Fire Force Season 2 Episode 4 [Anime Episode Review]

Welcome, one and all, to my continued weekly episodic review series for season two of Fire Force aka En’en no Shōbōtai. This week, we saw Groping Through The Fire. Did this build on last week’s great showing? Let’s find out!

Heating Up

Though it started out as a retrieval mission, this has clearly descended into war at this point. The entire town was on fire and Infernals are popping up all over the place. When we first joined our heroes, they were spread thin too, with only Iris able to put the souls to rest before they’re killed.

And things weren’t going much better for Shinra, either. His attacks weren’t hurting Charon at all, and Inca had no interest in joining either side, telling them that she will make her own decisions.

The action fell into an old trap at this point: Tamaki had changed into Sister garb. It was her first time putting souls to rest and…she tripped…and fell out of her clothes. While she struggled to get dressed, Hinawa and Vulcan struggled on against a Demon Infernal until Karim appeared to make the save.

As it turned out, Obi had called in a few favours. Not only did Karim stop by, but both Toru and Juggernaut jumped in to help Shinra. Then, platoons from Companies 2 and 5 arrived to aid in the battle, along with Karim’s Sister Squad.

Inca was caught again and hauled away, and Shinra was taken down by Charon again. Arthur attacked Haumea, but the episode still ended on some dark thoughts: the town is still likely to burn down at this rate, and Shinra can’t do any damage against Charon.

Breaking It Down

Let’s deal with the bad first. After using her well so far this season, Tamaki reverted to form this week and it felt really out of place. Even the characters stopped mid-assault to discuss the absurdity of it. I mean, she managed to fall out of everything but her socks, underwear, and headdress. Then, when she attempted to get dressed again, she kept falling over, finally appearing to give up when Karim arrived.

I’ve said before that I like Tamaki’s design. I also think she has some depth to her when the series wants to focus on it. But this was just frustrating. Ugh.

Moving on, the rest of the episode was really good. It was interesting seeing the good guys struggling against the odds in a war-like situation. Even when reinforcements arrived, it still looked pretty dire for the town as a whole. Even so, the teamwork and heart was there, and it was nice seeing them portray Iris as getting a little tired too given how much she was running around.

Shinra struggled this week too. He clearly can’t understand Inca’s desire to ‘live in a world that scares the living daylights out of her’. On top of that, Charon pointing out that his attacks are all speed and no heat really draws attention to a physical weakness for him when it comes to fighting stronger foes. He clearly still has something up his sleeve – the end of the episode gives that away – but right now, things are looking bad for everyone…

…except Arthur. Haumea outright acknowledged that she was in trouble with Arthur tackling her, which means Company 8 do still have a shot, albeit a small one here. That was important as it gave some hope.

Overall

The unfortunate return of the Tamaki-fan-service-scene aside, this was a lot of fun. Honestly, I think this series is looking set to top the first right now, and if it can maintain its focus, it’ll do so no problem.

But those are just my thoughts. What di you all think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below.

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