Shinra Kusakabe (森羅 日下部 シンラ クサカベ) looks like an ordinary 17 year-old boy but he is strong. Why? Because he is a Third Generation with Adolla Burst and is the 4th pillar at the same time. Also, he could be the savior of the world. That’s a lot! So, I wrote about his amazing ability one by one.
1. He is a Third Generation
He can let fire burst out of his feet and he can make rapid movements, jump high and even fly with the fire.
What’s Third Generation?
In the world of Fire Force, people can be categorized as:
- First Generation (第一世代 だいいちせだい) : The First-Generation people are also called “non-Ability”. They don’t have any abilities to control or make a fire like the other generations. Also, only the First-Generation people have a chance to become “Infernals (焔人 ホムラビト) ”.
- Second Generation (第二世代 だいにせだい): The Second-Generation people can control fire as they want, but they cannot start a fire by themselves.
- Third Generation (第三世代 だいさんせだい): The Third-Generation people can start a fire without an igniter and also can control it.
Second and Third Generations have fire resistance. So, this is why they look pretty fine even when they get attacked with fire.
If you want to who has which generation, see my article →"【Fire Force】 Character List And Profiles You Should Know "
2. He has Adolla Burst
Adolla Burst is the flame coming out form the black ground in Adolla. According to Rekka Hoshimiya (烈火 星宮 レッカ ホシミヤ), Adolla Burst is
The sacred fire which only the children of the Sun God may have and leads mankind. Absolute pure fire.
太陽神 (たいようしん) の落 (お) とし子 (ご) のみが持 (も) ち得 (う) る人類 (じんるい) を導 (みちび) く聖火 (せいか)
Atsushi Okubo『Fire Force』Vol.4
混 (ま) じり気 (け) ない純粋 (じゅんすい) なる炎 (ほのお) だ
The White Clad led by the Evangelist has been looking for 8 “Pillars (柱 はしら)” who have Adolla Burst to cause the Great Cataclysm again and Shinra is the fourth Pillar. Pillars have a role to connect the world with Adolla.
What’s Adolla?
Adolla is the different world than the one Shinra lives and is the world the Evangelist has been. The captain of the Special Fire Force Company 1, Leonard Burns felt some kind of overwhelmingly higher position when he linked to the world of Adolla (Adolla Link) once.
Later, it was revealed that Adolla was the collective unconscious of people. In other words, Adolla is the world made by the image people have.
What’s Adolla Link?
The one who has Adolla Burst has an ability to link to Adolla and they can get their power enforced by linking to Adolla strongly. Also, people who don’t have Adolla Burst sometimes get to link to Adolla under certain conditions (Burns, Hauge, Jokers…did). However, they got scars called “Stigma (聖痕 せいこん) on their bodies in return.
At the battle in the Nether, Haumea mentioned about the Fourth Generation. The Fourth Generation refers to the ones who got their Adolla Burst unleashed by linking to the Evangelist. Shinra linked to the Evangelist though his brother Sho at that time and he were able to move faster than the speed of light. So, I think we can say Shinra has awakened as a Fourth Generation.
3. He has special moves
• Rapid
He can move rapidly by using his flame like a jet.
How does it work?
By converging the flame from his feet into one direction, he can increase its driving power. The compressed flame boosts the instant fire power and that enables Shinra to make a rapid movement.
How does he control the flame?
He uses a kind of hand sign called “Te no kata (手の型 てのかた) to control his flame. The hand signs are based on the ancient Japanese martial arts “Kobujutsu” (古武術 こぶじゅつ) and you can enhance your physical strength by using them. It is said that there are 7 kinds of hand signs, and each sign has different effects. The one Shinra uses is called “Tora hishigi (虎ひしぎ とらひしぎ).
What’s Tora hishigi?
According to Yoshinori Kono (甲野 善紀 こうの よしのり) who is famous for reserching the ancient Japanese martial arts, Tora hisigi enhances the strength of your body, especially your feet. It’s supposed to make you easier to go up slopes or stairs with Tora hishigi. It sounds interesting. In Japanese, Tora means “tiger” and Hisigi means “crush”, so I think it is the hand sign that strengthen your power to even crush a tiger.
• Corna
Shinra also uses the hand sign if Corna to boost his flame power and makes a big explosion. The Lieutenant Konro of the Company 7 said it was like a “big fart” coming out of feet.
• Hysterical Strength
This may not be a special move, but Shinra obtained how to pull out this kind of strength by himself though the training with The Captain Shinmon of the Company 7.
What’s Hysterical Strength?
We say “Kajiba no bakajikara (火事場の馬鹿力 かじば の ばかぢから) in Japanese. Kajiba means a scene It is the great power we can’t imagine we even have inside us. “Kajiba” means a scene of a fire, “no”; of, bakadikara; incredible power. Baka (馬鹿 ばか) originally means stupid or idiot, but it could be used to express “incredibly” or “unbelievably” by using as an adverb.
At the scene of a disaster like a fire, we sometimes can carry people of things that are a lot heavier than we usually can. This is because we usually and unconsciously use only 70-80% power out of our maximum in our daily life to avoid burdens on our muscles and bones. However, at emergency, a substance called beta-endorphin is produced inside our body and it enables us to use our maximum power without feeling any burdens or pains.
Shinra succeeded in pull out this power by facing his fear of death. In the manga, this is expressed as the “pressure of death (死ノ圧 しのあつ).
4. He is the Savior of the world
As I wrote above, Adolla is the world built by people’s image and the Great Cataclysm in 250 years ago was the collision of the world and Adolla (though the collision was incomplete). So, the world Shinra lives now has already been somehow mixed with people’s image and Shinra was a boy who was affected by the image of “Savior” the people used to have before the Great Cataclysm.
5. He always cares about his family
So, after all, we know Shinra is meant be strong, but I think the biggest reason that makes him so strong is his love for his family (I mean including the members of the Company 8). Even though he lost his family when he was little, he has been thinking about them all the time and he never gave up on his younger brother Sho when he found out that Sho was alive and belonged to the White Clad. His hope for his family was the motive power for him to hold on because he, himself, is born from people’s image of hope.