Review of Fire Force

A solid anime, if you delete Tamaki. Without the fan service ruining key moments it could've been something great especially the first season. Her entire character is fan service and overly so. The last 3 episodes of season 1 are FF at its best. The whole fight scene and flashbacks are brilliant, and a very clever way of managing power scaling as well (although at the start of season 2 everyone feels too weak). The story has potential and the cast always feels like a losing fight when compared to the opponents, which I love. Unfortunately, the lack of death or injury in key scenes (eg.character on deathbed gets better instantly in the next ep), can slowly take away from the plot as tension falls.

There are moments when something is lost and tension is briefly regained, but they're few and far between, which can make the fight scenes feel weak as the plot armour is too think. Additionally with the level of fan service, kids shouldn't be watching this, so the unnecessary fear of death just takes away from the plot and you get the sense the main character and side characters will just always win. For example a man who sacrifices himself should die, but in FF this is never the case unless they are a brand new character. As a substitute for keeping the main cast alive, we often have characters introduced and then instantly culled. This extends past the main cast as the plot armour is so thick that when even the side villains lose there is some bs way they survive and escape, when it would've been alot more satisfying if they bit the bullet.

If you can overlook the extreme fan service, its a solid show, which feels a little unpolished at times, but has good art, great sound, and provides an escape for a little while. I have no problems with the animation itself and the story/world building is brilliant, but there are so many imperfections.