Bleach

Chapter 501 is... interesting.

So, we learn that As Nodt's power is to germ fear in the heart of anyone who touches the 'thorns' of light that seem to float around him. An interesting power, if only a bit predictable, but here's what I certainly didn't see coming: Byakuya starts hallucinating and sees Rukia suddenly melting away into a decaying corpse. That's a lot more graphic than anything we're really used to see in Bleach, so... Yeah, I guess that's something. However, the fact that Rukia's tongue is hanging out and that she turns bald just makes the picture kinda silly and it'd probably help if the whole was accompanied by some sort of rotting sound effect... But anyway.

So, Byakuya further hallucinates that his body is covered with what I can only assume to be locusts and kinda goes nuts. Following that, As Nodt uses Byakuya's Bankai against him to strike him down and a lil' caption reads 'Farewell'.

I certainly hope Kubo isn't going to kill off Byakuya because that would essentially be the lamest death ever. Made to scream like a carp and killed by your own ability? Yeah, that's not the way a classic protagonist should go. Hopefully, he's just 'wounded' or something.
More fake death shenanigans in chapter 502, I'm afraid.

So, Byakuya wasn't completely dead, just kinda... weakened, if you will. However, he tries to fight As Nodt again and basically gets partially shredded to pieces with his Bankai. That would be pretty cool if the Muramasa filler arc had never existed. After all, in said arc, we've seen that Byakuya is able to at least handle Senbonzakura without even his Shikai, so... I dunno, I guess the Muramasa arc doesn't exist in the manga...

However! Another problem arises: Using the other's Bankai means that Byakuya should know all of its weaknesses! What about the 'No-Damage' area Tsukishima exploited during their fight? I see they're trying to mention the Fullbringer arc as little as possible, but shouldn't Byakuya know that it's better to get closer not to get killed by his own Bankai? This doesn't make much sense...

Anyway, while Byakuya gets his fan-favorite butt air-juggled, Renji just loses his carp and says 'Ban...!' but gets kicked in the face by the Luchador-like figure seen a few chapters ago, preventing the Sternritters from stealing his Bankai. The Luchador guy seems to be the Yammy of the group: Seemingly big and strong but a freakin' idiot that won't get many fans. Oh and Rukia gets defeated as well, but no surprise there. A strong female protagonist in Bleach? What's that?

The chapter ends with Kenpachi confronting the blond, Ulquiorra-like dude and Emperor Buckbeard, having slaugthered one of the nameless Quincy. Naturally, the whole 'We can steal your Bankai' thing doesn't really concern Kenpachi because he doesn't even have a Shikai, so, other than Ichigo who can't get his Bankai stolen for some yet unexplained reason, he's pretty much the only other asset the Soul Society has.

Still nothing very good, but it's better than the Fullbringer... at least. I mean at the very least the Super-Nazis have an actual army and a plan, y'know, they have chances of winning and taking over the world. I still find incredibly laughable that the Fullbringers wanted to take over the world with their six guys and weak-as-carp powers Tired
I don't know how to feel about Byakuya's "death", but I'm glad we've finally addressed Kenpachi. Hopefully we won't be treated to another curb-stomp battle that leads in his demise. I'm still itching to know whether or not it was Grimmjow who saved Ichigo, and really I hope this doesn't end up as one of those times that it takes Kubo 40 chapters to return to the other fight.
So, after a bit of a Bleach-absence while Kubo was sick or something, we return to our confusing mess with Kenpachi kicking all sorts of asses.

No, really, he explains that he casually killed three Stern Ritters, the equivalent of the Espada, on his way to meet BuckBeard. One of them was apparently a big guy that turned into an ape-like monster but was quickly killed. The second one, a girl with a pretty nice design, apparently kept bragging on about her abilities and Kenpachi just cut off her throat, yet again showing that girls in Bleach aren't worth carp... But basically, this shows that, indeed, the Stern Ritters are so lame that some of them are killed OFF-PANEL. That's incredibly weak.

The third one transformed into Kenpachi himself, which is a pretty cool power... But apparently not worth our time as he was killed too...

We then cut to Ichigo who is still wasting panel-time and bitching about needing to go protect everyone. SEEN IT! Then we see Shuhei fighting the bearded-guy seen before and getting his posterior kicked and then handed to him. We learn that the bearded-guy's power is to get stronger for every person he kills... Okay, just a quick pause. Haven't we seen this before? Yeah we did, with Aaroniero Aruueri. He absorbed the spiritual energy and abilities of every being he killed/ate, except that Aaroniero was much cooler because he had this grotesque appearance, disgusting yet pretty cool Resureccion and a powerful relation to Rukia. So what I'm trying to say, here, is that... The Stern Ritters are pale and boring Uncertain

I mean seriously, they were JUST introduced and already we should fear them? The Espada were built-up so well, in comparison! You had other minor Arrancars telling of how powerful they were, there was the reunion scene in which you got to see the various personnalities of the Espadas and how they act in general and they were basically told to be a high threat, even if they didn't really turn out to be. Here, it's like BOOM! Elite villains of doom! They can steal Bankai 'n sh*t, fear them! It's much too fast and it just doesn't work Uncertain

Anyway, after that, the bearded-guy says he's glad the captain-commander showed up because he'll get to kill him (Yeah, right :very sarcastic roll: ) with the Bankai of his subordinate, that is Sasakibe. Now that could be interesting! I thought the whole 'Stern Ritters being able to steal Bankai' thing was just a ploy to Kubo wouldn't have to imagine and design Bankais for all the characters that still need Bankais, but if we see them through the Quincies, it should be good.

However, Bleach is still not doing so good...
So, with this recent chapter, we finally get to see what Sasakibe's Bankai looks like. I won't post a picture of it here, because I can summarize it pretty well: It's a gate-like thing made out of lightning that can shoot lightning. That's it.

Okay, Sasakibe's Zanpakuto had in no way been shown to have lightning-based powers in the manga, but the incarnation of his sword was shown to have such abilities in the Muramasa filler, so, apparently, Kubo's just going with that. The bearded-guy then proceeds to use it on the captain-comander who just takes the lightning bolts like a boss and thinks of the past.

We ACTUALLY get to see a young Yamamoto, back when his hair WASN'T white! He's disappointing and looks nothing like I would have expected, but we do learn that one of his scars was made by Sasakibe himself when he showed Yamamoto his Bankai, which is decently cool. After that, Bearded-guy shoots Yamamoto a bit more to very little effect but then, the captain-commander just loses his carp and yells that Sasakibe's Bankai was never this weak and MELTS THE HELLISH SKIN OFF THE BEARDED-GUY!! Well, so much for mister 'The Overkill' who kept boasting about his power litteraly a single chapter ago. And it's not one of those 'Oh, he's just burned a bit' moment like we had for Halibel's Fraccions, we see his SKULL! Dude can't get up from that one! It's a good thing I didn't bother remembering his name, huh... So yeah, one less annoying, stereotypical character in the way, next!

So, at least, Yamamoto's kicking butts. What was bearded-guy's Assigned Letter, again? O, I think? The other eleven letters that follow are pretty much dead already, then.
Face Melter

I've noticed Kubo has had a skull thing going on lately. Maybe he plans on taking this arc in a darker direction. Meanwhile I'm annoyed by the fact that he revisited Ichigo without taking a step in the right direction, namely explaining the new challenger that arrived. However, Kenpachi is here so I would love to see more of that fight, but not as much as the mystery swords man. He had better not skip that fight just to showcase the new villain's powers, I would anger me greatly. Also I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Byakuya is dead, along with Izuru and his squad, it is not too far fetched of an idea at this point
bleach is awesome i watched the entire anime but haven't finished reading the manga
I find Bleach really interesting, months ago I bought Volume 1 from Supanova. But sadly I'm busy with other animes/mangas. The first chapter I got pretty scared...but then it just started getting awesome!

Has the anime ended?
There are rumors that it will start again once the manga ends/gets further into the story, however none of it is confirmed, so it's probably better to assume it ended.

Don't worry, though, if you're just at volume 1, you still got plenty of stuff to look forward to Joyful_3 Just don't read my posts too often... plenty of spoilers in there XD
I seriously hope it starts again, but by the looks of the ending of the latest (not going to say final) episode, hope looks dim...Crying
So, chapter 505 came out and we see that, indeed, bearded-super-nazis guy was blown to freakin' ashes by our old pal captain-commander. Thanks for introducing that character just to kill him a few chapters later, Kubo!

We then see that everyone around the devastated Soul Society is motivated and nearly inspired to feel Yamamoto fighting on the front lines too... Which does bring up the question of why they don't just always just send Yamamoto to deal with any and all problems. He'll just kill anything with a single shot, problem solved Uncertain Anyway, we see that Kamamura was apparently doing pretty badly against Bambietta who is shown to use some sort of sucky-short sword. Kinda weird since Quincies are supposed to use only bows and arrows and that her weapon doesn't even look like something that could possibly be used as an arrow, but... Well, we'll see.

Also: Kenpachi got his butt kicked by Emperor Buckbeard OFF-PANEL which is pretty much the worst offense ever as theirs must have been an epic fight and we learn, upon a confrontation between captain-commander and Buckbeard that Buckbeard's real name is Juha Bach. Pretty swell.

So yeah... other than that, not much.
He actually did it, he just killed Kenpachi off-screen. That just happened. I am stunned because Kenpachi is shown with no eye patch, which means this villain is the strongest character in Bleach with the exception of maybe Aizen. There is no way Captain Commander is going to win this fight,. If a fight with Kenpachi is a curb-stomp battle, and the Nazi-Quincies can steal Bankai, then Ichigo is left as the last hope. Even that seems unlikely because he isn't strong enough right now to make much of a difference.
...*Sigh*

I really don't want to hate Bleach, you know... I mean, this is my favourite manga, but... Jesus Christ, man, Kubo sure is making this pretty damn hard for me!

Okay, so we're still dealing with Yamamoto facing off against Bach. They exchange some dialogue relating to the fact that they know each other already while remaining incredibly cryptic for the sake of the plot but then Yamamoto gets jumped by three Stern Ritters: As Nodt (THE ONE WHO DEFEATED FREAKIN' BYAKUYA) Nanana something-something (The ugly as carp guy) and the punk dude...

And they all get blasted to pieces.

No kidding. Even As Nodt is engulfed in flames and falls to the ground. If he isn't dead, then he ain't gonna be fighting for at least a lil' while. And you know, not only do most of the characters that died leave absolutely no impact on us, but one of them, the punk dude, didn't even have a name! No personality, no name, no power, no character. I'm serious, here, who died? The biggest possible loss is As Nodt but even he was a one-note character, so... No big loss. What IS Kubo's plan?!

So anyway, Yamamoto then uses Bankai. And that's what it looks like: http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/506/18

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....

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That's freakin' pathetic. Let's ignore the fact that Yamamoto is the biggest idiot ever because the QUINCIES CAN STEAL BANKAI but... this is it? This is... your Bankai? Oo I almost feel like giving up on Bleach and read nothing but Fairy Tail...

EDIT: Also, Nanana was fighting Rose... Did Rose get defeated OFF-SCREEN TOO by freakin' Nanana?! This is just ridiculous...
Well I LOVE the Bleach OST, and here's 1 reason why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc43J_qB4ko

This song is AMAZING.
I'm wondering which bleach wooden sword to get from edgeimport.com or swordsswords.com. Can someone help me?
Well, it depends on several factors, really. Is it for a cosplay? Do you have a big room to store it? What's your budget?

If it's just to have a sword, I'd say buy Tensa Zangetsu. It's not too big, it looks cool and it's pretty much the most important sword in the show :p
Thanks.Does anyone know where I can get one in Ireland.
I'm honestly annoyed by all of the fights we're missing out On. This is worse then the Fake Karakura Town ark. I forgot that Hitsygaya was even fighting because we've literally seem NONE of that fight, the same is true with Rose and a few other fights. Also, what's happening in Hueco Mundo? Who showed up? Is Ichigo still trapped? Are we ever going to answer any of these questions?
Well, in the most recent chapters, we learned that Yamamoto's Bankai concentrates all the flames on the point of his sword, making it able to litteraly transform anything it touches into ashes... Not only that, it also engulfs his own body in flames as hot as the sun (Flames that don't consume or hurt him, of course) So, basically, anything he touches with his sword turns to ashes and anything that touches HIM turns to ashes as well, a fact proved when Bach tries to cut him down with his sword but gets most of his sword desintegrated. That's already OP enough, but check this out:

After realizing he's in deep carp, Bach goes for a defensive approach and hides behind a series of light spears that will apparently kill Yamamoto if he walks in the circle they describe. Kind of a placebo effect going on, here, not that Yama cares much. Yes, for as we see afterwards, THE CAPTAIN-COMMANDER RAISES AN ARMY OF BURNING SKELETONS!!!! Jesus christ, man! You have no idea how many plot hole that raises Oo The name of that technique is 'Kakajuuman'okushi Daisoujin' which apparently translates to something like 'Great Army of the 10 000 000 000 000 buried by the flames' I'm not kidding, look at the translator's note at the bottom.

Well, okay, that's all well and good... But why didn't Yamamoto use this ungodly powerful Bankai AGAINST AIZEN? The whole 'Flames as hot as the sun surrounding my body' would have been pretty useful against the guy whom real position you couldn't know. Are you saying Aizen was a weaker threat than the freakin' Magic Nazis? The dude was certainly the closest to have ever come to creating the Oken and gainning access to the Soul King's dimension... Wasn't that a threat? Heck, if you could raise an army of TEN TRILLION CORPSES, why didn't you use that move to beat all of Aizen's army in a single shot? I'm just saying, the problem when you make a character as such a powerhouse is that 1. It raises the question of why not use those abilities against past ennemies and 2. This makes the villains look incredibly inefficient. Yes, it is good to show that a villain is defeatable, a thing Aizen was kinda lacking until he was met with Mugetsu, but Bach not only looks totally unprepared to face Yamamoto's Bankai EVEN IF HE ALREADY KNEW OF HIS ABILITIES, but he looks like he really had no plan if it just happened that Yamamoto just happened to destroy his Bankai-stealing-thingy. That's just weak Oo

Now, there really isn't any believable way the SS will lose... Come on, they have a guy made from sun flames Uncertain
Honestly it's a good thing he didn't use it against Aizen, think about t, this bankai could have easily back fired if Aizen used his complete hypnosis to make the Captains charge Yamamoto. It would have become the largest team kill in Bleach history. Bach is making me think there is a secondary villain behind him that is waiting to be revealed(Ryūken and/or Uryū may know more about this Quincy situation. Heck they may be in on it.) and knowing Kubo, I doubt Bach is the final boss this arc, that or he's about to get real powerful really quickly.
Ah, good point, I hadn't factored in Aizen's own cheap tactics.

Another 'Man Behind the Curtain' would be interesting, since Bach, while threathening in appearances, does seem pretty harmless when faced with an army of ten trillon zombies...

Actually, while we've seen Bach's Bankai-stealing-badge get blown to ashes, why doesn't the blond Ulquiorra dude use his badge to steal it? I dunno... Seems like it could be useful to win...
I thought the last chapter was epic. It has been a while that the manga had chapters like this. At this point, I could care less about plot holes. It was testosterone overload.
Well, it seems Thresher was right...


Well... Don't really know what to say here...

Ah, also, they explain that the reason the Magic Nazis can steal Bankai is that they've analyzed them and understand them, which is why they can't steal Ichigo's, because it's a very recent Bankai they know nothing about... Makes sense, I guess.
OMFGWTFSCCNUNUFNUJNFNJUNDOOOOMMGGGG!!!

Okay, so, this came as a bit of a shock, but... This week's chapter was really kinda cool O___O

So here's what happens in a nutshell: Juha Bach's corpse turns into one of the fallen Stern Ritter's twin brother, one of the 'The Yourself' that can take the appearance of others. Basically, he took the appearance of Yamamoto so he would waste energy on fighting a peon (Showing that even pawns have their use... so you shouldn't kill them for no reason) and the real Juha Bach shows up, complimenting the dying soldier on his work, also finishing him off. This, I like. An act of mercy (Since it was pretty obvious he was gonna die) after congratulating a fallen soldier. That's how good antagonists should act. But the GREAT part comes next!

You ready? Juha Bach, the real one, says that, while his fake fought Yamamoto, he went to the Soul Society prison to meet with AIZEN!! I'm serious, that reveal brought freakin' excitement chills down my spine the likes I hadn't felt in a looooooooong time in Bleach. Just the idea of Aizen and Bach working together to bring the SS down... It actually sounds like a plan that could endanger the Soul Society! That's what I'm talking about!! Anyway, Buckbeard says that Aizen refused his offer to join his ranks (Aizen probably went 'carp, please, I work for no one') but that he'll wait for him to change his mind. And then...

Bach absorbs Yamamoto's Bankai...

Yup. Bach, the bad guy, now has the power to surround his blade and himself in flames as hot as the sun and raise any men he has killed from the dead to serve him... and proceeds to strike down Yamamoto.

As we all know, though, that means nothing. He'll probably have to sit down for a few minutes, however.
This was probably the most surprising chapter if this ark. Just the idea that Juha Bach broke into the Soul Society like he had a key was bad enough, to think that the first thing he did was go to the bottom of the deepest darkest prison in the Soul Society and have a casual conversation with none other than Sousuke Aizen for the better part of the day while of his subordinates handled Zaraki Kenpachi like a chew toy in what must have been no less than 5 minutes of an off screen fight is much worse. To top it all off by stealing Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's Bankai and possibly beating him in one swipe actually makes him worse than Aizen. How is Ichigo even going to compete when he knows nothing about Yamamoto's bankai? With his fighting style he'll be a cinder after his first attack! Juha Bach seems to be the "Cell" of Bleach.