#atsushi ookubo | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

undeadimpulsereviews · 7 years ago

Text

Enen no Shouboutai/ Fire Brigade of Flames (Fire Force) Review

Some context; for this review I will be referring to the manga by it’s English name. I would like to go by the translated name of Fire Brigade of Flame, but Fire Force is shorter, and if I tried to shorten the former then I might start some confusion about whether I’m talking about the manga or one of the brigades. Also with me being in school, I’m starting to learn thing in my major and wish to try them here. The overall framework of the review will be a little different from the past. That’s not to say that I’ll be taking segments out and adding in new ones; though I will be spreading sections out more. When I make a point on something, instead of just continuing the long running paragraph; I’ll instead break the paragraph up into smaller ones. Other than that, you are all set to dive in.

Fight fire with fire; an expression used to this day by many. It’s meanings may vary depending on the person, but again it’s just an expression. Who ever heard of actually fighting fires with more fire? Though what if the fire was special? Maybe then it just might work.

Enen no Shouboutai, or Fire Force here in the states, is a shounen manga that goes a little more literal with the idea of fighting fire with fire. It’s the tale of one fire brigade of rookie fire fighters looking to uncover the inner workings of an ongoing epidemic. Fire Force began it’s run in September of 2015; it’s an ongoing manga with around ten volumes currently out in it’s place of origin. For us here there are only five volumes available physically, but you can read up to chapter eighty four online. Fire Force is currently being serialized in Shounen Weekly Magazine, and it’s the work of Ookubo Atsushi. You may know him as the man behind the famous manga series Soul Eater. Now for me I was a little skeptical going into the manga. Having knowledge of the mangaka’s work I wasn’t completely sold; what I mean by this is that I couldn’t get into Soul Eater. I don’t hate it, but it just didn’t really keep me invested when I tried it long ago. I was scared that Fire Force would provide the same feeling, but I wanted to give the manga it’s fair chance. I’m now currently caught up with the manga, and it definitely has kept me invested; however, the manga does get a little questionable at times. It’s good, but it’s not without some big flaws. Plus these flaws are in present in every part of this manga; it’s story, it’s characters, and it’s visual style all have moments I could do without. Though thru all this the manga stand strong for me; some of the problems are early in the manga and are remedied pretty early as well; while others are still constant issues that I wish were addressed. Yet I’m getting nowhere with all this, so let’s start from the beginning and see just was Fire Force has to offer.

Set in what seems to be present day; Japan, and possibly more of the world, has been struck with an epidemic. Cases of random human combustion are spreading like wildfire; it’s unknown as to why but no one is safe. Though the problem doesn’t end there; they aren’t just burning, but turning into demonic like entities that go on a rampage through the streets. Thus the Fire Brigades were formed; though these aren’t your average fire fighters. These men and women are trained for just this occasion, or were gifted abilities from the fire. The fire brigades are made up of three types of people; normal humans, second generation, and third generation. The humans are self explanatory, but the second and third gen are special. Second generation people can control the fires around them in a certain fashion; while third generation people have a sort of fire centered in their body that gives them extraordinary powers. Our hero, Shinra Kusakabe, is a third generation. It’s his first day on duty and he’s looking for answers. Though above all he wants to be a hero; a shining beacon to those afraid of the epidemic. Yet for reasons he’s seen as a demon, rather than a hero. Can Shinra pull through his ordeal and show the people he’s here to help, or will he forever be know as a demon?

After getting caught up with the manga, I have to say that I was pleased with a lot of what I read. The idea of the combustion epidemic was really interesting, and the uses of fire to form super powers was pretty cool. At times the explanation for how these certain abilities work seem a little far fetched; I’m no scientist, and I don’t know all the capabilities of fire. However, it’s clear that the mangaka is pushing the boundary of what is actually possible for these characters. For this I will sometimes give the manga a pass; the abilities thought up are pretty awesome regardless of the logic behind how they operate. Plus how is the mangaka going to create something, where one of the key ideas is fire, completely logical.

As the story stand, there has been some good progression. We’ve been introduced to many different brigades; possible allies and enemies, and have come to uncover the mystery at a decent pace. Yet there are some things, and some people, that the manga has yet to introduce. We’ve seen some of this in passing, but haven’t been fully introduced. For example, the image below features the eight commanding officers for each brigade. Brigade one being on the far right and each number continuing down the line. Out of these eight commanders, five of them have seen their stories come into play. The commanding officers for brigade two, four, and six have not been fully implemented into the story. The only one out of those three that has had some sort of moment was number 2, but it was small and held no big significance to the overall story.

What scares me about this is that the manga seems like it’s reaching an ending point. Our heroes are steadily approaching what seems to be the main antagonist. Though it’s not the fact of the missing cast that I have a problem with, but the idea of the manga continue with how it currently is. Given the current events, if the manga does not end here I think there is a chance that the manga could struggle in it’s future. The best way I can describe it is with an example that I feel is similar. The series Rurouni Kenshin had plenty of arcs with it’s fair share of villains; however, I think many will agree that Makoto Shishio was one of, if not, the biggest antagonists of the series. For me Makoto’s arc seemed like a good place to end the story, it wrapped up a lot really well; while at the same time delved deeper into Kenshin’s past. Yet the manga didn’t end there and instead continued to a new arc with new enemies. This new band of enemies didn’t reach the level of Makoto in my opinion which kind of put a damper on the tail end of the manga. I feel that this is what’s happening with Fire Force as well. The confrontation currently happening in the manga is bringing parts of Shinra’s story to a close and many of the questions that appeared at the beginning of the manga are being answered. So if they continue past this it might be hard for the mangaka to excel past this point. Though this is all speculation and hypothetical fear at the moment. As the story stand right now it’s good; though there are some flaws to the story as well.

The story was one of the strongest things about the manga; each part has it’s ups and downs, but the story I believed had the least flaws. Though they also have one of the bigger ones. In total there were only really two things about the story that got me. It’s dialogue, and it’s originality. The dialogue is a minor problem that has been remedied over the course of the manga; while the manga’s originality is the bigger issue. Starting with the dialogue; at first the manga is pretty normal with it’s speech patterns. Though around one fourth through they start to introduce characters that have an annoying way of speaking.

The character above is one of two people that speak in this manner. For some reason the mangaka thought it was a good idea to have certain characters repeat a certain word. I want to say this was done for a laugh, but instead it just comes off as annoying. It’s needless repetition that doesn’t add anything to the scenario or the characters involved. Yet this is only a small issue, and that’s because it’s not frequent. The repetition happened a lot at the beginning of the manga, but this idea was quickly remedied. After the conclusion of the arc this picture is from, repetition hasn’t been a problem. Though that doesn’t meed we’re in the clear.

Now as the manga stands I find it to be a pretty original story; sure it’s another super hero like tale, but the uses of fire as a means for power is what sets this story apart. Though this latest confrontation has started to see a hit in originality. The ideas aren’t terrible, but when reading the current scene I felt a little disconnected. As I was reading this manga there were times that took me out of the manga, but the story was never really the problem until now. This is because I’m a fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. While reading the last few chapters I come to realize that I’m no longer reading Fire Force, but instead a retelling of the final fight in Stardust Crusaders. The fight in Fire Force is almost the same idea as the one in Stardust. The villain has an unknown power, you find out the power is unmatched (and also both Dio and the Fire Force villain have the same ability), and then the main character also inherits a power like that of the villains. Not to mention that both Shinra and Jotaro use their power in exceedingly better ways than their respective villain. The only reasons that this isn’t a carbon copy scene is due to the idea of how the powers operate, and the relationship between Shinra and his opponent. Now I can’t say that Jojo did this scene first, but it’s what comes to mind. I understand the limits that the manga presents given the logical leaps that are taken to explain a power, but you can’t tell me these scenes aren’t overly similar. It takes away from the story, and I can’t stay immersed when I have a constant image of another series playing in my head while reading this. Though this is the only scene I can really say was lacking in originality.

The rest of the manga’s story is really well done, and I hope it follows that example as it moves forward. As I said before though, the story isn’t the only thing that needs some adjustments. The same can be said for the stories cast as well, or at least a couple of it’s members.

Fire Force has a very broad cast of characters; though as I said before a decent amount of the characters haven’t fully been introduced. The commanding officers from before aren’t the only people in the manga that haven’t seen their moment quite yet. Though for those who have, there has been a great amount of development done. Shinra is an amazing character main character; he’s misunderstood, but that’s not something that weighs him down.

Most of the time, Shinra is seen as a demon for the crazy smile he’s seen wearing sometimes. It tends to appear when events of disaster or misfortune are happening. A lot of people think that he gets a kick out of others in trouble; however, that’s not the case. It’ something Shinra has little control over; what seems like the workings of a mad man, is actually just a nervous reaction. Whenever Shinra is presented with a certain situation his mouth distorts to the face about due to being nothing more than nervous. Though instead of running away in fear, crying, or hiding from the problem; Shinra’s resolve is never shaken. Regardless of the scenario, no matter how futile his efforts may seem, he pushes forward with this big grin on his face. He has his cliche shounen hero moments, but at the same time there’s something about him that sets him apart from the others. There hasn’t been a moment where I’ve really disliked this character, and he’s not the only one. There are plenty of good and diverse characters throughout the manga. My all time favorites are the original officers in the 8th brigade.

The starting members of the Brigade give off a great first impression and they can be comedic when the time calls for it, and they don’t feel forced in their delivery (save for one joke that Maki repeats). My favorite would probably be Hinawa, but the one I think deserves the most recognition is Oubi. He is one of two people in the 8th squadron that can’t use an ability. He wasn’t born with the capability and so is just your average fire fighter. Though instead of sitting back behind the desk and giving orders, he’s always on the front lines fighting along side his team. He has special equipment to help him; though what really gets me is that each day he works his body for hours on end so he doesn’t fall behind.

Now as I said before there are some exceptions to this; not all of the cast is up to par. Just like the story there are two problems that need to be addressed; one of which is small and has seen so adjustments. Though there is one character that has no business being in this manga; they haven’t developed at all, and even though they are regarded as a main character, their sole purpose is for a joke that’s in poor taste. After Shinra, there are two other officers that join the 8th brigade. They both join for different reasons, but that’s beside the point. The first of the two is a character named Arthur

Arthur is a little bit of an oddball; he thinks that he is a knight, much like King Arthur. He was one of Shinra’s old classmates before they both joined the 8th. Arthur’s first impression is good; he comes off as a rival to Shinra, someone who might challenge our main character and help in his growth. Though as time goes on he goes from being an interesting character to a bad joke. For some reason the mangaka decided to make Arthur the stupid character, but his IQ is well below that of the average stupid character. Due to this there are scenes with Arthur that could be interesting or cool, but instead are given to Shinra because “Arthur was so stupid he got lost for weeks.” However, Arthur is the small problem in terms of the characters. In the recent chapters Arthur has trained and had his moment; he’s excelled and showed that he can be an enjoyable and interesting character. While I don’t think the stupid jokes will end, I do think Arthur will develop. It may be slow at first, but there is progress.

The big problem of the manga comes from one of it’s female characters; she started out in another brigade, but due to the events of a previous arc, she was placed in the 8th.

The character above is Tamaki; her ability is called Forked cat, or I believe it is, but we’ll get to that later. Tamaki starts in the 1st brigade, but later is transferred to the 8th. Upon her first reaction she isn’t given much; instead she has a slew of “unfortunate” occurrences . Three to be exact; her first scene is of her moving close to Shinra and Shinra’s hand somehow accidentally slipping into her bra. That followed by another occurrences with Arthur not a second later; and then another second later of her falling towards Shinra again and Shinra’s hands accidentally entering her pants. Already she’s not an interesting character; the only thing that caught my eye was her fire. It manifests on her in the shape of cat ears and a tail. What does the ability do? You got me; I’m caught up with the manga and I still have no clue what her ability is. Instead every scene involving her has been a random moment where she is unlucky. Though why is she unlucky? Well she has something called “Lucky Lewd Syndrome”. Apparently this is a common occurrence in the 1st brigade. Though in my eyes it’s a shameful, poorly done attempt at comedy. Once, maybe twice, would have been alright; however, this happens in every scene with her. The worst part is when she’s in her first “serious” fight. Instead of finally seeing her ability, she instead gets lucky and beats the guy with her “condition”. This is lazy; you give a character an ability and instead of fleshing it out you decide to utilize some terrible joke. You could take Tamaki out of the manga and it would be infinitely better. You’d lose nothing from her being gone; though it sucks, I really want to like Tamaki, but she’s become this boring character with nothing going for her.

Other than those two I can’t really complain about the characters; again, I’d like to see more from certain characters, but for now I’ll enjoy what I got. I can get past Arthur, but Tamaki may prove difficult. Plus with the story where it currently is, it’s hard to say where things will go. Now Ookubo has had some interesting visual style with his manga; the characters and their designs were pretty normal, but they stand apart from other shounen. What gets me about the visuals was never really the character design, but the world and things around our main cast. One example comes from his other work Soul Eater; The sun and moon in the soul eater series has always stood out in my mind when I see the visual style of Ookubo. Soul eater aside, you can definitely see the classic style of Ookubo present in this manga as well.

Upon when you first start Fire Force you are told of the epidemic currently taking effect. Immediately following this is a normal subway where people are living their normal everyday lives. Though a man on this train starts to show signs of burning, and before you know it he’s up in flames. Fast forward and the train has arrived at the station; the doors open up, and out comes one of the fabled flame humans.

The first one you see in the series is just a basic idea of the flame human, but as the story progresses you start to see more of them emerge and they get crazier. Horns growing from the head, charred bodies; some of them even show a more complete design to them. All of them however, have a certain suspense to them; it’s clear the danger they impose. They are a lot like zombies in a sense; they don’t have any really thought going thru their head and run more on impulse than anything. Though there are some who look and act more evolved than the basic ones. Fire Force really shines in it’s humanoid designs; the regular characters and the flame humans are all really well done, save for a few. I know I said before that the world is usually what Ookubo excels at, and I don’t go back on that; however, the world of Fire Force is pretty normal for what it’s selling.

Now there are a few characters that I feel are out of place, even with the style implemented. Here’s an example of one I feel fits really well, but at the same time is extremely apart from the rest of the cast.

This is Joker, right away he isn’t like the past characters we’ve seen. Yet he still is able to keep himself within the spectrum. His clothes and eyes are what set him apart in my opinion; though his facial features and overall stature is very similar to the rest of the cast. I feel Joker really work well in Ookubo’s style. Now the reason I show Joker is because there is another character that also is apart from the rest of the cast; however, this character feels more like something out of another manga, than something from Ookubo.

The character above is Jonah; he is one of the antagonist in the group Shinra is fighting. This serves as your introduction to the character in the manga, more or less. I don’t really know much about him; while he’s been appearing more in the manga his character hasn’t fully been fleshed out. Though these two frame in the manga came as a surprise to me because, throughout the entire manga the art has kept pretty current. Though Jonah appears and his face just keeps distorting. He feels so out of place in the manga; if the rest of the characters and designs were professionally made, Jonah would be a piece of fan art or art from the authors child. His facial features are drawn in a way that looks and feels weird. This is illustrated in the following frame when he proceeds to literally cut paper with his nose for no real reason. Though Jonah is the only problem I’ve had with the visuals so far. Other than him I can’t complain with what I’ve been given to look at. I really like Ookubo’s art style and look forward to see more of it.

Overall I give Enen no Shouboutai a 7 out of 10; it’s a good manga, but the flaws are to big to ignore. The reason it’s not lower is because Ookubo has worked hard at getting rid or working around some of my issues. Though that doesn’t fix everything, and the remaining issues are some of the worst. I really do like what I’ve read and plan to continue the series, but at the same time I’m scare where the manga may go. I recommend this, but at the same time I will say it’s not for everyone. There are a few groups of people that will not find this manga appealing.

That will do it for this week (last week) Later in the week I’ll release the next video game review, but until then have a good day and I’ll see ya soon.

#en en no shobotai #enen no shouboutai #fire force #fire brigade of flames #ookubo atsushi #atsushi ookubo #manga #weekly shounen magazine #shounen weekly magazine #shounen #action #super powers #sci-fi #shinra kusakabe #sho kusakabe #arthur boyle

13 notes · View notes