Review of Fire Force

I trust that you already know the drill so far. Seasonal show, superpowers, Shounen, Ecchi, attractively fluid animation... They sell every time. “Enen no Shounboutai” or “Fire Force” is THE regular, mediocre, highly praised mainstream seasonal show, and has been ever since it first aired, getting a lot of traction with a fairly loyal fanbase, but what would you blame it for? The entertainment that one seeks in any type of Anime is there, however, there is a lot of nags about still. “Fire Force” introduces itself with a fresh and very appealing concept, revolving about firefighters, but with a twist. Fighting fire with fire hadalways sounded very cool in words, but it's even cooler seeing it animated. But how far can raw action and tense interaction save a dull, uninteresting population of background characters that don't even up each other aside from their key designs?

Story (6.5/10):
In a world where people randomly combust, transforming into demon-looking monsters, labeled as Infernals, a dude with a creepy smile called Shinra is set on a quest to finding his brother that was lost in an Infernal related incident, which led him to join an Infernal fighting organization that fights fire with fire. A fast-paced display of all types and forms of Pyrochenisis, resulting in some very creative ways of manipulating flames. From generically lighting up candles to straight-up turning fire into ice.

I don't want to sound harsh, but it felt like if the plot was a living, breathing human, it would have had a grave case of ADHD where it tends to lose itself very often, turning its back on what's important and letting loose to the greedy Ecchi inserts, like some annoying Youtube ad that jumps you off when you least expect it. Some Ecchi is fine, but inappropriately have it presented on very crucial turnouts of the story is very belittling for the build-up that those moments have.

The story is very linear, it has a defining start and end, and moves at a decent pace that spans multiple short arcs. The plot revelations, however, seem quite lacking, extremely overshadowed by the fast pacing and the intense action, leaving all the important bullet points to stand as a boring and unappealing filter.

Art (8.7/10):
Personally, this was both the selling factor, and the key attraction that got me into this show in the first place. The visuals are so powerful and very polished, to say the least. The atmosphere is delivered flawlessly through a variation of practical effects and varying color palettes that reflect perfectly on the lighting condition and the overarching shading. It was so delicious to the eye and leads the action so well.
The character design has its ups and downs, there are some really thought up designs, but there is also a lot of mediocre-looking characters, from the caliber of Hentai protagonists you're not supposed to be looking at.
The Infernals strike a powerful presence that reflects on the visual assertion alone. A feeling of a demon in presence is well inflected by how menacing and malice radiating they are. Props to the visual designers on that.
Also, if I need to bring it, the Tamaki crying scene. 10/10 facial expression.

Sound (7.5/10):
Let me start by praising the fantastic bundle of opening and ending theme songs. Well, they are not equally on part with quality and delivery. The first opening really takes the cake here, an absolute party banger that shamelessly enough, took me some time to get the hand of. The second one still turns me off to this day, but it has a great vibe to it and is by no mean a bad opening song. The endings were just amazing as well.

Another thing I really appreciate and is very underrated as it's often looked down on in other shows are the sound effects. Oh My God, the combustion sound effects are eargasming, quite literally. There is so much force and pressure behind those sounds it's imaginable how powerful of a scene they can produce when coupled with the right visual spectacle.

The voice acting was on point but still average for the most part. I would want to personally congratulate these specific 3 voice actors. The ones behind Obi (Nakai, Kazuya), Tamaki (Yuuki, Aoi), and Dr. Giovanni.

Characters (6/10):
It feels like forever since I was this disappointed in the characters of a show. What was it? “Akame ga Kill”? Yeah, it must have been it, both names give me the same disappointment chills.
I wanted to believe, I wanted to get immersed, but the characters looked like some uninviting crude figures, very unfriendly and hardly if at all relatable. Except of course for a minority, like Captain Obi, the rest of the cast looked like complete strangers from an unrelated series.
Character development? None, well, if powerups were a development, then that's all you get, the only time I think I saw a decent character progression was Vulcan's.
I recognize potential when I see it, and this show had plenty, but it seems it favored the cash-hungry marketing ploy of prioritizing Ecchi elements over anything else, I'm not familiar with the source material, so I can't speak of this unfortunate treat inheritance or where it was inspired from.
Now, from what concerns the female characters, the real victims in my eyes. They were extremely brutalized by how much sexualization they received. And I'm not against that primarily for “censorship” reasons, no, shows like High School DxD that live off sexualization did not screw it up this bad. Theoretically speaking, the female characters would have had incredible writing by nature, but the overly promoted Ecchi inserts came in the way and ruined the better part of their development. Pointing my fingers at Hibana and Tamaki here.

Enjoyment (8/10):
It seems I really love my Shounen Anime, and too much sometimes. I know what about to happen for how predictable and cliché everything is, but it is still so damn exciting to see it delivered, like that one song you enjoy, you know you have heard it hundreds of times already, but still, the enjoyment you get each time you hear it is an experience that you keep wanting to come back to. “Enen no Shounboutai” fueled my mediocre Shounen flu for the season, it served for quite the guilty pleasure for a while, and to be honest, I wouldn't have been any sadder if the second season was never announced, but it seems I at least have a cure for when this pleasing flu comes back.

Overall (7.34/10):
Surprisingly enough, it was something I'd recommend for even the newcomers to the medium. It is a simple enough plot and setup that can be understood even by the mentally challenged. Don't expect a groundbreaking, thoughts provoking, moral changing masterpiece, however, it is a sit-through worthy of that popcorn fill price. Have fun.