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Five Thoughts on Fire Force‘s “Into The Nether”

By | October 13th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week in Fire Force things start to really kick off into the closing arc of the season. The gang is preparing a full-frontal assault on what functions as this world’s hell on earth (almost literally), and we get a couple of huge fights and development for side characters. Strap yourselves in, guys, as we dive into the Nether.

1. The best place to hide a tree?
As we find out in this episode, there’s a place in the “Fire Force” world that is spoke in grave tones by parents to their children: The Nether. The Nether is an area that is quite publicly shunned by the church of the Holy Sol and seems to be assumed as crawling with demons and other nasties, almost an aspect of hell on earth. Considering what we’ve seen of the lore of this show so far, it wouldn’t be too far fetched for this to actually represent that, so I like the mythical/story-book approach to bringing this place to life.

As it so happens, The Evangelist and his gang, the White-Clad, have decided to shack up right in the heart of The Nether, deciding that the most unlikely place they would be found is in the place that is literally spoken about in hushed whispers by the community at large(???). Sho drops some information that he believes his brother (“the Man with the Adolla Link”, as he importantly refers to him) and 8th Company will be the first to find the base, and he’s pretty much on the money. Obi prepares 8th Company to take off to this veritable hellhole with an inspirational speech shortly after that isn’t quite as hard-hitting as it could be.

2. Highway to Hell
On the way to the Nether, we see great little asides of some of the core cast discussing the Nether, and I love the holier-than-thou approach that Iris takes, immediately clamming up and discussing it as a place of corruption and demons. However, Viktor Licht rationalizes the place for everyone to wash away their fears of it, explaining that it is what appears to be the old subterranean Tokyo subway line, collapsed and abandoned. It’s a great way of weaving post-apocalyptic elements into the story and building the world further.

As we approach the gate, we learn a little more insight into each character’s relationships to the place. Vulcan’s is one of the most interesting as he talks about it quite off-handedly, mentioning that he’s ventured here in the past to make a few repairs and gather materials, but with his dialogue still expressing a note of fear. My personal favorite, however, is Shinra and Arthur’s brotherly quarrel about who’s more scared about going in, showing their relationship as still so endearing.

3. Split the party
Once the gang jump in the gate and everyone, including and especially Obi, makes a point to express their fear of the place, we see the White-Clad make their move. Yona and Mirage of the antagonistic team put up a mist and make copies of the 8th Company in order to disorient and confuse them and split them up, naturally weakening them. It’s a chaotic moment and we see everyone scrambling for a bit in with lots of different plot threads being seeded, but once the smoke clears we see Obi and Vulcan leftover. I love that the show takes time to develop character relationships as odd as these since we see Vulcan bragging about his special goggles making him look like a sloth to a confused Obi.

Once the separation has taken effect, the scene jumps back to the main White-Clad base for a moment where Sho decides to send in a menacing sounding fellow named Assault to take out some of the scattered 8th Company, with Arrow to accompany. Checking back in with the Company, Tamaki and Iris deal with an imposter in a comedic manner (taking a while to pick out his old-man voice) and Maki being left on her own, being scared that she will be confronted by ghosts.

4. MC Hammer Arm
The first big fight we get to witness in this second half of the episode is between Maki and Flail, and whooooo boy, is it an animation spectacle. The stakes here are a little lower than what we will see in the Tamaki/Assault fight next, but this fight is just unashamedly fun to watch. We get to see Maki put her flame-powered floating hammers made by Vulcan last episode to good use against Flail and a bunch of cronies, who she initially mistakes for ghosts and is terrified of fighting something that she can’t directly hit.

Continued below

Flail, being the leering old man that he is, makes continuous cracks amongst his men about how Maki will be a complete pushover just because she’s a girl. Maki, thankfully, provides one of the most cathartic beat-downs of the series thus far, using not just the rocket-propelled impact of her new floating hammers, but also some visually slick and strategically impressive martial arts prowess to really show who’s boss in this situation. We haven’t seen Maki in play for a little while and it was great to see her in this scene proving her worth.

5. More than just eye candy
Speaking of characters that have been trying to prove their worth for a long time, Tamaki gets to go up against the ominously-named Assault whilst also trying to protect her medic, the sister Iris. This is another very cathartic scene for the anime, and touches on a lot of story beats that have come before. There’s a brief flashback before the fight really kicks into gear where Shinra, before venturing to the Nether, mentions whether he’ll have to save Tamaki again like in an earlier arc, much to her dismay. It’s this feeling of helplessness that drives her to push past her weaknesses and strive for excellence against this fierce foe.

Assault himself is great character design, with facial piercings and hair that makes him stick out almost immediately as a threat or a character to be remembered. He creates giant bullets out of concentrated heat and fires them off, but Tamaki manages to dodge and weave them enough before knocking him out with her… Lucky… Lecher… Lure… oh. Yeah, she lands on Assault in a way that makes him uncomfortably grab her breasts, before proceeding to exploit that weakness and take turns with Iris to beat the crap out of him. It’s an annoying solution to a male gaze problem, but it’s still a win and we can claim it nonetheless.


//TAGS | 2020 Summer TV Binge | Fire Force

Rowan Grover

Rowan is from Sydney, Australia! Rowan writes about comics and reads the heck out of them, too. Talk to them on Twitter at @rowan_grover. You might just spur an insightful rant on what they're currently reading, but most likely, you'll just be interrupting a heated and intimate eating session.

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