English Dub Season Review: Fire Force Season One

Back in the late 2000’s, when legal streaming anime was barely a dream, a series called Soul Eater first premiered. This show offered the typical shonen battle formula that most were used to with Naruto and Bleach, though with a unique style of humor and tinge of dark tone that wasn’t offered elsewhere, not to mention the usual amazing already expected of the studio known as BONES. Despite ending at fifty-one episodes (and the actual manga ending being pretty lackluster), it was actually one of the first anime to keep me watching week to week. Now, author Atsushi Ōkubo’s next work has been adapted as well, bringing more of what both did and didn’t work for Soul Eater: Fire Force.

Fire Force is cut from the same cloth as Soul Eater, following a band of well-intentioned weirdos who also defend civilians from evil monsters who themselves used to be people. Though where Soul Eater focuses on Grim Reapers who eat wayward souls, and the themes of death and madness, Fire Force centers these within the role of fictitious group firefighters who fight spontaneously combusting monsters, increasing focus on mortality, duty, and faith in humanity. It still borrows plenty of thematic blood from its older sibling series, though actually feels both more conforming to the norms of the genre AND setting itself apart, even if it’s not always for the better. The unique charm the author puts in his works is there, though his pension for irreverent humor and sudden fanservice do spring up at rather inopportune times and become more annoying than funny.

Despite that, what we do get are impressive fight scenes that tantalize the eye at almost every fight. It’s never a dull moment when things light up. The combatants all utilize abilities within the realms of heat and flame, which, while limiting in some ways, does force things to get creative in how certain powers are explained. This does start to strain credibility (not a rare thing in shonen, but certainly not something you would want to instigate this soon) when time stopping and teleportation enter the fray, but not enough for people like me to lose interest, so I guess that’s alright for now.

And even without that, it has felt like the universe was actively fighting against this series’ existence at times. Not even three episodes in, the worst arson in Japan’s history occurred with the burning down of the Kyoto Animation building, causing said third episode to be delayed, followed by two weeks off later on for sports. All this while Funimation followed their ever-developing same-day-simuldub system and the show aired on Toonami’s Saturday block. The series got a lot of spotlights very early, but that couldn’t stop some astonishingly low sales numbers in Japan.

Still, with one season down and another on the docket in six months, Fire Force has proven to be more than a flash in a pan. It may have begun on a formulaic note, but it has used that formula in an impressively clever manner, even with some pitfalls in its style here or there. The mysteries it has presented and the world it explores are still full of much that deserves a look at. Its characters, while on the gimmicky side at times, still stand out and provide a lot of heart. And its story plays it safe in areas, though seems to be setting itself to be some of the best the genre can offer. The light may have gone out on Fire Force for now, but I look forward to seeing that spark being reignited soon enough.