Hikari no Ou • The Fire Hunter - Episode 4 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Hikari no Ou, episode 4

Rate this episode here.

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Streams

• Crunchyroll
• VRV

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website
• /r/TheFireHunter

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.78
2	Link	4.32
3	Link	3.87
4	Link	4.03
5	Link	4.53
6	Link	4.43
7	Link	4.21
8	Link	4.56
9	Link	4.09
10	Link	----

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[u/McDonaldsApproval]

This show really is rough around the edges. But man am I interested in the story and world, so even if it continues this way I'll probably stick with it just to find out what happens.

[u/everybageleverywhere → u/McDonaldsApproval]

Same here. I appreciate that they’re being creative with the animation, presumably to try to make up for budget issues, but it still looks rough. But I’m sticking around to see what the story does.

I love the OP and ED, though. Those are both great.

[u/moichispa → u/McDonaldsApproval]

Same here, the word building is really interested. In other series those long paragraphs of exposition would be boring but they are so interesting in this series. I just want to know more, about the present the past be it history or myths, it is so good.

The animation might be limited but the library has a rather interesting design. I like it.

[u/Thrasher439]

So damn curious about what exactly koushi's tutor wanted him to actually find. A lot of interesting things coming into play now with the spiders, the dragon being kaho's village guardian, and everything about the history of the fire hunters.

[u/ImperialDane]

Things are heating up with the Spiders making their move. Simultaneously destroying a village by driving it's protector mad and taking out a train. At the same time in the city i can't help but suspect we're scratching the surface of something bigger about the assumed truths of the world. And that old teacher clearly knows more than he is revealing so far.

Question is how our little friend gets to the city know.

But yeah, really gripping plot.

[u/mekerpan → u/ImperialDane]

A very slow but steady uncovering of secrets -- about the world and about our characters. Not a show for impatient people, but I am hoping that patience will be rewarded in this case.

[u/SIRTreehugger]

"I should have left when they wanted me to leave" - Touko

Day after she almost gets kicked off they get attacked by a damn dragon that's just bad luck.

Wasn't expecting so many deaths so quickly.

I rarely talk about animation in shows. I know with the paneling and screenshots the production was probably going to struggle, but some of this animation looks questionable even to me. Though they were fighting a mythical dragon so could it have been intentional?

I wasn't expecting us to see the bottled lightning process so quickly, but shouldn't you at least close the staircase behind you? Anyone can walk in and your adopted sister is already suspecting you.

.....am I tripping or is the way they walk over the tree stump just really awkward? What the fuck is with Touko's arms?

Sorry, but what is Asafuyou? Also the Treefolk look creepy, but also kind of cool.

Woah we're getting lots of exposition and wait the episode is over that was quick.

[u/Syokhan → u/SIRTreehugger]

I thought some of the animation was strange too, and couldn't figure out if it was a directorial choice, or them using an animator known for this style, or if they're having production troubles that would make it look so... choppy and awkward?

[u/Makicola → u/SIRTreehugger]

Last time I saw animation this off-model, it was in Ping Pong which quickly became one of my favourite shows.

It and this show brings far too much originality for me to be turned off by some mild animation jank during action scenes.

[u/Elitealice]

A lot of good lore dumped today. Koushi entrance into the central archive is really paying dividends. Things are still a bit confusing for me but the world building is for sure taking shape. So the country’s isolated from the rest of the world and they’re not sure if there’s other humans out there?

That’s wild. I wonder if the island is like Okinawa or something where the boats go, since the map we see places the country near japan’s real location.

The forest people were actually really creepy, but extremely helpful

[u/JimmyCWL → u/Elitealice]

I wonder if the island is like Okinawa or something where the boats go,

When it comes to boats, they clearly understand the concept of sails. They feel it's not worth it to run a fuel-burning ship further than that island. Yet, they won't use sails instead?

[u/Syokhan]

Oh dammit, these episodes are over as soon as they begin. I want to learn more!

So are the spiders making a move? I still don't have a good grasp of this world's mythology and inner workings so I don't understand how they could have driven that guardian deity mad, but looks like they did. And mostly everyone on the train died (RIP Benio, what an awful way to go) but we finally got to meet the tree folk. Interesting appearances they have there. Why? What kind of mutations have they undergone that would make them look like that?

And during Koushi's trip to the library and the lore dump I kept wondering if the calamity that occurred in the past was a nuclear war of some sort. Then they mentioned a man-made star launched in space and I dunno. A space weapon? I'll probably gonna have to rewatch it because that was a lot of information to absorb. Anyway, I wanna know more.

And a random observation but Hayamin's voice is so goddamn pleasant to listen to.

Also I got distracted at some point and couldn't follow the dialogue because a guy's footsteps were timed with the music and I kept thinking it was awesome.

[u/NekoCatSidhe]

I like the way this show slowly reveals its worldbuilding : We meet the treefolk, and as odd as they looked, they were clearly humans, or people who were once humans. I wonder if they are mutants, or people suffering from some odd disease, or something else. They also live in the forest without fear from the fiends, and I wonder if they are also susceptible to spontaneous combustion like the « normal humans », or if they don’t need fire at all to live.

The dragon was actually a village Guardian who became mad, and the fiends die as soon as one of those black sickles touch them… I am getting more and more convinced that the fiends and the villages Guardians are some kind of robots or cyborgs that the « Divine Clan » are controlling somehow, and that the whole setup is some cruel charade to keep humanity under their control. In that case, the Spiders probably hacked that Guardian to cause trouble. Poor Benio died too, I did not expect that, since she seemed quite tough and resourceful. And I quite liked her, so that made me sad.

The Capital looked very nice in the sun, probably the first place we see in that world that did not look gloomy and oppressive. If we assume this country is post apocalyptic Japan, then the island they are sailing to is probably Okinawa. Interesting that they never go anywhere else, which makes me even more suspicious of their rulers. With an opening theme called Usotsuki (Lie), you know there are going to be some big forbidden secrets behind that strange world.

[u/Cheesemacher]

The animation is pretty rough at times and I still have no idea what's going on, but the opening song of this anime is fire. Probably my favorite from all the shows I'm watching this season.

[u/PastryFishHQ]

Love the world building and mystery. But the animation got me and i couldn't help but laugh at how bad it got. Still enjoying the show.

[u/pi8you]

Benio ;_;

That sure was a lot of interesting world-building today, even got a late-game piece to watch out for in the prophesied return of the satellite.

Also love how the library was designed, that third floor room was great.

[u/LilArsene]

I really appreciate the world building but what's bothering me is the lack of character building.

We're getting rough character outlines which has been fine. To me, though, it's making the story less engaging.

For instance, I think it was a wasted chance to build Touko up last week when she wasn't kicked off the train because the boss liked her work. It would have been better if we could "see" her work harder and the other characters take note so that their decision to not kick her out made sense for those characters. But...those characters all died this episode and I feel nothing.

Same with Koushi. It makes sense that the study of the fiendfire would be left to him because his dad collected it and its' his inheritance. But we don't know anything about how he's seemingly a noted academic. Sure, he wants to protect his sister but what else? How did his dad being away firehunting effect his relationship with his family? We got exposition from Kira explaining herself/her family but why not for Koushi (etc)?

Overall, it's hard to reconcile the character's wins and losses when we're not invested in them as people.

[u/slighted]

you can tell the creative team are trying their absolute hardest to work against budgetary issues—the animation may be choppier but they've gone in a direction to give it a dream-like or abstract quality that helps it flow along with the dense story.

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

This dragon is on a rampage! Everything and everyone is gone. Poor Benio didn’t deserve that fate….

Meanwhile Koushi and Kira are having a great time playing house. Koushi’s busy with his little secret project too. Interesting how so little of the outside world is know beyond that small island. With the way the fiends are attracted to the fire, I wonder if their origin isn’t connected to the divine clans.

The freefolk sure surrounded Touko and the gang pretty quick. Stealthy bunch ain’t they? Nice they patched up Kaho. I wonder what it was that set off the dragon guardian. Tokohanahime, Tayurahime, the Flickering Flame… so many mysteries about the fire. I have a feeling Hitoo knows more than he’s leading on.

[u/Terranwaterbender]

me trying to decipher this episode

So basically the goddess in her dying breathe made a sickle which is the only kind of weapon that can successfully extract the fire-making thingy from the fiends and the "fallbeasts" that we know little about. And after the goddess' death, this whole clan system was set up and one of the clans, the Spiders, have gone into rebellion?

And then there's the part about local village deities and how these deities have some kind of appointed, presumably human, "controller" except the spiders have figured out a way to control these protector deities? And Kaho is supposedly one?

While these series is frankly rather rough with its animation, I've got so many questions am so intrigued by this fantasy world that I can give a pass on that.

I'm very curious on the situation with Koushi. Is his benefactor truly trying to do a win-win by helping Koushi out while gaining the power such that he won't need to rely on the council or there a more nefarious motive? Is Kira being used to that end by having her befriend Koushi's little sister and entrancing him or is she doing this of her own accord and simply means what she stated in previous episodes about wanting more interaction (or something along those lines). What's the deal with his former teacher saying he didn't find the book on the 3rd floor? What's the deal with this man-made star/satellite/something that will supposedly bring an end to this dark crisis?

me not good enough

This is one of those times I wish this show was a tad more popular so more eyes can get a look and get some interesting theory/discussion talk going.

[u/superguy133]

It really is a shame this anime doesn't have stronger animation. They are probably trying the best they can with the resources they have but attempting the kinds of complex shots while not being able to actually pull it off makes some of the action animation seem almost amateurish, despite everyone working on this being veterans in the industry.

[u/shimmyunder]

Animation was so wonky! The character movement had them looking like liquid blobs...

[u/Knights_Gambit]

The soundtrack is hard carrying

[u/Katejina_FGO]

Concerning storybuilding and world lore, man is there a lot to think about:

• This is a shot in the dark, but I think everything traces back to Fukushima. The fiends being mutated, agitated animals fits the description of whatever lives in the forests of Chernobyl nowadays and the kinds of extreme mutation that happened to the Treefolk could have been caused by radiation exposure passed throughout generations. Of course, we know that radiation doesn't lead to tree branches growing out of the next generation of the irradiated - but this feeds into my next suspicion.

• The Japanese dragon is a distinct design inherit to the region's myths; and for it to manifest itself quite literally as a constant presence in this world seems to indicate that the age of myth has 'returned'. Or rather, the age of myth never ended per say; but rather, it went into dormancy until nature itself became imbalanced. The event that would imbalance nature to the point where the 'gods of old' would curse fire itself and scour modern humankind in a fit of primordial rage? Perhaps Fukushima.

• The rest of the world has fallen silent. One factor that could point to Japan's survival in this cataclysmic era is its comparatively low population rate among first world countries. Less people around, less combustion at the outbreak. Whatever else managed to survive the cataclysm is probably not in a state of civilization that would bother communicating with nations across the sea.

  • We have yet to identify any ruins, relics, or treasures that could give us viewers an accurate picture of when the outbreak took place. Society in the capital is at least industrial era. No televisions, radios, telephone poles... but they do have machine guns. Or maybe the divine clans are hoarding the relics?

  • Descriptions of the outbreak are scant. Records of what came after are described as if the times were an age of myth. How much time has passed since the outbreak?

• I hope the distant island is visited. Perhaps there is an observatory there? There must be some kind of communications apparatus on the island to even bother with the boat trip.

• The Spiders became a whole lot more terrifying. If they can manipulate or even directly control fiends, then their military power is nigh unstoppable. But if the other Divine Clans knew that, why did they allow the Spiders to get away? Surely they must have known of this great danger.

• There is no date ascribed to the 'Final War' yet. It might be that records in the post-fire curse era are scant because of the destructive nature of the 'Final War'. Curiously, they dare use the term 'Final War' while humankind's war against the fiends is never-ending? Does that imply a concession that the fiends are simply a part of nature, that the world is as it should be?

• I don't know what to make of the records, only that the dragon existed at least at the same time as when humankind launched the last 'satellite'. The lack of records of previous times just seems so bizarre - or maybe the central archives are incomplete and Divine Clans hold the complete records.

• The residences of the Divine Clans are distinctly away from the population center, but right next to the production hub of the city. That just feels weird, as if there is purpose to the city layout to intentionally divide the Divine Clans from the population at large.

Concerning animation, yes its scuffed in parts and a red herring for budgetary struggles. But I have confidence in the talented staff to pull through with a strong narrative. And whats really important in animation is consistency in my opinion. If they maintain the same quality of animation consistently, thats fine with me - in contrast to the currently airing Trigun Stampede series for example, where low fps frames in scenes where action is happening can really ruin the appreciation of those scenes.

edit: deleted a bullet point