In this week’s Fire Force, the gang gets a moment of calm in the town of Asakusa visiting Captain Benimaru Shinmon before things ramp up to eleven again. This little side-quest story looks to be becoming more integral to the overall plot, whilst also fleshing out some of the more peripheral characters in the anime. Let’s dive right into it!
1. Helping out around town
Following on from last week’s ritual ceremony of Benimaru taking out an Infernal, the town has to clean up the excessive destruction that he wreaked. Yeah, that’s right, Asakusa’s lord and savior Benimaru exorcised an Infernal with such extreme prejudice that he destroyed multiple properties, forcing people to live in the town center whilst everything was rebuilt. And yet… this guy is still celebrated as the local hero…? If you can buy into this maybe-too-far slice of anime logic, however, you’ll appreciate just how wholesome the cleaning scene is. People are a little too cool with having their homes temporarily destroyed, but it’s still very community-centric and heartwarming.
Our gang, the 8th Company, also pitch in to help out with Benimaru’s cleaning, all in ways that are very indicative of each character’s powers and personalities. I love that Hinawa’s special moment is his impressive handling of a nail gun. It’s also nice to see Benimaru get comfortable and let down the cool guy barrier, if only for a moment.
2. Konro and Benimaru
We eventually see Shinra goofing around with the weird twins that seem to shadow Benimaru around the town, in a shot that shows both party’s hugely endearing innocence. Honestly, all of this is a nice break from the generally oppressive hellish aesthetic that the show can lay on thick sometimes. Konro and Benimaru watch Shinra playing with the twins, looking on like two proud yet stubborn dads (Konro and Beni are also totally husbands in my headcanon, please don’t try to dissuade me from this). The two have such a natural chemistry together that suggests years of history, and the fact that they’ve barely been in two episodes is indicative of the quality of character development on this show.
We see that Konro has some kind of flame related injury too, which is revealed to be a kind of burnout when a third-generation pyrokinetic pushes their abilities too far and starts to consume their own flesh for energy. It’s a creepy but interesting way to put limits on the powers of the characters in this world and creates a lot of hubris for Konro to work through.
3. A betrayal!
Of course, we can’t have nice things forever, especially in a world that we’re constantly told is pretty much 99% on fire (not too far from our own, am I right, fellas? Eh?). So, of course, the Evangelist’s White Clad group come and sneak their way into Asakusa by somehow being able to disguise themselves, in appearance and voice, as Captain Obi and Lieutenant Hinawa. I can’t wait to see how fire powers explain that one. Being the tricky fellows that we now know they are, they convince Shinra to lure Benimaru into a trap where they frame the 8th Company for artificially Infernalizing humans. Not only that, but they frame them specifically for Infernalizing Benimaru’s bud from the night before, old man Kantaro! Nooooo!
Naturally, as I’m sure I would be without proper context, Benimaru goes into a rage and sets out to find the rest of the 8th Company. Shinra tries to calm him down, but we all know how good Shinra is at that sort of thing, so Benimaru ends up wanting to rain down holy hell on the newcomers that Infernalized his drinking buddy.
4. Total Wipeout
Considering how much the narrative has hyped up Benimaru as being one of the most powerful Fire Soldiers around, you can expect this battle scene to be a doozy. Thankfully, it absolutely lives up to the hype. The gang all take their turn at suppressing the captain, with Shinra’s windmilling kick style flinging all over the place, Tamaki’s strength making for some great hand-to-hand scenes, and Hinawa’s gun-handling making for some great The Matrix-influenced bullet-time moments. However, as is so expertly and smoothly animated by the creative team, Benimaru effortlessly maneuvers his way out of each situation with interesting and exciting methods.
Before long, Captain Obi steps in to settle this one Captain to Captain, mano-a-mano. We’ve never really seen Obi let loose before because he seemingly doesn’t have any powers, but he gets to show his worth as the team’s Batman. Obi uses all manner of gadgets and grenades mixed in with some super kinetic mixed martial arts, which make for an entertaining scene. Before long, though, Benimaru gets real pissed off and prepares an ultimate move!
5. Wanna know how I got these scars?
Luckily for the team (and possibly the town!), Konro interjects! He strongly believes that the 8th Company couldn’t have been behind the Infernalization, and settles down Benimaru, unfortunately to the point of exacerbating his burned condition. It’s a tragic yet short moment, but luckily the episode doesn’t dwell too much on it. Benimaru takes Konro and the Company back to ask them for alibis, which they are all able to provide, albeit some being conflicting due to no one knowing about the interjection of the White Clad. Benimaru goes to validate some of them, whilst still having a hot head about the whole situation, and Konro goes on to tell the gang about how he got his condition… in a flashback!
It’s only a brief introduction to this aside before the episode closes out, but what we’re dropped with is Benimaru and Konro fighting to suppress a mass of Infernalizations in Asakusa years before. Konro tries to push Benimaru aside so that he can go to the limit and beyond to save the town, and weirdly enough, the episode ends there in a rather obvious cliffhanger. Stay tuned for what we should already know will happen, folks!
