The Fire Hunter – Season 1 Episode 8 “Garden of the Gods” Recap & Review

Garden of the Gods

Episode 8 of The Fire Hunter begins with Koushi and Touko discussing a factory district called the “Garden of the Gods.” Koushi explains that he threw bottled lightning at the spy. He confirms the spy was a piece of paper controlled by the gods.

Koushi and Touko arrive at a large tree and discover a lone tree folk hiding underneath its stem. Touko asks the tree folk for medicine. The tree folk flees, encouraging Touko and Koushi to follow it. As they follow the tree folk, Touko tells Koushi everything that transpired before she arrived at the capital. The discussion spirals into chatter about Tayurahime, the Lady Goddess who shares poems that act as prayers to the world. Koushi confirms Tayurahime’s life allows the divine clans to rule with their powers. He brings up Tayurahime’s sister Tokohanahima, the first fire hunter.

Koushi confirms Tokohanahime used a natural flame to forge a sickle while her body burned. Her final words before vanishing were, “With the fire of the Millenial Comet, we need no longer fear the dark forest. And whoever catches it shall become known as the lord of the fire hunters. This lord shall harvest the Flickering Flame.” Koushi and Touko encounter a group of tree folk who tell them only the tree folk of the forest (Sucesses) know how to craft medicine. Koushi asks them if the divine gods told them anything about the upcoming war. The tree folk says the gods don’t share information about matters that concern the capital.

A female tree folk (Kiri) confirms they’re all failed experiments exiled to this forbidden quarter. The female tree folk yells at Shuyu (the toddler tree folk who led Koushi and Touko to them) to never bring humans here again. She sicks a white sabretooth bear-like flame fiend (En) on them, but Touko provokes them by revealing her sickle. Yanagi, an elder tree folk, arrives and stops En from hurting Koushi and Touko. She explains that Kiri and Shuyu could survive in the forest. Yanagi confirms that when the world perished, the gods attempted to entrust fire to the surviving beasts.

Wild animals used to give humans fire, but humans and gods became combustible and lost the use of fire. To remove the abominable flame, the gods returned it to the beasts. Therefore, Yanagi confirms the gods created the flame fiends from the forest. They’re monsters who adapted to the dark forest and have a fire within themselves. However, she’s certain the gods didn’t expect the flame fiends to turn out how they did. Koushi asks Yanagi about Tokohanahime’s creation of the fire sickles. Yanagi says Tokohanahime forged her sickle to keep the human race alive. After the humans lost so much, Yanagi believes this lit a fire in the Lady Goddess’s heart.

Yanagi argues to slay their enemies and cull the excess populations–they used pathogens to create bodies that would ignite in the presence of fire. If they had gotten their way, unnecessary humans would have vanished, leaving only the worth living on this planet. Koushi and Touko arrive outside the tree, and he confirms he knows a good doctor that could treat Shouzou’s wounds and provide her medicine. A spy attacks Koushi and Touko, but Akira and Temari arrive and slay the spy. However, more spies–alongside a person claiming to be the Lady Goddess arrive.

The spies and Lady Goddess flee. Touko, Akira, and Koushi arrive at Mr. Okibi’s mansion. Touko wants to give Koushi Haijuu’s sickle, but he tells her to hold it for him. He gives Touko some bottled lightning canisters and takes Kanata with him. As Kanata walks away with Koushi, Touko cries. Touko and Akira arrive at Shouzou’s family’s shelter. Kun and Kaho rush out to greet them. They hear Shouzou screaming in pain and check on him. Meanwhile, Hinako hugs Kanata with tears in her eyes. One of the elder tree folks says the Tokohanahime will appear soon to prevent the Flickering Flame from lashing out. The episode concludes with a strange satellite swirling around the planet as the elder tree folk says they’ll experience the Flickering Flame’s wrath soon.

The Episode Review

The Fire Hunter reverted to its dialogue-heavy focus yet again this week. It’s a shame since it would benefit the show to spread out the information instead of dropping it all at once in specific chapters. Nonetheless, the intel we receive this week is intriguing and will certainly make our characters ponder about the world they live in and the gods that rule over it.

The animation and character designs looked spiffy in this episode. Many folks will adore Touko’s reactions to this chapter’s dread-centric moments the most, especially her farewell sequence with Kanata and Koushi. While it was her goal to return Kanata to her family, it’s tough to see someone like Touko in a sorrowful state, considering the time she spent with Kanata.

On that note, I don’t believe Touko’s storyline is over yet. With Haijuu’s sickle and Koushi’s bottled lightning concoctions in her possession, I can see Touko wanting to become a fire hunter. The discussion between her and Koushi about Tokohanahime alludes to the fact. Furthermore, it would be great to see her train under Akira since there’s still room to explore her character.

Overall, this was a fine episode of The Fire Hunter. It gives fans more insight into the gods’ train of thought and delivers a decent farewell between close companions. I’m interested to see where the story takes off from here.