Review of Fire Force
*contains minor spoilers* I wasn't expecting much when I started Fire Force. I'd already heard about the excessive fanservice, so I knew this wasn't going to be a high quality show, but somehow Fire Force reached lower than my already low expectations. First off, the pacing was atrocious. The first four or so episodes were jam packed and nonsensical, so much happened over the season that I barely remember. We're introduced to all the main characters, except for the fanservice girl, in just the first few episodes. The world is barely established before we're thrust right into a tournament arc that lasted maybe two episodes. During thoseepisodes we're also introduced to a villain, given a bit of the Shinra's backstory, and we're told that the Fire Force may not have good intentions. It's entirely too much information way too quick. This terrible pacing does improve slightly as the season goes on, but frankly, it's still terrible.
Secondly, the characters. They're all flat, uninteresting, and undeveloped. The women are especially frustrating. Each one fits a specific trope: Maki is the masculine but wants to be feminine with the typical anime girl body, Iris is the pure virgin with the typical anime girl body. Then there's Haibara, the 20 year old femdom who's lusting after a 17 year old. Fanservice girl is the most insulting. Tell me why she's from the 1st district Fire Force team yet we never see her fight or even be semi useful? Instead she's reduced to a dumb, disgusting joke of a character who is constantly groped or stripped without her consent. I thought we had moved past such moronic, misogynistic tropes, yet here we are. Why make her a 3rd generation fire user and then make her absolutely useless in a fight. She became a fire fighter for a reason?? Even when she was isolated with Iris (who can't fight because she has no powers) during later episodes we didn't get to see her fight the bad guy. Instead she was useless the entire time. Honestly, I'm incredibly disappointed to see such sexist depictions.
Thirdly, this may be because I watched Fire Force in dub, but oh my god the dialogue was some of the worst I've ever seen. It was on par with High Rise Invasion in terms of quality. Not only was it cringey, it was just pathetic. Characters info dump, they say ridiculous one liners no one in their right mind would say and metaphors that are just cringey, state the obvious, and just repeat the same lines over and over. I'd be willing to bet that at least half of Shinra's lines are something along the lines of him being a hero. Don't get me started on Arthur and his dumbass knight persona. The reason the cringey dialogue didn't bother me as much in HRI is because it didn't take itself nearly as seriously as Fire Force. HRI is well aware of how goofy it is. Fire Force tries to make its plot and world deep, but the writing quality just isn't up to the task.
Overall, this show is not worth watching, not even for the flashy fight scenes. I like Benimaru enough to watch season 2, but frankly I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone. It's complete trash and a waste of time.