Volumes: 20/20 (Complete), (OOP but still available in eBook)
Shounen
Genre: Real Heroes, Dreams
Summary: Daigo Asahina was rescued from a house fire when he was 6 years old, and his dream was to become a firefighter ever since. He just passed the firefighting exam and officially became a firefighter! He is assigned to Company M, but he soon finds that firefighting isn’t always the heroic rescues he’s dreamed of. Company M is under the command of Captain Gomi, and at first they seem like a laid back slacker company, but he soon finds out that they are experts on fire prevention. Daigo has what it takes to be a hero, but can he temper his hot blooded passion into learning how to be a real firefighter?
This Won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Shounen category in 1997.
Review: The small number of readers who have actually read this series have enjoyed it, to the point where I’m putting this as rank 2 because of consistently high average review scores, but it is not mainstream popular. Despite being a fun, passionate and dramatic series that is sorely underappreciated, this series was a commercial flop when released because of a mix of a slightly dated art style, a lack of sexy girls and supernatural powers at a time when ninjas and samurai were hot. Back then no one wanted to read a manga based in the real world. Thankfully things have changed somewhat as this series now enjoys some mild popularity.
Daigo seems at first to be a really inexperienced firefighter, but as the series goes on it becomes clear he has an uncanny sense for danger and a good intuition of where people might be in disaster areas. He has his first heroic rescue in volume 2 as he saves a child and an injured man out of a car teetering over the edge of a bridge by making sure the car doesn’t unbalance- by sitting in the backseat himself! Similarly he dives into a raging, flooded river to save his friend and rival, Amakasu, who jumped in himself to save a child from drowning.
Past volume 3 or so, after he fought a tiger that escaped from the zoo, I was really hooked on this series. It gets intense and extreme as Daigo goes into one dangerous situation after another, and yet almost always manages to save the day. He gains a reputation as a rule-breaking maverick, but in truth he has a knack for sensing danger and also intuition for gauging if a difficult rescue is possible. The rescue situations are very varied and never repeat, and a lot of them had me sitting on the edge on my seat, flipping pages to see what happens next. Daigo goes into many different situations, forest fires, a chemical spill, a tunnel filled with flammable gas, and etc. That being said even though many of the scenarios are extreme, the mangaka clearly did a lot of research into things that could really happen.
As the series continues, Daigo undergoes training and studying in the hopes of trying out for the special rescue squad, a team that only elite firefighters who pass a number of grueling tests can join. They mostly rescue people from crushed car accidents, which can explode at any moment, but also get called out to other more extreme situations as well. But partway Daigo faces a personal crisis as he begins to wonder why he feels drawn into dangerous situations and starts to question if he really wants to join.
There’s also a minor romantic subplot with Daigo and his former teacher, Ms. Ochiai, a young woman who reminded him of his dream shortly before he graduated. This led him to going to firefighter school. That being said their dates become something of a running joke as every single time he tries to go out on a date with her, some terrible disaster happens while he’s trying to get there. That being said I expected more romance from this manga, and somehow after he rescues her for one last time, the manga jumps forward several years to after they got married and had a kid together. Was a bit annoying that we never got to see any of the romance past his confession.
Lastly the ending and last volume honestly felt a bit cheesy as it suddenly skips forward in time and ends with Daigo becoming worldwide famous, even in America, with crowds chanting his name. But even though it was a bit silly of an ending, it was still alright. And the series overall was a great read so I didn’t mind that much.
Recommended: If you want to read a series of heroic rescues, have any interest in firefighting or fire prevention in a wide variety of extreme rescue scenarios, then really, it was a great read. Also this series could be considered secretly educational too, even though it’s not the focus.
Age Rating: PG: A lot of extremely dangerous situations but not graphic at all.
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