English Dub Review: Fire Force “Chance Meeting with an Arch-Enemy”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Obi manages to hold off the bugs, while Arthur faces his greatest enemy.

OUR TAKE

The Obi Rescue Arc ramps up to its climax, and while last week was mostly about giving the majority of Company 8 a chance to shine, this week is all about Arthur, as well as debuting yet another upper level White Clad, Dragon, the commander of the “Destroyers” (the group they’ve been fighting including Gold). He’s going to be a big deal for the remainder of the series, and this first appearance gives us a taste as to why. True to his name, he can cover himself in “scales” (which are probably compressed carbon or something), fly, and breathe fire, but he can also partially turn himself into an Infernal at will, something no other pyrokinetic has been able to do yet. The nature of Infernals as we’ve seen them has shown people spontaneously become one or, once we learned about the bugs, can become one or turn others into ones, but it was always a one way trip either way. And with the idea of Infernal Doppelgangers clearly getting more and more important, there’s still quite a bit about these beings we don’t know quite yet. But this is the first part of the final season, so we’ll probably be getting some clarification on all of this pretty soon.

But what is best known for slaying a dragon? Yep, a knight, and fortunately we just so happen to have one of those in Arthur, or at least that’s what he keeps saying. And the more he gets to dig into this fantasy, the stronger he becomes, so Dragon, who is larping as a dragon, is oddly enough the best opponent Arthur could ask for. This is made obvious as the fight goes on and Arthur keeps powering up more and more…to a point, as it eventually becomes undeniable that Dragon is overpowering him. But this fight is just about setting the stage for something bigger to come and we have other things to shift our attention to, like Shinra’s ongoing fight with Captain Burns or, as revealed here, Obi fighting the bugs the White Clad put on him by simply flexing his muscles to keep them burrowing into his skin, having used the time imprisoned to build his strength with workouts. It’s definitely the more comedic of these fights, but it’s also perfectly in character for Obi and well within the tone this show has set. However, everyone is about to reach their breaking point, and we’ll see that happen next week with the climax of this arc and the halfway point of this half of the season.