Bleach

Okay, so the most recent chapter came out (Beautifully called 'Goodbye to our Xcution, thank god) and it has a few goods and quite a lot of bads.

A good thing is that Riruka is leaving! YAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!! She leaves Urahara's home without a word and soon disappears into the distance. I hope we never see you again!!! You were unoriginal, really annoying and ridiculously lame! May you never come back to this series!

Next are mostly problems... So, Ichigo goes to the Soul Society (I assume using Kisuke's gate) and we see that some Vizards became captains. That kinda makes sense, they were captains before so they're probably strong enough for that. My guess would be that they all took their old posts, Shinji on Squad 5, Rose on Squad 3 and Kensei on whatever squad he was at before. The problem with that is that the Vizards... well, they aren't very interesting characters. They're not horrible, like the Fullbringers were, but... they're kinda boring. It's good that mister Kubo doesn't introduce any more characters, because god knows there's already far more than enough, but they're boring... Like, really boring characters. We also see that Soi Fon is back to her original haircut (Dunno why, really...) and... well, everyone else kinda looks the same. Anyway, Ichigo goes to Captain-Commander Yamamoto and asks to be given Ginjou's body so he can bury it in the world of the living.

This baffles me. This is to show that, while they were enemies and that Ichigo even killed him, he still respected Ginjou. My question is: WHY?! Why did you respect that guy?! He manipulated you, orchestrated your defeat, had one of his man screw with your friends and family, tried to kill you himself and disrespected you on several occasions! Why do you want to give a proper burial to someone like that?! He was half-shinigami, half-hollow, why don't you just give his body to Kurotsuchi? I'm sure he could learn a myriad of useful things with it!

This is seriously something that bugs me. Why is Xcution treated with such respect? Letting Yukio free, healing Riruka, wanting to bury Ginjou... Why do you carp care, Ichigo? Those people all manipulated you and not once, NOT ONCE, showed any signs of regret for doing it! I'd understand if Riruka had apologized to Ichigo or if Ginjou had said in his last breath something respectful like 'You really were stronger than me...' but we didn't get any of that. Why is the Xcution 'our Xcution, anyway? Were we supposed to like these guys?

This arc was worst than the Bount Filler Arc... and I hate the Bount's filler...

But... hopefully, we'll FINALLY move on to something else. They're either all gone or dead, let's see what Aizen's up to in Hell or jail or whatever, okay?! I'd rather have his over-powerness any day than Ginjou trying to look cool again.

I just finished volume 27 in school today and some guy I don't even know spoiled EVERYTHING for me. This makes me mad. >:l

Bey-Heart, what your friend said is mostly lie. Don't worry.

So, here's the most recent chapter after a three week break: http://mangastream.com/read/bleach/36615093/1

According to this, we're entering the final arc of Bleach. I find that hard to believe (And kinda contradictory with what Kubo said in the past) but if they could end on a HIGH note instead of the shameful fullbringer arc, then I'll be happy.

We begin with the department of research and development being really freaked out by the fact that Hollows are quickly being terminated for unknown reason (In fact, Mayuri says that they are 'removed from existence itself) which could be dangerous for the entire existence, like it was explained in the very beginning of the manga (Ignoring the fact that we've seen Uryuu kill dozens of Hollows in a single shot at the beginning of the Bakoto Filler, but whatever) Mayuri has yet another look which makes me wonder what the hell is on his mind when he comes up with the design for his crazy appearance. We don't get a very good look at it, though, but his head kinda looks like... I dunno, a sun? A wheel? Akon, the third seat of the squad, tells the Captain that it can only be 'them' and he agrees with a very concerned look on his face, something rare from Mayuri.

This is a rather good way to begin the story arc. Talking of an ennemy that seems to be feared by many but also has an odd way of acting. Why are 'they' killing Hollows? Do they want to affect the space-time continuum, or something? We also see a silhouette breaking what I can only assume to be one of the Baits used by Uryuu, at the beginning of the show. That's interesting. It's mysterious and makes us wonder who this antagonist that kills hollows could be.

Next, we meet two new Soul Reaper characters. A shy and timid boy named Yuki (Usually a girl's name, so that's weird...) and Shino, a girl that wears a weird hat that looks like the little umbrella you put in cocktails. Yuki is really just like Hanataro and Shino is the classic Tsundere (Rukia, Tatsuki, Riruka etc.) Shino even gives Yuki the same kind of speech Rukia gives to Ichigo. They're not annoying, but they're not especially interesting, either. My guess is that they'll mainly be there for comic relief since they're litteraly taking over for the afro guy as the Soul Reapers responsible for the protection of Karakura. They get ambushed by some Hollows in the first few seconds of their arrival and have to get their asses saved by Ichigo who only arrives in a very badass full-shot on the last page.

This is okay. Just okay, though. We don't exactly need any new characters, unless we're dropping some others (*Cough*Riruka*Cough*) but Yuki and Shino are somewhat harmless, so far. That new threat is actually interesting and I'd like to see more.

So yeah, good thing, so far. Knowing Bleach, though, it could carp up pretty fast.
Hey, there's some sort of a new feature on MangaStream, the place I usually read my online Bleach, called J-Preview. While the scans aren't fully translated yet, J-Preview gives us a basic description of what happens in the chapter until the chapter actually gets fully translated. Here's what they had to say for Bleach's next chapter.

"Yuki Ryuunosuke wakes up in Ichigo's room. In a flashback, we see that Ichigo defeated all the hollows and Orihime healed both Yuki and Shino.

Meanwhile, Ikkaku and Yumichika run to investigate a mass disappearance in Rukongai. As Yuki and Shino are reunited, an Arrancar-looking man suddenly appears behind Ichigo and introduces himself as Azgiallo Ebern."

That's fairly interesting. Who might be this Azgiallo arrancar dude? What does he want? How the hell am I supposed to pronounce his name? Hollows and people from the Soul Society are disappearing?

More info later, when the real chapter comes out!

EDIT: So, apparently, according to another translation, it's 'Ivan Azgairo' and this is what he looks like http://www.naruto-scans.com/bleach-481/B...ach_481/15

GEE, I WONDER IF HE IS BAD GUY!! HOW SUBTLE!!!

God... I hope he's not the new main antag...
So, there's some word going around on the web that the Bleach anime will be cancelled after the end of the Fullbringer arc.

That's a boatload of sad, because not only does this end on a really bad note (As you most likely know, I hate the Fullbringer arc) and the fact that Bleach simply lost so much of its popularity to the point of getting its freakin' anime cancelled.

The manga is still going on, but my guess is that, seeing the end coming soon, mister Kubo won't be putting much effort into that, either...

Well, it was a good run. Kinda sucky towards the end, but I can still watch old, good episodes with joy and enjoy the great voice acting and cool visuals. Hopefully, the current manga arc can end the whole thing decently.
Okay, so, good news: Apparently, that whole thing about the Bleach anime being cancelled was all false/rumor, something that was confirmed by the assistant recording director of the Bleach anime Morita Yosuke on his Twitter. Here's the said message: http://twitter.com/#!/zack_mori/status/2...4557487104

So, that's a good thing! Bleach deserves a better end than the pathetically lame Fullbringer Arc. Speaking of which, the new chapter reveals some interesting stuff, mainly what seems to be the new main antagonist.

http://www.mangareader.net/bleach/484/16

Now THAT'S a villain I'm interested in! Not the usual 'Very charismatic but ultimately evil dude' kind of antag we've seen so far (I'm looking at you, Ginjou) but rather some very ominous, serious man that kinda looks like a grizzled war veteran, like Detective Badd from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I'm genuinly interested to see more of this guy, which means that it's quite good that the Bleach anime isn't cancelled after all! (Sorry if I worried anyone XD)

Hopefully, I won't find some other piece of info that hints towards an anime cancellation...
The rumor of the cancellation is supposed to be after this new arc, not the fullbringer arc. That was the initial rumor, passed on from the raw providers. We won't find out the confirmation until further into the arc, I guess. A bittersweet feeling for me if it was true. Relieved, yet sad, but all good things must come to an end.

The new chapter is extremely promising for the new arc. It absorbed me from page 1, something that Tite Kubo hasn't been able to do for a long time. It definitely had that 'epic' flair to it.

I fully agree with Dude that the new villain is, ahem, interesting, to say the least. I do hope that he won't be introduced too much in the beginning. Go through the other 'generals' first, then maybe the big bad wolf at halfway point of the arc. Anyway, I'm really excited, and looking forward to the next chapters to come.

PS: All 3 of Jump's Shonen series were epic this week. (OP, Bleach, Naruto)
So, in the most recent chapter, that is number 485, we see that the ominous new bad guy doesn't have a problem with killing his own men as he promptly kills Ivan (Don't care) and that other dude whose name completely escapes me (Don't care either) while the other caped and masked people observe coldly. Once again, we face the typical Bleach vilain problem: Lack of companionship and camaraderie from the antagonists. I'm sorry, but villains won't all be cruel jackasses that don't feel bad to kill their own men for the heck of it or just because they did a somewhat poor job. I still like the new antagonist, but... I mean, what the hell?! Wouldn't you want as many soldiers as possible and, furthermore, wouldn't you want to treat them as well as possible so they serve you better? If you treat a dog like carp, he'll treat you like carp, that's all I'm saying.

Anyway, after killing two of his own men (Who looked like boring characters anyway) the nameless Emperor heads up a bunch of stairs floating in outer space and we see that Halibel is not only still alive but has also been captured by the Vanden Reich (a.k.a Nazis) and bound in this position ( http://www.naruto-manga-shippuden.com/bl...nga/485/16 ) in an image that will most certainly sprout into countless Hentai medias (She's in her Resureccion form, too, just so she can have as little clothes as possible)

Admittedly hot, but... Uhh... Don't really know how to feel about that... This is typical Tite Kubo right here, even more than usual. I guess that, now that the anime's gonna end, he doesn't need to worry about the age restriction, which could be good (I also love the line on the next page that says 'Hueco Mundo's Beauty was Captured!?' obviously, that's all she was designed to be)

Speaking of not caring about the age restriction, here's a good one: Sasakibe, Squad 1's Lieutenant, dies. This is SOOOOOOOO FUNNY!! Sasakibe is essentially a living joke amongst fans as being the guy that only has around four lines of dialogue in 485 chapters of story. He gets a few more in the anime, but only to make a round total of about 10 lines. He basically has no known personality and Mister Kubo now wants us to feel sorry he's dead? Heck, why can't they just get Orihime to reject the event of his death, like she did for that Arrancar girl that was killed by Grimmjow? Just sayin', when you introduce a character that has a kind enough heart as to bring back the chick that came to intimidate her and beat her up from death, characters getting the axe shouldn't really be a problem as long as she's alive.

...Oh and Nel comes to get Ichigoi to help her, or something... don't care much for that part...
I thought it was supposed to be "cancelled" because the anime had caught up with the manga?
(Mar. 22, 2012  2:42 AM)BBPegasisMaster Wrote: I thought it was supposed to be "cancelled" because the anime had caught up with the manga?

Animes catch up with the mangas from time to time, and they just create filler anime episodes for those, long enough to give the manga a good lead. It's been done numerous times before. I'm certain that it's definitely not the reason for the cancellation.
Wow, it has been quite a while siince I've been back here. I'm happy to know Kubo realized he left a bunch of characters alive in Hueco Mundo with out explaining what happened to them. I'm really glad to see Nel Tu, but I'm interested in knowing if anyone other than her and and Hallibel are alive. We know that Ichigo saved Grimmjow, and I wonder if anything will ever come of that. If he gets brought back, he has the option of fighting for either side. He could've joined the new antagonist to get back at Ichigo, or he could help Ichigo for the sole reason that he hates or despises the new antagonist. Heck, the new antagonist could have killed him during his conquest, I don't care. Just as long as we get some kind of closure on that arc.
(Nov. 10, 2011  11:16 PM)hitsugiya Wrote: A doll-house within a doll-house. I support Ichihime more then Ichirukia

Same here. I don't like IchiRuki at all. The same goes for UlquiHime and IshiHime. I support IchiHime.

Anyway, I'm also interested to see who else among the Arrancars is still around. Grimmjow would be an awesome ally if he joined Ichigo and his friends. Kubo did say that it was likely that the Arrancar from the HM Arc would be on the good side if they returned so I'm very much looking forward to it. With Ichigo and the gang being in HM next chapter, hopefully we will see who is still alive and who isn't.
Well, for the first time in quite a while, Mr. Kubo is making sense. I was wondering who would attack both the Hollows and the Soul Society and the Quincy are the only ones who have a motive that fits, which is interesting because that was a fact from they're inception, rather than somehing that was retconned(like The effects of Ichigo's Final Getsuga Tensho). Uryu must have some knowledge about this matter because he decided not to go with Ichigo to Hueco Mundo. The most interesting development was indeed the explanation behind the missing souls in the Rukongai. I predicted the who, but not the why, which should have also been obvious given the current situation. I'm actually interested in where this is going, hopefully I won't be disappointed again.
So, been a while since I posted here and some stuff has happened since.

Okay, it seems mister Kubo still doesn't know what's good for him. Ichigo and co. go to Hueco Mundo to help out Nel, which is cool. It once again shows Ichigo as a ridiculously selfless and brave protagonist, he's literaly defending the people he was fighting before, much like it was the case after the 'Save Rukia' arc. Regardless, we confirm the presence of a few Arrancars, like Loly, Menoly and Halibel's Fraccions. The problem with that is that NOBODY FREAKIN' CARES FOR THOSE CHARACTERS!! They are not interesting, cool or of any importance to the plot! Who cares if Loly and Menoly are alive?! They're loyal to Aizen and, since this is the last arc and that Bleach is over after that, Aizen probably ain't coming back! And Halibel's three fraccions? They're balls-crushingly annoying! Seriously, I might as well put some Three Stooges music in the background, whenever they're bickering. Oh, and what's their purpose in being alive? To make Kirge (Some sort of... Lieutenant-like character for the Vander Reich, I guess...) look really strong by defeating them.

Next problem is the Vander Reich itself! Okay, that Emperor figure (Which has very nicely been nicknamed 'Buckbeard' by fans) is still pretty cool (Though losing points in my book for pointlessly killing his own men...) but the thing with the Vander Reich is that they're basically just Magic Nazis! They're Nazis with powers, that's all. That's so uninspired and lame! Nazis, really? Yeah, let's just stoop to the lowest common denominator and make the bad guys nazis, it's so much easier. Why think, eh, Mister Kubo? But even more problematic is that they are all actually Quincies. Okay, what the hell?! Quincies, really? That's just... I hate Quincies! They are not cool! Not to mention that it really limits the weapons to guys can have to just bows and arrows... And bows and arrows are only very shortly cool, they get old real fast.

The only part that's interesting is that Kirge refers to Ichigo as 'One of the five war potentials' which is weird because I thought they were already at war, but... Well, it just makes you wonder who are the four other war potentials.

At least, things are better now than during the Fullbringer arc...
So, there's a lot of talk that the Bleach anime isn't over, just on hiatus for the time the manga actually gets stuff done and will come back afterwards... I have seen no actual proof of that, but that's what I heard, so... We'll see.

Speaking of the manga, something pretty interesting happened: While fighting that Kirge dude (Whom I find absolutely uninteresting, by the way) he uses a cool ability that basically absorbs every shred of spiritual energy around. Problem: Everything, including living beings, is made of spiritual energy in both the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. So, as he battles against Ayon/Allon, that monster we saw a long time ago that was defeated by the head-captain, Kirge uses that ability to pretty much decompose Ayon and absorb him, creating... this: http://www.mangahere.com/manga/bleach/v53/c493/6.html

Okay, that's both insanely ridiculous and really awesome. Furthermore, it creates an interesting menace: How do you fight someone that can absorb you, after shredding the carp out of you, simply by being around you?

Anyway, Ichigo figures out that he can't absorb him if he attacks the head (Don't know how that works...) and we cut to the Soul Society where Buckbeard (The Emperor guy) is already inside. Interesting...
So, the Quincy invasion began and we get to see what will probably be the equivalent of the Espada for the Super Nazis, their elite members. So, first, we have this punk-looking fellow that's completely boring and unoriginal, followed by something better, this happy-looking girl who, I have to admit, looks like a very nice character with that cap and smile. Plus, she has a heart-shaped belt buckle XD

There's also this Unohana-looking woman, this guy that we can't really see yet and this bearded guy. Finally, we see the cold, emotionless Byakuya/Ulquiorra equivalent that was bond to make it in the vilain group, this dude.

So, how to feel about such characters... Most of their designs look pretty bland, especially the punk guy who's basically the copy-'n-paste "Badass Delinquant" Kubo seems to love using, but there is hope, here. The jolly girl seems nice, the Ulqiorra/Byakuya knock-off looks alright and it's hard to judge the others as characters simply based on single shot images. So I guess we'll see...

Oh and Izuru gets his arms and half of his torso blasted off by one of them but, as we've seen several times in Bleach, that basically means nothing and Kira will totally be fine.
(Jun. 01, 2012  2:45 PM)Dude Wrote: So, the Quincy invasion began and we get to see what will probably be the equivalent of the Espada for the Super Nazis, their elite members. So, first, we have this punk-looking fellow that's completely boring and unoriginal, followed by something better, this happy-looking girl who, I have to admit, looks like a very nice character with that cap and smile. Plus, she has a heart-shaped belt buckle XD

There's also this Unohana-looking woman, this guy that we can't really see yet and this bearded guy. Finally, we see the cold, emotionless Byakuya/Ulquiorra equivalent that was bond to make it in the vilain group, this dude.

So, how to feel about such characters... Most of their designs look pretty bland, especially the punk guy who's basically the copy-'n-paste "Badass Delinquant" Kubo seems to love using, but there is hope, here. The jolly girl seems nice, the Ulqiorra/Byakuya knock-off looks alright and it's hard to judge the others as characters simply based on single shot images. So I guess we'll see...

Oh and Izuru gets his arms and half of his torso blasted off by one of them but, as we've seen several times in Bleach, that basically means nothing and Kira will totally be fine.

Tell that to Sasakibe. I think Kira might be done for, just because Kubo would do something like that just for shock value. I like the Unohana clone and Happy Girl designs but that tells me nothing about them. The Bearded guy will most likely die first. He just seems to be that guy out of the group. The only thing that would suprise me right now is if he Byakuya clone died first....or if Kira succumbs to his wounds concidering Inoue is not even remotely close to being able to use her God powers which she has yet to use to even half of their potential.
Sasakibe was a joke. Seriously, his death might as well have been off-panel and it would have had the exact same effect.

Kira, on the other hand, actually has a few fans. I've never actually met any of them, but he was ranked rather high in a few popularity polls, so he at least has that going for him. You'll also notice how the half of his chest that gets blown off isn't the one that holds the heart, so, naturally, considering major blood loss is never an issue in Bleach, he'll live.

As for who will die first, I'd actually go for the weird mustached guy whom we barely even saw. He kinda reminds me of Sasakibe himself, for some reason...
(Jun. 03, 2012  2:09 AM)Dude Wrote: Sasakibe was a joke. Seriously, his death might as well have been off-panel and it would have had the exact same effect.

Kira, on the other hand, actually has a few fans. I've never actually met any of them, but he was ranked rather high in a few popularity polls, so he at least has that going for him. You'll also notice how the half of his chest that gets blown off isn't the one that holds the heart, so, naturally, considering major blood loss is never an issue in Bleach, he'll live.

As for who will die first, I'd actually go for the weird mustached guy whom we barely even saw. He kinda reminds me of Sasakibe himself, for some reason...

Judging by the way Gin died, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Kubo doesn't factor logic into they way he kills anyone....ever. Most people who get cut near in half survive but Gin dies from the most shallow wound Aizen inflicts during the entire Arc, really?
So we continue on the Quincy invasion (Nothing really happens in this chapter, actually...) and we meet a few of those elite Quincy soldiers.

First, there's NaNaNa Najahkoop, possibly the stupidest name ever. I'll just completely ignore that guy as his design is even lamer than the punk guy and that I honestly hope he dies quickly. Interestingly, though, he is refered to as 'Sternritter U' so... I guess the ranks of the elite is determined by 'Sternritter' followed by some letter... U is pretty freakin' weak, so... go figure. He also refers to someone as 'Buzzbee' which is way too similar to Killerbee from Naruto to be a coincidence. As soon as they start rapping, I'm calling rip-off.

Next is that Unohana-like woman who is apparently named As Nodt. which, I gotta say, is a pretty nice, mysterious name. The look she's giving on that picture sure helps making her seem pretty terrifying, too, as she's just walking through all the Soul Reapers mercilessly. She's Sternritter F, a much better letter than NaNaNa's U, really.

Finally, there the happy girl, known as Bambietta Basterbine. Nice name. She's having fun killing people, naturally, when she runs into Komamura. She's Sternritter E, which I'm assuming makes her the fifth strongest of the group.

...So... I guess we'll see.... again '_'

The captains are brain dead... why would Soi Fon of all people go straight into bankai?
Yup... That kinda betrays her whole conviction that her Bankai was a shame for her assassination ways...

Also, it seems that As Nodt, the Unohana-looking person, is actually a guy... Kinda sad when your gender is so obscure that we immediatly put you in the 'chick' category...
I would have to assume that they were under orders to figure out what happens when their Bankai is taken, that Is about the only explanation that makes sense. It's not like these are the strongest captains, with Byakuya being the exception, Komamura has shown himself to be generally useless, Hitsugaya isn't particularly good at killing...anybody,and Soifon is much more effective with her Shikai than her Bankai. Kyöraku, Yamamoto, and Ukitake, some of the strongest captains, are nowhere to be seen, and I don't know how Kensei, Shinji or Rose stack up compared to the other captains. As effective as he is, I don't think Kurotsuchi is a main combatant when it comes to captains. Then of course, the biggest combatant in Kenpachi, who lacks a Bankai entirely, so in all I only count Byakuya as a strategic loss.
Okay, so, in chapter 497 (Getting awfully close to that ominous Chapter 500, there) we see that the Sternritters apparently did steal some Bankais, although they have yet to actually use them. I mean, if you steal something, you can use it, right? I think?

Anyway, Kyouraku faces the mustache guy and promptly gets shot in the eye which, apparently, is not only not painful enough to rip a whimper of agony from Shunsui but also doesn't mean death at all, in Bleach's world. That really doesn't make any sense, actually. In real life, it could happen since guns fire actual bullets that could get stuck somewhere in the skull before damaging the brain too much, so you could survive a bullet in the eye (Even though I'm pretty sure you'd at least need to sit down a minute to rest up, if that happened...) but Quincies fire energy blasts, not bullets. What, did the energy blast get stopped by Kyouraku's skull? That's a pretty weak shot if it can't even blast through a bone...

So, basically, the problem here is that the captains don't think they can beat the Quincies without their Bankai. That's a pretty flimsy assumption since you don't really know much about the ennemy. For all you know, they can steal Bankai but can totally be handled without using it, so... No problem at all.

Anyway, one of Mayuri's man decides to contact Ichigo, which means we'll probably see how he's doing against the... other guy, next week.

Not really great stuff going on, but hey: This IS better than the Fullbringer arc...
(Jun. 20, 2012  7:37 PM)Dude Wrote: Okay, so, in chapter 497 (Getting awfully close to that ominous Chapter 500, there) we see that the Sternritters apparently did steal some Bankais, although they have yet to actually use them. I mean, if you steal something, you can use it, right? I think?

Anyway, Kyouraku faces the mustache guy and promptly gets shot in the eye which, apparently, is not only not painful enough to rip a whimper of agony from Shunsui but also doesn't mean death at all, in Bleach's world. That really doesn't make any sense, actually. In real life, it could happen since guns fire actual bullets that could get stuck somewhere in the skull before damaging the brain too much, so you could survive a bullet in the eye (Even though I'm pretty sure you'd at least need to sit down a minute to rest up, if that happened...) but Quincies fire energy blasts, not bullets. What, did the energy blast get stopped by Kyouraku's skull? That's a pretty weak shot if it can't even blast through a bone...

So, basically, the problem here is that the captains don't think they can beat the Quincies without their Bankai. That's a pretty flimsy assumption since you don't really know much about the ennemy. For all you know, they can steal Bankai but can totally be handled without using it, so... No problem at all.

Anyway, one of Mayuri's man decides to contact Ichigo, which means we'll probably see how he's doing against the... other guy, next week.

Not really great stuff going on, but hey: This IS better than the Fullbringer arc...

I really not sure where they were going with the Kyoraku battle. If it weren't such a blatant shot to the dome piece, they would have an easier time convincing me he got away with what is a scratch compared to what honestly should have happened.

On another note, today's chapter was short, basically ended with 'A NEW CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED!", and in so many words established Ichigo as a plot device, again.