Released between 2016 and 2018, “Fire Punch” is a manga series written by Tatsuki Fujimoto, a Japanese author most well-known for his later work “Chainsaw Man.”
Taking place in the far future during a post-apocalyptic ice age, the story initially follows a young boy named Agni and his little sister Luna as they struggle to support their community of survivors. Both belong to a group of humans that possess supernatural abilities known as the “Blessed,” with them specifically having regenerative powers.
Just as Agni’s community begins to become stable, military force sent from the last known city of Behemdorg suddenly visits. Among this force is Doma, a Blessed soldier with the ability to produce fire that only stops burning once it has turned everything it touches into ash. After a confrontation, Doma sets fire to Angi’s entire village, killing everyone including his sister. Agni alone survives the attack because of his stronger regenerative powers.
Now cursed to wander Earth perpetually on fire, Agni’s life is guided by a singular goal: finding and killing Doma.
While it starts with a simple revenge story premise, the narrative of “Fire Punch” is quickly complicated by the arrival of new characters, revelations about the history of its world and general craziness that should be expected by those familiar with “Chainsaw Man” or any of Fujimoto’s other work.
I admit that I am reaching a bit by covering “Fire Punch” in this science fiction column, as there are arguments to be made that it belongs much in the dark fantasy category. The biggest argument in favor of the fantasy classification would have to come from the inclusion of the Blessed, which effectively introduces superpowers into the setting.
However, I would argue in favor of an overall sci-fi classification for the narrative primarily due to its aesthetic choices and some of the world-building Fujimoto tackles throughout the series’ run.
For starters, a lot of sci-fi and fantasy elements are indistinguishable from a broader view. For instance, take the inclusion of non-human characters in a narrative. For a fantasy series like “Lord of the Rings,” these characters might be justified in universe as being “magical” races like orcs or elves.
Now let’s say that you want to add non-human characters to a science fiction story like “Star Wars;” since it’s sci-fi, we’ll simply justify their inclusion by calling them aliens instead. Functionally, they can serve the same narrative role as the fantasy magical races, but they are different solely because of the lore justifying their addition to the narrative.
With this in mind, looking at the world-building present in “Fire Punch,” it seems that Fujimoto was definitely leaning harder into a sci-fi angle than a fantasy one. For example, the story takes place in the far future, there’s advanced technology like battle armor and even the Blessed are explained in universe as potentially having an extraterrestrial origin.
Yet this is where “Fire Punch” becomes a bit wobbly, both in terms of its classification as sci-fi and its enjoyability, as well as in terms of the extent to which it devotes itself to world-building.
To explain, “Fire Punch” is an example of a narrative that cares much more about its emotional impact than its plot. Like “Chainsaw Man,” reading “Fire Punch” feels a lot like riding a rollercoaster. There are constant plot twists, character betrayals, sudden developments and many plot lines are introduced only to be discarded within the same chapter. Whenever possible, Fujimoto values shocking and emotional reactions over explaining the setting.
For some, this can be incredibly annoying, as it makes the narrative harder to follow and makes the world-building very underdeveloped. However, when you approach “Fire Punch” as a roller coaster ride and choose to let its story take you where it wants to go, you open yourself up more of what Fujimoto was trying to convey.
Moreover, while a lot of the story feels designed to catch the reader off-guard, the vast majority of it doesn’t feel like it was included purely for shock value. Instead, most of the shocking moments feel deliberately placed to trigger emotions from the reader. Okay, maybe not the scene with the dogs, but most scenes.
Of course, your mileage may vary, but isn’t that just the beauty of storytelling?
If what I’ve described sounds interesting, or if you’re a fan of Fujimoto’s other work like “Chainsaw Man”, I’d recommend checking “Fire Punch” out.