#just how powerful is kurono in that company though?

[kumapillow]

Someone finally said it (sorry Fujiwara 😅😭)

Kurono is way, way worse than a jealous boyfriend though

[fictionstuff]

Fire Force 炎炎ノ消防隊

Plot: Spontaneous Human Combustion: a chaotic phenomenon that has plagued humanity for years, randomly transforming ordinary people into flaming, violent creatures known as Infernals. While Infernals make up the first-generation accounts of Human Combustion, the second and third generations became known as pyrokinetics—people gifted with the ability to manipulate and control their flames while remaining human. To combat the Infernal threat and discover the cause, the Tokyo Armed Forces, Fire Defense Agency, and Holy Church of Sol produced their answer: the Special Fire Force. Young and eager third-generation pyrokinetic Shinra Kusakabe, nicknamed Devil's Footprints for his explosive ability to ignite his feet at will, becomes a member of the lively Special Fire Force Company 8. Upholding the brigade's duty to extinguish the blazing Infernals and lay their souls to rest, Shinra is determined to become a hero who will save the lives of those threatened by the flame terror. However, this is not the hero's game Shinra imagined. The Fire Force is a fractured mess of feuding brigades, abnormal Infernal sightings are increasing all over Tokyo, and a shadowy group is claiming to have answers to the strange fire that caused the death of Shinra's family 12 years ago. Faced with many obstacles within and outside the Fire Force, Shinra fights to uncover the truth behind the burning mysteries that have kept him in the dark [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 24

Main Characters: Fire Force Company 8 (way too many)

Points: 8.5/10

The show excited me so much, I picked up the manga after the 20th episode, because I never wanted to miss it, especially if they didn't announce a second season. Gladly they did though, because there is still so much to come, so many great fights and so many more revealing moments, because Fire Force features a world of fear and mystery: humans simply explode and burn away (if they don't become horned demons or monsters). It's indeed a fight against fire for the fire force, although it may be questionable to fight fire with fire, because that's mostly what they do. There are different levels of humans and many can already control their power of fire. The anime very closely adapted the source material. I can attest to that since I watched and read both at the same time.

The first few episodes were okay-ish, but when the pace finally picked up, Fire Force turned out to be super exciting. So once you get through the first 5 episodes, you'll be captured by the charm that is a roller coaster ride of crazy fights and thrilling mysteries. The reveals and explanations come in slowly and even after many more manga chapters, there is still a lot that hasn't been explored, so there are still many questions, especially after that first season. That's why a second season is already in the making, so we should watch out for that.

Fire Force is a very refreshing take of a shounen series, the concept is completely original and promises many golden twists. The animation also gradually improved throughout the series, which is a major plus point, because the first fights weren't exactly flashy and mostly consisted of pictures being chained to one another to look cool (it was statical at best). Within Fire Force you will find many pretty consistent fighting scenes, that look awesome and also portray how nicely those flames can look like.

A minus point for the anime (and manga) can be the fanservice, which happens quite frequently. I got used to it after a few episodes and sometimes I even thought it was quite amusing for the story, but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

After reading through the manga I can safely say I prefer the source material, but the anime adapted everything accurately, which is pretty good in my opinion. Canon divergent stories often happen to lose momentum. The manga is from Atsushi Ohkubo who also is the mastermind behind Soul Eater, which I still have to check out, but the man is a god, he knows how to create worlds that fuck everything up, I guess.

I've read up on the criticism for most characters being generic and undeveloped, but you need to keep in mind that this is just the set up for the story; the first season. It probably doesn't even feature half of the story, so it's safe to assume that many characters will show up again and receive proper development within the plot (which is true for the manga). After 24 episodes there's barely anything I can say about the characters, especially for Company 8, which is a bunch of dynamic and weird characters who work together extremely well. We have Shinra, the absolute main character, who lost his family to the fire and thus wants to uncover the secret and save people. He's got a knack of smiling in dangerous situations (or when he's nervous) and for now he is indeed a generic character, but not the type of annoying main hero. He's hard working and smart and clearly out to understand what happened to his family. The rest of the company are too many to mention, but we have a super cool captain, who has absolutely no fire power, a lieutenant who is non-cholant and strict, Maki a super strong girl, Iris (who will play a more important role in the future) a sweet young and innocent girl, Arthur a complete idiot but strong fighter once he's in the knight zone, Tamaki who will also be featured way more in season 2 as she has barely been introduced in the first as someone who can do nothing but get herself undressed, Vulcan a very cool engineer who's had a rough past and Licht, who is a crazy genius with ulterior motives.

None of them are exactly stereotypes or boring, I swear, there will be at least one character that will intrigue you. The criticism is absolutely stupid for the story has barely taken root in the first season. In comparison to my absolute favourite World Trigger, Fire Force has been adapted extremely well. I can't wait for a second season to air!

Ni no Shou

Plot: After his confrontation in the Nether with his younger brother Shou, Shinra Kusakabe's resolve to become a hero that saves lives from the flame terror strengthens. Finding a way to turn the Infernals back into people, unraveling the mystery of the Evangelist and Adolla Burst, and saving his mother and Shou—these are the goals Shinra has in mind. However, he has come to realize that attaining these goals will not be easy, especially with the imminent danger the Evangelist poses.The Evangelist's plan is clear: to gather the eight pillars—the individuals who possess Adolla Burst—and sacrifice them to recreate the Great Cataclysm from 250 years ago. Having been revealed by the First Pillar that the birth of a new pillar is approaching, Shinra is determined to protect his fellow pillars from the Evangelist. Thus, the fiery battle between the Special Fire Force and the Evangelist ignites. Together with the Special Fire Force, Shinra's fight continues as he uncovers the truth about the Great Cataclysm and the nature of Adolla Bursts, as well as the mysteries behind human combustion. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 24

Points: 8.75/10

There is so much unnecessary hate on MAL for this season, even though there might be even more hate across the web, that this anime really doesn't deserve. Surely it has its own faults, but there are much worse series all around. Someone mentioned that this may be due to David Production working on this instead of Jojo (something I'll never ever watch in my life), so it may be due to jealousy but otherwise, I've seen many childish reviews of people who watched season 2, although they didn't like the first one as in it bored them and they never got into it and on the other hand they simply tried to find reasons to make it look bad, when in fact they simply had no idea about plot or characters. This is awfully childish. It's awfully normal that when a normal human is burned, they die, but a second or third generation won't just die as they are firstly used to fire and control it to a certain degree or why so ever aren't Shinra's feet burned? All these things are brought forward simply to make it seem illogical and boring.

The pacing is on the other hand is indeed a point that isn't really good, as it dreadfully drags on and relies to much on flashbacks and pieces and bits of information that has already been handed to us in the last season or even just in the last few episodes. That's in contrast to everything else a small annoyance though. There are many other good points of the show: an interesting premise and plot development, many lovely characters (which will never be completely developed due to the sheer number) which are being introduced to us anew or now shown for the very first time. We get to know a lot of fire companies and we dive much deeper into the world and get more information on the white clad.

The second season consists of quite a few interesting arcs, which are all very much existent in the manga as well, which is a delight, because I really like the manga, although many do prefer the anime.

We get introduced to Inka, another pillar and someone who obviously holds no love for the world or maybe she just likes to wreck havoc. She'll be shown more often in the future and I hope to know more about her, but I am not sure they'll ever focus on her again. Another new character is Juggernaut and a few others from fire companies, who won't receive much spotlight or die in combat which was sometimes quite unexpected. Juggernaut on the other hand is a lovely new character who's timid and shy but shows he can fight just fine, if he gathers his courage and tries his best. We also get the sensational Joker and Benimaru duo as they investigate the Holy Sol Temple and the “fake” religion? Apart from that we also meet the pillar Nataku Son, who has been experimented on and watched over by another company, where we also meet Kurono, a blood thirsty crazy man I'd say, but he isn't exactly a murderer either. There are still more scenes of him in the future which might be quite interesting to those who were intrigued by his character. Another small sub arc consists of the Nether investigation where Maki is being drawn from company 8 to serve in the military area until she decides to show her family, where she truly belongs and man, that was epic. Maki lives and breathes to help humans as a fire fighter, that much is clear and Maki remains one of the best female characters. Whil Ogun in this season was seriously the best. I think he’s truly one of the most interesting characters and a strong one at that and someone who shares quite a deep bond with Arthur and Shinra.

Not much yet has been revealed though, just bits of the cataclysm and that creating a second sun is probably the ultimate goal. Hopefully there will be a season 3 in the future. There is still a lot of material in the manga with many many interesting twists and turns.

The animation is even better than in the first season, thumbs up, David Productions.