Fire Force is an up-and-coming shonen that's been airing this summer season. The manga is created by the same genius who birther Soul Eater Atsushi Ohkubo and it shows. The show is stylistic, grim, and a bit nihilistic. The Fire Force manga that it's sourced from is fantastic. It truly has some of the best art we've seen in a long time, for a multitude of reasons. Now, David Production is behind the anime. Who are they? Well, just the team behind the wildly successful JoJo's Bizarre Adventure adaptation! And let us tell you something, they're doing just as good of a job on Fire Force, and we'll tell you how.
10 The Color Coordination Adds Another Level Of Flair
First and foremost, the David Production team has added their own flair to Fire Force. Atsushi's style is already insanely unique on its own, but with these new little bits of flair, it's becoming even more popular. The anime team, in particular, has gone through the trouble of using color coordination for all the Ignition users like Shinra and Arthur. Basically, whenever anyone uses their abilities, viewers will notice that their pupils shine in a certain shade of color, as well as their flames. It's a fantastic idea because when everyone has fire powers, things can get real jumbled up in a flash.
9 A Show Centered Around Fire Needs Good Flame Effects
And speaking of the fire, the effects in the anime look awesome! Sometimes they're 3D sometimes 2D but always on point. Fire can be terrifying, but usually only by relying on multiple senses. The smell of burning wood, the crackling of the flames, and the sight of the flames burning everything. But, a manga page can show visual information, and only in black or white. But you know what can do more? Anime. The flames in Fire Force now have so much more opportunity to crackle, and burst, and pull viewers into their glow, especially with people like Princess Hibana.
8 That Opening Is A Real Doozy
One of the best aspects of Anime as a medium is the sound and sights of the openings. We're sure that any diehard fan of anime has their own list of the all-time greats. Because we sure do. And the one created for Fire Force is amazing! The song by Bump of Chicken is amazing, it shows off every character in Brigade 8 at their best, and it follows a contained story that doesn't spoil future events. If it was only stuck inside the pages of Shonen Jump, we'd be missing out on a real banger.
7 Fighting In Motion Is Just Easier To Understand
Again, when everyone is using fire to fight, it can be kind of hard to tell what's happening in a complex battle scene. Atsushi does his best, of course. Things like slightly changing the style of the flames based on the user, but he can only do so much. This has been a problem that a lot of people deal with when reading manga because everything is in black and white, shapes blend together more. So color and motion do a lot to clear up what's happening in peoples minds. It's why there are always fan-teams going through and coloring manga pages, and it's why people will wait patiently for as long as it takes.
6 The Comedic Timing Is Pretty On Point
Now, to be fair, the timing overall in the anime is pretty stilted. The conversations flow a bit awkwardly and sometimes scenes are left quiet for a couple of seconds too long. But, regardless, there's an unchangeable difference between a joke told on the page and a joke told in motion. For example, the reoccurring bit between Hinawa and Maki where he kills her "dangerous" fiery creations is pure gold. But, when viewers see frame by frame as Arthur cuts the flame balls in the anime, and they hear how shrill their death-cries are, it makes it that much more depressingly hilarious!
5 Arthur Sounds Exactly As Dumb As He Should
A lot of times, what we imagine for something tends to be stronger than the reality. It's why horror games that don't show the monster tend to scare people more often. But, Anime often nails the voice-casting, where it's usually pretty close to what we imagined. Fire Force is no different, everybody sounds great! Hibana's tirades about gravel sound just as unhinged as we would've thought. Arthur constantly sounds like he's daydreaming. And Hinawa's line-delivery is just as blunt and emotionless as we'd dreamed it would be.
4 The Colors Are Perfect For Soul Eater's Spiritual Successor
We touched on this a bit before, but color can really make a difference. David Production specifically is known for taking risks with their colorwork. No one expected to love the neon sky and hyper-saturated palette in Jojo Part 4, but David Production put the work in. And the same goes for Fire Force! The color-coded fire powers, the lighting effects, the faint blue glow whenever the Special Fire Force enters a room in their uniforms. It really adds to a show, it did for Soul Eater. And now, it's really kicking Fire Force up a notch!
3 We Can Feel The Impact In The Attacks
We're kind of repeating ourselves but we really just wanted to gush about how great the impact has been in the anime so far. What we mean by "impact" is the force of a hit. Like when Shinra kicks someone at full speed, we can really FEEL how hard it is, thanks to the way it's drawn, how it sounds, and how it's animated. Manga has its own way of translating this feeling to the readers, but Anime usually does it stronger, at least when it's done right. Just take the kick that Shinra does in the opening to the giant infernal, that kick is absolutely mind-blowing.
2 The Weirder Fire Abilities Feel Like A Part Of The Scene
It's time to talk about moments like when Shinra makes a claw out of the fire erupting from his foot, when Joker makes words from smoke, or when Hibana makes her flame flowers. These moments feel almost unreal, even for supernatural abilities. Fire and smoke don't work like that, and they end up looking like they're not part of the scene. But, the anime does a lot to help with that by being able to animate these moments. Watching the flame come out of Shinra's foot, or seeing the sparks bloom into the shape of flowers with Hibana, even seeing the smoke trail off with Joker. The visual language really does help, we promise.
1 They're Really Trying To Be Cinematic
And the final reason why Fire Force succeeds as an anime, the cinematic shots. Sure, there are fantastic compositions in the manga. But, as a whole, there's already an obvious active effort from the adaptation team to use the "fake camera" to their advantage in a way only moving media can. For example, in the debut episode, when Shinra flies to catch Sister, that scene is much improved from its paper-and-paper form. Shinra flies in a 3D modeled environment, the camera swings around him, and the animation is beautiful! When two teams work together to improve upon an already awesome story, it's quite the sight to behold.