TITLE: Fire Punch vol. 3
YEAR: July 2018 (US Release Date)
COMPANY: VIZ Media, LLC
Story & Art by Tatsuki Fujimoto
From mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto comes his shonen manga “Fire Punch”.
Serialized in Shonen Jump from April 2016 through January 2018, the manga has been collected into 8 manga volumes and now the manga series will be released in North America courtesy of Viz Signature.
The series is set during a time when humanity is going through a major crisis as chaos and famine rules the land. But in this world are people with special abilities known as the “Blessed”.
Agni and his younger sister Luna are Blessed who have regenerative powers. While Agni knows how to regenerate, Luna is unable to regenerate that quickly yet.
And the two are staying with villagers who allowed them to stay and the two are helping villagers by giving them food to eat. Primarily, Agni is chopping his arm off and giving them a chance to eat his arm (as he can easily regenerate and grow another).
While not all villagers resort to cannibalism, many are dying because they don’t want to eat human flesh, while those who do eat, are among the living.
One day, a military group lands in the area by plane and their leader Doma tells them that there is a war going on and they exhausted their supplies. The soldiers have come to the village to take what they want and in exchange, they will get to live in Behemdorg as a gesture of goodwill.
The war is to defeat the Ice Witch in hopes to bring green back to the world.
When the soldiers inspect the village and report that the villagers are eating human remains, Doma and his soldiers leave, not before using his special ability, to ignite and burn the whole village and its people down.
Everyone and the entire village is burned to death and while Agni’s regeneration kicks in, but her sister, her regenerative powers are too weak and she gives him one message before he dies…”Live”.
For a year, Agni would live but in pain as the flames around his body never subsided. By year three, he was able to walk, still coughing up blood and by year five, he was able to acclimate to the pain but unable to breathe well due to the flames.
By year eight, Agni taught himself how to control his regenerative powers and ways to confine the flames to his lower body away from his head and so he is able to breathe.
And now, Agni has a reason to live and that is to get revenge on Doma, the man who killed his his sister and burn him alive.
In vol. 2, we see a girl getting raped by soldiers. But a woman comes to film them raping her, her name is Togata (who happens to have 300 years of knowledge) and she is an experienced assassin, but she is more interested in trying to make a movie, after watching so many western films.
Togata saves the girl named Neneto but when given a camera, she discovers there is a man (Agni) who is on fire and decides that she wants to find him and make a movie about him.
And when she finds him, she makes a deal, she will share her knowledge (especially on fighting) to Agni and allow him to get her revenge, but in return, he must be the star of her film.
As for Sun, what happened to him and is he still alive?
In vol. 3, not knowing that Togata has manipulated him and the other side for the purpose of making a movie, she tells Agni that the man he wants revenge on is at a certain location, when in truth, it’s an ambush being setup against him.
But Agni starts to make his own decisions as he enters the enemy camp, seeing imprisoned slaves and to also bypass directions and make his own story…to save as many people as he can.
“Fire Punch” is a manga series that is quite original. Sure, we see regeneration in anime series like “Attack on Titan” but “Fire Punch” is interesting in the fact that the story takes place where humanity is in chaos due to famine and the world being turned to ice. And among the humans still alive, there are those with special abilities.
The third volume focuses on Togata manipulating Agni and the other side to clash for the sake of filming a movie.
Agni thinking the person who killed his sister is in the military base, while the enemy looks at a chance to eliminate the burning man in front of the public.
But as Agni approaches and adopts the name “Fire Punch”, his resolve of wanting to go after the man that killed his sister shifts to wanting to help as many people as he can and as he wants to save lives and also deviating from Togata’s plans, what kind of chaos is waiting for him when he arrives to the location?
Overall, this is a very fascinating story about revenge. Tatsuki Fujimoto does an excellent job with overall character designs and his artwork manages to capture the desolation of the area but showing the grief on the people’s faces. It’s a fairly violent manga series, so it’s not a manga series for children.
And while Fujimoto’s artwork is great, his storytelling for these first three volumes are captivating. An original story, a captivating plot and I can’t wait for to read more “Fire Punch”!
“Fire Punch” vol. 3 is recommended!