TITLE: Fire Punch vol. 1
YEAR: January 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.
“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 story begins with a brother and sister trying to stay alive amidst all the chaos but are quick to learn that with the war, life is not safe at all. Agni and his sister managed to survive by using their regenerative powers to save a village by Agni chopping his arm off to feed families. He could do it because he could easily regenerate his arm right back.
But when soldiers find out that the villagers have resorted to cannibalism, their superior Doma has the village and its people scorched to death with his power.
While Agni was able to regenerate, his sister has not and over the years, Agni has learned to control his power and his thirst for revenge gets stronger.
The story also introduces us to a boy (who looks like a girl) named Sun. Sun decides to follow Agni around as he saved her. While Sun has a weak power of electricity, because Agni killed soldiers trying to save Sun and others, he is now a target.
But the soldiers want to capture him and use him as a weapon to fight the Ice Witch, the one they blame for turning their land into ice.
But Agni is headed to the land of Behemdorg to get his revenge. But will he live long enough to get there?
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.
And while Fujimoto’s artwork is great, his storytelling for vol. 1 is just as exceptional. An original story, a captivating plot and I can’t wait for vol. 2 of “Fire Punch”.
Recommended!