Anvilicious: You will hear a lot of Arc Words"live", how despite all suffering, life is worth living.
Awesome Art: Fujimoto's drawings as usual have a bit of a rough, yet cool look to them, and this work is no different. Just Agni's design itself, covered with fire, is enough to showcase.
Crazy Is Cool: Agni, even In-Universe from people like Togata or Sun. He's one very insane and complex character that makes very questionable choices, yet does awesome things.
Cry for the Devil: Doma. He's pretty much responsible for the birth of "Fire Punch", but he becomes much more sympathetic when it's revealed he was brainwashed, and he does feel genuinely remorseful for his crimes, trying to atone by raising orphans. Notably, the deaths of Doma and his children are what ultimately serve as Agni's Moral Event Horizon.
Ensemble Dark Horse: For many, Togata is the most interesting character in the story. From his obsession with movies to the ridiculous scenarios he pressures Agni into (mostly to make his own movie), to the rather heart-rending reveal that he is a transgender man who was forced to remain in a female body due to his regeneration powers, many were disappointed that Togata dies around the halfway point of the story, especially considering how important he is to Agni's character development.
Fanon Discontinuity: As mentioned above, Togata's death tends to be ignored, for rather obvious reasons.
Fanon Welding: Without necessarily considering them to take place in a Shared Universe, various deceased characters from Tatsuki Fujimoto's other work are often portrayed in fanart as hanging out in Fire Punch's Afterlife Antechamber movie theater before moving on.
Growing the Beard: It's often said that the series gets severely better around the 2nd or 3rd volume, where a fan-favorite Togata is introduced.
Heartwarming Moments: Despite all the horrific things that happen in the story, there are genuinely touching moments throughout, even if they don't last long, particularly the last few chapters, where in a sort of way, it's a Earn Your Happy Ending for Agni.
It Was His Sled: Even people only passingly familiar with the series know Togata is a Transgender man, both because it's a rare subject for a shonen manga to address seriously and the Pronoun Trouble that comes up whenever the character is discussed in English.
Agni. His actions are often on the verge of Villain Protagonist but it's hard not to feel sorry for him due to how much he suffers, constantly burning and losing so many things in the story. You can tell that he always tries to do the right thing, but both his situation and his degrading sanity make that nigh impossible. Even when Agni veers off the Moral Event Horizon in the latter parts of the story, he has become so utterly broken by that point that it's hard to feel anything but pity for him.
Togata might be a sociopath willing to take advantage of Agni and let a teenage girl get violated for the sake of his independent movie, but as a transgender man who can never transition due to his regeneration power, many readers sympathize with him.
Sun, following the Time Skip. He's a gone a tad bit insane, but after all what he's been through, including being the victim of human trafficking, almost getting raped by dogs, losing his legs, and being used as "fuel" to power a city, it's not hard to see why.
LGBT Fanbase: Got plenty of attention from transgender readers, due to Togata being a canonical trans man whose issues are discussed in a respectful way.
Nightmare Fuel: Severely. Agni has many chilling moments that borderline cross into Moral Event Horizon. The biggest one is when Agni fully commits to his revenge, burning both Doma and his adopted children to death.
Rooting for the Empire: After the halfway point, it isn't uncommon to hear of people rooting against Agni. Partly because he had crossed the Moral Event Horizon and partly because they just want the poor guy to be at peace after everything he's gone through.
The other most famous scene, remembered for more serious reasons, would be when Agni finally confronts Doma at the halfway point. Doma, while genuinely remorseful for what he did, has pretty understandable reasoning for destroying Agni's village, pointing out that a society built on cannibalism would likely cause more harm than good in the long run. Agni initially attempts to let Doma go, only to fly into a blind rage and murder Doma and his 17 children.
Immediately following the above scene, Togata's death where he sacrifices himself to save Agni plays out with the exact kind of bleak weirdness that the series is known for.
Surya saying her entire plan was so there would be a new Star Wars movie is decently known for its absurdity even by people who've not read the series otherwise.
Luna wanting to have a child with her older brother Agni in the first chapter.
The corpses burned by Agni's fire are always drawn in clear, graphic detail.
Jack, a high-ranking member of Behemdolg, initially comes across as a friendly guy while talking to Sun and Neneto. And then he tries to force them to have sex with his dogs.
In the first chapter Agni feeds his village by cutting off his arm, letting it regrow via his Regeneration Blessing, and then cutting it off again. In-universe, his village's cannibalism is what convinces Doma to burn it to the ground. Later on, followers of Agni eat the unburned half of Agni's face in order to survive. It actually tastes quite good to them. Even In-Universe, some characters like Togata lampshade disgusting... and cool this is.
Agni's and Judah's entire relationship after the halfway point. Judah has had her memories completely wiped after her traumatic experinces, causing her to legitimately see Agni as her older brother. Agni, likewise, is so mentally broken from both the constant pain and the guilt from his own actions that he tricks himself into believing his delusions that Judah actually is Luna. Judah, after piecing together that she and Agni aren't actually blood-related, decides that she wants to have sex with him, and by that point Agni doesn't even have the mental resilience to say no. When they're finished, Judah continues referring to Agni as her brother.
Agni cutting his entire face off with a knife right before a fight with the Masked Man.
Agni's entire life is a Trauma Conga Line. From losing his sister, living while on fire for half of his entire life, losing many his friends and loved ones, the list goes on.
Togata having a breakdown with his gender dysphoria when talking to Agni. It hits even more as it's Truth In Telivision, as many trans people can relate to this scene.
Too Cool to Live: Togata is a fan favorite character due to his complicated problems and hilarious antics, and him dying halfway through the story left some fans a bit disappointed.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Judah for some. While it's clear that she had good intentions, the fact that Judah created a Scam Religion which promotes slavery and rape as virtuous things undermines a lot of the sympathy that the narrative tries to evoke from her.
Watch It for the Meme: Most people only knew about this series thanks to Agni's face becoming a meme. Some of them probably stayed because of the general bleak weirdness of the series catching their interest.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The manga was serialized in Shueisha's Shounen Jump +, which is ostensibly targeted towards young teenagers. While shounen manga is no stranger to darker themes and violence, Fire Punch's bleakness is on another level entirely compared to most, with multiple scenes that feature threats of or implied sexual assault, slavery of children, and incredibly messed up plot points (such as the protagonist being in constant excruciating pain thanks to his perpetual burning, which will never kill him thanks to his power of bodily regeneration, and later his practically incestuous relationship with a woman that looks just like his sister; she suffers from amnesia and he convinces her (and possibly himself) that she is his sister, and this is before their relationship turns sexual). Between this and the author's following work Chainsaw Man, fans often joke about Fujimoto having some kind of blackmail material on the Jump higher-ups to let him publish his manga.
◊ of Agni from Chapter 53, due to its Unsmile.
