The clip I've posted is the opener for the first half of Fire Force's season 1, which I thougth was a great opener which combined splendid animation and music.
"Fire Force" was made by David Production Inc., an animation studio that is also famous for the "Jojo's Bizzare Adventures" series.
I saw Fire Force on a lot of top ten new gen anime lists and was immediately curious when I learned that the show wasn't about a team or regular Japanese firefighters but about post-apocalyptic Japanese firefighters with heat-based abilities in a world where Japanese citizens have begun either bursting into flames and dying, or bursting into flames and becoming fire demons.
If anyone is familiar with Nickeledeon's "Last Airbender" or "Legend of Korra" series, Fire Force is basically a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where good Firebenders fight bad Firebenders, while regularly ending the suffering of citizens who spontaneously combust into flames and sometimes turn into fire demons.
I usually judge anime on these criteria: animation, story, characters, voice acting, opener/closer, music, and its balance or imbalance of drama versus comedy.
Fire Force's animation is pretty awesome, especially the fire-based fight scenes. While it times it can be a bit cartoonish, the show doesn't shy away from blood and violence either.
I was definitely interested in the mystery behind spontaneous human conbustion, fire demons, and why the world of Fire Fore was post-apocalyptic.
I didn't really care about the dynamics between characters but I did have a favorite--Shinmon Benimaru. He felt like a cross between Itachi and Might Guy from Naruto, and he was my favorite character in Fire Force because of the festive way he dealt with spontaneously-combusted humans, turning the event of ending their suffering into a massive party for his neighbhorhood instead of the depressing ritual it is elsewhere in the Fire Force world.
I've only watched the English dub version of Fire Force but I had no issue with the voice acting. Not great, but not bad either.
Fire Force's openers are pretty amazing, especially the soundtracks too which really hinted at the action-capabilities of the show. Just really cool stylish animation.
The drama in the show arrives in short bursts of character expostion that seemingly vanishes in the story as quickly as it came, which never lead to any strong emotional responses from me.
The comedy on the show is mostly slapstick which was often a miss but landed a few rare times. There's a lot of fan service in the show which felt a bit gratuitous at times. I have no qualms against romance or sexuality but if it's not integral to the plot or character development it just feels like an insecure attempt to hold onto the viewer's attention.
I think Fire Force has a cool unique twist on a definitely-tested concept and it felt like a foray into a new subgenre that I feel will replicated and improved on in the future.
I think another standout feature of the show which I definitely need to point out is-- while the show had very badass visuals and music, there was something very addictive about the show's overall sound effects especially during the fight scenes. They did an awesome job there.
Fantastic animation and fight scenes, great opening sequences, not the most consistently heart-touching drama and characters but I was such a big fan of the music so I'll give this show a 7 out of 10.
▶️ 3Speak
