Reze Arc’ Beats Demon Slayer’s Rotten Tomatoes Score

While we just saw the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie hit theaters with a 98% critic and audience Rotten Tomatoes score, at least for now, it’s being bested by a fellow anime film, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc just opened nationwide here in the US after a September release in Japan, and it has amassed a perfect and near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and fans, respectively. A 100% critic score and a 99% audience score. Incredible numbers, though not that far off from the show itself, which has only run one season. It has a 97% critic score and 91% audience score there.

The catch here, of course, is the number of reviews in. Chainsaw Man has 17 critic reviews to Demon Slayer’s 59. 500 audience reviews to Demon Slayer’s 10,000+. It can drop, sure, but we did see Demon Slayer put up huge numbers at the start and maintain those even as more and more and more reviews poured in. So I would not be surprised if even down the road, the two were still neck and neck.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Chainsaw Man has already made $61 million globally ahead of its Western release here. There is a zero percent chance it will end up matching Infinity Castle’s $588 million, but it will no doubt turn a hefty profit all the same. You can see why these animated shows are starting to lean more heavily into movies, as for the length of a handful of episodes, you can make tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, which is not happening with a streaming release. But only a certain number of shows could get away with that. These two are a pair of them.

If you’re unfamiliar with Chainsaw Man, it’s one of the wilder anime concepts out there. The synopsis of the movie:

“For the first time, Chainsaw Man slashes his way onto the big screen in an epic, action-fueled adventure that continues the hugely popular anime series. Denji worked as a Devil Hunter for the yakuza, trying to pay off the debt he inherited from his parents, until the yakuza betrayed him and had him killed. As he was losing consciousness, Denji’s beloved chainsaw-powered devil-dog, Pochita, made a deal with Denji and saved his life. This fused the two together, creating the unstoppable Chainsaw Man. Now, in a brutal war between devils, hunters, and secret enemies, a mysterious girl named Reze has stepped into his world, and Denji faces his deadliest battle yet, fueled by love in a world where survival knows no rules.”

Unlike Demon Slayer and its 63 episodes, there are only 12 episodes of Chainsaw Man separated into four, three-episode arcs. So much easier to catch up with if you want to see what all this is about. Brace yourself, it’s something else.

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