English Dub Review: Fire Force “The Core”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Licht, Arthur, and Purt continue to wander through the Tabernacle, where they find multiple broken tablets with numbers on them. Surprisingly, Arthur notices that they have sequences of Pi on them, which Licht decides to go with. As they go further inside, they also find eight stations that Licht deduces to use were made for the Eight Pillars, all of whom were likely human sacrifices. He also puts together that, if the Tabernacle and Amaterasu are powered by Adolla Bursts, then the burst in Amaterasu is probably done by a human being too.

Outside, Shinra makes an Adolla Link with the Woman in Black and asks her to give him a power boost with her “Grace”, much like the Evangelist does for members of the White Clad, in order to fight Tempe, the sentient Demon Infernal they’re fighting. In order to do this, he requires Ogun, Juggernaut, and Tamaki to buy him time. But even then, the Woman can only give him a single second of power, which she thinks won’t do any good. In true shonen hero fashion, he tells her it’s all he’ll need.

OUR TAKE

We steadily approach the climax of the arc, with just about everything worth learning being learned and the stage being set for the last major fight. We’ve got further set up for what exactly the Adolla Bursts are, where they come from, and what they do. I can’t help but notice some parallels between the Pillars and what we’ve learned about the Nine Titans of Attack on Titan, with them having their own unique powers and that being part of this massive conspiracy at the heart of the creation of the story’s world, all of which coming from this mysterious founding entity who is the ultimate big bad. And naturally the main character and his evil brother are a part of this group as well. We still have three left to reveal for those and with more than half the season left, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to learn more.

Honestly, the stuff that resolves this arc is probably better saved to be talked about for next episode, which is fine since this episode’s main highlight is its action. The battle between Tempe and the rest of the Fire Soldiers as Shinra builds power are incredibly intense and creative, the stand out among them being being Ogun and his tattoo based strength increases, as well as his just distinct enough to be legally different Jojo references! Though obviously this is all just a prelude to the main event, which is Shinra getting the Grace from the Woman in Black to finally kill Tempe. This will be the third distinct time we’ve seen a Demon Infernal destroyed, all of which coming from different but equally destructive means, though this one will likely be the most connected to what they came to find out about, which is the Adolla Bursts and how they really shaped the world they live in. Shinra getting this power, even for an instant, is likely a precursor itself for battles to come, even if it likely won’t involve this character. Still, it’s keeping true to the sensibilities of this genre to have a nearly hopeless moment be shattered by an unlikely hope. Add to that some solid comedic bits early on with Arthur and Licht and we have yet another solid episode for this second season. Next week concludes this arc and I can definitely say it ends with nothing less than a real bang.