Hello everyone, and welcome to a (Very late) episode of Fire Hunter! Apologies for that, this was a busy weekend for me as I have to write another 5 page report. The joys of grad school. Still, the show must go on, and after this I have to write up a Wolf’s Rain post. So lets get right to it!
This episode I have a whole new nitpick for Fire Hunter’s visuals. Up until now I’ve largely harped on the animation and lack of detail, the sort of core issues that show up in every scene. This week though? This week I want to rage against the lighting. Because my god, it feels like some scenes were just… half finished. Just look at the buildings when Touko and co arrive in the capital for instance. Some of them stand brightly lit and beautiful, while their immediate next door neighbors look pitch black. Alternatively, look at when Akira the fire hunter collapsed from exhaustion in the house. She’s lit as if there isn’t a single light in the house, while her surroundings are bright. It feels like two different drawings with different understandings of the lighting forced into the same scene, with no work done to correct them.
Getting into the actual content of the episode, Touko finally makes it to the capital! Overall I found this to be rather uneventful, though it does setup a lot to come. They somehow dock in the harbor and come into town unbothered by the lightest of security, find their way to the Engineer’s house while he’s unconscious, and sneak a Spider Clan child into town as if they aren’t the current greatest threat in the show. Sure, some of these will no doubt come up in the future! I’m especially curious what will happen with Kun, who not only shouldn’t be here but is the sworn enemy of the Divine Clans. Will he get caught? Or will he enable the invasion that Fire Hunter keeps hinting will happen? Whatever the case, I’m very hopeful for Kun’s place in the story moving forward!
The only complaint I have about this section is how little their actions make sense. Not just Kun not being outted or anything, but Touko running away from the police. Why is she running? Did she not bring Kanata here specifically to return him to Koushi? Is that not only completely legal, but encouraged? Could they not help her return the dog and sickle? Like… what is she doing that she feels the need to run away? It doesn’t make any sense to me, as Touko is hardly a criminal. If Kun was with her I could understand it, she probably wants to keep him safe. But here she’s completely in the right and only running away because the story needs her to be lost in town. Disappointing to say the least.
Switching over to Koushi’s side of the episode, this was much more eventful. I still think its silly to take him into the forest to hunt Flame Fiends, but It’s certainly introducing plenty of new threads to the story that Fire Hunter couldn’t without doing so. Stuff like the Spider Clan who was captured, the differences between Roaming Hunters and Capital Hunters, how the Capital Hunters almost feel more like Secret Police then they do Fire Hunters, etc. Plus small Flame Fiends like squirrels. So cute! Additionally, it also gives Roroku the perfect opportunity to talk to him about Okibi where they can’t be overheard. So as silly as it is, its at least used well, so I can appreciate it.
Speaking of Okibi, I’m not entirely sure what Fire Hunter is doing here. Like… Roroku is asking what Okibi needs with a young scholar like Koushi. But we already know what he needs: A researcher for Skyfire to be prepared to defend themselves when the Spiders attack. Which we know at this point they are actually planning to do. It feels like Fire Hunter is trying to sow distrust for Okibi, but it’s doing so after Okibi has already provided answers to these questions rather than before. Sure, maybe he’s lying and it’s all a ruse to get Koushi working for him. But if that was the case, surely he could have found someone more qualified then a kid. Roroku’s suspicions are just falling on deaf ears for me, as he hasn’t asked any questions that I haven’t already or that haven’t already been answered. Not yet at least.
As for the Spider Clan member that was captured, he had some cool stuff. We see just how invulnerable these guys are, surviving losing his legs and being able to rip himself off of a tree after being crucified to it. His confidence as he tells them about the invasion plans, and how even knowing won’t save them as they have the Flame Fiends on their side, etc etc. There was even some cool visual stuff here as Koushi is soaked with his blood after his arms got ripped/cut off. I imagine this is very traumatic for Koushi, who only came out to learn about Flame Fiends and Skyfire after all. Hopefully as the Spiders attack Fire Hunter can give us a bit more of this and a bit less of getting lost in the city.
So yeah, all in all this was another rather lackluster episode of Fire Hunter. I continue to see bits and pieces of promise, moments that make me want to keep watching despite the fact that I know it won’t be able to live up to them. But like clockwork, Fire Hunter continually fails to capitalize on these things. Hopefully, against all odds, once Koushi and Touko’s storylines unit the series will start to be a bit less awkward. As is splitting every episode between the two just isn’t working, not only because of the story content but also the way they are split. There’s no artistry to switching between locations/characters, just a black name card and a jump cut. If done well it could work, sure. Plenty of examples of that out there. But Fire Hunter isn’t one of them.
Re: Touko running away from the policeman, my take on it is that, well, think about it: you’re a 10 year old little girl from a little village, finding yourself in a huge, bustling city the likes of which you’ve never experienced before, and suddenly a stranger wearing a strange outfit you’ve never seen before starts shouting at you, telling you to go with him, etc. I’d run like hell, too!