Princess Hibana - Tumblr Posts

Let me just be clear I am not shitting on the show I geniunely believe it is an amazing story. And I am mostly talking about the anime I have not read the manga so I do not know how many of these things apply.

But yeah before we begin;

****trigger warning : Contains mild spoilers for Fire Force season 1 and discussion of sexual violence and abuse****

Fire Force fans that complain about people being put off by the "fan service" or angry that this makes the show not as popular really just show how much they do not care about women.

Because you are basically saying you don't care about the consistent sexual

Because the "fan service" in Fire Force is so drastically different that the sexual posing, the constantly bouncing half exposed giant boobs, or even the ass and boob shots which while sexualizing, annoying and have their own problems are relatively easy to gloss over. The sexualization in Fire Force is pervasive and bordering on harassment ad sexual violence.

Because while Tamaki's luck leacher is played as a gag most of the time it is also something that is shown to actively hinder her life. Not just in fights too, it practically led to her ostracization from society at an extremely young age. It is something we see and are told has such a negative affect on not only how the people that she worked with view her but on her mental health as well. And for fans to just regulate it to an annoyance that distracts from cool fights is so geniunely disgusting. especially when we are talking about a character that is canonically still a teenager and a minor.

But it's not even just that, at least that gag gets addressed by the fandom and has story consequences. The thing that really kills me and irritates me (and I'm talking about the anime because I haven't read the manga so i don't know if this happens there as well) is how no female character( except Maki whose running joke is how unfeminine she is which is whole nother discussion) can enter a single fight without ending up practically naked at the end of it. It's so disconcerting because this never happens to any of them men. They can take whatever kind of beating and their clothes will still be compeltely intact. But the women enter any kind of fight and if they dont comeletly lose their jacket it's in complete scraps.

like this is tamaki at the end of a fight

even worse cause she was getting completely beat up by this dude she really looked up too. And people use these images like they are sexy and cute. Hell it was used on a happy birthday post for her. And find Tamaki just lucky leecher right? Wrong

Here is Iris, a character that is supposed to be a nun at the end of a not even that serious fight.And that is arrow a woman who is literally supposed to be highly trained and had a bunch of men fighting with her whose outfits had not a rip in them.

and this is Shinra (main character) after a fight that completely pushes him to his limits and he was taking hit after hit.

His fit completely intact.

That arrow pic is the one all these youtubers have as their reaction video thumbnail. Like that just doesn't look like sexual violence. Like I don't understand how anyone can look at that picture, especually knowing the context of the absolutely horrible abuse she is facing in it, and not immediately feel icky.

And that's the thing in almost all the fights with female characters especially if they are losing (which when your Tamaki is often) they are posed in such ways that combined with their "artfully" postioned nudity looks a lot like sexual violence.

I'm sorry like look at this. How does this not just read as sexual violence to you. And maybe in this particular case you could make an argument that it was supposed to be implied because the bird man in the pic was supposed to be mentally manipulating her and it was all just generally really fucked up and abusive. But none of it was explicitly or even outside of this fight, implied to be sexual. It was just in the context of this fight and this and some other posing that felt so sexually violent. That i was honestly so disturbed when I watched it (which admittedly worked cause you were supposed to be disturbed by the levels of manipulation this woman suffered under).

but yeah for fans to not even acknowledge how disturbing this is how uncomfortable this is not only for the female character or the female fanbase but just anyone who might be sensitive to sexual harm or abuse. For alot of these pics to be used as sexy images like we don't know that the context is horrific violence because that's the thing all these pictures I used where taking from moments that these characters where experiencing not just tremendous overwhelming physical violence but also mental abuse and attacks. The least horrific fight here is Iris' but it was still mentally devastating for her as it was being done by someone she considered a sister. To divorce any of these pictures from their context and put them in thumbnails to catch perverted eyes is so genuinely disgusting I can't even fathom it. To not even recognize the sexually violent undertones of the image is genuinely baffling to me.

And I'm not saying all this to shit on fire force or discourage anyone from watching it because I do genuinely think that it has such an amazing story. And such an great representation they have loads of black characters that aren't stereotypically drawn (hell they even have a nigerian which i can't tell you really tickled my nigerian heart) and honestly despite what my post might lead you to believe the female character are so well thought out and incredibly nuanced and diverse. It honeslty does female characters alot better than shows that don't have this problem. Hell even with Tamaki's lucky leecher and the exploration of the deeper trauma of it was so artfully done that it almost made up for the amount of times I had to see this girls panties. The explorations of the different kinds of abuse and societal neglect or religious trauma and abuse, of living in uncertain times where you could die at any moment is so poignant and honestly so well done I've fully never seen in anime some of the ways that the aftermath of abuse is explored like was done in this show, trauma and recovery is not one and done in this show it is continueosly acknowledged and built upon. Hell one of my favorite episodes of the series is an exploration of how trauma can lead to the strangest coping mechanisms and soothing.

The show is genuinely compelling enough for me to push through all this to see the story unfold. Because again just to be clear while the posing looks very sexual no actual sexual violence occurs. And I will be going back to watch season 3 whenever it decides comes out. But it does lead me to just ask why? Why all the heavy sexualization, was there a fear that the show couldn't stand on it's own? It's one of the only animes I've ever seen where the amount of fan service actually hindered it's popularity. it was made by the same mangaka that did soul eater which Ive heard has it's fair share of fan service but wasn't hindered by it on the same level. Which gives me hope that atleast some people felt it but couldn't put their finger on exactly why it unsettled them. (because honestly besides Tamaki and the odd shower conversation scene outside of these fights the female characters aren't really sexualized one or two of them where a revealing outfit but it's just that a revealing out. which is what makes the sexualization in the midst of violence so fucking weird it's just ahhhhh) the show also occasionally falls prey to the MC saving all the damsels in distress because he's usually the one that does MC things to swoop in and save them. Especially with Tamaki but she will then use this not wanting to be saved anymore to try and get stronger. And she honestly goes out there and gets the teacher that taught the boys to teach her and she gets a training montage which I've never seen a female character "i have to get stronger like them" ever get before. so that's neat. It is also the first time I have ever really seen where a majority of the most powerful characters are female. Where there are a good number of powerful female character really who have agency both good and bad.

But yeah anyway I wasn't sharing this to discourage anyone from watching the show and honestly I'd recommend anyone that can stomach it (to reiterate there is no actual explicit sexual violence) to give it a shot, the story really is worth watching, and honestly if it wasn't for all this ick it'd have been one of my faves but only if you can stomach it. But yeah this was mostly me wanting to let people know what they were really getting into with the show and to share the thoughts I've had but never really been able to put into words since i watched the show. And my frustation with fans (mostly male fans) that say we are overreacting or just refuse to get it. But also fans that try to reduce the sexualization of a major character (who just so also happens to be a minor) to just an annoyance during your cool fight.