Fire Force Season 3

Episode 7

With the arrival of Moonlight Mask (aka “Obviously Benimaru in a Goofy Superhero Getup”), Captain Obi's rescue has finally been secured, and Company 8 can make their safe retreat from the White Clad's clutches. As such, “Sleeping Truth” is another transition episode of sorts that allows us to take stock of everything that is going on in the larger plot of Fire Force while also sowing the seeds for new revelations and developments.

Understandably, the biggest part of the recent fallout that Company 8 has to deal with is the “death” of Captain Burns. While we all know that Burns' defeat was complicated by the sudden arrival of the strange infernal that whisked his body away to who knows where, the rest of the Empire is mourning the loss of the man that died as a stalwart defender of the Church. The crime, of course, has caused Shinra and the Rest of Company 8 to be cemented as deranged rebels and enemies of the state, which isn't a great place to be when you're battling it out with an army of cultish freaks over the very soul of your nation. It makes for pretty compelling television, though, so I suppose we can't complain too much from here on the other side of the screen.

More tantalizing, though, is Hibana's trip back to the ruins of St. Raffle's Convent. Her season-long mission to research the nature of the “doppelgangers” at the heart of the White Clad's conspiracy has been a slow burn up until now - pun very much intended - but we're finally making headway in the wake of the brief but oh-so-compelling glimpse of Iris awakening as a Pillar last week. The sequence is introduced with one of those style shifts into a storybook kind of aesthetic that I always love to see an anime indulge in, even if it only last a minute or two. Given the action-heavy focus of the last few weeks, Fire Force benefits from the simple but effective change of pace that a little investigation side-story like this offers; plus, it allows the lingering threads left over from Burns' death to dovetail into this attempt at larger world-building, giving the entire episode a much needed sense of cohesion.

What's more, I just really dig the horror-tinged atmosphere of Hibana's descent into the depths of the convent ruins. The reveal that the Sisters may have all been used as walking incubators for the Infernal Insects is a suitably gross and disturbing reveal for this stage of the story, and it allows the episode to end on the surprisingly chilling reveal of Sister Sumire lurking in the shadows. If Fire Force is successfully presenting one of the most casual and inconspicuous characters in the whole show as a genuinely creepy threat to be reckoned with, then it must be doing something right.

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Fire Force is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.