You know what they say about anime girls with pink hair, don’t you?… Wait… Fire Force already has an anime girl with pink hair… It already has 2! What is this! It’s one pink haired girl per show! Everyone knows that. Have these people never seen an anime before?
The opening of the episode was a sort of soft recap of last week. I didn’t mind at all.
I’ve been pouring over the screencaps and although it’s very subtly, I do believe there has been a slight art boost. Characters seem just a touch more detailed. And the animation is just great so far this season.
I really like Shinra and Arthur’s little cape thingies. I know these are traditional to a lot of firefighter and police uniforms around the world but I never see them and I think they are jus adorable.
Oh yeah story…We don’t know what exactly took over Shinra yet but it’s not affiliated with the Evangelist. We do know, it’s the first pillar, but she seems sort of indifferent to what is going on and just wants to have fun. Why does she look like sister still? hat gets pushed aside pretty quickly though as the idea of a fifth pillar seems more pressing. Everyone is also really ok with just welcoming Shinra back. I’m glad Arthur actually addressed, so many shows just sort of ignore the implications of situations like these.
But more importantly, the girl with the pink hair! We get to meet said fifth pillar pretty early on and the episode doesn’t try to be cute by throwing a red erring at us or anything like that which I appreciated. I mean this girl is all over the OP, it’s not like we didn’t guess.
Anyway, Inca survived a horrific fire when she was younger and since then has had the ability the sense when a fire is about to break out and exactly where but she can’t actually manipulate flames or create them. She has been using this power to save people when she can…for a fee. Well she basically robs them as she saves them along with her two accomplices.
They might destroy this n the coming episode, but I really like how morally neutral Inca is so far. She doesn’t seem to need the money beyond how everyone does and the show never excused her thuggish behaviour. She’s a thrill seeker and puts herself and others in danger rather carelessly. But she is also loyal to her friends, she does save people and prefers that no one gets hurt and the idea of a life of violence seemed sickening to her. She has one of the most modest lady character models in the show so far. That’s neither good nor bad. Just a ting I noticed.
One of the tings that really drew my eye is the CG smoke in Inca’s introduction. I don’t think Fire Force has used that effect before and to be honest, I’m not sure how to feel abut it. On the one hand there was something viceral about it. It looked out of place and almost fibrous. Like I felt a bit choked up looking at it. But it’s definitely the worst integrated CG in the show.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I don’t think Fire Force was this brutal. Not only did we have the very gorey death of a bystander bt even the fight with Shinra was just rough. I mean the animation was fantastic of curse but I could feel those hits. Like my stomach hurts now. This was almost on par with those fights with Sho….
You know, in many respects Fire Force is a pretty classic shonen whee the bad guys need to power up each season that’s why vangelist foot soldiers that will probably prove to be dispensable, are fighting like elite commanders now. And don’t get me wrong, I do like a classic shonen with all the silly tropes. It’s just that for some reason I’ve chosen to watch three of those this season…
(Don’t tell the other shows ut Fire orce is my favourite right now…)
“Maybe I’m misremembering, but I don’t think Fire Force was this brutal. Not only did we have the very gory death of a bystander but even the fight with Shinra was just rough.”
I think you’re right. The closest we came was back in episode 9 when Shinra fought Rekka. That was brutal, but I’m hard pressed to remember anything with the casual cruelty and visceral brutality of Charon’s punch to Inca’s friend.
That was amazing.
Charon stomping Shinra literally into the pavement was pretty rough, too. Great sound effects helped.
Was it just me, or did Inca seem a lot like a slightly more sane/stable Crona from Soul Eater? Her crazy face in particular reminds me of Crona.
She has a very similar character design but her personality seems completely different to me, so far. Crona hated violence and was a pretty straightforward morally righteous character forced into horrible circumstances whereas to me Inca seemed much more grey and complex at first look.
Granted! I was thinking more of the character design. Plus, she’s decided sword free. At least for now.