Can Agni squander the second chance he always wanted? Let’s find out!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tatsuki Fujimoto
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
In order to absorb all life, Judah has been turned into a massive tree by the Ice Witch. And just as Agni loses his will to live, Judah’s sorrowful pleas for death echo in his ear. What will await the world after its destruction and rebirth is complete?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The small community that rallied around Agni as their god has been all but annihilated in a matter of moments. Agni’s devil-angel of his shoulder in the form of Togata is gone. All that is left is a man-child aflame raging against a giant semi-sentient tree.
Then, in an unexplained moment of ignition, the planet-eating tree explodes. Angi is freed from his fire. Judah is freed, with no memory. Two naked humans in a cold, frozen world. For a moment Agni has what he wanted, his sister back. However, the truth nags at him. This isn’t his sister, she just looks like her. He can play at being innocent, yet he killed thousands.
Yup, this series is still batshit insane, but this volume doesn’t deliver any real new moments of shock and awe. The most crazed imagery has been spent. It slowly settles into a more subtle, more human drama reframed as the survivalist video game this series basically is. The young women we meet are fending off the male survivors from Behemdorg, losing members in their desperate bid for survival. Agni is threatened and reluctantly accepted as he lies his way through the encounters. He briefly gets to live a life, free from pain and even guilt. Yet it’s just a passing moment.
Agni’s struggle has run the gamut of idiocy and powerlessness even though he is one of the strongest characters in the series. His sanity is barely holding on by a thread. At the very end of this volume, his lies catch up with him when he is asked to kill Fire Punch. The irony of Agni’s attempts to kill himself, even after being told to live so many times by so many others is strong. He also comes to the realization that he’s never made a choice for himself, he’s only done what others have told him to do.
So this volume ends on a huge question. What now?
In Summary
This volume of Fire Punch swings hard back to survival horror as Agni gets a chance to start over. Yet the crimes of his past, his tenuous grasp on his sanity, and the expectations others put on him once again takes its toll. This series is still crass, crude, and ridiculous, and the absurdity of this dark post-apocalyptic tale are can’t really be forgotten even with the psychological exploration. There’s just one volume left to see how the world ends, although I really don’t know what to expect.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: Mature
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: April 16, 2019
MSRP: $12.99 US / $17.99 CN / £8.99 UK
