Fire Force Season 3

Episode 19

I am a child of the Evangelion generation of Elder Weebs. If you give me an anime that culminates in an apocalyptic nightmare of dream logic and emotionally abstract nonsense lore, well, you will have my attention. I will be honest and tell you that, for most of Fire Force's run, I have not paid too much mind to the whys and wherefores concerning the White-Clad's plan to enact the next Great Cataclysm. This isn't a matter of apathy; I simply recognized that the feeling of this massive, end-of-all-things-style battle for the fate of the universe matters a lot more than the exact logic of its moving parts. All of this week's yelling about “Hope” and “Despair” and “Imagination” ought to clue everyone in to that much. This isn't a sin on Fire Force's part. I actually dig it quite a lot. It brings me no small amount of childlike joy to discover that this show's endgame essentially boils down to “What if we just did Third Impact from Neon Genesis Evangelion, except if it was triggered by Roger Rabbit instead of Shinji Ikari?”

If we do take a moment to tarry and scrutinize the narrative bits and bobs of the week, I'd say that Fire Force is continuing to do a great job guiding us towards whatever lunatic concoction is coming for us in the finale. With so much going on, I have to commend the show for keeping everything mostly coherent, even as the reality of its universe is falling apart at the seams. The flashback material gives Haumea and Charon a bit of humanity to shade their actions, and it works well enough, even if the White-Clad will always be more interesting as character designs and villainous archetypes than as actual characters. The idea of Haumea being driven to the brink of madness on account of constantly being bombarded by the collective unconscious of humanity works well enough with where the series is going with all of this Adolla craziness, at least.

I also have to give a shout-out to the Act 3 return of Arthur and his ascension to the throne of Knight King. While the action is nowhere near as propulsive this week as what we were treated to last time, it is still plenty satisfying to see our resident madman save Yu and obliterate Giovanni's final remnants for good. Similar to the White-Clad, Company 8 works best as a collective representation of the general concept of A Band of Heroes Who Stick By Each Other and Kick Bad-Guy Ass, but Arthur has always stood out from the crowd as one of Fire Force's key players, so it is good to give the guy some final opportunities to put his grand delusions to good use.

The highlight of the episode, though, has little to do with plot advancement or boss battles. To the surprise of absolutely nobody on this planet or any of its alternative-universe variants, I adored the episode's descent into surreal nightmare imagery once Haumea began to truly rip apart the barriers protecting the mortal plane from Adolla. I feel like there has been a trend, lately, of anime indulging in live-action footage and other mixed-media techniques to enhance the impact of material that needs a spooky or weird edge. This makes me giddy beyond belief, and the juxtaposition of real human eyes and faces against the shifting art style of the animation works especially well for Fire Force. The cartoony and unreal trappings of the heroes' “normal world” are becoming more exaggerated as reality collapses in on itself.

I would be tempted to wax theoretical about where all of this is ultimately headed, but let's be honest: Even if you haven't been spoiled about the specifics, yet, that gosh-darned psycho smiley-moon up in the sky has got to be the most obvious clue ever, right? I suppose there might be some kids out there who might not be familiar with the iconography of one of the more popular anime from the mid-2000s…I guess my lips must remain sealed, for now. Under penalty of death.

Rating:

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.