'Fire Force' Is a Spectacular, Pleasurable Battle Shonen

It can be argued that Fire Force is just a by-the-numbers battle shonen anime.  It has all the tropes, story beats, and characterization templates that have been the standard fare with most other shonen anime.  It simply comes with new trappings.

Well, that may be true.  But, boy, how extremely striking those trappings are!

Fire Force is set in a world closely similar to ours, but which experienced “The Great Disaster” – an apocalyptic event that engulfed the world in flames, destroying many nations and leaving only a small part of the world habitable.  However, during this period, the Tokyo Empire was mostly unaffected, and thus, it became a haven for the survivors and the last bastion of civilization.  Built at its heart is the Amaterasu, a massive thermal-powered generator that utilizes an immortal flame to energize all of the country.  With an unending power supply at hand, much technological advancement is prompted, and the Tokyo Empire flourished.

However, although the people enjoy a life of peace and prosperity, they are also threatened by a phenomenon called spontaneous human combustion, in which someone just bursts into flames without warning and transforms into a fiery, destructive demon called “Infernal.”  To combat and investigate these Infernals, the Fire Department, the Army, and the Church formed the Special Fire Force.  Moreover, at the same time spontaneous human combustion became a thing, humans with the ability to manipulate (“Second Generation”) or generate (“Third Generation”) flames started getting born.  And since these two kinds of pyrokinetic humans also have some resistance against fire, many of them end up with careers in the Special Fire Force.

The Special Fire Force is divided into eight brigades, and each one has its own jurisdiction to protect.  The focus of the story is on Company 8, which is captained by Akitaru Ōbi, a non-powered but tough, courageous, and noble young man.  Compared to the other brigades, Company 8 is rather small, as it only has 9 members (one of which is a suspended member of Company 1, and is temporarily put under the eighth) by the end of the first season.  It’s also the brigade on which the main character Shinra Kusakabe is assigned to.

Shinra is a teenage Third Generation pyrokinetic who can ignite flames from his feet, and use them like thrusters, essentially turning himself into a human rocket.  He can’t help but to grin broadly – exposing all his pointy teeth, which gives him a menacing look – whenever he feels awkward or nervous.  His most ardent desire is to be deemed a hero – a dream that he has hold on to ever since he was small, and more especially, after experiencing this particular devastating childhood tragedy.  A consistently amusing shtick of his is that, whenever he jumps into danger or battle, he usually gives himself a ridiculous, long-winded superhero name that references the particular situation he’s in.

As a battle shonen newcomer, Fire Force is fine but familiar.  It simply has key elements that remind me of things I’ve already seen in previous shonen properties.  With its flame-centric power system – in which a creative variety of unique abilities are produced, many of which are actually not logically tied up with fire – Recca Hanabishi’s Eight Flame Dragons in Flame of Recca comes to mind.  With its eighth Special Fire Force brigades, the Gotei 13 of Bleach comes to mind.  And so on.  Heck, the characters are basically just repackaged versions of common shonen stereotypes.

That being said, everything still felt fresh to me.

Whatever intrinsic similarities it might have with other shonen properties, it nevertheless has sufficient personality to distinguish itself.  The power system, most especially, delivers some notably imaginative applications.  For the record, my favorite pyrokinetic power in this show is from Second Generation Takehisa Hinawa, the lieutenant of Company 8, who can control the spark of gunpowder in bullets, allowing him to make their impact stronger or weaker as well as manipulate their trajectory and acceleration)  

On top of this, it has heart.  This is most evident during the early part of the season when Company 8 was just doing day-to-day missions.  Whenever they have to slay an Inferrnal, they don’t necessarily consider it an enemy, but a victim.  After all, only a while ago, it was a human being, and it’s leaving behind loved ones.  Thus, they have a solemn and compassionate attitude during these Infernal-slaying missions.  It’s quite a touching, profound, and beautiful thing to witness.  However, this aspect unfortunately becomes absent as the season progresses as they become more engaged with operations that are grander in scale.

Still, an emotional core is ever present as the characters are very endearing, and you will really get invested in them.  Moreover, the nakama concept is effectively depicted in Company 8, and thus, it oozes with the unfailing, universal appeal that comes with it.

Fire Force is also a noteworthy shonen show by virtue of being a well-crafted one.  With its splendid production value, it easily and quickly overcomes whatever sense of staleness that may arise from whatever hackneyed components it has.  The animation is outstanding and lush, and thus, it’s constantly sumptuous to look at.  It’s also well-directed that there are minimal to no pacing stumbles.  But it’s during the action set pieces where the animation and direction shine the most.  Seriously, Fire Force is a sakuga fest.  It probably contains half of my favorite anime fight scenes of 2019.

In the end, I still consider Fire Force as the least of summer 2019’s Big Three.  Nevertheless, it’s a spectacular, pleasurable anime, and one of the year’s cream of the crop.