Chainsaw Man: The Movie - Reze Arc

Chainsaw Man: The Movie didn't just do well for anime — it topped the US box office outright on a $17.25 million opening weekend, on its way to $191.4 million worldwide, and a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score put it among the best-reviewed films of the year in any genre. The Oscar eligibility conversation for Best Animated Feature is the real marker of how far this reached: nothing from anime has been part of that conversation since Spirited Away actually won the category in 2003. Part of the draw is who it pulled in — horror and transgressive-fiction fans, Junji Ito readers, A24 horror audiences — a crowd that doesn't usually wander into anime at all.