What They Say:
“Enemy Contact”
Tamaki struggles to get Juggernaut back to the surface. Takigi and Hinawa find themselves at odds with each other, as well as with a new threat from the White-Clad. Shinra suddenly comes face to face against an old adversary.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Juggernaut has such a simple life before joining the Fire Force. He was raised in the countryside on his family’s potato farm. He didn’t want to leave it but his mom pushed him to go to the world and see all it had to offer. Now he has been beaten half to death protecting the women of his dreams and is saying his last wishes to her. He just wants to go back to his potato farm in his time of death. This is not the simplest task for Tamaki as she took quite a beating and now has to face multiple Infernos and White-Clad members. She has to be saved by Captain Obi and Captain Gustav. I wonder how Captain Gustav feels that most of his squad has been decimated by the White-Clad. He is going around headbutting a bund of cannon fodder but he isn’t able to save any of his squad.
Lieutenant Hinawa and Maki’s brother, Takigi are paired to undesirable results. Takigi is overprotective of his little sister and resents Company 8 for taking her away. In his eyes, they corrupted her innocent young girl persona. Hinawa is the person who bears most of the guilt. To be fair, Hinawa doesn’t do anything to calm down the situation. Instead, he fans the flames and makes Takigi rage even further. They are matched by Iron, a brawn White-Clad member with the most impressive muscles. His muscles paired with his fire abilities are enough to reflect bullets. Hinawa and Takigo would rathe bicker among themselves than fight the White-Clad. The White-Clad doesn’t mind and takes his time to flex his giant muscles. If no one is going to fight then might as well show those incredible biceps.
Giovanni was the stuff of nightmares last season and has evolved to an even more grotesque form guaranteed to scare everyone. He used the Adolla bugs to experiment on his own body. He is half-human, half-insect, and a full monstrosity. His new insect body also allows him to perceive other people’s thoughts. It keeps elevating the horror factor that this arc has been aiming for and receiving satisfactory results.
In Summary
The biggest drawback with this episode is that it wasn’t its own proper episode. It was dedicated to wrapping up loose ends and set up the title fight of the card. The one actual battle in this episode wasn’t a cause for excitement. Tamaki has been the problem child of the group. It just doesn’t know what it wants to do with her. Is she going to be the damsel in distress or live up to the potential of being a hero like the rest of the Fire Force? She takes two steps back and one forward. She does her best to protect Juggernaut but a part of her is wishing someone would come to save them. It wouldn’t be a Tamaki segment if her Lucky Lecher ability didn’t activate putting Licht in a sticky situation.
Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
