Fire Force season 3 episode 1 review: Is David Production's slow start enough for the final season?

Arguably the most highly anticipated sequel series of the spring 2025 anime season, all eyes were on Fire Force season 3 episode 1 to see how it would begin the story’s homestretch. Officially released on Saturday, April 5, 2025 in Japan, the installment certainly didn’t take the direction fans expected it to.

While this may portray the episode as being wholly negative, there’s still plenty to be excited about by the end of Fire Force season 3 episode 1. However, the question nevertheless remains: is this slow start from animation studio David Production enough to get the final season rolling?

Fire Force season 3 episode 1 review: Animation quality/consistency, stylistic choices, and more are the major positives

Shinra and co's training sequence in Fire Force season 3 episode 1 reaffirms David Production's incredible animation quality (Image via ©Atsushi Ohkubo, KODANSHA/ "FIRE FORCE Season 3" Production Committee)

One of the biggest strengths of Fire Force season 3 episode 1 is David Production’’s typical high quality, consistent approach to animation. The episode oozes production value in every detail-rich, flawless frame. Brief implementations of CGI are also incredibly well done, both inherently and as a preferable alternative to static 2D animation shots. While some shortcuts are taken such as lingering on a single frame, this isn’t enough to weigh down the animation overall.

The first episode also has some sneaky moments of sakuga, particularly during Shinra Kusakabe, Arthur Boyle, Maki Oze, and Tamaki Kotatsu’s training scene. The episode’s opening shot of the Adolla world offers eyecandy similarly, particularly as the camera pulls away from the smiling moon reminiscent of that in Soul Eater. This scene leading into the aforementioned training sequence gives a good rush of energy and sets fans’ expectation for animation quality.

Unfortunately, there’s not much action to be had otherwise in the final season’s premiere, which quickly turns to a narrative focus after this exciting opening sequence. However, it’s worth mentioning once again that the remainder of the episode still impresses on its consistency of quality in each and every frame. While there are some corners cut, none of them come off so jarring as to interrupt viewers’ focus and attention on the suspenseful events within.

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Likewise, Fire Force season 3 episode 1 also deserves specific commendation for how suspenseful it is. While fans knew what the endpoint would be thanks to the season’s main trailers, the premiere does a good job of keeping fans on edge en route to that destination. The focus on Leonard Burns and Haumea’s mindreading of him particularly achieves this, helping to add a sense of dread to these events for viewers as well.

The final major highlight of Fire Force season 3 episode 1 is its stylistic choices, with the aforementioned scene focusing on Haumea and Burns being especially representative of this. The addition of text on screen as Haumea uses her Talking Head helps to further illustrate Burns’ racing mind. This approach likewise helps immerse viewers as they juggle reading dialogue subtitles, this additional text, and absorbing the actual animation itself.

This immersion further intensifies the aforementioned suspense which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, especially as Burns and his squad begin to agree with Haumea. It’s an exceptional stylistic choice which pays off in spades, especially considering how predictable the episode’s progression was thanks to the final season’s trailers.

Fire Force season 3 episode 1 review: A lack of surprises and emphasis on recap are the major negatives

Fire Force season 3 episode 1 begins to falter in how predictable its twists were thanks to promotional material (Image via ©Atsushi Ohkubo, KODANSHA/ "FIRE FORCE Season 3" Production Committee)

That being said, the predictability of Fire Force season 3 episode 1’s narrative is one of its biggest flaws. More specifically, it’s flawed in that fans gained almost nothing new from watching the premiere that otherwise wouldn’t have been revealed in trailers. The lone exception to this is the plan to implant Oki with an insect. Otherwise, virtually every major plot point from the premiere were all focal points for previously released promotional material.

In this way, the premiere is incredibly lacking narratively even if some stylistic choices heighten suspense enough to make for an exciting journey. More discretion in promotional material would’ve heightened the episode’s quality significantly, saving fans’ discovery of these twists and turns for the premiere itself. Instead, fans are left with a mostly predictable cliffhanger in an episode which spends significant time fluffing for runtime with recaps and more.

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This fluffing approach is also a major flaw of Fire Force season 3 episode 1, which spends roughly four of its first six-and-a-half minutes on plot recap and character reintroduction. This combines with the ending focus of each individual member of the Eighth declaring their intent to rescue Obi for over a third of the episode spent on fluff scenes. It kills the episode’s pacing likewise, which is further intensified by the aforementioned criticisms regarding plot and more.

Interspersed throughout the rest of the episode are quicker recap scenes, which certainly aren’t as jarring given their brevity but are still upsetting to see. It makes the episode feel like less of a premiere to the third season, and more of a recap package for both the second season’s events, and what fans were already told in promotional material. In this way, the premiere is somewhat of a narrative failure despite setting up the second episode to dive into coming events.

Fire Force season 3 episode 1 review: Final thoughts

Fire Force season 3 episode 1 certainly gets the final season rolling, but fails to feel like a true premiere (Image via ©Atsushi Ohkubo, KODANSHA/ "FIRE FORCE Season 3" Production Committee)

While this slow and unsurprising start in Fire Force season 3 episode 1 is enough to get the ball rolling on the final season, it’s undoubtedly David Production at its worst for the series. What should be celebratory for diehard fans of the series is instead marred by a sense of incompletion and mistake. Had the production of promotional material been more shrewdly directed, this episode as is otherwise would certainly have received a more positive judgment overall.

Although the episode has major narrative flaws, it drives home that fans have nothing to worry about for David Production’s animation quality and typical stylistic flair for the series. Shinra and co’s training sequence, as well as Haumea’s use of Talking Head on Burns, reaffirm fans that there's nothing to worry about productionally. Likewise, with all of the setup now out of the way, fans can expect the second episode to truly feel like the right start for the story’s final season.