The Devil's Footprint

"Causes of death are many and varied. Old age, suicide, illness but the cause of death that scares people in this day and age is death by fire." This is the intro to the anime known as fire force.

The anime fire force is set in a world where humans randomly combust, turning into flame monsters called infernals a phenomenon which has become a norm of the society as it happens regularly without any explanation or patterns. To combat these monsters, a special force of soldiers with fire based abilities were created by the government and are tasked with the responsibility of neutralizing these monsters.

The main character of the series is a teenager named Shinra Kusakabe, a third generation fire user that emits flames from his feet. He joins the special fire force specifically company 8 to uncover the mystery behind the death of his mother and younger brother Sho twelve years ago after a massive fire outbreak.

This very incident scars him for life and also bestowed on him the title of "The Devil" as his way of dealing with grief is with a large grin, something that shocks the public sympathisers and earns him the new moniker. After his impressive display of strength he is soon known as the Devil's Footprint and rides the wave of firey justice.

Becoming a member of Company 8 of the special fire force unit led by the Muscle obsessed captain Obi who is just an ordinary human with no fire powers, Shinra begins to unravel to truth about the mystery of their world.

Together with teammates like the resilient Maki, Arthur the Knight king, Vulcan and help from allies across other fire companies, company 8 continues to bring ugly secrets into broad day light exposing the deep rooted conspiracies that has been a pain to human existence. They are able to discover that these human combustions were not so random after all but products from an evil religious like organization known as the white clad who serve a figure called the evangelist and have the ultimate goal of using the sun to destroy the world, sending it into a flame-like chaos and using these human turned infernals as tools to achieve their objectives.

After series of investigation, our young hero learns the truth about the fire that started his journey.

He learns that the fire was no accident and his younger brother Sho is still alive but is being used by the White Clads for their dirty. Sho is a powerful third generation pyrokinetic with the ability to control time and has no idea Shinra is his elder brother.

Shinra continues to overcome odds, fight new enemies that only seem to get stronger as the surface and because of this company 8 has been branded traitors to the country with Captain Obi sentenced to death. However the team bands up to go rescue their leader putting a stop to the plans of the white clad.

Unlike other shounen protagonist, Shinra isn't just a character controlled by strength to overwhelm his enemies. He understands what pain, suffering and hatred is all about but does not let it control or become a major part of his life. He is motivated by a true sense of heroism to help people in need and proving to the world that even a devil can be a symbol of hope.

His sense of compassion can even be noticed even for his enemies as he feels bad whenever he has to stop and infernal. Shinra is not consumed by vengeance rather his objectives are to unravel the mysteries of his world and confront its system to protect those important to him.

Pictures are gotten from IMDb https://fire-force.fandom.com/wiki/Shinra_Kusakabe and Pinterest