WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Fire Force, Episode 24, "Signs of Upheaval," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Fans of Fire Force and series creator Atsushi Ōkubo's previous work, Soul Eater, may have noticed the lunar Easter egg at the end of the Season 2 finale. As Haumea sits in a strange chamber, she claims visions of seeing the world under a new sun with the Tokyo Empire soon becoming what it should be.
The episode's final image -- apart from a message saying, "See you later" is of a full moon that glitches into the frightening, grinning moon seen throughout Soul Eater. While this has led to some fans wondering if it's a hint that the two worlds could exist in the same universe, let's take a look at the iconic moon and what connections actually exist between Fire Force and Soul Eater.
Previous Soul Eater Easter Eggs In Fire Force
The Soul Eater manga initially began as three separate one-shots before becoming serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2004-13, with a 51-episode anime adaptation from the Japanese animation studio Bones airing between 2008-9. The series mainly follows Maka Albarn and Soul Evans, a young meister and demon weapon duo enrolled at Death Weapon Meister Academy. As a meister, Maka partners with Soul, who can transform into a weapon that she then wields.
Among the various recognizable characters from the series, like Death the Kid and Black Star, two of them make a small appearance as masks in the first episode of Fire Force's second season -- Death and Excalibur. Excalibur's Arthurian legend's influence appears in both series, with Company 8's own Arthur brandishing a plasma blade of the same name.
Soul Eater's Grinning Moon In Fire Force
Soul Eater's signature grinning moon is a spooky nod to the series and the most recent Easter egg within Fire Force, but could there be some more profound significance? It appears as the White-Clad's Haumea experiences what she believes is a prophetic vision, in which the Evangelist's "new sun" will lead the Tokyo Empire to "become as it should be." As we've seen throughout this season, with the Adolla realm and spatial rifts, the world's boundaries continue to grow.
While some fans view this as the potential for a shared universe -- with Soul Eater's moon possibly existing in Adolla or one of the series preceding the other -- it could still merely be a fun reference to Ōkubo's previous work. However, if the Evangelist truly comes from a different realm, then who is to say the Ōkubo-verse can't become a reality? Not much is known about Adolla or the Evangelist's past, and as Shinra continues to dive deeper into those mysteries, further connections could link the two worlds.
The Significance of the Sun & Moon In Fire Force & Soul Eater
In both Fire Force and Soul Eater, the sun and moon are symbolic and prevalent, almost serving as omnipresent characters through their presence alone. For the former, the sun is worshipped by the Holy Sol Temple and revered as a source of strength for pyrokinetics. In Soul Eater, the sun and moon have distinct faces -- sometimes conveying emotions -- and represent the good and evil in that world. In fact, the moon becomes a base of operations for one of the series antagonists.
Whether the Evangelist's Adolla realm shares Soul Eater's moon or not, there's no doubt that fans will continue to speculate its significance as the mysteries of Fire Force continue to unravel.
