Fire Force Season 3

Episode 17

With Shinra, Iris, and Sho all MIA after taking on Evil Raffles I last week, Company 8 has to join forces with old friends and former foes alike to bring the fight to the White Clad at the Amaterasu generator. After the slightly rushed but bombastic battle last week, it's clear that Fire Force has fully entered its endgame. “At the Center of the World” very much feels like the first part of an extended climactic showdown that will bring this show to its ultimate conclusion.

As such, we're at the last point in the story where any of our characters will have the chance to take stock of what has led them here, reflect on their friendships and rivalries with one another, and otherwise engage in all of the predictable but satisfying steps that come along when a long-running anime starts to close up shop. For one, Arrow has fully joined up with the hero's party, which is nice, though the real focus of the episode ends up going to the other last-minute recruit, who ends up being Ogun of all people. I've always liked Ogun, both because he is a rare example of decent Black representation in shonen battle anime (or really any anime, for that matter) and because he's just a genuinely likable and reliable supporting player. We haven't seen much of him since the gang traveled overseas and met all the talking animals. This week, Ogun provides a much-appreciated emotional core to ground all of the apocalyptic atmosphere and flashy spectacle.

Admittedly, I think the extended flashback that shows Ogun befriending Arthur and Shinra back in their Academy days feels a little awkward coming this late in the game. It probably would have made more sense for Ogun to show up and reminisce with Arthur sometime before Shinra's big Savior Mode moment last week. It would have helped remind the audience of how much he was ostracized back in the day and emphasize the contrast of his final, ludicrous power-up. Still, it's really nice to get one final glimpse of the “good old days”, before reality was being warped and shattered daily by the Pillars and whatnot.

Ogun also takes center stage in the battle against Charon, which ends up being a really solid character moment for Ogun despite how badly he ends up losing. It is both very goofy and genuinely heartwarming when Ogun proudly reveals that his ancestor, a reggae-jamming ship captain who risked everything to ferry overseas immigrants to Japan when the Cataclysm hit, is the reason that so many lineages of humanity survive to this day. The fact that Ogun's defeat was mostly a stalling tactic to give Hinawa a chance to blow a chunk out of Charon with a shotgun works mostly okay, too. It's contrived, sure, but of course, the shonen battle anime is going to go out of its way to emphasize the power of teamwork and friendship to the bad guys in its final chapters.

Overall, this was not the most mind-blowing episode of Fire Force, but it felt more cohesive than last week's, and it makes me feel more reassured that this climactic arc will ultimately be a satisfying one. Really, any episode that gives Ogun more screen time to kick ass and charm the pants off the audience is bound to be a good one. I don't expect it to change lives or reduce crusty old critics like me to tears or anything, but if Fire Force can simply close out the last seven years of madcap adventures with one final hurrah of solid popcorn entertainment, I won't be disappointed.

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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.