Review of Fire Force

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 settingand 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>