English Dub Review: Fire Force “The Madness of the Distant Past”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Fire Force soldiers on site defeat the Infernal Titan, Sho faces Faerie, Shinra meets with Inca through an Adolla Link, and the final Pillar fully emerges.

OUR TAKE

And with that, we have reached the halfway point of this season, as well as the last Fire Force episode we will be getting this year. And it’s apparently not even the actual end of the arc! But as a mid-season finale, is it a satisfying place to leave us for the next six months? I would say so! While things are most definitely not resolved, it does leave the pieces and characters in an interesting position for when we return to the story. The Titan has been defeated, but the first pillar that sprang from the seas a couple episodes ago has become blackened, whatever that means. Sho has done battle with Faerie, who reveals his powers to be…controlling atoms and gravity? I guess that’s an appropriate power for one of the last big bosses of the White Clad, though it kinda shows how this series is running out of really plausible heat based powers, which is surprising considering I thought the reveal of Sumire’s power just a few episodes ago was pretty clever. Also apparently you don’t need to be an Adolla Burst user to become a Pillar, which kinda seemed like a pretty big distinguishing point for that group but…I guess not. Kinda makes me think Faerie should’ve been the proper Seventh Pillar, but okay.

Speaking of the Pillars (the human ones), there’s some development on that too. Despite already basically having her abilities and making use of them, it seems Iris is only NOW becoming the Eight Pillar, as she has a spooky vision and her eyes glow now. There’s been some hinted at connection between her and the still unnamed First Pillar, the girl who resides within the Amaterasu power plant, who we also learn more about. Turns out she was around right after the first Great Cataclysm and picked up by Yona, who we have known for awhile is some weird creature who took over the identity of Raffles the First and put together the Holy Sol Temple to help bring about the next Great Cataclysm, but here we learn fully that he is a creature from Adolla. Kinda surprised they didn’t save that flashback for the beginning of next episode, to be honest. And lastly, the biggest thing from this episode is Shinra and Inca mentally going back into the past to see past Japan, which seems to nearly drive Shinra insane for some reason. Though he doesn’t have long to really savor the madness as he wakes up three months later with blond hair and earrings, as well as news that three months have passed and a fifth big pillar has risen. So basically, while this episode is kinda just set up for the remainder of the series, it does leave us with a lot to chew on for half a year as we wait for the proper conclusion. And we will see you for that proper conclusion in January, when we finally put the rest of the flame out.