Fire Punch

is a Japanese web manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. It was serialized through Shueisha's ''Shōnen Jump+'' website from April 2016 to January 2018, with its chapters collected in eight volumes. In North America, Viz Media licensed the manga for English release.

''Fire Punch'' takes place on an Earth that has become frozen over and barren. The series follows Agni, a young man who is able to regenerate his body. After his village succumbs to inextinguishable flames he is left constantly on fire, leaving him in anguish and vowing to get revenge.

Plot

On a future, frozen Earth, the world has been purportedly barren by the Ice Witch, who is among a few who possess special abilities known as "Blessings". Agni, a teenage boy, and his sister Luna, both possess the Blessing of regeneration. In their remote village, Agni and Luna help the elderly survive by offering the meat of Agni's severed arms for sustenance. One day, a man named Doma, another Blessed, visits the village, offering to take Agni to his city, Behemdorg. However, upon learning that the villagers rely on human flesh to survive, Doma becomes disgusted and annihilates the village, burning its inhabitants alive, including Luna, whose regenerative ability is slower than Agni's. Agni, the sole survivor, is left constantly burning but regenerating. He struggles for eight years to regain his strength, driven by his desire for revenge against Doma.

In his journey toward vengeance, Agni rescues Sun, a boy who possesses the Blessing of electricity and idolizes Agni as a deity. Agni also meets Judah, a Blessed soldier who bears a striking resemblance to Luna. After a brutal confrontation, Judah incapacitates Agni, aiming to take his head to Behemdorg, where Sun is imprisoned to generate electricity for the city. Agni meets again with Doma, who seeks his forgiveness but refuses death as redemption. On a train heading to Behemdorg, Togata, a Blessed regenerative cinephile, intervenes and slaughters the train soldiers, and convinces Agni to be filmed and become the protagonist of Togata's film; Agni agrees in exchange for training, and are headed on a showdown with Behemdorg's powerful Blessed. On arrival, Agni's flames rage across the city, destroying it, killing its inhabitants, and freeing the city's slaves. Feeling purposeless, Judah attempts to burn herself with Agni's flame, but the Ice Witch intervenes, decapitating her and vanishing with her head.

The Ice Witch, Sulya, resurrects Judah, placing her under her control. Sulya reveals that they both are "Envolved"—members of an advanced form of humanity who possess the abilities of the Blessed. She plans to end the Ice Age by transforming Judah into a "World Tree" that will consume all life on Earth, warming the planet. In an abandoned village, Agni becomes a reluctant leader to freed slaves who begin to worship him as the "Fire Punch". Togata assists him in sustaining the community, even as Agni offers them his unburnt flesh for survival. He learns that Behemdorg's soldiers, including Doma, are nearby. Togata, revealed to be a trans man, leaves the village, but Agni follows, attempting to convince him to return; he eventually reconciles when Agni, struggling to understand Togata's desire to present as a man, expresses viewing him as his older sibling, regardless of gender.

Agni confronts Doma, now caring for a number of children whom he raises to value education, compassion, and pacifism. Doma explains to Agni his past actions as an attempt to prevent the villagers' moral decay through cannibalism. Though initially forgiving, Agni is overtaken by memories of Luna's death, killing Doma and several children in a fugue state. Overwhelmed by guilt, he tries to drown himself but is saved by Togata, who dies in the process, scorched by Agni's flames.

Returning to the village, Agni finds a massive tree where Judah has absorbed the life energy of his followers, the "Agnists". Judah, trapped in the World Tree, begs Agni to kill her to free her from Sulya's influence. Agni attempts this, but Judah's powers extinguish his flames, halting his regeneration. Though Judah survives, she loses her memory, and Agni names her Luna. They settle in a salt mine with a small group of survivors from Doma's community, though Agni's mental state begins to deteriorate over time. Luna eventually realizes Agni is not her brother, and they enter a romantic relationship.

Meanwhile, Sun rises to a messianic position among the Agnists. Luna is kidnapped as Sun is persuaded by Sulya and other's captors that she must be brought to justice to warm the world. However, after a disagreement, Sun beheads Sulya in the name of Agni. Agni surrenders to his single-minded Fire Punch alter ego, and pursues the Agnists to rescue Luna/Judah. In the ensuing battle, Sun dies, and Judah destroys part of Agni's brain, erasing his memories, and completes the tree ritual to warm the Earth. Eighty years later, the Earth begins to thaw. Agni, now called Sun, lives quietly in a small community around the base of Judah's tree. He is handed Togata's camera, but the footage recorded on it has no sound and is entirely in black and white due to file corruption. Sun watches the footage of his life as Agni, not recognizing the people or events presented.

Hundreds of years later, Judah remains in the tree, forgetting her whole life and her own name; millennia pass, and she wonders to herself if she will be trapped there forever. She watches Earth below her destroyed by an asteroid. Millions of years later, when the universe is now dead, a man resembling Agni joins her there. The man presents himself as Sun and she as Luna, and although they do not recognize each other, they embrace and fall asleep. Two people resembling Agni and Luna are shown leaving an empty cinema.

Publication

Written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto, ''Fire Punch'' was published on Shueisha's ''Shōnen Jump+'' website from April 18, 2016, to January 1, 2018. Shueisha collected its chapters in eight volumes, released from July 4, 2016, to February 2, 2018.

In North America, the manga has been licensed for English release by Viz Media. The eight volumes were published under the Viz Signature imprint from January 16, 2018, to October 15, 2019.

Volumes

Reception

When ''Fire Punch'' began serialization, it received little advertising due to a tight budget, and expectations for its success were low. However, shortly after the first chapter's release, the series gained sudden popularity on social media, even trending on Twitter. According to ''Shōnen Jump+'' chief editor Shuhei Hosono, this was the first time in his 16-year career at Shueisha that a manga had spread so quickly and become a major online discussion. Hosono also credited ''Fire Punch'' and ''World's End Harem'' with driving a surge in ''Shōnen Jump+''s user base in Q2 2016, as weekly active readers jumped from 1.1 million to 1.3 million.

In 2017, ''Fire Punch'' was nominated for the 10th Manga Taishō. The series ranked 15th on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2017" poll by Honya Club online bookstore. It also ranked third on Takarajimasha's ''Kono Manga ga Sugoi!'' list of best manga of 2017 for male readers. The character of Togata has received praise for being an accurate portrayal of a transgender character with his gender dysphoria being a defining part of his characterization.

See also

* List of webcomics with LGBTQ characters

References

Further reading

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

External links

*
*
*

{{Shōnen Jump Plus

2016 webcomic debuts
Anime and manga about revenge
Dark fantasy anime and manga
Dystopian anime and manga
Fiction about cannibalism
Japanese webcomics
LGBTQ-related webcomics
Shueisha manga
Shōnen manga
Supernatural thriller anime and manga
Tatsuki Fujimoto
Transgender-related anime and manga
Viz Media manga
Webcomics in print