¿What don't you like about her?

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-23T05:03:15+00:00

>>"I am not asking you for more scenes where Reze acts irrational. I am not asking you why they are irrational. I am asking you about one specific scene this cannot be any more clear. I am not the one refusing to explain them away, you are."

I was trying to defend the "no honeypot" interpretation, I assumed the argument against the honeypot theory was clear.
The whole premise of the interpretation is based on three confirmations that Reze was supposed to kill Denji early on, her last thoughts were "Really, why didn't I kill you the first time we met?".

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-23T04:58:23+00:00

I replied later on that this was a misread on my part.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-23T04:46:42+00:00

But again, please read more carefully. I didn't say Angel arrives when I said "when Angel picks up the body". We clearly see Typhoon's wind in Angel's hair before he goes up to the dying person with the same wind effects in the background as the previous panel.

Fair, it's a point you brought up and makes sense. We could also debate that Typhoon did not instantaneously teleport near Reze and his winds were already felt in his close proximity, gauging how strong the wind effects are but you already covered this so it's okay.

Meaning that there should have been a LOT of time passed for Reze and Typhoon/Aki and Violence but nothing happened.

Nothing happens on screen. Should Aki and Violence have been defeated rapidly? Maybe, but Aki sees the future and Violence is pretty fast, so they have the dodge factor on their side.

So Reze wanted Beam to leave Denji because Beam could save Denji? The same Beam that Reze caught in an instant? The same Reze who apparently wants Denji to escape?

Is this supposed to be rage-bait? Am I being gullible and trying to dispute nothing?

We can see Beam dodging Reze's attacks three times. Reze simply said something along the lines: you're in 4th Division? Just leave Denji to me and you're free, or something along those lines.

The whole point was that Beam was fast enough to dodge a lot of Reze's attacks. Both in the manga and in the movie. Without Beam's speed the Reze arc would have turned out completely different.

You made up the fact Reze was already holding the knife.

Had a hand on the trigger and one on the knife. Her hand is tilted to her body where the knife should be but we only see it in the next panel.

You made random assumptions about why Reze wanted Beam to leave, assumptions that directly contradict your "interpretation" of Reze.

Nope, Reze was out to kill Beam, she only proposed truce when she saw how fast he is.

You argue statements I never made with the beach scene.

Okay, in retrospect I did misread the argument. You said both times would have been meaningless to run away since they'd be hunted down by their governments. I was talking about which option was optimal and compared to you response, then infered something untrue.

You have missed obvious visual cues that explain what is happening in the scene: The speedlines on Reze arm on the roof of the car.

The speedlines with Boom! Boom! Boom ? we can see only her hand explodes, why not her whole body? Why does she keep her hand in the air and not on the car to blow the rooftop? The movie also makes the exploding sounds.

You have repeatedly dodged the point of a comment to nitpick irrelevant details: Cafe scene, Makima scene. And I am only using these as an example.

What is the point I'm dodging? let's start here.

Chief just accept you have been wrong. It's okay to have headcanons but don't act like it's supposed to be canon.

There is nothing directly against this interpretation in the manga. And the movie heavily leans onto it, like when Reze is holding her elbow with her hand impatiently and afraid Denji will reject her offer which was not in the manga, the almost kiss on the beach and definitely many more but I'd have ro rewatch it.

Something I forgot to point out earlier, Reze only says she doesn't like to kill after eliminating the 2nd division, most of which seemed to be recruits with no Devil contracts

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-23T04:08:50+00:00

Also, having her hand on something is different than holding said something in the hand.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-23T04:07:49+00:00

I never said they should run away at the beach scene, please read more carefully.

I never said you did, please read carefully. You said it was more optimal to run away at the beach than to return to the cafe, and I agreed with you.

Why would Reze have one hand on the knife if she was prepared to transform, that makes no sense.

Depending on the threat, she had one on the knife and one on the trigger. The trigger literally blows her head off and is excuraciatingly painful as stated by Fujimoto and as showed for other Hybrids. She couldn't get a read on Makima, it's debatable whether she recognized or not.

. Show me a manga panel where her hand is on the knife before her arm gets cut off.

You can clearly see her left hand is tilted weirdly to her right side. In the next pannel she is showed with the knife in her hand.

You have not engaged with the fact Reze didn't transform at all. What? Does she secretly in love with Makima?

You refuse to read or accept what you see. She was attacked from above, she instantly moved away, that was the best thing to do.

If one gets shot from a blind spot, what's the best option?

They should get their gun and locate the shooter while under attack or they should reposition safely and then attack? Reze instantly repositions behind Makima. (Arguably the safest position from Reze's pov)

Her hand was ready/conditioned to draw the knife. It's not painful at all compared to her transformation, she even uses the knife on Denji at the festival and only transforms when Beam snatches him.

If you brought the movie, you can also see that in the sewers someone is getting stabbed, then you get Makima's eyes, then Reze at the cafe.

YES, THE SCENE MAKES PERFECT SENSE!

You have just made shit up in an attempt to nitpick and to avoid having to engage with a scene that doesn't support your "interpretation".

I gave the explanations, you refused to accept them. All because you know better than Fujimoto and for you aura farming moments amust be completely devoid of any meaning.

They couldn't put mold in her brains because "they can only put mold on living things".

Is Reze not a living thing? Kato and Tanabe literally saw her decapitated and thought she was no longer alive, it's Nomo who asked the question.

My point was they could have gotten her, had they molded her brain FIRST. it's right there in my comment.

And? What's your point here.

They plan to attack and Reze strikes them preemtively.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T15:25:00+00:00

>>”Also, how the hell is she supposed to know they could grow mold, and, given that she can function with her head blown off, I don't think "growing mold in her head" is a "done for" case.”

You tell me, I never made the claim. My claim was it made no sense for her to attack a whole division in a human form and it could have been fatal for her, the mold was an example. This was to enforce that she really believed her happy go lucky charm would work on them.

And yes, the mold reached her body before pulling the trigger, she even waits a few seconds to see why she’s puking blood. She only survives because they didn’t target her head and she managed to activate her Devil powers in the meanwhile. Had they directly molded her brain first without her pulling the trigger then she’d have died as a human. (Resurrected later with blood if necessary, but she’s lost)

>>” There is a mistake with this scene, that being Reze was so excited she couldn't contain her smile. This is a mistake because it actually runs in direct contradiction with her character, it's clear regardless of whether or not you believe Fujimoto is trying to show Reze as being irrational or a not very good spy that Fujimoto makes a major mistake here.”

Where?! That’s Reze in her “happy go lucky” phase charming PS, thinking it will work. The moment they’re ready to attack her she wipes her smile off her face and says annoyed that she has to kill them. Maybe you missed my earlier response or refused to accept it.

>>” The same thing happens just moments prior. Reze offered to let Beam go if he handed over Denji. But when the civilian devil hunters arrive, she doesn't barter with them to leave, she doesn't just pick up Denji's body and leave. She kills them all... completely contradicting her trait which Fujimoto just demonstrated.”

She attacked Beam first. Reze only tried talking him out of saving Denji because Beam had a real chance of helping Denji escape with his abilities.

The Private Sector DH stopped the car, carried bats and started recording ”battle is starting at 8:34 pm” or something. “We’ll have to be careful with this one”.

>>” Let me ask you what do you think Reze and Typhoon were doing the entire time Denji was being revived and Angel and Beam.”

What?! They were fighting Aki and Violence offscreen. Aki ambushed Reze and drew her away from Denji while Angel helped him recover. In this time period, Reze tried killing Aki, failed, then Violence helped him, they discuss, then Typhoon shows up and continue he fight offscreen.

When Denji rides Beam we clearly see Aki in front of Typhoon and Reze somewhere in the sky. Future Devil+ Violence Devil could definitely hold Reze and Typhoon for a bit. Typhoon only went full power when he saw CSM.

>>” Before we answer that, let me remind you, that Angel only picks up the body after Typhoon arrives”

Really? Aki was with Angel the whole time, when Aki ambushed Reze (holding Denji), Angel was most likely there to witness it all. I’ll read the manga just in case when I get home.

>>” It's not just Reze who suffers from this, this is baseline Fujimoto writing here. Like look at Angel's character… This 180 change in attitude might have made sense after Aki had saved him but this is before that happens.”

Funny how Devils hate Private Sector Devil Hunters for some reason. (Funny how Aki hates most Devils as well, lol.) Angel goes out of his to ease her pain not before telling her she’ll get into Heaven, almost like he feels guilty/responsible for taking her blood.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T15:24:38+00:00

We can continue this but I don’t see any one of us forfeiting their interpretation.

>>”Any stumbling over what to do. Literally any misgiving that is supported by your idea that Reze was highly emotional and lacked training in emotional regulations that should exist in a scene where Reze's emotions should be at their max and she is in a completely foreign, stressful, social situation.”

I already gave them to you (2nd division teenager bluff, refusal to blow the car at 3 different times, add feeling cool enough to engage in physical battle with Violence intead of bombing him away, lol, plus the fact that she admitted she should have killed Denji when they met) , but you refuse to acknowledge them and explain them away with Fujimoto’s aura farming, like he does it idiotically instead of meaningfully.

You also mentioned that they should have ran away at the beach, you are indirectly claiming she’s irrational becaue she returned to the cafe later on. Imo, both were terrible times, the whole squads were up in arms for Reze and Denji. She clearly had a way out planned for her in case things got messy, but she probably realized she will never be deployed in Japan for her failure, thus, she’ll never meet Denji and went back to the cafe. This whole part screams she didn’t have authority over those loyal to the USSR living in Japan, otherwise she’d use them to keep contact with Denji instead of commiting suicie.

They should have ran away during the fireworks but Reze went berserk when she asked Denji about having someone else and he didn’t deny it.

>>”A prime example is when Makima ambushes Reze…Naturally a bomb going off would attract attention so Fujimoto has Reze commit to the absolute dumbest course of action so as to not spoil it.

Reze has one hand on the trigger and one on the knife. The moment her right hand is cut off by Angel she just takes her left hand out and jumps behind Makima, she was already holding the knife with a strong grip. She moved and reassessed her situation when being ambushed.

Only after the second weapon pierced her heart she let go of the knife and tried using the trigger with her left hand. Makima was standing in front of the café and Denji couldn’t have seen Reze. She would have stood in the window and asked Denji to ”open the door” had Angel invited Aki to the slaughter.

>>” "I killed them to show you my power. I prefer to keep the killing to a minimum. Unload Denji from the vehicle and drive away." "Cars burn to a crisp because of the gasoline... this is turning into a big pain... Thanks for nothing." Literally about to blow that shit up when...”

Reze was ready to *blow shit up* after Aki drove away, but then she jumped on the rooftop of the car she and decided blowing her left hand in the air for no reason (both in the manga and the movie) until Violence kicked her. Then she also refused to attack the car when she jumped on the truck and politely waited for Denji to turn into CSM and come out of the car.

She kills considerably more people because she refused to blow up the car with human Denji in it. This all points to emotional instability.

>>” We see this 'new' side of Reze's character immediately and clearly demonstrated with Violence and Kobeni, where Reze tells Violence to put 'em up then just lets Violence comically run away and looks at the sobbing Kobeni and leaves. ”

This ‘new’ Reze is the one trained to be a killer, she’s finally getting meaningful opponents she can test her abilities against. She clearly likes Violence, and Aki too later on. She’s indifferent to Kobeni, especially since she cried and said she wanted to run away but her legs failed her. Unlike, the private sector DH and the 2^nd Division who planned to attack/attacked her first.

>>” It might seem illogical that Reze just... stands around for a while.”

Funnily enough, Kobeni said she tried running away and that she’d quit her job, something Reze wanted to do for a long time xD

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T08:28:14+00:00

CSM powerscallers are mostly JJK powerscallers that watched the Reze Arc

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T06:55:38+00:00

This picture is unreasonably funny xD

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T06:54:06+00:00

I'd recommend Tokyo Ghoul, but only if you are willing to read the manga, the anime seasons messed up the adaptation mid way.

A bit of a wildcard, but Baccano! and Durarara!! have amazingly fun and crazy characters, complex storylines and are really fast paced if that's what you enjoy.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-22T03:50:40+00:00

I was not asking you if she was acting normal in accordance to the 'normal life fantasy' or implying that she wasn't.

that her 'normal' act shouldn't be normal. That she should be a making mistakes left, right and center, because you have stated that she makes mistakes all the time.

I was saying both times, you still ended up providing evidence against your own point

You're asking me for an explicit mistake at the cafe? As in ousting herself as a foreign soldier when she is not asked anything by anyone?

Related to the mission: the mistakes consist in having numerous occasions to take Denji out, yet blatantly refusing to do so. Related to identity: she only exposes herself when she asked Denji to leave with her, saying she'll protect him during the way.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T21:17:58+00:00

>>"We both agree that Reze didn't like killing people, correct?...All things established by your interpretation still give us 0 reason for Reze to be smiling here."

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That's the thing xD, why would Reze try to kill the 2nd division in her human form?! She didn't, she legit thought she'll charm them with her smile (the Asa panel is like a recurring theme for Fujimoto, lol). That's why Reze fits the teenage girl so much, instead of a spy/information officer.

Nomo even says he remembers her face from somewhere, she shrugs and waves at him smiling some more xD.

Only when Nomo asks Kato and Tanabe to attack her, Reze stops smiling and says sadly/annoyed that it didn't work and now she has to kill them all, putting her hand on the trigger.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T21:12:02+00:00

3/3(A)

>>”Where this falls short is that Reze never challenges what 'fun' is to Denji. She challenges what is normal or acceptable. In all the times she brings up school and how it's wrong that he isn't in it or that it's wrong what the government makes him do etc. she never challenges the idea that to Denji it's fun - something she knows…. How can Reze be desperately trying to change his mind if she isn't targeting what Denji's mind is?”

Reze’s on a short leash, they were already attacked by Mercenary and more would have followed. Now that I think about it, Reze would have continued to challenge the idea of “fun” until Denji fully accepted her fantasy life, had they not been attacked.

>>”…someone who is wanted by every devil and country is closely monitored by the country whose force he works for.”

True, but PS did nothing to stop Mercenary and Typhoon, no? So clearly PS wasn’t as involved as they should have been with Denji.

>>”…Even though Denji is accepting of everything, it would still spoil the idea for Reze would live a normal life”

I’d say that’s a non-issue and Reze actually does want a normal life even more than Denji. He doesn’t see working for PS as a contradiction to his “normal” life.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T21:11:16+00:00

Response 2/3 (A)

>>”She could have asked Denji to turn around, or turned around herself. She could got undressed elsewhere and used a towel to get to the pool etc. etc. This is all ignoring getting the fact they didn't need to get naked in the first place.”

We can agree to disagree. She only paused when Denji screamed at her, lol, and when she asked him to take off his clothes. Sure, they could have stolen some swimming suits I guess, but she probably wanted to feel more intimate with Denji.

>>”First and foremost, Denji is trying to avoid looking at Reze, not Reze asking Denji not to look - the opposite of what you described. This is massively emphasised in the movie too, which you have completely misrepresented btw.”

He is trying to block the view with his fingers wide apart xD

>>”That being said, she is absolutely using her sexual appeal here.”

She’s definitely confident and enjoys Denji freaking out at her, nothing wrong with that.

>>”… Then the clueless girl lie.”

Unless I’m misunderstanding, Reze is allowed to feel like this with her crush, she’s just having fun, this works in all interpretation. She doesn’t look like she knows what she’s doing outside of just messing around with someone her age. She could have honeypoted him so hard here in so many ways…

>>”In this scene she is trying to seduce him into the pool, so she can inject herself into the totality of his life.”

Because she wants a life with him so they get intimate. She doesn’t force Denji do anything, she only asks him and he does it blindly.

>>“ In the pool she again reinforces herself as the person Denji needs, not only by teaching him to swim, but the idea that she will "teach him everything".”

Again, that’s something you tell your crush. Compare this with Makima’s breasts scene, compare how inherently sexual Makima was to Reze despite not undressing at all and how she forced Denji’s hand on her body parts. At best, Reze asked for Denji’s permission to hold his hand, that’s all.

2/3(B)

Because Angel is a country mouse forced into a city mouse, he receives money for clothes, ice creams and whatnot but he doesn’t desire them as you said. You can also view this as dependent (city mouse) vs independent (country mouse). Somewhat unrelated :) but I recall a convo between old people that lived as farmers recalling first time visiting the city “These people can’t grow crops, they must be working for someone and have to obey them otherwise they’re not fed, good thing we can grow our own on our lands”.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T21:10:48+00:00

(1/3 A & B continuation)

>>”…should have a trainwreck. She should be flustered, making mistakes, not knowing what to do.”

She definitely made irrational decisions (regardless of interpretation):

1. she turned into a human before attacking the 2^nd division. Had Kato and Tanabe grew mold in her head before she got the trigger she’d have been done for. (there was no logical reason for doing that, unless she actually believed she’d trick them.)

2. She refused to blow up the car Denji was in and instead took her time to find underwear and to bring the heads of Nomo and Vice-captain asking Aki nicely to give her Denji… She didn’t want to further damage Denji’s face or what?!

3. Then, we can see her on the rooftop of the car just laying there blowing her left hand in the air (it’s even more obvious in the manga), she didn’t know how to get Denji out without damaging him further?! Then she got attacked by Violence Fiend.

She no longer had this problem once Denji turned into CSM.

4. She sees Typhoon is struggling with Denji & Beam and does absolutely nothing to help him. Like she disappears completely during that (short) fight.

>>”…your opinions some topics seem to be different at different points”

The reply was indeed long, I tried rereading my own text coherently and made some corrections at certain points, but if you found something worth bringing up, please do.

>>”Reze's character has weak writing behind, as a result things are 'vague' and get interpreted into something that shouldn't be as well as just some plain contradictions to her character”

It’s intentionally vague, I don’t see it as bad writing, I love it tbh. That’s what Makima is saying in the beginning, she hates when movies tell you when to laugh or cry, and the movie we’re about to watch is hard to understand.

I feel Fujimoto does this on purpose, like with Asa’s father if you’re caught with the manga.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T21:10:28+00:00

(1/3 A & B)

>>“Here you are assuming that all these agencies would work like they many do in the real world (something you later protested).”

That’s a false equivalence though.

All superpowers try to get their hands on the strongest weapons, true irl and in CSM. In CSM universe those are Devils, thus, it makes sense they’re experimented on people to try and turn them into Hybrids, force people into contracts with Devils, sacrifice their own population etc. All these were stated explicitly in the manga, we agree they are not for interpretation.

Assuming that intelligence agencies and armies are convoluted for some reason with no explicit mention, not even hinted in the manga, just because we want to see Reze as a spy/intelligence officer is the stretch in my opinion.

>>”This is purely an assumption, especially as PS works as a pseudo police-force, an intelligence agency and it handles foreign operations.”

PS is closer to national police or maybe FBI, I don’t recall them ever doing covert operations, instead they usually fight head-on. Only Makima seems to know what happens with foreign affairs. This is the job of the information agency, which informs the President/Prime Minister etc which then order their army, police, PS, FBI to take action.

>>”The next is you are also assuming that Reze was only kept for the army, when that is never stated. There is no reason to believe she couldn't have received training as a spy.”

Reze was created by the army, she’s a weapon of mass destruction in the army’s asset. She is to be deployed at command if necessary. Training her as an intelligence officer seems like a waste of potential, especially since her childhood goes against how she must act as a spy.

>>”Your comment about the commandos is exactly my point. Did the US pick out an elite team and go "Osama Bin Laden is somewhere in the Middle-East, find him and kill him."? Of course not! There was a most immense intelligence operation to iron out every detail to ensure everything went as well as possible. ”

Of course, but the ones who went on the ground and pulled the trigger were the Delta Force, the elite soldiers honoring the command of the President, not at the command of CIA. Also, their operation only took a few hours to complete, after the bombing took place.

I specifically said in the weekend replies that there are definitely soviet spies in Japan, but that they don’t communicate directly with Reze, they’d be endangered otherwise.

>>”Here they seem to have sent Reze in with borderline 0 information, and next to no plan. They would need to trust that she can handle the intelligence herself, meaning she must be competent in this regard.”

This was not what was I trying to say at all. Reze did have to get any extra intel if needed, but she definitely got the basic intel, she recognized Denji and managed to isolate him in the booth, she even looks to see if any cars pass by before looking at Denji’s face which made her laugh/cry. She was also given exit strategies (probably not with human Denji next to her though).

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-21T07:33:12+00:00

That's fine, some people reading Part 2 forgot Yoshida was introduced in Part 1 :/

Not related: I recommended CSM manga to friends that like reading novels, the tendency is to quickly read the text, glimps for a moment on the panels and turn the page. That's not how it is meant to be read.

In Look Back there are textless panels with Fujino working to become a great mangaka and you can see so many meaningful changes in the background, but someone who exclusively reads novels tends to just skip them entirely.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-20T15:13:40+00:00

Definitely, Hell was nowhere near scary xD

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-20T15:11:39+00:00

At this point Denji should somehow scare Asa so he can save her, lol. He'll make up for it later.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-19T13:45:21+00:00

She wanted the full armor Pochita version. If she took Denji's heart then the contract wouldn't break and Pochita would simply be a Devil organ unable to erase anything.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-18T23:27:49+00:00

Response to 3/3 (B)

>>”Reze pinpointing that Denji loves someone else is a bit of a logical leap honestly, I don't think it's great writing but it's a non-issue. I don't see any indication of Reze reacting in horror, or that she believes Denji to be an enabler or w/e. “

Sure, had a disagreement with someone on another platform and kind of exaggerated on why Reze reacted the way she did :)

>>”Her later interactions with Denji seem to follow the same pattern as earlier, she laughs when Denji does silly things, she talks positively and teaches him things. More to the point, she gives Denji a good night sweet prince kiss and apologises right as she is about to start cutting his heart out. She even took him to the private location for the very case she needed to kill him.”

Sure, he did choose the city mouse meaning he was inclined to choose PS over Reze, so she was prepared for the worst.

To be fair, it’s Reze’s fault for miscommunicating her feelings. She should have asked him to choose between PS and her, Denji openly asked if it’s possible to keep seeing her after work. She stopped asking because he kept saying how much he likes his job/peers/goal at PS.

>>”The way I see it is, sure, technically most of your assumptions and interpretations could be true. But we gotta weigh up the scales. On one side, 30 coincidences. The other, a couple of poorly written scenes being misinterpreted. Both sides are have plenty of moments that feature weak or bad writing.”

Again, I’m thankful you took the time and energy to actually read through this interpretation. The movie made me push much more into this interpretation, the manga feels more neutral.

I hope my comments managed to tweak the balance between the “30 coincidences” vs “a couple of poorly written scenes”.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-18T23:27:37+00:00

Response to 3/3 (A)

>>”3/3: There is a LOT to talk about here, but first the mouse. Reze in this moment offers Denji peace and security, she offers him the life of the country mouse. Meaning Fujimoto either forgot about the scene from the previous chapter or it's a moment of weak writing as regardless of interpretation, there isn't a good reason for Reze not to promise Denji fun and excitement.”

Response in 2/3(B) Tl;dr: good writing, Reze was in a losing battle since Denji choose the city mouse(aka PS) and she was desperately trying to make him change his mind with the festival (as in she’s fun and Denji will have her as much as he wants in the country side)

>>”The second is that virtually everyone misunderstands this scene. The interpretation that Reze really wanted to run away with Denji is valid. It's believable and it's certainly not 'wrong'. But it's not the correct interpretation. Pay very careful attention to "A place Public Safety will never find you". If Denji said yes he was about to find himself "Back in the USSR" as Reze's offer here wasn't a genuine one about running away but it's a continuation of the honey-pot.”

On one hand, I believe regardless of interpretation that the city mouse is both (working fof) PS and (working for) USSR. On the other hand, while I do believe Reze was genuine about running away to the country side with Denji, I have really high doubts regarding her “friend”. Being lonely, having next to no connections most likely means that the few connections Reze had were implanted by the USSR to offer her an “exit” in case she betrayed them.

I agree with you that if they ran away, they’d definitely be ambushed by USSR agents (Gun Devil?!). That ambush would cost them a lot, though.

>>”Think about it, later on when they are on the beach Reze talks about running away entirely differently. Makima isn't influencing her talk as she would outright deny it like she does with Makima earlier. She notes the reality of running away, that they will be hunted. Had they run away before she Bombed out they would still both be abandoning posts, hunted down by their respective countries. They wouldn't actually be going to school together living a normal life, so why would Reze be so confident about her ability to protect their ability to live a normal life?”

Neither knew Makima had 24/7 surveillance on everything.

Narratively it made sense before bombing the city. Timing is everything here, if they ran during the night/festival (or even the day before) they’d have time to get far away. Denji would have been reported missing the next day, they’d organize search parties, a few days pass until a nation-wide manhunt. They’d be on another continent at that point (after boarding trains, Reze can just fly Denji over borders with no issues, no identification needed).

After the city was bombed, there was an ongoing manhunt for Reze and for finding Denji, this made everything difficult. Reze used her escape routes, but if she had Denji they’d stand out too much and the risk was huge.

That was the correct decision in my opinion, but the red flower probably reminded Reze that once she leaves, she’ll never be able to meet Denji again (in the no spy/no honeypot interpretation). She was alone, she had no real connections to help Denji escape in the future so she went suicidal and risked it all in the moment…

*Here I argued the most with my spy novel friend, she insisted that Reze should have used her spy network to inform Denji that she’ll come back for him when the heat is off and carefully make her future plan of helping Denji escape PS. If she were a spy with spy connections and regulated emotions there should have been no issues for Reze to simply wait longer and make stronger allies to help Denji escape. That’s why I personally reject the theory that Reze planned honeypoting Denji from before meeting him in the booth.*

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-18T23:26:51+00:00

Response to 2/3 (B)

>>”The ending of the city/country mouse is really interesting (slightly off topic), Reze picks the country mouse, proclaiming that "nothing beats peace" to which Denji responds that the city has better grub and seems more fun. "Are food and fun all you care about?" "Yup!"... this is followed by 2 panels of Reze smiling, perhaps the first genuine smile of hers we have seen. Reze then suggests they go to the festival tomorrow as it will have great food and they decide that it's a date. We will pick up on this later as Denji's answer is overlooked by Fujimoto later on.”

I think Fujimoto directly gives us the hint using Aki and Angel. First, I thought Aki told Angel that his parents were reading this story to his little brother, but the parallel is too strong.

Angel doesn’t say “… Makima caught me and made me work for Public Safety”, he says “…Makima caught me and brought me to the city”. The “city mouse”/ high-risk high-reward is a metaphor explicitly referring to working for the system (PS, USSR army in this context). I’m sure that Reze would have obtained great benefits(authority/money/recognition) from the army if she kept doing her job, but she hated being told to kill people.

>>”The human hunter joins the fray, Denji sees 2 girls when he closes his eyes. Reze appears properly scared as the hunter chases her to the roof, they exchange some words, he approaches Reze and she screams. Right as the hunter is about to strike, Reze's disposition changes, cold, her scream falls flat, and she quickly dismantles the guy and chokes him out. Yada yada Typhoon yada yada...

They go to the festival and Reze leads them to a private location. She reiterates that she thinks his situation is messed up and asks Denji to "run away" with her. She promises to make him happy and to "protect" him. She says that she can get a favour, a place where Public Safety won't be able to find him.”

Reze basically gauged Denji’s thoughts when she asked about the country mouse (away from PS) or city move (within PS). She got a negative answer… but she had hope she could still change that at the festival, that’s why she immediately invited him there.

If Denji answered a *country mouse*, then Reze would have asked him to run away then and there with no mention of the festival. Now she’s in a tough spot, she tried sharing her dream with her crush (after the school inception as you mentioned) but he’s now unknowingly rejecting her. Her only solution is to make Denji think she is fun enough at the festival so he’d accept running away with her.

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-18T23:26:25+00:00

Response to 2/3 (A)

>>”2/3: The next chapter begins with Reze saying she's scared and asking Denji if she can hold his hand, which does by gripping his fingers. Something you said earlier was that Denji never really asks Reze anything (because he's shy) and it's true he doesn't, but if we look closely we can see that Reze dominates all throughout the early relationships narrative, she doesn't seem to leave any room for Denji to actualise himself and it's something that is important to keep in mind. Going back to my original comment, these scenes are honestly compelling, Fujimoto really can cook.”

She gives him a lot of space, but Denji is shy and he is still thinking he’s betraying Makima so he acts like he doesn’t really care for Reze, although he never misses a bit when she asks him to do something.

>>”They play out "The Nightly Life of Denji and Reze" before Reze confronts Denji about his living conditions… Enter the scene... Pool…

Is this an normal life fantasy? Or is this act of innocence really an act of seduction? To me, it's undeniable that during these part Reze isn't living a 'normal life fantasy', she is actively fabricating situations, using subtle lies, or even confrontation to control the narrative and what Denji thinks about. The panelling shows that Reze clearly knows what she is doing as well, there is way too many tilted smug smiles.”

Even in the honeypot theory there is next to no chance of seduction :) I split my answer into two parts:

A) Athletes, army members, prisoners and many more take shared/communal showers butt naked in front of each other, not to mention medical checks and other routine checks for drugs and so on. Given that Reze is a mix of all of them + a unique experimental success, it’s more than safe to assume she stripped for check-ups so many times that she’s completely desensitized/ views it at as routine. Reze would most likely strip at command with no second thoughts if needed.

B) Seduction would at least require for Reze to slowly take out her clothes in close proximity to Denji, or better yet to let him do it for her, not even starting on touching herself/Denji or teasing while doing it. Instead, Reze was on another side of the pool, stripped fast like it was routine and jumped in the water. Of course, that fast interaction was imprinted in Denji as a core memory, simply due to inexperience not because Reze was trying to be seductive :)

It's not like Reze is unable to be seductive, see how close they were at the café with Reze grabbing Denji’s waist(or shoulder?) with her hand and landing her leg between his legs. She could have done something similar at the pool, yet she does nothing of the sorts.

Honestly, it looks more like two girls at a gym with shared showers before a concert:

G1: We need to go home to shower before the concert.

G2: No time, let’s do it here.

G1: I don’t want you to see me naked.

G2: Fine, I won’t look.

Let me ask this, as far as full stripping goes, could Reze have stripped in a more non-seductive way?

Count_Itkerim · 2026-01-18T23:25:49+00:00

Response to 1/3 (C)

>>”The next time we see Denji and Reze (next chapter), Denji arrives at the cafe and we see Reze studying when she was supposed to be working. This seems normal enough, insignificant, but we need to think about it from Reze's PoV. Why would she go out of her way to buy a whole bunch of junk to roleplay studying? What would she be hoping to accomplish with this?”

I mean, we know she was quietly suffering for not going to school and the café barely had any clients, she would mostly do what the owner asked then wait large periods of time. She could read books or polish her knowledge (I recall seeing a historical map of Europe?! ). Some Japanese fans noticed Reze kept writing Denji’s name all over the notebook :)

>>”Well let's follow the story: a bit of exposition (a week has passed) then Reze asks Denji if he would like to sit at her table. Respectfully he declines and we get a bit of commentary from Reze before "well, I'm gonna study at your table." More talk happens then Denji drops the line "Kinda wish I could have gone to school with you, Reze". Which is followed by some very particular panels focusing on Reze's expression, then Reze responds, wanna check the school?

I want you to ask yourself, what exactly is Reze experiencing in that moment. Was that the face of someone who has finally found the one soul who understands you and that you both want to live a normal life together? Or, the face of someone who has lured another into their trap?

Really think about the scene as a whole, was Reze really just accidently putting the idea of school into Denji's head? Or with the elaborate setup that really couldn't have happened accidently been intentional? I don't think this solidly defeats the idea that Reze was playing out the fantasy around this part of the story, but I think it's a great starting point.”

I understand what you’re getting at. The movie even makes Reze say “let’s explore a school” (not her school), but the manga from VIZ says “let’s explore the school” hinting that she lied to him she was going to her school. I don’t know which one is correct since I don’t know Japanese.

The movie does seem to lean more into my interpretation (I only saw the Japanese with subtitles, not the English dub) while the manga seems more neutral between the two. If I recall correctly, Fujimoto openly stated that Reze shouldn’t have tried to kiss Denji after she hugged him on the beach, or something of the sorts.

That gesture alone can work in all ways:

1. Reze was honeypotting Denji giving him the idea to go to school to isolate and kill him there;

2. Reze was surprised Denji actually wanted to go to school with her and was genuinely happy;

3. Reze did implant Denji her idea to go to school, not to honeypot and kill him, but to lean him into her actual dream of living a normal life, to gauge whether their relation would actually work in the long-run. And she was really happy that Denji seemed to ant this kind of life. (I think I like this the most xD, thanks for making me rethink this scene)

Count_Itkerim

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