Fire Force S2 – 11 [Dark Hero]…plus an update on the future

Here we are again.  I was feeling pretty good after the last two episodes – both solid outings. 

BUT. 

This week, it’s just another episode of Fire Force with immense potential….squandered.  This may be one of the last episodes I review, as we’ll discuss at the end of the post.  But for now, let’s get into this tragedy of an episode.

To truly be disappointing, you must first create expectations, signs of potential greatness – only to dash those hopes.   “Dark Hero” does just that.  As others have commented, the scenery and backgrounds are exquisite, works of art.  I could pick just about any screenshot from this episode and it looks beautiful.

Unfortunately, this is not a slideshow – this is anime, a motion animation.  And the whole is far inferior to the sum of the components.  The film noir feel doesn’t work with an action show primarily focused on pyrotechnics.  Fire Force has never, and will never, be accused of being cerebral – so why try to bring in elements of a headier genre, when it’s so obviously mismatched? 

Plus, we get Joker thrust into a prominent role and a complete lack of explanation for Viktor’s motivations (something something “truth”).  THEN it gets layered on with some kind of emo, edgy backstory with random English words written in cigarette ashes.  This is not an exaggeration – that really happened.

My real complaints start in the second half.  Once again, to fully disappoint, you have to have hope – and I was hopeful when Benimaru arrived.  He’s been a character with immense visual potential – extremely strong, two different kinds of powers, high mobility, etc.  Season 1 saw some of their best fights with him.  Season 2….reduces him to a stationary punching machine.  Then randomly one taps him.  THAT’s the best you can do for someone whose power allowed him to intimidate an entire nation?  What kind of nonsense is that?

I was almost willing to forgive going along with Joker for the sake of plot, but that also requires a massive suspension of disbelief.  Benimaru is a proto-nationalist leader, whose sole priority is retaining and governing his feudal state – he didn’t used to show up to Captain’s meetings.  So he’s just going to go and randomly invade the central religious building of the surrounding nation?  No.  That’s too much for me.

Some other nitpicks:

    1.  Any sequence of numbers can be found in Pi.  So Viktor saying this proves it was pi – not really. 

    2.  I did enjoy he was using LaTeX for his document, but that’s about all I got from this episode. 

    3.  I’m sick of hearing about Raffles I. 

    4.  Joker is just terrible any time he’s onscreen (with the one exception of fighting Sho). 

    5.  I also am just not interested in the absuive church subplot that is 100000% guaranteed about to be embarked upon – not that I mind that as a plot device, but the characters being setup are just far too flat and bland to make it palatable.   

    6.  The setting is crazy – this is literally a powerplant, but they have a mid century sanctuary just taking up space randomly?  Come on, Fire Force – you’re better than this.

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And this brings me to the future of my reviews.  I keep waiting for Fire Force to be what it obviously has the potential to be – a great action show – but 30 odd episodes in, it just hasn’t materialized.  We’ve changed directors, writers – still the same problems remain.  

So this is probably the end of my watching this show weekly.  If, by some miracle, the season gets back on track, I’ll write about that – but otherwise, I’ll probably do a season review, then maybe the next cour as well.  Thanks for sticking with me through this show, but I think it’s now time to cut bait and move on. 

And if you’re needing something to watch this season to fill your action needs, go watch Deca or GoHS – if you’re wanting to read me bashing on a show that continually disappoints me, tune in next season for DanMachi 3!