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 is one of anime's biggest "be careful what you wish for" cautionary tales. Another story from the author that brought us Soul Eater, brought to life by the talented folks at David Production? With a healthy glug of Blue Exorcist thrown in for good measure? You could practically hear me salivating at the thought when it was first announced. But then it actually started airing, and within three episodes, I realized I’d just wished upon a monkey’s paw. Fire Force is a goddamn catastrophe, one of the worst shows I had the misfortune to suffer through in 2019. And it’s a catastrophe precisely because of all the reasons it seemed so exciting at first glance. It’s a mangled, twisted effort composing all the worst tendencies of everyone involved in its creation, so much obvious ambition and talent squandered on a hackneyed, juvenile, amateurish, thoroughly unpleasant endeavor. I’d say it feels like it was made by a twelve-year-old, but that would be an insult to twelve-year-olds, because as someone who was writing fiction back when I was twelve years old, I can guarantee that as sloppy an author as I was back then, my stuff was _way_ better than this.

The story? It’s a few hundred years after a great fire-related catastrophe that shook the world to its core, and now, society has been rebuilt around protecting humanity from the scourge of spontaneous human combustion. Humans have begun exploding in flames for unknown reasons even since that catastrophe, turning into mindless beings of destruction called Infernals that only seek to burn the world around them. To combat this scourge, there exists the titular Fire Force, an elite squad of firefighter-soldiers who, well, literally fight fire with fire, blasting their way through fire demons and their acolytes with pyrokinetic powers that range from simple fireballs to summoning lesser fire elementals to breakdancing an inferno into existence. Shinra Kusakabe, our hero, lost his family to a rampaging Infernal as a child, and he’s just joined up with the Fire Force to help fight back against the flames. But it’s quickly revealed that, of course, everything is not as it seems, there’s a conspiracy at play behind the seemingly random combustion incidents, and the Fire Force itself may be a part of it. So Shinra must work closely with his fellow members of the 8th Company to uncover the secrets behind the fires threatening the world, all while honing his own skills to become the best fire soldier he possibly can. A simple enough premise, but one rife with potential for engaging characters, worldbuilding, and action alike. If I was a producer and you sent me that pitch, I’d be stupid to not at least ask for a first draft.

So how did it all go so goddamn wrong? Well, like I said above, the creative forces that got me excited for Fire Force ended up being the very forces responsible for its downfall. And to explain why, I need to talk about Atsushi Ookubo, Fire Force’s original Mangaka.

Ookubu is not a talentless writer. I’m a huge fan of Soul Eater, for its creative aesthetics, strong sense of purpose, and everything about Crona. But as much as I love Soul Eater, I also acknowledge that its quality is unevenly dispersed. There are some things it does very well- action, aesthetics, nightmare fuel, emotional character writing, theming- and some thing is does very poorly- exposition, worldbuilding, tonal consistency, obnoxious fanservice, cheap gimmicks. It’s a show that works because it’s got enough unique, worthwhile strengths that they offset its consistent weaknesses, but it’s never able to fully escape having those weaknesses. At its best, Soul Eater is a riveting, exciting, hype-you-up action spectacle with fantastic moments of catharsis and a soaring treatise on the nature of overcoming fear. At its worst, it’s a ten-year-old problem child hopped up on Pixie Stix trying to annoy you into giving it attention.

It’s probably been a while since some of you watched Soul Eater, but do you remember how obnoxious the characters were back in the first few episodes? They were all defined by surface-level catchphrases they would repeat ad nauseum in lieu of actual characterization. Soul wanted to be “Cool”, BlackStar called himself “Big”, DK was obsessed with “Symmetry”, and they would repeat those phrases over and over again to the point of annoyance. They didn’t feel like characters so much as gimmicks, reduced to that one obnoxious trait they would pound into the ground until it lost all meaning. Of course, as the show went on, all these characters _did_ flesh out into more complete characters, and they would use those catchphrases far less often as they developed more interesting nuances to explore. But that tendency to write characters as obnoxious gimmicks was still an obvious struggle to get away from.

And unfortunately, whatever effort Ookubo put into restraining himself in Soul Eater obviously didn’t go into Fire Force, because this show is essentially what would’ve happened if Soul Eater never developed beyond those gimmicks. Shinra’s told he must choose between being a “Hero” or “Devil”, but that conflict is conveyed solely other characters repeating the words “Hero or Devil” to him over and over again while he keeps saying “I’m a Hero” over and over again. And that’s the extent of his characterization, unless you count coming up with purposefully-stupid attack names on the fly as characterization. I wish I was exaggerating, but that’s seriously all the character Fire Force’s protagonist is ever given beyond the most generic “I must fight for my family” backstory imaginable.

And I can sum up the entire cast in similar ways. Maki is a musclebound girl who’s self-conscious about not being feminine, and her entire character is attacking people because she mistakenly thinks they’re calling her “Gorilla Cyclops.” Captain Obi is a friendly, loyal jock. His lieutenant Hinawa fights with a gun. Iris the nun is such a ditz that she can’t even tell two similar-looking people apart by their very different voices. Arthur Boyle, Shinra’s would-be rival, is so comically stupid that he forgets to fight with his dominant hand. Also, he thinks he’s a knight and praises loyalty. I know it sounds like I’m punking you with these brief descriptions, but _that’s seriously all there is to them_. I’m honestly astounded how flat this show’s entire cast is; not a single person feels developed beyond a single dimension, no one has unique motivations or interesting backstories, and in lieu of developing them, Fire Force just pushes their gimmicks so absurdly far that they cease to feel human in any sense of the world. It’s annoying, it’s aggravating, and it just makes you hate every single one of these cheap emojis masquerading as people. Arthur’s stupidity, in particular, is so overplayed that you start to wonder if Ookubo based him off someone in his life he had a grudge on and wanted to get back at. He doesn’t even feel like a rival, despite the show constantly insisting he and Shinra hate each other’s guts; everyone is so flat and lifeless that the only time they feel like rivals is the rare occasion when the story suddenly remembers they’re supposed to be rivals and throws in a random conflict where their rivalry is getting in the way and they need to learn to work together, despite this never being a problem unless the show suddenly decides it is.

And then there’s Tamaki. Dear sweet fucking lord, Tamaki might be the worst thing to happen to anime in 2019. Her gimmick is that her fire powers make people involuntarily molest her, because isn’t it funny when female characters are sexually assaulted and degraded for our enjoyment? Isn’t that just fucking hilarious? And it doesn’t even make sense within the context of the show, because every time it happens, Tamaki just acts like any other anime tsundere who gets accidentally groped, screaming “pervert” and slapping the offender around, but, like, wouldn’t she _know?_ If we’re actually supposed to believe this Lucky Lecher bullshit is a part of her life, wouldn’t she _know_ it isn’t the guy’s fault when they pull her panties down by mistake? Wouldn’t she be at least a little used to dealing with this issue and kinda be over it by now? Wouldn’t her reactions to suffering this bullshit be _anything_ other than the same fucking dogshit overplayed tropes that all anime have? Apparently not, because the only reason Tamaki exists at all is to give the humiliation perverts something to masturbate over, so it doesn’t matter how illogical the actual mechanics of this all are as long as she’s reduced to tears and blushing and has her tits jiggling around, often right in the middle of an otherwise serious action scene. Hell, let’s have _all_ the female characters have moments where they’re stripped and/or sexually degraded as the camera leers at them dropped right into a supposedly dramatic moment. Because who cares about actually treating your story with a degree of respect when you can pander to the lowest common demoninator and sell a million fucking dakimakuras off of the most sexist garbage since Fairy Tail?

But hey, I hear you saying, I don’t care about all that character and plot stuff, I’m just here to see cool action shit blow up real good. Well, if that’s what you’re here for, you’re gonna be disappointed to. Yes, Fire Force has moments of absolutely breathtaking spectacle, where the fire effects and momentum and color design (seriously, this show’s color game is on point) are so pitch-perfect that they kick your ass ten different ways to Sunday, action scenes that stand among the best of the year… some of the time. The rest of the time, this is one of the most incoherently directed shows I think I’ve ever seen. Shots cut in and out without purpose, the camera lingers meaninglessly for shots that drag on far too long, there are so many weird, random, disconnected cuts that completely ruin your orientation in the scene, characters jump between poses in a single cut, and a lot of the action just doesn’t have any sense of flow or momentum thanks to some seriously incomprehensible editing that completely takes you out of it. It’s also a depressingly static-looking show most of the time; there is so little actual motion in the average episode of Fire Force- no character movement, no camera movement, no environmental details shifting- you’d be forgiven for assuming your computer wasn’t stopping and starting throughout. Let’s be honest, David Production has never had the most fluid animation, and their work on Jojo’s has been successful mostly thanks to the strength of its dynamic camera angles and strong blocking of scenes. But Fire Force doesn’t even have half that level of skill, and the whole thing just becomes an impenetrable slog of disconnected shots, inconsistent action, background art so cluttered the unmoving characters are nigh-impossible to spot in it, and laughably botched attempts as Shaft-style artsy directing that only highlight how artless the entire damn affair is.

I realize I’m kinda describing this haphazardly, but that’s how the entire show feels. Everything is so half-baked and underthought that it all ends up wrapping back around to infuriating and you end up hating the whole damn affair. Tone comes and goes without any consideration for time and place, characters’ gimmicks become so stupid and Flanderized that they completely destroy any sense that these people could actually exist as functional human beings, the pacing drags on and on with nothing of interest happening, Ookubo keeps loading the cast down with more and more cardboard cutout gimmicks desperately trying to fool you into thinking they’re characters, motivations shift on a dime, and there’s no fucking consistency to any of it. A villain’s introduced early on monologuing about much the world sucks and everyone should just burn into ash, then Shinra punches her and she instantly turns to the good side and falls in love with him. Once again, I cannot stress enough that I am not exaggerating for effect; _this is seriously how it plays out in the show._ How am I even supposed to react to that? How am I supposed to make sense of writing this utterly broken and thoughtless? I say again, even I, writing at the ripe young age of twelve, put more thought into my characters and plot than _this._ I know Ookubo’s capable of better, so he has no excuse for how abysmal this turned out.

But I think I’m gonna have to cut my rant short there, because otherwise I’ll be going for another ten paragraphs. Bottom line, Fire Force is a complete disaster, a baffling, obnoxious, often infuriating waste. It’s annoying to watch, it’s exhausting to think about, and it’s tragic to consider just how much obvious talent and effort, from color designers to animators to especially voice actors (god, Aoi Yuuki does not deserve this), is being pissed down the drain on a show that can only squander them. Just watch the best action cuts on SakugaBooru or something, because that’s the only part of this mess worth engaging with.

A twelve-year old could write a better story than this. And I should know, I actually DID.

Fire Force is a show that introduced an interesting world, story, and themes, but comes across as childish and fails to resonate any meaning. When watching the show, I felt that if it was intended for a more mature audience, it wouldn't have to hold back as much. Some moments feel very dark for a show like this but they are few and far between all the unfunny comic relief. It doesn't start off strong but gets a little bit better as it goes on.

Characters:
Character development excluding the main character is quite awful. Shinra's development throughout the show is interesting with twists and turns along the way. The other characters are painfully static. Their first introductions are pretty much their only development and some of the "villains" only change by becoming friendly to the 8th. No character ever really changes and grows throughout the show (other than Shinra's strength I guess). Shinra claims what he wants to do from the start, while what he overall does changes, he never deviates from "being a hero." While I don't think this was bad for the overall show, I think there were many opportunities to let him question his motives and think in a different way. While conversations with friends about Shinra, his "bland" character is intentional and gets better later in the manga. His character isn't 

Comedy:
The comedy of the show follows pretty standard themes for other shonen. I don't think I even smiled at many of the jokes. The worst part of it all though is the off-putting fan-service. Kotatsu, Tamaki is the first character that comes to mind when someone asks "When has fan-service done a show wrong?" Tamaki's character solely exists to be groped and become naked. One of her powers is literally "Lucky Lecher Lure" and does more for her than her other power. There are many shows that do fan-service right, take High School of the Dead for example. That show was able to balance the fight scenes with the service well and it never felt like they clashed. But with FF, it just felt entirely out of place. Whenever a scene involved Tamaki, I honestly felt like just turning it off. It might be a little unfair to compare an ecchi with a shonen of fan-service, but I think that FF stretches itself too far when "adding a little plot." There was also the fight between Arthur and Shinra that served as comic relief but never made any sense and just made them seem excessively childish, which I guess makes sense for a show like this.

Sound:
Overall the sound for the show is pretty good. They do like using a lot of bass drops though during the fights but don't subtract from the overall plot and impact of the fights for me. I think the 2 intros and endings serve the theme nicely and are all decent songs. 

Animation: 
The animation was fine and nothing overall stuck out for me other than the strange close-ups of people's faces and some weird cuts from the action. The fight scenes were very good and are what give my rating its current value. But something that I didn't like was the second intro's animation. It did not match the song and felt way to slow for a song as fast as MAYDAY. It almost seems like they animated it for another song and changed it last minute. 

Overall, I feel the show lacks in many ways because it was unable to decide between a comedy and a dystopia. I wouldn't blame anyone for dropping it early in the season. Some people might be able to find the show more interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Fire Force is a show that introduced an interesting world, story, and themes, but comes across as too childish.

___
___~~~POC APPRECIATION~~~___
one of the animes ive seen with the representation for poc being FUCKing AMAZING. compared to other animes ive seen with poc having big lips and with their skin-tone being the LITERAL color black, this outshines them all. and plus having them be just as powerful as the main character?! here are some examples of poc representation in fire force. 

img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/77282a3643f91d7612fa105a7b5e4161/9e14624aa29cc76f-37/s500x750/08c74955e5d67c87a97f0b9aa396e41f28165048.gifv)

img220(https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/897/696/6cc.gifv)

img220(https://data.whicdn.com/images/334189806/original.gif)

and i, myself, being a black girl, i felt a little special when i seen princess hibana (the girl above) being the gorgeous woman of color she is. (hence why i have her as my pfp atm LMAOO)
___
___~~~ANIMATION~~~___

the animation. THE ANIMATIONNNNN AHHH. i love how they make the fire seem so delicate and beautiful. you think it would get annoying cuz its kinda the whole point of the show but NOPE. 

img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/29/46/31/29463159ea4cda49326b03e5d329a3a6.gif)

and omfg the fighting scenes. it makes me feel like im there with them in the action.
___
___~~~CHARACTER DESIGN~~~___

and omg the characters. i could sit here and talk about the characters for ages. they're designs, backstories, personalities, all of it!  i love the backstory behind every each and one of them. the backstory and their DESIGNNSSS. i may be bias  because i do love the designs of a character before anything else and this is one of my favorite animes so, the designs for every character is so unique. my favorite part of it has to be the eyes. when they activate their power, it glows. 

img220(https://i2.wp.com/otakuauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Fire-Force-Episode-12-Maki-Blocks-Benimarus-attack.jpg?fit=1044%2C587&ssl=1)

img220(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHk2if1XYAA1A_L.jpg)

and some of the characters eye shape is different. for example, benimaru, (fav) both his eye pupils are different. one being an X and the other being an O. 

img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/82/a6/bf82a68dcde91150cfb72935badf9d60.jpg)

i especially love the reason WHY they're different. benimaru has 2 powers regarding fire. he has second and third generation. that means that he can ignite his own fire at his own will, and he can control fire from another source. each of his eyes represent both of those powers. see, there didnt have to be that much DETAIL in that ONE CHARACTER, IMAGINE THE WHOLE CAST!!
___
___~~~OPENING SONGS~~~___

and omg the fucking op's. fire force has 2 of them for the first season and both of them are BANGERS. first of all, the reason why i even watched fire force was for the op. i seen it somewhere on tik tok and it couldnt get out of my head. and tbh i never usually listen to the op's. i listen to them for the first time and if i dont like it, then ill just skip it for the rest of the anime. but tHIS ONE. and the SECOND ONE WAS A ROCK ONE?? i was into it! it had all the screaming in it but i still couldnt help myself to listening to it while i did homework. it was unexpected but im here for it!!

youtube(https://youtu.be/t0WClcc-aVs)
___
___~~~COMEDY~~~___

and i never really laughed for any anime. shocked? sure. giggled? maybe. but this one. it was so charming. each and every episode came with another adventure and here i was getting swept along with it. sure, some jokes i didnt really find funny. like the whole thing with tamaki 'coincidentally' being naked everytime she comes on screen is getting a little old, BUTT i choose to overlook that because the whole thing she does with the fire as her ears and tail is cute. and what can i say? i AM a sucker for character design afterall <3
___
___~~~PLOT~~~___

and the plot? pls. i never even thought the anime was going to be this deep like it is. and the whole idea of them 'putting the infernals to peace' is so heartwarming. and the connections they made with god, i was raised in a very religious household. even though im not as christian as of right now, i understand everything they're conveying perfectly. i love the way they make people that stand under the same belief enemies. it gives many points of view to one problem at hand. and their little praying thing with the latom. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. and the sisters and UGH. everything, it feels like home. 
___

definitely an anime i would remember! its funny, GREAT animation, and it has a good message.you really should watch it!

Fire Force is an underwhelming show. FF starts on an amazing introduction to the MC and the world by having Shinra be proactive before he's even joined the Fire Force but things quickly start to fall apart as it then fails to commit to the development of the cast within the 8th Ward. 

Shinra from the beginning seems to be very promising. He has his unique feet-fire powers that he's honed for the job, smiling while anxious/in danger tick that immediately makes him recognizable, and a likable can-do attitude but nothing about him is really explored in depth which turns out to be a precursor of FF's main issue. This problem extends to most of the cast with Obi being the only example going against this from the start, Hinawa is notable for getting better later. Iris, Hibana, Maki, Tamaki, and even Arthur struggle from this lack of depth and it's so strange that this show relies on the family dynamic of Department 8 but rarely ever develops them as people or their connections to each other. Fire Force instead decides to rely on comedy to the detriment of most of it's scenes and then accompanies that with a lot of small talk or generally boring exposition that simply seeks to pad out its first season. It really sucks because the whole "family" thing really would hit so much harder if these characters had actual bonds or the viewer had any investment in them.

 The main cast is very one-note and gimmick (Arthur's delusion of being a knight/Maki and being called a "gorilla cyclops"/Tamaki being sexually assaulted) heavy which causes them to be severely lacking when it comes to investment as they really don't have personalities besides their gimmick. It's a problem that all shounen suffer from, having 1 or 2 main cast characters that just don't have any depth, but in FF's case, it's pretty much the nail in the coffin because everything else isn't pulling double-duty to keep the viewer invested. So first off...

__Characters__
Obi and Hinawa are the stand-out characters of the main cast and I love to see them. From the way they carry themselves, their ideals, their actions, and how they react to other characters, there is NEVER a dull moment when they are on screen. Hinawa comes off as very bland at the start but he gets some great characterization later on and becomes S tier. Honestly, they carry the show so hard that you wonder why Shinra and Arthur are the main duo when Obi and Hinawa absolutely demand viewership when they head a scene. Obi is charismatic and a perfect fit for leading the 8th as he has nailed down the genuine care that he himself wants to see in the Fire Force. Hinawa is a certified badass with a scary presence but a very caring heart and the show allows him to be more than just "scary lieutenant" which helps him land better than the other cast members.

Shinra is horribly dull, is frankly overpowered from the get-go causing a lot of encounters to be anti-climactic as he doesn't have to grow, and for some reason he just constantly gives motivational speeches that work although he's really not shown to be all that great at talking to people and lacks the experience the other members have. Shinra has a joking nature to him and he's always being comically mean to Arthur but there really isn't anything deep to him. He wants to be a hero because of personal trauma. He really loves and misses his deceased family but that's it for his personal life. Cool, I guess? Can we get more than that though? The show reveals that he's a very adorable big brother, but never characterizes any negatives about that. It's mainly used to reveal how great a guy Shinra is and the show goes out of its way to portray him as unbelievably likable, which is honestly quite frustrating. Shinra always comes out of extremely dangerous or exhausting situations as the winner without really being challenged, and it just weighs him down as a character because seeing Shinra actually fail would make his conviction and his corny speeches much more believable. The show is banking on you becoming 100% invested in him because of his tragic backstory and it just didn't work on me. I need more than that.

 Arthur's gimmick is that he deludes himself into being a knight to increase his firepower but nothing ever really comes of why he does that? Shinra and Arthur are rivals but their dynamic is so boring and played straight that you wonder why they aren't just supportive childhood friends. I really can't remember if they explained or showed their friendship when they were younger. They're just introduced as rivals and aren't exactly fond of each other. It's kind of played off as a joke but since the characters are lacking, I really would have preferred they were closer and not so one-note as to flesh out both of them. The only fun thing to come out of their rival dynamic is an admittedly cool twist on the "We need to work together" fight trope where Arthur constantly messes up Shinra and they decide staying out of each others way is the best way to work together. On the positive side, Arthur justifies his existence in the show by how the world has to play around his delusion as he is a powerhouse that could easily wipe enemies. There is a fight where enemies pick up on Arthur using delusions to make himself stronger and the antagonists break that illusion to weaken him which was genuinely smart and it made me happy to see a show finally have enemies using tactics against the MCs. It doesn't last for long but it was appreciated. While Arthur somewhat justifies his existence in Fire Force, I can't say that Maki, Tamaki, or Iris on the other hand are that necessary...

Maki, Tamaki, and Iris suffer from being useless to the plot and the arcs S1 is trying to tell. Throughout S1, these three characters are not around or are just not needed for most of the arcs leading to you forgetting they even exist until they reappear towards the tail end of the show. 

Maki is combat skilled and has the most dynamic and entertaining fighting style but the show rarely lets her speak, express herself, talk to others, or FIGHT. Iris really just exists to show the cute Latom prayer they do to give condolences to people who have turned into infernals, but since Iris has no power to defend herself and the show doesn't really do anything with the sisters, she really could be removed entirely.  I have no clue why but all the time that could be used to develop Iris or Maki is stolen by the irredeemable fanservice character Tamaki who of course, is cursed to make inappropriate things happen when she's around. 

Tamaki does such beloved obnoxious things such as falling onto others, causing characters to slip and grab her breasts...etc. While this would be fine if it were restrained, there are emotional scenes where Tamaki's curse suddenly happens and destroys any appeal they had. This happens again and again and cool fight scenes or just generally emotional or hard-hitting scenes are ruined by her "Lucky Lecher Lure." This character provides nothing to the show and actively harms it by ruining the tone of scenes and stealing screen time from 8th members who could use it. You could remove Tamaki and nothing would be lost. Simply replace her with Maki as FF's writer should have in the first place and you've already drastically improved the show.

As stated earlier, Iris just doesn't exist. The e5-e6 arc is based around her and Hibana while accompanied by the first half's ending song being about her life at the church and how it went wrong, but you learn NOTHING about her throughout the entire show. By the time the 1st department arc is over, I forgot what her name was when she appeared again. Iris doesn't do anything, she can't contribute in fights, and she doesn't even talk to other characters when they're hanging around. She's just there and it's so insulting that the character she tries to help (Hibana) that's supposed to be there to give us Iris' backstory (Hibana) is surpassed in screen time by Hibana. 

Hibana is a separate can of worms as her personality drastically changes to work around Iris' arc and she becomes part of Shinra's harem while having her personality do a 180. While Hibana is actually useful and proactive to getting things done, she's really annoying as she ONLY likes Shinra because he "wants to be a hero" and treats the other 8th members like trash. She's also very powerful so the show tries to keep her out of fights or have her distracting herself with her petty nature. As much as I dislike Hibana because I find her annoying, I do have to admit she has more characterization than Iris or Maki while not even being from their division and actually does stuff even if she's horribly forced into some scenes.

__Story__
The narrative is about fire fighters with super powers extinguishing humans that have turned into infernals but constantly contradicts what fire-fighters actually do. Characters will frequently blow up buildings, use their powers in areas with many neighboring structures, or cause huge damage rather than focusing on civilian safety. BNHA was a lot better in this regard as it constantly stresses the heroes needing to be ontop of civilian protection and stopping the enemy as fast as possible. FF wants to be a battle shounen and it only relies on themes of how good the characters are when it's convenient. It's disingenuous and focusing more on those aspects could really sell the "genuine compassion in the Fire Force" that Obi was preaching throughout the show. It's there for the first 3 episodes but after that, it's rare these characters actively consider approaching things in a way that diminishes overall damage or acting in ways that protects bystanders.

The main story is about Shinra and the allied divisions figuring out how infernals are caused while looking into a cult revolving around the belief that Sol (the sun god that they worship) wants them all to infernalize and return to him through death. There's also a side-arc about Shinra wanting to learn the truth about what happened to his family the day his house burned down but the conclusion to that arc is so laughable that I'll just warn you it doesn't pay off. Season 1 is honestly too simple and a lot of the first half is just characters going to set places to learn a smidgeon of information with new underdeveloped characters that then requires them to go to another place to get the obvious answer that you probably guessed off the bat. As a whole, cleaning up Fire Force by expanding on the dynamic of the 8th and dedicating more time to fleshing the characters out would have worked a lot better than introducing a bunch of side-characters that wont get fleshed out in this season. The second half of the season revolves around the cult and it's got so many issues. I won't say much other than it creates a serious power scaling issue with nonsensical reasoning for the show that will probably fuck up future fights.

The only arc I felt was delivered well on all accounts was Benimaru's arc. It was well-paced, it presented me with a cast of interesting characters with well balanced personalities that I was invested in, and a unique setting paired with a distinctive ideology created by the characters involved in protecting it. When I started Fire Force, I was hoping to see the show creatively using its world to make more civilizations like Asakusa. Nothing in the show really hits like this arc does as Beni and Konro carry everything with their dynamic and lovable personalities. The only negative this arc represents is the carelessness of just mindlessly destroying buildings that could collapse ontop of unsuspecting innocents. I was so enthralled in this arc that I was hoping this would be where Fire Force finally picks up, but sadly it never hit this high again.

__Animation__
I hear a lot of good about the animation and while I can understand a lot of it... I do need to stress that this show is not some sakugagasm that will amaze you the entire way through. Non-combat segments are generally handled well although I did notice the show has a lot of scenes where they linger too long on one frame or the characters are really closer to the screen but they have no faces. It's not a comedic gag either, sometimes they just don't have faces in well-lit rooms. Other than that small nitpick, a lot of the non-combat shots are aesthetically pleasing to look at and I can't really remember any episodes that looked bad. The well-animated segments in fights are not frequent and only appear in fights that are guaranteed to have audience appeal. A lot of smaller fights in the show look really bad as they are clunky, have awkward motions, and are overall rushed as characters are lacking details or frames in an attempt to quickly finish a short fight. This is one of those shows where most scenes in a fight are pretty good or decent but there are a few well animated shots that carry it. There's a lot to like in the diversity of combat styles, and the second-to-last fight being absolutely astounding although it makes no sense in-universe but I must stress that these fights can not carry you through the show, they are rare and not frequent enough to keep you visually invested if thats what you're here for.

A lot of the animation budget goes to specific scenes the animators thought would have strong emotional impact and while even I felt like I was choking up at the end...I can't say they really landed as hard as they could have because I really wasn't that invested in the characters and their struggles. It really sucks to see a character have every frame of them dramatically crying drawn in excruciating detail and wonder how they thought I would care when said character is actively useless and has given me no way to relate to their struggles as they ruin every scene they appear in.

__Conclusion__
Overall, Fire Force was very underwhelming and I was expecting a lot more out of its premise and characters. I genuinely wanted to like it as I was a huge fan of Soul Eater but the "soul" in SE seems to be missing in FF. The distinct character designs, especially the unique pupils remain, but the characters, plot, and world are severely lacking. I do not plan on watching S2 as the finale of S1 really made me laugh my ass off with how convoluted and pointless it was but I have heard S2 gets way better in regards to characters. As much as people make fun of shounens for being poor timesinks, it really only takes one or two good characters to keep you invested for hours and hours on end, and to be real, I could use more Benimaru and Obi in my life.

Edit: Bumped up score from 35 -> 40 to correctly represent what I actually rated it.
Edit 2: Review restructured to be less scatterbrained and more detailed.

The most dangerous fire they fight is the trashfire these characters are stuck in.

A mess of a show.  Characters feel like they have no more depth than their design sheet; an aesthetic and a brief list of quirks or key features, no more.  As a result the plot only ever seems to interact with characters at a superficial level.  Every conflict has some simplistic cause and somehow fighting manages to make them come around completely.  Rather than complicated and living characters that exist within the story, it feels more like a collection of characters crafted specifically to create the scenes desired by the writers.  It feels backwards.

But the thing that really gets me about this show is the tone-deaf fanservice.  It's hard to express in words how trashy this show is with it's fanservice.  I'm not at all opposed to some lewd humor, but this ought to be a textbook example from now on for how not to do fanservice.  At best, it's just a moment of irrelevant flashing before the scene remembers that something important was going on.

The worst case I saw was Episode 9.  In short, ~!a person Tamaki looked up to as a role model ends up being a villain.  In addition to being responsible for the deaths-and-or-ignition of several children, he ruthlessly beats Tamaki, emotionally and mentally abuses her, and raves at her like a madman while she's vulnerable, in shock, and alone.  And this isn't me making it sound worse than it is, the show goes out of it's way to emphasize how damaged she is both physically and emotionally from this.!~

~!And then Shinra shows up, some fighting happens, and he ends up doing the faceplant-into-boobs trope, complete with a "Baka hentai!" and a "S-sorry!".  And then somehow he walks off with her skirt? And then it's back to the fight and the girl's engulfed in flames, but this time the fire doesn't hurt her, it just conveniently burns away her clothes to expose more of her ~~to the audience~~.  And the protagonist takes a minute to perv out, because who wouldn't take a mental snapshot of an abuse victim you came here to save, right? And then he gets punched into her and kisses her ~~by accident~~ and she pushes him away, but wait, then she grabs the back of his jacket and shakily asks him to defeat the baddy for her with a emotionally vulnerable voice, and now horny mode is off again.!~

Sorry if it seems like harping on the point, it just baffles me that such a tonally jarring scene ever made it past the drafting stage.  This scene goes on for most of the episode, and a bit of the prior as well.  And it's not an isolated example, I only made is 11 or 12 episodes in and this sort of sacrifice of tone for a cheap laugh or a booby shot happens all the time.  What is the audience supposed to take away from this? Emotionally damaged women are hot and should be lusted over?  Good storytelling and worldbuilding should take a backseat to opportunities to oogle the cast?  Am I supposed to feel sad or disgusted or angry or horny when characters go through bad things? I'm fine with either in suitable context but the show cannot seem to pick a lane.

Maybe the most disappointing thing is that nobody seems to really be talking about it.  Most people I know recommended this show, and most comments on that fight in particular are about how sick the choreography is, or how good the music or animation is.  Those qualities of the show are good, and the premise and setting overall has potential, I just found myself unable to care about a show that seems so insecure in it's own writing that it thinks it has to constantly distract you with boobies every episode to keep you interested.

An somewhat interesting premise crippled by tasteless fanservice and tonal whiplash.

Fire Force Series Watch Order

Season 1

Season 2