Fire Punch

*spoiler-free

i got into fire punch only knowing it as chainsaw man's predecessor. i had to reaffirm my thoughts about fujimoto being a genius and i was not wrong at all. although, one thing i've learned after reading this is that the man really is much more of an artist than he is a writer.

fire punch is definitely not for the weak-hearted as it explores many disturbing topics such as incest up until cannibalism. much like chainsaw man, many would argue that it is used in a way to make the manga seem "edgy", that these things are used for shock value. i personally think it just adds to exaggerate how shitty of a world they're living in, other than that it isn't really too deep but if you're super particular about such things then this won't be an enjoyable read for you.

the entire premise of fire punch felt poetic. a man burning endlessly in a world cursed of ice- that man named agni, was revered as a God. this unfounded faith in agni is the story's main baseline, serving to push the main conflicts of the story while exploring other themes beneath it such as love and the pursuit of happiness.

when first starting fire punch, you will notice how aimless the story feels. it feels like there is a lack of direction, and things happen just because. though many would simply dismiss it as "badly-written", i feel like it's a clear reflection of how the main protagonist is treated throughout this series. agni isn't your average main character, he is only the main character because the story was written Around him and not Based on him like how it typically would be.

fujimoto still leaves many questions unanswered after 83 chapters and if you're the type to fret over minor loopholes and whatnot then i wouldn't recommend this at all. much like my chainsaw man review, this is a purely subjective 9/10. this was because i chose to see fire punch using more of an artistic perspective and not much so in terms of storytelling as i will admit it indeed often feels like a very rough draft.

fire punch was something that really managed to move me- the feeling i got after finishing this manga was much unlike any other. or maybe it's just because i'm a fujimoto stan? who knows. all i know is that fujimoto's artistry really shines here in fire punch.

Its edgy, but it has a reason to be edgy.(this and the last line are the only important points here)

It is a story about a lot of things, as any good story should be; and never gets stagnated always keeping a good rithm. Needless to say, no moment is wasted as everything has a point either thematically narratively, to be funny or a combination or both.

Worderful management of scenes, delivering huge narrative and emotional (fire) punches.

Its not meant for everyone.

Im literally a fanboy of this manga, as you can see by the 10 i gave it, but I really have thought about the quality of it, and even re read it and i stand by my words, its not for everyone, but maybe it is for you.

But all I have said doesn't really matters, its just a byproduct of how honest the story is and how much the author cares about it.

This review is based chapters 00-28 and has spoilers for chapter 00.

Synopsis:

The world has been frozen over by the Ice Witch, with this world turned into madness and chaos. The few remaining humans left are left starving and freezing to death, but there are a select few with powers called "blessings". Agni and his sister Luna are both blessed ones with the power of regeneration, though Agni's is a lot faster compared to his sister's. With his instantaneous regeneration Agni decides to cut off his arm multiple times a day to feed the people of his village. But then soliders from the city Behemdorg led by Doma had came to get supplies. After searching the homes of the villagers they found the Agni's arms. Doma decides to burn the village (with his power of fire) because cannibals aren't human. Time skip 8 years later and Agni has now become a never dying flaming man, who swears his revenge on Doma for destroying his village.

Pros:

•Fire Punch is great read for shounen fans.

•Has a lot of symbolism/references to religion. Agni is the name of the MC which is also the name of ther fire god Agni in Hinduism is an example.

Cons:

•Story and plot is very cliche and might turn off a few people.

•Some of the characters are and seem way to unrealistic.

•Is being public in Shounen Jump which has a track record of dumping series that dip down in popularity, which gives it a chance to be axed before it even finishes.

Fire Punch is an okay manga that tries to be deep while stretching itself thin by attempting to hit too many topics at once.

The first third of Fire Punch builds itself up as a revenge plot, and quite a gorey one too. From the prologue alone, I was hooked: an MC who's gone through hell, tearing through a wasteland of degeneracy to fulfill his need for revenge sounds pretty good to me, and the lengths to which the manga attempts to go to establish this environment feels fantastic, as most manga don't want to get so graphic and maintain that tone for so long; it drew me in quickly and I was excited to see where the author could go with the story.

Issues arise, however, when the manga decides to abandon ship after this first third occurred. It ditches the revenge plot and notions thereof, replacing them with the typical shounen ideologies and resetting all development and convictions of the MC: MC has to be a good guy that wants to save people. Damned be the real character, who is selfish to the end; instead we start anew with the typical MC. As aforementioned, I was hoping for a sweet revenge plot, so the haste change left me disappointed.

This second third can be summarized as the manga attempting to change itself from a revenge story to one of inner battle; the MC starts regretting the times he's killed people; the MC regrets losing his anger; but, the MC even questions at times whether he should be saving people and, with his sister dead, for what he is living for. While such thoughts are not unique to shounens, Fire Punch leaves the character amidst such strife without resolving his struggle through the MC becoming a typical good-guy, which is appealing as most never do resolve that struggle. But, that is all to be said in favor of the second third; after the MC reveals his inner tensions, the mangaka decides to introduce a character (the pseudo-Ice Witch) that plays an antagonistic role briefly, but really serves to cheaply alter the plot towards the direction the mangaka wants it to go. The Ice Witch wants to warm the world by using Judah and can do so by using their blessing to turn them into a tree - adding a new power out of the blue to present a point of conflict. MC wants to kill Judah as revenge for his sister's death, so he intervenes and in comes (cheaply and artificially) the last third of the manga, where Fire Punch gets weird and nonsensical.

In the third part, the MC learns to love and the mangaka tries to comment on personal identity, and how most people are acting a role other than themselves. Effectively, by this point the manga has abandoned all pretenses of being a coherent plot and instead is but a cheap medium through which the mangaka can relate their philosophy. Towards the end, San becomes super OP for no reason and the Ice Witch loses her powers (which she needed to overcome Judah's blessing, so for some reason Judah now has a strong blessing although Togata btfo'd her?), so it's painfully obvious the mangaka is just trying to usher in a resolution to the MC's antagonists so that they can wrap up the story and part with a final message; speaking of which, the manga ends in a bizarre, abstract manner which I suppose represents MC's innocent self finding eternal peace and love through his waifu.

The entire manga is one large bait-and-switch, similar to Goblin Slayer or Tate no Yuusha, where a gritty world is presented for you to sink your teeth in, but the facade of what you've bitten fades and you're left with fairly conventional manga (Goblin Slayer -> OP isekai power trip, like Overlord; Tate no Yuusha -> regular kusoge isekai; Fire Punch -> psychological commentary, like Homonculus - which does it better and establishes no false pretense first).

For this reason, it earns a seven: it tries to be original, it fails in many aspects, it cheapens itself, and it tricks the viewer, but once it loses its grip on its shounen roots, it start to become a pretty decent story about constant inner strife with resolution only through death. Had it begun with this, however, the story could have flourished more instead of wasting 1/3rd of its chapters.

If, in fact, all of what I deem failures you find are in favor of the manga and you've yet to find a manga you'd like to read similar to Fire Punch, read Inuyashiki, which very similar and only slightly more linear (as opposed to abstract) than Fire Punch.

I would categorize this manga as:
- Action: there's a lot of fighting and a lot of stuff going on in general;
- Dark: this takes place in a dystopia, and right from the first chapter, you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect from this world;
- Gore: there's quite a significant amount of it, right from the start;
- Drama: serious tone, in general;
- Comedy: some character(s) in particular bring quite a few funny moments;
- Supernatural: people with "blessings", AKA super powers.

Story: 7/10
Now I will say right here that, even though this was published as a shounen, this story is relatively dark and gory, so if that's not your thing, look elsewhere.

This part is the most volatile for me. It was great up until volume 6. It left me with a pretty "meh" feeling afterwards. The ending wasn't necessarily bad, it's just that the final few volumes to reach that ending didn't keep me as interested as the first 5. It changes tone quite heavily and starts focusing much more on the mental state of a few characters.

I think the story was made interesting by the characters and their goals. In the end, the heavy change of tone from volume 6 onward kind of didn't really blend in well for me.

Art: 6/10
The art is ok. There are many panels where it's actually hard to tell in what position some of the characters are, particularly in action scenes.

Characters: 9/10
I think the characters are the most interesting part of this manga. The main character is understandably losing his mind. Then we get a few people who, somehow, and despite him, still stick around the main character. We get to see that, well it's a dystopia, and none of them's had it easy. It doesn't really try to be a tearjerker about it. I think it mostly just serves the purpose of setting the table on the behaviors of the people in this context, what little reason they have left to live, what their motives are and why. We also obviously get a few typical dystopian characters just ready to do anything to survive.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall, I enjoyed this manga, but I have to admit that volumes 6-8 were a little bit boring. The first 5 volumes were great. The ending was fine, but the journey from volume 6 to the ending kind of underwhelming.

Fire Punch is niche as fuck.

That's just the beginning though.

This is not something for the faint of heart and is not something for someone who thinks it will not appeal to them. This series is what it is and what it is is unhinged as hell. Think something like Mad Max but dropping copious amounts of acid.

The world presented is depraved as hell and unhinged and on the brink of complete annihilation, and its inhabitants reflect that. People are reduced to their base impulses at times, horrible people are given free rein to be horrible people and good people are abused and everything has this tinge of unreality.

One can't even summarize Fire Punch succinctly, wherever you think the plot is going, forget it. This series follows an internal logic that can't be decoded by the average reader until you finish it.

Like, just read it if it appeals to you and don't stop after volume 1. Even if you hate the whole thing by the end your life will have been enriched for reading it because you've experienced art at its purest form. A passion project that doesn't care if you like it or if it appeals to you.

Fire Punch is Fire Punch, and that's that on that.

Fire Punch rules. A free-wheeling psychedelic commentary on violence (all kinds--physical, sexual, emotional, etc) in media and our relationship with these stories. A manga that treats the traditional narrative and plot hooks of the medium with disdain as if they themselves are an act of opression, bearing down on the lives of its characters. An intelligent and carefully crafted work that refuses easy solutions or simple emotions. A story where a man who fights by hitting bullets with a baseball bat is confronted by a woman in a bikini (the world has frozen over in Fire Punch, a perpetual winter) riding on a katana as if it was a hoverboard. Fire Punch rules.

It's hard to blame anyone for backing out early here despite the amazing premise and promise of real scuzzy exploitation fun in the first chapter thanks to the following volume worth of oppressive and at the face meaningless cruelty. Sure there are some jokes, but it all weighs heavy on you as bad things keep piling up on each other as if that's just the truth of the world. And most reviews or impressions of Fire Punch seem to suggest that most people did stop here. They call it out as pointlessly edgy and immoral and nihilistic. And hey, I was seconds away from quitting myself. But then a character appeared and recontextualized the preceeding pessimism. Togata, a camera wielding maniac, almost literally hijacks the manga early on. The protagonist disappears, replaced by someone whose entire life is formed through stories. Someone who can't help but see the world as a narrative. She constantly and overtly discusses the narrative beats of the manga itself, explaining like an author or a critic how each scene should fit within the overarking story. Or she would be, but things keep going wrong. The manga refuses to abide by the tired and true beats of traditional manga. From here on, the form of sequential art is twisted and played with as expectations and cliches are constantly dismantled with an infectious glee: the super special ultra technique exists for a gag, the quirky and mysterious side characters are almost immediately ignored after their introductions, fights are born and raised for the sake of the anti-climax, so on and so on. The initial darkness that turned so many off is seen in a new light now as a sort of mockery. The main character, his motivations, his personality, the very world he lives in is all so silly, like some sort of joke. Except it isn't.
Except it is.
Except it isn't.

The audience is in this way confronted with how society consumes art: that is to say, constantly and hungrily. Are we like Togata, whose life has no meaning without stories to watch to pass the emptiness of life, or are we like Agni (the protagonist) whose life is, knowingly or not, shaped and defined by the violent stories society loves. Or are we like the antagonists, who tell their own fiction so much they end up believing in it themselves. The answer is, of course, a complicated "yes".

And through that "yes" an optimistic vision of creation is formed. Fiction can, Fire Punch supposes in the midst of its chaos and confusion, allow the oppressed to be free, give meaning to the meaningless, and provide comfort to the suffering. Fire punch is, after all, a manga, created by an artist who is unabashadly in love with stories.

There's a lot to talk about with Fire Punch. There's a lot to talk about with all art. The series is extremely compassionate towards minorities in a way that is rare for manga; the ending is bold and touching, transforming the work again into something even bigger; religion plays a major role, both as a concept within the series and symbolically (the main character's name, Agni, is that of a Hindu fire god--I know nothing about Hinduism but ya'll know I'm gonna be digging deep into this now). But most of all, what Fire Punch wants you to remember is that at the end of the day, movies exist. And who doesn't love movies?

I'm actually VERY surprised by the high score of this manga on MAL. I knew it was on me to save many people's times by telling them what they're getting into with this story. There are a few spoilers (? none that ruin the plot) but I'll try and keep it to a minimum.

I broke it down to 4 sections: character, art, enjoyment, and story.

Art (3/10):
The art for this manga was passable. Very rough around the edges but passable because it fit the mood of the story. Nothing amazing and of all the manga I've read, it's around the lower half in quality which is why I gave it a 3.


Character (4/10):
Many people would say that this story is a story of internal struggle between right and wrong. I can definitely see where they are coming from. The problem is outside of the main character, the other characters were very very weird. Not necessarily bad, but when you read about them it just gave you a feeling a WTF is with this character. (one character is obsessed with Star Wars...in a post-apocalyptic world) Their motivations are somewhat defined in a way you can understand. Halfway through, however, you begin to notice where the author is losing his motivation in writing compelling characters. The main character begins to lose his drive and he ends up doing nothing for half the story. Some chalk it up to him trying to find his place in the world; I say it's just lazy writing.

Enjoyment (4/10):
I gave it a 4/10 simply because I somehow pulled through with reading all of it. It was enjoyable to see where the author was going to take you next because the story followed zero path and random stuff was thrown in here and there.

Story (1/10):
I saved the best for last, or in this case the worst for last. This story started off with SO much potential. Main character seeking revenge after an attack on his village. Story is set place in an icy world and the MC is on fire. The symbolism is tangible. First 10 chapters started off great. You could see where the story was heading. Afterward, it just became a huge clown fiesta of random plot points, random character introductions, and random moments in general. By the end of the manga, I had zero idea what I just read. Absolutely zero. ZERO. Like it was just a huge prank the author pulled on me because I wasted an hour or so reading this garbage.

So, if you enjoy reading a manga about absolutely nothing good and the plot lines lead nowhere. You'll enjoy this.

I wanted to see what was the hype about and oh boy... I should've never touch this manga. Let me tell you first, I'm not rating it 1 because it is total garbage, but because it started like a pure gold, promising something really interesting and then turned out to be a total disappointment. With less promising start it'd easily be 4 or even 5 out of 10. But I can't rate it more than 1 because of how low it goes after first 10 chapters as someone here already said.
Let me now explain what happened. In the beginning we are getting the darkest setting possible. People must eat human flesh to survive, mc and his sister are living relatively peaceful lives and then everything is changed by a single human being (Doma). Now Agni have nobody to live for and suffered 8 years of burning alive. If we remember the first (aka good) part of Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki had enough mental suffering from iirc less than a month of torture. 8 years. And Agni's still more sane. At least that is what we find out after 10 chapters. At first Agni looks like a revenge machine, only caring about killing Doma. And that's right. That's how it should be. But after Togata (aka the manga killer) shows herself, he becomes a total clown and the setting goes from dark to weird. "She wants to make a movie" and Agni follows her like a puppy. Yes, it was explained later that he couldn't think straight enough due to constant pain so he needed someone to guide him, but Togata is the least "someone" I'd like to see. She ruined the manga dark appearance with weird unnecessary jokes and overall movie theme. Characters are terrible. A man who for some reason can reflect bullets with his bat, half naked woman because why not lol, HALF NAKED MAN BECAUSE WHY NOT LOL ITS NOT LIKE THE EARTH IS FREEZING. If I had to compare that to chainsaw man, I'd say csm is infinitely better. Why? Because it had Togata-like mc from the beginning and Agni is semi-sane person with a very tragic life story. In csm weird jokes are part of the overall mood, while in fp the only purpose they serve is to ruin the initial dark setting.
I just wish an entire manga was like its first 10 chapters. We could have a really nice and serious story then. It brings me an unbelievable amount of disappointment that we didn't

Fire Punch: an unapologetically crude manga that focuses on protagonist Agni, a boy with regenerative powers who becomes physically and emotionally consumed by Doma's flames; an inextinguishable flame. After losing his sister and his village, Agni, constantly burning alive, sets out to kill the man responsible, Doma. My interest in the series was set ablaze at the beginning and did not extinguish until I had finished the last chapter.

Story 9/10
The story is a straightforward revenge story that ends up off the rails.
An action-tragedy steeped in dark humor. A grimace quickly turns into a chuckle and vice versa.

Art 10/10
Tatsuki Fujimoto is amazing. It's difficult for me to expand on it. The rough style helps contribute to the fast-past action. Many beautiful full-page panels are dropped during fight scenes, which are aplenty, or during an emotional slap-in-the-face moment.

Character 9/10
The cast filled with big personalities. Main character and side character meet? BOOM! Two side characters are interacting? BOOM! Each person has a strong personality ,
but sometimes leads to exhausting moments where the character's quirk becomes a nuisance.

Enjoyment 10/10
An existential crisis mixed with gore, taboo, and dick jokes. Fire Punch is a high-octane action-tragedy-dark-comedy that leans into the crazy.

The series starts off badass but the plot gets more and more disjointed over time. Major events happen in the blink of an eye in a way that has 0 impact. It frequently feels like I'm reading a phoned-in synopsis for a series.

The action is still interesting but the longer it goes the less weight any action scene seems to have. Major fights that should have had a lot of care taken with them happen in a single tiny panel and it's done. It feels like the author has a lot of trouble with both paneling and pacing.

Also there's only a single interesting character. The protagonist is thematically cool but incredibly boring in personality.

Truth be told there are a lot of stories that I've watched or read with a much deeper meaning in a thematically, metaphorical, and contextual level that I am unable to completely understand because frankly I am not the smartest person when it comes to those types of things. I can understand base concepts and, if I think long and hard enough, drag out some of the deeper meaningful things an author is trying to say.

But even if I could not understand everything this manga was trying to tell me, I still resonated with what I did understand so much on a deep emotional and spiritual level that I can't help but see this story as a masterpiece. That is the kind of manga this is, and trying to go further deep into what I am trying to say would basically be spoiling this manga. What I am willing to say is, this manga may well confuse you, and you may certainly not enjoy it by the end. But I ask you to take the risk, because you may be like me, and then you are in for something truly incredible.

No Spoilers!

Fire punch is quite a unique series as compared to the majority of mainstream Shonen manga's out there. It is very unconventional and I feel is probably misunderstood here in mal's community as being edgy and without substance, which is just not true.

The Manga is set in a post-apocalyptic / ice age setting with few people left alive. Few of the important characters of this series are very interesting. Life has become a struggle for survival and a number of important characters are on the brink of insanity. The futures for these characters seems grim, and the events that occur seem crazy. Amongst all this, there's also some interesting commentary on religion and beliefs as well.

The protagonist seeks revenge for the tragedy that he faced, and the story goes on with this as his main motivation. The artwork is good with sufficient detailing and well-drawn scenes.

Overall for me, this series is one of the better shonen series in recent times. I love series with great art and that have enough uniqueness to distinguish themselves from the rest. In a market where most shonen's follow similar templates, this one is refreshing. Looking forward to reading more from Tatsuki Fujimoto. I'm gonna give Fire Punch an 8.

--Some minor spoilers included--

Honestly, this manga was wild ride from start to finish, and even more so during the last couple of chapters.

Story(?):

The first half of this story is your typical revenge story, and then the other half is you wondering if you're still reading the same manga.

You know the story is akin to taking a nice summer walk to the super market to get some fresh long pig from your cute sister who happens to work there, until the food suppliers there break your knees caps and set the entire place on fire.

Okay, not the best way to start the day because you're still on fire and traumatized from that whole ordeal, so you gotta go complain to the chaps who inconvenienced you.

And from there it pretty much escalates to the point where you're tripping balls and can't tell the difference from a potato to a severed hand, let alone deal with the conundrums of the universe.

To put simply, I think the story progresses fine in it's early chapters in introducing the world the story is set in, but it's later chapters end up being confusing, with everything prior being thrown out the window. It's definitely a weird manga to read, so it's understandable if you decide to drop it.

Just don't expect some really god-tier form of writing from the plot.

I still found it enjoyable nonetheless, although your experience may vary, but at least give it a shot.

What a great manga, what a story. Very disturbing on one side, very touching on the other.
To start a story with incest and cannibalism is, to say the least, audacious.

But what follows is worth it. The years spent suffering the martyrdom, burned to a crisp waiting for the pain to pass.

The very impossibility of the main character to do anything. And when he realizes that he can take revenge, but seeing the pitiful state of a certain character, decides to abandon his quest is saddening.

The different arc that we see show different character and even the main character change in itself.
Even the ending is disturbing in its incomprehensibility, its length but is very well done.

Mod edit: this review may contain spoilers.

Welp I started reading this series called Fire Punch and the first chapter is probably the most absurd and gratuitously savage thing I've read in a while.

The world is so fucking cold and there is some dude who has regeneration powers. He rips his arm off in order to feed his people. Soldiers come to enslave them. The sergeant, who has the power to burn all out, decides to destroy and sacrifice all the town, so the regenerating guy is permanently burned while he regenerates, suffering for 8 years and over until he gets to dominate his regenerative power and decides to walk on fire taking revenge on people.

Oh, and between all this there is a crappy incest with his sister. 10/10 IGN

For some unknown reason then I felt like continuing reading, and now somehow I want to know what will happen next. Also, there is like some kind of odd anticlimatic comedy which I kinda liked. Although I'm not sure if this comedy is intentional or just the author's ill mind. I remember one scene when there was a naked boy and a dog started like licking his genitals. Laughed my ass off, I gotta say.

Not much more to say. The art is pretty good, but the distribution of bubbles, drawings and panels is kinda confusing sometimes, so as the dialogues are. This last might be because of the fansub. Dunno.