Ensembles. Everyone loves Ensembles! When your main characters are feeling stale, bring back some likable side characters, amp up the enemy difficulty, make some convenient plan using all your powers combined – profit. Oh, and did I mention, change up the scenery with a trip? This is basically Fire Force’s plan for the rest of the season.
Truthfully, these two episodes fell pretty flat for me. Shinra’s fight just dragged on and on, Arthur did nothing of importance, and Plan Make a Giant Ice Sculpture Out of a Fire Tornado felt….a bit boring. Inca was very one note (“I live for danger, I don’t care who dies because of it”) and honestly a bit bratty.
Let’s not just complain – there was some good here. I did like the Second Gen vs Third Gen dynamics and how the strengths/weaknesses of each were used. I thought the confusion about how to use clever technology in the middle of battle was excellent – Fire Force really does a great job of showing the “fog of war” and how confusing unrehearsed battles are.
The bad. These fights with Shinra are just SO AWKWARD. The spacing, tempo, physics – everything just feels slightly wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Fire Force lives and dies on its duels, especially with its main hero! With this many chances, surely ONE fight scene would have gone perfectly – but every time, Fire Force snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. I’ve been patient, I’ve waited, I’ve forgiven small missteps – but I’m at the end of my rope here. This is just a very well animated, brightly colored B-tier show at this point – and it could, SHOULD, be so much more.
So we’re off on a new adventure in China (I swear, if we have any mystical Tai Chi crap that always invade anime when China is involved, I will blow a gasket). We have a fairly likable team of characters (and Tamaki), so I’m hopeful the new scenery will play to Fire Force’s strengths. I’m just getting tired of always hoping and being seldom rewarded – come on, get it together Fire Force!
Not every show can rise above B-tier, so expecting this show to rise above that is just a waste of time really.
I agree that not every show can be great – but normally that’s for a lack of resources. Take the other season’s Seventh Son or this season’s Misfit of Demon King Academy – they simply don’t have the animation firepower to make a great show. Fire Force is not lacking in budget or animation – all of the tools are there to be great. FF just can’t close the deal – which is far more disappointing to me than a show that never had a chance.