REVIEW: ‘Fire Force’ Season 3 Episode 12 — “The Madness of the Distant Past”

As the battle with the monstrous kaiju near Tokyo wraps up in Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12, “The Madness of the Distant Past,” the stage is set for the grander struggle as Shinra (Gakuto Kajiwara, The First Slam Dunk) is sent on an unexpected journey thanks to the unlikely intervention of Inca (Miyuri Shimabukuro, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury).

As the battle with the Kaiju draws to a close, this episode opens with a new confrontation. Sho (Maaya Sakamoto, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth), backed up by Arrow, attacks Fairie (Yûko Sanpei, Summer Time Rendering) in an attempt to snatch Shinra from his fellow white clad. This clash brings a unique moment of aerial combat to the story. 

Despite Fairie’s power stretching the fire theme a bit, Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 uses the characters’ abilities in creative ways, allowing for a memorable clash. Seeing Sho jump across arrows to reach the gravity-manipulating foe is a clever setup that works well. 

The closing moments of the kaiju battle play out alongside this personal clash. Yuichiro puts the final touches on the foe, delivering spectacle and flair as he relishes defeating his now weak opponent. The mix of both fights in the early portion of the episode allows it to bring personal and epic moments to the action, creating a well-balanced opening. 

Starting the episode with high-impact action gets things rolling.

With the kaiju slain, it dissolves into the water, leaving a pool of black where it once stood. This discolored water slowly pools around the recently emerged pillar until it is absorbed by it, changing the structure’s color to match its own. This moment seems to trigger something in Sister Iris (Mao Ichimichi, The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today), who is watching along with the rest of Station 8 from their hideout. 

This reaction continues to build upon the growing suspicions that Iris has a significant role to play in the upcoming conflict. It uses her growing fear to segue to the White Clad headquarters, where we learn about the origins of the Holy Sol Temple and Amaterasu. 

The information provided during Fire Force Season 3, Episode 12‘s flashback sequence fills in what feels like the final gaps in the show’s lore. The truth behind Raffles and the founding of the church brings everything together cleanly and sensibly. Its timing here hints at a possible connection between Iris and Amaterasu, though if there is one, it is left unspoken for now. 

The closing stretch of Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 returns to the battlefield, where the unconscious Shinra is joined by Inca via an adolla link. The unstable woman informs Shinra that he is going to travel into the past by surpassing the speed of light. She also tells him that he will take her with him and that the two will fall in love. 

The flashbacks fill in the gaps missing from the series’ lore, but open up new possibilities. 

This moment provides some complicated elements that make it difficult to gauge. Inca’s powers only let her see things that are set in stone; she states this, so her seeing their upcoming journey implies it is a foregone conclusion. But the only reason Shinra goes on the journey moments later is because she tells him to, meaning her powers not only observed but created the future. Insert time manipulation paradox here.

Now, it could be that this journey wasn’t set in stone and that Inca is tricking Shinra for some reason. That makes more sense, though why she wants to travel to the past with him is unknown, if that is what’s happening. Her personality has always been fairly unpredictable, so it wouldn’t be a stretch for a show that takes the kind of logical leaps that Fire Force does to come up with some reason why she’d want to go back to the past. 

Whatever the ultimate reasons for the trip, Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 does a tremendous job of depicting the pair as they exceed the speed of light and travel into the past. The imagery is trippy and fantastically executed, making the sequence an easy standout for the season thus far. 

The show remains vague about what Shinra exactly learns, though. What he sees surprises him, driving him to the point of near insanity, but what triggers this response is unclear. Much of the pre-cataclysm world is presented through live-action stills, creating some interesting possibilities.

A great question lingers as Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 wraps.

This leaves the lingering question of whether Shinra is being driven mad by how different the society he sees is functionally, or is his madness being created by a fundamental change in how the world looks. This implies that the world he lives in was a live-action one until the Great Cataclysm turned it into an animated one. The former seems more likely, but the latter poses an interesting concept to ponder. 

As Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 comes to a close, Shinra awakens from his journey into the past back in present-day Tokyo. A news report states that it has been five months since the first pillar erupted from the sea. Furthermore, Shinra is strapped to a bed and possibly missing his feet. This moment leaves the narrative at a startling place as the season’s first cour closes. 

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 delivers a lot and serves as a great stopping point for the mid-season break. Even with a couple of peculiar choices made concerning the powers of some of the characters, the action, lore, and an intriguing setup are sure to keep fans’ interest engaged until the series returns next January. And there’s little more one can ask of a mid-season finale than that. 

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 12 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.

Previous Episode | Next Episode