After finishing Soul Eater, I didn't hear anything about the mangaka Atsushi Okubo for a long time - until the anime for his new work Fire Force was announced. The premise sounded pretty interesting.
Because in the world of Fire Force, a mysterious phenomenon occurs that suddenly and unpredictably causes people to burst into flames and turn them into so-called "Infernals". In order to contain this threat to humanity, the special unit “Fire Force” is founded to fight and eliminate precisely these wild beasts. Sounds exciting and is something more unusual compared to the other genre representatives, isn't it?
Looking at the anime and reading the manga, I suspected that this new series by Atsushi Okubo could be one of the coolest shonen. Unfortunately, there is one crucial catch –Tamaki Kotatsu's constant fan service at incredibly inappropriate moments completely turned me off from the series!
Tamaki Kotatsu's "Lucky Leecher Lure" is very unpleasant to watch
I would like to start by saying that in principle I have nothing wrong with fan service like this in anime and it has never particularly bothered me in other series. With Fire it's something different. Because the actual solid plot and the interesting characters clearly fade into the background due to the number of suggestive scenes and jokes about a particular character.
This character is Tamaki Kotatsu, a member of the Fire Force and a strong fighter who plays a not insignificant supporting role in the series. Unfortunately, the mangaka gave her a trope that doesn't fit particularly well with the serious mood of the entire series: the "Lucky Leecher Lure" syndrome.
Due to this syndrome, Tamaki, who already seems a bit scatterbrained, becomes the target of numerous perverted jokes. In one scene, Shinra, another character from Fire Force, actually just wants to make a hand gesture forward, but Tamaki's shakiness causes her to go under her bra.
Such situations and moments are not uncommon and seem to be closely linked to the character. There are also scenes in which Tamaki completely takes off her clothes because they are too loose or in which her Shinra reaches straight down her pants and on her ass.
This would perhaps be bearable if there were only a few scenes like this. But in Fire Force they appear so often that it made me feel very uncomfortable watching the series. It's a shame, because the fights and story in the series actually had so much potential...
The arc with Rekka Hoshimiya in the first season in particular shows how good Fire Force could be even without those suggestive moments from Tamaki. Rekka is Tamaki's role model in the Fire Force, which is why his betrayal towards her runs even deeper. He would have killed her in a fight if it wasn't for Shinra.
Unfortunately, the actually epic fight between Rekka and Shinra is ruined for me by intermittent and unnecessarily perverse jokes and moments. In one moment, Shinra dodges a powerful fire attack from Rekka, almost burning Tamaki's clothes to shreds.
This ends with Tamaki almost completely naked and Shinra thrown at her in battle. He lands right on top of her and another awkward moment follows.
I think these "Lucky Leecher Lure" scenes ruin the otherwise pretty cool plot of the series. And I'm not alone with this opinion.
Many other anime fans and viewers of the series have already commented on this on social media such as X (formerly Twitter) or Reddit at the start of the first season.
Just like me, others have also decided to cancel the anime because Tamari's character is destroying the series for them - although she can't even do anything about it, only the "Lucky Leech Lure" syndrome attributed to her!
At its core, Fire Force is a solid shonen anime with an unusual approach. Anime fans are welcome to give it a chance - but only if they don't mind the unnecessary, regular and sometimes completely exaggerated fan service of a character!
Have you watched Fire Force and how do you like the anime series so far?
