Fire Force Season 2 Episode 17

Boys, Be Weak

Fire Force Season 2 episode 17 was pretty boring if I’m being honest. Aside from the one scene of Charon which I’ll get to in the next section, there wasn’t really all that much going on in this episode. And, even the “new” information that was revealed wasn’t all that new.

I guess I’ll start off with Nataku’s backstory. All we learned was that Nataku is from an abusive household in which he was constantly pressured to perform at the highest degree in whatever he did. This supposedly explains why Nataku’s emotions go from 0 to 100 in an instant.

However, that doesn’t really explain anything. I’m pretty sure we already saw an abridged version of the scene in which his parents gave him up to Haijima. And his manic episodes were already explained by his trauma from when he was kidnapped and forced to become a pyrokinetic by Rekka.

Another thing about this episode that didn’t quite make sense regarding Nataku is that everyone just agreed that Haijima should continue watching over him. I kind of get it from the perspective of the White Clad, because they need Charon to be at 100% in order to capture Nataku.

But, it doesn’t really make any sense for Company 8 to agree to Nataku being held at Haijima. Shinra attempts to justify it by saying that Kurono is able to keep Nataku’s emotions in check. But isn’t Kurono’s physical abuse also a point of stress for Nataku? His emotions might not go wild if he’s not being beaten every day.

It just seems very odd to me that Company 8 would look the other direction here. Haijima even confirmed that they plan to sacrifice Nataku to create a second Amaterasu.

Charon the Reflector

We’ve known what Charon’s ability is for a while now. He can absorb heat and then return it as his own explosive firepower. And, it doesn’t just seem like he can absorb the heat from flames directed at him. I believe earlier on in the series he also absorbed the small amount of heat in the air around him.

But, in this episode, we were given his epithet. He’s known as Charon the Reflector. This title is obviously in reference to his 2nd generation pyrokinetic ability. But what if heat wasn’t the only thing Charon could reflect?

Charon is probably the strongest human we’ve encountered in the series. He can definitely be defeated with some ingenuity, or by someone with a broken ability like Sho’s. But if we’re just talking about raw offensive and defensive strength, I think Charon is number one.

So, what if his reflection ability is partially responsible for this? It wouldn’t necessarily be responsible for his massive defenses. But perhaps the reason Charon is so strong is due to all of the hits he tanks.

We’ve seen Charon dish out some seriously damaging blows after shrugging off hits from opponents like Shinra. But what if he could also store up that power? It’s been implied that Charon is partnered with Haumea because he’s not affected by her abuse. What if that abuse actually powered him up?

Perhaps the true reason that Charon is paired with Haumea is that he can tank all of her pyrokinetic and regular attacks and store that energy in his body for later use. But unfortunately, even this doesn’t really explain how he’s able to take so many direct hits without sustaining much damage.

The Mystery of Haijima Solved!

My least favorite part of the episode came when Company 8 confronted Haijima’s president. The reason this part of the episode wasn’t good is that we really didn’t learn anything new. All that happened was that things were confirmed which had already been heavily implied.

For example, the fact that Haijima knows that Amaterasu is powered by a human with an Adolla Burst isn’t a surprise. And the fact that they’re attempting to create artificial Adolla Bursts so that they can sacrifice people to create more Amaterasu-like structures isn’t very surprising either based on what we’ve seen them doing with Nataku.

The only somewhat surprising thing about all of this is that Haijima has no real connection to the White Clad. Because of Dr. Giovanni, I assumed they at least had a surface-level connection. But, in one of my previous reviews, I did mention that it was very possible that they weren’t connected at all.

If they had been connected, there wouldn’t have been a reason for the White Clad to attack them in order to obtain Nataku.

The other problem with this scene is that it cleared up everything with Haijima too easily. I’m sure there’s still something shady going on with the Holy Sol Temple, but the conclusion of this Haijima investigation felt like the conclusion of Joker and Shinmon’s trek below the church.

It just ended without anything being discovered.

So at this point, we know that while the church was originally founded by Yona, it no longer has an affiliation with the Evangelist. And as for Haijima, they’re just a massive company seeking profits, also with no affiliation to the evangelist. All that leaves is the White Clad as the Evangelist’s followers.

It feels like we’re running out of mystery here. I don’t know how far ahead the manga is (or if the manga is even still running), but it really seems like we’re running out of content unless something big happens soon.

Conclusion

What do you think of Fire Force Season 2 episode 17? Did you think this was a good episode? Or do you agree with my view that it didn’t really do anything or introduce anything new to the series? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.