Welcome, all, again. This will be a short review, because I’m rather frightened of what I might write should I write too long a time. My promise has been and remains to review what I like, and I like Fire Force–really, I do! But it continues to pile disappointment upon disappointment.

First, why do I like it? The artwork is (still) original and vibrant; the world-building, finely nuanced and convincing. The plight of the Infernals remains mysterious and compelling. And our brave fire soldiers of Company 8 are an inspiration in their devotion. More somberly, I greatly respect the decision to delay airing episode 3–which storyline depicts an arson attack–in light of the KyoAni tragedy. It was the right thing to do, and I commend those who made that decision.

Moreover, episode 3 started off well enough, derailing my “Beavis and Butt-head” prediction by introducing a third rookie, Tamaki. But then things just fell apart for me. (Now, before I go any further, let me reiterate from my last post that anime is a visual medium–viewers need to see important occurrences in order to stay up to speed with the story. By that same token, what we see is the story.) As for explaining my dismay, please remember that I have both daughters and granddaughters. . .so, here goes: Shinra twice gropes Tamaki almost immediately upon meeting her, first by reaching underneath her brassiere to cup her left breast in his bare hand, then reaching both hands beneath her pants to grab her buttocks (nor does her outfit suggest much in the way of pantsu). But this isn’t even the worst part–that she immediately blames herself for these violations upon her person, saying something about a “lucky lecher” situation she believes herself to trigger. Let me be blunt: sexual assault is NOT the fault of the victim! Blame lies with the assailant, NOT the victim. Period. That Tamaki’s superpower turns out to be farting fire from her posterior only adds insult to injury.

Yes, the episode’s storyline progressed from this incident and actually became pretty interesting. But, so what? That does nothing to change the fact that viewers just watched a girl get sexually assaulted and then blame herself. And her assailant suffered no consequences for his violation of her person, neither legal (for the assault, itself) nor disciplinary (since he attacked a colleague at work). I’m not usually one to moralize overmuch (I hope!), but what message is this episode sending to viewers, especially younger female viewers? Do you really think I want my grandchildren watching this kind of cr_p?! Hell, it gave me the willies. Now, I realize that this scene pretty much reads straight from the manga–I looked it up to verify. But that just lends additional credence to my argument (from my review of episode 2) that not everything from the source material needs to find its way into the anime version of a tale. In fact, I’ll even risk my credibility as a writer for the sake of a little honesty, here: not all censorship is bad. There, I said it! Our younger viewers in particular did not need to witness Shinra’s assault and Tamaki’s humiliation, nor did they need to parse through the confusing (and patently false) message that victims are to blame for their victimization. I think such material and messages highly offensive! (Hey, if you want hentai, they sell the stuff. . .)

OK, I’ve ranted longer than I intended, and I apologize. But this situation and others already mentioned previously continue to cheapen what could otherwise be a much better show.

[Author’s Note: In fairness to this series, I have been advised by several folks (such as Phelyppy, below) familiar with the source material (manga) that Tamaki’s ending up literally “in the hands” of nearby guys is legitimately a running gag in the story. I remind my readers that I am normally quite ignorant of source material for the anime I watch, and that is very much the case here. I looked up one scene–Shinra’s groping of Tamaki’s breast–just to verify the occurrence. That said, for those like me whose only exposure to this story is via the anime series, we had no way of interpreting this situation in relation to an implied gag. What I saw was sexual assault, plain and simple. And while Tamaki said something about this being a regular occurrence, her demeanor as she said such did not lend itself to a serious explanation. If anything–and I’m being a cop, here, so forgive me–she sounded like a longtime victim of sexual abuse who has been trained to see herself as the problem, the cause of the abuse rather than a victim. She actually sounded something like a child victim abused by trusted family members. And so my knee-jerk reaction was disgust and revulsion. Honestly, it still is.]

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