REVIEW: ‘Fire Force’ Season 3 Episode 24 — “Answer”

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24, “Answer,” sees Shinra (Gakuto Kajiwara, Romantic Killer) and Sho (Maaya Sakamoto, Arknights: Rise from Embers) reunited with their mother (Ayako Kawasami, Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel). With the family whole, it is revealed that they form something even greater than their shared love, as together they may yet create the power necessary to restore the world. 

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24 starts with an unexpected flashback. Jumping back to Shinra’s childhood, we find him enjoying a day with his mom and baby Sho. We see Shinra’s dedication to being a hero for his family play out, with laughable results as his enthusiasm gets the better of him. 

The sequence ends with the three observing a solar eclipse, which is used with artful visual design work to transport us to the present, where we see Shinra and Sho embracing their mom. Despite the artful transition, the touching moment is undercut by the jarring confusion of where the boys’ mom came from. While she is in doppleganger form, it is unknown how she survived Earth’s transformation; how she physically arrived here is also in question. 

Reconciliation and the joining of three trigger a surprise transformation in Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24.

The absence of any real explanation to this mystery sets the tone for Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24’s approach to everything that follows as Shinra struggles to restore the earth. Because with their mother with them, and her serving as both the Evangelist’s doppleganger and the avatar of hope (surprise!), she, Sho (the Angel), and Shinra (the Hero) can merge as the three pillars of hope, transforming Shinra and giving him the power to undo what Haumea’s (Rie Kugiyama, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX) despair has wrought. 

This revelation and the salvation it heralds are uplifting, but nonsensical. The way the philosophical clash between Shinra’s hope and Haumea’s despair can only land with any force is if you don’t ask any questions about how or why this sequence has come to pass. Fire Force is a wild, fantasy series that has always played a bit fast and loose with explanations, but this one feels like a leap too far during too important a moment. Like the writer made it up in lieu of a more sensible narrative vehicle that wouldn’t appear.

While the cause and reasoning behind Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24‘s central conflict are baffling, its visual presentation is fantastic. How the concepts of despair and hope are brought to life is as creative as they are visually captivating. Seeing Haumea’s tears transform as they stream down her face, and Shinra’s fiery heels restore the life of the world, greatly reduces the damage caused by the inexplicable twists that got the story here, as they command the viewer’s complete attention. 

The handling of a philosophical clash in this final confrontation is poorly finessed and rushed.

There is also an incredibly bold choice made in this final struggle for the world in Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24, one that feels so far from the core concepts of Fire Force‘s genre roots that it would never occur to most to consider it possible. There is no grand battle between Shinra and Haumea as they confront each other. A couple of attacks do happen as Haumea lashes out in rage at Shinra’s interference, but they feel more like tantrums than anything resembling a fight.

That a Shonen battle anime would deliver the final confrontation between hero and villain, complete with cool transformations, while omitting a true fight scene, feels bizarre. And yet, it is perhaps the most sensible choice the narrative makes. 

Focusing on this clash of ideologies rather than a full-scale fight doesn’t land.

By focusing on the meaning of the confrontation rather than the participants’ powers, Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24 strives to make its final clash more than an eye-popping fight. It strives to make it a clash of ideology. Of hope versus despair, instead of fist versus foot. Sadly, it doesn’t really land.

The problem with the philosophical clash here is that there is no real depth to the arguments or passion the participants bring. Hauemea screams incessantly about how hope is the cause of pain, and Shinra just disagrees. This lack of cohesive arguments leaves the moment feeling a bit narratively hollow, if visually stunning. 

As Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24 comes to a close, Shinra has restored the blue orb that is the earth, and all those lost over the course of the series are back, and joy rings through the episode’s final moments. While it manages to provide a definitive conclusion to its conflict, the lack of meaningful commentary and the presence of seemingly random plot twists leave the moment resting solely on its stellar visuals. 

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 24 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.

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