Fire Force Season 2 Episode 19

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 19

The Oze Family

Fire Force Season 2 episode 19 was an odd episode. First I thought it was going to be some backstory, then it seemed like it was going to effectively be filler, then it suddenly seemed like stuff was going to happen, and finally, it ended by setting up a seemingly predictable next set of events.

As odd as this might seem, I don’t think that any of these events with Maki’s family really needed to be shown in the anime. The reason for this is that we pretty much understood the majority of Maki’s backstory solely from the current OP and what little had been mentioned about it previously.

Think of it this way: What did us seeing Maki’s family all together add to the series? Did it establish that she’s from a military background? No. We already knew that. Did it establish that she’s from the upper echelons of society? Also no. The OP already hinted at this enough for it to be understood.

Maki and her father from the anime series Fire Force Season 2
Maki and her father

We were introduced to Maki’s family members, sure, but did they need to be introduced in this way? Her mother doesn’t seem to matter. Her brother is probably going to be an extremely minor character. And her father being the general could have been brought up in so many other ways.

I knew we would be getting an episode like this after seeing the OP, but I figured it would probably add more substance. That wasn’t the case. And considering I wasn’t looking forward to this eventual episode anyway, the fact that it didn’t really do much wasn’t a good thing.

There are times when the OP and ED can be used to give background or context to a series. This would have been the perfect time to do it by leaving this content out of an actual episode.

Into the Nether

I always find it odd how everyone is scared of the Nether. It’s literally just the subway system. How far in the future is this series supposed to take place? Why don’t they understand that the Nether isn’t some spooky, mysterious place?

You’d expect that fire soldiers and the military would have no problem waltzing right into the Nether. If random people can go crawling through caves in our world, I think some professional soldiers can go walking through the subway system in their world.

And, although everyone (except the White Clad and the Church, apparently) is afraid of the Nether, the military literally sent two guys to investigate it. If the Nether is such a scary and dangerous place, why are they only sending two guys armed with flashlights and pistols? It doesn’t make sense.

A White Clad suicide bomber from the anime series Fire Force Season 2
A White Clad suicide bomber

Anyway, I found this portion of the episode to be fairly interesting because we got to see a slightly different side of the White Clad than we have before. Normally, the White Clad grunts don’t really show a fear of death. They’ll charge in and fight opponents who are clearly stronger than they are.

However, this was the first time in which we saw a White Clad member willingly throw away their life. He didn’t try to fight Maki’s brother and the other soldier — he simply blew himself up with the bomb strapped around his torso.

Not only did this show us the determination of the White Clad grunts, but it also showed us that the White Clad are playing a bit of an information game as well. Why did that grunt blow himself up? Probably so that he couldn’t be captured and interrogated. But also probably to destroy the evidence within that lab.

Caged Bird

The latter portion of episode 19 was definitely the worst. I’ve brought this up in previous episode reviews, but Maki has always been the “strong” female character of Company 8. However, the end of this episode seemed to be attempting to break that image of her down.

She thinks that the two most important men in her life, her father and lieutenant Hinawa, believe that she’s too weak. She also gets sent back to the military because her father ordered it and Hinawa agreed for some reason. And once back at the military, we see that she’s made into a secretary, which is apparently the posh job all the daughters of high-ranking officers get.

As Maki puts it, her father views her as a bird that needs to be kept in a cage close by so that he can watch over her. Obviously, this doesn’t suit who Maki is, and that’s part of the reason why this was so frustrating. Maki has already been built up as a strong-willed character.

Why is she now being broken down in this way?

Maki stationed as a military secretary from the anime series Fire Force Season 2
Maki stationed as a military secretary

Unfortunately, it all makes sense if you look at it from a trope perspective. This is clearly just setting up a situation in which Maki can eventually prove her strength to the male figures in her life and come back stronger than ever.

If I had to guess, something’s going to go wrong in the Nether. Once Maki hears about it, she’s going to resist, but eventually jump into action and save the day. Her father is then going to see how good she is at being a fire soldier and that she can take care of herself. She’ll then proceed to return to Company 8.

As for Hinawa, it will probably be revealed that he believed in Maki all along and he had planned for all of this. He probably knew that her father needed to see Maki’s strength in action for himself in order to be convinced. Having her go back to the military is one way of ensuring that happens.

Conclusion

I honestly don’t see the next few episodes playing out any way other than as I just described — as far as Maki’s role is concerned. This setup is just way too predictable, and as I said, unnecessary because Maki is already established as being a strong character.

But what do you think of Fire Force Season 2 episode 19? Did you like seeing the stuff with Maki’s family? Do you think my prediction is going to be wrong in any way? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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