English Dub Review: Fire Force “A Fire Soldier’s Fight; Flames of Madness”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After some antics regarding the Fire Force Nude Company Calendar, Shinra gets a chance to meet with Soichiro Hague, the captain of Company 4. Shinra actually has some history with this company, what with it being the only one with an academy to go through, so this is a bit of a homecoming for him. But he still can’t predict that Captain Hague would be so desperate to learn about Shinra’s Adolla Burst that he’d rather enthusiastically be asked to be burned by them. While they discuss it, some of the Company 4 members get possessed by something and try to kill Shinra, only for him to find that same presence trying to control him too. It’s the girl he saw in his dreams before heading into the Nether who looked somewhat like Iris, only she’s got a bit of a sadistic streak in her and starts playing on Shinra’s anxieties and anger regarding what he learned about his mom at the end of last season. Luckily, Arthur is there to kick some sense into Shinra, eventually getting the girl to let go of him, though not before hinting at there being other “Pillars” out there like her, Haumea, Sho, and Shinra. A fifth person with an Adolla Burst is about to emerge.

OUR TAKE

With so much getting shut down and delayed in the wake of the pandemic, it’s quite the surprise to see that FIRE FORCE of all things is going back to a same day simuldub schedule, especially with all the delays that hampered the first season that started airing a year ago. It’s a shame that this series will continue to be tied to terrible tragedies that occur while it is airing, though that’s not the show’s fault and shouldn’t be treated as such. What I can say is that I’m glad to see it’s back, as while the whole world may feel like it’s been on fire since it last aired, maybe watching this week to week will restore some semblance of normalcy.

You may notice that the overview here is mostly about one episode despite it reviewing two. This is because the first episode of the season was made up of filler and side story comedy stuff, likely to get us reacquainted with the characters before diving back into the serialized storytelling stuff. Personally I feel like wasting an episode on comedy only shortens the pacing for the stuff they want to adapt, but then again, the second seems to have adapted an entire nine chapter arc and not felt all that rushed, so I guess things are pretty much returning to form for this series. The second episode, incidentally, has not officially aired on Funimation’s website, nor Japanese airwaves and was instead premiered at the virtual FunimationCon panel for those who tuned in for that. So I guess we’ve managed to get an episode of a hit anime a week before even the Japanese do this time! It’s pretty neat when stuff can work out that way.

As for the second episode itself, it’s a pretty solid diving back into the plot, introducing Company 4 properly and showing how they have their own unique presence among the other companies we’ve already been introduced to. After the set up last time, I fully expected Hague to turn out to be another antagonist like Hibana was or Giovanni currently is, but it seems he’s just an eccentric character. We also get a bit of insight as to Shinra and Arthur’s past, especially with Arthur, who suddenly hijacks the story to talk about his odd parents who may or may not have abandoned him as a child (which seems to be going back to one of the flaws in this show’s humor: making a joke about how stupid something is without justifying why to even have it in there in the first place). And naturally I can’t not mention the set up for the “Pillars”, each of which we see in the new OP in order of their appearance. Looks like we’ll be meeting the fifth one of those in the very next episode, but since we covered two eps this week, it looks like we’ll be taking next week off. Dammit, I knew we were gonna hit a delay one way or another!