neglected to mention earlier, but if you have watched the movie, then you know: Reze is lying. She doesn’t care about Denji (or so she thinks, but that's for another rant). She has been this whole time plotting to take Denji’s chainsaw heart because she is not a human but, in fact, The Bomb Devil. This entire ruse to seduce Denji isn’t unlike what Makima was doing; in fact, it is almost the same except for the fact that she has reached out to Denji as a friend, not a master, which is what allowed him, for even a moment, to break his loyalty to Makima. This Tragedy is what hits the hardest, as throughout the scene, we get flashes of a spider consuming a butterfly caught in its web. The symbolism is very easy to see. Reze is luring in Denji to metaphorically consume him. The Tragedy is just as simple to see: Denji’s vulnerability, Denji’s love, Denji’s EVERYTHING is once again taken advantage of. He has never had an interaction on a deeper level where the other person wasn't ACTIVELY MINIPULATING HIM, and the one time he finally falls in true love, it's with someone doing the exact same thing. His vulnerability was taken advantage of, his love was with somebody who couldn't care less whether he lived or died, and THAT is why this is one of the most Tragic scenes in Chainsaw Man.

Afterword.