Review of Fire Force

I always see Ao3 first to see if a popular show worth to watch or not. Usually, if there's quite good fict about it, there's a chance the show is good enough, people still can't get over it after the show is over. But there's too little trace of Fire Force fandom in Ao3, I forget about this anime at first and move on. This show came under my radar again, after balloon or Keina Suda -one of my favorite voca producer- upload the full version of "Veil". At that time, I didn't even know it's ED of this anime. And finally, I give this animea chance after playing "Inferno" in Bandori -I don't really like the original, but I love Afterglow version-.

And I regret my impulsive self to download and watch this.

It's bad. Horrible. Dreadful. Pathetic.

The frustrating thing about this anime is the animation, the sound is pretty dang good. But the script and the character is just so meh, it's not funny. It's like the scriptwriter forgot how to write an engaging show. (I only watch the anime. I'll read the manga after I heal first.)

In the age of good, complex shounen's main chara, the main chara in Fire Force is more flat than his wiki page description. Few episode in, and I know exactly what kind of person Shinra is. There's no nuance, no inner conflict, no further motivation to do something more meaningful. Nothing. And in 24 episode, there's ZERO character development. And he is supposed to be a main character!
Every single obstacle is so easy, it's nothing more than "gravel". Everything just goes silver platter on him. Needs something from other Company, other powerful character? With a fist and few sweet, hero-y words everything is solved! He's take "Talk no Jutsu" to another level. At least Naruto had decent character development before everything plummeting so fast, he become a god. I bet at the very end, Shinra will become a god too.

There's few potential conflict that actually can enrich his character. Like, "is it ethical to kill Infernal that have consciousness?" But noooo.. It's too good for this anime, every potential good conflict snuffed out so fast with few empty, sweet words from other character.

This anime is a prime example of story that makes the character's move or action because of plot. Not because of the character itself. Everything happens because the plot said so. Every plot point will happen exactly as it is if any other character fill the main character role. Shinra as a main character does not add anything to the story.

Other character have more solid characterization than the main character. I love Obi, Hinawa, Beni and Konro, Vulcan, even Arthur. They have solid motivation to be there, to be written in the story. It's makes them intriguing. Actually, Rekka is more intriguing than Shinra.

And we cannot not talked the wasted potential of the female characters. I've finished 24 episode, and not one single female character is worth mentioning. Except the twins, they're cute. There's only two role of female character in this anime; the butt of vulgar, fanservice jokes or a member of Shinra's harem. From the get-go, it's already clear what their role in the story. I bet Shinra will end up with Tamaki, and Iris will become some kind of goddess. I literally feel the dread at the end of 5th Company Arc almost end, and my disappointment is too much when Hibana became Shinra's "slave". I have to close this and switch to another anime after that episode. Maki is another wasted potential. She can be much more prominent mentor to Arthur and Shinra, but she only became the "gorilla" and sexist jokes. I just don't understand why Tamaki is there other than became ecchi jokes. She doesn't have any characterization other than her "lucky lechery". Nothing.
I'm really okay with ecchi jokes. Most shounen anime seems cannot not have them these days. But at least gives them a bare minimum of characterization, please.

The character design is uninspiring, copy paste version of other shounen manga. I don't really understand, why the mangaka of Soul Eater, one of the most iconic manga, can design such a bland, uninspiring character like these.

And the cliche is terrible and everywhere. I can't help skip when the cliche situation or plot point happens. It's like the creator try to stuff as many cliche as possible. The first time when Shinra said, "I have to be a hero," I'm laughing so hard, my siblings side-eyeing me. This anime makes Naruto -even Boruto- more superior. And they're -especially Boruto- terrible.

Oh. I have to talk about Promare. Actually, it's Promare the one that push me to watch this.
Because I read the accusation the mangaka made about someone 'stole' his idea. And it makes me watch this shitshow. Because I assume this anime -as the OG one- is better than one of best anime movie out there. But, no. Promare is superior in most aspect. I still love Mayday and Nounai more than Nexus.
I refuse to acknowledge that Promare is plagiarize this. Because it's so, so, so much better than the "OG one". Promare is superior in the storytelling, the character, the visual, the villain, the overall message, I wish that is the one that got 24 episode instead this one. Unsurprisingly, Promare's Ao3 is much more active too than Fire Force.

Lastly, one positive point from this anime; it introduce me to coldrain, and reignites my love for Lenny code fiction. Together with veil and Inferno, this anime's OP and ED one of few that makes me can't skip them. I'm grateful this anime introduce me to coldrain.