Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc and Writing Fight Scenes
My wife and I watched the Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc movie, and it was a lot of fun. Words like “chaotic,” “psychotic” and “kinetic” are just a few words that would describe this movie. The first forty minutes or so move at a brisk pace just building the story. Denji meets Reze early in the film, and they have immediate chemistry, but there is always this feeling that something is not as it seems. Once everything gets set up, and we are in the middle of the movie, then it is all action that really does not stop. Everything from bombs, fireworks, chainsaws, a Sharknado and other things are present in one of the wildest battles that I have seen in anime, and it is all animated wonderfully. It is all just kinetic energy on screen with a few comedic moments sprinkled in. The movie ends adding more mystery to Makima. The questions of who is Makima, why is everyone after Denji, and who is the Gun Devil are not answered with this movie, but just another layer is revealed. If there is one criticism with this movie, it is that some of the side characters like Aki or Power are hardly or just not present after the first act of the movie.
Even after writing The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, I am still writing daily. I am working on The Land of the Wooden Statues, a dark fantasy, and there are a few action scenes. Considering that I practiced boxing, kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I thought that my fight scenes were top-notch in my stories. It turns out that there is still a lot that I have to learn, and while I can write the mechanics of fighting well and descriptively, I was not writing in a way that would get a reader involved with the fight itself. I was using far too many long, descriptive sentences for my fight scenes, and that actually takes readers out of the fight. I needed to write shorter, more precise sentences to match that pace and action that is going on in a fight scene. Longer sentences can be interjected to build anticipation or do other things, but I was writing only long sentences. It is good though that I know this now, and it goes to show that I am still learning and growing as a writer.
Chainsaw Man had fight scenes correct with so much going on but still allowing the audience to follow along with the action. Everything is quick, precise and the impactful moments are done at the right time. I need to also do that with my own writing, especially with my fight scenes. Thankfully, I have discovered this just with my second book, so I still have time to rewrite the action scenes.