An utterly ordinary battle shonen about fire
Fire Force (En'en no Shōbōtai) is the anime adapted from the manga by Atsushi Ōkubo, already the author of Soul Eater: the first season, twenty-four episodes made by David Production, aired in Japan in 2019.
It is set in a Tokyo Empire where people can suddenly catch fire, turn into terrible creatures and attack anyone who ends up in front of them, and it tells the story of the Special Fire Force companies that face them. The main character is Shinra Kusakabe, a recruit of Company 8, who fights those threats using the flames he releases from his feet.
Since this anime comes from the same hand as Soul Eater, the art style is recognizable straight away. The plot, on the other hand, does not show its hand as quickly: at first sight it is the classic linear battle shonen, like Fairy Tail or Black Clover. As you go on, you realize that the story keeps up with the artwork, perhaps in an even crazier way — after all, Soul Eater too only brings out its own peculiar plot at the end.
These are the typical slow-burning productions, the ones that take all the time they need before letting you understand what is really going on. You have to wait at least two or three seasons to find out the truth and to sense that, in this world, nobody is entirely right: another deep tie with Soul Eater, where the personality of the characters is mirrored in how compatible their powers are.
I have always had a deep interest in anime because their length fits my free time: I can slot them into impossible hours, in the evening at 9 or 10 pm, without finding myself hurled past midnight. They are compact and, a few exceptions aside, Fire Force remains a perfectly ordinary series: after all, what I ask of a series like this is only a bit of carefree fun.