APADFTMOM Day 12: High Priority Reading: Enen no Shouboutai

As we continue our month of experimentation, I want to try yet another new approach to this. Welcome to High Priority Reading, which will be a curation of recommendations for some of my personal favorite series that I recommend whenever somebody asks me what I like. We won’t dive too deeply into any one aspect of a series with this. Our goal is to have a general overview of the topic, touch on a few key characters, and check out some of the lighter aspects without going into a full high school book report. Today’s manga series is Enen no Shouboutai, known also by its western release title Fire Force.






Enen no Shouboutai is set in Tokyo in the midst of a demonic crisis as people have begun spontaneously bursting into flames and transforming into fire demons called Infernals. In response to this, eight special fire brigades have been established to both quell rampaging Infernals and research their origins. The story follows the advanced pyrokinetic Shinra Kusakabe as he enlists in Special Fire Force Company 8 in an attempt to stop the Infernal epidemic and track down details surrounding an Infernal’s attack on his family years prior.




Shinra joins the Fire Force wanting to save people and is heavily motivated to be a hero with a lot of that motivation stemming from his mother’s encouragement when he was young. Shinra is a third generation pyrokinetic, meaning he can create and manipulate flames. In his case, he can control flames from his feet. Shinra also has a bad habit of giving an evil-looking smile under pressure with the smile being a way of coping with stress and the evil intent simply being the way his face looks naturally. This habit coupled with his pyrokinetic abilities leads a lot of people to believe that he killed his own family.




The supporting cast of Enen no Shouboutai consists mostly of the members of Special Fire Force Company 8. Each Company has a secondary goal aside from fighting Infernals and these goals often lead to financial backings from businesses or the government, but Company 8 was hastily created for a special purpose and receives no such perks. Company 8 consists of a rag-tag group of members, including a leader who is not a pyrokinetic and relies on physical training and gadgets to keep up with his peers.




Special Fire Force Companies are a blend of firefighters and clergy and borrow from both groups in many respects. Each Company has at least one member of the Holy Sol Temple, a church worshipping the Sun God, whose responsibilities are to offer spiritual guidance during Infernal attacks and perform a special prayer before an Infernal is disposed of in order to grant its soul peace. These members typically dress as nuns both out of duty and to help civilians recognize them, and they do not normally have pyrokinetic abilities as pyrokinesis usually leads to the Fire Force instead of the church.




Fire Force members are essentially superhuman firefighters and are established as a large step above normal firefighters, who also exist in the world. The Fire Force uniform consists of a set of bunker gear with bright blue stripes to signify the member’s association and set them apart from normal firefighters. There is a large amount of special Fire Force gear that can be used by both pyrokinetics and regular people, and most Companies have a research & development division to produce more equipment as needed. Fire Force members also share a lot of ideals with regular firefighters such as the pledge to protect life and property.




There are three stages of measuring pyrokinesis: Second Generation, Third Generation, and those with no abilities. Second Generation pyrokinetics are able to control fire but cannot produce their own, which Third Generation pyrokinetics can produce flames while also being able to control them. There are many applications for both Second and Third Generation pyrokinetic abilities, and Enen no Shouboutai features a wide array of creative ideas all stemming from the lone element of fire.




Enen no Shouboutai is written and illustrated by Atsushi Ookubo, who is also known for creating Soul Eater. If the reader is remotely familiar with Soul Eater, they will be able to notice this right away while reading. The art style is a dead giveaway, but there are also a lot of shared themes between the two series that the author seems to be fond of. Specifically, each series is riddled with religious imagery and has a very light focus on basic astronomy, namely the sun and the moon. Both series are also very dark in terms of settings with a lot of scenes taking place at night, and both series are structured around organizations of similar superpowered people uniting to eliminate a similarly superpowered foe.




The plot structure of Enen no Shouboutai is very traditional, especially when compared to Soul Eater. Whereas Soul Eater felt more focused on its characters than an overall story, Enen no Shouboutai establishes its story immediately and continues working towards that goal while developing its characters. Characterization is still a strong central focus, and the series manages to make each character feel important without focusing the story on them for long periods of time. Company 8 is the misfit group and each member is given more than enough backstory to not only show that they are welcome in the Company, but that they are meant to be there.




As stated previously, Enen no Shouboutai is currently being released in the west as Fire Force via Kodansha. There are currently 172 chapters with more being released weekly, and an anime is scheduled to begin in early July. Truth be told, I dropped my original plan for today and wrote this immediately before publishing it. It’s Mother’s Day and Shinra’s mom is one of my favorite mothers in manga. A mother who supports your dreams no matter how silly they are is a positive energy in the universe, whether it’s relatable if you have one or desirable if you don’t.