English Dub Review: Fire Force “The Oze Family”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After her older brother is injured while investigating the White Clad for the military, Maki’s father (who’s a general) orders her to return to her position there and leave Company 8. She’s resistant at first, but Hinawa, who was apparently instrumental in recruiting her to Company 8 in the first place, tells her to go back. The company are hurt by this loss on their team, but then soon find themselves in a joint operation with Company 2 and the division of the military with Maki’s brother, Tagaki, in order to re-enter the Nether and confront the White Clad once more.

OUR TAKE

Time for another new arc as we kick off the final quarter of this season of Fire Force and it seems we’re finally shining the spotlight on someone who hasn’t gotten a ton of attention so far. I remember Maki seeming like she would be a more prominent character when things started, though as time went on, she got pushed further and further into the background by the plot and other characters whose respective gags were liked more by the author, I guess. Arthur and Tamaki didn’t really end up being more important characters but I guess it was just funnier in the writer’s head to focus on his gag rival and kind sorta not really parody of excessive fanservice. And now we finally get back to Maki and it’s mainly about how she has a protective father in the military. I guess it makes use of adding some worldbuilding to that corner of the whole dynamic, considering we’ve seen more of Haijima and the Holy Sol religion by now. Unfortunately, as we’ll see as this goes on, this arc with some focus on Maki as a character won’t be featuring her very prominently.

Though on another interesting bit to discuss is that this arc also gives some proper interactions with Company 2’s captain, who seems to be quite eccentric in his own right like most of the other captains. I think this means there have been arcs that have prominently shown just about every featured a captain now. First there was the fight with Company 5 and Hibana, then with Company 1 where they fought Rekka and met Burns, the focus on Company 7 with Benimaru after that, the arc with Vulcan fighting Giovanni from Company 3, the end of Season 1 which included the captain of Company 6, the beginning of Season 2 which focused on Company 4 for a bit, and now we have this with Company 2. Not that Company 2 hasn’t had notable appearances before, since Juggernaut is a recurring character at this point, but now they’re not playing second fiddle to other companies. And I doubt we’re really going to get much focus on Company 6 considering they’re the healers (though that’s not really a reason not to, it just makes it seem unlikely to me), so I think we can officially punch the last hole in our Fire Force Company Arc punch card. Now let’s find out how they stack up as we re-enter the regions of The Nether!