Fire Force (Episode 23) - Smile

Shinra wouldn’t give up on Sho, no matter what the costs. Using the Adolla Link and his newfound speed, he is able to flood Sho’s mind with his memories, but will it be enough to convince him to join Shinra.

What happened?

Shinra continues to fly around the space, keeping Sho guessing and using the Adolla Link to share his memories of his childhood, of the time after his mother and Sho were killed. It’s sad to see what he went through and how everyone called him a devil because of his nervous grin. Amazingly though, he got through the Sho and they returned to the real universe where Shinra hugged his little brother. Unfortunately, Sho’s katana had pierced Shinra’s chest. Before either of them had a chance to do anything Haumea appeared and revealed that the Evangelist was collecting Adolla Burst to restart the great cataclysm.

Sho tried to fight back, but his grace with the Evangelist had been lost. Haumea used her pyrokinetic abilities to brainwash him. She was about to do the same to Shinra when the rest of Company 8 arrived. Arthur appeared to be the trump card as his plasma was interfering with Haumea’s power, forcing her to retreat with just Sho. Company 8 fled the Nether, taking Shinra to Sixth where the Captain specialised in treating pyrokinetics. Having recovered from his injuries, Shinra is visited by Leonard Burns from the first who reveals that he knew all about Shinra…

Yomu from Umai Yomu Anime Blog is back to discuss Fire Force once more, but this week it’s my turn to go first. We’re speeding towards the end of the season, so there should be lots to talk about. Yomu will be in bold as usual.

What did you think?

I guess this is the comedown after several weeks of outstanding fights… I was surprised and a little disappointed to see Sho come around to Shinra’s side, but of course, that was short-lived as Haumea jumped in and messed with Sho’s head. She is most definitely crazy and I think will make for a fairly interesting villain going forward. It’s still not clear what the Evangelist is and what’s doing, even after Haumea’s explanation.

Thanks for joining me again, Yomu. It’s been quite the series of posts. So, what did you think of this one?

Once again, I loved the action and Licht’s commentary. Things got a little wacky here, but overall it was a fun fight. I sort of agree that it’s disappointing Sho would come around so fast, but to be fair, this is shounen – there was really no doubt that Lisa and Sho would switch sides. And at least I felt like the way they went about it, with memories, was pretty clever.

And yeah, no clue who or what the Evangelist is still!

Definitely. Shinra showed him the past that he’d forgotten, so that made sense. What do you think of the Captain of the Sixth?

I don’t even remember who that is. So I guess that’s what I think of him/her.

Haha! She was the one with the fire serpent that healed Shinra. It seems odd to introduce new characters at this stage. I feel like the season should have ended with Shinra being rescued and Sho going off with Haumea. Now we have another episode and it’s not going to live up to the previous ones that have been great.

Oh her! Yeah, I wonder if she’s anyone special or just a convenience added in to allow characters to get back into the fight sooner, or take more of a beating in fights and survive. Healing seems to be very common in this genre. Like Senzu Beans in DBZ, Wendy’s healing in Fairy Tail…

Yeah, as you say, it’s a convenient way to not have your characters sitting around in recovery beds for weeks at a time.

Seems a little too convenient! Healing fire seems like a bit much, but I guess at this point it doesn’t really mean anything haha. Looks like we’ll get some wrap-up in the final episode, possibly some answers in the form of a cliffhanger too!

Answers would be nice.

What have you learnt?

Endings have always been a bit of a fascination for me. I feel like a great ending can make up for a lot of failings in a series, but on the flip side, a bad or lacklustre ending can undo a lot of good work. Now, I know that this is the second to last episode of the season, but I feel like the next episode isn’t going to do anything to leave things on a high. This series kind of lost its way for a while and then we had the collection of fights that really upped its game and blew me away. I feel like having Haumea take Sho away and Company 8 escaping from the Nether with the injured Shinra would have been a great moment to end the season. Instead, we get to see Shinra taken to a hospital, recover, and then have a face-off with Leonard Burns. It’s not the sprint finish we needed.