True Reviews, Updates and Common Sense Opinions
The 8th company has been searching for the White-Clad and finds out that they are running their operation out of the Nether, a now-defunct railway under the city.
Continue reading “Fire Force: Into the Nether | 1 x19 – recap”
In this episode, Konro of the 3rd and Karim from the 1st visit the 8th Fire Force to compare notes about the White Clad with Obi and Hibana. Vulcan is officially the engineer of the 8th. He gave Hinawa a hat with horns on it and he gave Arthur his donkey stead back that exploded during the encounter with the White Clad. Vulcan also gave Obi and Maki new tools.
Continue reading “Fire Force: The Secrets of Pyrokinesis | 1 x18 – recap”
This episode continues with the story of Vulcan, the engineer that the 8th and every other Fire Force company is trying to recruit. At this point, he has asked Shinra, Arthur, and Iris to leave but on good terms. Vulcan tells Lisa and Yu that they are family and that their bond won’t break as he shares his vision of creating sustainable robotics to help evolve the world.
Continue reading “Fire Force: We Are Family | 1 x16 – recap”
In the last episode, the 8th and the 7th company became allies in the mission to find the corruption in the Fire Force. Yona and Arrow escape back to their lair where Shinra’s brother, Sho is waiting for them. They tell Sho about what happened in Asakusa and he decides that he needs to go with them to acquire Shinra because of his Adolla link.
Continue reading “Fire Force: The Blacksmith’s Dream | 1 x 15 – recap”
In the previous episode, Benimaru and Obi got into a fight because imposters impersonated Obi and Hinawa and framed them for turning villages in Asakusa into infernals. Konro, the captain of the 7th, convinced Benimaru to allow Obi and the rest of the 8th to explain.
Continue reading “Fire Force: The Trap Is Set | (1 x 13) – recap”
Fire Force returned from a three-week sabbatical and picked up with Company 8 in the Fire Force Company 7 territory in Asakusa. All of Company 8 begin helping Benimaru and the rest of his town clean up after the recent damaged caused by the infernal transformation and cleansing in episode 11.
Continue reading “Fire Force: Eve of Hostilities in Asakusa (1 x 12) – recap”
We have a flashback about Hinawa, Obi, and Maki before they were in the Fire Force. Hinawa’s flashback shows him freezing up when his roommate transformed into an inferno in the Armed Forces. Obi was a regular Fire Fighter, they weren’t taken seriously by members of the Fire Force.
“I refuse to sit back and do nothing while the world burns down around me.’ – Obi
After finding out that the Fire Force members had a point system to have fun while putting infernos to rest. One inferno waited patiently for the fire force to put in to rest. This is the first time Obi and Hinawa worked together. Obi vows after that moment to create his own sector of the Fire Force.
The Mightiest Hikeshi
Back in the present, the 8th want to investigate the Evangelist in the 7th. They do not want to cooperate, but Obi barges in and makes their presence known. The captain, Benimaru and Shinra have a battle of words because Benimaru isn’t interested in tracking down the Evangelist.
Shinra challenges him to a duel, but one of the townspeople turns into an inferno. While putting him to rest, Benimaru tears his village apart. An old lady explains to Shinra that the townspeople only want to be put to rest by Benimaru’s hands if they combust.
I think Benimaru will become a trustworthy ally once Shinra breaks his shell.
Hibana has been spending a lot of time with Special Force 8 due to her infatuation with Shinra. Hinawa and Obi notice that the station has become a lot more lively and it is a welcomed change.
The captains of all of the Special Forces have been summoned to the Tokyo Emperor as a result of the Rekka incident in the last episode to discuss what is happening and how the government will resolve the secret organization lead by the Evangelist.
The Promise
During the meeting, the 7th captain says that they will carry on with business as usual. The Emperor says that he wants the groups to all work together to take down the Evangelist.
Hibana is approached by Dr. Giovanni, the captain of the 3rd, regarding her alliances. She brushes him off and continues into the meeting beside Obi.
The Emperor tells Shinra that his Adola Burst is similar to the power plant that dwells in Tokyo to power the city. Some of the captains from other companies, including the 3rd, want to lock Shinra up so he won’t be captured. Hibana tips Obi off about this. Obi vows to keep Shrina safe from attacks.
Arthur is back at the 8th headquarters. We didn’t receive a reason why he went missing. Perhaps he is undercover for the Evangelist.
Shinra takes a breather after the meeting. He is approached by the stranger, Joker, from the Fire Force Festival earlier in the season. Joker tells him that he needs to pursue the Evangelist to find his brother. His brother is a knight for the Evangelist.
Shinra vows to save his brother from the Evangelist. Fire Force 8 embarks on a mission to review paperwork for leads about the Evangelist in hopes to figure out where and who they are.
Hinawa tells Shinra that whatever is on his mind he should tell Obi if he can’t tell him. Shinra assures Hinawa that he trusts him and has enjoyed his time with Special Force 8. Obi and Hinawa determine that Shinra will do well.
Shinra tells everyone in company 8 about Joker and his brother. He states the company feels like a family. Because of this realization, Hinawa determines that the plan to take down the Evangelist will be centered around saving Shinra’s brother.
We get a glimpse of Shinra’s brother, Sho, in the Evangelists’ shrine room during a ritual before the episode ends.
Burns informs his group (Special Unit One) that the Special Forces fifth and eighth are doing joint exercises. Captain Burns says that Obi is making his move. I assume he talking about Obi’s plan to figure out what causes human combustion while taking down the corrupt special forces.
The Fifth and Eighth districts are hanging out together. Hibana seems very smittened by Shinra. The groups are enjoying their times together and Hibana offers her support to the eighth district because Shinra saved her when he “clobbered” her. So now she will share the information she knows to help the eighth in their mission.
“There is someone deliberately creating infernos.” – Hibana
In Hibana’s research she saw outliers the suggests someone is creating infernos. Every case of human combustion is not so, but some of her findings show this. They are mostly appearing around the Shinjuku district (the first district).
Obi and Hibana seal their alliance with a high five.
Obi assigns Arthur and Shinra an undercover assignment in the first district. Hibana will send someone from the fifth and reach out to other districts to join as well so that they don’t look suspicious.
They visit the first district cathedral with three members from the eighth, one member from the second, and one member from the fifth. The arrival is under the assumption of training.
Shinra challenges Cpt. Burns to a match and if he wins he gets to ask him a question. Burns agrees and offers his lieutenants (Karim, Rekka, and Foien) up for sparring partners as well.
Rekka Hoshimiya is the first lieutenant that goes against the second district member, Takeru Noto. During their fight, we see Noto summon multiple firebombs, form them into missiles, and launch them at Rekka. However, they are snuffed out by Lieutenant Karim using Thermo Acoustic Cooling in the form of a tuba.
Shinra thinks the lieutenants could be doing the artificial creation of infernos. But switches focus to square off against Burns with Arthur. Burns extinguishes Excalibur with a pinch of his finger. This leaves Arthur dumbfound and prompts Shinra to spring into action.
Welcome to training!
Shinra gives his best attacks but all he manages to do is scorch Burns’ clothing. Burns asks Shinra why he joined the Fire Force. Shinra explains that he wants to prevent fires from happening like the one that killed his mother and brother.
Burns states, “You have a long way to go” as he does a force attack without even moving and sends Shinra flying across the battleground.
As menacing as everything seemed when the undercover team arrived, by the end of the sparring session, the district one group encouraged Shinra and the rest of his team to keep working hard and make the best of the training available during their time in the first district. Plus, looking on, the first district lieutenants almost look friendly.
Fire Force: S01, E06 | The Spark of Promise (recap)
Shinra finally reaches Hibana’s palace where the Special Force 5 are stationed. As he approaches the doors, he remembers how she incapacitated him in their last encounter in episode 4. He easily beats the 5th Angels Three attack and ascends the steps of the palace.
The Spark of Promise
Hibana prepares to fight the Special Force 8 and tells Iris to watch. She has what I would equate to Survivor’s Guilt because she is still angry about her fellow nuns being consumed by fire. She is a 3rd generation fire user and can’t be consumed by flames. She made it out along with Iris, but the others burned and that changed her approach to life. She shuns Iris for still keeping her faith even after what she saw.
“A hunk of gravel like you doesn’t stand a chance of harming me. ” – Hibana
Shinra arrives to challenge Hibana. She uses a heatwave specialty move that gives Shinra vertigo. After she explains how she is incapacitating him, Shinra begins to power through to stand up to restart the fight.
Shinra says he’s going to save her from her delusions because she looks like she’s in pain. This fires her up and she knocks him out again. Hibana creates a blooming tree in the middle of her lair. The flower peddles burn him.
Exploitation vs. Salvation
Iris tries to appeal to her past with Hibana to get her to stop attacking Shinra. But Hibana harps on the fact that she was less committed to her faith and survived the massive combustion at their orphanage. As a result of the orphanage burning, she turned to selfish gain instead of faith.
Shinra claims he’s going to keep getting up so that he can help her. He ends up knocking her out with a punch. We see a flashback of her creating flame flowers with the rest of her sisters at the orphanage. A head nun tells her to use her powers cautiously because they could hurt someone, but they were a gift from God.
We see Hibana and Iris were not particularly close, but they walked in on the burning nuns together and that added to their relationship. The combustion even caused her to turn to a life of exploitation, believing that her gift was an abomination.
When Hibana wakes up from Shinra’s punch, Iris and Shinra are there. Shinra tells her he’ll be her hero and asks her to call him whenever he needs her. Hibana admits defeat and she and Iris rekindle a positive relationship. As a result, Special Force 5 and Special Force 8 become allies.
In episode 5 of Fire Force, we find out that Princess Hibana knows the secret to spontaneous human combustion. Of course, she won’t share. She and the rest of her Special Force 5 members have a perverted way of doing research. We find that out during her examination of the abnormal inferno, Miyamoto.
The Battle Begins
If you recall, the last episode of Fire Force (The Hero and the Princess), Obi agrees to let Hibana research the reason for Miyamoto’s consciousness in his inferno state in exchange for her sharing her findings. However, Hibana is not sharing and that forces Obi and the rest of his unit to storm Special Unit 5 to get the information.
Shinra also wants to fight them because they jumped him in the last episode. Iris (the nun in special unit 8) goes to visit Hibana first.
Spoiler alert, that is her sister. However, she has turned away from the convent and is now taking part in perversion.
Based on the end credit scene, something happened at their convent and it must have caused Hibana to lose faith while her sister, Iris kept hers.
During Iris’ visit to see Hibana she fails to sway her back to the light and a battle commences between special unit 5 and special unit 8. Hibana thinks she’s lured special unit 8 to her, but they were already coming.
By the end of the episode, Arthur ends up beating Miyamoto who has become a pet for special unity 5. Maki and Hinawa take out the 3 angels of the 5th. Shinra heads to confront Hibana and Obi is en route.
In this episode, Shinra comes across finds out that the man he fought at the rookie tournament is named Joker. The ashes that caused the explosions in the air are the ashes of dead infernos.
The Hero and the Princess
After finding out this news, Maki sends Arthur and Shinra on a mission to rescue a dog. They end up running into the Fire Force mascots that we met at the rookie tournament. The man mascot named Mamoru was recently surrounded by citizens shouting “hip hip hooray” for some reason. He didn’t like it.
While Shinra and Arthur are still around, he tells them about Miyamoto. Miyamoto is a former fight fighter that killed four people for fun. Today is the day his verdict is decided by a judge.
While in court, the verdict is announced as not guilty due to psychological reasons. Miyamoto stood in the center of the courtroom with a smile on his face because he knew he would get off.
Moments after the verdict was announced, Miyamoto sparked and transformed into an inferno. However, he is still self-aware. During his transformation, he lit everyone in the room except his lawyer and the judge on fire.
He later killed the judge for passing judgment, but during his preparation to kill his lawyer he was thwarted by Shinra and Arthur her flew over to the scene as soon as they got word from their chief. The rest of Company 8 arrived, but Miyamoto managed to escape causing Shinra to chase him.
Shinra catches up to him and almost lays him to rest, but he ends up being distracted by Miyamoto’s tactics. This left enough time for the captain of Special Fire Force 5 to arrive at the scene with her troops and detain the inferno.
Shinra attempted to fight the entire company 5 but the numbers overwhelmed him. Fortunately, Obi and the rest of company 8 arrive. Obi and the captain of company 5, Princess Hibana agree that company 5 will take the subject and study him FOR SCIENCE and share the information they acquire.
Self-aware infernos are not common and they have the resources to study the subject. Obi is still weary but goes along with these terms.
Fire Force: S01, E03 | The Rookie Fire Soldier Games (recap)
During this episode, we finally get to experience the Rookie Games that Obi mentioned in episode two. We find out the Special Fire Force 8 is being closely watched by two people.
Remember the man who caused the disturbance at the last inferno incident? He’s one of them.
The other person is a special force member. We later see him among the other groups during the rookie tournament.
As a result of their research, we find out the Special Fire Force 8 group was created based on Obi’s moral compass. In the past, Obi refused to follow orders at the expense of losing a life and was put into a chief position as a result.
Season 1, Episode 3 | The Rookie Fire Soldier Games
During the rookie tournament, squad one is there and Shinra notices that their chief (Leonard Burns) was on the scene the day his mother turned into an inferno. Shinra approaches him to inquire about that day (12 years ago) he tells him that he doesn’t remember.
“I need your attention, Devil footprints”. – Mysterious Man
When Shinra, Arthur, and Tamaki (a rookie from squad one) start the tournament relay, they race to a mock burning building. The goal is the take care of the mock inferno and return to the starting line.
Shinra’s main focus is to finish the drill quickly so that he can get back to Burns and question him some more. Shinra enters the building first by flying over the others and bypassing the bottom floor.
He finds two force members knocked out by a mysterious man. The same man that caused the disturbance at the last inferno sighting in episode two.
This man claims to have information that Shinra is interested in regarding his life, mother and brother. But to get all of the information he has to choose between being a devil or a hero. Shinra sticks to his goal to be a hero which prompts a fight to start between the two.
During the fight, the man tells Shinra bits and pieces of information regarding the happening 12 years ago. The most important fact that he shares is that Shinra’s little brother is alive. This information catches Shinra off guard, but he holds on to his morals and continues to fight. The mysterious man controls ashes to cause explosions in the air.
Arthur and Tamaki finally make it up to the fight. At first, they think it is a part of the drill, but after almost getting blown up by the scattered ashes in the air, they have to cling on to Shinra. Shinra props the two unconscious officers on his shoulders and prepares to fly out of the building through the roof.
As the building begins to explode, Shinra manages to escape and get everyone to safety.
Who’s hiding the truth?
Captain Burns comes over to thank Shinra for saving Tamaki, Shinra is suspicious of Burns now so humbly accepts his praise and thanks.
Obi approaches Shinra and congratulates him on a job well done. Shinra is still taken back about finding out that his brother is alive and is curious about the mysterious man that he fought. He asks Obi who can be trusted now that he knows bits and pieces of information.
Obi opens up that the Special Fire Force companies are not monolithic. They each answer to heads and the actions of each force mainly benefits whoever is backing them. As a result, Special Force 8 was created to monitor Forces 1 through 7. They are also tasked with finding out exactly what causes spontaneous human combustion.
Obi expresses that he does not trust the Fire Force and chose people that he knew were trustworthy for Fire Force 8.
Previous Episode – Season 1, Episode 2 The Heart of a Fire Soldier
Episode 2 of Fire Force introduced an important character. We met Arthur Boyle, also known as Knight King. He and Shinra went to academy together and they have a healthy rivalry with one another. Arthur is also a 3rd generation fire manipulator.
Season 1, Episode 2 The Heart of a Fire Soldier
Akitaru announces that Arthur and Shinra are going to represent the Special Fire Force Company 8 at a rookie tournament. It will be those two up against rookies of other companies.
With the rookie tournament pending, Company 8 commander Takehisa prepares Shinra and Arthur by putting them against Maki. Maki is a 2nd generation fire manipulator. She can’t create fire, but she able to bend it to her will.
She goes up against Shinra and Arthur (using his plasma emitter sword) in a two on one battle to prepare them for the tournament.
Maki is very strong and as a result of Shinra and Arthur’s shortcomings, she’s able to win pretty convincingly. We never hear Takehisa give Shinra or Arthur pointers on how to be better, I’m assuming he saw more positive traits than negative.
“Never let the victim see your weapon” – Akitaru
An inferno forms in the city and Fire Force company 8 goes to the scene. While they are en route, Akitaru tells everyone to keep their weapons hidden away. However, Shinra and Arthur fail to listen.
As a result, Akitaru sort of reprimands them and threatens termination from the squad if they can’t listen to his instruction. Akitaru’s expresses that compassion needs to be shown for the victims family. You never know whos looking and it’s important to keep your weapons stored away until you get into the battle.
He goes on to explain that some Fire Force members ignore the victim element, but he does not run his squad that way. Special Unit 8 are not crusaders. Even though they are killing the infernos, showing compassion for those left behind is important.
“If I’m not there for those left behind, I’m no one’s hero” – Shinra
The little girl who called about the inferno was reporting on her dad. Her mother turned into an inferno recently and she is afraid that now she will be next.
When company 8 arrived at the inferno’s location, they discovered him just sitting in the family dining room staring at a family picture. The team opts to end this fast and swift. Iris says a prayer and Arthur using his sword (Excalibur) to end him.
While they are clearly the scene, an outside interference of a fire manipulator causes the building to collapse. Akitaru vows to find out who disturbed the scene and make them pay.
Later that night, Arthur and Shinra prepare for sleep and vow to end the spontaneous combustion of humans together.
Starting up a new anime is always a little shifty. You don’t know what to expect, you’re not sure if you’ll like the concept, and you’re not sure if you’ll like the opening song.
Okay, maybe that last part is just a ME thing. But, never the less when I found out the creator of Soul Eater was making another anime I decided to throw myself into Fire Force for this weekly episodic adventure to see what it brings.
Season 1, Episode 1 – Shinra Kusakabe Enlists
We meet Shinra Kusakabe, a third generation manipulator of fire. He has enlisted into Special Fire Force Company 8 with goals to be a hero. He’s the clear focal point of the story.
“Sir, honestly I just want to be a hero” – Shinra
He joins the Fire Force during a time when random spontaneous human combustion is striking citizens with no warning. Akitaru, the leader of the unit, mentions that there are no signs of when the combustion will happen and no clear reason for the combustion either.
Shinra has a history with human spontaneous combustion. His mother was a victim of spontaneous combustion when he was a child. As a result, she and Shinra’s little brother died. Shinra earned the nickname Devil’s Foot during that time because no one believed that he didn’t cause the fire, not even his own grandmother.
“I want to become a hero. No, I have to become one!” – Shinra
From his flashbacks, we can deduce that Shinra and his mother had a good relationship. He made two promises as a child. He promised to become a hero and to protect his family. Unfortunately, he could not protect his family. So now his goal is to become a hero to fulfill one promise.
During his first mission, Shinra freezes up in the line of duty and Akitaru helps to snap him back to reality. Shinra, remembering his goals, marches into the flames to put the Inferno (also known as a human who has spontaneously combusted) to rest.
It is during this mission that he reveals he saw something else besides his brother and mother in the flames the day they died. Shinra vows to find out who or what it was.