OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)The White Clad begin making their move by capturing Captain Obi and converting Captain Burns to their cause. Learning of this, Company 8 go on the run and plan to get their captain back.OUR TAKEIt’s hard to believe it’s been over four years since the last season of Fire Force, but we’re finally back to finish the story. Back when the second season ended, the manga hadn’t quite finished yet, so naturally they had to stop the anime until they actually had more to animate, and it’s not like they were going to come up with four years worth of filler stories to keep the show going until then (cough BORUTO cough). And while I had spoiled myself a bit on certain plot details, (including a somewhat surprising connection to a different manga), I haven’t read the rest of the manga, so a lot of this new material will be feel fresh to me. Plus, in terms of season premieres, this is a pretty good one. Last season ended on a rather soft note, with many characters investigating new mysteries and trying to push themselves to the next level in time for the next big fight. Based on how it left off, you’d think there would be more time before shit hit the fan and the status quo was irreparably destroyed, but I guess we’re getting that out of the way early! Obi is captured, the bad guys are taking control of one of the Fire Force companies, and our heroes need to run underground to get their captain back and avoid getting taken themselves.Unlike the previous two seasons, this will be split in half, with the first half airing now until June and the second starting next January. And since there’s slightly more manga chapters left to adapt than the average amount between those first two seasons, that means they gotta speed through some stuff a bit faster than normal. Luckily, of the three episodes I’ve seen so far, pacing has not been an issue for the moment, which is good. Anyway, the main takeaway from this first episode is that shit just got really dire, the animation is still really good, they actually managed to get all the main voice actors back after such a long time, AND the Opening and Ending are both also really good. I don’t often get this hyped about a show starting up, but despite Fire Force sometimes dipping into the typical shonen humor (and it looking like that’ll still be happening eventually), we’re off to a fiery start, so let’s hope we don’t run out of fuel too quickly.