For the second episode in a row, Fire Force has quietly impressed me. Obviously the episode of the week would have to go to Yaiba (see Lenlo’s excellent post on it!), but Fire Force turned in an admirable performance. With the mess of Episode 3 still looming, I was quite happy to see an episode without much to complain about (and a lot to praise).
This episode really focuses on Sister and the Vice Captain. Sister first – takes a bath with flashbacks (and flashes the rookie, amirite?). We find out how she and Princess Psycho Captain are related – both were at the convent that’s shown spontaneously burning in the ED. I’m pretty sure Psycho Captain is actually trying to make sense of why her convent comrades conspicuously combusted – but we’ll find out later if I’m correct or not. Sister randomly runs to Psycho Cap in the middle of the night…no idea why she thought that was a good idea. As with Soul Eater, this show has…some uniquely dumb characters.
I also don’t really want to know what experience this author had with nuns…he’s definitely got something going on about that.
That brings us to the Vice Captain and his compulsive shooting of people (non-lethally). Since this is a Japanese show, I thought he had an air gun. Apparently not – he’s using live ammo and controlling the velocity since it tangentially relates to fire apparently. I don’t even want to get into the physics of that (like, is he still using standard lead bullets or hollow points? Is the round accelerating super sonic and then decelerating? Is that why the sound effects have that weird crack all the time? I have so many questions). That being said, he does have a nice moment of ability usage in the fight vs 5 later. (This fight also featured the Knight King…idiot who no one really cares about. Also, infernal’s don’t have shadows? Weird).
Pretty good episode – some fleshing out (hue hue) of 2 members of the team, solid action scenes, clear cut bad guys (with room to show they have good hearts), and a change of scenery as we storm another squad’s base. Nice! The fanservice wasn’t overboard or felt forced, so I can live with it. I’m happy Fire Force is back on its feet and chasing down the mystery of random Burney byStanders!
