Fire Force

Fire Force is a Japanese television anime adapted from Atsushi Ohkubo’s manga Enen no Shouboutai. The story takes place in a Tokyo Empire where people can suddenly become “Infernals,” living beings consumed by flame who endanger civilians. To confront the phenomenon, specialized Fire Force companies combine firefighting, rescue work, religious rites, and combat. Their members include pyrokinetics: people able to generate or control fire without turning into Infernals themselves.

The central character, Shinra Kusakabe, is a third-generation pyrokinetic whose feet ignite, giving him extraordinary mobility and powerful kicks. He enters Special Fire Force Company 8, determined to become a hero and to uncover the truth behind the fire that killed his mother and younger brother, Sho, twelve years earlier. Because he smiles involuntarily under pressure, Shinra has been called a devil, an image that conflicts with his wish to save people.

Company 8 is led by Captain Akitaru Obi, a non-pyrokinetic who relies on physical training and equipment, and Lieutenant Takehisa Hinawa, whose firearms can manipulate bullet trajectories through combustion. Its other prominent members include Sister Iris, Arthur Boyle, Maki Oze, and later engineer Vulcan Joseph. Arthur, Shinra’s self-styled knightly rival, fights with a plasma blade. Maki, formerly a Tokyo Army soldier, can shape flames and creates small fire spirits called Sputter and Flare.

What begins as a series of Infernal incidents develops into an investigation of the Holy Sol Temple, the Haijima Industries corporation, and the White-Clad organization. The White-Clad serve the Evangelist and seek people with an Adolla Burst, a rare flame connected to Adolla, another realm. Shinra’s encounters with Sho reveal that his presumed-dead brother survived and became a White-Clad commander. The series also connects its disasters to the Great Cataclysm, a world-changing event that occurred 250 years before the main story.

David Production produced the anime. Its first television season ran for 24 episodes in 2019, and its second, Fire Force: Season 2, also ran for 24 episodes in 2020. Yuki Yase directed the first season, while Tatsuma Minamikawa directed the second. Kenichiro Suehiro composed the score. The opening themes included Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Inferno” and KANA-BOON’s “Torch of Liberty,” while the first season’s ending was Keina Suda’s “veil.” The program’s visual identity combines emergency uniforms, cathedral-like imagery, and exaggerated action, but its narrative repeatedly returns to bereavement, institutional secrecy, and Shinra’s effort to rescue rather than merely destroy those transformed by fire. That remains central.