#neneto fire punch

[valkavavaart]

more fire punch. chesecak.

[sioboi]

fire punch

[marleyanish]

Togata becomes Fire Punch.

[zenaiide]

"Fire Punch" by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Ch 64)

[planecrashjesus]

Oof

[vegasvagus]

Damn....Fujimoto fucking up my boy Agni.....he literally wants to die but everyone else wants him to live

[mightyhydrator]

Necroing because both Sun and Togata view Agni as men -- Sun first sees Agni in his rageful aspect, directed at Sun's captors. He idealizes sees his strength and endurance, as he himself is deprived. He can't let himself think less of Agni because that means there is ultimately no salvation for him. As he grows up, he becomes what he idealized about Agni -- a powerful man who casts divine punishment on evil.

Togata first sees Agni as a subject in a recording. As he says to himself when he dies, he idealized movie protagonists who saved people, i.e. showed strength and willingness to use it, and thus he experienced masculinity through them (much like what Sun does, actually). When he made Agni the "main character of this world", he made him the ideal man, and he takes great pains to make sure that's how he comes off. His distaste of Agni's nudity and his penis is a reaction to seeing his incredibly masculine body, something he can't have for himself. It's something that makes it harder for him to imagine himself in Agni's place. Togata doesn't idealize Agni, he personally knows just how pathetic he is, but he wants to create an Agni he finds ideal.

Neneto, on the other hand, is a woman. Like you said, she distrusts men because of the power they have over her. However, she first sees Agni in a position not of strength, like her would-be rapists from mere hours earlier, but in a position of weakness -- talking about his past, trying to convince himself his sister is still alive and is this unrelated and cruel woman, splashing around with Togata, impotent and dumb. This somewhat equalizes her relationship to him -- even though he is a pillar of strength, a person that can only destroy, her foundation for him is his lack of strength.

She also sees him first as the subject of Togata's movie that she is filming. As the camera operator, she has no agency -- the protagonist and antagonist (men) have agency within the story, the director (a man) has agency over the story, but she (a woman), beyond the fourth wall, has none. She holds no power over Agni, but her role means that Agni likewise has no power over her, as he is reduced to a mere character. And because she was made into an observer, neither subject nor object, she has no stake in what Agni should be. Therefore, she is allowed to see Agni as he is. She is allowed to see the weakness of his blazing touch, the weakness of his image, the fragility of his psyche.

This also puts her into a unique position among the female characters of the series -- Judah/Luna isn't allowed to see him for what he is, because he, as the brother, caretaker, the man, doesn't let her, and her sisterly perspective limits what she sees through the lens of Agni's perpetuity (like when she convinces him to live with her for another day).

Tena, Lean, Ranu are likewise characters and are likewise his sisters, but with the added baggage of being the victims of Fire Punch. Tena sees his masculinity and strength as an asset, something Agni can use to kill Fire Punch, as she always reminds him he has to do, since she herself is deprived. Until the contradiction of her life is removed, her guard is up and she puts a distance between herself and Agni. Paradoxically, that distance can't be traversed, as he neither allows himself to stop being Fire Punch, let go of the guilt, nor to succumb to it and die, and dying means that Tena can't let him in anymore.

Unfortunately I don't have an ending for this post, but yes, Neneto's role as the camerawoman is what allows her to see Agni for what he is, and that is a sad, tortured man that deserves pity (before Sulya) and a sober look (when she abducts Judah).

back to rereading fire punch. i find it interesting that of all people, neneto seems to have the most down to earth view of agni--partially bc she's put in the same situations he is, and as togata's camera man sees his every moment of weakness and mindbreak. she doesn't necessarily LIKE him and i think that also comes down to how she's been treated by men (though again that's a thing i wish fujimoto had explored a lot more) but she has a far more realistic and pitying view than others ever do, including sun and even togata, who purposefully frames agni as the Hero. i guess it fits with the fact that by the end she's the one who has to care for a newly reincarnated agni.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Another challenge manga knocked out! This one was interesting. I feel like it's very easy to see this as something of a progenitor for Chainsaw Man, right - the specifics are wayyyyyyy different but certainly this idea of a tragic main character worshipped as a hero-god is something that's consistent across both, plus a couple of character designs, more vaguely the usage of cinema, just the general way Fujimoto writes dialogue, stuff like that. Although there's a degree to which Fire Punch feels much less sanitised than Chainsaw Man is, if that's the word I'm looking for? Not to imply that Chainsaw Man is family friendly or anything, but it takes Fire Punch all of like, 3 pages to get to amputation, like 10 pages to get to incest, don't know how many pages to get to rape, and bestiality shows up within the first like 4 chapters or something. Chainsaw Man is a lot more reeled in by comparison, and honestly I think it's for the better. Fire Punch doesn't feel reliant on shock factor or anything but it is definitely a little much.

Outside of comparisons to Chainsaw Man though I think Fire Punch is solidly fun. Nice tragedy with a main character you never quite know how much to root for if at all, lots of really good dialogue, it's pretty funny quite often, and I think its biggest strength to me was the religion formed around and reverence for Agni himself. I'm not deeply acquainted with any religious history in particular but given the circumstances present in this manga I think the way Agniism as a religion comes to be feels surprisingly believable, and the way Agni struggles with his own identity as a consequence of it is really interesting. Action scenes are kind of hard to follow with everything being on fire in a black and white manga though. I kind of think the action is overplayed even - I understand the need for violence in this setting but pages upon pages in a row of characters fighting felt oddly unnecessary - given that it was never super readable and the dialogue and general plot beats were where I found this manga to be strongest I wouldn't have minded if they trimmed some of the action fat, you know?

But yeah no, I had a nice time reading this. If it should ever be adapted to anime for any reason I think the best possible direction is to only show things that Togata and Neneto were recording lol. Give us their movie. It wouldn't be a complete adaptation at all but honestly it'd be so based that you'd have to respect it.

[quino7]

So apparently the fire punch wiki has Agni’s timeskip for age be a different one from the other timeskips. Like they call the post Doma at the beginning timeskip for him. But the actual timeskip for San and Neneto is just (end of series) for Agni

[imnosupaman]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[syeri]

like/reblog

[02kt]

panels i love part 666

[star-fiend]

Fire Punch chapter 23

[planecrashjesus]

Rare Fujimoto character who dies in old age absolute queen

[alteredphoenix]

Fire Punch is the biggest rollercoaster I’ve read and had the means of experiencing since watching Revolutionary Girl Utena blind several years ago and I don’t think it’s a story I want to read again because it’s so unrelentingly tragic and bleak right from the first chapter that during the whole thing I kept thinking to myself It’s not going to let up, is it? and, from start to finish, it didn’t.

I think I can see now why Fujimoto-sensei has become so highly regarded.