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Five Thoughts on Fire Force’s “The Heart of a Fire Soldier”

By | June 16th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to this week’s super melodramatic action anime that I am here for, Fire Force! This week, we get some cool visual stylings, an edgy character introduction, and some genuinely chilling moments of quiet. Let’s dive right into it!

1. Soul Eating
Right from the moment that this show started, I could see a lot of stylistic influence seeping in from the manga-ka Atsushi Ōkubo’s previous work, “Soul Eater”. The way that the skull iconography for death pops up is almost the same as Shinigami’s skull from “Soul Eater”, and that kind of intertextual easter egg is a lot of fun. Plus, we get a lot of that exaggerated, emo-influenced architecture in the landscapes here, which is great. The Fire Force base looks like a shamble of buildings and motifs thrown together, and somehow it all works, especially with the luminous “8” sign.

The action and the academy-like structure of the narrative are also reminiscent of “Soul Eater”, but I quite like the way that Fire Force handles it by centering everything around flames. It inspires a lot more creativity in the world and the powers that also works in Ōkubo’s neo-gothic style.

2. A new recruit
Already, we have our rival introduced for Shinra: a headstrong, uppity youth named Arthur Boyle. I do like that the two have a history already established from their school years, as it trims a lot of the fat on establishing an interesting relationship between them. Of course, there are the initial butting heads when Shinra first sees that Arthur is the recruit, and it makes for light comedy, but the devil is really in the details when it comes to what’s fun about these two. I LOVE that Arthur calls himself a Knight King because Shinra thinks that being just a Knight is lame, and I love that Arthur always rectifies it to Knight King after initially calling himself only a Knight.

That being said, Arthur didn’t come off as interesting as Shinra did, though I appreciate how much more defined his powers are. Whilst my grasp on Shinra’s powers is that he can… use fire with his feet (?), I love that Arthur uses a sword hilt to channel his flames into a plasma-heated beam that he calls Excalibur.

3. Maki’s pretty good actually
I initially wrote off Maki in my last episode recap as being a token crushing anime girl. I know I did that. But! She’s become so much more interesting this time around, just in the way that she trains Shinra and Arthur. Maki might be constantly pining after boys, but she also isn’t hesitant to dominate them in a fight. Honestly, she’s got the kind of 2020 girl power energy we need in our mainstream Shonen animes right now. I love that she intersperses this brawn with her moments of animating flames into weird little chibi versions of themselves too, it keeps the whole thing fun and lighthearted.

The fight scene with her ends with Shinra and Arthur giving up because Maki is a top-tier queen, and we get a nice little moment of the boys going out for ramen with Obi. It’s a great moment of quiet and character bonding and makes everything seem much more believable.

4. Not just mad Infernals, but sad Infernals
When the team bolts off to take on the Infernal alert of the day, it’s something a little bit left of field. We see a mysterious looking dude gloating around the front of the danger zone, and we can tell he’s important because he has the most ridiculous and intricate design I’ve seen in this anime so far… so of course, I love him. Regardless, we hear from a tearful girl outside that the Infernal inside is her father, and that her mother also combusted a few years prior. It’s a pretty depressing scene that sets exactly how high the stakes are in this reality for seemingly anyone. Once we go inside, however, things are not quite what we’d expect.

The girl’s father is an Infernal all right, but he’s just sitting at the kitchen table making disturbingly remorseful sounds. It’s super unsettling and sad, but Arthur becomes genuinely likable in opting to do the right thing and put him out of his misery. There’s little action to be present, which is a bold move that pays off superbly for Fire Force.

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5. Chin up!
In the midst of all this crushing, depressing reality, the show finds a way to still weave in some worldbuilding. The mystery man from outside seemingly sets the house alight, which forces the team to scramble their way out and employ some drastic action. It’s a good way to distract viewers from the depressing scene prior to moving into a much more positive ending; a palette cleanser, if you will. Once the team has made their way out of the burning structure, Obi finds the girl who’s despairing not just for the fact that both of her parents exploded, but she will likely follow suit. Obi gives her a picture of her together with her parents that he managed to save from the wreckage. On top of this, he comforts her, saying that her father’s soul fought back against the flames and protected her, so not all is lost.

It’s a touching end to a great episode, and I’m super intrigued to see what elements this anime lays down next, as well as what more we will find out about the mysterious man who came and stole my heart! Tune in next week as we dive deeper into Fire Force!


//TAGS | 2020 Summer TV Binge | Fire Force

Rowan Grover

Rowan is from Sydney, Australia! Rowan writes about comics and reads the heck out of them, too. Talk to them on Twitter at @rowan_grover. You might just spur an insightful rant on what they're currently reading, but most likely, you'll just be interrupting a heated and intimate eating session.

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