I just looked over last week’s gallery post and boy this show is pretty! I need to go over all the gallery posts after the season is over. I bet there’s a lot more to the images than I can pick up from simply watching the episodes.
In the meantime though, I have a gallery for this week’s episode but before that, I have an actual review over at 100 Word Anime.
I remember as the episode opened, I immediately thought to myself “those are the wrong colours”. It was beautiful but it just didn’t look like Fire Force at all. I think the show is actually colour coding Konro with light purple which is a great choice. The colour is associated with wisdom and the lighter shade makes it kinder. This works well with the character we’ve gotten to know so far. It’s also supposed to be dignified, even regal. Also a match!
I’m having a bit of trouble judging proportions. Half the time Konro seems visibly bigger than Benimaru, the other half they seem about the same. I wonder if it’s in my head.
OK’ now it looks like Fire Force. Moreover, it’s happening in darkened scenes so we know there’s going to be some action!
Even though I’m not a fan of the twin loli archetype, I really love Hika and Hina’s designs and even if just for that, I enjoy their scenes. Their stylized little fight was so much fun to watch.
That Evangelist character looks like they could have been designs specifically as a Halloween ghoul. I gotta say, the designs are not helping with that feeling of flatly evil characters. Then again, that arrow iris reminds me of (Soul Eater’s) Medusa who was also a plainly evil character but so evil in fact as to become somewhat interesting. Maybe we’ll be lucky and get that again.
And here’s the fight with super illuminated powers. You know, it’s nice that the show is so dedicated to visual consistency. It really creates a sense of individuality. You all know what I have to say about these types of scenes.
Doesn’t that middle left image look just like a jack-o-lantern? Maybe I just have Halloween on the brain. This entire episode looked super seasonal to me.
There were a few scenes in that alleyway (top, right). It’s a really nice composition. The darker parts of the image are fairly warm closer to brown than blue as in a lot of the other night time city scenes which sets it apart and makes it feel more intimate. Then you have either sides of the alley coming in to create a thin slit of bright red (almost hellish) beyond. It makes the alley feel like a little oasis of calm and safety. And it also creates a great sense of depth. It’s really good framing in my opinion and I’m glad the director insisted on it.
I mentioned it in my review. Shinra and Arthur are just another example of the red oni, blue oni trope. Even though it’s really obvious I love how it was illustrated this episode.
This scene also served as the episode’s comedy relief (as is usually Arthur’s rile) with a lot of art breaks and silly backgrounds that broke up the more detailed fight scenes. It did a pretty good job at really highlighting how polished Fire Force usually looks by comparison. It was also just fun to watch.
I leave you on another beautifully composed scene. The flash of fire in the distance is a focal point while the large blue irises in the foreground create scale and interest. You can barely make out Benimaru so when he moves it’s surprising. It’s also a rather pretty bridge and the central foundation separates Benimaru and the infernal on either side very symbolically.
