Throughout the past several weeks Bleach has adopted an unfortunate repetitve pattern of fighting, captain fighting espada> espada releases overpowering captain> captain uses special technique or bankai to overpower and seemingly kill espada. It just seemed like another typical case of shonen syndrom where the good guys beat the bad guys everytime and just when the same pattern was about to unfold after Starrks release kubo has thrown in so many twists into one 20 page chapter that it will catch you off guard and leave you gobsmacked. ladies and gentlemen I am pleased to annonce that it seems bleach is back on top form once more, so much has happened in this chapter that it seems like several chapters rolled into one when compared to the past lot of chapters.
Aizen is finally about to make his move, a mysterious new, yet familiar force has appeared which raises new questions and most significantly the return of some old friends too, the vizards are back and not a second too soon. It almost seemed at one point that kubo had forgotten about them but then you have to wonder how much forward planning he has put into this series. it seemed as if he was simplying improvising per chapter up to this point where it all comes to ahead. however while i was pleased to see their return, there was something lacking, maybe a big bang or something, rather than a shot of them all randomly dotted about in the sky, however this is a trivial matter compared to the big picture.
One of the most annoying aspects of bleach is that no one ever seems to die in it, when the soul society arc began nobody knew what to expect, the main heroes at this point had had their backstorys covered so death was possibly on the cards for some of them, however as the series progressed it seemed Kubo was unwilling to kill of any of his characters, well any of his goody characters, and with such a large cast of characters engaged in a war of this calibur it seems almost unfeesable there werent any deaths on the good side as it were, well up until this point. It seems, and i stress the word seems there, Kubo has gone and killed off two main characters just like that very quickly and cruely, but we've been in this situation before, Ichigo and Kenpachis's deadly draw, Momo getting stabbed by Aizen in central 46, Chad getting "killed" in Hueco Mundo, Matsumoto getting torn in half by allon and most recently Hitsuguya getting sliced in half by Halibel, none of these actually resulted in the death of these characters through one way or another and i remain highly speculative that this is the case here too, however if he has indeed killed off these two captains just like that, I must admit i am impressed he did and in a bit of a twisted way it restores my faith in his storytelling,(even if he must go and kill off two very cool and personal favourite characters of mine to make a point.)
The art style in this chapter was much darker than usual which was quite fitting as the shinigami basically suffered a very quick loss and all hope seemed lost, and it seems as if the vizards are drawn to be the shimmering beacon of hope, however is it really that simple, will it be quite predictable and they help out soul society and save the day or will it be more complex, the vizards contempt for soul society and Aizen turn this battle into a messy 3 way one. It seems a chapter of this quality could be a sign, the turn about point for Bleach's story as a whole and the revitalising of the franchise, or maybe it could have just been a darn good chapter that comes along every once in a while.
Overall score 9/10 A darn near perfect chapter
Aizen is finally about to make his move, a mysterious new, yet familiar force has appeared which raises new questions and most significantly the return of some old friends too, the vizards are back and not a second too soon. It almost seemed at one point that kubo had forgotten about them but then you have to wonder how much forward planning he has put into this series. it seemed as if he was simplying improvising per chapter up to this point where it all comes to ahead. however while i was pleased to see their return, there was something lacking, maybe a big bang or something, rather than a shot of them all randomly dotted about in the sky, however this is a trivial matter compared to the big picture.
One of the most annoying aspects of bleach is that no one ever seems to die in it, when the soul society arc began nobody knew what to expect, the main heroes at this point had had their backstorys covered so death was possibly on the cards for some of them, however as the series progressed it seemed Kubo was unwilling to kill of any of his characters, well any of his goody characters, and with such a large cast of characters engaged in a war of this calibur it seems almost unfeesable there werent any deaths on the good side as it were, well up until this point. It seems, and i stress the word seems there, Kubo has gone and killed off two main characters just like that very quickly and cruely, but we've been in this situation before, Ichigo and Kenpachis's deadly draw, Momo getting stabbed by Aizen in central 46, Chad getting "killed" in Hueco Mundo, Matsumoto getting torn in half by allon and most recently Hitsuguya getting sliced in half by Halibel, none of these actually resulted in the death of these characters through one way or another and i remain highly speculative that this is the case here too, however if he has indeed killed off these two captains just like that, I must admit i am impressed he did and in a bit of a twisted way it restores my faith in his storytelling,(even if he must go and kill off two very cool and personal favourite characters of mine to make a point.)
The art style in this chapter was much darker than usual which was quite fitting as the shinigami basically suffered a very quick loss and all hope seemed lost, and it seems as if the vizards are drawn to be the shimmering beacon of hope, however is it really that simple, will it be quite predictable and they help out soul society and save the day or will it be more complex, the vizards contempt for soul society and Aizen turn this battle into a messy 3 way one. It seems a chapter of this quality could be a sign, the turn about point for Bleach's story as a whole and the revitalising of the franchise, or maybe it could have just been a darn good chapter that comes along every once in a while.
Overall score 9/10 A darn near perfect chapter
- Spoiler:
- (minus one for a bit of a tame vizard re-introduction.."wait long time no see aizen?!" i demand explosions or something a little bit more)
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