Bleach Chapter 457 – End of Bond 3

Read the Chapter

This week the lackluster battle continues in “End of Bond 3.” I’m curious, who’s bond is ending? Ichigo’s with all of his friends, Ichigo’s with Ginjou (because of, well, what happens in this chapter), or is it the end of another bond altogether? I will say that the end of this chapter made me a little sad, so props to Tite for achieving this, but we’ll get to that later.

Ginjou desperately seeks to help Ichigo against Tsukishima, but is bombarded with all the experienced combatants of Xcution at once, as well as Tsukishima’s little lackie, Moe. It was interesting to see how each of them uses their powers in battle, as I originally thought that none of them aside from Ginjou and Jackie really had combat-based fullbrings. Jackie obviously attacks him with the enhanced physical abilities of “Dirty Boots.” Riruka is converting her “Dollhouse” ability through the gun originally designed by Tsukishima. My assumption is that it allows her to forcefully emit her “pass” to her dollhouse at her enemies, and then freely place them in her little world. Giriko was attempting to set some sort of timer on Ginjou-probably one with a restrictive rule set upon it, by shooting little numbers(times) at him.

Moe’s ability is a little more abstract than the others. My best understanding of his fullbring is as follows. He punches people with his “Jackpot Knuckles.” These knuckles act like a slot machine (usually falling in Moe’s favor), and if what he punches hits a “jackpot,” then something will happen to that object in Moe’s favor. For example, the chandelier from the last chapter detached itself from the ceiling and fell because Moe wanted it to hit Ginjou. Ginjou’s sword broke, but probably because it’s also a fullbring, containing tremendous power, only a small piece of the guard came off.

Ichigo’s battle with Tsukishima is progressing slowly. It appears that Ichigo is actually Tsukishima’s superior when it comes to strength, speed, and raw power, but is so overwhelmed with rage that his mind is clouded, and his veteran battle tactics are nowhere to be seen. I must say, I was pretty surprised to see Ichigo fire off a Getsuga Tenshou at Tsukishima. According to Tsukishima, Ichigo has succeeded in melding his shinigami and fullbring powers. But if that were actually true, I feel like Ichigo would be even stronger than he is now. I mean he is strong now, but he isn’t what he was when he fought Aizen. He is still missing something, and I think Tsukishima would shiver in despair if he saw how strong Ichigo once was.

As soon as Tsukishima has confirmed to himself that Ichigo has reached the pinnacle of his power, he decides to “finish it up.” I assume this is where he planned on working his magic on Ichigo, to make it easier for him to do whatever he wants to do next. Unfortunately for him, Ginjou is a badass and took the hypnotic blade himself. This speaks volumes for Ginjou, and eliminates almost any doubt in my mind as to his allegiance to Ichigo. But it also means he’ll now be under Tsukishima’s spell too, eliminating Ichigo’s only present ally.

The last panel of the chapter shows Ishida, on his way to somewhere in a hurry. Two questions:

1. Is he coming to this battle?
2. Is he free from Tsukishima’s bullshit?

Bleach Chapter 456 – End of the Bond 2

Read the Chapter

I’m making this review between classes right now, so it will be brief, and in bullet point format:

• Well, I guess Tsukishima really is just a straight forward bad guy. He basically admits it this chapter… How boring, and very un-Tite-like. I was really hoping for some kind of big twist. Hopefully there is more to this arc than just this. Hopefully.

• It appears Tsukishima’s ability is just as speculated a couple chapters ago; where he is able to insert himself however he wishes into the past of his targets. What bothers me is, since he declares this out loud to Ichigo, can nobody else hear him? Clearly if they were listening that would be a confession by Tsukishima that he was fucking with them.

• I understand why Orhime is protecting Tsukishima. To her, Tsukishima is as close and familiar as Ichigo himself. But Chad is being a jackass. He is outright attacking Ichigo without even asking him anything, or looking for an explanation.

• Why was Ichigo easily able to appear behind Tsukishima and slice his arm off last chapter, but now it seems as though Tsukishima has the upper hand. Was he holding back before, or is the presence of Chad and Orihime really affecting Ichigo’s strength/determination.

• I must say, Tsukishima is doing a great job at raping Ichigo’s psyche. He initially acquired this power after Tsukishima attacked Ishida, to be able to protect his friends. But now, his friends are fighting against that very same power, to protect the person Ichigo was trying to protect them from – Tsukishima.

• Moe Shishigawara makes his appearance, preventing Ginjou from entering Ichigo’s fight. Maybe he has more potential than we initially thought. Since he made the screws come out of the chandelier, I’m assuming his Fullbring ability allows him to disassemble things, or something like that.

• There are four people that are going to have a big impact on how the rest of this arc plays out: Urahara, Isshin, the mysterious shinigami with them, and Ishida.

Bleach Chapter 455 – End of the Bond 1

Read the Chapter

This week in Naruto the main protagonist clears a battlefield and an epic battle of Kages takes off. This week in One Piece three princes battle giant beasts and the villain undergoes a drastic transformation. This week in Bleach Ichigo runs up stairs and chops Tsukishima’s arm off – that’s about it… It is somewhat frustrating reading chapters week to week and experiencing how slow the plot progresses in Bleach in comparison to most other mangas. Tite spends a lot of page space on minor details, sometimes just a simple gesture can take up a page and a half. With these methods it is no wonder we’ve been lacking consistent plot progression, but let me say this: later, come back and read an entire arc of Bleach, perhaps this arc, and you will be grateful for all that attention to detail and time spent making it. With that said, let the review begin:

Like I said, not too much happened this chapter, but what did happen was rather interesting. Tsukishima greets Ichigo and Ginjou at the door, quickly explaining how this is no trap. He seems rather genuine when he says he has no desire to fight them, but I’ve kind of always gotten that indifferent vibe from Tsukishima.

Upstairs is… another God damn party from all of Ichigo’s entranced friends. Whether they believe Tsukishima to be a friend or not, it is pretty unusual for them to throw Ichigo an entire party just because “Shuu-chan says he’s not mad.” And why are they saying welcome home? I wonder, if Ichigo actually decided to throw Tsukishima a curve ball and play along, you know just kick back and party with Tsukishima and everybody, would Tsukishima continue to go along with it? I mean, he obviously plans/expects Ichigo to freak out the way he is. In any case, Ichigo does not play along with it… not at all.

Once HIS friends start telling him to apologize to Tsukishima, Ichigo snaps. He flees for an adjacent room. (Something interesting to note is how readily Ichigo wants to kill Tsukishima. He never wanted to kill anybody before, and definitely wouldn’t just use that word so carelessly. Sure he wanted to stop other villains, and defeat them, but now he truly wants to kill someone, and it doesn’t look like it is bothering him as much as it should be. I wonder if this is a desired effect somebody is trying to instill upon him.)

In this room he is surrounded by Tsukishima and the other members of Xcution. Though he probably thinks they were going to attack him, on page 14, I am sure Tsukishima was about to start talking to him – explaining things to him. It’s just that he probably couldn’t do it in front of all the others.

And just as he is about to talk, Ginjou blasts in, cutting him off, and immediately commands Ichigo to attack. Of course from his position Ichigo isn’t going to ask any questions, and so he activates his Fullbring. Even Tsukishima is caught off guard by Ichigo’s new found speed and power. Before he can even react Ichigo rids him of one of his arms (a recurring theme in Bleach).

But still, Tsukishima isn’t mad, and almost looks proud of Ichigo’s growth. Blind with hatred and vengeance Ichigo prepares to attack once again, but Chad and Inoue come to Tsukishima’s side.

There are a number of reasons why those two showed up. If they are under the same “trick” that Ichigo believes Tsukishima put on all his friends, then they would obviously be there to stop the fight. If Tsukishima manipulated them further, they might even have been tricked into thinking Ichigo was their enemy. Or, they might not be under any foreign influence at all, and are doing what they think is right, what Ichigo can’t see…

Overall I am pleased with this chapter. Maybe next week if Ginjou keeps his mouth shut we’ll hear a little explaining from Tsukishima’s side of things.

Bleach Chapter 454 – Sheathebreaker

Read the Chapter

Sorry for the late release guys, I’ve had a hectic week to say the least. This review is going to be brief, but that’s okay, most of the chapter was just a lead in for the action to come.

The chapter is apparently called Sheathebreaker, not “Two People Under the Moonlight,” (thanks mangareader >_>).

After reading through the chapter, it appears there may not be an illusion at all. If what Ginjou deduces is true, Tsukishima’s power “Book of the End,” acts as a bookmark on the pages of ones life. Instead of merely convincing people things about him, he has the power to insert himself into the past of anybody he stabs with his Fullbring. This would truly be a titanic power, fore he could make them think anything he wanted of them. Also, he may have the power to influence the events around said person. If this were true, he could stab Ichigo, and stop him from ever getting Shinigami powers in the first place, or ever defeating Aizen… or he could just make a friend of him.

Ginjou tells Ichigo the only way to make things right may be to kill Tsukishima. I don’t know about you guys, but that has fishy written all over it. Things are never that simple, and whether it be Tsukishima, Ginjou, or both, I smell a trap.

One thing really disturbed me about this chapter, and that is on page 15. When Ginjou wonders how Yukio found them, Yukio looks at him like he is retarded. He then retrieves his “tracking beacon” from Ginjou, and genuinely wonders why Ginjou doesn’t remember about it, since “it was always like this,” as in Xcution always does that so they can find each other at all times. If that were true, wouldn’t Ginjou have been the one to give out that order? You would think Ginjou in his right mind would remember something like that if it were “always like this.”

On a side note, the first two pages of this chapter are of Isshin and Urahara. The only notable thing I could say about it is 1.) they appear to be done with whatever they were working on, and are heading somewhere, and 2.) Isshin seems to be carrying some sort of reiatsu composed sword. Hopefully it is a gift for Ichigo, and maybe, just maybe, it is the dormant Zangetsu…

So for the 30th chapter in a row, I am not too sure where we stand right now. Yukio leads Ichigo and Ginjou into the Lion’s den, and Urahara and Isshin are still dicking around. See you guys next week, where we’ll probably still have the same dilemma.