This week’s Fire Force brings a close to Vulcan’s introduction arc with a slick high-powered fight and a couple of high-pressure first meetings. Some long-lost characters come back for the first time in a minute to make things interesting, too! But the best part of this episode? We get the most appropriate use of Tamaki’s Lucky Lecher Lure. Who’d have thought!?
1. Hibana at the rescue
The episode opens with a surprise from Hibana, coming to the severely tied up and incapacitated Shinra’s rescue. Oh, how the tables have turned! Our dominating flower princess reveals that she bugged Iris to keep an eye on the kids while they went to negotiate with Vulcan, hence why she came. She releases Shinra, and remaining perfectly in character, wishes that maybe she should have just taken him back with her to safety. It’s nice to see Hibana again, and in a role where she has agency and is the one to set things in motion to save the day.
Then, we get an extremely cathartic moment at a shirtless Shinra snap, crackles, and explodes his way down to Vulcan’s Workshop, kicking the crap out of anyone who dares stand in his way. The White-Clad who’s fighting Arthur makes a great point later that Shinra didn’t waste his time trying to take down individual goons, rather, he just blazed through the crowd like a damn rocket to get to his destination. The animation here is slick and malleable and conveys a sense of buttery movement like a few other animes can, as Shinra shoots himself like a bullet straight into Giovanni, knocking him flying.
2. Magnets, how DO they work?
Shinra comes up with an endearingly enthusiastic name for himself as he proceeds to try and beat up Giovanni (if you must know and make me type it out… it’s Put-The-Damn-Masked-Nose-Out-Of-Joint Man). Before he can get really stuck into things, however, Lisa (the damn TRAITOR) unleashes her powers on Shinra and gives viewers a handy and quick explanation of how they work. You see, apparently as humans, we all have a very faint magnetic field, and Lisa’s tendril-like flames can attract to that like giant pulsing, fiery… magnets. Which is exactly what she does to Shinra. It’s one of the fire powers that feel like the manga-ka was somewhat pressed for time in coming up with something creative, but it ties in with some thematic stuff this episode, so I’ll pass it.
Meanwhile, Hibana shows up outside the Workshop to aid our greatest Knight King, Arthur. Since we’ve already seen her unleash her full ultimate flaming Sakura tree move in the past, we only see it partially here, which is kind of endearing that she’s willing to go all out right from the beginning to help the 8th Company. It gives Arthur a leg up in the fight until a mysterious outsider appears to unfortunately turn the table once again.
3. O Brother, there you are
We finally get the dramatic meeting that’s been built up for a few arcs now in this episode: the meeting of Shinra and his Evangelist-supporting little brother, Sho. There’s a little bit of buildup to it first, however. Vulcan and Lisa help Shinra with the magnetic flame tentacles (eugh) by using Vulcan’s factory to create hundreds of new machines and toys that interfere with a human magnetic field. This gives Shinra a chance to really go ham on Giovanni once more, to the extent that he blows him out of the workshop and into the field, where he sees his little brother standing atop a hill.
Shinra’s reaction is much more primal and emotional at first. He is immediately joyous to have found his brother and immediately gushes over how happy he is that they’ve reunited, not considering the uniform he’s wearing or the circumstances that have led to him being here. There’s even a great little moment where Shinra mocks Sho for being cute in his little knights uniform, to which Sho promptly retaliates about tenfold. He moves at light speed, judging his first meeting with his brother to be unsatisfactory, and knocks him out. It’s a great showing of power levels in this show, considering how much we thought Shinra was a monster in the last episode, Sho still seems to outclass him by lightyears.
Continued below4. Joker’s return
Sho is prepped and primed to take his older brother away as a hostage when he is intercepted by a creepy, disembodied voice. That’s right folks, the weird, old-timey dressing enigma, Joker, is back, and this time he’s here at Shinra’s benefit! Licht, suspiciously, is also here in a buggy to come and pick up Shinra, Arthur, Vulcan, and the rest of the team. It’s a great subtle reminder that Licht is working with Joker behind the scenes, without having to directly tell the readers so. Licht and the rest of 8th Company pick up Shinra, whilst Joker holds Sho off in order for the gang to hightail it outta there.
The Joker/Sho fight isn’t one of the most stylish or impressive fight scenes in this anime, but it is momentous in that it feels like a clash of titans testing out each other’s strength before deciding how far they’ll go all out. Once Joker is sure that Shinra and the gang are safe, he vanishes away. Of course, the succeeding scene is a play on a classic action anime trope, with both Sho and Joker realizing that the other left some damage on their clothing or weapon. Ooooooh!
5. A new team member and one last goodbye
The final scene, like most good Fire Force episodes, is a bit of a tone shift to leave viewers on a positive note. We see that Vulcan is being kept safe by the 8th Company, whilst not fully inducted into the team as the Engineer yet. He is, of course, welcomed to the precinct with a little party, in which we see some fun Company banter. As it happens, Lieutenant Hinawa is the closeted wife of 8th Company, cooking so well and so thoroughly for the gang that other members feel embarrassed about their own culinary skills in comparison. We also see, as I initially mentioned, the best use of Tamaki’s Lucky Lecher skill, in which a slice of tempura meat loses its crispy skin in front of her.
The nice thing about this finishing scene, however, is that Captain Obi, even considering the circumstances, leaves it up to Vulcan to decide whether he wants to join the team or not. He huffs and puffs for a bit before the scene skips to a shot of him talking at the graves of his father and grandfather one last time: saying he’s sorry to betray their ideals, but he’ll be joining up with the Fire Force. Aww.
