windjamm | Review: The Fire Hunter Episode 1 (Reply)

Okay, so when I wrote that Trigun post my time started with me going, "hey, I wanna watch an anime" and I looked up some lists people had of things they've been enjoying. I found one with The Fire Hunter on it and it sounded really exciting. Then I didn't have Crunchroll and couldn't find it elsewhere so I watched Trigun Stampede. HOWEVER a friend of mine let me use her crunchroll account and so here we are!

The first thing that's striking me in this opening is how pretty the art is.

Okay, let's see. Spoilers as reactions and then I'll come back in at the end for a spoiler-free summary of my thoughts, sound good?

So the lore of this place is so fuckin rad?

"Fire hunting is a noble calling. How many times have I told you that? Up until about 60 years ago, we used to skul around among the dark trees, but now, we can build villages. We have the fire hunters to thank for that. They risk their lives to harvest flame so that you can live with your eyes open."

Just!!! OKAY!!! YEAH FUCKIN YEAH!!!

YO OKAY I'M PRETTY SURE THE BLOOD FROM THE MONSTERS SLAIN BECOMES A SORT OF JELLY THAT, WHEN BLOWN UPON BY A PIPE IN THE RIGHT WAY, CREATES FLAME???? OKAY??? OKAY OKAY OKAY

I'm not sure what this "Muku Paper" is but this woman just said it's, "what the gods write on." HELLO?

"This is no ancient tale. Once, humans could make fire and use it as they pleased. But then, the human race was remade. Thereafter, even approaching a spark of natural flame would cause their bodies to ignite from within. so ended old humanity's long history of war. Ever since, the world has been covered by dark forests which have become the domain of the flame fiends, where humans cower in fear of both the darkness and fire. One day, strong winds rustled the treetops, sparking a small natural flame. This tiny fire claimed the lives of Touko's parents and their neighbor's husband. Akari's eyes burned, and a total of 19 villagers died, incinerated from within."

GOD OKAY!!! ALRIGHT! YEA! OKAY!

whoa they have a gatling gun of harpoons because they can't have natural flame. that's sick.

There's this huge "truck" which is like a sandsteamer operating on I believe the fire jelly? And it comes around twice a year for collections and also a sort of market. huh.

"Even though natural flame now spelled death for humans, they were loath to relinquish the lost blessings of fire. Or perhaps they wished to shield their young from its dangers. Whatever the reason, they started naming their children after fire or shades of red."

God the world building is so fuckin sick.

Look at this shot??

And this closing frame! ugh!!!!

Okay! So, this was a pretty fun episode for world building. This is a place where humanity has been "Remade" and can no longer encounter natural flame or else they will spontaneously combust. Still needing flames, they've found that these monsters, these flame fiends, can be slain and the natural blood in their bodies can be refined into a combustible jelly that does not count under the rules of natural flame.

I really want to get more information about basically all of this. The art is pretty throughout, the world building is so fuckin Mysterious? It's exciting and I'm eager to see more.

The episode DID feel long for 20 minutes, but also that's probably on me. I probably won't live blog the future ones to prevent that feeling since they're already pretty dense as is and it makes me pause pretty often.

Also, the formatting for this post broke so the spoilered stuff is all in a weird highlight format. Dunno how to fix that without a lot of elbow grease, soooo! Y'know! Sorry about it.