Spoiler Warning for Chainsaw Man Season 1 and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: The Reze Arc
The Denji-Makima theater-hopping date is the most profound moment in the entire story.
Though it is far from the most exciting or even emotional scene in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it contains probably the most important message Tatsuki Fujimoto (author of Chainsaw Man) wants to say on humanity and our relationship to art.
Denji’s “Humanity” in Season 1
Step back to Season 1 Episode 9: Denji is caught up in a traumatic incident where many of his comrades and a recently-made friend, Himeno, all die. The tragedy is so monumental that even the stone-faced Aki is broken to tears.
Yet Denji admits that he feels nothing at all.
Denji isn’t driven by an intense, heroic passion or vengeance that the rest of Public Safety is drunk on. His motivations in comparison are hilariously base:
To not be hunted down as a devil. To have a home to stay in. To have good meals. And to find hot women to fool around with.
Unable to feel grief or even have ambitions of his own, Denji becomes insecure that he may have lost his humanity somewhere along the way. So much so that during the date with Makima, he asks the question, “Do you think I have a heart?”
The Movie Date
So, Makima tests Denji through a very mundane, everyday activity: “watching movies.”
Denji is excited just to have a date with Makima at first, but the movies end up boring him. And she feels the same. Each movie session ended with a simple criticism from her: “This one wasn’t interesting, this one was trying too hard to make people cry, this one was too average.”
They give one more movie a chance, and it finally happens.
It isn’t the movie itself, but a single, seemingly pointless scene of a mother and son hugging that, without knowing why, overwhelms Denji with emotion. He tries to hide his face at first, fearing Makima’s watchful gaze, until he looks at her and sees tears in her eyes as well.
It’s the first genuine emotion that we, the audience, have ever seen from the cold Public Safety officer, as well.
It’s only then that Makima answers Denji’s question: “You do.”
Absolute Cinema
It’s an open secret that Tatsuki Fujimoto’s works are deeply ingrained by his love for cinema. Chainsaw Man’s OP adapting movie scenes, the cinematic blocking and panning he uses in his manga, and even the “absolute cinema” meme, which originated from Chainsaw Man. However, it’s not until this scene that we get a truly profound answer as to why.
Roger Ebert once said that movies are a machine that generates empathy. Movies and art aren’t just a form of entertainment to elicit laughter or tears but also a way to communicate the hopes, aspirations, dreams, and fears of the artist to an audience.
If one person can connect to a film on a deeper level, it is a sign that the art has connected with someone on a human level. However, when more than one person shares the same experience with a piece of art, it’s a comforting thought that people from vastly different walks of life can relate to a shared experience.
Denji and Makima are abnormal. Denji is an emotionally stunted monster-man and has lived a brutal life that has never given him a chance to form attachments. Makima is a master manipulator who may or may not be able to express most emotions. Hence, they can’t laugh or cry with everyone else during their date; only one out of ten movies really works for them.
However, the fact that Denji and Makima have the capacity to connect and share emotions about art is proof enough that they are human.
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