Fire Force (Episode 48) - Signs of Upheaval

After enduring the hazing of the Seventh, Shinra and Arthur lose it when Benimaru can’t remember why they had to do it. He fights them off until they are completely spent, but that’s when something finally happens!

Fire Force (Episode 48) – Signs of Upheaval

What happened?

They were cooked over an open fire, dragged through the streets, dunked in water, spun around and around and the entire time, they had one question – why? So, when it finally ended and they found themselves lying on the ground before Benimaru, they asked him again. What was the purpose? Benimaru shrugged and said he didn’t know. Well, they lost it, attacking with ferocity and determination, but it wasn’t enough.

Benimaru fought them off for five hours. When they could barely stand, they finally learnt the secret behind Hysterical Strength. They needed to experience it to understand the feeling – the reality of facing death was written on their faces. Their bodies needed to go through it to activate their true fight-or-flight instincts. Now, they just needed to remember that feeling.

Meanwhile, Kayoko Huang, the captain of the Sixth arrived with Princess Hibana to look at Konro’s flame. She needed to see if it was any different to anyone else’s. He was normal, but that just meant that more were targets for the White Clad with their various stigmata from visiting Adolla.

As Shinra finished his training, he linked with Captain Hague of the Fourth as he was brutally murdered. Now was the time to unite the Empire like never before, but the White Clad are planning something big. Will they be ready?

What did you think?

And that’s the end of season two. The wait for season three begins, but since we started late, we won’t have to wait as long. There’s no date as yet, so who knows when we’ll get to dive into that one. Anyhow, this was the end of the latest training arc, which is kind of a lazy way to end a season. I was secretly hoping we’d get something similar to the last three episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen where they tried to blow us away with a killer final arc.

It wasn’t a bad end to a season, but it wasn’t great either. Yomu, what did you make of the end of season two?

Overall, I’d say it was disappointing. This second foray into the Nether didn’t last as long or deliver as much action as we’d hoped. It felt like a strange decision to mirror season one by going back to the Nether in the final episodes, only to give us something much more tame than season one. With higher stakes and more developed characters, we should have gotten much better fights than we did.

And then to cut that short and finish off with a little training just killed what little excitement I had left. Of course, I’m still interested in the overarching story and the characters, but it would have been nice if this season ended on an exciting note.

Fire Force Episode 48 Benimaru taking a bath

Fire Force Episode 48 Benimaru fighting Shinra and Arthur

Well, at the end of last season we finally got to see a decent Shinra and Sho fight which it had been building towards for most of the season. I feel like we learned a lot more at the end of that season than we did with this one. All in, it was a step backwards when, as you said, we should have seen bigger stakes and more impressive fights.

After the way it introduced the First Pillar, I feel like that should have been the perfect way to end this season by showing what she can do. There have been some interesting moments this season, but nothing that stood out as well as season one. Hopefully, they can pull it back with season three. Surely, we’ll get some answers then…

I’d forgotten about the First Pillar…! What a loose thread she ended up being this season. Shinra learns more about her, and the entire time I was thinking that the next time they form an Adolla Link, Shinra will be able to better communicate with her knowing what he does. But instead, she just never showed up again.

At the very least we got to see Dr. Giovanni, although his fight was short-lived and not the greatest.

What are you looking forward to the most in the next season?

I’d like it to be a bit more chaotic and really push the Fire Force hard. So far, they’ve not really been troubled for long. I want to see everything going wrong so it can show us what they’re made of. I also want some answers about Adolla. Is it a different place, a different dimension, and what is the end game for the Evangelist?

When they went to China at the beginning of the season we saw the wastelands and the thousands of Infernals just wandering around. I want that on a bigger scale. Let’s get the apocalypse going. That should make things interesting!

Fire Force Episode 48 Shinra passing his limits

Yeah, it would be great to see everyone forced to get their hands dirty. If I remember correctly, Hinawa was only involved in one fight this season, and it was kind of a joke fight because he was stuck with Maki’s brother at the time. They have such a great cast of characters, it’s a waste for us to not see them all in action. And not just from Fire Force 8; characters like Burns are also more than welcome to make an appearance!

And it would be nice if they broke from the current formula of “action, break, action, break” and applied the pressure as you say. Hopefully, we do get more all around.

Definitely. Bigger and flashier fights that utilize the large cast would be a massive step up from this season. It would be good to have an extended arc too that took up most of the season. I’m not sure there are any Fire Forces left for us to see so it would be good to put the all to work.

I also don’t really see a big twist coming. Sure, there are going to be revelations, but I’d be surprised if anything was as surprising as learning that Amaterasu is powered by a person. I don’t think we need too much more setup so let’s get on with the final conflict. I’d take the whole of season three as one giant battle arc that decides everything.

That sounds about right. The only real revelations left I feel like would involve Adolla, infernals, and how Amaterasu (and similar plants) manage to preserve life around them. And the Evangelist, of course. But all of those things are connected to the world itself, and how the world works. They aren’t people or organizations that can be investigated, except for the White Clad who know a thing or two.

So the goal really should just be to track down the White Clad and beat some answers out of them, right?

Or maybe Charon realises he’s on the wrong side and comes across with some answers. Either way, that’s definitely what we need.

Guess we’ll find out next season, hopefully. And even if we don’t, hopefully, we just get some great fights and action. This season didn’t live up to expectations, we need more fire!