The Fire Hunter – Season 1 Episode 10 “Malformed Children” Recap & Review

Malformed Children

Episode 10 of The Fire Hunter begins with a doctor visiting the Okibi family mansion due to Koushi’s sister Hinako succumbing to a horrid fever. For some reason, Kanata growls at the doctor, so Kira holds him down so Koushi can take Hinako and the doctor to another room.

Kanata calms down in the other room, so Koushi heads out to learn more about Hinako’s condition. He overhears Kira and her mother’s conversation about sending Hinako to a hospital. Kira’s mother knows what’s happening to Hinako but won’t elaborate. Kira’s mother silences Kira with a vial of blood, and Koushi watches it all unfold.

Suddenly, Hinako jumps out of her room like a wild animal and attacks Kira’s mother. Hinako growls and flees the mansion, while Kanata rushes out of his room and pursues.

At Shouzou’s folk’s place, a lady reads a letter Touko left for Kaho to read. She says she’s left with Akira to deliver a written appeal to the gods. She leaves behind a warding stone her cousin gave to her before her trip. Kun vows to chase after them despite Kaho telling him to stay put.

Meanwhile, Akira and Touko traverse through cliffs and decrepit canals to reach the gods’ palace. They discuss the history surrounding the canals and an accident that occurred many years ago. Akira tells Touko that the system’s been reworked to avoid any fires breaking out.

Hibari greets Touko and Akira and knows that Akira plans to take out the star child (The Flickering Flame) for revenge. Akira tells Hibari that the Spiders will arrive at the capital soon and they plan to take out Hibari’s chief. She tells Hibari to stop meddling with her affairs and focus more on tightening the Lady Goddess’s security.

Hibari shows Touko and Akira a discussion held between the divine gods. The divine gods’ says Tayurahime at her breaking point and argue that it may be best to create a race of organisms who don’t need to rely on fire. They know the Spiders are coming soon, so they need to prepare a new vessel for the Flickering Flame to take control of.

Hibari confirms the gods want the Flickering Flame to be the new Lady Goddess after Taurahime’s time runs out. He senses great strength in the Flickering Flame and vows to protect her. Hibari summons his spirits to attack Akira, and they engage in combat while Touko watches. Akira has trouble fighting the spirits. She learns that fresh human blood causes them to turn back into paper. Kun arrives to offer a helping hand to his bug companions.

Akira asks Hibari why he isn’t at the star child’s side. She also questions why the gods can’t simply make a place for humans to live instead of relying on a single goddess for everything. Hibari snaps and sends Touko, Akira, and Kun flying in different directions. Touko gets sent into the river, but Hinako saves her. She tells Touko that she has to flee somewhere, otherwise, many people will die. Hinako thanks Touko for bringing Kanata to her and flees.

Later, Koushi visits Yuoshichi (Kira’s dad), and Yuoshichi says he has sent people to look for Hinako. Koushi asks Yuoshichi why his wife was carrying asafuyou, an illegal product. He says his wife uses it to quell her nervous breakdowns. Koushi heads to his room to pick up some more bottled lightning samples.

Before he departs, Roroku confronts him. He asks Koushi about Yuoshichi since he wants to inform him that flame fiends have entered the factory district. At the same time, a baboon flame fiend arrives with the same tree folk boy who led Touko and Koushi to their hideout episodes ago.

The boy’s been killed, causing Touko to slaughter the baboon fiend out of rage. The narrator recounts that the Flickering Flame is about to arrive on Earth and questions whose side it will be on. Meanwhile, Kira’s stuck in bed and worries about her mother and the season concludes with a clip of what’s to come, with Touko  meeting The Flickering Flame in space soon.

The Episode Review

This episode had a lot of intense drama and sets up the dangers that are about to take place in the capital soon. It’s great that we received confirmation that another season will be happening. This will give the staff more time to polish the series up for a stronger second season. This episode suffered a little though from lackluster animation, strange character design choices, and lengthy dialogue segments.

Nonetheless, The Fire Hunter’s protagonists and world-building continue to hold viewers’ interest. It seems the gods are hesitant to trust humans and want the Flickering Flame to resolve everything. This gives us insight into how the gods function and act when in the unseen world. It shows viewers how the divine gods heavily rely on Tayurahime to call the shots. The whole scenario involving Hinako’s change in personality and ability may have fascinated folks.

She’s always appeared adorable and normal up to this point, so to see her display superhuman-like feats and a serious demeanor is a dramatic change of pace. It’s possible that she was secretly experimented on while Koushi was away working on the bottled lightning.

In other cases, she could serve as a hint toward what the gods were referring to concerning the new race of people who wouldn’t be dependent on fire. She could also be turning into a tree folk. Either way, it’ll be intriguing to see where the story goes with her character.

As I stated in last week’s review, there’s a good chance Touko will become the next Lord of the Fire Hunters instead of Akari. Although she hasn’t received proper training, this episode shows that she’s capable of slaying large flame fiends when pushed to her breaking point. It was great seeing her going one on one with a beast, even if the animation looked like a PowerPoint presentation! Overall, this was a nice episode to hold us off for season two, and I’m looking forward to seeing where things go.