OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Shinra awakens to find himself saved by Hibana, then races back to save Arthur and Vulcan. Hibana then joins Arthur’s fight and dispels Mirage’s illusions. Giovanni has found the key to Amaterasu in a piece of junk, though he’s stopped by Vulcan’s useless mechanical animals and then by Shinra. However, that’s when Sho arrives and meets with Shinra for the first time since the fire. Shinra, having searched for his brother forever, is eager to reconnect, but Sho won’t have anything to do with him. They do both shares an Adolla Link, which makes Shinra a valuable asset. He’s almost nearly captured when Licht to save them, along with a surprise appearance from Joker, who isn’t with the Fire Force but not about to let the White Clad have their way either.

In the aftermath, Shinra reports everything back to Obi, including Giovanni’s betrayal and the appearance of Sho, while Vulcan formally joins the team as a refuge from the White Clad and shares the work towards completing his dream with Shinra. Yu goes into surgery but while hopefully recover, while Vulcan hopes that Lisa will eventually come around. One day he’ll make something that will never break, as well as reforming his family.

OUR TAKE

…oh, the arc’s over already? I mean, okay! I really figured we’d have at least one more episode where Vulcan would fight Giovanni head-on and get him captured, so the lack of that sort of resolution or closure ends up feeling pretty anticlimactic. Or maybe that’s just me comparing to how the last arc ended, which is the standard to beat. Seems like we skipped a few things that I was personally looking forward to finding out, like Vulcan’s family’s past with Giovanni or what Lisa was feeling as she lived with Vulcan for so long. Guess we’ll have to save that for a future episode or even season. Meeting Sho properly for the first time was certainly a landmark moment, though I feel like you could balance all of what I would have liked with maybe one more episode.

Besides landing two new teammates for Company 8, this episode did also really dip into the Shonen power system stuff, as no less than six different pyro-kinetics all faced off at once with distinct flame-based abilities that MIGHT begin to strain credulity the more you think about them. We’ve got Hibani and her fireworks, Mirage and his density-based illusions, Joker and his condensed ash cards, Lisa and her…magnetic lava? And Sho can apparently stop time, which…might be based on moving at the speed of light? Not sure how it relates to Shinra’s flame jet rockets, but maybe it doesn’t matter if you’re related. OR maybe it’s a sign of what Shinra could learn to do in the future?

But we’re definitely learning more about where everything stands as we find out who is aligned with who AND who ISN’T aligned with who. For one, Company 3’s going to have to be pretty thoroughly investigated, since I doubt that no one knew about Giovanni’s plans or allegiances. Lord knows what Lisa actually thinks of Vulcan, though I expect we’ll be touching on it again next we see her. And we have the odd alliance between Licht and Joker that seems to have sustained despite Licht joining Company 8 proper. Joker seems squarely neutral but against the White Clad more than being against Company 8. Maybe that’s why Licht joined since they are meant to keep the other ones in line, not to mention Joker’s former camaraderie with Shinra. Even with only 7 episodes left in the season, things are far from solved for Fire Force’s mysteries, and next week seems to be about uncovering one: the secrets of Pyrokinesis.

Score 8/10