Chainsaw Man’s second part has been running for over three years now, and calling it divisive would be an understatement. While Part 2 started off strong, each new arc seems to do something to push people away, and the series in its current form is now a far cry from where it was at the peak of its popularity.
The reason for Chainsaw Man Part 2’s failure is hard to explain, especially when it can’t be boiled down to a single, all-encompassing problem. Of all the problems with Part 2, though, the biggest one is made clear after watching Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc, and it’s one that the series might never recover fromm at this rate.
2025’s Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc mostly revolves around Denji and Reze’s romance, and it’s as amazing as it was in the manga. While Denji and Reze’s romance starts off as simply being cute, it quickly evolves into a loving relationship of two damaged people finding someone to relate to, and that makes their ending all the more tragic.
Naturally, Denji and Reze’s romance was even better in animation, as Kensuke Ushio’s soundtrack and the gorgeous visuals perfectly emphasized how much they grew from knowing each other from start to finish. Overall, the film elevated Denji and Reze’s romance to an even higher level, and that’s made it an even bigger hit with old and new fans alike.
All of that, unfortunately, only highlights how much Denji’s relationship with Asa hasn’t been working. Denji and Asa have the same dynamic of two broken people finding genuine love in one another, but unlike Denji and Reze, Denji and Asa have spent multiple arcs barely interacting with one another, which makes it harder to feel attached to their relationship.
The bigger issue, though, is the lackluster growth in Denji and Asa’s relationship; Denji suffers from an infamous lack of character growth in Part 2, most of Asa’s development happened offscreen and rarely factors into the plot, and any growth they do receive is more from their arcs as individuals than their arc as a couple.
Overall, while Denji and Asa have had plenty of good moments as a couple, especially in recent chapters, there’s an underlying lack of depth and focus to their relationship compared to Denji and Reze’s relationship, and that makes it much harder to feel attached to it.
Denji and Asa’s relationship hasn’t hit any of the same highs as Denji and Reze’s, and that, unfortunately, is symptomatic of the biggest problems with Part 2. Unlike Part 1, which was known for being very fast-paced, Part 2 has a habit of taking things much slower by comparison, with Tatsuki Fujimoto even publishing chapters biweekly more often than not.
Unfortunately, not only does that lead to many story arcs being dragged out to the point of feeling tedious, but it also means that many characters have their growth slowed down to the point of essentially being nonexistent, and Denji is the biggest offender, as the story almost seems to refuse to have him grow from being a dimwitted pervert.
All of that would have been manageable if the characters were handled with the same level of care, but between most of Part 1’s cast being unceremoniously written out and how inconsistently the new characters are used, there are few characters to get attached to beyond Denji, Asa, and Yoru, and that leaves the story feeling rather hollow.
The biggest issues plaguing Chainsaw Man Part 2 are its poor pacing and writing, and unfortunately, those issues are impossible to deny when looking at the overall execution of Denji and Asa’s relationship, especially when compared to how Denji and Reze were handled in Part 1 and the Chainsaw Man movie.
Denji and Reze’s romance remains the best romance in the Chainsaw Man manga, and that invites the question. Reze is notably the only Hybrid Devil not to reappear in part 2, and Tatsuki Fujimoto has even commented on how the movie had him thinking about Reze again, so it’s not impossible for her to return.
On the other hand, Denji and Asa’s relationship has more or less been solidified at the time of writing, and with how the current arc is likely the final arc, there probably isn’t any room for her return. That doesn’t make Reze’s lack of presence any less egregious, but at this point, there isn’t much that can be done.
It would be great for Reze to return to Chainsaw Man, but unfortunately, that gets less and less likely with every passing chapter. It’s hard to say if Reze’s return would improve Chainsaw Man part 2, but after Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc reminded people of how great a character she was, it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.
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