Bleach 622: The Agony

Zach Goodier

http://readms.com/r/bleach/622/2734/1

Aizen has returned, and with all his fearsome power seemingly greater than ever. He effortlessly deals with the little creatures, and in the process damages the barrier around the Seiretei. The others quickly question Kyoraku, who knows that this decision is not one that would be appreciated, but he argues that pride alone won't save the world, and that Aizen is another form of "evil" that can be used to fight the evil they face now. Aizen casually sits and spectates this exchange, patiently waiting out the arguments before returning to his work. While Kyoraku can't completely free Aizen, he bargains a deal to get him on their side, at least for the time being. However, as Aizen's power disrupts the portal in the lab, he says that they don't need the portal now that the barriers around the palace have been breached, and that he will use his power to help them.

I really missed Aizen in the story, and he's already making up for lost time. His calm, cold exterior and his confidence always seems to disrupt the other soul reapers, and it makes things much more interesting. I always saw similarities between Kyoraku in Aizen, in terms of their cunning and relatively quiet demeanor. Having them interact more in this story arc has given both characters a chance to show their stuff, and it really has me on the edge of my seat. 

Bleach 594: Rub-Dolls

Zach Goodier

http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/594

While Kurotsuchi begins an experiment on the now-paralyzed Hitsuguya, Giselle brings 3 more zombified Soul Reapers to the fight: Rangiku, Rose, and Kensei.  However, Kurotsuchi isn't about to let anything stand in the way of his experiment, and quickly sends the arrancar to keep them occupied while he conducts his mysterious experiment.  Meanwhile, Byakuya has already dispatched several of the Quincy, and soon is reunited with Shuhei Hisagi, but what does this mean for the ongoing battle?

I'm not sure what to think of Giselle having seemingly zombified half the Seretei when nobody was watching, it just makes all these twists feel much more random.  Bambietta made plenty of sense, but how she got around to taking control of 3 captains and a vice-captain, all without anyone noticing, is a little too convenient for my taste.  Plus, Byakuya taking out 3 enemies off-panel brings some mixed reactions from me, as well.  I'm all for moving things along, so not delving into every detail of every fight is a good thing, but it's also somewhat unwelcome to take active characters like Candice and seemingly dispatch them off-panel.  Of course, they might not be dead, and could get up for future fights, but the Quincy have been sure to dispatch anyone who returned to them in defeat, so it seems that their fates are sealed no matter what.

Bleach 585: The Headless Star 4

Zach Goodier

http://readms.com/r/bleach/585/2413/1

This week, Ichigo hears the voice of Juha Bach, who tells him that because of his arrival, in particular arriving from the Soul Palace with clothes made of the hair and bone of Squad 0, the defenses keeping intruders out of the Soul Palace will be down for 6000 seconds.  This means that Juha Bach means to invade the Soul Palace while those defenses are down, upping the pressure on Ichigo to hurry and face him.  However, Ichigo has 8 Quincy surrounding him, and they have no intention of letting him go.  Still, after a series of attacks, Ichigo is unhurt.  However, will he be able to break away to face Juha Bach, or will he be too late to stop him from invading the Palace of the King of Souls?

I'm hoping this bout between Ichigo and the other Quincy is finally over.  I wasn't minding it, but now that the pace is picking up, I'm hoping it means he'll be able to move on up, if not facing Juha Bach himself, than Hashwald or Uryuu.  Renji and the others arriving to hold off the Quincy was helpful, and it kept this fight from dragging out any longer than necessary, plus it does give us the chance to let the rest of that fight unravel mostly out of sight of the reader, since we've seen most of the abilities each character has.  I'm still waiting for the rest of Ichigo's new "allies" to arrive, like the Fullbring and the mysterious partner of Urahara's, but it is still unclear when or if we'll get a peek at them during this round of fighting.  Until next week, we'll just have to keep grasping at straws, hoping we get there soon.

Bleach 569: The White Haze

Zach Goodier

http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/569

Byakuya's back, folks, but if you're expecting him to finish his fight from the last battle, you're mistaken.  This week's chapter is short, too short; however, it contains an important moment for both Byakuya and Rukia.  Rukia, as I've stated before, has always lived in her brother's shadow, where he sought to protect her from harm, as Hisana wanted him to.  However, this is an important chapter because Byakuya finally turns over the reigns, and decides that Rukia is strong enough now where she can fight this battle on her own.  Oh, almost forgot... She finally has a bankai, however, the chapter ends with the release, and like with Renji's battle, we'll have to hold of another week until we might get a peek at it, and what its ability is.

Rukia has progressed in more or less the same fashion as I expected.  I hadn't expected Byakuya to show up so early in this battle, but it's good that he did.  Now that he's given his nod of approval to Rukia, I expect she'll be able to stand out more as a character in this final story arc.  Moreover, it really parallels Ichigo's path during this arc, where they've both been accomplished (perhaps one more than the other), but they've both still felt very young and unsure of themselves next to the other characters.  I've been loving how these two have really been stepping it up, and being on the home stretch for the series makes it the perfect time to do so.  Hopefully we can dive right in next week and have this fight finished in a another couple of chapters so we can move the plot along some more, I'm still dying to see what Ichigo can do when he joins the fight.

Bleach 568: Here. Fear. Here 2

Zach Goodier

http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/568/?ref=email

This week, as you might have expected, As Nodt survived Rukia's initial attack, and releases his full power.  As Rukia reaches the limits of her self-inflicted semi-hibernation, she finds that "The Fear" is not gone yet.  He quickly releases his power, saying that the only fear he knows is the anger of his king and the loss of his body.  As he releases his power Rukia quickly finds herself at a severe disadvantage, but some last minute backup may provide the help she needs, and allow an old score to be settled from the last battle.

Rukia's new power has been interesting, even if it hasn't been visually impressive next to others, like Renji.  However, I'm still holding out for Rukia to finally have attained a bankai, especially after her training.  She obviously doesn't have to have a bankai, but I feel like it would have been an appropriate time to have her gain one in the context of all that is happening and just how intense the training was for both her and Renji; plus is could really boost up on of Bleach's generally weaker characters, seeing as how Rukia hasn't been all that powerful next to her companions or enemies.  However, with a certain someone coming back into the fight at the very end of the chapter, we might get to see a satisfying end to one of the match-ups from the previous set of fights.

And through all of this, I'm still wondering what the endgame is for the Quincy.  So far, we have seen the origin of Juha Bach, as well as why they need to fight, but I wonder how exactly this is all going to end up for the Quincy, if they are successful in destroying the Soul Society.  I mean, what then? Presumably, the entire world will be thrown into turmoil, and its destruction seems more than likely, so how will this benefit the Quincy?  Unless there is more to the balance of the worlds, or the Quincy have some sort of plan to keep at least one of the worlds from being destroyed, I just don't see how plan to walk away from this war with any real victory in either case.  I suppose we'll understand more in the future chapters, so we'll just have to wait and see how everything unfolds.

Bleach: Fade to Black

By: Robert Murphy

As Mayuri Kurotsuchi is hard at work in the twelfth squad laboratories, he is mysteriously attack by two shadowy figures leaving his memory erased and his project in the hands of two unknown enemies. We then come upon Rukia Kuchiki who is also attacked and has her memories erased just like Mayuri, she then wakes up to two characters who seem to know her so well and act as though they are her best friends. Ichigo, who all a sudden has a horrible feeling about Rukia goes to the Soul Society to investigate things only to find that nobody knows who he is or has any memory of Rukia what so ever. What’s happened to everyone’s memories and who are these two mysterious new characters? We find out in Bleach: Fade to Black.

I had love for this movie right from the get go as it was such an enjoyable premise and seeing Ichigo fight some of the Soul Society’s most powerful shinigami again is always something of a fan favorite for people and myself. Obviously Ichigo is a little apprehensive about the whole thing but we once again see a return to the old ways of the Soul Society where if anything that isn’t supposed to be there gets killed or removed, no questions asked. This also comes up as a point during the movie where Urahara points out how much the Soul Society has changed, thanks to Ichigo, he has changed a 100 years if Soul Society rules and doctrine and even swayed the Captain Commander in his old ways. This was something I enjoyed because it showed how far we’ve come in the series, all the change and progress that all the characters in the show have gone through and just how much Bleach has done in it span.

The story all over is very enjoyable, it doesn’t waste any time to link storylines, we are given a story about some of the shows more solid characters and that’s exactly what we want. We get to dig into the past of Rukia, who has always had a complicated life and someone who always makes an interesting story to tell because of it. Then we throw Ichigo into the mix, fighting his way to protect Rukia once again and we have a solid movie to watch. The “bad guys” in the movie aren’t really that, they are those enemies in movies who aren’t meaning to do anything wrong but end up doing wrong anyway because they care about Rukia and would do anything to have her back. This leads to trouble as it always does in these sorts of situations but then again if it didn’t it wouldn’t be very entertaining and Ichigo wouldn’t be able to throw out a couple Getsuga Tensho.

To wrap things up, Bleach: Fade to Black is more than worth the watch for any Bleach fan and not so complex that anybody just starting out will be lost with it. The story and concept are overall solid and get stronger as the movie goes on and focuses around some of the show’s more favorable characters. We also get to see a good deal of action from them all and using there impressive techniques in a final battle and with Bleach this is always enjoyable because the show never fails to put on a good fight scene. So in conclusion we can find nothing but a slam dunk here with this third Bleach movie and definitely on par with others like Diamond Dust Rebellion. 

Good:

- Great story, delving into Rukia's enjoyable back story

- Solid action that we expect of Bleach

- Doesn't get muddled down in connecting story arcs and focuses on what fans love about the show

Bad:

- A so-so bad guy

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10 

Bleach 545: Blue Stripes

Zach Goodier

Link to Chapter: http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/545

To be honest, this week's chapter was fairly dull in terms of major plot developments, aside from the end.  Captain Kuchiki finally awoke, and must now begin training, and Renji and Rukia have begun training with squad 0.  At the Kurosaki home, Yuzu is preparing food for the family and life goes on as normal.  However, when Ichigo's friends are walking to school, they discuss his absence.  Then, Captain Kyoraku, the new Head Captain of the Gotei 13 appears, telling them about how they will eventually have to part ways with Ichigo.  The only other thing worth mentioning is that the rest of the Vizards make an appearance, and it looks as though they are on assignment from Shinji and squad 12 to fix the "distortion" between the World of the Living and the Soul Society.  Tune back in next week to see what else is in store.

For the LOLZ

Here's a little humor to lighten up your day.  And you can also take this as a life lesson to show you how to conduct yourself in everyday life.  I mean, how can someone not take you seriously if you're throwing furniture across a room?