Fires exist everywhere in the world. In is inescapable. And of course to counter these hazards, humans created fire departments to respond. The interesting thing is, although fire departments are universal, each department does things slightly differently even within the same country. Being that much of Hollywood has depicted American fire departments, it is always unique to get a different perspective around the world. For Japan, the most recent manga and anime related to this topic is the fiction fantasy based Fire Force. This has some aspects that resemble these entities but not in a realistic way. Prior to this, a different manga and anime that came out went by this name. This although still fiction and of course made to entertain can be seen as much more realistic in what it depicts.
Written originally by Masahito Soda which this is likely his best known work, writes the story about Daigo Asahina (Wataru Takagi), a boy who was rescued one day in a fire by an unknown fireman. As he got older, he made it his mission to become a great fireman too, but with his own way of doing things. With this mentality though, Asahina-san will learn from his mistakes. The anime was adapted by Susumu Nishizawa and Akihiko Inari who had also worked on Cowboy Bebop. From the premise side, the story has the right idea. Like what could be said for other firemen around the world, sometimes it just takes one person to inspire a whole new generation of people to do the same. That is always a good way to start a story.
However, the execution of that story is where it loses its grip. While the idea behind the main character is a noble concept, the meat of the story seems to be lacking. Other than Asahina trying to be the best fire fighter he can be, there's not much else going on. There are two subplots going on. One regarding some of the actions Asahina has took in his career that causes some friction with his higher ups. The other is Asahina's relationship with an old teacher of his. Shizuka Ochiai (Kikuko Inoue) who seems to like she doesn't want Asahina being reckless in his work or to continue his firefighting career. This makes sense since there are real life situations where things like this can happen. However, the characters themselves are little bland. They just aren't the most charismatic or interesting to listen to.
The acting is good from the small cast that lends their voices. Wataru Takagi as Asahina is okay. One of his earliest roles was in The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor and one of his main roles he has played throughout the years is Genta Kojima from Detective Conan. Kikuko Inoue as Asahina's teacher does good too. She has held many roles in her time throughout all kinds of franchises. Even Unshô Ishizuka the narrator from Pokémon has a role here. It's interesting when you get to hear actors from more recurring roles in less prevalent ones. The cast itself is actually quite small considering this is a feature film. Being that this is a more realistic firefighting film, the scenes depicted look to be on the believable side. The animation is okay for this feature but not great.
Normally anime's from the 1990s or 2000s have a certain look to them that's very nostalgic. This film though doesn't quite seem to hit that area despite coming from this era. Unfortunately, the imdb page for this does not list the lead animator so finding who deserves credit is a little difficult. The music sounds decent for the production though. Composed by Shiro Hamaguchi, there's a march theme heard through the film which alludes to the whole paramilitary aspect of the fire industry. The music also helps give the main character a more heroic sound behind him too. Shiro Hamaguchi has composed other music as well, most notable for the One Piece anime. Lastly there was a Japanese exclusive album with 40 minutes of sound to hear. As far as what's available, it seems hard to find and hear.
While the music, acting and premise are solid, the story fizzles out pretty early, especially with the plot being light on characters and conflict. The animation is also rather underwhelming.
