English Dub Review: Fire Force “Infernal Insects”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Hibana shares the key details of her research with Obi regarding the artificially created Infernals. Seems that the strange cases had signs that something had burrowed inside them, that thing is a demonic-looking insect. They also only show up in areas where Fire Soldiers can enter, meaning that the culprit is likely a Fire Soldier themselves. Takehisa and Hibana go to share that info with Shinra and Arthur, who have been assigned to Company 1 for almost a week now. Though what’s odder than their frequency is that no one from Company 1 is really minding their visits, meaning that they’re have nothing to hide…or they are confident they can hide whatever they need to.

Another Infernal sighting occurs, showcasing to Shinra how effective Company 1 is at doing their job. He and Arthur get assigned to a street corner, expecting nothing to happen, but then notice someone push a jar with a bug into a person who then becomes an Infernal. Shinra leaves it to Arthur and chases his would-be suspect, only to find Lieutenants Karim and Rekka. Once they get back, they choose to look through Karim’s room for evidence first, only to find that Karim was waiting for them and is on the trail for clues too.

That just leaves Rekka, who turns out to be the true culprit and targeting children specifically. He’s also recruited Tamaki in on his cause, playing on her feelings for him to help lure unsuspecting kids to an abandoned warehouse (which REALLY should have raised some red flags). He tells her and one of the kids’ moms that he want to immunize them all to Infernalization and saying he’ll find the “Pilot Light” with their help. He then turns the mother into an Infernal and kills her. He rants that he will turn more people into Infernals for the sake of his mission, turning on Tamaki when she calls him out. The next kid is infected but surprisingly doesn’t turn. Tamaki screams out for help, which signals Shinra to find where everything’s happening.

OUR TAKE

Huh, anyone else getting a sense of déjà vu? A cute female character finds herself getting close to the enemy of the arc because of a personal connection but is put in danger of being burned alive, so Shinra arrives just in time to fight said enemy to save the aforementioned female character. I’m not saying this necessarily a bad thing (at the moment), but it IS one more instance away from being a pattern. Hopefully, this is just something the author overlooked, though it does end up looking like the story might be getting kinda formulaic. Probably overthinking this, just couldn’t help but notice it and think it was worth mentioning.

Though I guess we can feel like some progress has been achieved now that we know how these artificial Infernals were made. I think it’s safe to say that Rekka isn’t the one who made these little bug things, just someone who was led to think this would help his cause of finding ways to prevent future appearances. It’s an interesting goal which seems to have borne fruit in one of the kids, but it’s clear something has come unhinged in Rekka if he thought this was a viable strategy and had no qualms about it. Is overly positive nature definitely gets a more sinister tint to it knowing that, but that also probably means that he’s not as likely to be redeemed like Hibana (which I’m sure has nothing to do with the fact that he’s not a hot girl).

Also, nice try David Production! Thought that you could throw us off with that first scene and keep us guessing about who of the two lieutenants was the bad guy, but I guess you didn’t count on this being released through a service that allows you to rewind and fast forward so we could compare the voices. I don’t know HOW you didn’t count on it, but that certainly made things easier. You probably could have covered it up better had you shown the phone call from the OTHER side and covered up Rekka’s voice with a filter, which the normal viewer wouldn’t have time to figure out.

Either way, next week looks to be another big fight between Fire Soldiers to save Tamaki (who I don’t know whether to be annoyed about her accidental perverted antics or annoyed that the story seems to think that being self-aware makes them any less dumb). More fighting and intrigue yaaaaaaaaaaay!