Enen no Shouboutai: San no Shou

I’m a fan of Fire Force. This series isn’t among my favorites, but it’s Shonen done beautifully with dazzling and well-choreographed fights and its underlying story has always been an intriguing if sometimes confusing backdrop to events as they unfold. It’s not breaking the mold, particularly in the character department, but given that this world has to somehow become the world of Soul Eater, it takes its time and puts the pieces together pretty meticulously to get there. For all the mad rush that this series most definitely is at times, this is a series that rewards careful attention to detail and has a gooddeal of interesting worldbuilding. And yes, it still has all of that here. Despite this being the first half of its final season, the series is still very much engaged in building on what it has set up at a deliberate pace, though it’s still interspersed with some intense fights involving new and established powerhouses. When the series comes back to Hibana’s past in particular and a certain someone shows up, I think it’s firing on all cylinders as this is a mystery the series has slowly been feeding into for the past two seasons without payoff. We still don’t know everything that’s going on, but we have a lot more insight than we did and a new enemy to face out of it. As for the rest of the series, the fights are still really good where they appear. The humor remains a bright spot… for the most part (like many, Tamaki and her “lucky lecher lure” has never worked for me). We even get some insight into Arthur and his family, albeit it’s cut off pretty abruptly. Leonard Burns gets a real arc in this one, though I felt like I didn’t understand some of his more central choices here, which neutered my investment in him so the end of that arc doesn’t hit as intended even though his fight was dope. The appearance and display of power from Dragon was definitely a high point. If I had to pick a biggest gripe, though, I think this season falls short just by being the first half of a finale. It’s hard not to notice just how much of this is set up for a climax that hasn’t come yet. I’m a manga reader, so I know what’s coming and I’m excited to see it. Despite setting most of this up as an appetizer, though, it does give us just a small taste of the main course in that final episode (love to see it). And, yeah, that plus the strength of its big reveals and its more bombastic fights do put it over the top of previous seasons where we were just getting tidbits of information. It’s still a bit convoluted, but it’s coming together and the whole picture is at least starting to come into focus. I’m excited for the finale in the fall, but until then, this will tide me over.

I was pleasantly surprised when this season was announced. But sadly the final execution was like having one's head chopped off. The franchise was incinerated with a flamethrower. Spontaneously combusted in an orgy of production malfeasence The artwork was par from previous seasons. While the animation started out fine, apparently the director burned through the budget much too quickly. The last two eps were complete disasters, with clumsy 3D renderings, crappy manga scans haphazardly inserted as stills, and way too much panning across still shots substituting for real animation. It trainwrecked the entire season for me. The character writing was vastly improved for the antagonists, butcertainly little was done with the protagonists. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting a lot more regarding members of the 8th. The writers never delivered. The narrative was a bit sloggy as the season wore on. Decent pace at first, but seemed to wander off the path in the middle episodes. It's the best season for world building and back stories. Overall, the writing was OK, if not inspired, until the finale. Then things completely jumped the shark the last two episodes. Shinra, our supposed MC, spends most of his frickin' time unconscious. Then there was the constant parade of side characters from previous seasons and episodes, who didn't need to be there, except to eat up time in the episode. We barely got to see any of the members of the 8th. They spent their time watching the climax on TV. WTF was that shit? In the final appraisal, the narrative fell right off a cliff. It was dreadful. The voice acting was OK. Shinra's VA tended to be a lot more noisy than was necessary. The rest of the cast did a decent enough job. The direction certainly didn't live up to the legacy of the first two seasons. Between average VA work and the animation disasters, the direction pretty much sucked. This season leaves us with ash and cinders. It started out good enough, around a B+, but kept sinking further and further until it hit a brick wall. I can't see fit to give this any better than a D+ at 68/100. And that's being generous, due to the first two seasons. It wasn't a complete failure. But it tried hard to be a bust, before all was said and done. Play with this fire at your own risk.

__Characters__ Women get some nice airtime with Tamaki, particularly getting a good fight. However, the “lucky Letcher” bit persists much to my chagrin and it continues to pollute with its presence. As far as everyone else I think that if you had previous opinions on the Fire Force cast I don’t see those changing. A lot of characters lack significant depth with my enjoyment of them depending largely on if they enjoy their bit. For example, I find Arthur’s mix of cluelessness and reliability to be delightful but I find the Hibana gravel and in love with Shinra traits to be uninspiring. __Animation, Visuals, Sound design__ Animation is lacklustercompared to previous entries with poor integration of CGI. While, I don’t have a problem with CGI, -- see to be a hero X (review pending) for a series where it looks great -- The issue is when it’s badly done by teams not used to working with it during a major fight scene. Combined with the now infamous first fight of the season which continually utilized nearly still frames of characters standing and it makes for a poor experience. This isn’t to say that it’s all lost as there are still decent scenes especially as the season moves on past its early hump but it falls far below the standard set by other seasons. In particular, I found a lot of the flame effects to be far less exciting and interactive with a terrible stock graphic being used in certain cases. In a similar vein to the animation, the sound design is generally fine and I wouldn’t complain about it in any other context but is so far below the previous seasons it’s embarrassing. Gone are the unique effects that I remember watching the show in part to enjoy. Together they serve to create an acceptable experience that fails to impress. __Themes__ There’s an attempt to pull on the contrast between duty and righteousness and it somewhat works but feels very rushed. Perhaps this would feel better if you watched all the seasons back to back and it is one of the more standout moments of the season yet it still left me feeling lacking. __Fights__ Fire Force has never had the type of tactics-based fights you may see in other series which has always been fine as it’s been buoyed by gorgeous animation and an interesting power system. Certainly the latter remains in play for this season with my favorite fight revolving around it but the aforementioned reduction in animation quality serves to harm things. I cannot imagine anyone excitedly talking about any of the fights this season in 5 years. __Pacing__ The pacing feels very odd, especially in the opening of the season. Things feel rushed but at the same time excruciatingly slow as it crawls through a fight where nothing of interest is happening but without the good sense to skip through. __Plot__ The Plot of Fire Force was never its main draw however as well get closer to the set of answers teased over the course of the series it reveals itself to be more threadbare than I had anticipated. It serves to be a reason for characters to act and thus accomplishes its basal purpose but it doesn’t inspire much contemplation. __Final thoughts__ Fire Force season 3 Cour 1 represents an output that is certainly watchable and often enjoyable to various degrees but fails to reach the heights of previous seasons. It is encapsulated by the word “fine” which is a real shame. In particular, the baseline sound design and animation were a real disappointment for me as someone who loves fire effects and thinks a lot about them in their art and enjoyed the first season’s sound for the love of the game. Considering the moderate improvement at the tail end of this season I’m hoping that part 2 will show more promise but that remains to be seen 6/10

After waiting so long for this third season, I have to say my feelings are quite mixed… and honestly, I don’t think it was entirely worth the wait. The quality of the anime has noticeably dropped. The animation, previously one of its strongest points, seems to have taken a back seat. The attention to detail is no longer the same, action scenes have lost emotion, and in some episodes there's a general lack of polish. It feels like the studio lowered its visual ambition or it just ran out of money. That said, I wouldn't call this a bad season. The story remains compelling, with a solidplot that keeps you engaged and carries the weight of the whole production. This season brings important revelations that expand the narrative universe and add depth to the characters. There are also several battles which, while maybe not as spectacular as before, are still exciting and well choreographed. Another strong point is the humor, which remains fresh and well integrated into the story. There are also some calmer, more emotional moments that help strengthen our connection to the characters. In short: this third season may not live up to the technical standards of the previous ones, but it’s still enjoyable. If you've liked what you've seen so far, you’ll likely want to keep watching to see how the story unfolds.

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