Enen no Shouboutai: San no Shou

I can’t believe we waited five years for a new season, but it’s finally here, and it was worth the wait. The moment I saw that scene with Captain Obi on the cross (no spoilers), I couldn’t help myself I picked up the manga right after. And I wasn’t disappointed. Though as for this review I'm only reviewing this part of the series, and how well it was adapted.

The adaptation? Phenomenal. Some parts might feel rushed other parts might feel slow. Though I know If someone binges the entire series later down the line, I'm sure they're going to like it and want to know ... more and put on the next episode. The Church suddenly siding with the Evangelist, turning on Company 8 really shocked me and got me hooked on this season right away. As this season continues the lore deepens, the stakes rise, and for every answer you get, a load of new questions pop up.

Now, as hyped as I am for the next part, I’ve got my concerns. With around 80 chapters left, squeezing it all into one more part seems a bit ambitious. Unless they’re planning a movie or breaking it into 2 more parts, we could be looking at a rushed finale. And that would be a shame.

As for the opening and ending themes? They’re decent. The opening felt a bit too somber for this point in the story more fitting for the actual final arc. The ending? Solid, no complaints.

Final thoughts: This was a strong return. Visually stunning, and packed with lore. If they keep this energy up, Fire Force could end with a bang. I only hope they don't stray away from the manga like how Soul Eater did long ago.

__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 lackluster ... compared 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

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, but ... certainly 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.