Hikari no Ou

I really wanted to like this one. I really did. But there's just so much wrong here that I'm wondering if the season 2 will truly help or not. When I saw this anime, I was thinking I'd be getting something similar to the Shinsekai Yori series. It looked similar at first and lured me in with its intriguing world and wild art style. The opening song especially ended up being one of my favorite bangers of the season! But without delving too into spoilers, I felt like much of my time was wasted. The first 1-2 episodes are amazing and pulls you in. Then itslows down and drags. The characters narrative falls incredibly flat at times and you can't help but wonder what the MC girl is thinking half the time. She's a child who hardly speaks and one who's kind of just dragged into things while rarely making any difference. The MC boy has a lot more interesting things going on with his side of things, but even then you're left with more questions than answers. Talking sequences in general feel very off-putting and stiff. The only good things going on for these characters is their designs... and little more. Excellent wonderful designs but not much else. You learn things here and there, but by the end of the final episode I'm left feeling like I know so little still. Then you get to the obvious art style direction. Beautiful and interesting at first as they allowed themselves to draw animation freely. Then later on growing stiff and really funky at times. Not in a good way. Some might think it was a style choice to go as clunky as they did, but its clearly a low budget sort of thing going on as well. Still frame panels on top of still frames, action scenes where the action hardly moves... If I wanted to watch a slideshow I'd make one myself. Most of the budget went into the OP as far as I can tell. Will I watch the eventual season 2? Maybe out of morbid curiosity to see where it goes since I'm still truly interested in the world itself. But all in all, with how much other anime is being cranked out at all times of late, I'd rather be spending my time watching something else.

This show's plot in a summary: within the space of its abrupt 10-episode run that only covers the first 2 volumes in a total of 4, having to rewatch this in a binge IS a necessity to fully (albeit partially) understand the appeal of novels like these. I'm not going to sugarcoat this: I definitely have a love-hate relationship with both director Junji Nishimura and series composer-cum-scriptwriter Mamoru Oshii. With the former returning back to the anime scene after a recent string of bad series going as far back as 2018 with studio Seven Arcs, and the latter coming back for one of the most polarizingseries (Vlad Love) that depending on the people you ask, is a love-hate affair that either is worth being enjoyable or just plain bad. Lo and behold, these two notable people are back, and this time, they helm novelist Rieko Hinata's fantasy novel: Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter together with studio Signal.MD...and the results were more in line of what I expected to see from both people leading this somewhat ambitious project being the TV network WOWOW's comeback after a few years (as opposed to the current constant ones you see on Japan's major TV networks). Being a full-on novel (as opposed to the LN), there is more detail drawn here, and Reiko Hinata's story is shown as such: In the distant future of Japan, a calamity has changed human physiology so that humans will instantly combust when in the presence of fire. As a result, human civilization collapsed until they discover an alternative fuel source derived from the blood of demonic Fire Fiends. As a result, the elite Fire Hunters are formed, whose sole purpose is to hunt down Fire Fiends and fallbeasts and harvest their blood, fueling a new industrial revolution. And one such Fire Hunter by the name of Haijuu, gets himself killed in action while saving a wandering girl named Touko from the Fire Fiend, only to leave his companion dog Kanata with her to be brought back to whence he came from, which is the Capital. At the same time, this young man named Koushi, living off the prestiges of a wealthy family due to the fact that his mother is dead and his younger ill-fated sister needs recovery. And in return, he is tasked by the same wealthy Okibi family under Yuoshichi to find out an alternate power source towards the bottled lightning that harnesses the power of the extremely volatile skyfire that plagues the current government that's about to be overturned in the midst of the resultant chaos. The full story split into two halves: Touko and Koushi's routes, they're in no doubt connected to each other, though how the anime procured the original source material in this way is amicable at best. From the outset, it's clear that both main characters will be the center core of the series (at least for the first half here) going through what they need to know and survive amongst the sea of raging spirit monsters that could hunt them at every corner. For that, I'd say that it was a good job trying to segregate this massive storyline that involves even the unsuspecting public, albeit with infodumps that don't spare even a second of your time expositioning if you aren't playing close attention, which can feel like a lot through the fast progression of the narrative plot. The truth is that this could've been more refined by Junji Nishimura trying to picture this in the minds of the audience, but as mentioned, nowadays he doesn't give a heck to how anime these days needed to be structured carefully if the storyline is THIS hectic and living-breathing, and just went on his old directorialship ways, which in more cases than one, hurt the show in trying to convince us the audience into the investment of the anime's world at large. At least from what was presented here with Season 1, I would already have surmised that Season 2 (the latter half of the novel) will be more of the same, and though the execution here is wonky at best, the only hope I have is how this story will wrap up when the 2nd half comes in the future. The characters here also sell the narrative, because they run through the whole course of their world being invaded by the Fire Fiends, not to mention the Fire Hunters themselves and with overarching plots like with the Divine Clans misaligning the world following their Gods/Goddesses and whatnot that ultimately result in the disconnection of the goals and objectives of their purpose in the first place. Touko is a good girl no doubt, the problem is that this innocent kid is brought to the big issue just by wandering alone with the possibility of being attacked by the Fire Fiends, which brings us to her dangerous and treacherous journey back to the Capital, honing the dead Haijuu's belongings along with the dog Kanata as its temporary protector. Touko might not have been taught mature due to her age, but it's because of this reason that forces her to be one, and with the people that she meets on the way (e.g. the 3 brides of Hotaru, Benio and Kaho that are sold off to other villages for forced marriages in exchange of citizenship; fellow Fire Hunter Akira) that teaches her the brutalities of reality, and that this issue is not something to be taken lightly with potential people dying at the hands of the Fire Fiends if not careful. On Koushi's side, being taken by its owner Youshichi, together with his wife Hibana and daughter Kira, he is a good-natured person awaiting the arrival of Haijuu, which turns out to be his father, that with his death together with the suddenness of his mother, as well as his ill sister Hinako, the world crumbles at his feet, similar to that of being an orphan within a split second. The exchange of researching on Fire Fiends, bottled lightning and skyfire, it's a necessity because of the distrust against the government and its nation under attack from a rebel group called the Spiders, and Koushi anchors the project, learning more of what goes under the hood, like the history of the Fire Hunters, the Flickering Flame and the Millenial Comet, all of which play a big part in the eventual plot that slowly expands the story overtime. This is an interesting world that requires very close attention no doubt, and the plot beats are placed right where they need to be, so this is the hallmark to appreciating full-blown novels that require meticulous details where every single storyline and character is essential to make or break the story. Sure, for now it seems like a wedge that both Touko and Koushi are only get getting started on the big narrative from being clueless to informative, but they'll get better as time moves on. Unfortunately, where I can praise the show for its story and interesting characters, is where I draw the line with production values. Studio Signal.MD is no means by far a decent studio, the most recent of which was the 2-cour run of Platinum End (that was just decent at best), but like another show that they once helmed on (Mars Red), it's clear that director Junji Nishimura and the staff team were putting aesthetics over quality to magnify the world at large. Some were great (e.g. artistic hand-drawn scenes that showcase the beauty and destruction of the world) and many others were not so great (e.g. the constant overlaying of portraits over the current animation plane and the exact hand-drawn scenes used to depict the characters' outburst of emotions), though I don't know what the hell that they were thinking to portray with the latter, which could be done through normal animation, but they didn't, and decided to leverage the shortcomings with the excessive animation and hand-drawn cut-aways, which felt jarring at best. This is a beautiful story, and the production must be in tandem together to express its world at large, which this show I'd like to believe was a fluke but was not. The music that's courtesy of composer Kenji Kawai, like Nishimura and Oshii, has also worked on Vlad Love as well, so it wouldn't be a mistake to lump these 3 people together. For one, it sets a mood that often happens with moodswings depending on the situations circumvented, and I think that it's decent effort all things considered. For the OST, Leo Ieiri's OP is solemn, yet mystical, while Maaya Sakamoto's ED is just about what I expected being a song of many colours that adds to the generic backdrop of "we are Shonen running" sequences. In this case, I find the ED much better than the OP. If you can say anything about Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter, it would be signified as a diamond in the rough. Sure, the extent of it is about halfway there, but for the earnest watcher who wants to get invested in this show, while binging it would be the best option, breaking down every episode is the key to being fully immersive on what this show has to offer. Right now, this Fire Hunter show is all but a gem that awaits its latter half to see what it's made of to be properly judged altogether. This battle against the Flame Fiends is not over yet, it's all but a footnote, that is for now.

The moment I laid eyes on this show, I could immediately tell that veterans of the anime industry were working on this. The likes of Mamoru Oshii, and Junji Nishimura working on this left me having high expectations for this show, and it delivered, to some extent. The story telling and world building has a more older style to it, with it being more of a slow burn. It reminded me of the older Studio Ghibli films, like Princess Mononoke, with its forest settings. There was also a lot of world building and exposition, and while it made it a bit hard to keep upwith everything at points, it was quite intriguing watching and listening to all the lore around the fire hunters and the changes of human civilization. Unfortunately, early on, there were signs of this show having a very limited budget, and I could tell with the shortcuts in the animation, the CG, and the unpolished designs. However, I will say the unpolished designs sort of worked for this type of show, and the line work was decent. It was a good effort, nonetheless, by studio Signal M.D. The music was a very well executed aspect of the show, with the OST contributing to the overall ambience of the shots and settings. The OP and ED were both great as well, with the former being my favourite opening of the season. To give you a gist of the show, it revolves around an industrial-esque world where human civilization is not driven by fire anymore, but lives in constant fear of it. However, there is hope to collect a new type of energy, with collecting stones that emit light and steam, which is the job for fire hunters. Touko, a young girl, is in trouble in the woods, and gets saved by a Fire Hunter, who sadly perishes saving her, leaving his dog, Kanata behind. She embarks on a journey to return Kanata to his relatives, along with his weapon. Meanwhile, Koushi, who is the Fire Hunter’s son, is adopted by a wealthy family, and in their mansion and in the outdoors, he learns truths about the history and lore about the Fire Hunters and royal family, and researches to try to save the world from its eventual demise. Their two paths start out separate at first, and slowly come together. The show does get a little heavy on exposition, and it gets hard to follow at times, but it’s definitely intriguing. The execution of the lore telling might make the story a little boring at times, with its restricted use of animation, which constantly uses stills to tell the story. While the story is wholly interesting, the execution is a bit lacking. The characters seem more like vessels to tell a larger story, and while they have distinct personalities, there wasn’t much to break down from their interactions. They have their realisms around how they interact with the cruel world around them, but that’s about it. If you value cohesive storytelling and world building a lot, this might be an anime you’ll enjoy. For me, while I did enjoy the storytelling and world building, but the animation ultimately did take away from some of my enjoyment here. There was some good ambience, background shots, and an excellent soundtrack as well. This adaptation basically tells me that the novel itself was quite amazing, and this adaptation gave it some movement to go along with it. In a mediocre season overall, this still ended up as one of the better shows of the season, and I would give this a light recommendation.

Hikari no Ou (The Fire Hunter) is an adaptation of a novel series, and much of the attention afforded to it seems to be due to Mamoru Oshii—who has been inactive in the anime scene recently, other than the nose-bleed comedy Vlad Love from a few years ago—stepping out of hibernation to handle the script and series composition. Of course, Oshii isn't responsible for directing and storyboarding, and if I watched HnO without knowing he was involved, I wouldn't be able to detect his imprint. While I won't say he's necessarily the perfect choice of director for the series, I kind of regret he didn'ttake that role, and the reason why will be clear soon enough. HnO is the type of story that takes one aspect of our world—in this case, fire—and flips it upside down to create a whole new world around something so pivotal that it's taken for granted. The setting represents a sort of archeofuturism, mixing steampunk sci-fi, dark fantasy and magic, and Japanese folklore, melded together in quite organic ways. Myth shapes technology, and technology shapes myth. It takes a while for the two stories to intersect: Touko goes on a journey to return a Fire Hunter's belongings to his family, and her story serves to flesh out the way the world functions outside of the capital, from the forest and rural villages and the "trains," we get most of our "hands-on experience" here; the other half has Koushi's half invested in bookwork, the inner-workings of the industrialized capital, and conspiracies amongst various factions that remain a mystery until the second season. The steampunk aspects mixed with relative primitivity and the focus on the "trains" make me think of Kabaneri. Humanity's decline in expansive capabilities and a kind of literal casting aside of the Promethean spirit and the symbolic implications of fire bring to mind Attack on Titan. The narration is my least favorite aspect so far. It adds almost nothing other than a touch of head-hammering exposition that the characters already know. It's better to leave an audience possibly confused and whisper into their ear through character dialogue or events or whatever else. I assume the narration is pulled straight from the book, but it doesn't work well. Luckily, the narration tapers off after episode 4 and becomes restricted to a brief introduction and episode previews, which is a boon for the atmospherical qualities of the series. The world-building and lore create a lot of space for intrigue and various interesting directions to follow, and this is the most "novel-like" storytelling I've seen from this season. The OST complements the atmosphere well, and the OP has a melancholic touch that not only primes one to immerse themselves into the series but perfectly represents the tone of the series. Hiromasa Ogura's art direction brings to life the rural villages, foreboding forests, and industrial cityscapes; the composition and storyboarding are generally decent, but specific shots are ill-fitting and lack harmony. The character and creature designs have a lot of charm but are also wildly inconsistent. The series is often hampered by what appears to be a frenetic production schedule and lack of time. The director, Junji Nishimura, is an industry veteran, and while he brings more cinematic appeal with his directorial vision than the deluge of seasonal schlock we shovel down on the regular, I can point to specific choices that are questionable or even baffling. Firstly, what is with all of the tiny split-screen portraits? They don't add to the aesthetic or drama of the scene. They seem like the arbitrary choices of a student tinkering with editing software for the first time—or rather, a series with a tight budget trying to pull a fast one and trick the audience into being dazzled. It goes from merely questionable, such as with the dialogue scenes—to baffling with the horrible use of these image overlays during fight scenes. This technique was seldom used to great effect, and true split-screen tends to look better than these cheap "digital-looking" overlays. Similarly, we constantly are treated to CGI tracking shots to establish scene transitions at the mansion in the city (why not just use a still?). Most of the other CGI is subtler or hidden and relegated to the train or bugs thus far and is too sparse to be much of a bother. The worst time/budget-saving technique has to be the freeze frames. When used well, these can be a bold stylistic choice, such as with Osamu Dezaki making this technique one of his trademarks to add emphasis or heighten the drama. Here, the contrast between the regular visuals and the freeze frames is too pronounced, and they're often awkwardly placed. It's a difficult task to pan over multiple beautified freeze frames of a young girl scrubbing a toilet and expecting to elicit anything other than unintentional laughter. The artful brutality of the opening fight sequence is sullied by this freeze frame technique as well, which is a red flag you'd think the staff would have the sense to conceal better... Toward the second half, they begin to use the technique more carefully, and a few of the stills come close to more classical examples of the technique. The production values are inconsistent. I feel many anime fans will refer to the animation as "bad"—and I wouldn't even argue against that in most instances—because when the series doesn't rely solely on shot composition and the animators have to get back to doodling, the animation can be rough at times. Whether that's to the series' benefit or detriment depends. The rawness of it lends the animation a unique energy, but the series can be quite slow, and it rarely utilizes the off-kilter animation as smoothly as, say, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Mind Game, various scenes from The Hakkenden OVA, and so on. Yasunori Miyazawa is the primary name I see for the most exciting snippets of animation, and this series is worth a look for fans of the animator: the most active character animation and fight scenes with the fiends up to about episode 4 were largely his work (minus the OP). His movement here is loose, lively, and inventive, though it can be unrefined or could be a little smoother at a few points. Still, it's a tremendous step above what usually passes for "good animation" in seasonal anime. The director squeezed many scenes out of Miyazawa, and specific moments have a childlike quality, reminiscent of the roughest scenes from Shinya Ohira or Masaaki Yuasa—the dragon being a perfect example. And speaking of unintentional laughter, there's some of that here as well. HnO is not the best example of Miyazawa's animation, and while select segments can be fascinating, they are simultaneously flawed. Episode 2's fight scene with the two dogs flipping around, gliding through the air like flying squirrels on meth, and drop-kicking their opponent in what looks like an early 2000s computer game in terms of physics, along with godawful split-screen nonsense and Adobe Flash-esque character manipulation, is a sight that boggles belief and is impossible not to laugh at. Frankly, there are a lot of unintentionally humorous parts in this series because of budget constraints at various points, and the pipsqueak white dog had me howling with laughter in every scene. Sadly, despite enjoying it, I'm mostly ragging on the series more than complimenting it. It's something of a gem from this season but a roughly-hewn one. There are other more polished anime this season, but they are too dull for words, and this one has a bit of soul to it; even a passionate DIY handicraft sensibility. Hopefully, the storytelling will result in a satisfying direction for the conclusion in season 2, but it's too soon for an accurate appraisal.

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