In the year 198 of the Age of the Sun, Tokyo is a crowded cosmopolis. But the world’s most populous city is threatened by devils that cause people to burst into flame at random. The only ones who can stop it are the Pyrofighters, a team of specialized firefighters. The young Shinra, blessed with the ability to ignite his feet and travel at the speed of a rocket, wants nothing more than to be a hero, and knows that this is the place for him. But he’s not the best at following orders. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation
Episodes: 24
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: As a child, Shinra witnessed the death of his mother and younger brother in a horrible fire. As one with pyrokinetic abilities, he was blamed for the accident, but Shinra remembers having seen something terrifying withing the billowing flames. Now, his talents with fire have lead him to join the Fire Force, a group of firefighters who help put to rest the souls of infernals, those inexplicably consumed by flames.
No one knows what caused the appearance of the infernals in the first place, though one of the duties of the Fire Force is to attempt to deduce the cause of these seemingly random fiery transformations. As Shinra goes on his first mission, he begins to experience the parallels between his own experience and the situation at hand. It’s this understanding that allows Shinra to draw upon his pyrokinetic power and put the infernal to rest.
Impressions: I was never a huge fan of Soul Eater, but one positive thing that I remember about it was that it had a definite, strong sense of visual style. With its Tim Burton inspired environments, it definitely differentiated itself from other action anime series. Being based on source material by the same author, Fire Force re-imagines a roughly modern Japan with a lived-in, 1960’s-ish vibe, and populates this environment with characters that have very creatively-managed abilities. The first episode managed to build a fairly interesting world in a short amount of time, but though the setting is intriguing enough, there were actually other parts of the episode I found more compelling.
To put it bluntly, this episode has some of the best animation I’ve seen recently. While animators definitely have their specialties, I feel like one of the more difficult things to animate (at least in a realistic way) are organic “special-effects” sorts of things like smoke and fire. I think as anime fans we’re somewhat immune to mediocre, wonky character animation, because almost every series has an episode or two (or ten) with those kinds of problems. But billowing smoke, crackling flames, explosions, and other complimentary animation effects can really establish an episode’s look and feel, for good or ill. With a title like Fire Force, one would hope that the fire in question would look good, and it absolutely does; the smoke flows thick and the flames lick at the sky in a way that feels both natural and supernatural.
I was surprised to learn that this series is being produced by David Production. While in most cases I don’t think the specific studio is necessarily a determiner of quality, a lot of their output has been of the quirkier, less animation-focused variety. Even their (until now) flagship series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure hasn’t always necessarily looked the cleanest (though that’s rarely a detriment to a series with so much personality). I would have pegged this episode as Studio Bones or something similar, just due to the overall quality and visual style. Yes, it looks that good.
Shinra is sort of a standard shounen protagonist, though his backstory is a bit more interesting than he is, if that makes sense. Lately I’ve been interested in the way that media handles stories about trauma, because I find that, more often than not, those stories are told in ways that don’t do justice to the reality of those experiences. Shinra’s past of having been blamed for his family’s fiery death speaks to the ways in which we search for people and things to blame in cases of random, completely nonsensical crimes; when situations are out-of-control, being able to point a finger at someone or something (even if incorrect) allows us to feel as though we’ve taken some of that control back. Unfortunately, those who become scapegoats end up suffering, and that piece of Shinra’s story that’s told via several flashbacks does a good job of demonstrating that kind of deep harm.
The interesting counterpart to Shinra’s story is the religion that seems to have sprung up in conjunction with the appearance of the infernals, which appears in its belief system to resign itself to the fact of the randomness by which people are afflicted by their fiery transformations. Again, this is a disease which appears to have no discernible cause; the fact that the Fire Force itself is accompanied by a nun with no abilities beyond prayer for the souls of the fallen, speaks to a desire to take action and attempt to make sense of something that’s terrifyingly unpredictable. Shinra’s fire-wielding powers seem just as random as the people bursting into flames (though his abilities seem to be genetic), so why not afford him the same grace as others? The answer, I suppose, is that he exists somewhere in between humanity and infernal, and that kind of power is often as reviled as it is heralded for its usefulness. I think that interplay of ideas is very intriguing.
The only real issue I had with this episode unfortunately has to do with its women. I admittedly have a bit of foreknowledge here via a friend of mine who’s familiar with the manga (and hopefully the anime series tones things down a bit), but it’s clear even from this episode that the “attitude” the story has toward the couple of women who are introduced is somewhat different from the men. They’re featured in a shower scene during the episode (having a conversation that could have taken place anywhere else), and there’s kind of a leery shot of one character’s chest. This isn’t the type of material I usually find worth getting up-in-arms about, but I do think that when a new episode of anime is as impressive as this one is otherwise, that kind of material has the effect of pulling me back down to Earth and reminding me that I’m not considered the target audience for the material. I don’t need an invitation to every party, but it would be nice to at least feel welcome – especially since fanservice doesn’t appear to be the main draw. I will say that I appreciate the fact that Maki has the type of muscular physique that I’d expect of someone working in a physically-intense job.
By the time I watched this episode, the heaviness of the Kyoto Animation situation was already weighing on me. Even so, I think this episode sheds many of the uncomfortable parallels it may otherwise have had to begin an intriguing narrative. In an otherwise strong season, this episode still manages to stand out.
Pros: The episode does a good job of illustrating the protagonist’s trauma. the animation is impressive.
Cons: There’s fanservice that distracts and detracts.
Content Warnings: Fire-related violence (spontaneous human combustion, people trapped in fires, etc.).
Grade: B
One reply on “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Fire Force”
Yes, the all-fanservice character introduced later is a make-or-break for the series, and evidently the treatment of her by the story was not visibly toned down.