Hikari no Ou

This show's plot in a summary: within the space of its abrupt 10-episode run that only covers the first 2 volumes in a total of 4, having to rewatch this in a binge IS a necessity to fully (albeit partially) understand the appeal of novels like these.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this: I definitely have a love-hate relationship with both director Junji Nishimura and series composer-cum-scriptwriter Mamoru Oshii. With the former returning back to the anime scene after a recent string of bad series going as far back as 2018 with studio Seven Arcs, and the latter coming back for one of the most polarizing ... series (Vlad Love) that depending on the people you ask, is a love-hate affair that either is worth being enjoyable or just plain bad. Lo and behold, these two notable people are back, and this time, they helm novelist Rieko Hinata's fantasy novel: Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter together with studio Signal.MD...and the results were more in line of what I expected to see from both people leading this somewhat ambitious project being the TV network WOWOW's comeback after a few years (as opposed to the current constant ones you see on Japan's major TV networks).

Being a full-on novel (as opposed to the LN), there is more detail drawn here, and Reiko Hinata's story is shown as such: In the distant future of Japan, a calamity has changed human physiology so that humans will instantly combust when in the presence of fire. As a result, human civilization collapsed until they discover an alternative fuel source derived from the blood of demonic Fire Fiends. As a result, the elite Fire Hunters are formed, whose sole purpose is to hunt down Fire Fiends and fallbeasts and harvest their blood, fueling a new industrial revolution. And one such Fire Hunter by the name of Haijuu, gets himself killed in action while saving a wandering girl named Touko from the Fire Fiend, only to leave his companion dog Kanata with her to be brought back to whence he came from, which is the Capital. At the same time, this young man named Koushi, living off the prestiges of a wealthy family due to the fact that his mother is dead and his younger ill-fated sister needs recovery. And in return, he is tasked by the same wealthy Okibi family under Yuoshichi to find out an alternate power source towards the bottled lightning that harnesses the power of the extremely volatile skyfire that plagues the current government that's about to be overturned in the midst of the resultant chaos.

The full story split into two halves: Touko and Koushi's routes, they're in no doubt connected to each other, though how the anime procured the original source material in this way is amicable at best. From the outset, it's clear that both main characters will be the center core of the series (at least for the first half here) going through what they need to know and survive amongst the sea of raging spirit monsters that could hunt them at every corner. For that, I'd say that it was a good job trying to segregate this massive storyline that involves even the unsuspecting public, albeit with infodumps that don't spare even a second of your time expositioning if you aren't playing close attention, which can feel like a lot through the fast progression of the narrative plot. The truth is that this could've been more refined by Junji Nishimura trying to picture this in the minds of the audience, but as mentioned, nowadays he doesn't give a heck to how anime these days needed to be structured carefully if the storyline is THIS hectic and living-breathing, and just went on his old directorialship ways, which in more cases than one, hurt the show in trying to convince us the audience into the investment of the anime's world at large. At least from what was presented here with Season 1, I would already have surmised that Season 2 (the latter half of the novel) will be more of the same, and though the execution here is wonky at best, the only hope I have is how this story will wrap up when the 2nd half comes in the future.

The characters here also sell the narrative, because they run through the whole course of their world being invaded by the Fire Fiends, not to mention the Fire Hunters themselves and with overarching plots like with the Divine Clans misaligning the world following their Gods/Goddesses and whatnot that ultimately result in the disconnection of the goals and objectives of their purpose in the first place. Touko is a good girl no doubt, the problem is that this innocent kid is brought to the big issue just by wandering alone with the possibility of being attacked by the Fire Fiends, which brings us to her dangerous and treacherous journey back to the Capital, honing the dead Haijuu's belongings along with the dog Kanata as its temporary protector. Touko might not have been taught mature due to her age, but it's because of this reason that forces her to be one, and with the people that she meets on the way (e.g. the 3 brides of Hotaru, Benio and Kaho that are sold off to other villages for forced marriages in exchange of citizenship; fellow Fire Hunter Akira) that teaches her the brutalities of reality, and that this issue is not something to be taken lightly with potential people dying at the hands of the Fire Fiends if not careful. On Koushi's side, being taken by its owner Youshichi, together with his wife Hibana and daughter Kira, he is a good-natured person awaiting the arrival of Haijuu, which turns out to be his father, that with his death together with the suddenness of his mother, as well as his ill sister Hinako, the world crumbles at his feet, similar to that of being an orphan within a split second. The exchange of researching on Fire Fiends, bottled lightning and skyfire, it's a necessity because of the distrust against the government and its nation under attack from a rebel group called the Spiders, and Koushi anchors the project, learning more of what goes under the hood, like the history of the Fire Hunters, the Flickering Flame and the Millenial Comet, all of which play a big part in the eventual plot that slowly expands the story overtime. This is an interesting world that requires very close attention no doubt, and the plot beats are placed right where they need to be, so this is the hallmark to appreciating full-blown novels that require meticulous details where every single storyline and character is essential to make or break the story. Sure, for now it seems like a wedge that both Touko and Koushi are only get getting started on the big narrative from being clueless to informative, but they'll get better as time moves on.

Unfortunately, where I can praise the show for its story and interesting characters, is where I draw the line with production values. Studio Signal.MD is no means by far a decent studio, the most recent of which was the 2-cour run of Platinum End (that was just decent at best), but like another show that they once helmed on (Mars Red), it's clear that director Junji Nishimura and the staff team were putting aesthetics over quality to magnify the world at large. Some were great (e.g. artistic hand-drawn scenes that showcase the beauty and destruction of the world) and many others were not so great (e.g. the constant overlaying of portraits over the current animation plane and the exact hand-drawn scenes used to depict the characters' outburst of emotions), though I don't know what the hell that they were thinking to portray with the latter, which could be done through normal animation, but they didn't, and decided to leverage the shortcomings with the excessive animation and hand-drawn cut-aways, which felt jarring at best. This is a beautiful story, and the production must be in tandem together to express its world at large, which this show I'd like to believe was a fluke but was not.

The music that's courtesy of composer Kenji Kawai, like Nishimura and Oshii, has also worked on Vlad Love as well, so it wouldn't be a mistake to lump these 3 people together. For one, it sets a mood that often happens with moodswings depending on the situations circumvented, and I think that it's decent effort all things considered. For the OST, Leo Ieiri's OP is solemn, yet mystical, while Maaya Sakamoto's ED is just about what I expected being a song of many colours that adds to the generic backdrop of "we are Shonen running" sequences. In this case, I find the ED much better than the OP.

If you can say anything about Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter, it would be signified as a diamond in the rough. Sure, the extent of it is about halfway there, but for the earnest watcher who wants to get invested in this show, while binging it would be the best option, breaking down every episode is the key to being fully immersive on what this show has to offer. Right now, this Fire Hunter show is all but a gem that awaits its latter half to see what it's made of to be properly judged altogether.

This battle against the Flame Fiends is not over yet, it's all but a footnote, that is for now.

I guess the novel series could be interesting, but I am dropping this.
Very slow plot and low quality animation. At first I thought it was peculiar to be able to count the hair strands of someone's eyebrows in certain minute-long closeups, or being flashed the cringe worthy amass of fat and wrinkles that Yuoshichi's face is. But the end of ep 3 with the dragon being just a moving splatter of white, which then gets compared with the high detail concept card was a terrible mistake, because it showed so obviously that the animation is not simple by design, but by necessity of being time ... pressed and/or having no budget.
Should have trusted my instinct and not watched an anime entirely produced by WOWOW, Japan's poor man Netflix.
A pity to let go because the seiyuu cast looks awesome (Miyano, Hosoya, Ishida, Miki, Hayami, Sakamoto..). But this is no audiobook, unfortunately.

Hikari no ou has as one of his biggest points of interest and strenghts the world-building and everything related to the settings, the premise is interesting but as im going to mention later there are many reasons why in general terms the series didnt live up to my expectations (and maybe to many others spectators) even with doing right many things.

Although the complexity of the story in not enormous, is does feel like that due to an poor direction and writting, the narration and chuncks of information about the world that serve as explanation about something along the episodes accompained with transitions very erratics with ... from time to time still-colored-images that doesnt fit the flow and are really off for the general scheme of the series makes for an pretty difficult digestion of dialogs and understanding of the context.

The series throws at you a bunch of things that most of the time feel foreign one against other and the way that are serve is pretty bad makes for an confusing experience that to begin shouldnt be like that because at his core is rather simple (i cant even say that is trying to be more intrincate netiher because the fault clearly rest on a poor handle on the storytelling). Sure you will be able to catch of what is all about but it's gonna make for an tedious ride for some moments.

Characters wise the main ones who takes most screen-time are pretty weak from some who are fully hollow and really from persona to motivations dont have anything and the few reminecentst fragments left are just some kind of stereotype on their behaviours (talking about you touko), to others who between them (Koushi and Yuoshichi) their goals and intentions are very blurry and kinda inconsistent, for the rest of the characters for most part were fine.

The art style i like it but was strange 50% of the time the drawings and animation in general were fine but the other half the amount on quality how decreased was notable with episodes like the one were appears the dragon thing, with fights is also the same sometimes looked good but other times were pretty poor. On this aspect i think was 50/50 is very obivious when takes appeareance, i dont know if this was because of an low budget or what.

The op and end were pretty good, the ost didnt have any piece that was memorable.

Now even with all that mentioned i have to say despite all their faults i kinda enjoy it, the fire hunters, the gods, the villages, the two episodes on the train through the forest (which i wish could lasted more) really catched my eye and even if the story is not followed completly flawlessly kinda got my hook to see how would unfold. To some degree make me remember to another series called "shinsekai yori" on the wolrd-building and how interesting looks.

RESUME
This series is gonna be polarized there are gonna be people how doesnt like it (understandably given all his cons) and some who can be able to forgive or make blind eye to their cons and still enjoy it, worth to mention it feels refreshing in comparisons with many others series of today. If you ask me i would say to give it a chance having on mind the aforementioned and see if you end up liking it , its not a bad or horrible series but also is not an materpiece or excent of faults.

If you're in solely for the art concept, keep watching. But if you expect good plot and development you might want to re-evaluate.

The art here can be arguably considered either great or tragic. I speak as a non-artistic individual, who can appreciate art solely on a "like it" - "don't like it" basis, so as a subjective judge, I found it mostly unusual, a bit overdone at times, but overall pleasing.
The plot also seemed rather intriguing at the beginning, with all the curious elements and concepts and fine-paced world building. That pace, however, drops rather quickly as we are introduced to more side characters and ... their own stories, before they are promptly discarded. Even if considered a necessary plot device, those (adult) characters feel extremely shallow, unmotivated or over-motivated and with very questionable intellectual level, apart from the child protagonists who act way more mature than they should be and than the surrounding them adults.
The plot is divided into 2 storylines, which will pressumably somehow intertwine at some point, and while it is not an uncommon storytelling device, it is by far done well. The slow tempo, jumping between the 2 stories, throwing at moments too much or too little information at the viewer makes this series hard, and at times cringy to watch. The world is filled with fictitious terms, which are often explained with very few words from the protagonists and shown written on a full black screen. Those terms tend to be a non-existent combination of kanji brought together to create its fictional meaning, but even as a Japanese speaker, I found it overwhelming to remember how some/each are pronunced and struggled to figure out their respective interpretations when mentioned later on, although I can see how this contributes to the world building and found some of them rather clever and/or fitting.

Overall, it is not one of those unwatchable shows with only hypothetically existent plots. If one can agree with the art and the slow development, one can surely enjoy this. For my part, I found the story not intriguing and enganging enough to carry on with it, but I can see why some might give it more credit.