The Fire Hunter is easily one of the most original fantasy anime I’ve seen in ages. Set in a future where there's no conflict between mankind because, in the last great war, someone used a giant, immoral super weapon which left humanity completely defective on a species level, meaning humans could spontaneously combust if left near even an ember. So a bit like Fire Force, but minus the anime titties.
Without fire, humanity has been forced to rely on liquid fire for heat and fuel. A substance that must be harvested from the blood of dark monsters that prowl the forests by fire hunters.
The Fire Hunter follows two stories destined to collide. The first follows Touka, a village girl who after getting saved by a fire hunter who died protecting her from a monster, is tasked with returning his hunting sickle and hunting hound to his family in the capital.
The second follows the same dead fire hunter's son and daughter as they’re adopted into a wealthy family. The son is tasked with researching a special firestone in exchange for his ill sister's treatment.
Ghost in the Shell writer has created an incredibly immersive world. Almost futuristic, but set back in a lot of ways. The way liquid fire is used for mundane things like cooking, to fuelling giant armoured train-like vehicles that go from village to village doing trade and picking up women to be married off to other villages as part of a ritual to appease gods, to tree folk who live deep in the dense forests that now cover the world, I love how deeply interwoven every little detail of the world-building is. Couple that with an animation and art style that looks like it jumped straight out of a picture book, complete with breathtaking, wonderfully garish brush-coloured still shots of action or important scenes, and you have an anime that I would dare call a hidden gem.
Unfortunately, that picture book art and animation style is sort of a double-edged sword. As wonderful as it can be, it is not an easy style to animate in. There are action scenes which feel incredibly awkward to watch as they either lack frames or the line of action is incorrect.
I also wouldn’t say that this is an anime that everyone will enjoy. If you’re not into slow, artsy-fartsy world-building and character development then you probably won’t be as interested in this show as I or others.
That said, I am interested in where the story is ultimately going. Like I said at the beginning, The Fire Hunter is easily one of the most original fantasy anime I’ve seen in ages, and although it takes its time and has a couple of bumps and bruises around its edges, I look forward to the second season.
7/10 Good.
