NOTE: This page and its subpages, link to deviations tagged “Watchers Only”, meaning that you have to watch the artist to see them.
FireSoup is a 2018 superhero comedy webcomic by Mexican artist/programmer Takkotito
note about the two main girls named Ramy and Frida having to beat the Heart Mafia, an criminal organization that has taken over Micco City and stops any hero.
The synopsis for the introductory first chapter can be read here.
The comic is available on the Tumblr blog, on Tapas, and Webtoon. As of 2021, the comic is also downloadable on itch.io where the first two panels are remade with different images and dialogue.
These tropes can't get worse from here, right?
- Animesque: References to the cartoony side of anime/manga art-styles include Ramy sometimes having a pink, blank mouth, and Frida’s open mouth showing a single sharp toothnote like how a single crooked tooth is considered cute in Japan.
- Art Evolution: Since 2017, FireSoup and its characters have gotten many changes such as preferences of clothing, physical details such as eye shapes, and even changed the physique sometimes such as making Ramy chubbier a few years after this comic was released. This trope even caused the comic’s art-style to be somewhat inconsistent in the first pages.
- Bank Robbery: This is what has happened to Pig-Y Bank multiple times, and where Frida got her chance to show her powers.
- Big Bad: The Heart Mafia is responsible for turning Micco City into a crime-ridden place where superheroes are just a dream.
- Black Bead Eyes: The blondine working at the bank has these eyes.
- Cast of Snowflakes: No two characters look alike in this comic, with a large variety of faces such as colored pupils without irises and even Black Bead Eyes, and different hairstyles like Ramy’s short bangs with a tuft on the back of her head.
- Damsel in Distress: The girl at the bank is threatened at gunpoint by the burglar.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Frida is the one who’s gleeful about being a hero, while Ramy’s grumpy expressions put her in the latter.
- Pie-Eyed: As Takko is a fan of the 1930s cartoon style and likes Video Game/Cuphead, characters sometimes sport this trope when in a chibi form, aren’t in the focus in a shot, or are far away (which is often related to the second factor).
- Puni Plush: The characters are depicted with rounded heads, chins and even fingers.
- Punny Name:
- Ramy’s name is used here as a pun on “ramen,” which is more obvious if you know that she’s called “Noodles” as a superhero.
- The name of Frida’s superhero alias “FireDra” is a pun on both her name and “fire dragon.”
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: On two occasions. Ramy is the blue one in both of them:
- Frida’s enthusiasm in being a hero and her love for challenges and action (red) contrasts Ramy’s laid-back, introverted personality, with the latter finding attention uncomfortable, so she may fight with passive aggression (blue).
- Before Frida, there’s the Benevolent Boss Miss Bett who wants to have fun and likes teasing and playing with her employee Ramy.
- Slapstick: One example of Ramy’s Butt-Monkey status is her accidentally being punched by Bett when she recovers from the former hitting her with an extinguisher. The four cats in a trenchcoat reveal their identities when slipping on the floor.
- Thick-Line Animation: This comic is not the first artwork by Takko to feature this trope.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Ramy, Frida and Miss Bett all play this trope in some way:
- While Ramy may not look girly at first, and has played baseball with Frida in one drawing, some doodles show her having twintails or wearing something more feminine. This concept art of Ramy as a kid and a teen, opens the complexity of her sense of style. She also swears eyeshadow, and makeup is often considered feminine.
- Frida’s considered a tomboy, even if her girly streak is shown with her superhero suit forming into a dress when her powers are activated. She has also worn dresses on other occasions.
- Last but not the least obvious, Miss Bett likes wearing a French maid dress even though she’s like a cool figure.
- While Ramy may not look girly at first, and has played baseball with Frida in one drawing
- Totem Pole Trench: The burglar robbing the bank is four weird-looking cats in a trenchcoat.
- Word Salad Title: Takko admitted that the title is just something that he made up because it sounded like a “pulp magazine” title.
- Work Off the Debt: Ramy mentions that she has to pay off a debt with the Mafia, but even if her minimum-wage job isn’t helping at all, working as a superhero has shown to be rewarding.
