Fire Force Analysis – Shinras Ascension

I made this analysis to highlight what i think are the most important messages in the latest work of Ohkubo Atsumi, Fire Force. Since the manga is very cryptic, a lot of what i talk about here are my interpretations. theres too much information so for now ill try to limit myself to talking about the trajectory protagonist Shinra exclusively.

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So, after reading the whole manga, it feels like the whole first part the author setting the stage for the final arc. So id like to start my analysis from the begining of the Cataclysm, at Chapter 210;

Yona – Yona, who first appears in the story as a pyrokinectic whose power is change his and others physical appearance, a rather weak power, turns out to have a massive relevance in the story. Chapter 210 shows that he is an entity from Adolla that came to earth after the failed cataclysm of 250 years ago. He killed the Man called Raffles and impersonated him, and the whole religion of the Holy Sol is created by him, in order to fulfill his original goal of destroying the world completely. We get to know the real extent of the grasp that the white hoods have over the empire. They shaped the whole culture from the very beggining to fit their goals.

The previous cataclysm – In chapter 216, Shinra has an Adolla link with Inca. The adolla link is a spiritual experience shared between two or more people who have witnessed the world of Adolla. In this Adolla link, Shinra says he is worried about the coming cataclysm, and Inca convinces him to go back in time with his speed of light and see what happened in the previous cataclysm, 250 years ago. Going back, Shinra finds himself in our world. The pages of the manga turn into photos, not drawings. Shinra goes insane, waking up 5 months later in an asylum-like room.

The world of Adolla –
Throught the manga Adolla is represented as a world of flames, and usually is compared to hell.At chapter chapter 230, when the seventh pillar of the cataclism rises and its demon is defeated, the moon suddenly becomes cartoony, with a face and a creepy smile. Princess Hibana rapidly notices that the moon is often depicted that way in illustrations, so the moon has changed from real moon into our common perception of the moon. So it becomes clear that the true nature of Adolla is the world of perception, humanity´s collective unconscious. I could also be described as Platos world of forms. But why is the collective unsconscious a world of fire? well i have a theory for that, but ill leave it for later for better understanding.

-The hidden Messiah
In chapters 231-233, after Sho experiences an Adolla link with his brother Shinra, he gets free from Haumea´s brainwash and back to his senses. Seeing the world is about to end, he decides he wants to know more about his family. Eventually he finds out that he and Shinra have no father, in fact, they were born from a virgin, and it was scientifically proven. Shinra is quite literally Jesus, or at least an manifestation of the archetype of ‘Messiah’. Sho finally finds his role in the story, since he found the truth, now his role is to guide and protect his brother Shinra, and hopefully have humanity recognize him as the Savior, not a devil.
Sho also finds out that his and Shinras virginal birth didnt make it to the news because the White Hoods, disguised as church members, pressured the doctors not to release that information. Now he realizes the White Hoods fear Shinras existance.
This chapter also reveals Yona was the responsible for spreading the rumors that would give Shinra the nickname of ‘Devil’. With this ploy, Yona managed to trap the savior in the image of a Devil.

-The cataclysm
Chapter 234, in a talk amongst themselves, the Whitehoods reveal exactly what is the cataclysm. It is not simple destruction, but actually, the merging of Adolla with the real world. But the white hoods are a death cult, their intention is to bring the end of humanity, so for their plan to come true, endpoint of humans ideas must equal ‘death’.If they manage to keep that state, when Adolla merges with the real world, everyone will die.
However there is one existence that can disrupt that state, the Hero, and that person is Shinra. If the hero shows himself to mankind, as a symbol of hope, they might understand that the end doesnt have to be death.

this part reminds me of the scene of superman death and return, when Jon Kent convinces superman to come back to life. The only reason he could die is because he was raised with the concept of death. Concidence or not, the demons carrying superman to death wear white hoods.This could very well be true for all humans in fire force. Arthurs very concept of death is different than a normal´s person. For him, who imagines hes the Legendary king Arthur, death is Avalon, nothing more than a place of regeneration, a place that is necessary to complete his legend and most importantly, a place from which he will return. For that single reason, Arthur manages to not die, even after being cut in the half. He just goes back to normal a few chapters later.

-Savior vs Savior
Chapter 235, the eighth and final stone pillar of the cataclysm rises. The demon that accompanies it is none other than Raffles, the founder of the Holy Sol Religion. Shinra comes flying to fight it, as a cameraman who is recording makes the classic superman reference(“is that a bird, a plane?”..).
Sho appears to help Shinra, he says now its time to show humaniy hes the hero, and give them hope. The stage is set for the hero to save humanity´s soul. The cameraman is streaming the fight to the whole empire.
This page is really interesting because its almost like a comparison between old testament and new testament. The old wants to judge and condemn, the new wants to free and save humanity.

Shinra manages to easily beat Raffles, but it backfires. Yonas devilish ploy is completed, and people see not hope, but the devil vanquishing their most loved prophet. The hero is rejected, and people fall into a even deeper despair
The confused Shinra disappears out of thin air in front of everyone, like he never was there in the first place.

-Amaterasu
At chapter 240, the eight division, now without Shinra, rushes to the powerplant Amaterasu, from where they know the Whitehoods will try to use the key and complete the Cataclysm.

The key to trigger the Cataclysm is the number PI completed. Its stated thet the only reason the first cataclysm didnt completely end our world is because PI wasnt solvable, its an sequence of numbers that really never end. After the first cataclysm, not only we became anime-style characters, but along with many changes in the world´s rules, PI was also made solvable.We can speculate that the unsconscious human desire to end/complete things made many things that were infinite into finite when the world changed.

One of Haumeas tasks in the Whitehoods was acessing the collective unconscious to gather the fragments of Pi, and at this point in the story, she has it completed. But this is also very interesting because in DC comics theres the concept of Anti-life equation, which is an equation that mathematically proves that life has no meaning. And its also stated that the pieces of Anti-life equation could be gathered from humanity´s unconscious, so the Pi from fire force an the Anti-life equation are basically the same thing. In this case, the solved PI is the mathematical proof that humanity desires the end.

The Whitehoods emerge victiorious in the battle againts the 8th division in Amaterasu, as they manage to use the key to complete the cataclysm. The world now starts to be consumed by flames, and the only way to stop it is to spark hope on the people, so that it overcomes the despair. .

Shinras return – In chapter 273,after defeating dragon, Arthurs victorious scream manages to reach shinra and wake him up from the tabernacle where he is being held. Shinra storms out of there and so does Sho, then in chapter 286, Shinra and sho enter the world of Adolla to finally confront the Evangelist and Haumea.
The first thing they see in the collective unconscious is many of the fears of humanity, all as photos, indicating they are fears that started in the previous world, our world. We see natural disasters, war, and finally, the nuclear bomb.

Now its time for my theory on the real nature of the fires of Adolla. I think when the nuclear bombs hit japan, it also hit the human´s unconscious. It set the collective unconscious ablaze with the fear of nuclear fire. So the flames of Adolla/Adolla burst are this nuclear fire. Ok, in the manga, the only pillar who is blatantly using nuclear power is Nataku, the pillar of fear. However, there are other hints, like the Amaterasu powerplant looking exactly like a nuclear powerplant. And anyone with an Adolla Burst can power it. Also, its said that the fire from Amaterasu is the same from the sun, and the sun´s heat is a result of Nuclear fission.

Death/Salvation – In chapter 287, Haumea´s past reveals that she is a saint, born with the purest heart, however her ability to hear the collective unconscious eventually turned her into a sadistic chaotic character. The fact is she had to conform otherwise she would break, its said that only by doing that she could have withstood the pressure of hearing the collective unconsious.
The true nature of the Evangelist is also revealed, its said that she is a materialization of humanity´s secret desire for the end.
Haumea tells Shinra that its impossible to truly save someone, because the safer a person gets, the more frightfull death becomes, and despair grows stronger. The advancement of society only made despair stronger until it culminated on the great cataclysm. she proceeds to ask Shinra what is probably one of the most important questions: Is there any true salvation other than death?

From personal experience i noticed most people really desire the end of the world, even if they consciously dont think so. I remember when i was in college and the covid-19 pandemic begun. In the last day before the college closed, everyone was ecstatic. They couldnt hide their smiles. I think that the reason is that this world is just boring. People want a disaster to save them from their boring routines and exhausting work. If you think about it, people read fiction is because this world isnt interesting enough.

Back to the story, Shinra struggles to find an answer for Haumeas question, and also he cant defeat her because his attacks cant even touch her. Haumeas is trying to provoke him into rage. In chapter 291, Haumea sends Obi´s doppelganger to assassinate the real Obi, sliting his throat. Seeing this, Shinra finally rages, and the flames of his rage burn the whole earth. She tricked Shinra, instrumentalizing his rage to finish the cataclysm. Eveyone on earth dies, engulfed by black flames.

Shinra gets demonic, and rushes to kill Halmea, as she desires, however Arthur, who is floating in space intervenes again and manages to bring him back to senses. Shinra realizes that the Hero is not bound by the colletive unconscious, the consensus of humankind. Even if all humanity falls into despair, the Hero wont. When he realizes this, Shinras mom appears, in her demonic form. its revealed that shes the Evangelists doppelganger. If the doppelgangers are the impression that humanity´s consensus have of something, then the impression that people have of death is salvation(hope). Because even tho death is not salvation, it cant be helped that people see salvation in death. Turns out even the Evangelist cant escape its shadow, which is the glimmer of hope.
Shinra performs the Ressonance of souls with his brother and mother, becoming Shinrabanshoman.

Its not clear, but i believe this part is Shinras direct answer to the question of what could be salvation other than death:”everything matters on if its interesting or not”.

Like i said before, i think people are only okay with dying because the world isnt interesting enough to them. If they can continue to live, they will always do, as long as its interesting. And not only that, people are more ok going throught suffering if theyre interested.

Haumea fuses herself with the evangelist, becoming the Holy Woman of Despair, and “shedding as many tears as there are creatures born on the planet.”
Their fight continues, but this time, Shinrabanshoman turns the flames from Haumea´s attacks into plants. She strikes with holy light, which he uses to make the atmosphere.
Shinra uses Haumeas tears to revive every single person on earth.
This is interesting because we can perceive an interdependency between the actions of these two gods. Haumea needed Shinra´s rage to completely destroy the earth, and now Shinra needs Haumeas attacks to recreate the earth. He is not creating anything alone, all his creations are made from Halmea´s attacks. That becomes clear when he uses her tears to revive everyone. Its stated that she cried a tear for every living creature, so, being the collective unconscious, she had their information stored, and Shinra could not revive them without Haumeas tears.

Haumeas starts questioning if he intends to make humanity go through despair all over again, and even Sho starts questioning Shinra if that a real solution.
Shinra admits that while life exists there will always be the fear of death and as long as there is consciousness there will be despair. but he changed things. He says he has ‘lessened the value of life’. He proceeds to create the shinigami, saying he made death into something ‘closer and more intimate’. Its an interesting answer, i didnt really know how to feel about when i first read it. But it makes total sense considering that the higher is the value of life, the stronger is the fear of death.
People nowadays kill their dreams because they fear that they wont be able to make enough income to live confortably. They end up picking a job they dont like and going through life without ever doing what they truly wanted to do. Can that be called life at all? i dont think so, and this reminds me of the classic quotation from the bible : “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it”-Luke 17:33.

So i think this is what Shinra means when he creates the ‘World of death’, a world where people can truly enjoy. He made it to be much more interesting.
Haumea hides behind her curtains and says that that wouldnt be enough to stop her from despairing, but Shinra summons the revived Charon, who manages to convince her to get out of despair curtains. Shinra promises Haumea that she will not regret living in the world he created, and Halmea choses to live.
Shinra finally exorcises the despair of the collective unconscious, kicking it away from the world. It is not necessary. The shinigami then removes the pyrokinectic powers from everyone.
The manga ends with snippets of the characters adventures in the new world.

And that was it. Whether you agree or not with the conclusions of the manga(or my conclusions regarding the manga), one thing that must be said is that the autor Ohkubo is BOLD, and dared to try to answer real questions. Actually he took every dare one could take while publishing a comic. From making his main character literally Jesus, breaking the fourth wall, addressing the public directly, using photos in a comic, roasting the public for disliking the fanservice, and answering the biggest questions of human philosophy.

I still have a lot to say about Fire Force, in the next part, which will be about the second protagonist of the manga, Arthur.

-Hollow Watcher