Fire Force (Episode 22) - A Brother's Determination

Shinra finds himself face to face with his little brother, Sho, but Sho wants nothing to do with him other than that the Evangelist wants Shinra for his Adolla Burst. It looks like we’re in for a fight!

What happened?

Sho appears to have a considerable advantage in the fight and then freezes time with his pyrokinetic ability, taking Shinra to another universe full of smouldering skeletons and an endless pale sky. Suddenly, Shinra spots a large figure behind Sho. The Evangelist has appeared, but he says nothing. Suddenly, they are back in the abandoned underground and Sho starts to make Shinra wish he’d never come looking for him.

Meanwhile, the remaining Knights of the Ashen Flame, Yana and Haumea watch on and wait. Shinra manages to Adolla Link with Sho and attempts to show him their shared past. For a moment, Sho denies it and fights back, knocking Shinra around the space, but Shinra manages to refine his abilities, breaking into Sho’s alternate universe as he travels faster than light. Licht can only watch on with a mix of horror and excitement. If Shinra keeps it up, he could die or create a black hole, which would mean everyone dies!

Once more, I am joined by Yomu from Umai Yomu Anime Blog and it’s Yomu’s turn to go first this week, so expect something groundbreaking right off the bat… Also, Yomu will be in bold as usual.

What did you think?

I loved this episode. It might just be my favourite Fire Force episode yet. With the entire episode dedicated to Shinra’s fight against Sho, and his struggle to learn how to utilize the Adolla Burst, everything just felt right. From Licht’s thoughts and chipping into the fight itself, I enjoyed it all. Even the way Shinra was knocked around seemed correct considering the initial difference in their power levels. But then for Shinra to slowly climb up to Sho’s level, I really liked the way it was done.

Agreed, it definitely felt like a natural progression in Shinra’s abilities, especially as he was learning from the experiences and then he managed to use the Evangelist’s blessing through Sho which was cool.

One of the things I noticed was how Yana, the one that can change people’s appearance said that he wasn’t human… So, what is he and what is the Evangelist? Are we dealing with demons or maybe an alien race from a parallel universe? There’s a lot to unpack from this episode.

Maybe the answers lie beyond the Tokyo area!! I know you’d love that.

I love pseudo-science in anime, so Licht’s whole internal monologue about a potential black hole being created by Shinra’s speed was cool. And it was funny when he concluded that it was every scientist’s dream to observe one.

Yeah, he was prepared to die to see the birth of a black hole. I’m not sure I’m down with the whole Shinra travelling so fast that he broke down into pieces and then moved back in time to when he was fully assembled though… as cool as it was.

Fire Force Episode 22 Shinra going Lightspeed

As much as I want to find out more about outside of Tokyo, it does feel like an invasion and Tokyo is the last place holding out thanks to Raffles III and the power station, Amaterasu.

Hmm, maybe it is something like that. Hopefully, we learn more about the world and how it all works at some point, if not this season, then next season.

That’s right, we do presumably have another 24 episodes to get into it. That means more Hibana and Maki too, so even better.

This series could definitely use more Hibana, Maki, and Tamaki.

And shower scenes.

And more fights like we’ve seen in the last three episodes. Those have been visually incredible as well as entertaining. The series has definitely picked up of late.

We had our doubts, but it seems what we really needed was for Fire Force to go back to being a shounen, utilizing its powerful art style and cast to throw a bunch of different fights at us. Enough flashy visuals and I’m ready for more!

Absolutely. Sometimes you just have to play to your strengths.

What have you learnt?

I mentioned in the last episode that, sometimes a series needs to focus on being one thing and not try too hard to be something its not. This episode really cemented that idea and this recent run of episodes has really renewed our interest in the series. If you make something look like one thing and then switch it up, you’re going to disappoint people. I’m sure there will be people that dropped Fire Force because it wasn’t what they thought it would be and have now missed the part that would speak to them the most. Tropes and genres exist because that’s what people relate to and expect. They are not inherently evil or tired, they can be, but if you use them properly, they can be the difference between someone finishing the series or giving up before the end.