Enen no Shouboutai / First Impressions

「地下への」 (Nezā he no)
“Into the Nether”

This episode almost had it all. A full Fire Force Squad ready to charge, a flashback of adorable Sho and Shinra, introducing new world rules, and most importantly bringing the ladies to the front of the pack. It would have all been perfect if not for Tamaki’s undoing, yet again.

She might not have been the damsel in distress but unfortunately, it wasn’t her kinetic ability that brought down Assault. It was a combination of prayers and dumb luck. I really wish the fight had picked up in a different direction. Even Iris’s metal pipe to the head did more than her abilities. Am I alone in thinking Tamaki hasn’t been given the fairest of roles in this series just yet? She did step up to the plate and she’s actually quite proud of herself, but I can’t help feel like she’s continuously given the short end of the stick.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me turn my attention to Maki! Yes, girl! That’s the kind of power we need more of in anime series. She has raw physical strength already and cute sputter balls, what else could she ask for? Vulcan’s idea to weaponize her sputters came at just the opportune time. I think even without her Tekkyo, she would have succeeded in taking down the cavalry, but with them, she did it much quicker. A true homage to Vulcan’s work as he knows exactly what would compliment her already stupendous assets. Can I just point out how much more of Maki we need in this series? She’s not used enough. If we could have a spin-off with Maki and Arthur, that’d be great.

It looks like we’re in for another long arc, perhaps the last action one before the season concludes. Shinra and his teammates are deep into the hornet’s nest and there’s no going backwards now. The whole team is split apart and they’ll have to figure out a way to get back together. They’ll have to! It’s not often we’ve seen the whole Fire Force 8 Brigade go out on a mission and it’ll be such an entertaining treat for the eyes and ears to watch them combine attacks and abilities.

There’s no way I’m missing that!

9 Comments

  1. It seemed like they put that Assault guy to rest to the point they had to censor it. Ah whatever. I’m glad they quickly turned this hopeless situation around really quick and didn’t make us wait like they usually do.

    sealouse
    Reply

  2. Totally agree that everything about this episode was great minus the Tamaki part. I was really hoping she would step up and she did with the speed, agility and ability to absorb the attacks which gave them a head in (pun possibly intended) for Iris to get a swing but the whole goof bit took me out of it. They are doing her a great injustice here.

    Was quite surprised how the fog illusion was able to quickly split them. Only the Captain realized what was going on. Plot device eh.

    Maki is now my favorite character…I didn’t have one before….but she is a solid right now! Wow. I love her comment about the guy messing up her students/rookies.

    Kurik
    Reply

    2. I think it’s important to remember that Tamaki is a comic relief character in much the same way many of the characters in the show are – she’s got a foible and that foible will always play directly into how she performs. For example, Maki getting supercharged because she hates when people don’t see her as a woman or Arthur being only as powerful as his self image as a knight is. In Tamaki’s case, she’s a klutz who can’t keep her clothes on. You can argue about whether or not that last bit is appropriate, but I can’t say they’re mistreating her. They’re playing right into the character as designed.

      For me, where they missed here was in not introducing Assault earlier in the series to better set the joke up. I think the punchline – that Assault’s only weakness was that he’s clearly never seen a naked girl before – would’ve hit harder if they’d established him as a force of nature using other characters earlier in the series.

      dave_k
      Reply

  3. Wow… so much happened in that episode, and the execution of the combat was so well done that I almost completely forgot about Shinra’s um… ‘special’ dream…

    defunkt_bots
    Reply

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