Bleach Episode 271 – “Ichigo Dies! Orihime, the Cry of Sorrow!”

Bleach Episode 270 – “Beginning of Despair… Ichigo, the Unreachable Blade”

Bleach Chapter 402 – Deicide 4

Weeeeeell, it only took me 4 deicides, but I’m finally writing the review again! Some of you might not remember what happened in te last chapter, ’cause there was yet another break last week, but it’s ok – I’ll remind you. Urahara came to fight Aizen and Gin is still fighting Ichigo. And that’s about it, sums up everything in the last five chapters. In the end it was hubris that killed Aizen. How… ironic, maybe? The asshole had it coming, that’s for sure.

I think everybody knew Urahara was going to show up at some point and that point is the moment when Aizen has “subdued” the hougyoku. Urahara looks pretty pissed when Aizen tells him he was able master the hougyoku, while Urahara himself couldn’t. A fight breaks out between the two, with the upper hand switching back and forth.

Even when Urahara uses a Kidou spell that’s as strong as Soi Fon’s bankai, Aizen is still unscathed. His evolved form looks a lot like Tousen’s hollowfication, I even expect him to spring chicken wings in the next chapter (if he survives).

Int the end Aizen made an amateur mistake. He was always the kind of person to think ahead before every move, but the self-confidence produced by his increase in strength has become his downfall. Urahara somehow managed to seal Aizen’s reiatsu, so that it would become a self-destruct bomb.

How Urahara managed his feat is unclear to me. Was he able to perform two Kidou spells at once? The one he was chanting could’ve been a diversion for the sealing one, which he did without chanting a song… Or Tessai is somewhere in the shadows over there?
Well, whatever, I don’t really care much about this chapter, because something seems off (though I can’t put my finger on it). Urahara is not quite himself here. When he said that he has managed to master the hougyoku many thoughts crossed my mind. Did he make a new one? Is he controlling the hougyoku inside Aizen somehow? Or have the past 100 years all been a grand scheme to take over the world inside the mind of  and evil genius in a shopkeep’s clothes?

Bleach Episode 269 – “Uryuu and Ichigo! Bonded back to back!”