Fire Force Season 3

Episode 20

I figured that Fire Force would keep pushing its mixed-media approach as the Great Cataclysm continues to accelerate, so you can imagine how delighted I was when I discovered that this week sees the show open with several uninterrupted minutes of eerie live-action footage depicting Sister Sumire's “normal” form from the time before the fall of our civilization. It's silly, creepy, and an obvious result of the crew at Studio David having a blast translating this especially weird and wacky descent into Fire Force's climax. I can only hope we get even more stuff like this in the final run of episodes.

Of course, what we're all really here to talk about is the centerpiece of “Where Hope Is,” which is the…epic (?) showdown between Tamaki and Assault. Or, rather, her showdown with Assault's proudly anti-horny zealot of a Doppelgänger. Yes, folks, after so many years of her butt being made the butt of so many jokes and fanservice shots, the wily firecat of Company 8 has finally been given a chance to take down the ultimate symbol of her never-ending humiliation. Naturally, Fire Force manages to take this already ridiculous setup and crank up the Craze-O-Meter up to eleven.

Look, I'm not going to pretend that this episode's incredible confidence, which ends up veering all the way into straight-up arrogance, makes the handling of Tamaki's character any less dumb. Throughout this very long and self-indulgent treatise on the very nature of sexy fanservice and the role it plays in filling mankind with hope or whatever, Fire Force just gleefully shatters the fourth wall so a couple of random side-characters can represent the Loser Prudes and the Based Titty Enjoyers of society in a debate over whether “mob” anger should shame the silent majority of anime fans who obviously love it when girls like Tamaki show off their stuff and kick ass.

Atushi Ohkubo is apparently so damned excited to “Um, actually!” all of those miserable whiners about Tamaki's grand, archetypal role in the universe of Fire Force that he neglects the very obvious wrinkle of Tamaki never actually wanting to violently shove her clam into the faces of every single man within spitting distance. It would be one thing if the character had always been written as a proudly sexual and flirtatious gal who consciously and joyfully flaunted her body as a valuable asset, Bayonetta-style. The whole deal with Tamaki is that the Lecher Lure has been treated like an inescapable curse, which is - at least in my experience - what has rubbed folks the wrong way about her for so long.

To be honest, I find it hard to get as irritated with the whole Tamaki situation as I used to because I've just gotten desensitized to Fire Force's juvenile sensibilities. Maybe it's a side-effect of teaching dozens of hormone-addled chuckleheads every day at my school. Still, I get why Tamaki would irritate folks. Ohkubo can summon his twerpy little self-insert kid to smugly pontificate all he wants about groupthink and prudish backlash, but I genuinely don't believe Tamaki would have caused even half as much fuss if she'd just been written with a little more nuance and depth.

Now that I've said that, however…I mean, it was still pretty fun to see Tamaki summon a wild orgy of streaking and revelry to take down Fake Assault, right? Again, it's incredibly stupid and self-indulgent fun that will do absolutely nothing to win over the viewers who have disliked the handling of Tamaki up until this point, but I honestly thought that this show was never going to do anything with Tamaki aside from maybe give her a couple of token story beats in these last episodes. The fact that Fire Force has tried to thematically justify Tamaki's ridiculous fanservice with its cuckoo world-building is legitimately so insane that I can't help but have a little respect for the gumption of it all. If nothing else, it's a creative decision that took actual vision to try and pull off, even if that vision is just as childish, overconfident, and fundamentally unserious as Fire Force has always been.

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Fire Force is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.