Chainsaw Man fans are a little more than a month away from experiencing the film arc continuation of the anime, Reze Arc, in theaters. Before its release, Studio Mappa’s presidents spoke about why they chose to adapt the manga arc into a film and provided an update on the anime’s possible second season.
Speaking with Anime News Network at Anime Expo 2025, Mappa head Manabu Ohtsuka and vice president Hiroya Hasegawa gave their reasoning for making Reze Arc a movie instead of an episodic second season fans can stream from home.
“From a business standpoint, we want to have as many people as possible enjoy The Reze Arc. When we did that, we aimed to maximize our business. It should go theatrical. However, with Season One of the series, we were able to work closely with Crunchyroll, and they’ve done a fabulous job,” Ohtsuka said.
“At the same time, those viewers and subscribers of Crunchyroll may not necessarily go to theaters. They might be a little more at home-based. We want to reach a different, broader audience. We’re able to team up with Sony Pictures, which would be reaching such people.”
When asked if revenue shares were another factor in Reze Arc‘s theatrical release, Ohtsuka said it was less of a factor as was widening the anime’s fanbase.
Ohtsuka also clarified to ANN a previous statement made in an interview with Tokyo Keizai, where Chainsaw Man was compared to another megapopular Mappa anime, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Ohtsuka said the latter “didn’t have the same level of impact” and left him “feeling unsatisfied.” At the time, Ohtsuka’s comments made fans question whether a follow-up to Chainsaw Man would happen. Now, Ohtsuka told ANN that his comments were blown out of proportion.
“This isn’t a criticism of the article or Tokyo Keizai, but it was never our intention to compare Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man in any way. We just thought we could have squeezed so much more out of Chainsaw Man‘s IP and the manga. There is so much room for improvement, and that’s something we are striving for. That’s our goal. There’s only a bright future, and that’s what we’re going for.”
Jujutsu Kaisen also had a theatrical release for Jujutsu Kaisen 0, back in 2022, which performed well domestically and abroad. It also had a compilation film of its second-season anime arc, Hidden Inventory/Premature Death, which was shown in theaters, earning $2.5 million in the US, according to ANN. Chainsaw Man appears to be following suit, with mooted plans to similarly drum up hype for the series.
Crunchyroll recapped Chainsaw Man’s first season to lure in wide-eyed newcomers with two compilation films on the streamer. Those features, appropriately titled Chainsaw Man – The Compilation and Chainsaw Man – The Compilation: Part II, will be released in Japan on September 5, with plans to make them available in the U.S. and elsewhere later this month.
In addition to catching as many folks up to speed before Reze Arc‘s premiere, Mappa also announced an anime adaptation of manga creator Tatsuki Fujimoto‘s slice-of-life, end-of-volume short-panel Chainsaw Man stories to give folks who are deeper into the manga a treat. While Crunchyroll has yet to announce when that will make its way beyond Japan, it may be in the lead up to or following the film’s release.
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