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REVIEW: Fire Force Volumes 1-10 Manga Review

I’ve always been surprised by how much people are bothered by Tamaki. Yes the lucky lecher lure is a hilariously stupid gag but I’ve never thought it was deserving of the sheer amount of vitriol some people throw at it.

At the very least I don’t think it takes much away from the rest of the story.

I’ve always been surprised by how much people are bothered by Tamaki. Yes the lucky lecher lure is a hilariously stupid gag but I’ve never thought it was deserving of the sheer amount of vitriol some people throw at it.

At the very least I don’t think it takes much away from the rest of the story.

I’ve always been surprised by how much people are bothered by Tamaki. Yes the lucky lecher lure is a hilariously stupid gag but I’ve never thought it was deserving of the sheer amount of vitriol some people throw at it.

At the very least I don’t think it takes much away from the rest of the story.

Regarding the fanservice, I saw most of the first season of the anime, and the handling of it is very bad. One of the issues the series has is it struggles with tone. Like you'll have this serious fight scene, and then the Tamaki fanservice is shoved in your face. Even non-fanservice scenes suffer from this, where it'll go from comedic to serious in a chaotic manner.

I love fanservice (See: My avatar as of this post is Asagi Aiba from Strike the Blood, a series notorious for its pantyshots, I've imported way too much of the merch and Blu-rays from 2015-2024 (I own most of this, probably have the largest STB merch collection in the US)), but the fanservice in Fire Force really frustrated me, and baffled me given how it was handled in Soul Eater by comparison. A difference with Soul Eater is like with Blaire, she wants to be in those sorts of situations, and it does a far better job with tone. It knows when it can put in fanservice or comedy without feeling out of place or super forced. Meanwhile with Fire Force, everything is just forced, it goes to ridiculous lengths to make it happen. Like I mean, what is with this nonsense in Episode 19? I have seen so much anime over the past 17 years, and I've never come across a fanservice scene that forced before.

Tamaki exists only for the forced fanservice. Every time the first season tried to develop her and give her agency, it puts her down. The series tells her "you're there for only fanservice, deal with it." There is an art to fanservice, and Fire Force fails at it. Even the cliched stuff found in Love Hina 26 years ago is handled much better.

Heck, I just started Those Who Hunt Elves from 1996, a show about a group of people from Japan transported to another world by accident who travel around stripping female elves naked so they can obtain parts of the spell needed to take them back to Japan, and that 29 year old fanservice is also handled so much better.

On Tamaki, times change.
...
Unlike Kishimoto, Atsushi refuses to change with the times. The Tamaki antics are mild compared to what was regularly depicted in shonen manga - and again not even in ecchi titles - 20 years ago. Atsushi refuses to pretend otherwise.

I've never thought about it as well and more than sure that most of the JP community, as well as the "original" one from the west (i.e. not anime tourists, but rather ones who became fans of the culture as it was), never thought much about it in the negative view, I can see some think that it has tone issues at best when some series go passive-aggressive and can't pick one,
But not in regard to associating it with some real-world events or potential real people suffering,
as the Japanese as well as people who adopted the culture instead of trying to adjust it, just see it as some fun story just like how manga can basically means "whimsical pictures", and nothing more,

I believe the real issue started when some people who don't really love the culture as is started to scream wolf.

Now that anime has become more mainstream, it naturally reaches to more people, and imo those who do not like it are the main ones at fault here for not knowing when to leave something they don't like and overstaying just to criticize it, eventually demanding changes and adjustments which kill it for the main community in the long run~

birdlover wrote:

On Tamaki, times change. ... Unlike Kishimoto, Atsushi refuses to change with the times. The Tamaki antics are mild compared to what was regularly depicted in shonen manga - and again not even in ecchi titles - 20 years ago. Atsushi refuses to pretend otherwise.

Here's the thing though: this sort of awkwardly shoehorned-in "fanservice" was awful 20 years ago, and it's still awful now. The only thing that's really changed is that more people seem to have wised up to the idea that "oh hey, maybe we shouldn't be okay with random objectification of underage girls in our mass-market media ostensibly aimed at a primarily tween audience." Re-evaluating representation in media is a good thing!

egozi14 wrote:

I've never thought about it as well and more than sure that most of the JP community, as well as the "original" one from the west (i.e. not anime tourists, but rather ones who became fans of the culture as it was), never thought much about it in the negative view, I can see some think that it has tone issues at best when some series go passive-aggressive and can't pick one, But not in regard to associating it with some real-world events or potential real people suffering, as the Japanese as well as people who adopted the culture instead of trying to adjust it, just see it as some fun story just like how manga can basically means "whimsical pictures", and nothing more, I believe the real issue started when some people who don't really love the culture as is started to scream wolf. Now that anime has become more mainstream, it naturally reaches to more people, and imo those who do not like it are the main ones at fault here for not knowing when to leave something they don't like and overstaying just to criticize it, eventually demanding changes and adjustments which kill it for the main community in the long run~

Oh please. I've been a fan of this medium for over 20 years. I've enjoyed hundreds of series and films over that time. I'm no "tourist." But I would have had the same reaction to "content" like Tamaki two decades ago as I do now: it sucks balls. Trying to enforce some sort of purity test on anime fans is a non-starter for me. I didn't care about anime "culture" back when I discovered this medium, and to some extent I still don't. What I did and do care about is watching great animated content. And if I think the content I'm watching has elements that are handled extremely poorly, I'm going to call that out. I couldn't imagine a world in which I just turned my brain didn't think critically about the media that I consume. That seems like such a sad, empty way to interact with art.

To be clear, I have nothing at all against the existence of erotic content in anime as a whole. But as BigOnAnime alluded to, there are good and bad ways to do it. I honestly have the most respect for series that wear that identity on their sleeves, that say explicitly, "Here's exactly what you're getting if you watch this." Granted, that's usually my cue to stay far away from such properties, but at least they're owning their nature with pride. (I usually find things slapped with the "ecchi" tag pretty pointless myself; if I want to get my rocks off I'll go find some good actual smut.) What I have no patience for is when otherwise-good series attempt to ham-handedly shove erotic content in places where it doesn't fit at all, to the point where it completely kills the viewer's immersion in the scene. And Fire Force is one of the worst offenders I've ever come across. It sucks when you can't recommend a series like this without having to include a massive caveat.

See this is what I'm talking about. You guys going on rants kn something that has already been called out instead of bringing up the other positives of the story like the rogues gallery or the tragic side of Arthur and his delusions. Again I am not saying the way Tamaki is portrayed is ok but I am saying that you guys do not give the other positives of the series enough recognition.

I don't have that problem. See I try to recommend something like Dragon Maid but I always caution people about the fans service. Im not saying one should ignore it but to be aware of it and tey not let it ruin your enjoyment of the story. Unlike you I am not going to let the fanservice ruin my enjoyment of the story but before you call me out or insult me let me be clear. The way Tamaki o is written is not good. I do not condone it. If anything I wish Atshui handled it better. Maybe make her an exhibitionist and have her be comfortable showing skin. Yes the fanservice is still present but at lesst Tamaki isn't made to look like a joke. She can still be a strong character who isn't defined by her sex appeal. The only people who would object would be the cast and it could lead to some interest exploration of her character.
See this is what I'm talking about. You guys going on rants kn something that has already been called out instead of bringing up the other positives of the story like the rogues gallery or the tragic side of Arthur and his delusions. Again I am not saying the way Tamaki is portrayed is ok but I am saying that you guys do not give the other positives of the series enough recognition.