Fire Force Episode 3 – Embers of Doubt – Gallery

Ok, this is one of the best gifs I’ve ever made. And can we appreciate how stylish Fire Force is. Those boxy overlarge darkened silhouettes with the glowing wide vertical stripes that just enhance that boxiness. Mirrored it that large shadowy rectangle buildig. Everything in a slight upwards angle narrowing at the top making the scene feel much taller than it is a single spot of highly contrasting washed out yellow to draw the eye and better define the outlines in one corner while the only movement comes from a streaking falling star in the other corner which looks much smaller than it is because of the perspective of the shot.

In that one image you get the sense of something serous and huge. A difficult obstacle that looms large above but a glimmer of hope well present. In other words, stylish af!

I also talked about the actual show and not just the pretty pictures over on Karandi’s blog. But here, we got some more picture talk ahead!

Let me guess, these guys are part of a shadowy organization! I appreciate the symbolism here but isn’t this a lab? How do you get any work done without light. Ad why does smiley here instantly look like a bad guy even without context? Is it the manic eyes?

I wonder what that HUGE floating heat is about. That heart is bigger that their entire torsos.

Aside from the brief flashback the opening scenes were quite optimistic. It feels sunny and fresh but that blue sky is a little darker than usual. Perhaps there’s a storm on the way?

One of the fun side effects of Fire Force’s premise, is the visual impact it has on fight scenes. As these are firefighters, naturally all the action is indoors, often in darkened broken down buildings. Combat often takes place in low light conditions. And since our main characters have powers that control fire they stand out clearly against the background. The animators have a built in excuse to put a marker on their character so that you can follow them no matter how fast they are going.

It’s a cliché used in almost all anime that have a super power component but I like how organic it is to the narrative in Fire Force.

I’m uncertain about our villain’s design or rather, I’m neutral. It’s actually a fairly good design it just doesn’t speak to me particularly in any way.

Here come the cavalry. Being a fire cat is very gimmicky and kind of silly. I’m not sure why they put that in. Well I have a pretty good idea but it looked pretty ridiculous.

Am I the only one who is delighted by Arthur’s high fringe pony. I love the practicality of it. Maybe it’s just because I do something similar when I work out. It adds a touch of whimsy to his design that is nevertheless perfectly rational.

In that first sky picture (1st column, 4th row), the clouds are arranged in an arch, as if filmed through a wide angle lens. It makes it look boundless and huge, adding a sense of depth to the image that isn’t there in the other scenes. This was when they first started falling and Shinra is desperate to save everyone. As they calm down and the scene gets lighter and funnier, the image flattens out.

The skies in Fire Force are really very cloudy, Considering that we found out this week that this is a post apocalyptic story, this may be indicative of the destruction in the rest of the world. In any case, it makes for real pretty sunsets!

Fire Force usually peppers a few imaginative perspective shots in every episode and so far, they have always been foreshadowing some pretty bad situations. This puddle reflection shot seems to be heralding some grim days ahead.

If you remember my gallery for episode 2 it was essentially stifling. Going from bright, to warm to blistering! Bright white light gave way to yellow which bled into orange that darkened to ochre with flashes of crimson and died down on a purply orange sunset.

This week was quite different. Starting out in shadows it gave us brief glimpses of a blue skied summer day but kept us mostly in stuffy dark rooms ending up on what could almost pass for a cool night. I know the colours were edited after the Kyoto Animation tragedy so that may actually explain the shift but I’ve decided it works and that it was deliberate.

The palette wasn’t exactly cold, this show still skews more to warm tones but it used slightly warmer blues and greys, the flashes of fire and sunset skewed more to red than yellow. It visually plays with the idea that Shinra is in the dark about may things as are we in the audience.

Well, that quite enough talk about pictures! I hope you enjoyed this gallery!