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「消防官の心」 (Shōbōkan no Kokoro)
“The Heart of a Fire Soldier”
One thing’s for sure, this series knows how to set the tone without diminishing itself. It switches so smoothly between comedy to serious themes, I’m left baffled after a single episode wondering how it all happened. For a large part of the episode I’m smirking at the snarky remarks, the slight jokes, and Arthur Boyle’s temperament. The other half of the episode gently tugs at my heartstrings, not only because of Makiko who has just lost her entire family, but for Shinra and Arthur who learn the hard truth about the demands and responsibilities of their jobs.
Let’s jump right into Arthur Boyle (Kobayashi Yuusuke), the new Fireforce 8 recruit. He has a serious knight complex (hence his choice of weapon) along the same lines as Shinra’s hero complex. His personality has a touch of narcissism which makes his claim to being ‘Knight King’ less than humbling. The two coming together is like having two 90s kids debating whether Digimon or Pokemon did it best. Essentially, they’re naive boys with a lot to learn.
Now onto the good stuff. Maki-chan is this season’s instant crush. She’s fickle and a little ditsy, yes, but I didn’t know her well last week. She’s a badass! As a second generation she can’t ignite her own fire but she can control all fire at will and create what she pleases with it. Her ‘sputter’ and ‘bobobo‘ creatures represent her softer demeanour but not to be misinterpreted as weakness. She’s super strong, heated, agile, and she’s ripped! Her character alone is more than enough to keep me interested. I definitely want more of her story.
Next up is sister Iris. She was acting a little strange in the face of the sputter demon Maki created early in the episode. As it floated above their heads, she reached out with her hand hallucinating fiery wildflowers. I wonder what about this flame drew her in. She’s unique in that she’s the only team member can begin the prayer that will put the Infernal’s soul to rest. With these new phenomenons plaguing the world, I imagine a new religion (or cult) emerged to create an ‘explanation’ for them in order to put the masses at ease. Having a nun in the mix while ‘extinguishing’ these eternals must act as justification for what humans are doing to each other… This is just my assumption but I’m sure we’ll learn a little more as things progress.
I wonder what larger organizations are at play here. There are those who want to help the world transition through these explosive events and those who want to let natural selection (according to these new rules) take place. This new mystery character seems to have the ability to control fire as well. He’s most likely a third generation or second generation pyrokinetic user part of a larger entity that would rather see the world continue on this evolutionary path (just a hypothesis!).
So far it’s been a real gem of a series. I hadn’t read the manga prior to watching the premiere last week but after just one episode, I had to dive in. I tried not to get in too deep but with very little success. With the second episode now aired as well as the quality of work and writing not having faltered, I’m convinced this is going to be one of my favourites this season.
Didn’t really like the whole stuff with the blonde guy, or how they sort of broke the 4th wall for few secs, also I felt like the delivery on some scenes were bad compared to ep 1 :/
Well, looks like fanservice-girl will be introduced next episode. I really hope they tone down her antics, because I (and the characters themselves) find them annoying.
I super enjoy the manga but if I hadn’t read it, I’d think this ep was too slow and low energy.
The visuals are really beautiful. The animators can really create a scene. But I can tell they’re using visuals to distract from how many minutes are largely static with little to no animation. I admit, I appreciate the switch to high quality visuals over looping or super cheap looking animation. Defiantly a better way to go if you’re saving your budget for visually important scenes.
The eps have been extremely too-the-panel accurate reflection of the manga on a technical basis but I feel like they missed the energy, particularly in the rooftop scene here. I hope they are a bit more clever in how they portray the ecchi gags coming up. These could be the easiest thing to get wrong.
Overall IMO, the animators are doing a beautiful job but need to push a little more energy into the comedy.
If they can tone down the fan service from the manga they’ll easily be my favorite show of the season. Beautiful art, fun characters, an interesting world. Everything that makes a good shonen so much fun.
This https://randomc.net/image/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2001.jpg reminded of Soul Eater, but now the plot slowly begins to resemble D.Gray-man and “Earl” showed up that is apparently involved in creating akumas… i mean infernals from humans, Soul Eater and this was created by same man Ookubo.
I’ve said in post of previous episode and i can’t stress it enough, this is like definition of shounen manga/anime, it’s not a bad thing, it’s refined anime, they took all the top aspects of similar shounen anime, to a point you can basically tell what is going to happen next without actually knowing anything about the show (if you have watched a lot of shounen shows). Spending most of my highschool watching anime non stop has it’s downsides, i cannot really enjoy such series because there is no surprise or suspense for me anymore, yet i still watch it.
https://randomc.net/image/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai/Enen%20no%20Shouboutai%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
Is it just me or there were too many looong awkward pauses/static shots? While episode 1 has that Studio BONES vibe, for me, episode 2 felt too much like SHAFT (considering the anime crew is mostly comprised of ex-SHAFT employees), it reminds me too much of the Monogatari series.
While I loved the first episode, I hated this second one.
PS: I don’t hate Shaft or the Monogatari style of animation, I watched all the seasons,
but I find that animation style really awkward here in Fire Force.
No wonder the house feels SHAFTy