Firstly all the characters are two dimensional. They take the Fairy Tail route of having each character have a unique quirk to them. However the show simply doesn’t have the nuance that made those characters great. The lieutenant wears silly hats. Maki can’t stand when people point out her physique. Arthur is an idiot who’s obsessed with chivalry. And Tamaki who I can only describe as having the power of fan service.
Character development? There’s either none or one’s that are so forced it’s unreal. Princess Hibana was a cliche villain but an interesting one too. She fights the main character, Sho for a bit. He uses the Talk No Jutsu for a bit, and she becomes obsessed with him.
Next is the fights and boy while they are beautifully animated. (I’ll talk about animation in a bit). They are very poorly written. Now I don’t mind if you have the odd fight end with the power of friendship. If a fight is 50/50 sometimes having the goal of protecting your loved ones can turn the tide. However the amount of times either that happens or something even more ludicrous is astounding. One fight that made me almost drop this show was between Arthur and an ’inferno’. The monster is beating Arthur badly. It’s completely one sided. And how does Arthur win? He remembers that he’s right handed and then proceeds to one shot the monster.
Animation is a very mixed bag. As I said before the fights are beautifully done. Plus I really like the art style. Despite not being the biggest fan of the star eyes. However surprisingly, when characters are just standing and talking is when the animation’s worst. Here’s a drinking game. Take a shot every time you spot a character without any facial features. I swear you’ll get drunk by episode 4.
Then there’s the fan service. And it’s just so bad here. Don’t get me wrong fan service is fun when done right. No Game No Life has a ton, but In most cases, it’s done to mock us for liking it. Fire Force uses fan service for poor comedy. I mentioned Tamaki earlier because her character faces it the worst. She often ends up in precarious positions, sometimes defying the laws of physics to do so. Then there’s the times like when someone shapeshifts into her. Then another character Iris has to figure out which is which. The fake is quite clear because Tamaki is a young women while the voice is of a middle aged man. But somehow Iris can’t figure it out until Tamaki accidentally falls over and strips. However the worst case is when she finally gets character development. She’s up against an assassin, attempting to prove she can fight on her own. And how does she win? She catches him off guard with fan service! And she doesn’t even win on her own anyway!
Finally there’s the power system. Earlier I praised it for not giving certain people an advantage, which is true. However all that good will is ruined when powers get made up on the spot. Everyone is supposed to be able to manipulate fire. However the show then makes some people be able to teleport, shape-shift, create clones of themselves and I kid you not, stop time! And the anime has the balls to try and justify this! If I didn’t have one episode left I probably would have dropped the show.
Overall while it does have some redeeming qualities. Fire Force fails to burn bright.
