English Dub Review: Fire Force “Hero Resurrected”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The hope of the people gets a second wind thanks to Arthur defeating Dragon, though dopplegangers of other powerful pyrokinetics continue to appear and attack their counterparts, and Faerie takes a drastic move to make sure the Great Cataclysm goes forward, while Shinra and Sho enter Adolla once more to confront Haumea.

OUR TAKE

Alright, after many stops and starts, this is looking like the LAST episode of build up before the remaining three hit the throttle for the rest of the series. Seems that Arthur’s big flashy Dragon kill did move the needle a bit in terms of helping people regain some hope, which in turn is weakening the Cataclysm as it merges the human world and Adolla. This at least gives our heroes a chance to recover and even gets Nataku, the Sixth Pillar a way out of wherever he was being held, as well as Shinra and Sho. Iris remains stuck with Amaterasu, who reveals that Iris is actually HER doppleganger (which is odd because aside from being two blonde white girls, they actually look pretty different when right next to each other). I don’t know how the fuck all that works, but it does give us a chance to see Amaterasu, the First Pllar, have a bit more of a nuanced portrayal next to Iris, the Eighth. Previously, Amaterasu was just sort of this cackling sinister presence that didn’t seem aligned with the White Clad, but was nonetheless a wild card that would have to be dealt with later. Now we get a glimpse at how she’s felt through her suffering in the Thermal Plant they stuck her in, and if dopplegangers from Adolla are usually formed from other peoples’ perception of the original, it would make sense that the few that were aware of her would form into Iris, with her kind and forgiving nature always being put upon but also putting up a good fight in the face of adversity.

We’ll likely dive more into that later on, but the rest of the episode, while eventful, is a bit underwhelming for where we should probably be this close to the end. Kurono, Joker, and Benimaru all take on their own dopplegangers, all of which feel like these are fights that went to the wrong characters and/or just didn’t add anything in the first place. Putting aside that the other doppleganger versus self fight with Assault was in THE WORST EPISODE OF THE SERIES, Kurono most definitely does not need this much focus over other characters, and Benimaru already got a cool last big fight against the doppleganger of his old teacher, so his just feels redundant. And then there’s Joker, which at least pays off the reveal of Captain Burns’ doppleganger (take a drink every time I say that this review) as it turns out that Burns actually did an Uno Reverse and took over that one’s body, putting him back in the fight, which will probably be important later. Oh, and Faerie tries to use his ability to pull a Majora’s Mask and bring down the creepy looking moon on everyone, but Shinra stops its descent and Sho kills Faerie, who I did not care about at all for the handful of episodes he was present. Three episodes to go, with the world on the brink, and I’m grabbing popcorn.