/anime/ - Anime

haven't read/seen a lot of fire force but soul eater is good. could see it being dismissed as a random "it's ok I guess" fighting shonen by people who've read/seen boatloads of historical stuff but I think there's some really good qualities. anime-original stuff does mess with the themes and story but nothing is stopping you from watching the anime & switching to the manga when it starts deviating, especially given Okubo's early art could be very wonky (esp the faces) and the Bones visuals are amazing. just keep in mind (iirc) the "kishin egg" concept is anime-only but it's not a huge thing. visually it's peak 2000s mallgoth aesthetic (not an insult, it's very charming if done well) and Okubo improves immensely throughout the run. thematically there's some great stuff about fighting with your flaws/mental illnesses/neuroses and finding the right person to "resonate" with - Black Star isn't just a "Naruto parody" but an interesting exploration of how the brains of characters like that & their real-world counterparts work and Tsubaki is a perfect partner for him. Maka as someone who takes everything very seriously & worries a lot fights WITH her fear & her partner is an encouraging dude who doesn't take everything very seriously. Death the Kid's obsessed with symmetry so his partners are twins with very different looks and personalities. his OCD at first felt like a lame running joke but the way it was incorporated into the themes of "balance vs harmony" and how past generations saw it as purely "balance vs chaos" was great. tezca & justin stuff was really good and again very observant of how people think.

now the elephant in the room re: okubo is fire force's "woke 8 year old owns feminist" scene and sure, it's far from flawless (switching from "accidental undressing" fanservice to self-sexualization on the spot to help his point, the very concept of "woke 8yo") but I don't really care because:

1. if you check the people who attack him for fanservice on japanese social media, they aren't the japanese equivalent of your sex positive leftist friends - they're loony #istandwithjkrowling types who actually do shame irl women for self-sexualizing. it's literally not a fabricated strawman if you know that crowd!

2. it's cool seeing a guy who's not a partisan right winger call out "fanservice is evil" stuff without going off an ideological deep end, instead keeping his personal outlook. it's great how his series are just full of kids of various ethnicities & cultures working together not as a moral imperative but as something that just felt natural to the author.