The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Fire Force Season 3

Terror has paralyzed the clockwork metropolis of Tokyo! Possessed by demons, people have begun to burst into flame, leading to establishing a special firefighting team: the Fire Force, ready to roll on a moment's notice to fight spontaneous combustion anywhere it might break out. The team is about to get a very unique addition: Shinra, a boy who possesses the unique power to run at the speed of a rocket, leaving behind the famous "devil's footprints" (and destroying his shoes in the process). Can the Fire Force discover the source of this strange phenomenon and put a stop to it? Or will the city burn to ashes first?

Fire Force Season 3 is based on the Fire Force manga by Atsushi Ohkubo. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

After a couple of years' absence, Fire Force has returned for its third and presumably last season. I had something of an intense love-hate relationship with a lot of the first two seasons—as I really liked a lot of the worldbuilding and character concepts that Atsushi Ōkubo brought to the table with the series, but also had a lot of that enjoyment brought down by the tonal whiplash when it comes to comedy and (especially) fanservice. Thankfully, I don't have any complaints about the latter two to lob against this premiere, as the tone here is (mostly) dramatic. Now that Company 8 has formed alliances with other Fire Force units and Yajima Industries, they have a unified front in their battle against the White Clads and the Evangelist. However, that battle ends up getting more complicated when it turns out that the White Clad has managed to infiltrate the Holy Sol Church under the guise of being the true apostles of the church's god, Sol, and claim that their mission to incinerate the planet is Sol's will. This is enough to win over the head of the church and also allows the White Clad to get Captain Burns to side with them, as they use his devoutness to Sol to convince him to turn on the other Fire Force captains. To make matters worse, Captain Obi ends up being arrested by the military, and in taking the risk to save him, the members of Company 8 could end up staring down the wrath of the entire Tokyo Empire.

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite aspect of Fire Force by far is its world, and it's really nice to see how much this premiere is taking advantage of that. The series has greatly emphasized the Holy Sol Temple and its worship of the sun. Upon discovering that the true goals of its god are a lot more destructive than its followers believed, it's not shocking to see the White Clad take advantage of that in trying to use the church to further their goals. However, it does make for a great hook, and I'm interested in seeing how this battle against the church plays out for Shinra and the others. That said, I also thought it was interesting that, for as much as the White Clads are trying to make their takeover of the church seem legitimate, they are also doing a lot of improvising and it was kind of funny that Halmea only really wins Burns over by reading enough of his thoughts to fake her way into appealing to his faith. Between that and how unhinged half its members are, I wonder just how long the White Clad members can keep up the facade. I'm curious to see how long it takes for all this to backfire on them. I'm also happy to see that the show's art direction is still pretty strong, as its presentation level has been another of its strongest features. It's good to see that the wait between seasons hasn't negatively affected the production. Given how abruptly the series can switch in tone, I don't know how well it'll manage to take advantage of what it's set up here—or how long it'll take before the show's worst habits emerge—but as far as this opener goes, this was probably about as good a return for the series as I could have asked for. I just hope it'll be able to keep that momentum going for a while.

Starting exactly where last season ended is a bold move for the final season of Fire Force, with an utterly contextless image of a grinning man-in-the-moon that I know is supposed to be a Soul Eater reference. Unfortunately, I've never read the manga or watched its anime adaptation, so I've no idea what it means for this show—nor do I understand the relevance of the creepy monsters shouting “WOOO!” in the foreground. Not that it matters, because it's never referenced again after we're treated to an entire six minutes of recap—which is honestly welcome, because it's been over four whole years since season two concluded. That's enough time for even flamingly fanatical Fire Force fans to forget multiple important details.

This episode exists, then, mainly to reintroduce us to the post-Great Cataclysm society of the Tokyo Empire and the people who live there. With his fiery feet power, pointy-toothed protagonist Shinra spars against intellectually-challenged “Knight King” Arthur and his plasma-fueled sword.

Meanwhile, fire-feline-powered Tamaki still can't survive an entire scene without somehow being stripped of clothing. She's a really cute, fun character, but her vulnerability is constantly abused by the author's infatuation with humiliating her. It's the one thing that puts me off the otherwise consistently entertaining and exciting Fire Force, and it's aggravating to see that one major flaw still placed so front and center.

We check in on a bunch of other colorful side characters, too, such as mechanic Vulcan, non-powered nun Iris, and creepy, wide-eyed Viktor. It's good to see them all again after such a long break. It's not all character re-introductions, though, as the show begins to lay the foundations of a disturbing new status quo. The Church of Sol, the main religious and political authority in the city, aligns itself with its previous antagonists, the cult-like White Clad. Surely that can't be good for Shinra and pals, considering their dastardly plans for poor Captain Obi…

As a shorter-than-usual episode (considering the aforementioned recap, plus the OP playing as an ED… and then the normal ED playing straight afterward, oddly), there isn't too much of Fire Force's signature bonkers action. But with a sinister plot already bubbling away in the background, it surely won't take long before Special Fire Force Company 8 is back in the eye of the firestorm. I'll be watching this one until the end.

It's an old cliche to say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” but I can't think of a better way to describe my feelings about the return of Fire Force. Back when I covered Season 2 of the show for ANN, I was still in my 20s, and the year 2020 couldn't seem more like a completely different universe than whatever the insane nonsense world of 2025 is turning out to be. So, maybe it's because I've grown soft and nostalgic lately, or maybe it's getting a lot easier for me to take the show's flaws in stride. Either way, I've been vocally clamoring for the return of this wonderfully stupid anime for a good while, and I couldn't be happier to report that it's just as fun and entertaining as I'd hoped it would be.

It needs to be said for anyone that has been chomping at the bit like I have been that this first episode of the season is a glorified clip show meant to get us reintroduced to the cast and caught up on all of the conflicts and twists that went down in Season 2. To the show's credit, it puts as much spitshine on that clip show structure as it can. Studio David is in top form here: The light-hearted training scenes with 08th Company are as lively and bright as ever, and we even get some moody, creative direction when we switch gears over to Captain Burns' defection to the White-Clad. I dug the superimposed kanji representing Haumea's mind-reading ability.

All of this is to say that, while there are major plot developments happening in this premiere, and it's certainly a treat to look at most of the time, the best moments are forced to exist in the spaces between flashbacks, recap narration, and a whole lot of freeze-framed character profile shots. Granted, I've reviewed every single episode of Fire Force for this site since it premiered in 2019, and even I have forgotten everything that happened up until this point, save for the broadest strokes. It makes sense that the show would be willing to hold off on firing all of its cylinders to get some necessary pre-launch preparations out of the way, even if it doesn't make for the most riveting half-hour of television ever.

Besides, the premiere accomplished its most important job: to get me back on the hype train and excited to watch even more Fire Force. Besides, there are still details about the White-Clad, Shinra's Adolla Link, and all of the other lore bits that this recap doesn't have time to fully dig into; I am tempted to go back and rewatch more of Season 2 before the show properly kicks back into gear. That might not sound like much of a compliment, but in my line of work, any show that can get you to go back and watch older episodes that you've already seen—and in the middle of a brand new Preview Guide, no less—has to be doing something right.