Reviews for Fire Force

Fire force is a story about people with fiery hearts fighting fire with fire. Set in a world where people spontaneously combust and turn into mindless burning zombies the Fire Force is responsible for controlling the damage caused by these “infernos”. Many people in this world are bestowed upon by Solomon the ability to control fire. After watching the first two episodes I really thought I would be able to enjoy this, but shortly afterwards the enjoyment I found in the bombastic nature of the first two episodes was burnt and tossed into oblivion. This is probably the worst directed and worst framed show to comeout this year. Riddled with sudden cuts, weird framing, stupid fanservice and soulless jokes and characters every bit of potential that the show held was thrown into the nether. Plot elements are pulled out of the author’s ass at very inappropriate times with characters making a sudden appearance and then disappearing just as quickly. Characters are brought into the show and thrown away for the duration of 5-6 episodes until they’re needed again to exposit about the world or the plot.

The characters are, quite frankly, shite.

“Gone are the days when authors wrote personalities and traits and then implemented those traits and associated mannerisms onto the avatar affiliated with the personality in question thus birthing an actual character instead of lazily creating an empty husk decorated with cliché.” – Douchebag Chocolat

The above quote perfectly describes the characters in this show. Instead of giving the characters a personality, they’re provided with certain traits and stupid mannerisms in order to deceive the audience into thinking that each character is somehow different than the next. Unfortunately, except maybe two or three every other character is basically the same. Even the protagonist, Shinra, has a certain habit of “smiling in the face of danger because his face muscles tense up”. There’s another guy who calls himself a knight just because his name is Arthur and he wields a sword. Seriously, this guy is so obsessed with the idea of becoming a knight that his power will literally increase if he even thinks that he’s riding a horse and has a duty to protect someone. The cat girl, Tamaki’s only purpose in life seems to be to get her boobs or ass in someone’s face “accidently” and then to call them a pervert. Iris almost does nothing but blush, the lieutenant is always grumpy and scaring his subordinates. There’s also Maki who can only utter the phrase, “Who are you calling a gorilla cyclops” even when no one has addressed her as such.

The characters don’t have much drive to do anything. Only Shinra and the commander of the 8th division are given any motivation as to why they do what they do. As for the other characters’ motivations and goals, the show usually gives us a half-assed backstory and is done with it. Most female characters like the dark-skinned girl, or the cat girl are used for fanservice. At one time the show almost tuned into a harem as every girl at whom Shinra even looked at started to fall for him.

Personally, I don’t care about the characters, except Joker, he was pretty cool, but it’s a shame that he only gets about 2 seconds of screen time in the whole show. I like the Joker cause he’s cool, not because he’s a well-constructed character. He’s brought in to tell Shinra about the main events that concern the plot and then he disappears.

Almost forgot, there’s also Shinra’s brother, Sho, who was separated from Shinra at a very young age and now he’s a bad, bad guy working as the Evangelist to bring about a third impact and Shinra must pilot th-… oh, wait, wrong anime.

The comedy is… there. The “comedy” usually consists of - a girl slipping out of her clothes for no apparent reason; Shinra and Arthur threatening to kill each other; a girl showing her tits or ass; Arthur claiming to be a knight but being ignored and a girl being molested. All these three situations are used to provide “comic relief”. The comedy also includes Maki shouting about someone calling her a Gorilla Cyclops. This joke was funny the first time, but after a 100 times, it became pretty annoying.

Watching the first episode, I remember thinking to myself “Man, this show is sure going to have some fire fights”, but only the first episode has any good fights. The fights that occur after the first episode are so badly choreographed that neither you, nor the characters can figure out what’s happening. I, in most fights, had no idea as to the spatial relations between the characters who were fighting. One scene they’re having a stare down, the next scene they fly towards each other, the next scene we see Shinra’s feet and then the fight is settled. After that the camera focuses on someone’s face for a bit too long and then abruptly cuts to another fight happening somewhere in the vicinity.

I never gave directors the respect they deserved for properly framing the characters until I watched this show. The camera either lingers on a particular subject for too long, or abruptly cuts to some other subject too quickly. This weird camera work usually happens after someone cracks a joke or when someone pisses someone off and was probably intended for us, the audience, to realize the awkwardness the characters were put in; but all it did for me was make me aware of the fact that I wanted to fast forward through the episode.

Not every fight is awkwardly animated. Some of the fights are really good, like Benimaru, the strongest fire bender vs a demon; Shinra vs the red-haired guy from the 1st division; Shinra vs a demon, but starting from the middle of the show the fights became pretty hard to follow.

The music didn’t appeal to me, but that’s subjective. I did like the first opening and the first ending, the second OP and ED were horrible. The music was tone deaf at times and sometimes the choice of music didn’t fit the scene it was being used for.

Should you watch Fire Force? I’ll leave that judgeme(n)t up t(o) you.

I really thought this was going to be different from your typical small deal shonen series. The first two episodes were fun as heck. Supernatural firefighters fought against flames with axes and machine guns while nuns tried to tame them with "holy water". Exactly the type of nonsense I am into, easy to enjoy, I thought. But then the show showed its true colors. Incredibly unfitting and unnecessary ecchi fanservice and boob fondling. Soulless comedic reliefs. Dialogue is constantly masked as story-telling/backstory narrative in a manner so pathetic that it seems like a parody, whilst lessening the genuity of the characters. Illogical story events are therepushing the narrative in preferred direction. Teleporting villains. Asspulled mystery elements that seem to exist just so that the series won't entirely fall under monster of the week formula, and to give the audience at least one reason to watch the next episode -- yet entirely failing to stop the series from feeling repetitive. Build up and world building are greatly missing, making the series very flat and its content insignificant.

Then we have the directing which deserves its own paragraph, or two (more specifically three), because it's seriously goddamn weird.

Scenes are missing entire animation sequences, and scenes play out so randomly, so quickly and so illogically that it almost seems like there is no continuity. This because the directing is all over the place. We're jumping from scene to another either at ludicrous tempo or alternatively waiting for one unnecessary long to reach its end, because it can go on forever. So incredibly many events occur in every episode, they are filled with content, but afterwards, it feels like you didn't really watch anything. It's entirely mixed back and lacking vision to an extent that it makes the entire story board seem way worse than it's on script.

The creativity and overall style is a bonus, but when obviously half-assedly created scenes (such as the entire mid section of episode 3) exist in the meantime, things become super inconsistent, and, more than anything, the high points appear as try-hard attempts to create style-over-substance content. This is how the style stops being a bonus and becomes the only good thing to look forward to, but, unfortunately, very often it's not even worth the wait. In case you have no idea what I am referring to, let me explain what I've spotted:

There are even scenes which come with insanely detailed and fluid animation that are followed by a mid scene still wallpaper (with absolutely no artistic relevance to the scene itself) and then continued with legit animation one second later, but with production values that seem to be from totally different anime. They skip up to 30-second-long scenes by implementing in-between stills in this manner. It's lame and so painfully obvious. You could take 50 screenshots from episode 4, and have people guessing which anime they are from and no one would guess they all lead back to one single series. The artistic approach changes between One Punch Man Season 01 and 02 from scene to another. I can't recall seeing anything this extreme before and I surely don't see this as a good thing. In fact, it made me feel dizzy. I don't think I could marathon this show without legit needing to vomit. It's simply too much to take. And needless to say, with all of these, things like tension and atmosphere are returning 404. Show me the man who planned this disaster and I will kindly, yet firmly, ask them to stop. This is not how you do anime, Jesus Christ.

I could list down more issues and I could forgive some of these to certain extent, after all, it's not like modern anime doesn't come with their own problems, but the point is; there are no strong pros here. Only wide variety of beginner-level mistakes, some experimental directing which is totally gross and very little anything to counter these problems with. What we have at hand is yet another serial production shonen that shows no heart or passion. Perhaps Bones should have been in charge of this because they currently produce the most consistent art work in the industry and Fire Force would really need some. To be more accurate, there are no problems with the audio. SFX, BGM and seiyuu work are all decent (tho, I wouldn't have picked this voice for the nun), and especially the sound mixing stands out for positive reasons, because in action series, the balance of music and SFX is highly important, and it's nailed here. But that's a mild solace.

The characters never had potential personalities, but in the beginning they seemed to be quite a fun bunch of folks due to their insane firefighting techniques. I was hyped for the entertainment value of this partially mindless action and thought it could carry the series. Now we have neko-eared fanservice girl, religious waifubait (with everlasting, ever-so-subtle blush on her face), and firefighter teenager with jedi-sword. Boooo-ring. Personally, I care very little about any of them. Solid reasons to care have not been offered, and I haven't found alternatives myself. The dialogue is really not helping either. Most of the potentially interesting side characters are becoming invisible and their potentially entertaining sides being pushed away.

Then we have the real mc who doesn't have much going on. Devil but actually a good guy who wants to be "a hero". Basically copy-paste of Ao no Exorcist. The lack of factors that make you care about him, make him relatable or worth of caring about further makes the series feel more distant and less significant. MC is the type of character whose persona is cut down to naivete due to his moral compass, but even that side of him can only be found deep under his skin, because this dude's presence is almost nonexistent. Even if the massive room for character development gets realized, you just won't see anything new. After these few episodes, I can say this with utmost certainty, because when so many basic things are wrong, seeing improvement that leads all the way to the other end of the scale is lottery. The cast is not impressive, and the delivery even less. The "villains" have also reached a point where they can be completely dull and unconvincing. At worst, they feel filler-ish. "I came here to be beaten by one of the main characters, so you folks can do his character introduction."

I expected much more from the man who created Soul Eater, because I enjoyed that show enough to watch it twice. And I really hoped this would be the first David Production show -that is not Jojo- which I could approve of. It momentarily fooled me into thinking that this was going to be the case, but it changed my mind fast and looks like it will not be doing that again. Not even slowly. I conclude that everything that was worth of my time in this series has already been shown because it just keeps getting worse. It's a real shame because the backdrops, original design, and color pallet really had some fantastic things to offer at times. + the ED is my personal favorite from this season, but what can you do.

Fire Force offers one of the more original takes on Shonen, instead of being about a kid out to get stronger or take on the world, we get a story about a world in which humans live in constant fear of suddenly exploding and turning into flame monsters. As someone who has been following the manga since the start, I was quite excited for this adaptation and was not disappointed at all. The source material was perfectly adapted and pacing was never an issue throughout. Characters and the world are properly developed and after the series gets going, you really do become attached to themain cast and genuinely become invested in their individual stories.

The fight scenes are the main selling point of any battle shonen and they’re done extremely well in this series. Gorgeous animation and amazing sound design/ost to compliment them.

I will say this, there have been many complaints on twitter and other social media about the amount of fan service particularly as it relates to Tamaki. Personally, I have no issue with fan service and don’t see why anyone would mind it, but if you do, you may find parts of the show difficult to get through as her fan service is often used as a plot device and in a later arc actually proves very decisive.

Personally, my one complaint with the series are the camera shots that seem to linger after a person has finished talking. For instance, if Shinra and Arthur are talking and Arthur finishes his sentence, for some reason the camera stays on him for like a full 5 seconds which for me creates a cognitive dissonance. Probably a minor thing, but I felt it was important enough to mention.

TL:DR Fire Force is at the front of the new gen, interesting premise, cool characters, Soul Eater author, cool fights and music(minus OP 2) and a story you’ll get sucked into. Check it out.

Many people say Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is the hottest new show of 2019 and it’s no understatement. Then, there’s this show called Fire Force where reports told that it had only sold 107 blu-ray disks in Japan. On the other hand, Demon Slayer sold more than 11k copies in its first week. What went wrong? First of all, I don’t want to actually compare the two shows because they are actually not very similar. Both shows deals with supernatural entities to survive in their world and that’s where the similarity ends. But why did Fire Force suffer so much from popularity? Judging bythe show on its own, Fire Force actually has a unique premise, one that deals with death by fire. It’s one of the most fearful ways mankind can die since the dawn of time. The thought of being burnt alive is beyond chilling, a way of death that no one wants to happen to them. Unfortunately, in the world of Fire Force, that’s part of a dark reality. People meet the risk of becoming beings known as “Infernals”, where they eventually meet their demise by burnt alive. The three words “Spontaneous Human Combustion” is designated as words of fear.

What is mankind’s solution? It’s called the Special Fire Corps, consisting of individuals who can actually control fires to destroy the Infernals. Think of them as supernatural firefighters dealing with abnormalities. In a world of fear, you’d think mankind would fight for survival. This is where we meet Shinra Kusakabe, the Second Class recruit with a desire to discover the truth behind his family’s death. Being a hothead protagonist, Shinra adapts an impulsive personality that you can find in some dark fantasy shows. And it doesn’t take long for Shinra to start making a name for himself, albeit for some rebellious reasons. While watching Shinra, I come to realize that he is a good natured kid at heart but deals with problems too impulsively that sometimes puts others at risk. His early relationships with his crew such as Arthur and Maki often gets into bickering and arguments that can be best described as very high school-ish. But like I said before, Shinra is fundamentally a courageous young man who we shouldn’t overlook for his actions that speaks louder than words.

And because Shinra is part of the Special Fire Force Company 8, it becomes the most prominently featured group in the show. Not every character will be likable in this group and often times, ideals clashes between their members that results in a ton of silliness. Company 8’s early missions deals with typical assignments to eradicate Infernals but as the show evolves, so does their role. In fact, the true role for the company may be to investigate the other companies in case any of them are hiding something from the world. However, company 8 is symbolic for being rebellious due to the nature of their formation. This often puts their squad in odds with others but that doesn’t stop Shinra to discover the truth. Fire Force sometimes works as an urban fantasy as our main character and others seeks to discover the truth that is hidden from them. The plot gets more complex as each episode ventures on and with 24 episodes, the anime becomes more than fighting fire with fire.

At its best, Fire Force can keep the fans engaged with some of its fluid ideas. As this anime consists of dark fantasy, it also contains settings with thrilling secrets, such as the Netherworld. There’s a sense of curiosity that this show wants us to always be on the lookout for hidden motives. When watching the characters, I also came to realize each them have their own agendas and purpose. Not every character get their significance though so bear that in mind. There are some minor characters that have been easily discarded and be forgotten such as the Infernals early in the show. Others such as the Knights of the Ashen Flame serves as an iconic cult shrouded with secrets. This season only scratches the surface of their roles so it’s an unfortunate case of adaptation issue. Other companies are less featured even with roles of some of the more prominent characters such as Hibana from Company 5 and Captain Benimaru from Company 7. The creators of the show had Shirna and his company to be the group to carry the plot together. It’s a bit disappointing at some instances where I find characters such as Benimaru more fascinating than the main leads. This is especially true for the commander of the Knights of Ashen Flame, Shou Kusakabe. He may be young but Shou is a cold character with a lack of empathy for others. He stands as a major obstacle for Shinra and the others to overcome and in one of those episodes, we see the difference in their fighting skills.

At its worst, Fire Force’s storyboarding suffers from balance. Sometimes, the show can be emotional and make us feel sympathetic for the characters such as the case with Vulcan and Lisa’s relationship. Other times, they seem wasted with endless workplace comedy being dumped into our faces. I get it. Fire Force anime has to keep the mood lighthearted sometimes but I find the cartoony humor unsuitable for this type of show. This doesn’t help but Shirna’s weird condition related to his forced smile, the uncharacteristic fan service gags (mostly thanks to Tamaki), or other elements. Shirna’s character personality can be unbearably annoying at times when you realize how hotheaded he is. Even in battle, he doesn’t hold back and often fights like a maniac on fire. However, I will say that Shirna’s “Devil’s Footprints” skill can be quite a showstopper thanks to the cinematic choreography he delivers.

This is accomplished with the help of David Production and their talented staff. Fire Force’s cinematography commands attention and is described simply as spectacular. Director Yuki Yase had previously worked on unorthodox projects such as Mekakucity Actors, Nisekoi, and Monogatari Series. Granted, you’re not going to see Shaft’s head tilts but there’s plenty more this anime does show you. For instance, every big fight this anime throws at you concentrates on the fire being animated as if it’s alive. Watching the flames burn in various battles shows the complexity and dangers of fighting fire. These fire abilities are also distinctive that takes on different shapes and every one of them can cause devastation. By cause and effect, being burnt alive is a morbid thought to think about and this anime amplifies that feeling to maximum heights. Fire Force also contains visual coloring of is setting and decorative outfits, in particular the company members. The audience may also feel a bit of familiarity for those have read or seen Soul Eater, one of the author’s prominent works. In contrast, the Infernals stands above as the symbolism of horror and despair. Watching their mere presence alone should sent the messenge that they are what mankind truly fears for what they may become.

Fire Force clocks in at 24 episodes, a 2-cour show that’s paradoxical for celebrating the consequences of fire. This may be a dark fantasy but somewhere down the line, you’re going to have some laughs at this show for its innate humor. But seriously, I wouldn’t say Fire Force is a masterpiece or even close. It’s another one of those anime built with a wealth of ideas but drops the ball. The phrase “if you play with fire, you’re going to get burnt” just took on a whole peculiar meaning.

I was looking forward to watching Fire Force with all the PV teasers and with David Productions listed under. I made it something I shouldn't miss. Boy, was I wrong. I'm going to keep this review short and sweet. Not much detail necessary to get the message through why this adaptation is shit. Pacing, pacing, pacing. I'm pretty sure the director doesn't know the meaning of pacing. It's like I'm watching a generic Hollywood action movie that wanted to get on the hype train just because. Either the show is cutting shots literally every fucking second or it holds a still way too long making everything feelawkward. There is no direction in the scenes, it could go from the character sexually assaulting another character to a full blown fire fight with a main villain without a moment passing.

The story barely fucking exists cause, well the pacing so weird I can't tell what's happening half the time. So much happens in the episode but nothing happens at all. Can't tell it's suppose to be plot, fanservice or a fight scene.

While the animation itself looks good especially in the fights, it just makes it that much worst imaging how good the adaptation if better care was given.

There is nothing really much more I can say before this review turns into a full on rant. I even gave it 6 episodes just for this review since my earlier review was removed and it is still one of slowest experiences I've had watching any type of shows. Coming from viewer who's spent significant time on Slice of Lifes, I don't see how anyone could watch this show for a "fast paced action Shonen".

Although, the ED bangs.

Let me take you back to 2003. Atsushi Ookubo, creator of Fire Force, is making waves with Soul Eater, a manga that would go on for 10 successful years - sparking an anime adaptation and a spin-off series. Soul Eater was a stand-out shounen that excelled in not only having a fascinating universe, but also characters that were compelling by having...well, personalities. And while Soul Eater did have characters with wacky quirks - most notably Death the Kid's OCD, used as the butt of many jokes - they weren't the epicenter of every character's existence. 2 years after Soul Eater, Ookubo started Fire Force. And in almostevery way, it feels like he has de-evolved as a storyteller. Characters in Fire Force are defined by singular traits, and you're bashed over the head with them constantly. Female characters especially, in the form of unfunny and blatant fanservice. Villains are comically evil mustache-twirling, monologue-spewing characters that are so blatant you can point them out the first time you see them.

There is little to no nuance in Fire Force. It has moments where you start thinking "wow, maybe this will actually get good now!", and then it falls right back into its tired, repetitive devices. And it's a shame - because there's no question that Studio David went all out with the action animation in Fire Force. But no matter how elaborately animated the fight sequences may be, it can't save Fire Force from barely scraping the surface of mediocrity.

I don't want to bash on Fire Force entirely - it's not a trainwreck. It is awkward, stilted and has weak convictions. But it does have moments of genuine tension, character growth and curious lore. Fleeting as they may be, they are there. So let's start with the good.

THE GOOD:

The Asakusa arc takes place in the middle of the anime, and it is by far the strongest arc in this season. Why is it so much more satisfying than anything else that happens in the series? Because it advances the plot in meaningful ways, and the ways in which it does it are EARNED. Characters do things for believable reasons, and conflicts are resolved in sensible ways that give strength to the plot. I thought the anime did a 180 for the most part during this arc, and had high hopes for what came after. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

The fighting animation is fantastic. It is also complimented by the sound effects used to add impact to the fire-based fighting. Altogether, it's easily some of the best choreographed and heart-pumping sakuga out there. The characters of Fire Force shine their brightest when they are fighting. Mostly because they dialogue is so weak, but hey - you get what you can take.

The universe and lore of Fire Force is pretty interesting - when you get some. There's clearly something sinister on a cosmic level that's going on in Fire Force that slowly gets revealed as time goes on. And i'm sure there will be more of that in the 2nd season.

Unfortunately, that's about it for the good.

THE BAD:

The direction outside of the fighting scenes is weirdly robotic and disjointed. Shots are flat, uninteresting and tonally confusing. Conversations are punctuated with a lot of awkward silence, still shots are held for too long, and you're often left wondering if there was supposed to be a punchline. It's worth noting that a lot of David Pro have come from Shaft, where many worked on the Monogatari series. While this is pure speculation, I can't help but wonder if the decision to use the same directorial stylings of Monogatari on Fire Force was due to this, because you can definitely make some parallels here. Unfortunately, for a shounen, it really doesn't work - especially when we get to the next bad thing: the humor.

Comedy is important in shounen. It can help sometimes to break up serious moments or sadness with a little bit of humor. But it's also easy to stretch a joke too thin. Fire Force is tirelessly overdoing its recurring gags. I get the feeling Ookubo might find his jokes a lot funnier than they actually are - and he uses the same ones over and over. As mentioned earlier, a lot of characters have a singular quirk that is shoved in your face over and over. One of the worst ones is easily Tamaki's. Her character is repeatedly shoved aside for a single joke that is played out to excess - her clothes are constantly falling off and she always finds herself being accidentally groped by the MC Shinra in the most impossible situations. Now, this would be fine if you were making a brainless ecchi fanservice show - but Fire Force wants you to take it seriously quite often. So it's tonally bizarre when at one moment there is death, tragedy and destruction, then suddenly some girl is squeaking while her bra and panties magically pop off and her boobs are in some guy's face. This kind of stuff happens more often than it really should, and for me almost none of the humor landed.

On the subject of Tamaki, I have to unfortunately give a knock to the female characters of Fire Force. It's not like Soul Eater wasn't full of fanservice, but at least it had an incredible female lead by the name of Maka Albarn, who wasn't a constant source of cheap sexual gags. Fire Force seems to treat every female character as a certain type of fetish - like strong girls? There's Maki. like scantily clad ones? There's Tamaki. Like femdom? There's Hibana. Like the innocent type? There's Iris. Outside of maybe 2 or 3 scenes, these characters are thoroughly shoved into their corner of pandering to something so juvenile that it's honestly just sad - especially considering that they (with the exception of Iris) are incredibly powerful fighters that deserved better.

Not only that, but the way some of these characters are treated ranges from disappointing to downright disturbing. Two examples that come to mind are Hibana's "turn" to join the 8th Company during her fight with Shinra. Shinra does a little talk no jutsu, punches her in the face, and just like that, she completely changes her mind about her life's ambitions AND - as an added bonus - falls madly in love with Shinra. It's the first arc in the series and really takes a lot of the wind out of your sails, because it's supposed to be the climax of the arc and it falls totally flat. The second one is when Tamaki finds out someone she idolized is actually an evil person. That evil person proceeds to mercilessly kick the shit out of her while she cries and does absolutely nothing to defend herself, despite being entirely capable. It's uncomfortable to watch and comes off as weird fetishy torture porn.

The male characters are not much better, just that their one-note quirks are inherently not sexual. Shinra is the main character. You see, he's a hero, so he has to say that all the time - just in case you forget. Arthur fancies himself a knight, and so he has a lot of jokes about being a knight. When he feels like a knight, he fights good. When he doesn't, he fights bad. To be fair, the male characters can be decidedly more well-rounded than the female characters, because they actually take the time to give them some backstory. So there's that.

Finally, the villains range from comically evil to downright incompetent. I'm gonna have to give "dumbest villain of the year" award to none other than Giovanni - a man with a plague mask who mostly just stands around talking - who managed to incapacitate his cult's #1 target, then proceeds to leave him alone in a forest with no guards instead of taking him somewhere where he couldn't escape. Then - of course - he escapes, after Hibana finds him somehow - and proceeds to get kicked in the face while he is busy talking about how evil he is elsewhere.

At the end of the day, a lot of these plot contrivances can all be chalked up to one thing - lazy writing. I don't know why Fire Force ended up being such a huge step backwards from Soul Eater narratively. There's a lot of reasons to speculate, but it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, Fire Force is what it is - the most baseline of shounen action, coupled with awkward humor, bizarre scene direction and stunted characters. For every moment you're pumping your fists, you get ten where you're rolling your eyes or raising an eyebrow in bemusement. All in all, it's kind of exhausting to sit through.

Should you watch Fire Force? Maybe if you've got nothing better to do. It struggles to even elevate itself to mediocrity. And in a genre as over-saturated as shounen, a lot of viewers are looking for something better. And there's plenty better out there than this - including the author's previous work.

Ive posted this review for the last 2 weeks updating it as each episode came out. Now that this can officially stay up here this will be my finalized review of Fire Force with the 6th episode. The next time I will update this will be when the anime finishes (If I don't drop it by then). -Doofenheimer. Story: 4 From what they have given us so far the story is cool but has a lot of generic elements. Fire fighters fighting humans that burst into flames. There are multiple squadrons and of course some of them are more sinister than the others. It seems the 8th squadronis the most kept out in terms of knowledge of the Infernals (What are the odds) and want to discover the secrets the other squadrons are keeping such from them. Cool concept, awful delivery so far. (Episode 6 update) Now they are using such cliche ways to keep people motivated and watching. They pull out the psychological card which just makes me cringe on how hard they are trying to pull together the story. Spoiler, it doesn't work. It's misplaced and just fails. The story is losing its originality and becoming more of a cliche shounen.

Art: 8

Best part about Fire Force is the animation and art. I will admit it is impressive but that is to be expected because of technology advancements. The more years go by the better animation should get and this is an example of good animation. the art is colorful at times and the setting is unique. I will be expected just as good animation in the following episodes.

Sound: 8

Sound and Art go hand in hand when it comes to making an anime and the sound doesn't disappoint either. Nothing to complain about.

Characters: 4

Cliche fan service girl that probably had a dark past and pretends to be all nice and friendly to hide their grief? Check. Cliche always serious badass (Can't forget the tinted glasses)? Check. Cliche meat head jock? Check. Cliche happy go lucky mc that runs into a fight without a plan? Check. Cliche childhood rival only used to make the mc irritated? Check. Cliche cutesy priestess? Check. Don't even get me started on the cliche, "My mom died and i'm here to avenge her death" back story of the mc. The anime jumped straight into the first mission without giving hardly any information on the team. All they gave was names and in the first 5 minutes of the first god damn episode their already on a mission... Slow down and let us settle in on the setting and get some character development. Many of you would argue of course that the lack of episodes explains this. And to that I say... Isn't that what the first few episodes are suppose to be about? The first few episodes introduce the characters and give background info and lets the watcher settle in on the surroundings and characters THEN you can jump into the missions. They just now introduced the evil 5th squadron and if I didn't think the characters were bad, I f*%^ing hate these guys. Cliche villains with a smart mouth but no back bone. Typical ally/enemy type deal. By this point I could care less if the entire squad got wiped out. I wouldn't even bat and eyelash. Sorry about going on a tangent but this was my biggest gripe of this anime.

Enjoyment: 1

Theres no drive to what they do. They just throw in characters and just force us to accept their there and move on with it. Shinra and the captain are the only characters that have a motive to fight. And they JUST now implement the reason for the priestess becoming a fire fighter? The others are just there cause why not. Can't enjoy a fight or emotional talk if there is no emotion at all. Like I said, "meat head action". And if any of the characters do have a motive they should have explained so earlier in the anime. Should not be explaining why the character is there 6+ episodes into the anime. That is bad delivery. Another annoying concept they do is the quick jump between scenes. They want to create the illusion that the anime is fast paced and action packed but just leaves the audience confused on why and what the characters are doing. They jump from scene to scene and that does A) take away emotion from each respected scene and B) Makes everyone forget or confused on whats going on and for some reason people think this is a way to get people on the edge the whole time. Confusing and rushed, bleh. I can't believe people are actually saying this anime will take over and be the best new gen anime. That is mind boggling people actually say that with a straight face.

Overall: 5

Nothing needs to be said that hasn't already been. Very mediocre anime that failed to the hype. Lets hope they make a miracle of a comeback cause i'm ready to drop it.

I usually only write reviews for the less popular anime, but seeing some of the low score reviews on this anime inspired me to write my own review. I honestly do not understand how objectively one could give this anime a low score. This show can stand toe-to-toe with Dr. Stone for anime of the season. Story: The story is definitely a breath a fresh air with all the isekai and typical shounen anime being pumped out every season. MC lost his family at a young age due to a fire, everyone treats him like a demon (similar to Naruto in the original Naruto anime), andhe has joined the 8th Fire Force Squad in order to become a hero and protect innocent people from "infernals." Infernals are citizens who turn into essentially fire zombies that cause destruction. There is definitely a mystery going on with the infernals that keeps the overarching plot interesting.

Art: Absolutely amazing for a shounen type anime, this rivals One Punch Man Season 1. The characters look great, the scenery looks amazing, and the battle scenes are fricking gorgeous. This is not a subjective take, this anime objectively looks great. David Production could earn a name right next to MadHouse if they keep this up.

Sound: Voices fit the character, battle scenes real make you feel the power and raw intensity of the battle ,and the OP and Ending are pretty solid. Something many will go look up on youtube and just listen to. Good season overall for OPs.

Characters: The MC is portrayed to be someone like Naruto (literally seen as a demon), but they gave this guy power that Naruto did not have (at the beginning). MC has some typical quirky moments, but he is largely very well-rounded to be a very solid character. Some of the side characters are cliche, but the great part is that they know they are cliche and play around with it. I really do care about these characters and interested in the characters we know little about.

Overall: Almost 2/3rds of the way through the season, I would definitely classify this as my Anime of the Season and put it in the category for Anime of the Year. I highly recommend this anime to pretty much every type of anime fan out there.

People expect every anime to have stories as epic as Full Metal Alchemist, be as thought provoking as Ghost In The Shell, have emotions running as deep as Clannad, with dialogue as sharp as the Monogatari Series and humor as side-splitting as Gintama, and if they don't, they're ready to bury an anime before the first season is even over. 99 percent of animes will never be classics. (Though it would be nice if they were.) But, since most never will be good enough to rank among the top 50 on MAL, the question is: "Are they entertaining?". And as far as Enen no Shouboutai goes,the answer is a resounding "YES". Do not be put off by the top comments. The show is VERY entertaining.

To be fair, the show does have pacing issues. Things move very quickly, sometimes too quickly. For example: The heroes infiltrate a particular location undercover looking for a culprit, and they expose them lightning fast. Some villains have an instant change of heart. But, these are small mistakes that won't ruin the entertainment value of what's happening on screen for most viewers.

The show also introduced a very MINOR problem in the scheme of things with the introduction of Tamaki Kotatsu. A character whose main identity centers around her tripping and falling into to Ecchi situations. And yes, it is absolutely silly to create a character who is a walking: "MC Accidentally opens the shower door while the girl is naked" cliche, but it's not nearly that big of a deal. She's a mostly tertiary character, and is the only character in the anime who is heavily directed towards that kind of cliche. I think the anger over this character and trope, is because in the anime there was a key fight scene that was ruined when they decided to integrate this "lucky lecher" gimmick of hers into the fight. I will admit, it was really bad, and really hurt the moment. But, one can't down an entire entertaining anime because of a single bad decision. (Which was really, really bad.)

But, outside of these two issues, the anime is wildly entertaining. Shinra is one of the best fighters I've seen in years. So good, it makes me wonder how it is Sanji from One Piece could be fighting with the same style for 20 years and they never make his fights as exciting as these? The animation is beautiful and the world being crafted in this anime is intriguing. I don't understand why some are saying the story makes no sense, as the story makes very clear sense. It's not even a complicated story. A group of fanatics are working to destroy everything and the heroes are working to stop them. (Simplified to not spoil anything). Most of the characters are interesting, most of the jokes are funny, there is an air of mystery to it, and most importantly, it's not boring.

Is it at the level of a Gintama meets Hunter X Hunter 2011? No. But, then again, Gintama's first few episodes weren't even all that funny and HxH's first episodes looked like a cheap Naruto rip-off. Which is why you have to give animes time to develop. Because you never know if animes with a rough start can turn into something legendary over time. And in truth, this anime isn't even having a rough start, it's a good anime, with a couple of small flaws that some are blowing WAY out of proportion.

Don't let that deter you from watching this anime. It is a good one. It's certainly a lot better than most of the anime coming out in recent seasons.

(NOT SO SPOILER FREE BUT WHO CARES? IT'S GARBAGE) Fire Force. The concept from the start to me was interesting because it's stupid. Fight fire with fire. It looked like a shitshow I could enjoy and I was right but Episode 19 made me reach my limit and ultimately gave this show a 1/10. Fanservice, a part of anime that is avoidable yet inevitable because "eCcHi iS lIfE!!!!". This show uses it in the worst way possible. There are times in this show where there is a serious battle/dialogue ongoing then suddenly, unexpectedly, abruptly, and all other words related to it, a fanservice scene appear. Itis beyond stupid. It ruins the tension and the vibe all together. Do you know the feeling when you are about to sneeze then suddenly it gets interrupted and you can't sneeze anymore? That is how it feels. Back to Episode 19, the moment that made me reach my limit is during the Tamaki and Assault fight. Assault lost because it is his first time touching boobs and got distracted. A supposed to be professional fighter lost like that. WOW! R.I.P Tension, Logic, and Good Writing. At the first place those villains have no proper build up at all so it had no build up if that character is actually a pervert or just got caught up in the moment. Someone said "iT iS sUpPoSeD tO bE fUnNy!!!". It is not funny. It is an illogical and nonsensical BS. Lastly during the earlier episodes, the part when Hibana pulled a 180 (from hating Shinra to loving Shinra) was so cringy and become a dragged out fanservice relationship that makes me eyeroll everytime it appears on screen.

Back to the story, it is pretty generic and predictable. Typical "I want to be the best" or "I want to save someone" cliche storyline that almost everyone is tired with. They could save it by good execution but no, it is executed in the most generic way possible. The moment Sho got introduced as a villain, it is obvious that he would team up with the good side in the most cliche way possible (Only at Ep.19, but I am calling it). The villains so far are bland cardboards. "We want to give everything back to the Sun" is one of the worst motives I have ever seen in anime.

I have mumbled enough flaws but despite being a 1/10 anime, it also has positives. The start of the Benimaru arc was pretty solid (but it turned into a generic training arc and got ruined by the hot garbage ending). Joker is actually an interesting character, probably the only one in the series.

Seems like this has become the popular manga to criticize this season. Why might you ask? Because hardcore gown-up anime fans love to make anime out to be some masterful artistic expression that's supposed to have perfect story, characters, pacing, etc. Yet no matter how hard they love to rail on these mainstream shows, they almost all of the time have some crappy anime rated a perfect score because they think that's acceptable. Oh "Here is my cool unique anime that I found to be a perfect interpretation of what I think anime should be. Nobody else has this anime rated a 10."The truth is this anime is highly entertaining. Exceedingly so. Yes it has funny fan service. Every "great" anime with a comedic element has a way of communicating it's brand of humor. This show does it with it's pacing and fan service. I love the pacing. I love the shots that linger with elevator music playing in the background. It's like nobody else understands this shows brand of humor. I hope the directors don't turn their back on this because of the score of negativity coming from snobby fans. Not all anime is the same. This one had it's own very unique presentation, combined with beautiful art and music. Overall a very highly entertaining show if you don't take yourself too serious.

Story: 7 For an easy comparison, this is a lot like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba where its a good shounen with some fun twists added to the theming, in this case we are looking at super powered fire fighters vs demon fires. They do sadly cut out some lines that I feel gave the story more emotion (one being the father being on fire saying welcome home) but other then that they seem to be taking their time following the manga to a T. Also I feel the comedy is hit or miss but for the most part is executed well, at least from4 onwards, ep 1-3 being a little weak.

Art:10 David productions is goddamn at it again with their beyond beautiful to watch animation, a particular favorite of mine is when they explain the back story to the fires and goddamn are those few sec panels a goddamn joy to just pause and stare at. The action is dynamic and smooth as heel(the MC breakdances this opponents) and this anime is filled to the brim with beautiful explosions and flames in general, also something interesting will be if the anime reaches the point where the powers get very theoretical, so it will be fun to see how DP handles that.

Sound: 9 The crackling of all the fire is enjoyable to listen to. In general there are a surprising amount of silent pauses in the show which also lets you appreciate all the ambient noises they decided to put in, cigar mans smoke is great. Music is nothing special but fits all the moments in the right ways.

Character: 8 This is a shounen but they make sure to put interesting twists on characters though I sorta find how they are handling glasses lieutenant a bit strangely. The show makes sure all the characters have interesting characteristics and have rules to their powers which is always nice as it makes the whole world feel more tangible. But in terms of tropes well there are a lot of them though they seem to be done well. Also man they make sure to emphasize the MC worried smile face which produces some great goddamn art.

Enjoyment: 8 The show is a blast to watch if you love shounens with bombastic action which stills has a over arcing plotline. Plus the show makes sure to have enough uniqueness to stand out from other shounen. I find the pacing to be a little off sometimes, usually during the exposition moments so who cares.

Overall: 8 This is a fantastic adaptation of an already interesting, fun to read manga and I would highly recommend this for anybody looking for an interesting shounen with great animation.

*contains minor spoilers* I wasn't expecting much when I started Fire Force. I'd already heard about the excessive fanservice, so I knew this wasn't going to be a high quality show, but somehow Fire Force reached lower than my already low expectations. First off, the pacing was atrocious. The first four or so episodes were jam packed and nonsensical, so much happened over the season that I barely remember. We're introduced to all the main characters, except for the fanservice girl, in just the first few episodes. The world is barely established before we're thrust right into a tournament arc that lasted maybe two episodes. During thoseepisodes we're also introduced to a villain, given a bit of the Shinra's backstory, and we're told that the Fire Force may not have good intentions. It's entirely too much information way too quick. This terrible pacing does improve slightly as the season goes on, but frankly, it's still terrible.

Secondly, the characters. They're all flat, uninteresting, and undeveloped. The women are especially frustrating. Each one fits a specific trope: Maki is the masculine but wants to be feminine with the typical anime girl body, Iris is the pure virgin with the typical anime girl body. Then there's Haibara, the 20 year old femdom who's lusting after a 17 year old. Fanservice girl is the most insulting. Tell me why she's from the 1st district Fire Force team yet we never see her fight or even be semi useful? Instead she's reduced to a dumb, disgusting joke of a character who is constantly groped or stripped without her consent. I thought we had moved past such moronic, misogynistic tropes, yet here we are. Why make her a 3rd generation fire user and then make her absolutely useless in a fight. She became a fire fighter for a reason?? Even when she was isolated with Iris (who can't fight because she has no powers) during later episodes we didn't get to see her fight the bad guy. Instead she was useless the entire time. Honestly, I'm incredibly disappointed to see such sexist depictions.

Thirdly, this may be because I watched Fire Force in dub, but oh my god the dialogue was some of the worst I've ever seen. It was on par with High Rise Invasion in terms of quality. Not only was it cringey, it was just pathetic. Characters info dump, they say ridiculous one liners no one in their right mind would say and metaphors that are just cringey, state the obvious, and just repeat the same lines over and over. I'd be willing to bet that at least half of Shinra's lines are something along the lines of him being a hero. Don't get me started on Arthur and his dumbass knight persona. The reason the cringey dialogue didn't bother me as much in HRI is because it didn't take itself nearly as seriously as Fire Force. HRI is well aware of how goofy it is. Fire Force tries to make its plot and world deep, but the writing quality just isn't up to the task.

Overall, this show is not worth watching, not even for the flashy fight scenes. I like Benimaru enough to watch season 2, but frankly I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone. It's complete trash and a waste of time.

I laugh when there's an anime about frickin firefighters... What'd they do? Well they fight fires and there's a firetruck and a fire station and they fight fires... What more can you ask? Seriously though this anime checks all box to a typical shounen anime formula. It's entertaining and the animation is just top notch. Probably has the best fire animation in all anime... pun intended. I really can't say anything bad about it rather than being formulaic. This anime have heart. I seriously recommend watching it. (The top reviewer gave it a 3... no appreciation to the work and effort that this anime give)

I started watching this as soon as it came out. I had high hopes since it has the same author as Soul Eater and it fits my Shonen trash tastes but I've been nothing but disappointed. I've dropped this show twice since I started. I gave it a second chance because of the amazing animation and interesting overall concept but I just can't deal with the unnecessary fan-service and unfitting pace. As someone who grew up tolerating 2000's Shonen fanservice I thought we had finally collectively outgrown this type of shi but I guess not. It's just so jarringly uncomfortable. What happened to female characterslike Maka? Why is even the Nun sexualised? SHE'S A NUN!

I was also very disappointed with the plot granted I only watched the first 11 episodes. I found the first major fight/plot development (the fight against Squad 5 and the Ex-nun lady) to be boring and anticlimactic. MC punched her and she immediately folded... I'm assuming the plot gets better later on but it's such a weak start.

I did like some of the characters like the MC and his cute quirk of smiling whenever he's nervous. I also liked all the non-sexualised character designs/outfits. The world building/backdrop was really cool and ofc, the animation was amazing. Also that opening song? Iconic. But none of these things were enough to keep me watching.

Overall, I think it's just such a shame that all the positive things this show had going for it was overshadowed by pretty big flaws. Aesthetically it's great but everything else fell short. Just the first dozen episodes prevented me from getting invested in this series which really sucks. Maybe I'm being too harsh and I've heard the manga has better pacing but I won't be continuing this show.

Okay normally i do not write reviews, but after checking the review of this show im a bit disgusted with the state of reviews. That aside im gonna write a true review. Story: The pace of the show is fast but thats not wrong in this kinda show i myself love to get some juicy info every episode or two and yes as its an shounen you ofcourse have ecchi within the show wich is not overly fanservicey and doesnt get forced all the time. Art/Animation: This is one of the best parts about this show the artstyle feels like soul eater but still has its ownfeeling to it the animation on the other hand is superb the fight scenes are beautifully animated and even outside of the fight scenes it has a verry detailed world.

Sound: The op is really good one of my favorites this season the OST is also decent the ed is not my taste but it still is decent the voice actors for this show have done an awesome job

Character: i cant talk to much about it but the show has some good character development even tho its quick it's still some information that most shounen anime nowadays don't give you.

Enjoyment: For me this show is verry entertaining it has good animation it has a good and decently paced story the OP, OST and ED are good so in my opinion its a good show

Summary: Oke for the people that came this far i will tell you that this show is one of my favorites this season it has good animation not too fast not too slow paced story and the audio is also really good

Hope you enjoy the show after reading this and have a nice day

Fire Force is gorgeous to look at. The animation is the highlight of this series, I mean seriously, if you are a battle scene junkie like me you will love every episode of this because goddamn is it nice to look at. I've never skipped the opening to the show not just because INFERNO is a banger, but because that opening scene where all the characters are kicking giant Fire Monster ass is so satisfying to watch and it syncs perfectly with the song playing in the background. The art also has that classic Atsushi Okubo "Soul Eater" style I loved so much in middleschool, I appreciate the level of character design in this show. My favorite part is just the way the Fire Force coats blue rings look against dark back drops, and how that serves to create a really pretty scene fit for a wall paper.

Speaking of that Soul Eater style, the architecture is bomb, its not quite as exaggerated and cartoony as Soul Eater was, but it has this Solar/SteamPunk aesthetic that I dig about all the buildings.

The characters are wonderful, and as the story has gone on we've slowly gotten to know them a bit more. I feel some people are way too impatient with character development and don't realize that sometimes things just happen at a gradual pace, and I'm fine with that. I like that we're slowly starting to get used to the 8th Precinct, and I also like the main character himself. The MC wants to be a hero and I think he's doing that really well. Shinra kind of reminds me of a kid who says they want to be a police officer when they grow up so they can protect people, except in his case he actually ends up doing just that.

His motivations seem admirable, and it adds the right amount of "shounen protag" to his character that it doesn't overwhelm his entire personality. He seems nervous for most of the show, which is very relatable, and I think the little smile tick of his just adds on to that in regards to his interactions with other characters. He seems really cool, but also like someone whose still learning the ropes about saving people.

It's a fun watch, the soundtrack is topnotch, the character design is great, the powers that each character has is fun and inventive, and the story itself really gets going at the third episode and just draws you in for the future, but slowly. If you want fast paced action with slow intervals of nice and funny character interactions in between, then give Fire Force a watch.

I, however, wouldn't watch Fire Force if you're the type of person who just want something extremely deep and profound right off the bat. This show is slow, that's true, but thats what makes it work so well. There's lots of shounen out there right now that's just struggling with Pacing, but Fire Force is taking the middle ground and giving us everything one at a time instead of all at once.

My only complaint is that it's a shounen title that doesn't really challenge some of those shounen tropes that are prevalent, but I can't really say if it'll always be that way because we are only a few episodes in as I write this.

Fire Force was my most anticipated anime of 2019. As a person who loves Soul Eater, I was looking forward to seeing another of Atsushi' works animated in its beautiful and charming glory. I really wanted to love Fire Force just how I loved Soul Eater. I genuinely don't know what happened to Atsushi between the years 2013 and 2015 because I felt like degraded as a writer and a comedian between the 2-year gap of Soul Eater and Fire Force and it really shows from his character handling especially with the females, story structure, pacing and writing. The biggest problem you will notice right out thegate is the pacing. The Fire Force has absolutely no idea of what pacing is since everything from start to finish was either rushed or dragged out. The show moves at an inconsistent pace meaning it's really hard to get invested in anything that the writers were trying to present to us.

Due to this, the show has frankly destroyed itself because how can I get interested with the characters, the world, themes and conflicts if the pacing is broken?

Pacing can make or break a show and unfortunately, the pacing totally broke Fire Force. What's the point of an anime like this if the writers don't allow me time to comprehend it?

It doesn't really matter since the plot is an unbearable cliche storm.

By the way, you will be hearing the word unbearable a lot throughout this review. Anyway, just by watching the first three episodes alone you can spot over 25 cliches on a notebook.

MC family gets killed by a demon, MC is late on his first day. MC wants to become a firefighter because of tragic backstory reasons. MC saves a female from danger, constant flashbacks about his dead mom, (what is this shit, the Quiet Man), inner monologues about his motivations, you know the drill. It's incredibly irritating and it really cheapens the writing in general. Once you get past the cliche storm first episode, the writing only further deteriorates to a point where the story becomes a tedious chore.

This has got to be the most tedious shounen I have ever seen in a long while and I watched the Black Clover anime. Despite that show having a lot of standout moments, especially the current intriguing elf/black devil arc but when that show got a tedious slog it became a tedious slog with its sluggish pacing, hamfisted unfunny comedy and shallowly written arcs.

Fire Force takes it to a whole level. Every single arc in the series has been done better in better shounens. The writing is soulless, lazy, and overall uninspired.

The nail in the coffin for this pathetic excuse of a story is the insufferable comedy I have never seen comedy and humour this tasteless and unfunny in my life. I know that Atsushi Okubo has an intellectual taste of comedy as shown in his previous work Soul Eater, but he didn't have to crank it up to unbearable levels.

Mindless boob/butt jokes, cringeworthy insults, gorilla cyclops and showing butts and boobs for no reason other than sick pandering. What makes it even worse to a point where I literally wanted to punch my computer monitor on the screen was that the show was actively pleased about it.

There's no self-awareness nor any remorse behind the tasteless comedy. Episode 9, in particular, takes the atrocious comedy to the next level. During Shirma and Rekka fight the show had the nerves to shove in fan-service in the middle of the fight where Shirma bumps into Takami breast.

Completely breaking the tension just for tasteless fan-service because that's what the horny teenagers desire these days. Screw having consistent pacing, character development, compelling themes and stakes am I right.

Do you know what the show does after that scene? The show decides to not only decide to burn Takami clothes to a point where she almost flat out naked but it decides to have Shirma bump into Takami yet again but this time kissing her head while his left arm is hugging Takami breast.

It was that point where I drew the line Fire Force and everything that I stood for. Even if the show does have some redeeming qualities, nothing can unbearable episode 9 because that episode perfectly highlights just how downright sexist and incompetent this show is.

Never before have I seen a shounen that treats the viewers like incompetent retards, a show that treats its female characters as sex objects, a show that prioritises sex appeal over story and characters. Fire Force storywise is an end product of arrested ambition and not giving a damm.

The cast of Fire Force had the potential to be fun and engaging as much as the Soul Eater cast, but the horrendous writing and pacing have sent the cast to the shadow realm.

Shinra is the typical lead that you have seen before. Want to become a hero to overcome his tragic past and false self, has overpowered abilities, loves flirting with girls, do I see to say more?

The rest of the cast range from generic to downright awful.

Arthur is the stereotypical cocky dumb hero who lacks common sense.

Iris is a dense nun and fan-service device for the show's amateur hour humour.

Hinawa is a generic strick guy with glasses.

Captain Obi is a typical friendly, loyal tough dude.

You may think I'm just half-fasting my thoughts on the characters, but that's all they are. You frankly know what type of tropes these characters are going to be the minute they show up in episode 1. This is soulless writing at its finest, and it makes the show even more tedious to watch, especially when many of the characters don't develop for shit.

The only character that I liked in Fire Force was Maki a Tomboy who's a capable fighter. I also enjoyed her personality a lot. She may be the typical tough chick but at least it was well executed and she plays off with other characters very well.

It's such a shame that the writers had to degrade her to the most cringest gag since Gauche sister complex nosebleeding gag from Black Clover.

Every time someone calls her a Gorilla Cyclops. I get insulted because she doesn't deserve this. There's nothing wrong with being a tomboy yet the show thinks that tomboys are a bad thing.

The worst character in Fire Force is by far Takami. I absolutely detest this bitch from beginning to end. She's got my nerves very quickly due to how annoying she is.

She's not interesting at all, she has no character development through this 24 episode pile of sexist waste.

Her powers are utter shit as her fire powers make people do sexual things with her because we haven't found enough ways to further degrade our female characters.

On top of this, she's a knock off Maka from Soul Eater. Actually, I take that back calling her a knock-off. Maka would be an insult to her character because unlike this annoying sack of shit Maka has character development as well as a likeable personality. If the tedious pacing did not kill Fire Force for me, then it was Takami. The unbearable poorly written dipshit. So yeah screw this character.

By the time I finished the first half of the Fire Force, I had gotten a massive headache because the characters were so atrociously written to the core.

To cure my headache caused by Fire Force I decided to pick up Soul Eater from my anime DVD collection and watch it in its entirety. Just by watching the first five episodes of Soul Eater was enough to cure my headache because Soul Eater, not only the characters, were memorable but the writing and pacing were on point. Sure, the cheesy ending had much to be desired but the amazing character dynamics, consistent pacing, attention to detail with its world, humour and mostly top-notch writing make up for it.

Soul Eater is a fun and intriguing show that has a lot of passion and heart into it. Fire Force is a lazy and uninspired mess that has no passion or heart.

Even without the Soul Eater comparisons, the character would still be terrible but comparing it to Soul Eater only sunk this show further into terribleness.

I honestly hope to God the second season maybe redeems itself because as of right now the story and characters are putrid.

If Fire Force had any redeeming qualities at all it would be the visuals and music for the most part. David Production did a fantastic job with the character designs, scenery and animation, especially how the show animates fire. It feels like I am watching a well-choreographed action flick which is only enhanced by the excellent sound design which I talk about in the bit. It's such a shame that the direction outside of the fight scenes was not up to par. It wasn't outright horrible as many people say it is but you can clearly tell the show prioritise its animation budget fight scenes. Because of that, we get a tone of awkward shots and still frames.

Finally, we have the soundtrack for Fire Force and it's excellent. The tracks are all memorable in their own right and they fit the anime perfectly. Notable tracks include Fire Force Main Theme, Joker, The Shots Fired, The Dark of Hibana, Heart Sound of the Determination and Bright Red. The excellent mix of orchestra and bass music score make the soundtrack let alone the anime feel alive. This is easily my second favorite soundtrack from the talented Kenichiro Suehiro who did the soundtracks from Re:Zero, Golden Kamuy and Goblin Slayer.

The sound design, on the other hand, is fantastic. I feel like the sound staff behind this show truly understand sound design and I picture them recording actual fire, so they can use that as the actual sound effect of the anime instead of using a stock fire sound effect from some sound effect programme. Due to this, the Fire sound effect in Fire Force sounds like actual real-life fire. Other sound effects are also good but not as impressive as the Fire sound effect.

The first opening theme Inferno is a kickass upbeat song that perfectly captures the setting and tone of Fire Force both in rhythm and presentation. Easily my second favorite anime opening of 2019 only losing to Vinland Saga's MUKANJYO.

The same cannot be said for the second opening theme MAYDAY by coldran which is hands work the worst opening theme of 2019. Not only the song was uninspired with to its generic rock score but the opening visuals felt like a badly produced AMV video from the last decade.

The first ending theme Veil is a well-composed upbeat song that fits the anime nicely, especially with the visuals.

Unlike the second opening theme, the second ending theme Nounai is decent in terms of the song itself but the ending visuals scream lacklustre.

The English dub done by Funimation is astounding.

Even I don't care about the characters I feel like the voice actors really tried their best to make the characters feel alive. On top of that, the audio quality and the script is good. It's one of the better Funimation dubs I heard in 2019. I just wished the pacing, writing and characters were just as good as production values and English dub.

I desperately wanted to like Fire Force. It has all the ingredients for a fantastic series. It was done by the person who made one of my favorite shounen series Soul Eater and it was being produced by David Production, the same studio that gave us Jojo. It had a lot of amazing ideas and concepts but none of its ingredients wasn't balanced enough where any of it works, which was unfortunate because I felt like the staff were very passionate towards this project. It's such a shame the script, characterization and especially the pacing wasn't on par.

Maybe season 2 will redeem it, but as of right now I recommend skipping it unless you have nothing to watch then again there's Soul Eater which is a much better option than this.

Brief overview: Not worth watching, unless you like fighting anime This review will be based on seasons 1 and 2 as both seasons are pretty much the same at the time of 31/08/2024 Introduction Set in a world where at all times there will be cases where a normal human being will be infected with a flame virus that causes them to turn into monsters. A military force that mainly consists of fire force users is established to eliminate the threat of the monsters. Characters 3/10 So the character here is more like what the fuck because look, ok you have this priest girl that basically does nothing, but prayto the enemy for forgiveness. The problem is, what does the praying benefit do in the midst of the battle? It literally does nothing, and she is there for nothing. The character is also so fucking cliche to the point that it is frustrating and there is also so much dumb fan service that just pops out of nowhere. This cat girl for example, whenever she does something, she will always be accidentally stripped naked by her surroundings area because her clothes just somehow fall off. The villains are also badly represented at first; the villains look like a well-established and organized group that trusts each other and believes in each other. However, when fights break out between the fire force and the villains there are so many times when the villains are fighting both the enemy and amongst themselves for no reason. And, somehow, 1 villain also intentionally injured its own allies in the midst of a fight just to show how cool they are, which later on the fire force basically does more or less the same thing and the characters keep making big fusses about small things such as a muscle deflection of a ant bite which is so stupid.

SO LONG WORDS SHORT: The characters don't make much sense most of the time

Story 4/10

The story of Fire Force is not interesting because most of the time the story is about the fights which have no build-up or interesting points to lead towards that. Throughout seasons 1 and 2 the series is stuck in a time loop where there is little progress made or achieved. It's all about the Fire squadron doing small task missions to eliminate a group of infected or training amongst themselves most of the time. It's strange that they introduced his deceased brother Sho in the first episode then straight after the first episode one of the villains pointed out that his brother is alive. This is not a spoiler because there is no fucking build-up to that point when the brotherly narrative is only like 2 seconds briefly shown. There are also so many unnecessary points in the story such as the factions and religion because they don't serve any meaningful purpose to the story. For example, the fire force is inspired by firefighters, but they look more or less the same as firefighters, not a special military force. What's worse is that most of their uniform don't represent a clear regiment on what they are. The Latom religion is basically Christianity and is weird that they want to segregate both those things into different meanings because its basically a copy and paste. What's worse is that religion in this anime doesn't have a clear reason for being there. I give you a good example of a religion in AOT of Ymir Fritz. All the people of Eldia worship her because they believe she is a god and she is an important aspect of the narrative on how Titan is born, but religion in this anime doesn't serve or add up to the story which is not a good inspiration. To keep it short the story adds so many inspired elements like Christianity and firefighter that don't serve any meaning in the story which makes the narrative very boring. The only narrative that is interesting is Joker story. He is such a cool character and everything about him is so mysterious which has brought so much build-up and attention for the audience. And others are just plain boring. However, if your into more of a fighting type of narrative than this series does bring quite a lot of good fight scenes but for story focus its not that interesting

Animation 9/10

The animation is the only greatest aspect of this anime. The animators put a lot of time and effort to make this animation into the top tier anime. It is at the movie quality level and it shows that a lot of effort has been put into it with so many dynamics around it and colorful paintings.

TLDR

Most of the time the story focuses primarily on the fights than the story. For some anime like Demon Slayer its fine because they do give us likable characters with a very intriguing background story. However, the characters in Fire force are questionable at best and most of the background stories of them are not very fascinating. The one thing they did right was the animation. It is a movie-quality animation and you can see a lot of effort has been put into it. However, this doesn't exempt from the poorly told story that hugely degraded the anime.

the story was average at best but the fan service was unbearable and incredibly distracting. just go watch hentai at this point. a promising anime ruined completely by boobs jiggling in your face in every shot possible 😑 the story was predictable nothing new honestly art style was really pretty but wasted the animators potential on stupid shit all the time this might as well have been a 5 minute music video or something. the editing community will have a good time doing epic AMVs to imagine dragons but the actual anime is not worth watching just watch the AMVs or a few edits of thefights and thats all you need cuz there isn't much else worth watching for