Enen no Shouboutai episode 1 [First Impressions]

Shadow’s Impression:

This anime is FIRE! Both literally and figuratively. It just screams epic action and boy am I loving the animation so far. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this series. But just judging from the PV it looked pretty cool. Not to mention it’s made by the same person who created Soul Eater, which was also a fun ride… even if both the anime and manga endings were a bit lackluster. BUT WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT SOUL EATER RIGHT NOW.

We dive right into the world with people randomly combusting into flames and a team called Fire Force, apparently composed of people with special abilities to combat the Infernals and to save the souls of the people. Why this happens is still a mystery which is probably going to be one of the driving forces of this series. Already there are a lot of mysteries. The Infernals being the main mystery but I also wonder how common the pyrokinesis abilities are since it seems like most of the people on the team have powers while a bunch of people from Shinra’s past thought of him as a “devil” because of his ability. Though I guess it had to do with the generation? Hopefully they’ll explain the generations more as the 3rd generation is the first group to be able to shoot out flames.

There’s also the mystery of what that thing that supposedly killed his mom and brother was. Was it just an Infernal or was it something more? Hopefully there will be more world building as the series progresses and the answers will slowly be revealed. But man it must SUCK to live in this world. To have your loved one just up and combust into flames one day. I felt so bad for the husband in the episode.

I immediately got a mixture of Blue Exorcist and Soul Eater vibes from this series. Though it’s obvious why I felt Soul Eater, but Shinra looks like a mixture of Rin and Soul from the two series.

So far I appreciate Shinra as a main character. Just judging him appearance-wise, I thought he’d be a loose canon type of character like Bakugou (though probably not as extreme) wearing a manic smile. And we find out almost immediately that he’s actually a lot more calm and diligent (if not also a little naive) than I expected. I’m also glad that he isn’t a hotheaded protagonist. There are enough of those lol. We also find out that his manic smiles are out of a nervous habit when he gets tense. It’s actually really sad to see how many misunderstandings come up from the large grin he takes when he tenses up or when he’s in a stressful situation. It was also really telling off the bat when Shinra immediately dismisses Obi’s comment of his habit of being “adorable” to “disgusting.” Which is really sad. Not to mention he hasn’t genuinely smiled for years.

At first he screamed “shounen protagonist” to me since he says the typical line of wanting to be a hero. Like I haven’t heard that phrase before… However, it definitely stems from a place that is genuine. A promise he made to his deceased mother. And man was he an adorable kid. It was even more adorable to see that his mom also had a sharp toothed grin. I’m glad that he’s able to find such a strong support in this group so far. A place where he won’t be judged because of his nervous quirk and ability. I was also really glad that Shinra was able to experience someone’s gratitude for his efforts for the first time. It was definitely something he needed after what he’s been through. And that adorable genuine smile at the end, that just hit the nail on the head for me on his character.

I’m already really liking the character dynamics. Seeing them bounce off each other was really fun to watch, especially between Sister and Maki. I didn’t expect them to act the way that they did since they both seemed to fall into a character category just by looks. But I’m glad that they seem to be taking on character traits that will make them more interesting as characters rather than a checklist of archetypes. I also like how much of a big brother Obi seems to act towards everyone while also posing as the respectable leader during missions. I just wish that the episode focused a little more on building up Shinra’s integration into the group rather than him fitting in almost immediately. I felt like there was too big of an emotional bonding moment too soon into the series. But maybe there will be more hard hitting ones later.

But holy crap was the animation gorgeous! Ignoring the awkward cg fire, but I’ll give it a pass since there is A LOT of fire to animate. And if it means having awesome shot compositions, cinematography and great animation, I’ll take it. But man, I just love the shots of Shinra flying around and the camera panning around him. Those type of shots are HARD to animate so I’m sure they used some cg to help animate that and boy did they do it amazingly. David Productions seem to be pretty good with their animation and so far they’re hitting it out of the park. Not to mention they’re doing really well with their visual storytelling. I absolutely loved the transition of him pretending to be a hero with that cape and him in the present. I hope they can keep doing stuff like this for future episodes.

I’m honestly really hyped to continue watching this series. See where the plot, characters and world building all go. The first episode has me hooked and I look forward to see where the show goes from here.

On a completely different note, the guy with glasses has the same voice as Masato from Uta no Prince-sama and uses the exact same tone… I got all kinds of nostalgia dokies just hearing him speak. Oh no…

Possibility of watching: Guaranteed

Possibility of blogging: High