Anime Review: Fire Force Episode 1

Fire Force Episode 1

Studio: David Production

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation

Based on the manga of the same name by Atsushi Okubo (creator of Soul Eater) and produced by David Production (most known for their adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure), Fire Force was one of the most anticipated new anime this season. Being a huge fan of both David Production and (most of) Soul Eater myself, I was especially excited for this series to air. 

In a Tokyo where humans spontaneously combust into fiery demons known as Infernals, there exists special units dedicated to fighting these monsters known as the Special Fire Force. Shinra Kusakabe, the newest recruit to Fire Force Company 8, possesses Infernal powers of his own as well as a tendency to smile devilishly when nervous.

I gotta say, this first episode was just about everything I like in an action anime. The cast, while not explored too much so far, seems fun and I particularly like our main character and the Company 8 Captain Akitaru Obi. The story’s premise is interesting enough, and it leaves a lot of possibilities for future events. I myself have read a bit of the manga so I have an idea of some things we’ll be seeing soon, but so far the anime has done a great job of translating the manga pages to dynamic animation. 

And that brings me to the highlight of the episode: the production. David Production has, in my opinion, consistently put out great adaptations of manga series, and here they continue this trend by putting out an incredibly beautiful episode. From the backdrops to the characters, the animation is gorgeous to look at and really brings the world to life with bright colors and clean movement. Even the little bit of CGI in the episode is incredibly unobtrusive and as someone who is usually very put off by CGI in anime, I had no problems with it here. The action scenes especially were spectacularly animated, and the score accompanied every scene perfectly by enhancing mood without drawing too much attention to itself. 

There really are no negatives to this first episode for me. The cast hasn’t been fleshed out enough for me to really make a judgment as to whether or not I like most of them, but there’s enough intrigue surrounding Kusakabe’s character to put me in his corner and want to see him succeed. 

Fire Force Episode 1 is a great start to the series. Hoping that the show can keep up this consistency over the course of the season but for now a definite must-watch.