Fire Force (Episode 21) - Those Connected

Obi and Vulcan try to talk Lisa out of fighting them, but Giovanni’s hooks are buried too deep. Luckily, Obi has a plan and even without any pyrokinetic abilities, he’s not going down without a fight!

What happened?

Obi and Vulcan seemed to be pretty outmatched. Neither of them has any pyrokinetic abilities and they are facing off against Lisa and Dr. Giovanni. Lisa’s power manifests itself as flaming tentacles, capable of grabbing and swatting her opponents away. Obi attacks with a fire extinguisher although it’s all a diversion so that he can plant extinguisher grenades on each of Lisa’s tentacles.

With a push of the button, he takes her out of the fight. Vulcan catches her before she hits the ground, but Giovanni takes her hostage and threatens to kill her if Vulcan doesn’t shot Obi. After some debate, Vulcan does shot Obi, but his armour protected him and he launches an attack on Giovanni, hitting him with a piece of the railway track.

Meanwhile, Shinra finds Sho who is in no mood for a family reunion. Victor Licht can only watch as the two Adolla Bursts fight one another. He can’t believe what he’s seeing or rather isn’t seeing and urges Shinra to run, believing that Sho is able to stop time.

I am joined by Yomu from Umai Yomu Anime Blog as it the custom with Fire Force. It’s my turn to go first this week and we’re switching to the new review format, so that’s exciting. Yomu will go second and as usual, will be in bold.

What did you think?

After the fight between Arrow and Hinawa, I feel like I’ve been spoilt. This episode was good, but the visuals were not anywhere near as spectacular. Obi and Vulcan’s fight with Giovanni was tense, but also full of dialogue which always breaks up the action. There were some interesting things said, but I’d rather watch Arrow and Hinawa fight again. That said, Shinra and Sho’s meeting was awesome and I really liked having Licht there to commentate. I’m a little concerned about how much Shinra has levelled up, but then this wouldn’t be much fun if Sho just slapped him around.

Hey, Yomu. Thanks for joining me in the Nether. How was it for you?

Hey Lynn. I think you’re on point with the dialogue dragging the fight out. It didn’t exactly feel all that exciting, considering the fight was basically Obi getting knocked around until we learn it was all according to plan. Personally, I was hoping Lisa would show us something different, but instead, she just sat there, stationary, with all those tentacles around her. The entire fight to me was a bit of a bore, all things considered.

And also I agree with Shinra. It feels like he should still be in way over his head, but it also makes sense that he has to be able to do something. As for what, we’ll have to see because clearly that’s where we are headed next!

I will say that the change in pace has been much appreciated. There were times a few episodes back where it just felt like nothing much was happening and then we’ve had three episodes of back to back to back fights. It’s definitely what this series needs and it probably couldn’t come at a better time, although that’s providing everyone made it past the saggy middle!

And yes, Lisa should have done much more with those giant fire tentacles. It felt like a massive let down after the fights we’ve seen so far.

It almost feels like the training episode wasn’t necessary at all, because there really wasn’t all that much training… The show definitely feels like it’s getting it’s fire back with all this action once again. The Nether has been great!

What are your thoughts on Licht being present for the Shinra-Sho Showdown? I think it was nice to have someone attempting to explain what was going on, especially as Shinra seemed to get a massive powerup at just the right time.

Love it. Licht somehow just fits into the situation perfectly.

Well, let’s hope for much more in the last three episodes of the season, although I’m not expecting too many answers.

What have you learnt?

One of the things that’s been bugging me with this series has been that it didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be. It felt like it was trying hard not to be a battle shounen, but then it didn’t do that well at keeping the tension with the mystery. Only in the last couple of episodes has it really embraced the battle shounen format and it has been great. I guess what I’m saying here is that there’s no shame in being one thing or the other, but you should always play to your strengths. For Fire Force, that has been the incredible visuals and that has really lent itself to the fights.