Encouraged to become a firefighter to impress his crush Yuki Nakamura, Shun Onoda is shocked when he discovers that Yuki didn’t just like firefighters, she wanted to be one after being saved from a deadly fire as a child.
Among these two hopefuls in their firefighter training is Toake Daigo, a man with remarkable talent and who burns with determination.
Together, the three attempt to overcome their own walls as they join firefighting Company M and stay course on their destiny to save others from the crises that loom over the country.
Firefighter Daigo proves that you don’t need super-powered action scenes to create an intense and engaging action anime. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange, head on down below.
Anime Like Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange
For Fans of Emergency Services
Rescue Wings
Kazuhiro Uchida has dreams of becoming a fighter pilot. As a steppingstone to his dream, he takes a job at a small rescue center located in the countryside to hone his flight skills.
While he initially finds that work difficult and constantly endures the scolding of his superiors, over the course of his training, the rewarding nature of the work resonates with him.
There are actually profoundly few anime about emergency service careers, which is what makes Firefighter Daigo such a shining beacon. However, if you were looking for something similar, Rescue Wings is as similar as you will get.
Unlike Firefighter Daigo that follows firefighters, Rescue Wings follows an air search and rescue agency. While the main character is distinctly different from Daigo and the others at Company M in that he sees this as a transitional career at first, his tone eventually changes due to the satisfying nature of the work.
Both series feature intense rescue situations and how the individuals bravely pull them off as well as realistic training procedures.
Police in a Pod
After high school, Mai Kawai’s priority is to get a stable job. However, after taking a variety of civil servant exams, she is faced with the reality that she was denied by every agency except for the police academy.
Joining the police force as her only option, she receives constant criticism by disgruntled civilians. As she gets ready to turn in her resignation, she meets Seiko Fuji, the former ace of the Criminal Affairs Division that is assigned to be her new instructor.
Enchanted by this talented and passionate officer, Mai decides to give police work a second chance.
Aside from shounen battler Fire Force, which is about fantasy firefighters and not very applicable to Firefighter Daigo’s realistic approach at all, emergency services don’t get a lot of love in anime unless it is comedy. Police in a Pod differs from Firefighter Daigo by following police officers, but still takes the same realistic approach to them.
Although Police in a Pod starts off a little lighter, it does acknowledge the more serious nature of police work. However, it doesn’t devolve into a police procedural either. While Firefighter Daigo features many intense rescues, it still highlights the day-to-day life of Company M. Police in the Pod takes a similar approach, but to police work.
For Fans of Rivalries
Free
Haruka Nanase has a passion for swimming that led him to compete and win a tournament in elementary school with his friends.
Years later, they reunite as high schools students, and while Haruka and three friends decide to form a swim club, his fourth friend, Rin, attends another school in order to surpass Haruka in skill.
He has also made it clear he has no interest in being friends again.
While the rivalry aspect of Firefighter Daigo tapers off later as Onoda begins to understand Daigo a bit more, there is no question that Onoda was always spurred on by the rivalry he created in his mind with Daigo.
Free offers a similar sort of rivalry where one stoic character is pretty good at the sport, and his skill furiously spurs on his rival to the point where he trains even more obsessively to beat him. It is just that Free follows competitive swimming rather than firefighting. However, both series have a strong focus on both training and actually using those skills.
Haikyuu
After being inspired by the small, but talented volleyball ace Little Giant, Shouyou Hinata trains endlessly despite his middle school not having a boy’s volleyball club.
Managing to scavenge enough athletes at his school to field a team for a middle school volleyball tournament, Hinata is soundly crushed in his first and last game of middle school by King of the Court, Tobio Kageyama.
Swearing to surpass him, Hinata joins the volleyball team in high school only to discover Kageyama is now his teammate.
Firefighter Daigo may be a anime about firefighters, it is not too different from a sports anime. While Haikyuu is about volleyball, it has a similar sort of rivalry that spurs on its main characters like it does between Onoda and Daigo.
Both series feature characters that are on the same “team” either literally or figuratively, but they also want to out due each other. While Daigo isn’t actually competing in any rivalry, he serves as the naturally skilled veteran type rookie to Onoda’s more immature rookie. Haikyuu features a similar dynamic between its main characters. In both series, it is that rivalry that makes them work so well as a team in tense situations.
My Hero Academia
After the sudden appearance of super powers, or “quirks,” now 80 percent of humanity has some kind of power. With some Quirk users turning to crime, it gave rise to super heroes that help the police keep the peace.
Since he was a child, Izuku Midoriya has idolized super heroes, especially the symbol of peace, All Might, but he is devastated to learn that he won’t manifest a Quirk himself. Still, he studies super heroes and is determined to become one.
After a chance encounter with All Might, Midoriya learns that there still may be a chance for him to be a hero after all.
What are firefighters if not heroes without the superpowers? That said, while My Hero Academia does feature some aspects of heroes training to do rescues, like most shounen anime, it eventually gets lost in the sauce of grand battles between heroes and villains.
Regardless, both My Hero Academia and Firefighter Daigo, outside of their innate similarities by being about saving people, feature the main characters that are constantly spurred on by rivalries with their peers. Everybody has their strong points, but everybody is also aiming to be stronger and more skilled as well.
For Fans of Action From Realistic Crises
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Frustrated with her family, middle schooler Mirai Onozawa wishes to tear everything apart. Unfortunately, that wish comes true in an unexpected 8.0 earthquake while out shopping with her younger brother.
Suddenly, she and her younger brother find themselves surrounded by chaos in Odaiba. Single mother and motorcyclist Mari runs into these two scared kids and decides to help them get back home.
While Firefighter Daigo is about firefighters, it covers a whole range of different crises where firefighters would be involved. It is what adds extra interest to the show. If you perhaps liked Firefighter Daigo for those intense crises, and don’t necessarily need it to be about emergency service workers, then Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 will fill the void.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 follows a catastrophic earthquake striking Tokyo. While it follows two children and a lady that is trying to get them home as main characters, as they traverse the city, you see a number of tales unfolding in the chaos.
Unlike Firefighter Daigo, not every part of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is about rescuing people in dangerous situations. Sometimes it highlights how terrible people can be in these stressful situations, but regardless, both series provide realistic looks at real situations.
Library War
In future Japan, the Media Enhancement Law has set to work censoring all books and media. To combat this, the Library Defense Force was created to protect books from censorship.
This is the tale of Kasahara Iku, the first woman to join the force and her motivation to protect the books she loves.
Library War definitely does have a premise that is steeped in fantasy, but it is actually one of the more realistic military anime you can watch. The officers are fighting for books, but there is no super powers or much in the way of fantasy. They are just soldiers realistically fighting for what they believe in.
Both Firefighter Daigo and Library Wars give you a group of characters who carry the show with their interactions and bonds. You become invested in them, and because of this, when it is time for action, it increases the intensity of the situation.
For Fans of Working Towards Career Goals
Space Brothers
After spotting what they believe to be a UFO, two brothers Mutta and Hibito vow to become astronauts.
Fast forward to their adult years and Mutta’s life isn’t going as expected as he toils in an automotive company while the younger Hibito is well on his way to be the very first Japanese man on the moon.
When Mutta loses his job and is given a chance to catch up to his brother by joining the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, he jumps at the chance.
What Firefighter Daigo displays for firefighters, Space Brothers displays for astronauts.
Both anime series take real professions from our world and tells stories where they aren’t injected with fantasy for entertainment value, but instead let the real trials and tribulations be the action.
That said, while both series are realistic stories about real difficult careers, Firefighter Daigo is the more action-focused anime. Space Brothers is about training to be an astronaut, which can have some surprisingly intense moments, but it isn’t exactly saving people from fires.
Regardless, both series explore real training techniques and showcase the realities of aiming for these careers in an inspiring, yet grounded way.
Capeta
After losing his mother, Taira Kappeita put on a tough front for his father, but was actually lonely.
One day, his father brings some spare parts home and builds a go-cart. The pair decide to head to a circuit and take it for a test.
There, they discover the frame is bent, yet despite this, Taira’s technique managed to not only drive it, but almost surpass the fastest cart driven by Minamoto Naomi. Seeing this, Naomi’s mother encourages him to enter the official race.
As Capeta is a racing anime about a boy and his first go-kart, it becomes an anime that watches that boy grow up in the sport as he goes all the way to a professional level. Similar to Daigo’s passion that started when he was a child, that passion starts young here too.
Both Firefighter Daigo and Capeta, though about different subjects, follow them in the same way. The characters become single-mindedly focused on their career, and every aspect of the anime is about them trying to improve their skill at it. Furthermore, both series take a realistic approach to storytelling that is inspiring, but not overly hammy about it as anime can sometimes be.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange? Let fans know in the comments section below.
