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EP. REVIEW: Fire Force


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Morry



Joined: 26 Jun 2016
Posts: 756
PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 9:09 pm Reply with quote
The only problem I have with Fire Force so far is the cat girl.

She just comes off as forced, almost a parody of itself. As if we boiled down the accidental pervert cliche to its laziest derivative and arrived at "inexplicably ends up in unfortunate sexual situations" as a character's chief trait.

Like, why...? You already had the priestess and ex-soldier with twice the depth and personality, and right after you introduce the Section 5 Chief whose dominatrix shtick feels like an actual quirk and funny. Cat girl doesn't add anything.
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2904
PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 10:07 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
it's irritating to see an otherwise excellent series constantly objectify its female characters.

This is the biggest pervading drawback for me. Fire Force has otherwise been an engaging story, chock full of gorgeous animation, impactful sound direction, interesting camera work, damn good music, and a well-rounded cast, yet I struggled to even finish episode 4 this week in light of its laughably one-note villain and irritatingly bad dominatrix woman.

Maki and Sister Iris have thus far given me enough intriguing character hints to trudge through the trash fanservice they're subjected to, but Tamaki comes off similarly to Yoko of Gurren Lagann: her personality and skills tell one story while the garbage fanservice gimmicks tell another.

Hoping this series leans further into its mystery and action sides and the treatment of its female characters is improved.
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
Posts: 939
Location: USA
PostPosted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 1:37 pm Reply with quote
I am still intrigued by the world and narrative of Fire Force...

but then multiple moments throughout episodes keep reminding me that I am watching a shonen anime targeted at immature males. Not fun.Besides fanservice and generic villain interactions, I have hopes that Fire Force will introduce its audience to a very memorable and iconic world.

I also noticed a significant drop in animation quality in episode 3. Half of the episode took place on a black background with few details added.
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AntiKuro



Joined: 01 Aug 2017
Posts: 200
PostPosted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:31 pm Reply with quote
Gasero wrote:
I am still intrigued by the world and narrative of Fire Force...

but then multiple moments throughout episodes keep reminding me that I am watching a shonen anime targeted at immature males. Not fun.Besides fanservice and generic villain interactions, I have hopes that Fire Force will introduce its audience to a very memorable and iconic world.

I also noticed a significant drop in animation quality in episode 3. Half of the episode took place on a black background with few details added.


I question if that is from editing stuff out, and needed to still keep the time. If that makes sense? Cause I've noticed a lot more still frames.

I am REALLY curious as to how they are going to handle Hibana backstory when that comes up, as I don't remember it being to far off after she gets introduced. Is it just going to be them changing the fire color to a darker color like they have been doing, or are they going to black bar some of the scenes.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2501
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 10:20 am Reply with quote
Who says there isn't comedy this season?? I just caught Ep1 in a fit of anime starvation (only two good shows this season is not enough...) and had a really good laugh at this one! What a stupidly bizarre premise, I can now see why they were trying to hype this at AX, Looking forward to catching up...(italics-think fire) Smile

Edit- All caught up now, show has a good heart, a reasonably developing mystery or two and not a complete joke. Never thought I'd see full-frontal and backside groping fanservice in a single Ep and I don't want to think of where neko-chan's fire came from when she crouched down Ep3 but I'm interested in seeing where this all goes. Flame On


Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:17 am; edited 1 time in total
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:34 pm Reply with quote
Why did it instantly stop raining the second Squad 8 arrived? Even if it's just a visual metaphor, I have no idea what the point was supposed to be.
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SquadmemberRitsu



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Posts: 1391
PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 9:11 pm Reply with quote
I’m glad to know I’m not alone in my opinion on Fire Force. Shame, they’ve done so well with the adaptation for the most part.

I’ve been watching anime for enough years that I have an unfortunate amount of tolerance to shows mistreating their female cast. But it’s honestly shocking how sexist Fire Force is. There’s just such an imbalance between the cool tragic male characters and the women who mostly sit around until they’re needed for a horny gag. Sure Soul Eater has similar issues, but Fire Force is so much worse somehow.

Not to say other battle shonen don’t have problems with women too. It’s just Fire Force is unusually bad in that regard.
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Crispy45



Joined: 23 Sep 2012
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 9:50 pm Reply with quote
SquadmemberRitsu wrote:
I’ve been watching anime for enough years that I have an unfortunate amount of tolerance to shows mistreating their female cast. But it’s honestly shocking how sexist Fire Force is. There’s just such an imbalance between the cool tragic male characters and the women who mostly sit around until they’re needed for a horny gag. Sure Soul Eater has similar issues, but Fire Force is so much worse somehow.


I'm not sure why this is shocking to people. Okubo loves his fanservice, and does a great job at it. It's what he's known for. Soul Eater was very similar, it's just the anime was toned down considerably from the manga. It's nice Fire Force isn't as toned down from it's manga this time around and we're getting more of the fanservice, although it is unfortunate timing with the KyoAni thing
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SeanDaSey



Joined: 10 Aug 2019
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 9:54 pm Reply with quote
Whew, the reviewer would not like the manga, considering how much the anime has toned down fanservice.
In another note he seems to think it’s wasting a lot of time, but episode 5 covered like 7000 chapters. (I'm exaggerating ofc, but you get the memo)
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 10:52 pm Reply with quote
Crispy45 wrote:

I'm not sure why this is shocking to people. Okubo loves his fanservice, and does a great job at it. It's what he's known for. Soul Eater was very similar, it's just the anime was toned down considerably from the manga. It's nice Fire Force isn't as toned down from it's manga this time around and we're getting more of the fanservice, although it is unfortunate timing with the KyoAni thing


It’d be one thing if Fire Force had more fanservice like Soul Eater’s cat-witch; she was a sexy character who was unabashed and unreserved about her sexiness. But a loooooot of Fire Force’s fanservice has been in the vein of humiliation (burnt clothes, standing too close for an upskirt peek, falling on people, spacing out while in an ill-fitting wet dress, etc.) which just adds this unnecessary layer of ick to it all. Princess’ Dom gimmick is the one thing I think is actually done well in terms of avoiding this, as everyone involved on her team seems to be really into Subbing. More of that, please! Less of the creepy, voyeuristic “accidents”.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 7:10 pm Reply with quote
I don't know about you, but that whole "Arthur are you dumb?" joke actually got me. They were setting it up through the whole episode, too. Amazing.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:55 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm all for lackadaisical workplace comedy and flashy action scenes in a Shonen Jump anime


Well too bad, because Fire Force is a Shonen Magazine anime, not a Jump anime. I get to some they are likely interchangeable, but there are stylistic differences between Jump & the other major shonen magazines, and it is sad to see writers not bothering to notice the differences.
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:32 pm Reply with quote
I haven't read the manga, so I've no idea if the story progresses the same way, but the entire start and finish for the fight between 5th and 8th felt so rushed it comes across like a straight contrivance just to fill space. It's like they got the story going, decided the whole thing with infernals was going forward too quick, so they threw in this bit, but wanted to move on from that too. You usually don't see the "some good guys might be bad guys" angle blow up this big, with the two sides in an all-out brawl, and for it to go out with such a whimper is perplexing. I don't know that a more competent story even has an arc like this to climax a season, let alone condensed as the second act within the first handful of episodes.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 5:22 pm Reply with quote
Ashen Phoenix wrote:
...episode 4...irritatingly bad dominatrix woman.

I'm recent with the Toonami broadcast, and I have to agree that I also dislike Hibana. Not so much for her femdom tendencies though - that thing's actually my bag - but because she's so bitchy and pretentious about it. I'm holding out hope she improves, but if it's anything like my road from despising to enjoying Bakugo, it's gonna be a long way to that point indeed.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 6:48 pm Reply with quote
I read an after-volume & Okubo described having troubles adjusting to the weekly format of writing manga compared to monthly, turns out there is a difference.

You can see the issues here, this whole thing went by in a flash. On the bright side the next arc looks more interesting & may be more focused on.
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