This week’s episode of Fire Force was a little odd for me. Maybe you read my review over on 100 Word Anime? I would be o.k. if you decided to go read it now…
In any case, I did enjoy the episode but I also didn’t find it as visually interesting as the show usually is. Not a decrease in quality simply a much more visually monotone experience. Except it wasn’t monotone at all. This is off to a rocky start…
Honestly it’s a bit disappointing because the opening tag was stunning. I remember those scenes looking up at the red sky from inside some sort of silo (centre left) had me audibly letting out hoots of appreciation. They were gorgeous, absolutely seamless CG, sharp, beautiful light effect. Really the screencap doesn’t do it justice in the least. And it segued into a series of heavily colour coded shots with some great composition.
I got my hopes was up in those first instants as far as production goes…
Don’t get me wrong, the flashback was really cute. But that’s about it.
I almost didn’t recognize sister in Shinra’s dream. It’s a good thing he called out to her or I would have been confused for the rest of the episode.
I do like that Arthur sleeps with his sword (well the hilt at least) Whenever we see him sleeping it’s in that same exact position and I’m enjoying the gag.
I’m sure I’ve made the face Shinra is making in that top row. I have to give it to Fire Force, we’re still at the beginning of the episode and it’s already manage to create three completely different types of warm scenes they don’t skimp out on the reds, oranges and yellows!
That last image is a fantastic composite group shot. You even just barely see a bit of Tamaki although she seems a bit too tall but they are standing on uneven ground. As much as I have drooled over the colours in this show, the compositions are fantastic as well. Once again using a door frame to create organic blocking and therefore re-dimension the image. It’s awesome!
From this point on though, the scenes start to really resemble one another. Sure there are cute screencaps to get because character design is nice but I just wasn’t as excited about the way the images were put together as I usually am.
Sure Vulcan’s goggles are funny and the fact that they reflect fire green gives a pop of contrast but.. well actually that is kinda nice. I also liked the shot of him and Obi with the shadows second to bottom left. I notice that Obi is often in these scenes where the focus is on his shadow…foreshadowing?… sorry
So is white hair a requirement for the Evangellist (I know not all of them have it but a lot do!). If so, is that why they kidnapped Sho. Nothing to do with any flames or anything, purely a stylistic choice? I like to think so.
No one actually called her a gorilla…
I love Maki and I love seeing her but that’s about all I have to say about this scene. Well that and looking at these screencaps now, it’s really a lot greener than I noticed at the time. Hmmm.
I should have known from how classical his design is that this was a red herring bad guy.
Also, I really should have mentioned this sooner but they really ran out of fire related power ideas early on cause now they just cram any potential super power possible and somehow make it fire based. It doesn’t bother me but I do find it pretty funny from time to time. This guy’s fire skill was torpedoes? Yay!
