Welcome back to Beni town! After a two week break, Fire Force has awkwardly picked back up with its penultimate episode (for the first cour). Missed Shinra and the gang? Unfortunately, there’s some Catgirl this week, but aside from that, we have another solid effort all around. Let’s get into it!
I really love this Asakusa. I think the throwback, Edo-period-Japanese-warlord-run region is just what the doctor ordered for the Fire Force world. While I also adore the steampunk setting, switching it up lets the show flex with the integration of fire in new and unique ways. I know everyone’s tired to death of the Soul Eater comparisons, but I felt like Soul Eater’s settings were strong (although not as varied as Fire Force has been).
By the way, I cannot remember the term for what the two twin girls are (Zwakashi something or other? The twin household Japanese gods or something), but they’re great side characters – if anyone knows, please help me out!
I’ve noticed that Fire Force episodes are also split into scenes more so than other shows – like most of the other episodes, 12 really has two main stories here. Half one is unremarkable winning hearts and minds (and I am going to wallop whoever keeps putting cat girl in these episodes – she serves absolutely no purpose). The second half gets interesting – nicely done frame job by the KKK looking fellows.
We had a good fight scene, but there’s that awkward choreography again: Shinra landing and disrupting the entire flow of the fight – is this an editing problem? Did they just not know how to get him into the scene? I don’t get it.
Also – some troupes in Fire Force fall flat, but this week’s Princess plus Priestess moment was on POINT! The “Latom” had me rolling here.
As we head into our special programming delayed finale, Fire Force has a lot of unanswered questions – one that’s answered is what kind of show we’re in for. Cat girl notwithstanding, Fire Force may have some awkward choreography, but the characters have heart, the scenery is pretty, and there’s nice pyrotechnics. We’re all cheering for Shinra (and Maki, amiright?!), cringing at Arthur, and feeling generally pleased at the Captain and Lieutenant. I see no reason to stray from that formula as we finish up this first outing and roar into season 2!
Except Catgirl. Please remove her.
Leave catgirl alone! She is more than just fanservice or dud you forget the episide where she was fucking beaten by her corrupted superior?!
I’ll give you that – she was good there. But the amount of nonsensical fanservice since then has eroded all the goodwill I had towards her from that episode.
A character’s traumatic experience doesn’t necessarily increase their value as a narrative instrument.
Zashiki-warashi Is the name of the supernatural twin girls. Learned it from Hōzuki no Reitetsu 🙂
Brilliant, thank you! I love that show – just couldn’t think of where I had seen the twins.
Look blame the fucking writer and sad perverts teens who like fan service. From what I have seen, she gets better in the manga. She was always a,good character, if you just ignore the perverts parts. You people are too sensitive. At least she looks femine, unlike Captain Marvel and she hulk.
You’re actually right, she gets better in the manga for sure, and yea looking at the femine perspectives, that’s a point lol.
I’ve no problem with her character (I actually like her design minus the ears…her pants are pretty stylish tbh) – you’re right, I blame the writers for throwing in the unnecessary gags. If she does end up getting better, then I think this show will start heading higher on the tier list.
And hey, I’m all for fanservice, but it shouldn’t be quite as heavy handed. Look at Black Lagoon (or even this season’s NGL) – that’s fluid fanservice. Fire Force is just kind of forcing it in, which is what I object to – if the fanservice has even the slightest plausible excuse, then perfect.
Take this latest episode for example – where she gets thrown against the tree: good fanservice. Where she randomly loses her top helping repair: bad fanservice.
And bruh, I’m on team she-hulk all day, every day. And you forgot psycho princess!
The reason why many shonen anime have fan service is quite simply that it works. As crass as it may be, young males are simply hardwired to like young shapely females, and if they happen to have a cute personality and are prone to showing more skin than normally acceptable that is a bonus.
For anime studios to survive they need a lot of viewers and a loyal fan base that will buy the BD when it gets released. Fan service can be the difference between commercial success and failure. As for what happens when you remove fan service Marvel comics is a good example. The last decade Marvel comics have tried to cater to a more diverse audience and have tried to make their comic more targeted towards females. The most notable changes was turning Thor and Iron man into female characters and having the characters and storylines support a more PC agenda. The net result was that many of the traditional male comic buyers felt alienated and stopped buying, but the targeted female demographic did not buy anywhere close to enough comics to compensate for the lost male buyers resulting in steadily falling sales that are now at an all time low. Where it not for Marvel films Marvel would now have been bankrupt.
TLDR: Fanservice may be a necessary “evil” for anime studios to not go bankrupt.