"The Fire Hunter" is a title I expected nothing from. The official trailer is so forgettable and meaningless that I almost didn't watch the anime. Luckily I did, because otherwise I would have missed out on arguably one of the best titles of the anime winter season.
The Fire Hunter is set in a future where people's bodies have changed so that when they come in contact with fire, their bodies themselves burst into flames. This set humanity far behind in terms of its development until an alternative fuel was discovered, derived from the blood of fire demons. The Fire Hunter's task is to hunt such fire demons and "harvest" their blood. Now humanity has once again arrived at the stage of industrialization. In this world, our protagonist Tokou lives in a small village. She is in the forest without permission, where she encounters a Fire Demon. However, she is saved by a Fire Hunter. Each Fire Hunter is accompanied by a dog for support. The Fire Hunter dies during the rescue, but his dog Kanata survives. Tokou, as punishment for being in the forest, is given the task of taking the dog to the capital to the deceased Fire Hunter's relatives.
The Fire Hunter or, as it is called in Japanese, "Hikari no Ou" is an anime adaptation of the novel of the same name. As in other novels, The Fire Hunter tells a parallel story with a second protagonist. It is about Koushi, who lives in the capital. His sister is seriously ill and his father has died. Because of this, they come to live with Yuoshichi, who does not act without ulterior motives. To what extent these two storylines come together, you'll have to figure out for yourself.
The enchanting story, which is nevertheless based on our world, gives you the feeling of a Ghibli studio story. It has a very deep and mysterious lore. This is revealed piece by piece and explains the present at the same time. This is how lore should be presented. The lore is about gods, demons and intrigue.
I watched the first episode without expectation on 14.1.2023. And left with a huge satisfaction from this. Of course I found the world interesting, but what animated me much more to continue watching was - well - the animation. Or rather the artstyle. I have great respect for what the studio "Signal. MD" has done here and will keep an eye on them in the future. The artstyle is very artistic and thus unfortunately a blessing and a curse in one. Many scenes look simply fabulous because of the artstyle, but in fight scenes the animation often doesn't know how to handle the artstyle, making many (not all) fight scenes look cheap, almost ugly. In other scenes, you can't help but be amazed. An up and down, which doesn't please everyone. But that's not all with the special animation style of The Fire Hunter. The anime uses stills inserted in the right places. Seems perhaps at first inappropriate for an anime, but these show again the artistic vein of the anime. For these stills are colorful oil paintings (don't nail me down on the term oil painting). They are really beautiful and enhance particularly emotional moments or moments that are special for other reasons. Again, this style choice is a matter of taste and won't appeal to everyone. As a third, special stylistic device, the anime uses images within images, almost like panels in manga. To explain: for example, the main image shows an entire large room in long shot, and to the left or right of the image appears another image in which the actual action takes place. Such moments can be found again and again in The Fire Hunter. All of this shows how well-designed The Fire Hunter is in terms of staging, and this artistic design in general really stood out to me.
Conclusion: The Fire Hunter makes for a super fascinating world. It is set in our future and yet it has a lore about gods and demons that is told in a clever way. The story can't quite unfold yet in terms of content due to the shortness of the anime with only ten episodes, but it promises great things. If you want to take a look at the anime, I recommend watching the opening instead of the trailer. Here the beautiful artstyle comes into its own. If the story or lore don't convince you, it should be the artstyle that everyone should have experienced once. It can be seen that the anime probably had some problems in release. But still, it is definitely recommended and should receive much more attention.
Thanks for reading.
The Fire Hunter is set in a future where people's bodies have changed so that when they come in contact with fire, their bodies themselves burst into flames. This set humanity far behind in terms of its development until an alternative fuel was discovered, derived from the blood of fire demons. The Fire Hunter's task is to hunt such fire demons and "harvest" their blood. Now humanity has once again arrived at the stage of industrialization. In this world, our protagonist Tokou lives in a small village. She is in the forest without permission, where she encounters a Fire Demon. However, she is saved by a Fire Hunter. Each Fire Hunter is accompanied by a dog for support. The Fire Hunter dies during the rescue, but his dog Kanata survives. Tokou, as punishment for being in the forest, is given the task of taking the dog to the capital to the deceased Fire Hunter's relatives.
The Fire Hunter or, as it is called in Japanese, "Hikari no Ou" is an anime adaptation of the novel of the same name. As in other novels, The Fire Hunter tells a parallel story with a second protagonist. It is about Koushi, who lives in the capital. His sister is seriously ill and his father has died. Because of this, they come to live with Yuoshichi, who does not act without ulterior motives. To what extent these two storylines come together, you'll have to figure out for yourself.
The enchanting story, which is nevertheless based on our world, gives you the feeling of a Ghibli studio story. It has a very deep and mysterious lore. This is revealed piece by piece and explains the present at the same time. This is how lore should be presented. The lore is about gods, demons and intrigue.
I watched the first episode without expectation on 14.1.2023. And left with a huge satisfaction from this. Of course I found the world interesting, but what animated me much more to continue watching was - well - the animation. Or rather the artstyle. I have great respect for what the studio "Signal. MD" has done here and will keep an eye on them in the future. The artstyle is very artistic and thus unfortunately a blessing and a curse in one. Many scenes look simply fabulous because of the artstyle, but in fight scenes the animation often doesn't know how to handle the artstyle, making many (not all) fight scenes look cheap, almost ugly. In other scenes, you can't help but be amazed. An up and down, which doesn't please everyone. But that's not all with the special animation style of The Fire Hunter. The anime uses stills inserted in the right places. Seems perhaps at first inappropriate for an anime, but these show again the artistic vein of the anime. For these stills are colorful oil paintings (don't nail me down on the term oil painting). They are really beautiful and enhance particularly emotional moments or moments that are special for other reasons. Again, this style choice is a matter of taste and won't appeal to everyone. As a third, special stylistic device, the anime uses images within images, almost like panels in manga. To explain: for example, the main image shows an entire large room in long shot, and to the left or right of the image appears another image in which the actual action takes place. Such moments can be found again and again in The Fire Hunter. All of this shows how well-designed The Fire Hunter is in terms of staging, and this artistic design in general really stood out to me.
Conclusion: The Fire Hunter makes for a super fascinating world. It is set in our future and yet it has a lore about gods and demons that is told in a clever way. The story can't quite unfold yet in terms of content due to the shortness of the anime with only ten episodes, but it promises great things. If you want to take a look at the anime, I recommend watching the opening instead of the trailer. Here the beautiful artstyle comes into its own. If the story or lore don't convince you, it should be the artstyle that everyone should have experienced once. It can be seen that the anime probably had some problems in release. But still, it is definitely recommended and should receive much more attention.
Thanks for reading.
