Shinra Kusakabe

Iris

Arthur Boyle

Takehisa Hinawa

Akitaru Oubi

Maki Oze

Joker

Viktor Licht

Tamaki Kotatsu

Rekka Hoshimiya

Princess Hibana

Tooru Kishiri

Huo Yan Li

Karim Flam

Benimaru Shinmon

Leonard Burns

Takeru Noto

Shou Kusakabe

Vulcan Joseph

Lisa Isaribi

Hinata

Hikage

Konro Sagamiya

Dr. Giovanni

Year 198 of the Solar Era in Tokyo, special fire brigades are fighting against a phenomenon called spontaneous human combustion where humans beings are turned into living infernos called "Infernals.” While the Infernals are first generation cases of spontaneous human combustion, later generations possess the ability to manipulate flames while retaining human form. Shinra Kusakabe, a youth who gained the nickname Devil’s Footprints for his ability to ignite his feet at will, joins the Special Fire Force Company 8 which composes of other flames users as they work to extinguish any Infernals they encounter. As a faction that is creating Infernals appears, Shira begins to uncover the truth behind a mysterious fire that caused the death of his family twelve years ago.<br><br>(Source: Official Website)

Let me preface by saying that this review will just be a wall of text for now, as I am at my internship and am not going to look for anime screenshots on here. I will also say that this review is a mix of subjective opinions, and "objective" opinions. Objective being the story quality and such, they're not really objective but I have no other way to differentiate them.

__Scroll down for a TL;DR.__

#__ ＳＴＯＲＹ（5／10）__
I'm not going to talk about the premise here, I like jumping into anime blind so for others who want to do so as well, this is just for you ;).

It's a very simple story, and very obviously shounen. Mostly consisting of fighting and getting better, really nothing special. The world is pretty interesting though, with fire departments all being completely different and having their own secrets. Like always though, the villains' motives are dumb as hell, and just there to be villains. It's realy nothing special and that's good, I don't care, it's a battle-shounen.

#__ＣＨＡＲＡＣＴＥＲＳ（8／10）__

This show is full of characters, and especially the 8th fire department has a great dynamic. Shinra and Arthur are both dumb as hell, and I love dumb characters so their rivalry antics are extremely fun to watch. The other characters in the squad are cool too, although Maki's one and only joke is very stupid. Aside from the 8th department, the other departments also have fun characters, like Hibana. She has big tits.

(best guy is Benimaru, love him and his squad)

#__ＡＮＩＭＡＴＩＯＮ （8／10）__

This is where Fire Force really shines, the fight scene animations are top notch and shine all the way through, in every single one. Just watch the first episode and be amazed. Shinra's jet-fucking-engine feet look incredible and all explosions look beautiful too. 

The reason the animation does not get a 10/10 is because of the scenes outside of combat. This is where it's very obviously the Shaft people animating/directing it. (If you didn't know, many people from Shaft moved to David Productions, and worked on Fire Force.) You've got this awkward conversations where there's just a static image of them far away, blank faces and weird close ups straight out of the monogatari series. There's a lot of talking, so you'll see this a lot. I don't particularly mind, as I love Shaft, but it is still awkward and can be at least decreased to a degree.

#__ＳＯＵＮＤ ＡＮＤ ＭＵＳＩＣ（9／10）__
Yes! The sound! It's good. it's good sound. The voice actors deliver their lines well, I really have nothing to complain about.  
Shinra's fire sound are just _jet engine_ how cool is that? Fucking cool. It's fucking cool.

The music is awesome too, it's got this orchestral feel to it and an awesome leitmotif that keeps coming back and I fucking love leitmotifs. It's hype, the OST is hype. Thank you. Goodbye.


#__ＣＯＮＣＬＵＳＩＯＮ (tldr?)__

Good shit, I definitely recommend watching it. The battles are fun and cool, the animation is fluid, the soundtrack is fun, the voice actors are good, the world is interesting, the story is not. Thank you for reading this shitty review!

Pretty fun battle shounen with good animation. Story wishes for more, though.

__~~~May Contain Slight Spoilers~~~__

Human combustion.

It plagues the world of Fire Force, forcing people to develop a specialized force that serves to protect the people from the dangers of the Infernals, beings that were created from human combustion. This specialized force is known as the titular Fire Force.

Shinra, the main protagonist of the show, joins a rag-tag team of individuals, the Special Fire Force Company 8, looking to find out about the origin of the plague and to prevent many similar events of human combustion from happening. It’s an interesting premise, but that initial potential is halted by its poor characters and a weak story.

The protagonists are basic and don’t offer anything fresh to the table; they fit their roles but never develop much as characters throughout the course of the show. Shinra, being the main character, manages to get a significant amount of development as he learns to define his ideals of being a hero. However, his “hero speeches” whenever he fights an enemy feels shallow and empty, and they get annoying after a while. The show does a great job at creating a character who learns and evolves, but we don’t need him constantly explaining to us what it means every time. There are better ways to do it than generic monologues, such as in subtle gestures and slight changes in behavior. It doesn't need to be overt; having a smooth route paints a clearer level of understanding.

Villains are your cardboard crazy types, and the show makes sure to show you how evil they are with the stereotypical evil facial expressions and obnoxious maniacal laughter. The dialogue is also predictable coming from these kinds of characters, adopting a Darwinian philosophy and taking part in a ridiculous cult. It's easy to show how crazy a villain is, but the show never moves past the surface-level "crazy and that's all there is to it" archetype. Another thing is that the animation shouldn't need to show villains in a sinister light again and again. Their thought process and their actions speak for themselves, and showing villains with black lines along their faces to portray how nasty and sly they are doesn't really add any depth and only points to how lacking they are as memorable antagonists.

Fire Force's story is predictable and straightforward. It's a hero story about Shinra first and foremost, and it's not exactly a unique take on the concept either. It's plain and adequate enough to direct the course of the show but doesn't lend itself to anything memorable or noteworthy.

Regarding the fanservice concerning Tamaki, the ecchi-styled comedy feels very awkward, and it begins to be repetitive later on. Humor is subjective, but the jokes with Tamaki get overused past the halfway mark, and it loses its initial appeal.

With that being said, there's still a lot that Fire Force provides in terms of pure entertainment.

The fight sequences are great. It's explosive and powerful, the animation and sound design doing a great job at illustrating the intensity of Shinra’s kicks and showcasing the various abilities that the rest of the characters possess. A few issues were that the action-oriented moments could have showcased a lot more aspects on the technical side like hand-to-hand combat, and the monologues that the characters tell as they’re fighting is pretty unrealistic. The constant introductions and info tidbits take away from the immersion as well. All in all though, the animation does an incredible job at giving life to the fights, and it adds a whole new layer of enjoyment and a great level of hype.

While the cast of characters don’t offer anything new to the table, they still act as sources of entertainment with their interactions being pretty fun to watch. The Special Fire Force Company 8 are a funny group of people with their own quirks. Maki's cute musings while being a completely reliable member of the team, and the running joke of Arthur being an idiot, which serve to create interesting predicaments during his fights, are just examples on how fun they are to watch. Comedy is subjective for this one, but I found myself being amused by a lot of the shenanigans of Company 8, not to the point where I'm laughing out of my mind but enough to create some moments of relaxation and breathing between points of dramatic tension.

At the end of the day, Fire Force isn't fresh and is far from special. It lacks in a strong story and well-written characters, but it does have a place in being a fully serviceable piece of entertainment. That's enough for a lot of people, and I can appreciate it for what it does.

Fire Force is held back by uninspired characters and a poor story but still delivers in pure entertainment

Fire Force Series Watch Order

Season 1

Season 2