Mappa President Hopes ‘Reze Arc’ Film Will Set off Fandom Increase for ‘Chainsaw Man’

Chainsaw Man followers are a bit greater than a month away from experiencing the film arc continuation of the anime, Reze Arc, in theaters. Earlier than its launch, Studio Mappa’s presidents spoke about why they selected to adapt the manga arc into a movie and offered an replace on the anime’s attainable second season.

Talking with Anime News Network at Anime Expo 2025, Mappa head Manabu Ohtsuka and vice chairman Hiroya Hasegawa gave their reasoning for making Reze Arc a film as an alternative of an episodic second season followers can stream from residence.

“From a enterprise standpoint, we need to have as many individuals as attainable get pleasure from The Reze Arc. After we did that, we aimed to maximise our enterprise. It ought to go theatrical. Nonetheless, with Season One of many collection, we had been in a position to work intently with Crunchyroll, they usually’ve achieved a superb job,” Ohtsuka mentioned.

“On the identical time, these viewers and subscribers of Crunchyroll could not essentially go to theaters. They may be a bit extra at home-based. We need to attain a unique, broader viewers. We’re in a position to staff up with Sony Footage, which might be reaching such individuals.”

When requested if income shares had been one other consider Reze Arc‘s theatrical launch, Ohtsuka mentioned it was much less of an element as was widening the anime’s fanbase.

Ohtsuka additionally clarified to ANN a earlier assertion made in an interview with Tokyo Keizai, the place Chainsaw Man was in comparison with one other megapopular Mappa anime, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Ohtsuka mentioned the latter “didn’t have the identical stage of influence” and left him “feeling unsatisfied.” On the time, Ohtsuka’s feedback made followers query whether or not a follow-up to Chainsaw Man would occur. Now, Ohtsuka advised ANN that his feedback had been blown out of proportion.

“This isn’t a criticism of the article or Tokyo Keizai, nevertheless it was by no means our intention to match Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man in any means. We simply thought we may have squeezed a lot extra out of Chainsaw Man‘s IP and the manga. There’s a lot room for enchancment, and that’s one thing we’re striving for. That’s our purpose. There’s solely a shiny future, and that’s what we’re going for.”

Jujutsu Kaisen additionally had a theatrical launch for Jujutsu Kaisen 0, again in 2022, which carried out effectively domestically and overseas. It additionally had a compilation movie of its second-season anime arc, Hidden Stock/Untimely Loss of life, which was proven in theaters, incomes $2.5 million within the US, in keeping with ANN. Chainsaw Man seems to be following go well with, with mooted plans to equally drum up hype for the collection.

Crunchyroll recapped Chainsaw Man’s first season to lure in wide-eyed newcomers with two compilation films on the streamer. These options, appropriately titled Chainsaw Man – The Compilation and Chainsaw Man – The Compilation: Half II, can be launched in Japan on September 5, with plans to make them out there within the U.S. and elsewhere later this month.

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原作の巻末エピソードを新規映像化した
「ちぇんそーびより」の場面写真到着💥
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『チェンソーマン 総集篇』
📡9/5(金)21:00 ABEMAにて独占先行・無料配信https://t.co/AuWm6qGTGg#劇場版チェンソーマン 𝟗.𝟏𝟗(金)公開🎬#チェンソーマン #chainsawman pic.twitter.com/gcyY5v1AGq

— チェンソーマン【公式】 (@CHAINSAWMAN_PR) August 27, 2025

Along with catching as many people in control earlier than Reze Arc‘s premiere, Mappa additionally introduced an anime adaptation of manga creator Tatsuki Fujimoto‘s slice-of-life, end-of-volume short-panel Chainsaw Man tales to offer people who’re deeper into the manga a deal with. Whereas Crunchyroll has but to announce when that can make its means past Japan, it might be within the lead as much as or following the movie’s launch.

／#劇場版チェンソーマン
入場者プレゼント第一弾決定💥
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🎁#藤本タツキ 先生描き下ろしの表紙カバーイラスト付き小冊子『恋・花・チェンソー・ガイド』
🗓️9/19(金)各上映劇場配布開始

▼詳細はこちらhttps://t.co/aU7qj28S1L

𝟗.𝟏𝟗(金)公開🎬#チェンソーマン #chainsawman pic.twitter.com/r5rpmi03qd

— チェンソーマン【公式】 (@CHAINSAWMAN_PR) September 5, 2025

ANN additionally pressed Mappa’s executives with a query on each fan’s lips: What’s taking place with season two? Sadly, their solutions had been wishy-washy at finest…however they didn’t say no.

“We’re all the time excited about what’s one of the simplest ways to ship Chainsaw Man to the followers who love the franchise. That’s what’s all the time on our minds,” Ohtsuka mentioned. “However how we’re going to do it, if we’re going to do it, we’ll announce it once we announce it. We will’t speak about it.”

“As Ohtsuka-san talked about, [Reze Arc] is a continuation of the primary season. We’re being loyal to the unique content material. We requested ourselves, ‘How are we going to do it?’ We thought that the cinema was one of the simplest ways to ship the Reze Arc. After Reze, if we’re going to create extra Chainsaw Man, we’ll most likely comply with from there,” Hasegawa mentioned. “After which we’ll reevaluate and assume, ‘Are we going to do it as a collection? Are we going to do it as a movie?’ It’s one other query we’ll be asking ourselves at the moment.”

Chainsaw Man – The Film: Reze Arc hits theaters in Japan on September 19, earlier than hitting the U.S. on October 29.

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