Enen no Shouboutai

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 squadron ... is 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.

*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 those ... episodes 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.

[Note: I got bored a few minutes into episode 7, haven't watched since then] The idea was interesting at first, wondering what was causing people to turn into (had to look up what they were even called here) Infernals. Then it just barely touched that plot point before I got bored with it. You shouldn't ignore your main plot point that attracted most people to your anime in the first place, people will get bored waiting for you to actually further the plot.

My next issue with this anime is with the characters, more specifically their personalities. I don't know about everyone else, but usually ... there are one or two characters that I can relate to on some personal level, and those characters become a reason that you stick around for the rest of it. This anime doesn't have that anywhere. I thought that character was going to be Arthur, I was starting to like his character. I started waiting for some good character development for anyone, or something that would show that they have a personality behind their stereotype, but nothing. If the characters do receive character development I would be more than happy to write more positively about this anime.

My last complaint before I actually get to the positives is the cringeworthy amounts of fanservice. I know, I know, that's the only reason that some people watch anime and they need to keep those people happy with girls being grabbed for no reason with little to no resistance. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fanservice when it is done tastefully, or spread out enough that it's not one of the reasons you stop watching. It's just really cringey trying to watch it and it's just a dude grabbing a girl's breast for like 5 minutes instead of the anime doing something actually interesting.

Now the positives:

The animation is very well done. Not on the level of anime like Kimetsu no Yaiba, made by ufotable, but the animation is very well done. I did feel pretty excited during fight scenes. Keep it up in this section, you're doing very well.

The music, especially the op and ed are also very good. The opening makes the listener excited for the episode. The ED, even though it is full of spoilers, is very nice as well. My only complaint about it is that because they animated spoilers to use for their ed long before that plot point even happened, nobody that was paying attention was even surprised by that.

Conclusion

This anime isn't inherently bad, it just needs to come back to what made it interesting in the first place, which was the plot of finding out what was causing people to turn into Infernals. Tone it back on the "fanservice" a bit and a lot of the viewers who were turned off by that might come back. If the characters had more relatable or likable personalities that would help it out too. Really, I just want personalities deeper than "I want to be a hero" "I'm a knight" "I'm a cat girl" "I'm a nun" etc. Give the side characters (you know which ones) personalities too while you're at it. That will make this anime almost perfect.

Score: 5/10

I see a pattern in this show that I'll be extremely surprised for it to not follow for the rest of the season: while it's really nice to look at and listen too (the OP and ED sequences are just awesome) and the initial episodes were intriguing with their dark climate, the actual story is a mess full of over-the-top characters and weird plot developments that takes you out of the experience. The more we learn about the Fire Force's actual world and its main intrigue, the less sense it all makes and the more trashy it becomes. The latest arc with Special Fire Force ... Squad 5 is kind of an "everything wrong with anime" compilation: exaggerated in an obnoxious fashion, rushed and lacking in real tension. I also have a creeping suspicion that it's not the team behind the anime not knowing what they're doing, but rather the inherent flaws of the original manga – it's not among the highest-rated series to say the least.

So, is it all bad? Definitely no. I really like the main set of characters, that is the Squad 8 members. They're somewhat cliched, but fun and likeable, even the protagonist with his hero complex and his complete-idiot friend/rival from the Fire Force academy. The presence of those two feels weird at the beginning, as they're both loose cannons in their own ways, but it's not as unreasonable as it seems at first – they possess great power in what is essentially a dying world, struggling to keep the last semblances of stability in the face of spontaneous human combustion, so they're needed in the Fire Force despite their flaws.

The main idea itself, with people transforming, apparently at random, into fiery monsters, is also very good: the infernals are the enemy of humanity, but also symbolise a loss of human life not only through those they kill, but also the people they spawned from. The strong religious component of the Special Fire Force is really cool and feels like something that could happen if humanity was put against such phenomena. The details of the world, like the antagonists within the Fire Force or the cryptic villains delivering long sections of Obvious Exposition Talk are less fortunate, but the base idea and cool visual designs connected to it still make it all pretty watchable.

Then there's the general production quality, which is really good. The animation is wonderfully smooth. The fight scenes quite interesting and involving unusual, fire-based powers (most of those are really a joy to look at). It's simply shounen visual spectacle at its finest. I've already mentioned the OP and ED sequences, with some really nicely-chosed J-rock tracks and generally, I have no complaints about the VA or sound design of it all.

And in the end, I think Fire Force is still worth watching. Its main problem is that the opening episodes set people's expectations really high, while I think it will only prove to be disposable entertainment. And if you treat is just as a flashy, but ultimately very average shounen series with a dark and unusual setting, you'll enjoy your time with it just fine.

Basically a mix between your typical shonen anime and the Five Star Movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Star_Movement). The sound and art are good, but that's the merit of DP, not the anime itself.The characters are plain,boring and obnoxious, you can switch them with rocks, you won't find any difference. The story it's the genrical hook for weaboos anti-leadership, basically the Mc humble and honest team fight an evil and corrupted government dressed like firefighters. The dialogue are cringy, you can easily turn off the audio and sub and you'll probably going to understand the plot anyway. Don't worry my shonen fan, the fanservice is rampant like a disease ... in Africa and harems are prosperous.
Watch only if you're an horny teenage boy or if you really like good animation
If you seek good stuff then skip.
The music and art are the only good part, which says a lot since it's not the anime merit but DP's merit.

This anime is close to being tragic. And by that i mean it had all things going for it. GREAT main character, good premise, Great art!!, animation and OP. But then all of a sudden boobs started showing up in places they should not be. Look i don't hate fun service. If it well placed it can be quite entertaining (aka food wars).

But WHY is a leader of an organisation stepping on her subordinates and not in a funny eventful way. why is someone praying with her boobs out? I would not mind the fun service if it was that kind of anime, but ... WHY promise me seriousness only to have someones clothes burned off only to leave a few pieces of cloth that cover the right parts. So creative.... This anime did not need that cringy fan service. I was so let down. After watching demon slayer i thought. Ara Ara anime has grown. But No it has not. I dropped it

EDIT: My rating is dropping from 7 to 5 due to the considerable drop in quality of story from ep 6-10. I will update review content once the series is over. But scores have been revised to reflect current status.

Review based on ep 1-6
I have to say this is by far the most interesting series I am watching in current season. I was totally convinced it's going to be a masterpiece until I saw the fight scene, more specifically episode 6 that lead to a sharp drop from 9 to 7 score for this anime on my list. Let me explain in detail below:

Character design:
If ... there is one thing I really love about this show, it's the refreshing take on the art and design. There are definitely eye candy style macho characters to swoon on, but overall the way specially the main character is designed is somewhat unique. Specially his quirk about always smiling. The dress style is also very creative.

Sounds:
Nothing to complain there, a solid 8/10. Its not remarkable, it's not bad to listen to. Nothing to remember - like most new anime. Background effects etc are good.

Story:
Starts off really good and so far is keeping its moment. The real disappointment came mid series, where you have two factions clashing with a lot of build up and then suddenly a magical punch from the hero fixes everything. The emotions and actions during the fight are over simplified to the point of being unrealistic. It's like the bad guys are just tsunderes waiting for someone to rescue them. No sense of conflict whatsoever. There is also the problem of several characters being too white and black and as a result, lacking complexity, which makes it hard for viewer to feel any connection with them.

Fight scenes:
I don't have a problem with the animation quality, I just wish they would do more with the fight scenes. They start off with very good momentum but wrap up very quickly. This wasn't such a big deal breaker until team 5 vs team 8 fight scene where I feel that the main character fight scene really under performed. It was too simple, there was little to no sense of conflict, everything was just handed out to him and over all I didn't see any relative character growth coming out of the conflict.


Overall I think anime has a great potential to become a chart topper, whether or not it lives up to the hype and expectation is yet to be discovered.

From the Creator of Soul Eater we have Fire Force. Another Shounen but HOTTER. The Art Style is Great and the Fights are Pretty. And the overall Concept is New and Different!

BUT, This show doesn't have the best logic when it comes to the setting. If you are a "Big Thinker" or an "Intellectual Viewer" then you'll realize that. I advise the viewer not to pay too much attention to the actual Plot and Setting because little by little you'll begin to see that the writer created a setting that leave you asking ALOT of questions before determining if it actually makes sense or not.

The ... Characters and how they interact with one each other are typical. "I wanna be a Hero." I defeat bad guy and now Bad guy listens to me and is good now. "You're the way you are because you gave up on being Good". When Situations get tough things do start to seem a bit too easy for characters to get out of so It can seem a little predictable and even repetitive but that's how most Shounens are. If that's what you like go for it, If not, you won't like that aspect of Fire Force. Some of the character actions are very unbelievable. Actions that either don't fit with the characters, or actions that you can't see anyone doing. Some of which gives way to amazing dumb "comedy." But not all of it's comedy is like that.

Overall Enjoyment. There is a strong amount of Fan Service present. There are fights in every episode and a girl who often gets into "Sexy Situations". I consider these to be types of Fan Service and no that doesn't mean its bad. It carries a decent amount suspense and has enough fights to keep the viewer's mind occupied by them. If you prefer other elements, There's not much of anything else. The fights do look great though and animated nicely. Personally I liked the Concept, it was a breath of Fresh air because it isn't shared by any Anime I know of. In my opinion nothing about it captivates me other than the concept and fighting. And the girl ending up half-naked all the time. To me, Its nothing more than a Shounen with good Fight Scenes.

The first 2 ep was gas

But then when you keep watching it it start getting bad and bad it got no appalling. For example all the main character fight is with this feet that no fun because there is noting special to it all he do is use his feet. Also the fight scene have so many cut on it.
Also as the time goes on it start to show some ecchi. It was funny for a while but then it getting annoying cause it happened almost every time

The art is pretty good it cartoony it not realistic like other anime. The sound is ... pretty good too.

I say this as a major Fire Force fan: This will not be everyone's cup of tea. I always tell people you have to get to episode 6 before you can really judge if you're gonna like it or not. It's not that the first few episodes are bad, they're just not very gripping. They're kind of derivative of other anime tropes, but there are interesting concepts. It doesn't really pick up the pace until around episode 4, but even then I would say viewers should get through episode 6 to really see what the show is about, because at that point the story begins ... to scratch the surface of the main themes the show will follow.

Some of its cons are the fan service, particularly surrounding Tamaki (whom I despise), is incredibly forced and destroys any tension. But I noticed that after Tamaki showed up, the fan service mostly revolves around her so the other female characters are allowed to stand on their own without being the subject of oversexualization. I mean, this is Fire Force we're talking about so they do get longing stares occasionally but it's not as egregious as with Tamaki. I always tell people to just roll their eyes through those parts because they're inevitable, but you don't have to let them ruin the scene for you. And at some point, the men get a decent amount of fan service. Some of the characters and plot beats are a bit derivative. Every single character without fail has their "thing." Hinawa has terrible fashion sense, Hibana calls everyone "gravel," Obi bodybuilds, just to name a few examples. Some character's "things" are more prominent than others which can lead to one dimensional characters, but the people in the main and supporting cast are fairly well developed. Not complex by any means, but developed enough to be considered actual characters. The only downside to this is that the manga included character profiles and I wish the info from those got better incorporated into the story. Some of the small things like favorite foods and their "self-proclaimed" titles would have added just a little more depth to the characters in small ways.

With that said, it took me until the point I mentioned above to realize I liked the show, but what kept me going was the world building. The way religion is incorporated into the world is done really well to the point where I would guess the original author was probably Christian/Catholic, or at least spiritual. And the way the series uses fire as its base power is really interesting. You can tell the author spent a lot of time building pyrokinesis out into all of these interesting abilities. There are some powers where my kneejerk reaction is "That's kind of stupid," but then the characters explain how their ability works and it not only makes sense, but it's really really cool. Some of my favorite abilities come from the characters Hinawa, Sho, Yona, and Maki. But all the individual abilities are so memorable and unique to the characters that you likely won't get them mixed up with one another despite them all being fire powers. The themes of the show really shine with the world building and eventually the story gets to be really interesting. For me personally, this show is awesome, but I definitely understand why some people DNF'd it. But if you DNF'd before episode 6, I recommend giving it another shot.

A show that comes across as very average but somewhat difficult to rate. There are some pretty good highs and some pretty annoying lows. It has some great animation during the fight scenes, there is some good world-building, interesting concepts, and good sound design. But accompaning that is some wack editing, uncomfortable framing, eye-rolling fanservice, and characters given the basic level of development. Regarding the framing and editing, it almost seemed like they were going for a monogatari-esque style. But they never fully commit to it and that style worked in the monogatari series because of the surreal and bizzare nature of the show accentuated ... by the environments and visuals. This makes the show uncomfotable to view at times and takes away from its enjoyment. All-in-all, it was watchable enough with some pleasing fight visuals so I’ll probably watch the next season. But if the next season doesn’t improve upon the first, I may end up dropping the series. Closer to a 6 than a 4.

What should have exploded, went out like a splutter...

Enen no Shouboutai from the mind of Soul Eater's creator Atsushi Ookubo comes a tale of a boy trying to find and kill an Infernal (a monster created through human combustion) that killed his mother and brother, he sets his eyes on the Fire Force in order the unravel the mystery of that day and further in, a conspiracy in the Fire Force itself linked to the incident.

To say LA actually had high hopes for Enen no Shouboutai was an understatement when LA found out that the creator of Soul Eater made another new series and it ... sure had some of Atsushi's trademarks in story and characters, that of a story about camaraderie, bonds and family much like Soul Eater but through watching it further and further in, LA doesn't know..."something was missing".

Like the characters are a mixed bag with their quirks and the like. Shinra Kusakabe voiced by Gakuto Kajiwara (wait...ASTA FROM BLACK CLOVER!?!??!) is your typical hot headed main protagonist always focused on the mission ahead and his premise is again typical of the shounen genre, besides his drive he's the typical shounen main protagonist. Arthur Boyle voiced by Yuusuke Kobayashi is the knights knights in which he gains more power when he thinks he's a knight, he butt heads with Shinra more than few times. Takehisa Hinawa voiced by Kenichi Suzumura, the vice of the 8th and is the Mama Bear of the 8th even though he's the stoic no nonsense of the group. Iris voiced by M.A.O, the sister (as in nun) of the group that has ties Hibana voiced by Lynn the Battalion Commander of the 5th Special Fire Brigade. Maki Oze voiced by Saeko Kamijou an officer of the 8th and has a running gag of her being called gorilla _________ and twisting up that catchphrase (back and forth). Finally the 8th's Captain Akitaru Obi voiced by Kazuya Nakai who has a strong sense of justice and spearheads the conspiracy in the fire Force company an oddly enough the only non-fire user of the group. From the offsets it might look at the characterization of the core cast is....slim to bland and your right but with some new allies, things does shake up and the running gags with some of the characters does evolve...some not for the better *cough* Tamaki *cough* but besides those as well as Shinra's plot linking to the conspiracy to the Fire Force, characterization is indeed slim. Even then thanks to or maybe because of it's world building that the characters sometimes suffer when they aren't in the limelight as the character development arcs the core cast goes through does develop the core cast one way or another through camaraderie, it's just it's ALSO competing with the more interesting world building of Enen no Shouboutai and the ongoing running gags doesn't help especially with Tamaki, Arthur and Shinra (mind you LA likes Tamaki as a character...just not her running gag as it falls flat VERY fast).

For plot tangents and twists, there is ONE good plot twist and that comes near the end of the anime but the rest you can easily link two and two together to get a vague glimpse at what the anime is heading towards, though to this end, the anime may seem rushed in some areas, but oddly enough LA saw this anime has a literal slow burner for a shounen anime, sure the action was fast paced and the plot rushed at time,s but LA felt the force of it being slow more than it being rushed and that at times hurt character development and characterization (LA says this as the plot arcs are hefty, the battles on the other hand are quick and to the point, make this like you will). So to say the pacing of this anime was erratic is the best way to sum it up and yes it hurts the anime badly but LA thinks there something else that's the major problem.

The animation by David Productions was an odd choice but near the end of the anime, ohhhhh LA got why David Production signed up for this and sure funny in a Jojo's kinda way but nonetheless. Anyways the animation was actually pretty decent, from the fighting choreography though at times they shortcutted but enough for LA to not notice, character designs were distinct and exotic looking and some fanservicey (be it intention or not) from Maki, Tamaki and Hibana especially. The background work and especially the atmosphere was done very well, expected from David Productions. Overall a decent effort from them that wasn't Jojo's related from them for a change.

The voice cast was HUGE so LA might get into some notes about the voice cast *ahem*.........GAKUTO Kajiwara voiced Shinra?...like ok, LA barely noticed until LA read who actually voiced Shinra but yea LA can hear it. LA found Aoi Yuuki as Tamaki Kotatsu, Saeko Kamijou as Maki Oze and Lynn as Hibana as LA's favourites. Nonetheless has an eclectic range of voice cast from new and old, from Gakuto Kajiwara, M.A.O, Aoi Yuuki, Lynn, Yuusuke Kobayashi, Saeko Kamijou and Mamoru Miyano.

So what is Enen no Shouboutai missing that it didn't turn out like Soul Eater?, the lack of drive from the story?, sure it's erratic pacing killed it at times (not the good way mind you) but Shinra's drive to move the plot removes that, bad characterization?...no but it's a part of it, production value?...no David Productions and the voice cast was decent to great at times. So what made LA not enjoy Enen no Shouboutai as much as LA WANTED it too even with al the hype LA gave to at the start?...

Style over substance?...MAYBE, due to the fact that the anime's sole focus of Shinra finding the Infernal that killed his family gets bogged down by the oddly good world building and tons of characters for varying development at us, the production value also coincides with this. LA may not not know the definitive answer to what LA feels WHY LA didn't like Enen no Shouboutai as much as LA wanted to, but style over substance seems like the closest answer LA to answering it which if this is true, is a damn shame as LA WANTED to like this anime but it was just missing something...

Wait, style over substance, decent production value, weak characterization but a narrow focused major plotline bogged down world building and heaps of characters?.........LA knows why LA didn't like Enen no Shouboutai as much. LA wasn't invested in Shinra's goal from the start.

What with the multiple characters and subplotlines thrown at us trying to get us invested in the the huge cast of characters as well as the interesting world of Enen no Shouboutai, it missed or ignored the best core plotlines until the end and by the end it was too late, sure the finale TRIED to reinvigorate us back to Shinra's major plotline but with everything going on in the anime, it faded from LA's memory and LA just started not to care and cared more about it's more interesting minor cast who were reduced to running gags and the world building converging back to Shinra's plot.......

A damn shame...

Enen no Shouboutai does have a second season in the works and the finale did kinda help to refocus it efforts back onto Shinra, let's hope it actually focuses on the major plotline ahead instead of going into a tangent for the second season, but that's the second season. LA sees the merits of the first season...with it's first season and with all that being said.....yeah it's a style over substance shounen-fest with annoying to weak characterization but good character development when called upon, great world building bogging down it's characters to the point the world is more interesting than it's core cast that COULD had gone somewhere and just might with it's second season but the first season is a disappointment no disagreeing there on that front.

Enen no Shouboutai to take the L to Látom

Human combustion.

It plagues the world of Fire Force, forcing people to develop a specialized force that serves to protect the people from the dangers of the Infernals, beings that were created from human combustion. This specialized force is known as the titular Fire Force.

Shinra, the main protagonist of the show, joins a rag-tag team of individuals, the Special Fire Force Company 8, looking to find out about the origin of the plague and to prevent many similar events of human combustion from happening. It’s an interesting premise, but that initial potential is halted by its poor characters and a weak story.

The protagonists are basic ... and don’t offer anything fresh to the table; they fit their roles but never develop much as characters throughout the course of the show. Shinra, being the main character, manages to get a significant amount of development as he learns to define his ideals of being a hero. However, his “hero speeches” whenever he fights an enemy feels shallow and empty, and they get annoying after a while. The show does a great job at creating a character who learns and evolves, but we don’t need him constantly explaining to us what it means every time. There are better ways to do it than generic monologues, such as in subtle gestures and slight changes in behavior. It doesn't need to be overt; having a smooth route paints a clearer level of understanding.

Villains are your cardboard crazy types, and the show makes sure to show you how evil they are with the stereotypical evil facial expressions and obnoxious maniacal laughter. The dialogue is also predictable coming from these kinds of characters, adopting a Darwinian philosophy and taking part in a ridiculous cult. It's easy to show how crazy a villain is, but the show never moves past the surface-level "crazy and that's all there is to it" archetype. Another thing is that the animation shouldn't need to show villains in a sinister light again and again. Their thought process and their actions speak for themselves, and showing villains with black lines along their faces to portray how nasty and sly they are doesn't really add any depth and only points to how lacking they are as memorable antagonists.

Fire Force's story is predictable and straightforward. It's a hero story about Shinra first and foremost, and it's not exactly a unique take on the concept either. It's plain and adequate enough to direct the course of the show but doesn't lend itself to anything memorable or noteworthy.

Regarding the fanservice concerning Tamaki, the ecchi-styled comedy feels very awkward, and it begins to be repetitive later on. Humor is subjective, but the jokes with Tamaki get overused past the halfway mark, and it loses its initial appeal.

With that being said, there's still a lot that Fire Force provides in terms of pure entertainment.

The fight sequences are great. It's explosive and powerful, the animation and sound design doing a great job at illustrating the intensity of Shinra’s kicks and showcasing the various abilities that the rest of the characters possess. A few issues were that the action-oriented moments could have showcased a lot more aspects on the technical side like hand-to-hand combat, and the monologues that the characters tell as they’re fighting is pretty unrealistic. The constant introductions and info tidbits take away from the immersion as well. All in all though, the animation does an incredible job at giving life to the fights, and it adds a whole new layer of enjoyment and a great level of hype.

While the cast of characters don’t offer anything new to the table, they still act as sources of entertainment with their interactions being pretty fun to watch. The Special Fire Force Company 8 are a funny group of people with their own quirks. Maki's cute musings while being a completely reliable member of the team, and the running joke of Arthur being an idiot, which serve to create interesting predicaments during his fights, are just examples on how fun they are to watch. Comedy is subjective for this one, but I found myself being amused by a lot of the shenanigans of Company 8, not to the point where I'm laughing out of my mind but enough to create some moments of relaxation and breathing between points of dramatic tension.

At the end of the day, Fire Force isn't fresh and is far from special. It lacks in a strong story and well-written characters, but it does have a place in being a fully serviceable piece of entertainment. That's enough for a lot of people, and I can appreciate it for what it does.

The ‘force’ in Fire Force comes from the forced fan service. Why must every serious moment be ruined by unnecessary fan service?

It’s gotten to the point where the Ecchi fan service has become predictable and unfitting.

First impressions

I immediately compared Ecchi Force to Blue Exorcist. Both series have MANY similarities. I also compared the demon/rare infernal to Black Clover. I think the mangaka gathered ideas from both Blue Exorcist and Black Clover to make Ecchi Force.

Characters

Only a few characters stood out to me and their names are: Oubi, Arthur, Burns, Karim, Shinmon, Hibana and Joker. IMO their personalities & abilities shined far brighter than Shinra’s. The ... rest of the characters that I never mentioned are forgettable.

Sound & visual effects

Sound engineering is A-1, as expected from David Pro. I especially liked the sound and visual effects of Sho’s Za Warudo scenes.

Overall

Not the best adaptation and I certainly won’t be rewatching it. I noticed some scenes were missing animation sequences and they left out some things that are in the manga. My viewing experience was ruined by the unnecessary and repetitive fan service, the unoriginal theme and the quality of animation - which isn't great for David Pro.

Overall rating: 5/10

SPOILERS

This anime started off really strong. The start may be really slow for others, but as you progress throughout Fire Force the better it gets... then crashes into oblivion.

The concept of religious firemen fighting zombies on fire with... fire is pretty unique and they executed it pretty well.

They take too much time to explain the plot of the story and often repeat some things that just become oversaturated.

During the Evangelist Arc, after they beat Rekka, it gets super weird. When Shinra gets his "new powers" the anime just turns a full 180 and they become demi-gods.

Characters such as Tamaki didn't really get ... a chance to show how useful they are. She is just there for fan service and gets beaten 10 seconds in each fight.

This anime is really good at first, but do not expect it to get better at the second half.

Whose ready for a Hot Take!?! Get it? Hot take?....And the shows about fire fighters? Get it? Oh god im so funny...

I, like most people doing these reviews, was very interested in fire force when I first saw the trailers for it. The concept seemed familiar but still unique, the world seemed like it had some potential, and the creator of Soul Eater was on board so hey, why not?

And then I saw it. And boy oh boy, was I dissapointed.... Well, thats probably a bit of hyperbole on my part, as the parts that intrigued me, still did (and do) at this point ... in the show (just finished episode 8). The animation is insanely good compared to some other shounen this year (lookin at OPM S2), with some absolutely gorgeous frames that are beyond screensaver worthy. And all of the fire powers in the show are each unique while telling us a little bit about the character (for the most part). And while all of the characters are largely cliches, deep characters arent exactly what I look for in most of my shounen, if they do happen its usually just a fun little addition to my overall enjoyment.

!!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All that being said this show does have some serious problems and they all begin and end with the story. We are introduced to the main plot of the story at around the end of episode 4, with the reveal that not only is the protag squadron a new squad led by one of the few people in the fire force with no fire powers, but its also been put together to serve as a bit of internal affairs for the entire fire brigade. But in secret. Now, on paper this sounds pretty awesome, but when it comes to the actual execution it leaves a lot to be desired. We are then introduced to the first corrupt squad that needs to be taken down by fire force. You would then expect the first major arc of the story to be about investigating said squad, trying to catch them doing something corrupt or whatever, but no. Immediately the bad squad kidnaps a member of the good squad and now we're fighting. Like in the same episode we're introduced to this bad squad..... Then when its all over, nobody is arrested, there isnt some big scandal in the papers or any fallout to deal with. It was just "Hey, stop being so obscenely evil all the time... okay? Bye!!!!" And thats it. With the only fallout in the story being that the bad squad captain now works with the good squad to solve the greater mystery of human combustion. Also she wants the protag's peen. Thats it. Thats the only consequence to the story.

Basically robbing the entire show of any dramatic weight if the only punishment for villains is "You've gotta be a good guy now mmmkay?" It's all very frustrating and maybe it will be addressed in future episode of the show, but for now its just frustrating as a viewer when I feel like nothing that the protagonists do really effects the world of the show that much. At least in a shounen.

Also I know that I said earlier that the cliche characters dont bother me that much, but what does bother me is when the show tries to have its female empowerment cake and eat it too. Mostly because its a crappy cake. What I mean by that is,they'll add in female characters that are supposed to be strong, and powerful, but are always undone by their emotions. This is a cliche that has always and will always bother me. Especially given in the 8th episode where the female character that we have been led to believe this entire series that she is the strongest female member of fire force (so far), and then is victimized by the guy she likes and cant defend herself whatsoever for no reason other than "Her emotions wouldn't let her". It was extremely offensive to me to watch. Especially since the entire sequence was obviously going to end up being (and it did end up being) just another way to make the protag yet another "hero" moment.

I'm not going to lie and say that I am an expert on the mindset of a person who has been emotionally manipulated like that character was, but when everything else in the show has shown me how strong a character is, and to decide to betray that all for the sake of some cheap mustache twirling villainy and a hero shot for our male lead, it really pisses me off. Just gets me into full-on, run-on sentences, pissed.

Given my emotions on this show are very fresh as I JUST finished the latest episode that made me madder than any other episode thus far, I still think this show is very very rough from a story standpoint. I would suggest to anyone reading this to wait until the entire series is done and just do a 48 hour binge session over a weekend with your body pillow of choice instead of watch this one week to week. Maybe seeing the whole picture at once will make the annoying parts more tolerable.

Final overall score (as of episode 8): 6/10

To be honest, i was very disapointed by the anime. My friend told me that he enjoyed it a lot, but i would have to disagree.

Let's start out with the good:
First of all, the sound track is amazing. I thought it set the mood and made some scenes more lively or dramatic.
Second of all, the animation was amazing. The fight scenes and flashbacks were definetly the greatest parts of the whole show.
Third of all, most of the characters look unique. My favourite character designs were Sho, Joker, Dr. Giovanni, Benimaru, and Konro.
Forth of all, the story is actually very interesting and i think it ... was a great idea.

Now here comes the bad:
First of all, the fan service was too much. Tamaki was only in the show for fan service and it was quite disapointing considering her ability.
Second of all, most of the Fire Soldiers that were woman did not do much. Iris only was there for the backstory between her and Princess Hibana. Maki was strong and had opportunities, but she barely had any screentime even though she could have been very useful. I liked Hibana at first, i thought she had a realistic personnality and was intriguing, but when she became obsessed with Shinra, her dark personnality disapeared.
Third of all, most characters personnalities are just plain boring. Arthur is supposed to be a comedic relief, but its just awkward. Takehisa had a very good backstory but he never shows a soft side is most of the time scaring others away. I could go on, but this is long enough.

Overall, i think the only reason why I'd give this anime a 5/10 is because of the soundtrack, animation, story and flash back.

This anime shoud honestly be retitled to:

Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Burning Building?

I enjoyed the first few episodes of this anime, I really thought it would be different from your typical shonen series. Matched with that spectacular opening I thought this anime was going to be amazing. But as the anime went on it started to show its true colors the characters in the anime are just ecchi fanservice trash that ruin the whole experience of this show.

On the surface the animation and soundtrack really pull people in because oh boy that opening and ending are just out of this world. ... Until you get down to the story. Its a boring mediocore shit show where you don't even know whats going on half the time you could be in the middle of an intense fight but then fanservice just goes flying everywhere. Then guess what when all the girls just fall for the main character sound familiar?

I can't get enough of the opening and ending though

Describe Fire Force in two words: “wasted potential.”

This show is prime example that you need more than solid visuals, a good musical score, and a mildly interesting initial cast to provide a fun viewing experience. The hype this show carried at the beginning of the season, coupled with an admittedly very interesting premise and a few decent world-building episodes at the outset pulled me in; only to be blindsided by a complete dismissal of pacing, refusal to develop characters, senseless and contradictory plot reveals, and lazy fight choreography.

The main cast appears likable enough, and it’s frustrating when their backstories are quite literally glossed over, ... or ignored altogether. Chemistry between the “crew” is stated repeatedly to be improving throughout the season, but with the minimal meaningful interaction the viewer is privy to, it all feels rather shallow. The majority of characterization comes from some of the most tasteless fanservice bits I’ve seen in quite some time, and the timing of said events is terrible. Most moments of tension are broken with something stupid, making the whole related scene feel meaningless. Hints and potential plot threads at the beginning of the show are pushed aside, and the writer’s solution to this seems to be interjecting a plethora of new (and equally underdeveloped,) characters around the half way mark. Around the same time, the firefighter shtick fades away completely, and we’re left with some generic action. The fights dip tremendously in quality with questionable animation choices, and some contrived gibberish about powerplants, the sun, and the end of the world are brought to the forefront as ambiguous ways to explain the source of Shinra and Sho’s strength. The “big reveal” in the last episode appears to be rather inconsequential, and very weakly sets up the next season. I’d be lying if I said the ending felt inconclusive, as it felt like the show barely began telling it’s story in the first place.

Now this may sound like a nihilistic review, and I don’t want to leave the impression the show was all bad. Some definite standouts were Shinra vs Rekka (which was unfortunately a victim of the aforementioned tension-breaking fanservice,) Hibana & Benimaru’s respective arcs (probably the two most developed non-protagonist characters,) and the second OP (seriously, it’s a genuinely good song, and not just for an anime OP.)

As a result of all of these factors, I give the show a 5. I certainly don’t regret watching it, as it presented some memorable scenes visually, but nothing of substance content-wise unfortunately. I’ll end this by saying that I WILL watch the upcoming season 2, as I still like the show conceptually, despite it’s misguided direction.

Fire Force could be considered a show with pedigree. Produced by David Productions (known for the JoJo's anime adaptations),with a big portion of its staff coming from Studio SHAFT (known for shows such as Madoka Magica or the Monogatari series), especially in the animation department. On top of that, the show was an adaptation of a manga by Atsushi Ohkubo, of Soul Eater fame. This show had every chance to be big, but the reality is that the expectations that come with such pedigree are not necessarily right.

Fire Force is a show that comes short of expectations and that is a shame, as the setting ... and production values poured into making it far outstrip the quality of the overall product. It is unfortunate that the show came out during very unfortunate times that killed its hype, but the truth is that even without that Fire Force suffers a bit of an identity crisis when it comes to tone and pacing that ultimately made it little more than a showcase of great animation and sound, with a story that could not to match it.

< STORY: 5>

Admittedly, the world of Fire Force is a very interesting setting. Just like with its brother series Soul Eater, the universe created by Ohkubo-sensei is weird, cool and tinged in darkness, with just enough glimmers of light to make it enjoyable without feeling despairing. The power system of this shonen action series is very imaginative too, if very fast and loose with the definitions of what can be passed off as "fire" or "heat". The worldbuilding is amazing in this series, but that is about all that is great about the show in this department.

The story of Shinra Kusakabe is somewhat interesting in that he is not a character that is looking to be "the very best like no one ever was", he has a different non-vague goal and is single-minded about wanting to achieve it, even if he has no clue of how to do it. However, the way this story is told is a problem that the show struggles with constantly, shonen tropes (of which it has many) aside.

Let's stop dragging this out. The pacing of Fire Force is BAD. It is awkward, slow and meanders a lot. A lot of the pacing issues seem to be transferred in some way from the manga, maybe as a product of the change in medium of expression, but there's plenty of moments that also feel intentional that work against the story. Many times the show pans into far and/or wide shots in complete silence, as if trying to give you a moment to catch a joke or soak you into some emotional bit, but the only thing that comes out them is a sense that something is off.

The show touches on topics of family, life, death and the process of grief but they are hit-or-miss when portrayed, many times even feeling superficial, particularly when they are framed through typical shonen tropes like the power of friendship. There is not much more to comment on them as these themes remain in the background but are not exactly discussed in-universe.

Finally, there is a bit of a dichotomy in the tone of the show. There is a bit of an undercurrent of cartoony qualities to story which is constantly clashing with the looks and the pacing of the show, that are significantly more standard anime-like in aesthetic. It feels as if the spirit of a show just like Soul Eater hung in the background, like a ghost on resting a hand on your shoulder. Not saying that this is not enough like Soul Eater, but rather that it doesn't try to be as adventurous and pays dearly for it.

In the end, the story turns out to be a massive disappointment. It is not outright bad, but it could be much, much better. It's biggest problem being that it could not reconcile the weird, cartoony parts of the story with a more serious angle and then it added all this Shaft-esque pans that added nothing of worth to the show and only accentuated its shortcomings even more.

< ART: 8>

On the bright side, the animation of Fire Force is great. Mostly. The action setpieces are amazing showcases of the animators' talents and it give as some very impressive moments of sakuga throughout the show's runtime. There are a handful of bumps on the road but overall there are no glaring weaknesses in the animation.

The biggest point against the visuals of Fire Force is its background art. While the character designs are alright, nothing too amazing (if anything they feel toned down compared to those of Soul Eater), the backgrounds feel uninspired a lot of the time, especially the urban environments, of which there are many. A shame considering that the wacky, somewhat cartoony aesthetic of Ohkubo's artwork has always allowed him to create pretty unique backgrounds, but they feel absent here, even among the landmark places of the show's universe.

Ultimately, the visuals are great but not perfect, feeling like they pulled their punches with trying to capture the weirdness of the source material.

< SOUND: 7>

Another part of the show where production values shine through, the soundtrack of Fire Force is phenomenal, its sound direction less so but impressive in its own right. It just suffers a bit as a result of the story.

The sound effects of the show are bit iffy. While they are pretty good individually, as a whole with the tone of the story they often feel out of place outside of the actions scenes, with a punchy, slightly exaggerated way of conveying sound, even during the more serious scenes. It works but it doesn't know when to pull its punches sometimes.

The soundtrack itself on the other hand is very impressive. Kudos to Kenichiro Suehiro for a great variety of tracks, the vary from calm and innocent, to dark and gritty, to mysterious and even lighthearted and goofy. Both OPs and the first ED are of particular mention for their music, with a very catchy sound though the second OP suffers from its visuals, but I digress.

< CHARACTER: 5>

A product of the clumsy way the story is told, and large ensemble cast. The characters of Fire Force are mostly static and don't feel like much beyond a series of faces that our MC encounters as his quest continues. There are very few characters that undergo an arc of their own during the show's run and those that do are usually sidelined afterwards, as Shinra constantly takes center stage.

Unfortunately, protagonist Shinra Kusakabe is a not very deep or interesting hero himself. Besides the standard fare of shonen battle series, his own personal goal is interestingly told but not interesting in and of itself so he doesn't make himself particularly likeable through his backstory. His personality is also nothing to write home about as he is just another plucky young man that doesn't back off of his goals or ideals, lacking charisma or likeability to make him appealing beyond his somewhat meta self-styled shonen hero persona.

The rest of the "main" cast is made up of characters that are defined by their tropes. The fatherly captain, the no-nonsense lieutenant, a complete moron or a military lady with a bit of a shoujo-vision problem. While they are not completely defined by a single trait, it is very easy to pin them to one defining characteristic and so they are not very interesting.

< ENJOYMENT: 5>

I was very conflicted when watching Fire Force. Even though it had plenty of enjoyable moments in its first 2-3 episodes, as the story went on it started to drag very badly for me. I stuck until the end mostly thanks to watching the show weekly, giving me time to decompress from the slog that was watching many of the episodes in the middle, towards an "ending" that I found decent enough, but didn't wow me story-wise.

For every high point there was an equally low one and much of the show felt average to me. The humor was hit-or-miss, the fanservice was pretty in your face and felt pretty off-putting, especially as it came at the expense of one particular character. The action scenes were the best parts with mostly great direction in this regard, but everything surrounding them was lacking.

< TL; DR >

Fire Force is a disappointing shonen series that promises a lot but does not deliver on all fronts. Great production values in animation and audio make for a very impressive series of action scenes but the story and the way it is paced and told as result are far too awkward and divorced with the tone that the series tries to convey in its writing to be enjoyable.

If you don't care for great story and just want to see amazing fights or are really into shonen battle series, by all means go and watch Fire Force. If you are a big fan of the work of Ohkubo-sensei and/or look for a unique take on the genre however, you will not find a lot to see here.

< OVERALL SCORE: 6.0/10 = 6>