Fire Force Season 1 Review | Fire or Flop?

[Music] hello everyone exports here and welcome to a comprehensive review of fire force season 1 it's been quite a while since I've really watched any anime lately the side studio triggers latest work Pro merde that came out on blu-ray a few months ago and was absolutely amazing and got me itching to watch a fun action Shonen series and then I remembered the fire fighting anime fire force that came out last year that people seem to enjoy and looked really nice so I decided to check it out as well as it was created by AB sushi Okubo the same manga as sole leader whose character designs are awesome and it's animated by the same team behind Jojo David production so it seemed like a perfect series for what I wanted I benched the first season in a few days and want to talk about it analytically as I really enjoyed it but it seemed most of the videos on YouTube about it were just trash-talking the series so with season 2 a fire force just over the horizon I figured what better time and it's about that time of the year for my nan Jojo related video so to start off let's discuss what initially got me interested in the series the aesthetics of fire force fire forces set in a post-apocalyptic world although post-apocalyptic is far from the show's aesthetic as it takes place in a modern-day Tokyo one of the few places that has remained inhabitable after the great Cataclysm a mysterious apocalyptic event that caused most of the earth to be shrouded in flames dismantling and destroying entire continents along with the great Cataclysm came the phenomenon known as spontaneous human combustion which causes people at random to transform into infernals a painful transformation into a flaming charred beam which depending on the person can result in different behaving infernals the majority of infernals are mindless creatures that cause destruction but if the individual has a strong enough will they'll be able to remain sentient after the transformation which in some cases can be even more dangerous that the individual is malicious or more peaceful if they accept their fate the existence of infernals resulted in the formation of the fire force and infernal resistance although they do not operate as one monolithic organization as it was created by the four major Japanese conglomerates and governments the holy salt temple Tokyo armed forces fire Defense Agency and high jima industries and this is all important to establish the aesthetic and tone of fire force as the eight companies that make up the fire force and protect designated districts of Tokyo all take different influences from the organizations that created them resulting in different settings and lifestyles for each district looking at company 8 specifically who is composed of our main cast and where we spend most of our time is in a dense district with a high population resembling modern-day Tokyo and Company A is based off of modern day fire fighters using fire trucks high-tech equipment and were in turnout gear in combat and jumpsuits around the fire hall while outside of combat they will often be seen doing clerical work coinciding with their company's modern lifestyle when in contrast company 7 for example occupies a more traditional Japanese district with traditional Japanese architecture and less technology for not only their citizens but also the district's fire forest company 7 opting for color-coded kimonos and protective vests underneath as their uniforms based on the hike Shi fire patrols during the Edo period in Japan and their weapons are called ma toys which are flag poles the heights you would use to signal the locations of fires although fire force company 7 uses their matza ways in conjunction with their pyrokinetic abilities for combat and Shan rotation and the traditional setting also carries into the residents lifestyles as they don't mind if captain Benny Maru destroys buildings doing work because they heavily value human life and say buildings can always be rebuilt and it's important to quickly put the infernals to rest and from what I've seen so far in season one it seems every company and district is themed to some extent making for a large diversity and setting and personalities for the different company members and districts as even if we haven't seen every complete company yet we did get a glimpse at each company's captain so for example we can assume company two is very military centric as their captain Gustav bares a general co and was stated that they are loyal to the Tokyo Armed Forces so although there are many different settings and themes within fire force the series does an amazing job at blending all of its elements together to make one cohesive aesthetic of fighting fire and using fire in visual pleasing and unique ways but speaking of the way characters use fire that is another way the series blends a wide variety of time periods and aesthetics into itself looking again at company 8 for example each character's ability is related to the personality in some way making for a diverse cast and variety of abilities we have the hero Shinra being able to conjure flames from his feet and fly in a similar vein to say Astro Boy or Superman which makes him stand out from the group and naturally gives the impression of a hero along with the night.the which the soldier the shapeshifter the rampart and the sister respectively all fulfilling a specific role within the company and gives each character their own defining traits but in general a majority of the series visual design takes influence from the four groups previously mentioned that created the fire force making for an aesthetic comprised of religion military firefighting and industrialization resulting in interesting clashes of environment like how the fire halls for the companies are cathedrals but moving on from the environment and character design I want to highlight the character abilities known in the series as pyrokinetics pyrokinetics are the power system of fire forests and as of season one have three different levels I suppose referred to as generations so first gen pyrokinetics are simply infernals second gen are those who adapted to spontaneous human combustion and can now manipulate any form of heat or fire around them such as a natural flame matches lighters or even sparks and third gen pyrokinetics can create and manipulate their own flame without the need for a fire source and are generally more powerful than 1st and 2nd gens so as you'd expect every character uses their pyrokinetics in a unique way and does some pretty cool [ __ ] and it looks pretty cool but in terms of those sweet aesthetics something I found interesting was how characters eyes would show when they are using their powers some would simply glow and others would be more dynamic like Benny Mario who had the rare ability of second and third generation powers represented by his two different pupil designs and they would even glow different colors depending on what ability he was using and arrow from the white clouds pupils had you guessed it arrows on them but they would change directions based on the movement of her arrows and I found these subtle details and fights really went a long way in illustrating anticipation for when characters are getting ready to attack or counter but to move on from the aesthetics and visual design I think it's time we delve into the characters of fire force well fire force has to offer in terms of characters honestly isn't much different from what you'll find in many other shonan's and that's not necessarily a bad thing but I definitely can't say the characters are the show strongest elements our main protagonist Shinra Kasukabe joins the fire force at the age of 17 with the ambition to become a hero and save people from spontaneous human combustion which is a perfectly decent motivation for your protagonist and his ambition is consistent with this tragic past as shinra's mother and younger brother were victims of human combustion which fuels Jenner's passion to fight against the flames from my perspective Shinra is about as typical as it gets when it comes to shown in hero's brave cocky butting heads with the competition and gifted with powers beyond your average pyrokinetic although later in the season shinra's battle against the flames does become more personal as he discovers his younger brother sho survived the fire and is operating under the evangelists who are the bad guys as well as we can sympathize more with Shinra as we learn about the struggles he went through growing up as most people viewed him as a demon who caused the death of his mother which wasn't the case but as for now I still view Shinra as a fairly one-dimensional character along with most of the cast although this is just the first season and there have been many seeds planted throughout the show that give hope for future development as it continues I personally found the most interesting characters to be the fire force captain's like obi benny maru hip and burns who have a lot of experience in the forest and explain the inner workings of the companies and ulterior motives there was a certain level of history to their words that kept me on the edge of my seat to learn more about this universe and what secrets lie within the fire force as for the rest of our main cast being company a similar to Shinra they're all fun characters but again fairly one-dimensional almost feeling stereotypical in a way with a repetition of patterns drawn from their personalities with not much else explored lukina Arthur for example he loves the image of a medieval knight and attaches that idea to his personality essentially in a constant state of role-playing attempting to be a chivalrous as possible and highly intellectual when in reality he's no better often say Shinra and this quirk carries into his fighting style and abilities and by the end of the season I can recall Arthur having some cool moments but I still generally boil his character down to the night although I can definitely see big potential for his character in the future as if he ever realizes he doesn't need to pretend he's a knight because he already is he protects people from infernals with his own abilities once he realizes he's living his fantasy he could become one of the strongest members of the fire force and that level of depth is about equal to every character oby being the strong leader who compensates for his lack of powers with hard training and work ethic he Noah a jarhead type character with a military background an acute PTSD who carries a stern and authoritative demeanor iris the kind sister who uses her prayers to allow infernals to pass peacefully and wishes to fight the fire after losing many of her sisters to the flames and so on and so forth but to reiterate this is just the first season and I'm totally fine with this series taking time to establish these characters because there are so many of them before possibly going more in depth also every character along with their core personality trait would have some sort of quirk to give them more charm or a distinguishing feature like shinra's nervous smile that would often unintentionally make him come off as disrespectful or obese questionable training techniques there's also he Noah's goofy hat collection and of course the most annoying and distasteful quirk was the first company's Tamaki with her lucky lecher lure that causes her to be groped and objectified at random no matter how out of place or intrusive it may be to the story I understand this is a shounen serious so I expected many shown in tropes going in but this whole quark just seemed to be thrown in at the worst possible completely derail in an otherwise intense and compelling scene and even the times the quirk was used during more lighthearted moments it was just never good but I guess if I was 15 years old it might be cool to see some animate titties every now and then but the context was always just bad but all in all fire force has a large and compelling cast of characters who will constantly keep you guessing and who I personally really enjoyed and can't wait to see more developments as the series continues this first season is composed of various mini arcs that introduce us to different districts companies organizations and characters with a strong sense of mystery behind almost everything what caused the great Cataclysm why do people spontaneously combust what is the source of pyrokinetics and what are certain members of the fire force clearly hiding from everyone and thankfully that is the objective of company 8 our main cast to investigate and observe all of the other companies to learn more about this phenomenon which is a great motivation for our group and naturally introduces us to the world which leads the story down winding roads of corruption and conspiracy held within the fire force as well as some third party intervention that gives Shinra more motivation to continue investigating and more reason for us to be invested in his character it's the first half of fire force season 1 where it's at its strongest clashes between companies taking down rogue infernals and delving into the culture and true motives of the different companies but in the second half of the season we are properly introduced to the white-clad a cult-like organization led in part by shinra's younger brother show who seemed to worship the flames and seek their power so pretty much the bad guys and I found this group significantly less interesting than what the show previously offered yeah it's cool that some members within the fire force are double agents for the white-clad but whether it was due to their dole designs or cookie cutter purpose it really caused me to lose interest in each coming episode especially during the netherworld arc where company 8 infiltrates the white-clad space of operations and it's about five episodes of constant fights within the underground leading up to the clash between Shinra and show so although the fights were all fairly interesting it was upsetting to see the show toss away a lot of the elements that were so strong in the beginning and opted for a more typical shown in structure looking at the Asakusa arc for example this worked so well and were my favorite few episodes of the season and is similar to the netherworld arc where the companies are fighting against the white-clad but with a greater sense of camaraderie and firefighting justice as the company is fulfilling their role of protecting the public working together to coordinated attacks impromptu problem-solving fighting spontaneous infernals all while the city burns and for me this is what the show is all about and perfectly illustrated the potential of this work and how to convert the concept of firefighting into a kick-ass anime meanwhile the netherworld arc was a complete flop for me although I understand what the show is trying to do make things more intimate between Shinra and show and build up to their confrontation but when you isolate these characters and remove the consequence of environmental destruction and Public Safety it doesn't really matter if they are a fire force anymore and suck the life out of the series tone so what can we learn from this play to your strengths fire force is unique and interesting so take advantage of the world that's been created rather than force these characters into a formulaic story structure that clashes with what makes the series unique and I mean come on this is a story about fire and fire abilities and you're gonna give the villain the power of stopping time and I know it's mechanics are explained in how it's related to pyrokinetics but come on seriously never seen that one before and it totally wasn't predictable so I'm sure you could tell I found the story to be the weakest elements so far but thankfully there is still hope going forward and I would love to see more of what made this story great in the beginning continued in season 2 as we were introduced to more companies and mysteries within the organization as well as a new motivation for Shinra after the twist at the end of the season about the truth of the Horned infernal I'm sure you all knew this by now but fire force is an incredible-looking anime with consistent production quality and sound design throughout the entire season I'm no expert in animation so I can't quite speak on the specifics of what makes it look so amazing other than saying it looks pretty damn good especially in high motion combat scenes where you can really feel the heat of the flames as they are so dynamic and have a certain weight to them which should be expected when the show is all about fire so if at the very least you just want something pretty to look at fire force is worth checking out for its visual design alone as well as the voice acting was exceptional I watched the dub I know crucify me but I noticed many of the voice actors were lesser-known with smaller portfolios and for many this was their breakout role which i think is great as I love to see more diversity within the industry because if I have to hear Johnny Yong Bosch was another Shonen protagonist I'll switch to subs so quick no hate to Johnny though he's a great voice actor but I just find it a bit harder nowadays for characters he voices to feel unique after hearing him so often in similar roles [Music] so all-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed fire forest season one it was a great show to pick up and get back into watching anime after a long break it has its issues but is certainly still a Baner of the series and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Shonen anime if you can look past some of the outdated and campy tropes thrown in every once in a while within this series you'll find a beautifully crafted world with contrasting aesthetics to create something truly unique solid characters and character designs a story with highs and lows but definitely potential and eight plus visuals from David production so thank you all so much for watching please like the video if you enjoyed it subscribe for more anime and manga content and I can't wait to make another review for fire forest season 2 but until then fingers crossed for Stone Ocean anime and stay safe everyone peace

Channel: xForts

Views: 46,584

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Id: EPtEvzs6L9A

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020