Alone once again, Diesel's only hope of finding the next victims requires her to confront the akuma of her past. Meanwhile, Joe, attempting to escape the flawed world of Neo Otaku City, finds himself trapped in an online game of life or death. Will our heroes be able to come to terms with their pasts in time to save the present?
"Silence of the Fireflies" provides examples of:
- Big Bad Wannabe: The old Chief plays himself off as a Hannibal Lecter-esq mastermind who can barter his way into getting anime in exchange for info integral to saving the victims. Unfortunately, he accidentally gives away the wrong clue and Diesel figures it out before he could get what he wanted.
- Brick Joke: When Joe wonders if he'll survive Solitaire Art Online, he feels amiss that he would not be able to burn his vintage Hentai collection before the paramedics arrive. When Diesel saves him, she remarks that he would want someone to burn his vintage Hentai collection for him if he ever died.
- Cat Girl: One of Neo Otaku City's news anchor-woman is a cosplayer made to look like one.
- Coincidental Broadcast: When Joe turns on the TV, all it is is news about the case and how bad at his job he is.
- Hentai: Plastered on the walls of one of the prison-inmates is a collect of images that have been censored, all of it presumably this.
- Kick the Dog: Played for Laughs. At the start of the episode, a little neighbor girl asks Joe if he'll be the one to catch the Serial Killer and even gives him a cute inspirational drawing. He reacts to all of it with hateful apathy.Little Girl: Oh hey, Mr. Joe. You going to catch that serial killer?
Joe: No.
Little Girl: Wait, I made this for you. [Gives Joe a drawing of him. Joe tears it up and throws it.] I still love you.
Joe: Die.
Little Girl: Okay. - Loser Protagonist: After Diesel saves Joe, he remarks that she knew that he was the next victim because the killer was targeting outcasts, failures and losers and the Joe fit that demographic.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: It turns out that the VR headset Joe bought was built (or perhaps tampered with) by TOXIC. If he loses or tries quitting Solitaire Art Online, a gun built into the headset will go off and kill him.
- Mundane Utility:
- To avoid his problems in real life, he brandishes a brand new VR headset to play what is basically just Solitaire. Granted, such a thing actually does exist in real life and its virtual solitaire where you can pick a custom deck and has Eastern RPG-esq elements like a potion that randomly swaps a card, but it's still just something he could have easily have done without a new and expensive virtual reality gaming console.
- Neo Otaku City has life-sized Gundams that they use for gun-salutes at police funerals.
- Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Downplayed. When Diesel makes a My Hero Academia references, Joe admits to not having seen it yet.
- Wham Episode:
- Diesel is from Prestige TV City.
- Chief Brody has TOXIC's insignia tattooed on his arm.
- Officer Vink is still alive and is working for TOXIC.
