Atsushi Ōkubo ( 大久保篤), also romanized as Atsushi Ohkubo, is a Japanese manga author and fantasy artist known for his work on the manga series Soul Eater, which has been adapted into an anime. Okubo worked as an assistant under Rando Ayamine, on the manga series Get Backers. He also created artwork for various cards for the Lord of Vermillion game.
Atsushi Ōkubo was not a model student and was more attracted to drawing than to learning. At the age of 20, after finishing studies at a manga school where he met Rando Ayamine, the author of Get Backers, he became Rando Ayamine's assistant for two years. Finally, he won a competition at Square Enix's Gangan magazine with his first manga series B.Ichi and it was published for four volumes. After the end of his last manga, he created Soul Eater, still for Square Enix's Gangan magazine, which brought him worldwide success.
Este volumen finaliza la lucha entre Shinra y Charon mientras ocurre el incendio en la ciudad.
También el conflicto con la nueva Adora Burst y las estúpidas e incoherentes desiciones que tomó en tan poco tiempo. Espero que a futuro mejore y tenga algún trasfondo creíble como personaje.
Por otro lado, las cosas se aclaran y al fin sabemos que la Organización de los "White Hoods" pretende recrear el incendio y Gran Desastre ocurrido hace 250 años con la reunión de los ocho pilares o Adora Burst que existen y que hasta el momento solo conocemos la mitad de ellos.
Volume 13 begins where we left off. Numerous infernals have appeared, the Fire Force is stretched thin, and a demon has just appeared. The Fire Force has to pull together all of its strongest fighters, focusing mainly on its second-generation soldiers. This was something I loved as we got to see the strengths of other soldiers in the force, not just Shinra and Arthur. The evangelists are also there with the demon and the infernals, of course making things more complicated in their search for the fifth pillar. Said fifth pillar is Inca, a girl who seems to be obsessed with the idea of danger. I have a feeling that this definitely won't be the last time we see Inca as she willingly chooses to go with the white cloaks over the fire force. Our heroes discover that there are in fact eight total pillars and ponder what this might mean for the future of the Holy Sol empire. I feel like this series is starting to pick up again after lulling for a couple of volumes, which I'm super excited for!
This concludes the big fight against all the infernals. It is almost anti-climatic after all the work in the previous volume. Shinra fails to save the girl and frankly I don't like nor understand Inca's motivation frankly it feels forced and awkward for such an otherwise strong character.. Author fails to capture the energy manipulator. But giant ice pillar is cool. The there is a bit of recap and regret that the other companies did not send more help.
Then the expedition to China begins. It is interesting just having them head outside the empire just like that. The encounter with the gas makes no sense and is kind of dumb. They could have just driven off a cliff or right into an encounter with a giant monster (which does happen). As professionals they should have been wearing their breathing gear. The talking animals are weird.
Not as good as the previous one but I still enjoyed it. Inca decides to join the bad guys because she likes to have fun and wants chaos. Seeing Corna was good. Charon is a super interesting character and I want to see more of him. Even though he is one of the bad guys, he has anti-hero vibes. Though the difference between 2nd and 3rd generation is absurd, it is still good to see that they are powerful (like Maki, Benimaru, Konro or Hinawa). Our heroes decide to explore the Chinese Peninsula to find more answers about Adolla Burst, Amaterasu and more. Therefore, this volume is also the start of a new arc. Compared to other series I've read, Fire Force has many short arcs instead of longer ones. I am still not sure if this is a good thing or not.
La historia arranca justo donde la dejamos: Shinra recibiendo una paliza digna de recordar por parte de Charon. El pobre no puede hacer mucho hasta que se da cuenta de algo clave: Charon no es de tercera generación como él pensaba, sino de segunda. ¿Y qué significa esto? Que no genera fuego, sino que lo manipula. Así que cada ataque de Shinra no solo no sirve, sino que termina beneficiando al enemigo. Con esta nueva info, Shinra cambia de estrategia e intenta darle la vuelta a la situación. Al principio parece que le funciona, pero no, Charon no se va a ir tan fácil. Este hombre es como un jefe de videojuego con mil barras de vida.
Mientras tanto, los demás escuadrones están en su propia misión suicida: enfrentarse a un Infernal con forma de demonio, que ya sabemos que son imposibles de derrotar… salvo que seas el Séptimo Escuadrón, claro. Pero aquí viene Licht, nuestro científico loco de confianza, con una idea tan descabellada que solo podía salir de su cerebro: usar a todos los bomberos de segunda generación para dirigir las llamas hacia un punto central y concentrarlas justo donde estará el Infernal. Básicamente, imitar la técnica de mi Beni y Konro para eliminarlo. Y de paso, apagar el resto del incendio en la ciudad. Todo encaja como en un plan maestro improvisado.
Cuando por fin apagan todo, los encapuchados deciden que ya es hora de irse, pero Shinra intenta convencer a Inka para que lo acompañe. Y aquí viene lo frustrante: Inka tiene todas las papeletas para convertirse en un personaje molón… y decide irse con el enemigo. ¿Por qué? Porque al parecer, tiene un problemita serio con la adrenalina. Esta mujer no quiere paz, quiere caos, fuego, y peligro constante. Y no, ni Haumea ni Charon caen tan mal como ella. Inka, oficialmente declarada la más insoportable del volumen.
Después de este caos, Ôbi organiza una misión fuera del Imperio de Tokio, nada más y nada menos que a la Península China. El objetivo es conseguir información sobre el Gran Cataclismo de hace 250 años. Shinra, Arthur, Tamaki y Licht son enviados como representantes de la Octava, pero también se unen Ogun, Juggernaut y el capitán Pan. Y desde el principio ya se nota que el viaje va a ser peculiar: Takeru (Juggernaut) no deja de hablar de papas. Que si su granja, que si las papas son buenas, que si las papas curan todo… adorable, sinceramente.
El viaje se pone raro cuando llegan a una zona donde el aire parece estar contaminado con algo que los vuelve medio tontos. Todos empiezan a actuar como si hubieran inhalado helio con cafeína, menos Licht (que lleva máscara) y Arthur, que para sorpresa de todos, decide ponerse a meditar. Claro, porque si algo define a Arthur, es su autocontrol… ¿no?
Y justo cuando están en pleno episodio de desvarío colectivo, aparece una lombriz gigante persiguiendo a un topo que habla. Sí, un topo parlante. La situación no tiene ningún sentido, pero el topo les ofrece guiarlos si se deshacen del monstruo, y lo hacen. Cuando están descansando se les une un cuervo que también habla. Sus nuevos amigos les cuentan que van camino a un Oasis donde antes vivían ellos y otros animales. ¿Por qué hablan? Nadie lo sabe. Magia, Adora, quién sabe.
En la noche, desde lejos, ven luces extrañas, pero al observarlas bien se dan cuenta de que no son luces normales… sino Infernales. El cuervo les explica que llevan allí vagando desde el Gran Cataclismo, como si estuvieran atrapados en el tiempo. Perturbador es poco.
Al día siguiente, guiados por sus nuevas amistades peludas y con pico, llegan por fin al Oasis. Pero antes de que entren todos, Shinra decide ir a echar un vistazo. Desde el cielo ve que es un lugar completamente distinto a lo que han visto: lleno de vegetación y agua. Según el cuervo, todo eso existe gracias a su dios. Pero cuando le muestra a esa “divinidad”, Shinra se queda sin palabras.
Lo que hay en el centro del Oasis es otra Amaterasu.
Overall, Volume 13 was an interesting volume that went about as what we expected. Inca, the newest pillar joined forces with the antagonists to support her pursuit of life-threatening thrills and excitement. While her abilities weren’t quite detailed or clarified there were enough hints there to suggest that she has the potential to be one of the most powerful characters in the universe. I do have some concerns wondering if she truly does see the words “start” and “end” and so forth when she is using them. It does kind of break the immersion for me.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the direction the story is going with venturing outside of the Tokyo Empire and seeing the rest of the post cataclysmic world. While there is still much to be detailed about how most of the world is submerged, geographic features seem perfect mashed together in a sort of artificial manner, and creatures speak, we can still appreciate the new details regarding the world that we received. Additionally we can be sure that we are going to get some answers here, especially if an Amaterasu like feature is present in addition to wandering infernals.
The assembled cast is actually pretty nice too with old faces joining our Arthur, Shinra, Viktor, Tamaki force. Hopefully our time with the others will be exciting and allow them to grow on us more than they already have before.
It’s easier to see variances in 2nd gens than 3rd? How so? So far we’ve seen a crazy wide variety of powers among the 3rd gens too.
I do have to say that the 2nd gen seem like better fighters (with the obvious exceptions of Benimaru and Konro). However, some of that appears to come from honing their abilities to the max, whereas the 3rd gens often seem to just be winging it and taking their powers for granted without really understanding them. I’d like to see Benimaru train them more using his martial arts style since it’s a big part of his power.
Shinra's battle with Charon concludes. Several firefighters from different companies help to contain the fires and put the flame people to rest. A flame demon is fought and Maki does something remarkable.
A new story arc starts with a mission to travel from the Tokyo Empire to China by ship. The objective is to gather more information about the Evangelist and adolla bursts, as well as what caused the great cataclysm 250 years ago. Two new characters are introduced - a talking crow and a talking mole.
This, again, continues the excellence. First, by concluding an awesome battle in an amazing and heartbreaking way, and second by setting up a whole new status quo and mission for the series for a while.
I really don’t need to say more. It’s great stuff.
Cada vez más cerca de las respuestas, pero por el camino surgen más preguntas. Creo que la historia tiene mucho jugo, muchos personajes, deben empezar a cerrar cabos, sino llegará un punto que será insostenible.
Second Generations are fucking badass. Without the ability to create their own flame, they make do of what they can do and hone it with a precision of a surgical knife. They are better fighters, inventive and can turn enemy flames against them.
My goal is to read 3 volumes today but I kept nodding off reading this… can’t tell if it’s because I’m tired (more likely) or because I don’t care for the arcs in season 2 (less likely but very believable).
For whatever reason, there must be a printing error - the interior content of this copy of Vol. 13 is an EXACT replica of an earlier volume. Here’s to hoping I can figure out what’s going on in the next installment!
The way they utilized the second generation soldiers was brilliant I was especially impressed with Maki, I think she’s horribly underrated as a character more people need to give her the credit she’s due.
(Aviso: lectura hecha en ejemplar en español, publicado en México. La presente nota se modificará cuando se dé de alta en GR la edición correspondiente).
Alright, A+ for the end of chapter CVII (that's 107 for those who are like me and need to look it up). But the end of chapter CX (120), not cool! I liked that character! But the implications of what happened will be very interesting going down the road.
Also, I love Juggernaut! Super tall, adorable potato sunshine child! After this volume I won't be able to imagine his voice without some sort of Canadian/Irish accent.
I'm liking the series more and more with each volume. I like the direction of the story so far, the whole "pillar" thing seems very interesting and this new girl seems to be in a whole other league, so powerful.
Old characters take the spotlight and i can't wait to see how they function together and what are they capable of. I don't remember the name but there's one that has a snowboard of somthing like that, SO COOL!!
Overall, i need to pick the pace here, the is awesome!