Fire Soul

Fire Soul is the opening offensive move Sailor Mars gains in the 1990s television series, a technique built wholly around fire. Beyond the anime it appears in a number of the franchise's games and in the Sera Myu musicals. Its Japanese name is rendered Faiyaa Souru.

The attack draws on the deep bond between the guardian and flame. The character hi denotes fire and forms the root of her elemental gifts, while her given name Rei, meaning soul or spirit, is set in katakana to underline an exotic quality; read together the name resolves as soul of fire. The planet Mars has carried a fiery association since antiquity thanks to its vivid red hue.

Fire itself holds layered meaning across the story. It stands for cleansing and rebirth, a channel for wisdom echoed in figures such as Moses and his burning bush, yet it equally suggests ruin, chaos, and war, binding the guardian to the war deity that lends the planet its name.

To launch the move, Mars presses her palms together and extends both index fingers outward in the opening kuji-in hand sign. A ball of flame gathers at her fingertips, and she sends it hurtling toward her foe, wrapping the target in fire to wound or destroy it.

She often pairs the strike with a teammate's power. It has merged with Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action on more than one occasion, joined both that move and Sailor Mercury's Shabon Spray in a separate clash, combined with Sailor Jupiter's Supreme Thunder, and united with Sailor Venus's Crescent Beam.

Its punch eventually proved limited. When Koan smothered the flames with her own Dark Fire, Mars was pushed to awaken a stronger successor, Burning Mandala, which took the technique's place; in the anime the earlier upgrade Fire Soul Bird also grew out of it.

Sailor Mars is the principal wielder, with the villain Castor also shown calling on it. The attack debuted in the tenth episode, where a newly transformed Mars used it to destroy Kigaan, a Youma that Jadeite had dispatched to snatch girls boarding the six o'clock bus near Hikawa Shrine. Among its final showings, she deployed it as a distraction against Cyprine and Ptilol. A lighter moment even had Rei blurt the attack's name and breathe fire after Usagi doused her meal in spicy sauce, a gag rather than a true casting.

In gaming the technique recurs across many titles, among them the Super Famicom original, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, the 3DO S release, and Sailor Moon: Another Story. On stage it featured in the musical subtitled Overture of Last Dracul.

The DiC English dub was notoriously erratic with the name. Most episodes settled on Mars Fire Ignite, but one-off variants piled up, including Mars Fireballs Charge, Mars Firestorm Flash, Mars Fireball Flash, Fire Ignite, Mars Fireballs Flash, Mega Mars Fire, Mega Mars Fire Flash, and Mars Fire Flash.