Short Intro
Firefighters. Each of us has his own idea of this profession: for me, these are the people who are disciplined like the military men, but at the same time they do not take lives, but save them. These are the people who are fighting their war, and their enemy will never be defeated. However, this is hardly an excuse for these brave heroes to stop saving lives. Perhaps you even thought about becoming a firefighter in your childhood, huh? Be that as it may, the image of a fireman is often used in cinematography, alas, this topic, is not so often mentioned in the anime. Atsushi Ookubo, who is the creator of Soul Eater, decided to correct this unimaginable omission and made Enen no Shouboutai, an anime series about firefighters released by David Production, which presented the world JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken.
Anime Synopsis
The world we know is no more. A mysterious phenomenon stripped the humanity of the right to have a quiet life, with hopes and dreams. This plague is known as Spontaneous Human Combustion and turns people randomly into mindless creatures known as Infernals, which is the fate worse than death and causes one sufferings unimaginable. However, there are people that can control this cursed power and become pyrokinetics, who can manipulate the power of flame. To solve the mystery and cure the humanity, the Fire Defense Agency, Tokyo Army and The Holy Sol Temple form The Special Fire Force, also nicknamed Blue Stripes. Will the Special Fire Force solve the mystery and save the humanity from its new curse?
Closer Look at Plot
I started watching anime thanks to shounen series and for me it is an anime genre that I really care about. However, it is a no secret to anyone today that this genre is extremely overloaded with clichés and is also kind of a cursed genre, since in most cases, let us be honest, the new shounen series are barely watchable. This is understandable due to the fact that the target audience of this genre is often inexperienced and cannot give the correct analysis of what they are watching. Panem et circenses, said Juvenal. However, shounen is also the genre with the greatest potential among other genres, forgive me shounen haters. I mean, as I have already mentioned it, this genre is overloaded and, in order to give a viewer something new, anime studios decide to make something that will somehow stand out and be better than most of the shounen anime that are drowning in clichés. And very often, these studios decide to make very risky experiments. Sometimes they are successful, sometimes not - but their importance is difficult to overestimate. The source of the progress is the fact that the humanity is not afraid to experiment. Enen no Shouboutai is exactly that risky experiment.
So what is the difference between Enen no Shouboutai and your average shounen? In general, there are not so many differences, but you can still notice them, if you are an experienced viewer. To begin with, the story is not based on yet another ‘I want to become a hero and save lives, and it makes no difference to me what other people may think of my dream’, which most shounen series adhere to way too often. And, although the protagonist of this series is quite strong and can defeat most antiheroes alone, he still does not have the strength to defeat all the villains alone. Therefore, this anime also focuses on teamwork, which helps the protagonist reach new heights and he is not afraid to make mistakes, since the friends are always there. Another advantage of Enen no Shouboutai is the dynamism of the plot. In fact, the series consists of only twenty-four episodes, which seems insignificant in terms of most of the shounen series, but that is not true for this anime. There are no fillers, no useless episodes that make you waste your time - each and every episode in Enen no Shouboutai somehow develops characters and moves the storyline forward. Personally, looking back, I cannot recall any weak spots, or episodes when I would be bored and would like to skip any of the episodes.
Plot Criticism
I did not like the fact that the story touches upon the religion and does not give any reasonable explanations about it, which is mandatory for something as big as a religion. Think for a second, in this anime, there is a whole new religion that Atsushi Ookubo came up with. And this is very cool, since it is rarely possible to find something like that and here it has meaning and makes sense overall. But the main problem is that a lot of questions about this religion have not been addressed yet. My hope is that we will get more answers in the new season and I really hope that this topic will not be ignored. This is very important, because it will help the viewer build an idea of the world of Enen no Shouboutai even better. Overall, any reasonable criticism will only be possible after the second season. Praise The Sun!
Art
The graphic component of Enen no Shouboutai is perhaps the main advantage of this series. The art here looks very stylish - from the characters design and to their clothes, as well as the movement animation in all kinds of battles; the animation surely is an eye candy. The characters turned out to be truly memorable; attention has even been paid to various small details like teeth and elements of clothing and eyes. But the most important thign here is that action scenes look simply mind-blowing.
Music
The composer for the OST is Kenichiro Suehiro, who previously managed to make a worthy soundtrack for Re: Zero. In my opinion, he made this series even more epic than it is. Can you imagine a shounen with amazing action scenes, but with an average OST? Unthinkable! The soundtrack turned out to be diverse and elaborate - it has many of both lyrical and dynamic pieces. What is more, all opening scenes, as well as the endings are so epic, so you never want to skip them. The openings tend to be more aggressive, building up the adrenaline for the viewer, the endings, however, are more calming and give you a minute to reconsider what is happening and just to breathe, because some scenes are just so cool that you will have no time for that.
Characters
Enen no Shouboutai has many characters and they are all very interesting to follow; they are also very different from each other, but at the same time, they complement each other, which makes the characters of this anime very intriguing. I will not hide the fact that there are clichés. However, this almost did not stop me from enjoying this anime, I wanted to know more about the characters and I got what I wanted. But the most important thing in Enen no Shouboutai, for me personally, is that the main character is not a wimp, who receives power only in the 200-300th episode, which is very exhausting. This anime is very dynamic, as I said many times, that will not let you get bored even for a second. It is also necessary to note that the concept of super-powers in this series makes sense and the main character is not Gary Stu, but relies on the help of his friends, his team, to cope with all kind of difficulties.
Of course, there is also something to criticize firefighters for. All I want to say is the fact that the secondary characters did not receive enough attention, but this decision can also be understood, since this series has no time to show enough development for the supporting cast, since there are only 24 episodes.
Criticism
As I said, any criticism will be possible only after the second season, since today many questions have not been addressed yet. But for today, I can hardly criticize this anime for anything. Maybe only for the fan service with Tamaki, but I, as a fan of Ookubo Atsushi, forgive him for his little love for cat-girls; this secret his fans have learned since Soul Eater. And, for those who have not seen Soul Eater and do not understand the joke, no worries, there is hardly any fanservice for you to be annoyed at.
Overall
All in all, I regret that I have seen this masterpiece only now. Better late than never, right? Of course, I will say this for the 100th time, but I do not want to harshly criticize this series, since the second season has not aired yet. But we will see it this July, for today, the first season is a very unusual shounen that took this risk in order to be better than most of the shounen-series and it won the bet. I recommend Fire Force to all the fans of the shounen genre. If you, however, dislike the genre, save your time and do not try to watch it. For the fans of the genre, however, enjoy the watch, it is worth every second of your free time. Látom.
