Episode 5 gets seriously unserious with muscles stealing the spotlight in a life-or-death showdown.
Fire Force has always bounced between serious and unserious moments, and probably one of the most hilarious for this season so far was Episode 5. Titled Chance Meeting with an Arch-Enemy, the episode completely drops the tension by doing the utterly unexpected, only to whip back into an all-out serious battle by the end.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Picking up from Episode 4, the White Clad attempt to implant an insect into Captain Obi to turn him into an infernal. But instead of succumbing, Obi spends his time in prison doing nothing but training. Apparently, his solution to avoiding getting implanted is to flex so hard that the insect can’t even pierce his skin. While Joker and Shinra are off trying to defeat Captain Burns, the rest of Company 8 do their part by cheering Obi on to keep flexing and stay safe from the bugs.
But things escalate when a new White Clad opponent appears: Dragon. Company 8 quickly realise they’re no match for his overwhelming Draconic Pressure. Arthur steps up and tries to take him down, even unveiling new upgrades like his Plasma Cape. Unfortunately, despite his flashy new tricks, Arthur can’t subdue Dragon. Worse still, Excalibur breaks, and Arthur ends up badly injured.
Meanwhile, Princess Hibana quietly makes progress on one of the show’s bigger mysteries. While she hasn’t cracked it completely, she seems to be inching closer to the truth behind spontaneous human combustion. The episode ends with Shinra and Joker still locked in their battle against Burns, trying to buy enough time to save Obi from the insects waiting for his muscles to relax for even a second.
Macho, macho man!
Probably the most hilarious moment in the entire episode came when Captain Obi broke his chains and tore through his shirt to defend himself from the insect trying to burrow into him. It was undeniably fan-servicey, but in the kind of wholesome, absolutely ridiculous way that made everyone watching burst into laughter.
It got even more chaotic when the rest of Company 8 started hyping him up like he was on stage at a bodybuilding show, throwing out compliments about his muscles, his abs, and, somehow, Tamaki shouted “Oil King!” in the most unserious way possible, right in the middle of what should have been a terrifying predicament for Obi.
And honestly, who would’ve guessed that the ultimate insect repellent was to train until your muscles were so hard that nothing could pierce them? If the world of Fire Force had known this sooner, gym memberships would’ve snapped up long ago. What was brilliant about this portion was that it showed how the characters in the anime didn’t need to constantly aura farm to stay relevant or loved (yes, we were talking about you, Sung Jinwoo!).
Sometimes, pure comedy and absurdity could hit just as hard, if not harder than always looking cool, powerful, and unbothered. It was something many shonen anime tended to forget, but Fire Force got it: when to make fun of itself, and how to make it work. And it did so shamelessly and brilliantly.
To be fair, Akitaru Obi wasn’t the type of character people admired for his looks the way some others were, but when he was this shredded and this hilarious, and still somehow managed to be one of the show’s most inspiring figures, it made his character all the more memorable.
Arthur finally finds his dragon
As if Obi’s rock-hard abs weren’t already causing enough chaos, someone else ripped off their top to show off. Enter Dragon, a White Clad who looked like he had spent just as much time in the gym and somehow grew to be nearly as tall as the prison buildings while doing it.
But Dragon wasn’t just big muscles. He was an absolute unit who obliterated most of Company 8 with barely any effort. With Draconic Pressure alone, he blew away Hinawa, Maki, Tamaki and Vulcan. Arthur was the only one left standing.
Arthur stepped up and finally got to do what he had always dreamed of: show off. But more importantly, he started to show a level of power no one had ever seen from him before.
Because Arthur truly believed he was King Arthur, his powers seemed to scale with his delusions. The more he acted like a knight, the stronger he became. And during this fight, Arthur reached a new level entirely. Excalibur glowed and expanded. He charged at Dragon with everything he had, slashing relentlessly and landing clean hits, but Dragon barely flinched. Even when Excalibur connected directly, Dragon simply swatted him away like it was nothing.
Then something wild happened. Dragon revealed he could transform parts of his body into infernal-like forms at will. In response, Arthur pulled out something new as well. He used his Third Generation fire powers to create a cloak made of pure plasma. Up until now, he had only used plasma to form his sword, so this opened up a whole new world of possibilities. What else could he build? What else was Arthur really capable of?
He did manage to scratch Dragon slightly, but thanks to the hardened scales on Dragon’s body, it barely did any damage.
Arthur had so many cool moments in this fight, but all of them ultimately led nowhere. In fact, Excalibur broke and Arthur is left seriously injured before the episode ended. So then, what was the point of giving him all this power and hype only to see him fail? Maybe it was to humble him? Maybe it was just to build tension for what’s next? Either way, all this buildup is bound to go somewhere soon.
Dopplegangers
Elsewhere, some of the members of Company 1 uncovered that Rekka (the minor antagonist from Season 1) had been paying repeated visits to the same church where Princess Hibana from Company 5 and Iris from Company 8 grew up from.
Meanwhile, Princess Hibana, who is from Company 5 ,continued to piece things together from all her research. With all the things she has been discovering, she might be the only Fire Force captain to have actually ended up cracking the code.
While she hadn’t solved the mystery yet, she was the closest anyone had come. Her theory? The Infernals from Adolla were essentially acting like doppelgangers: killing real people and replacing them.
As she continued digging, Hibana linked the Infernals, the doppelgängers, and the church where she and Iris grew up. It was a quick moment in the episode, but a big one, and it hinted at some serious reveals coming soon.
Cliffhangers and questions for the next episode
Shinra, Joker, and Captain Burns had been mostly absent from the spotlight for a while now, so seeing them in some well-composed (okay, maybe not beautifully animated, but decently storyboarded) scenes toward the end of the episode suggested that we'll be getting more from them soon. Captain Burns, much like Dragon, was immovable right then, but that might finally be about to change.
With Arthur’s Excalibur now broken and him badly injured, the big question is: how was he going to beat Dragon now? And for Obi—how long can he keep flexing before the insects either give up or, more logically, decide to go for the softer White Clad standing nearby? Like, why waste time on solid muscle when they have a squishy target right there?
All of these questions, and hopefully more, were to be answered next episode.
If you want to check out reviews and discussions on the rest of the episodes for this title, you can check out our Fire Force Season 3 review collection.
