Fire Tripper

Well this was interesting.

Fire Tripper. A 50 minute OVA by Rumiko Takahashi telling the story of a girl who somehow finds herself traveling through time to the Civil War era where she meets a high strung young man and she has to find out how she got there and what the story is, etc, etc. Sound familiar? Somehow this gem made it under the radar of even Inuyasha fans who pass it off as a rip-off of their favorite half-demon. Which is not only impossible, but a shame as this OVA is definitely worth the watch.

The story was set and concrete. There were ... no interruptions, no random visits to the beach with the 'gang'. The OVA moves forward and tells the story, and a great story at that. It's a bit hard to really get into without spoilers, but the story is not overly complicated. Anyone could easily figure it out just by looking at the synopsis and picture. Everything unravels nicely, and there were some very clever foreshadowing hints throughout the beginning. They're a bit hard to spot on your first watch, but it's fun to look out for them and then compare with the ending. One thing that Inuyasha can't compare with is that this story had a beginning and a solid ending. As much as I would love to see more of these characters, the end was very satisfying.

The characters were like a breath of fresh air. Suzuko, while a little annoying at first, was really very mature and I liked her as a character. Unlike a lot of characters who find themselves in a strange new world, she adapted well and the only major whining to be heard from her was justified. Shukumaru was an idiot. Gosh I loved him. He had a temper and was rough around the edges, but from the looks of it he seemed to be the most trustworthy guy in that village. Their relationship was natural and even with such a short time frame it never felt forced. Most of the character development was all Suzuko, but again it was gradual.

The art wasn't the best. For its age of course it's pretty darn good and it holds that classic Takahashi style that fans of Ranma 1/2 or Urusei Yatsura would be familiar with. Newer anime fans might be a bit thrown off because the show does show its age a bit, but it wasn't exactly a tragedy. It's never a distraction and some scenes are even quite beautiful.

It's probably true that this story inspired the series Inuyasha that people know today. Had this been a full length series and not a 50 minute OVA, I would without a doubt say this surpasses Inuyasha in every way. I still want to say that, just for the fact that it has a solid ending and an enjoyable story. Just for its short length and history alone I would recommend anyone giving this OVA a try. Fire Tripper has the feeling of watching a good movie, and is ideal for Inuyasha fans, Rumiko Takahashi fans, or just someone looking for something short but sweet.

Fire tripper is a interesting little OVA and while watching it i couldn't help but think it was the first draft of Inu Yasha or it borrowed heavily from it for inspiration. Of course it is made by Rumiko Takashi the maker of Inu Yasha so it is not a far stretch to believe she borrowed elements as she has done in the past and currently does.

The story is all within this one episode and it feels very fast paced. In the amount of time used it actually creates a fairly interesting plot with a good ending with a rather enjoyable surprise. I think they ... did good with the story over all and maybe had the ova been 30 minutes longer or two episodes they may have been able to resolve any pacing issues.It feels like a short story in that you understand everything cause its laid out openly but its short,sweet and to the point.

The characters are hard to identify with or grow attached to in such a short amount of time but that does not mean they are bad characters. Revolving around only the two main characters you do get a decent understanding of there feelings even if you don't have enough time and content to attach yourself to them personally. The characters do whats intend effectively and you can appreciate the simplicity of it all.

The Art and Audio are very early 80s and make me personally feel nostalgic of a lot of Rumic Works. I have no complaints about either department as they both look and sound perfectly fine for the time it was made and the budget and length of the project itself. I actually like the male leads character design and his color pallet. The main leads both resemble characters from Inu Yasha a great deal.

Overall i really enjoyed this Ova in particular over the other Rumic Ovas, it was just enjoyable. I felt interested the whole time and i wanted to see the conclusion as it built. Being a big fan of older anime i recommend this to anyone who likes classic. Modern anime viewers may not enjoy it as much cause of its age.

Sometimes I have one of those days 'feeling like watching something romantic'. Well, this is what I ask at those moments:

*Science fiction.
*Historical or folkloric stuff.
*A simple love story.
* Believable characters: tough boy finds a girl that suits his tastes and thinks she'll be perfect to fulfill his necessities (in this case, a girl that reminds him of his first love), misplaced girl finds a blunt and honest, fit and simple young man (but she knows the actual and complicated truth about him, but never talks about it).

This is perfect for those who believe in a 'love that transcends time', and for those ... who feel they aren't fit for this century because they are ancient souls who miss their past lives.

P.S.: No, you don't need to be a Rumiko Takahashi groupie to enjoy this. If you hate her because of her bad habit at develop 'stagnation' in her stories, this is good news for you! It's only 50 minutes, and has a 'wholeness' feel to it (instead of the 'openness' feel that her usual works give).

Enjoy!

TL;DR: Fire Tripper is an interesting way to spend fifty minutes. I'm definitely biased in my liking of this anime, but hey, you can give it a shot too.

(this is a rewritten review of a previous one)

There may be spoilers ahead--(but does it really matter? It's literally only fifty minutes long)

L;DR: Where do I begin?

In my quest to consume as much Rumiko Takahashi media as possible, I stumbled onto Fire Tripper. The synopsis peaked my interest, and after finding a low resolution, muddled audio version of it on YouTube I thought, heck, why not.

With an interest in vintage OVAs anyway (you know, ... Cipher the video, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, and so on) I thought that what was pitched to me as an "80s Inuyasha" would be right up my metaphorical alley. And to that extent... it was. As of writing this I've rewatched this OVA a whopping four times. But is it because it's a good OVA? No... not really...

First of all, it's time-travel-historical-japan-isekai. I eat up that kind of stuff the same way I do dinosaur chicken nuggets. It's a genre that's a definite guilty pleasure of mine. Plotwise, we follow a high school girl who's name I've genuinely forgotten get involved in a gas explosion that teleports her into the past. There, she meets a guy, and typical Takahashi antics ensue.

You can definitely see some of the foundations of Inuyasha, but there were more than enough differences for me to separate the two in my mind. The story is rather interesting itself, as it combines a sense of mystery with a tiny bit of action, a large dose of romance, and just a smidge of ~incest.~

Wait, incest?

No, don't worry, we can pull out the "no chromo" card here since there is no technical incest in this OVA! Hooray! Still, that did make for a very awkward couple of minutes in the middle of the runtime. Well, whatever, I'll take what I can get. (If you watch this OVA you will see what I mean).

Setting aside that factor, the romance is weirdly kind of cute in that 80s-Takahashi-way, and I was genuinely intrigued. And since there wasn't too much going on plotwise in the first place, most things get wrapped up by the end of the OVA in a satisfying way, leaving me content at the end of my viewing.

So what's the rundown? Do I recommend Fire Tripper? Eh, sure, why not.

Fire Tripper is based off a story from Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘Rumic World’ series, the other segments are: Warau Hyōteki, Maris: The Chōjo, and Ningyo Shirīzu. Despite my affection for Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura, I couldn’t fathom what this particular OVA was trying to say. There are a couple of cool ideas, like time warping via fire and multiple copies of a single person floating through separate time periods, but Fire Tripper fails to monopolize the interesting aspects of its plot.

—Story/Characters

The series follows an ordinary teenage girl named Suzuko, who—prior to her introduction—dreams that she is a little girl from the *Feudal era, that dies by getting ... crushed by a wooden beam in a burning shack. After waking up, Suzuko decides to walk a small neighborhood boy, Shūhei, home from the park. He shows off the scars from having his appendix removed and as they are walking, there is a fatal gas explosion from a nearby power plant. Both of them are caught in the explosion and, suddenly, Suzuko is suddenly laying in a pile of corpses in a battlefield.
*Also known as the Kamakura period: 1185–1333.

A group of gangly vagabonds attempt to rape her, but she is rescued by a teenage boy named Shūkumaru. Shūkumaru brings Suzuko back to his village, gives his younger sister (Suzu) a bell as a gift, and then claims that he will marry Suzuko. Afterwards, Shūkumaru takes Suzuko into a storehouse to get her clean clothes. It is revealed that Shūkumaru has fleeced corpses for their wares and collected them for supplies to aid the villagers. Suzuko finds Shūhei’s t-shirt among the pile of clothes, deduces that he must have been sent back in time with her, and tries to find him… but to no avail.

After a night of Shūkumaru trying to bed her but, drunkenly, passing out instead—Suzuko has an epiphany after seeing Suzu’s bell again; remembering that she has an identical one back in her own world! Suzuko then deducts that ‘Suzu’ is an alternate timeline version of herself, meaning that Shūkumaru is actually her brother!

Suzuko is tormented by the fact that they are siblings, because she has fallen in love with Shūkumaru. The village once again burns, like in her dream, because of the evil *Akauma. The scene from her dream is replicated and ‘Suzu’ is sent to the future, after being crushed by a fiery beam. Suzuko then realizes that the fire is a catalyst to travel between the past and the future. Shūkumaru is losing to Akauma, so Suzuko uses the fire to transport her and Shūkumaru to the future.
*Akauma is a play on the Japanese word ‘akuma’ (悪魔), which means ‘demon’ or ‘devil.’

After they arrive, Suzuko takes Shūkumaru to her house to dress his wounds. While doing so, she notices that Shūkumaru has the same scar that Shūhei had from his appendix removal and realizes they’re the same person! It turns out that Shūkumaru had gone back in time over a decade earlier than she had and grown up in the Feudal era, therefore Shūkumaru is not biologically related to her—he is an adopted brother from the other dimension. They then realize that they had gone back to the period, right before the initial gas explosion. So, they use the factory’s explosion again to go back in time again and announce their engagement to the other villagers. The end.

Oh man! Where do I begin, first of all, what is the point of this story? Did Rumiko Takahashi have a elementary schooler as a neighbor and thought, ‘If both of us used a time warp, then that kid could be my husband some day!’ Another point, and a common point of contention within the isekai genre, is wouldn’t she miss her family? How is she so okay with living in the Feudal era and never seeing them again? Does she just plan to set herself on fire, or something, to go visit them?

Another thing that I didn’t understand is why did Shūhei arrive in the Kamakura period—over a decade prior to Suzuko making it there? Does that mean that she was stuck in a dimensional interstice all that time? If that’s the case, how were Suzuko and Shūkumaru able to time travel perfect in synch the other two times? Towards the end, they knew that the power plant was going to explode… why didn’t they try to warn anyone, instead of using the explosion to go back in time? Also, when Shūkumaru and Suzuko returned—the village had been completely decimated by Akauma and it looked like many people had lost their lives; Shūkumaru bails on people that depend on his protection and then happily announces his soon-to-be marriage upon his return? What the hell?

As you can see, the story makes no sense whatsoever and there isn’t even anything to be gleaned from it. Heck, the characters aren’t even likable. Suzuko is a bland Mary Sue, Shūkumaru is a barbarian, Suzuko’s parents don’t have any personality, and Akauma is just a typical mongoloid pillager. This is the first time, in quite a while, that I’ve felt that I completely wasted my time on an anime!

I guess it’s to be expected, the only other ‘Rumic World’ story that I’ve seen is Ningyo Shirīzu, also known as ‘Mermaid Saga’ and I didn’t care for that OVA either. I haven’t watched the television series yet, but it is relatively low on my priority list—seeing as the OVA was a mess!

—Technical

There’s nothing particularly bad about the visual direction, but there’s nothing memorable either. It just looks like your typical run-of-the-mill ‘80s OVA. The director, Motosuke Takahashi, is known for directing *Warau Hyōteki, *Maris: The Chōjo, Cosmo Police Justy, Aitsu to Lullaby: Suiyobi no Cinderella, and Harbor Light Monogatari: Fashion Lala yori. Sadly, Motosuke Takahashi passed away on November 8th, 2007 due to lung cancer complications.
*Both Warau Hyōteki and Maris: The Chōjo are from Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘Rumic World’ series.

Despite my dislike of the story, this production brought in a few A-list seiyū. The first is Yū Mizushima, voice of Shūkumaru. Mr. Mizushima was cast regularly as the lead protagonist in many anime productions of the ‘70s and ‘80s, usually either voicing an action hero or the love interest—in series whose target demographic was primarily little girls, like Mahō no Tenshi Creamy Mami and Tokimeki Tonight. Mr. Mizushima is still doing voice work for anime, at age 63—as well as doing Japanese dubs of live-action shows, like voice-overs for franchises like Friends and Star Wars! Notable Japanese animation roles include:
• Ryō Asuka, Devilman
• Shukumaru, protagonist of Fire Tripper
• Isamu Kurogane, Hyaku Jūō GoLion
• Toshio Ōtomo, Mahō no Tenshi Creamy Mami
• Subaru Equuleus, Saint Seiya Omega
• Luigi, Super Mario Bros: Peach Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!
• Shun Makabe, Tokimeki Tonight
• Clow Reed, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
• Telemachus, deuteragonist of Uchū Densetsu Ulysses 31
• Riki Muroi, Mahō no Yōsei Persia
• Marion Fiesse, protagonist of Natsu e no Tobira
• Takeru Myōjin, Rokushin Gattai God Mars
• Shō Fukamachi, protagonist of Kyōshoku Sōkō Guyver
• Tsutomu Sugioka, protagonist of Meikyū Monogatari -EN: Neo Tokyo-
• Hikaru, protagonist of Time Patrol Tai Otasukeman
• Gai Tanbara, protagonist of Time Slip Ichimannen
• Sanada Ikkyū, protagonist of Ikkyū-san (1978)
• Akemi Nakajima, protagonist of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
• Bander, protagonist of One-Million Year Trip: Bander Book

Suzuko’s seiyū was Sumi Shimamoto. At age 65, she is still working in the industry and even does video game voice overs, as well as Japanese dubbing for foreign films—Star Wars (Princess Leia) and Watchmen (Sally Jupiter) are among her credited roles! She’s similar to Yū Mizushima in the breadth of her voice acting repertoire. Notable Japanese animation roles include:
• Yukiko Kudō, Shin’ichi’s mother in Detective Conan
• Ginrei, Giant Robo
• Eirin Yagokoro, 東方Project
• Kohaku Tsukishiro, Hitomi’s grandmother in Irozuku Sekai no Ashita Kara
• Nausicaä, Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
• Kanata Izumi, Konata’s mother in Lucky☆Star
• Clarisse d’Cagliostro, Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro
• Kyoko Otonashi, Maison Ikkoku
• Rei Asaka, Oniisama e…
• *Asuka Mizunokoji, Urusei Yatsura
• Ishizu Ishtar, Yū-Gi-Ō!
*Hilariously, Suzuko and Asuka Mizunokoji look exactly alike. Asuka—Urusei Yatsura, is in love with her brother and Suzuko—Fire Tripper, thinks she’s in love with her brother. Both are from separate Rumiko Takahashi stories. And, coincidentally, both have the same seiyū!

Akauma’s seiyū, Tesshō Genda, is another veteran voice actor that continues to work in the industry. His age is not listened online but, on his biography, it states that he has been working as anime voice actor since the ‘70s. He does Japanese dubbing for numerous Batman animations and God of War, and is known as the Kevin Conroy of Japan. Notable anime roles include:
• Takanori Jingūji, 3-Gatsu no Lion
• Shū, Dragon Ball GT
• Master Chief, Halo Legends
• Slegger Law, Mobile Suit Gundam
• Terry Sanders Jr., Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
• Kurama, Naruto
• D, Project A-ko
• Aldebaran Taurus, Saint Seiya
• Optimus Prime, Transformers: The☆Headmasters
• Rei, Urusei Yatsura
• Violence Jack, Violence Jack: Harlem Bomber-hen
• Fukuzō Moguro, Warau Salesman (2017)
• Younger Toguro, Yū Yū Hakusho

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Fire Tripper to anyone! If you’re looking for an isekai where a female protagonist is transported to the Feudal era, Inuyasha is your best bet. If there weren’t talented people working on the visuals and audio, I probably would have rated Fire Tripper a 1/10 but, because of the presentation, I rate it a 2/10!

I felt very inclined to write a proper review on this since there are very few and I did not find the reviews written by thise who rate most anime low or a lengthy synopsis, every possible spoiler and staff info.

So here is a spoiler-free review:

I stumbeled upon this while looking at the list of other older storiers of Rumiko Takahashi that were animated. When I saw a guy dressed in warrior attire and a girl in a school uniform my only reaction was "don't tell me this is the same as Inuyasha". Well it kinda is... and kinda not at the same time.
I checked ... the manga first and then looked at the reviews on here which lowered my expectations by a lot. But in reality it is not even close to being as bad as some make it out to be, it was actually way better than I expected.

The premise is basically the same as Inuyasha: school girl is transported to the sengoku period by mistake, meets bratty strong guy and falls in love.
However, the actual plot is very different and pretty interesting. It's another take on the whole time-traveling aspect.

The story is easy to follow and actually keeps you engaged the whole 48 minutes. It becomes really interesting towards the end and it actually does a pretty great job of making you wonder what is actually going on until everything comes to a conclusion. Of course it does not have a ton of depth and many aspects are left unanswered, but that is to be expected from a 50min show and a 50page manga. The story moves very fast and it's all condensed but it seems to be pretty well pased for something that takes place over only a few days.

The characters are ok. The girl is by far boring compared to Takahashi's usual female leads while the guy is pretty typical for her work, reminds me a bit of Koga from Inuyasha.

The art and sound are not great given that it is such an old show but its watchable, no issues there.

Overall, I think this is a decent short story. You should not expect this to be like an anime movie or a series, its very underdeveloped because of the lenght but the story has potential. That is probably why Inuyasha exists. I can't help to think that this might have been the original draft for the story that has later become Inuyasha and that it was the result of her experimenting with an isekai.
If you liked Inuyasha or her work, this is worth a watch. Even if you don't but enjoy short stories it might be fun for you. But if you are looking for a well developed story with great and relatable characters, this might not be for you.