Shounen Battle Series

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 15 may be the most disappointing episode of the season so far. I was pretty disappointed when Joker and Shinmon didn’t end up fighting against Burns, but at least we got some good background information from that episode.

This episode didn’t really give us anything I cared about. Sure, we got to see some good Viktor content and Charon being overpowered, as usual. But those were the highlights of the episode and they only lasted a few short moments.

What I really want to discuss right now, though, is the part of the episode I disliked the most. I don’t believe we were given her name, but the puppeteer who works for Haijima was, by far, the worst part of the episode.

The problem I have with this character is also one of the main problems I have with many shounen battle series: Her humor is geared towards 12-year-olds. Now, I know I shouldn’t really be complaining about that. After all, 12-year-olds are the target audience of shounen series.

However, even with that being the case, I still think it’s the worst part of many of these series. It kind of works in One Piece sometimes. But for the vast majority of shounen battle series, I do think it worsens the anime as a whole.

To me, including fart jokes by this puppeteer woman in the middle of a “fight” is the same as including random Tamaki fan service. It doesn’t add to the series and it distracts from the good content. Though, to be fair, there wasn’t much of a fight going on in this episode. The puppeteer, Maki, and Vulcan were just talking at each other.

A Three-Way Melee

I was actually a little surprised to find that Haijima and the White Clad weren’t working together. Well, they’ve worked together to an extent as we know from Dr. Giovanni. But I thought that the two organizations would be more intertwined than they apparently are.

It does make a bit of sense though. Haijima wants to discover the secrets of the Adolla Burst, while the White Clad simply want to use it. So if the two of them really were working together at a deep level, Haijima probably wouldn’t have been able to keep Nataku for their experiments.

However, the opposite could probably be argued as well. Without all of the Pillars, it’s unlikely that Nataku will be of any use to the White Clad. I don’t think he’ll willingly help them, so they’ll have to keep him locked up somewhere.

If that’s the case, he might as well be locked up within Haijima’s labs where they can make use of him.

So were both Haijima and the White Clad using each other? Haijima was probably using the White Clad for information on Adolla Bursts. And likewise, the White Clad were probably using Haijima to help them find the remaining Adolla Burst users.

Also, now that we know that the Fire Force, Haijima, and the White Clad are fighting a three-way battle over the Adolla Burst users, where does that leave the church? It was implied that the Holy Sol Temple has nothing to do with the current White Clad organization. But do they really have no stake in this?

It seems obvious that the Holy Sol Temple is going to become important to the story once again at some point. I’m just not sure how it’s going to happen.

Antagonist Organizations

As I mentioned earlier, the best part of the episode came when Charon showed up and decided to once again prove why he’s the greatest character in the series. Oh, you thought Kurono was strong because he was beating back Shinra? Well, he can’t even scratch Charon.

Seeing this really puts Charon’s strength into perspective.

And once I realized how strong Charon is, it made me think about how strong the entire White Clad organization (or at least their higher-ups) would be if they got together. Not every shounen battle series does this, but a lot of them reduce the strength of their antagonist organizations by breaking them up.

The Akatsuki from Naruto: Shippūden is a perfect example of this. That’s an organization made up of extremely powerful characters who can even defeat small nations on their own. And because they’re so strong, they travel in pairs because they never need more than two of them to complete any given mission.

But what if an organization like the Akatsuki or the White Clad actually worked as a cohesive group in battle? I think if they did that, it would be fair to say that they’d be almost unstoppable.

Do you really think Company 8 would be able to do anything against the combination of Sho, Haumea, Charon, Inca, and the other top-level White Clad members? They wouldn’t stand a chance. Even if they had Joker and Shinmon on their side I don’t think they would stand a chance.

Sho and Charon alone can basically defeat everyone else. I mean, Sho can literally stop time by sucking the heat out of the universe. The only reason Shinra stood a chance against him in season one was that he was also borrowing the Evangelist’s grace. Take that away, and Sho wins every time because he’s on the Evangelist’s side.

Conclusion

What do you think of Fire Force season 2 episode 15? Do you like the puppeteer woman? What do you think was the extent of Haijima’s and the White Clad’s alliance? Was it solely Dr. Giovanni connecting the two? And, do you think Company 8 (and their allies) could defeat the full force of the White Clad? 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.

Infiltrating Haijima Industries

Fire Force season 2 episode 14 begins the second cour of season two. In this arc, Company 8 is once again turning their attention to Haijima Industries, the organization that Dr. Giovanni was a member of.

After that whole thing with Dr. Giovanni came to an end last season, I honestly forgot there was unfinished business there. The series moved on from all of that pretty quickly and dove headfirst into the White Clad arc. As far as I remembered, he was killed and everything directly relating to him was solved.

Sure, Vulcan’s girlfriend (I don’t remember her name) is still traumatized. But that’s not really important right now.

Anyway, now that we’re headed into the heart of Haijima Industries, it means there’s probably going to be some supporting character development. Specifically, both Viktor and Captain Hibana have ties to Haijima.

I’m not entirely sure how Hibana is going to be incorporated into this arc, but it would almost be odd for her not to be. At the very least, she may be part of the rescue mission that’s likely to take place later on once things inevitably go south for Shinra and Viktor.

And speaking of things going south for Viktor, there have been so many death flags for him that his death is inevitable. Right?

I don’t think so, and I get the feeling most of you don’t either. Yes, the boss of Haijima put a hit out on him. And yes, even Viktor knows that his death has likely been ordered. But there are also two reasons why I don’t see that happening. First, Shinra won’t let it happen. Second, what would his death achieve?

Would Viktor dying here really impact the plot? I don’t think so. So it would be a waste.

Nataku

Nataku is the kid who was bitten/stung by one of the flame insects released by Rekka. Rather than turning into an infernal and dying, Nataku awakened pyrokinetic abilities and was subsequently taken in by Haijima Industries for evaluation and “medical attention.”

While Nataku doesn’t have an Adolla Burst yet, it would appear that he’s going to awaken one very soon. Shinra experienced an Adolla Link with him shortly after entering the facility, and as far as we know, an Adolla Burst is required for that.

Exactly how his Adolla Link is going to be awakened isn’t quite clear. Well, I think it’s clear that it’s going to be awakened through combat. But, what situation will that combat be in? Will it be one of the training fights? Or, will it be during the eventual fight to escape?

I think the situation surrounding his awakening is pretty important for the future of his character. In the first situation, the Adolla Burst is forced out of him. But in the second, he would be awakening it of his own volition to save himself and probably other children in the facility.

Nataku’s Adolla Burst aside, so far I’m not impressed with him as a character. I get that he’s a kid, so he’s not all that dynamic. But even so, he’s kind of strange — especially since he has the ghost of Rekka inside him as his personal cheerleader or something.

Also, haven’t I seen this whole arc before? A child was kidnapped by an organization so they could use the child’s powers for their nefarious schemes. Then, our hero breaks into the facility, rescues the child, and defeats the villain with the help of the child.

Oh yeah, that’s called My Hero Academia season 4.

The Ashen Reaper

Okay. We need to talk about Kurono, the apparent main antagonist of this arc. Did anyone else get serious pedophile vibes from him? He’s really creepy, talks about wanting to “play” with children, enjoys asserting his dominance over those weaker than himself (especially children), and forces children to refer to him as “Uncle Reaper.”

I honestly never expected the next antagonist in Fire Force to be a pedophile, and yet here we are.

Kurono’s interests aside, he’s a very unique character compared to all the other pyrokinetics we’ve come across so far. He suffers from tephrosis, which is the disintegration associated with using a third-generation pyrokinetic ability too frequently. However, that doesn’t stop him despite how severe his case is.

I believe back in season one we were told that continued use of one’s ability once tephrosis had set in would lead to death. But with Kurono, it’s still restricted to his right arm after multiple years of use.

Additionally, Kurono is the first “pyrokinetic” I can think of who doesn’t actually control fire. And yes, plasma counts as fire (or, more accurately, fire is plasma). Instead, he controls smoke.

Before anyone tries to argue that smoke is close enough, or that he controls fire to make smoke, no. First of all, smoke is not “close enough.” Smoke isn’t a plasma, which is what all the other pyrokinetics control in various forms.

Second, he does control the smoke, not the fire that makes the smoke. We know this because he’s able to freely control the smoke through the air and even form it into hardened weapons. And, despite my original thinking that the smoke ability was tied to his tephrosis, he is shown to be able to control it with his good hand as well.

Conclusion

What do you think of Fire Force season 2 episode 14? Do you think Viktor is going to die by the end of it? Is it going to play out exactly like the fourth season of My Hero Academia? And, what do you think of Kurono’s smoke ability? 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.

A Pair of One-Eyes

Fire Force season 2 episode 13 wasn’t at all what I expected it to be, and I’m not really sure how I feel about the developments just yet. It was still a good episode with some very good visuals, but I think there were a few weak storytelling moments mixed in. The major issue I had with the episode will be addressed at the end of this review.

Before we get to that, let’s start off with the first thing that surprised me: There was no fight against Burns. I thought, and was hoping, that we were going to see Joker, or Joker and Shinmon, fight against Burns. Burns and Shinmon are the two strongest fire soldiers, Burns and Joker have a history, and Shinmon and Joker are teaming up right now.

Everything was set up perfectly for this, and it probably would have been the biggest fight of the entire season. But that’s not what we got, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.

Instead, we learned that Burns has actually been investigating the Holy Sol Temple on his own. And, in fact, he has been ever since he and Joker experienced an Adolla link back when they both worked directly under the church. During this link, they even came face-to-face with the Evangelist himself.

I don’t really mind the twist that Captain Burns is actually working to uncover the secrets of the church. But, even without getting a fight between him and Joker, I would have liked to learn a bit more about the situation surrounding their Adolla link. Do their eyes do anything? Does Amaterasu spawn Infernals often? I need answers.

The Diary of Raffles I’s Wife

The setup to the part of the episode I didn’t like comes when Burns reveals that the only significant piece of information he’s found in his years of searching is a single book. It’s the diary of the wife of Raffles I, the founder of the Tokyo Empire and the supposed creator of Amaterasu.

In her diary, she mentions two, very important, details regarding the story about how the nation, church, and Amaterasu were founded. First, she stated that the caravan that was traveling with Raffles never made it back to Japan with him when he brought the “unsullied flame of Amaterasu.”

That’s pretty suspicious on its own, but the second thing she notes is that Raffles acted like an entirely different person upon his return. Either the events he witnessed on his travels had affected him to an extreme extent, or the man who returned was not the same Raffles that left on the journey.

I’ll get to what’s going on with Raffles in the next section, but what about the caravan that was with him? Obviously, they were killed. But, I’m thinking that those killed members of the caravan were actually turned into the original Amaterasu flame.

Maybe I’m forgetting my own theory, but I’m pretty sure I’ve said that I believe that while the First Pillar is the current “flame” of Amaterasu, she wasn’t the original. If she was, she would have barely any power left just like we saw with the Benefactor. But, I’m not sure the first flame was a human now.

Wouldn’t Raffles’ wife have mentioned if he brought a human back with him? She said he was alone. So the flame he brought back must have been an actual flame, not a metaphor for someone with an Adolla burst.

Remember Yona? No? Me Neither

So, now we get to the worst part of the episode, and probably the worst part of the entire season, or even series, so far. Right after Joker, Shinmon, and Burns questioned why Raffles I was acting strangely upon his return, the episode cut to a scene of Yona telling Inca that it was him who impersonated Raffles and founded the church as a way to help the Evangelist.

For starters, I forgot that Yona existed. So cutting to some random character I don’t remember just so they can reveal something major probably isn’t a good play. Next, they had already heavily implied that whoever was able to alter their appearance in the modern day is probably who did it 250 years ago. They didn’t need to explicitly tell us.

But it gets worse. In what context would Yona have brought up that information to Inca? I doubt she cares, and she definitely didn’t ask. So does Yona just immediately tell that to everyone who joins the Evangelist’s side? There’s no reason for him to have done that, which means it was done purely for the viewer’s sake.

It was like a worse version of when you have two characters who clearly know the same piece of information, and yet they explain it to each other for the viewers.

This would have been a terrible development in any series. But it felt so much worse here because Fire Force season 2 has done an amazing job of building up the mystery. Every time we’ve gotten a bit more information, it’s brought up even more questions — exactly like Re:ZERO, which is why that series is so good.

Yona revealing the answers to our questions just seconds after they were asked and without leaving anything up to the imagination basically brought the episode to a grinding halt. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when that happened. The beginning of the episode had some amazing direction, and then I guess they let the intern take over for a moment.

Conclusion

What do you think about Fire Force season 2 episode 13? Do you like the development with Burns actually being on the side of justice? Would you have rather seen him fight Joker and Shinmon? And what was your reaction to Yona effectively spoiling us? 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.

Shadows Cast by Divine Light

Fire Force season 2 episode 12 was a pretty good episode. I didn’t think the previous episode was all that great, but I’d say that this one made up for it. We got some Shinmon and Joker action, Joker backstory, and cool visuals. There’s not all that much more I could ask for in an episode besides Charon stomping on someone.

Let’s start this episode review at the end of the episode this week with the arrival of Captain Burns. Who was it who predicted that Captain Burns was at the scene of Shinra’s house fire to collect Sho for the Holy Sol Temple? Oh, right. It was me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get everything right, though. I also suggested that there were no pyrokinetics within the church, but as we saw, that’s not true. The captain of the church’s secret police was a pyrokinetic, though none of his underlings seemed to be. I guess it’s still possible that nobody on the surface of the church is a pyrokinetic.

And speaking of the church’s secret police, we finally got some backstory on Joker. He was originally an orphan who was a member of this secret organization until he escaped on the day Shinra’s house burned down. I don’t think his involvement in that group is what’s most interesting about his past, though.

What’s most interesting to me is that it’s during the time he spent in that group that he obtained his left eye. I say obtained because Burns has the right eye, so I assume they were once a pair and not an ability Joker awakened one day. It looks like we’ll be learning more about that in the next episode.

Psychedelic Smokes

My favorite part of this episode, by far, was when Joker revealed that he’d been filling the tunnels with psychedelic smoke. And no, it’s not because that means Joker is a stoner. Though, to be fair, I’m not actually sure how he’s able to remain unaffected. Is he just that used to it? We know he doesn’t normally smoke that kind of cigarette, so I assume not.

Anyway, there are three main reasons why I liked this scene so much. The first is simply the visuals. The visuals for this scene were very different from anything else we’ve seen in Fire Force before, and I liked that. It’s really cool to see a studio swap to a different art style to illustrate the hallucinogenic properties of a drug.

It was almost like a “lite” version of the witches’ labyrinths from Madoka Magica.

The second thing I liked about this was that it was a believable way for Joker to win the fight. It’s not like he suddenly developed a new ability to let him win. He had been biding his time throughout the fight, keeping his opponent occupied until enough of the smoke had filled the tunnel for its properties to take effect. He knew that was his win condition, and he played to it.

And the final thing I liked kind of ties into the second: This development of smoker using hallucinogenic smoke was set up from the start of the episode. When Shinmon miraculously recovered from the poison that should have killed him, Joker took notice. He saw that Shinmon isn’t affected by toxins, so he knew he could use his smoke without it incapacitating Shinmon as well.

Also, as for how Shinmon was able to survive the poison, it looked to me like his body burned it out of his system.

The Killing Joke

In this section, I basically just want to talk about how I enjoyed the dynamic between Shinmon and Joker. They say opposites attract, and that universal law seems to even apply when it comes to anime bros. Really, the only thing these two have in common is their desire to take down the Holy Sol Temple.

Sure, they both have a goal that could be furthered by infiltrating the church, but their goals are very different. Shinmon wants the region of Tokyo that he controls to be recognized as an independent state. Joker just wants to learn the secrets of the church and then burn it down.

Further, their fighting styles are completely different as well. When it comes to combat, Shinmon relies on his own strength and skill to overwhelm his opponents. Joker is the opposite. Not only does he rely on schemes as he did with the smoke, but he’s also not afraid to rely on the strength of others — which is why he recruited Shinmon.

But, what I think is the most interesting difference between these two characters are their philosophies. You wouldn’t expect two individuals who view themselves and others so differently to make a good team, and yet they do.

Starting with Shinmon again, people view him as a hero, but he doesn’t view himself that way. He just wants to be viewed as your average good samaritan, not a hero. Yet, he does “heroic” things such as refusing to use lethal force against his opponents who are trying to kill him.

Joker, on the other hand, is viewed as a villain. I think it’s fair to say that. And yet, he views himself as a hero — a dark hero, but a hero nonetheless. However, despite viewing himself as a hero, he’s the one of the two who has no problem with killing if it furthers his goal or if he simply wants revenge.

Conclusion

What do you think of Fire Force season 2 episode 12? Do you think Joker is going to team up with the other Fire Soldiers after this arc? Do you have a prediction regarding how Joker and Burns got their eyes? And, who do you like more, Shinmon or Joker? 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.

Dark Hero

Fire Force season 2 episode 11 may have been my least favorite episode of the season so far. I mean, the first episode of the season wasn’t that great either, but I’ll forgive it since it was serving as a pseudo-reintroduction to the series. This episode really didn’t do anything or give us much information.

I think the only new piece of information we were given in this episode is that Joker views himself as a “dark hero.” So now it’s pretty much confirmed that Joker isn’t a villain of the series. He’s not a good guy, but he’s also not necessarily a bad guy either. He’s basically chaotic neutral.

The problem with this information is that I don’t really know what to do with it. Okay, we know he’s neutral, has some history with the church, and wants to uncover what they’re hiding. But so what? He’s not the only person who wants to do that.

As far as his role in the series goes, I think he’s probably going to play the role of minor antagonist to the Eighth Company. He’s not an antagonist from the storytelling perspective, but I could see him antagonizing them into action. Basically, he’ll probably lead them to important discoveries by making them chase after him.

Of course, that’s not going to be the full extent of his involvement in the series. I just think that’s what his “dark hero” persona is going to lead him to do. There’s still the whole thing with his left eye being similar to Captain Burns’ eye as shown in the OP. So I’m sure there are still plenty more secrets about his character to uncover.

Destroyer God, Shinmon

As with Joker, I don’t have all that much to say about Shinmon from this episode either. I wouldn’t exactly call it discussion-worthy information, but we did learn that the leader of the Holy Sol Temple refers to Shinmon as “Destroyer God, Shinmon” — at least in the English translation.

This is an odd epithet. On one hand, I get it. Shinmon is known to destroy even his own town in the process of protecting it from Infernals. So I could see why he would be referred to as a Destroyer God. But, we have to consider who’s referring to him in that way.

It’s the head priest of the Holy Sol Temple who calls him Demon God, Shinmon. For the head priest to refer to Shinmon as a god, even a Demon God, is a bit strange. Shouldn’t he believe that Sol is the one, true God? You might not think this is a big deal, but words and phrasing are very important, especially in religion.

Maybe the English translation was a bit off, or maybe that’s really what the head priest said — I don’t know. But I think it would make a lot more sense if he instead referred to him as “God Destroyer, Shinmon” since Shinmon doesn’t believe Sol is the one, true God, and actively works against the church.

Sure, then you get into trouble with the implication that Shinmon could destroy the Holy Sol Temple’s god, but I still think that’s a better descriptor of him from the church’s perspective. Of course, the high priest could have also just been parroting what the commoners refer to Shinmon as.

I don’t remember if Shinmon was referred to by this epithet earlier on, but I’m sure someone will let me know if that’s the case.

The Holy Sol Temple

The Holy Sol Temple doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as it’s been built up throughout the course of the series. We know they work alongside the Fire Soldiers to put Infernals to rest via supplying them with priests and priestesses. And they also provide various services to people in need around the nation.

But on the other side, it’s highly likely that they’ve been sacrificing people with Adolla Bursts to Amaterasu in order to keep it running and providing energy for the country. Now, all of that might generally make sense. Everything they do, good or bad, is to uphold the status quo of human civilization and prevent another Great Cataclysm.

But what I don’t understand are the people within the church. I get their supposed mission, but take a closer look at the people who make up the church.

From what we’ve seen, the bottom rung of the church is made up of the orphans who are raised as priests and priestesses. Some of them go on to work with the Fire Soldiers, others probably go on to work at or run other orphanages, and some probably just do random priest/priestess things in the main church.

Then, there’s the head priest and all of his higher level priests who reside at the main church as we saw in this episode. One thing you’ll notice about them is that none were shown to have pyrokinetic abilities, even the main guards. Why is that? Shouldn’t the church want members who have special abilities granted by Sol?

Well, I think the Holy Sol Temple is basically just a group of people who are mad about the fact that they don’t have pyrokinetic abilities. They don’t have abilities. So through the church, they’ve manufactured status and power of their own over those with pyrokinetic abilities.

I really don’t see any other reason for there to be no pyrokinetics in the upper levels of the church. They work with the Fire Soldiers who employ pyrokinetics, so I don’t think the church views them as “demons” like the Infernals. They just view themselves as above the pyrokinetics because it’s the only way they can feel special.

Conclusion

What do you think about Fire Force season 2 episode 11? Did you think it was boring as I did? Or did you like it? What role do you think Joker is going to play going forward? And what do you think will become of Shinmon here? I think it’s pretty clear that he’s not dead, but will he be captured? Let me know your thoughts 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.