OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The battle between Shinra and Sho rages on, with Shinra managing to use his newfound abilities to link his memories to Sho, such as how he went through life being judged and targetted, but ultimately committed to finding his brother. Sho also sees glimpses of his own memories, such as when the Evangelist saved him from the fire that killed their mother. This does start to get through to the boy, but the fight is ultimately interrupted by Shinra suddenly being stabbed by Haumea, another White Clad with an Adolla Burst who can disrupt the nervous system. She takes Sho as another earthquake occurs, so Company 8 has to withdraw, injured Shinra in tow.

They end up taking him to Company 6 Captain Kayoko Huang, who can heal with her own abilities, though another captain awaits Shinra once he awakens days later: Company 1 Captain Burns, who is eager to talk about the fire from twelve years ago. This carries over into the season finale, where (after a neat little fight) Burns explains the truth that he never wanted Shinra to know: the demon Infernal that was at the center of the fire was his mother, who was turned by Haumea upon seeing Sho awaken his Adolla Burst. The White Clad, including Haumea, was also present for this, though only to collect Sho. Burns also gained a Link when seeing the Evangelist, but only managed to save Shinra. The Infernal that used to be their mother could still be out there.

With this new knowledge, Shinra decides to keep searching for Sho AND his mother’s Infernal, with the intention of turning her back to being human. His first lead looks to be Company 4’s captain, who he thinks he saw in his visions. But for the moment, Company 8 celebrates Shinra’s recovery.

OUR TAKE

Fire Force wraps up its first season with a double whammy of episodes. And yep, as recently announced earlier yesterday, this will be the FIRST season finale, as a second season has now officially been picked up and headed for broadcast this upcoming Summer, hopefully without any of the troubles this season had. I’m really glad to see that, despite those issues, this show will continue, because this finale definitely sparked my appetite for more.

I expected the fight between Shinra and Sho to last well into the finale, but it gets cut off as soon as real progress was being made between the brothers might have actually been a good move. For one, giving Haumea a proper introduction as a looming danger they’ll have to face next is certainly a great way to establish that even with this much of a step forward, there is still plenty of bigger fish to fry down the road. Even more so if she’s got an Adolla Burst/Link like Shinra and Sho do, since now that means that there are others who aren’t bound by a connection to these two kids, meaning she has a blank check to be as crazy and unpredictable as possible (which she certainly seems to be on the first impression). Even crazier, however, is that it looks like Arthur of all people might end up being her nemesis, as his (apparently rare) talent to wield plasma is a blind spot for her abilities that control the Nervous System. That and he might just be too dumb to HAVE a working Nervous System.

The finale proper, Episode 24, is actually much more personal and low stakes, but I think that was also the right move. I’ve noticed a similar thing happen in the second and third seasons of My Hero Academia, where the main threat is defeated rather early on but the last section of the season is set aside for character work instead of fights (or fights that use pretty awesome character work). In this case, we finally get to see what Captain Burns is really made of, something I thought we’d see way back during the Company 1 Arc, but also some light shed on Shinra’s mysterious past. In retrospect, Shinra’s mother being the horned Infernal seems pretty obvious, so kudos to the writers (or possibly directors) for giving us the hints in front of our faces and me not really learning until it was necessary. Even with the enemy still waiting to be fought again, it does feel like things have moved a few steps forward, and the mystery is that much closer to being solved.

Score 8/10