Bleach Chapter 453 – Mute Your Breathe Friendship

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This chapter is essentially a giant mind f*ck on Tsukishima’s part. He finally puts his real plan into motion. The only question is, how far does this really go?

Picking up where last chapter left off, Ichigo arrives from his training only to find Tusikishima waiting in his living room. To top it all off, Karin and Yuzu act like they have known Tsukishima for years, as one of the family. Ichigo doesn’t know how to react, until his secondary group of friends (Keigo, Tatsuki, and Mizuiro) show up and treat Tsukishima the same way. What really sets Ichigo over the edge is when Tsukishima calls Orihime only to reveal she is under his little spell as well. Livid, Ichigo knocks Tsukishima down, but this is just what Tsukishima wants…

Everybody turns on Ichigo, wondering why he would strike his own family. You can literally see Ichigo slightly losing his sanity from the circles under his eyes. He flees, only to be picked up by his busty boss, Ikumi. I thought this is where she would finally reveal her worth to this arc, instead of being just another throw away character. Unfortunately she is quickly revealed to be under the same impression as everyone else – when Tsukishima comes by to pick Ichigo up she acts like she knows him as a friend.

This shows just how far Tsukishima has gone for this plan. He has extended his “spell” to friends and associates of Ichigo’s that aren’t even involved in his other life. He truly wants to turn everyone Ichigo knows and loves on him. But surely there is a limit to how far this can go, right?

Ichigo flees Ikumi’s place in search of somebody still in their right mind. Since he is still suspicious of Urahara and his father, one would think the only place he’d go is Xcution. However, on the last page Ginjou is seen running for Ichigo only to tell him that all the other members of Xcution have fallen for Tsukishima’s trick… They all think of him as kin.

Several questions are raised after reading this chapter:

• Just how far does this go? How long has Tsukishima been extending his web?
• Was it a little too convenient for Ginjo to show up like that, to be the only one there for Ichigo when all others fell for Tsukishima’s trick?
• Where are Isshin and Urahara during all of this, and who is that God damned shinigami with them?
• What will Ichigo do now?
• Are Chad and Ishida affected too?

Bleach Chapter 452 – Erosion/Implosion

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I’m not gonna’ lie, I was actually pretty pleased with this chapter. It explained some, and left a good set up for next week. Well then, lets cut the chit chat and get right into it.

Since last chapter, Ichigo and Ginjo have been training for days. Yukio even makes Orihime her own room to accommodate her through the experience. It appears she healed his eyes right after he gained his reiatsu sensing abilities back.

Ichigo has been doing some rigorous training to get his physical body in peak shape.  Ginjo reveals that Fullbrings strain the physical body, and the better shape one is in, the more efficient, and probably stronger their Fullbring is.

Apparently Ichigo was getting reiatsu to power his Fullbring from the badge for a while, but when it fully awakened he ignited the tiny bit left in his body. Now he will start releasing his own reiatsu again. Additionally, Ginjo explains that when all is said and done, Ichigo’s Fullbring powers will fuse with his shinigami powers, giving him a “power transcending shinigami.” I wonder why Aizen never heard of this method, after all, isn’t that what he was seeking?

His new Fullbring outfit is totally different than anything else we have seen so far. It is almost hollow-like, with white pads covering a full black suit. He even has white marks covering part of his face, similar to an Arrancar. His new sword uses his shinigami badge as the base of the hilt. Its shape is similar to the shikai version of Zangetsu, but smaller and more defined.

When they finally leave Yukio’s game it is revealed that they have only been in there for 90 minutes in real time. Just as predicted, his “fast-forward” power acts like a hyperbolic time chamber.

And finally Ichigo returns home to meet an unexpected guest. At first I thought it had to be Rukia, when Yuzu said they had a guest they hadn’t seen in a while. (Remember Rukia stayed at Ichigo’s house for a while at the very beginning of the series.) She says it is a cousin they haven’t seen in a long time. Then Ichigo opens the door to find none other than Tsukishima sitting there. Now he is either messing with Yuzu’s memories with a similar skill to the one he used on Orihime, he is lying, or he is actually related to Ichigo. Whichever one it is, he has one of two goals:

• He either wants to attack Ichigo from within, exploiting his greatest weakness, his family.
• Or more likely, he has come to tell Ichigo his side of the story: the side we have been speculating about all this time.

Oh, and what will Ichigo name his Fullbring?

Bleach Chapter 451 – Welcome to Our Execution 4

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I’m not sure if I hate what Tite is doing to the readers, or if I subconsciously love it. He has been twisting our perceptions of who is good and who is bad. Normally, like with Aizen, Gin, and Tousen back in the Soul Society Arc, I enjoy these kinds of surprises, but he has taken it too far lately. Last chapter he illustrated a very subtle, yet noticeable hint of treachery from Ginjou and Riruka, but now he has Ginjou take on a harsh, yet secretly caring mentor-like figure. It is starting to piss me off that for the first time I can’t fully understand these characters, but it is also what keeps me coming back for more each week.

Now onto the chapter itself, as we saw last week Ginjou slashed Ichigo’s eyes, essentially making him blind. He tries to tempt Ichigo’s rage by telling him he was fooling him this whole time, and basically calls him out for being a bitch. When he tells Ichigo he is going after Orihime and Chad, that is the last straw, finally igniting Ichigo’s battle sense- reviving his ability to sense reiatsu, and fully evolving his Fullbring.

I must  admit, as harsh as it was, Ginjou is a great trainer. Without a second’s hesitation he blinded Ichigo. He knew that as long as Ichigo relied on his sight, he would never be able to push past his limits and bring his reiatsu sensing ability back. Also, he knew Orihime was readily available to heal Ichigo’s eyes after all is said and done.

Also, apparently when a Fullbring fully evolves, the soul within the tool (his badge) releases itself, and a huge surge of energy. Ginjou needed to make sure he was the one to push Ichigo to that limit so he could contain that bast of energy (risking his own life in the process). Perhaps that is why he was hiding his emotions from Ichigo last chapter.

As for Ichigo’s new Fullbring, I don’t quite know what to make of it yet. His outfit solidifies, as opposed to his former reiatsu composed Shihakusho. White stripes spread from his sword marking his outfit and covering his face. In all likelihood, he probably just got a power boost, but that, coupled with his newly regained ability to sense reiatsu will make him much closer to his former glory.

So I’m not sure how gaining these fullbring powers is supposed to help him gain his shinigami powers back, but then again I’m not sure of a lot of things lately. So sit tight kiddos, we’re going for a bumpy ride.

Bleach Chapter 450 – Blind Solitude

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I’m not going to lie, I was not very impressed with Bleach this week. Nor was I entertained by any of the big Shonen manga this week for that matter. Not much happened, so I’m going to keep the review this week brief, and hope Tite steps it up next week.

The spar between Ichigo and Ginjou continues. Just as expected, Ichigo is progressing prodigiously. Ginjou demonstrates the versatility of his sword, as he uses the grip in the blade to combat opponents in close quarters. But still, aside from its versatility and the Getsuga Tensho-like projectile, we haven’t seen much from Ginjou. I think there is more to his fullbring abilities than what we have seen.

The conversation between Orihime and Riruka was cute and all, but I really don’t care to get into it. The only important thing I pulled from that scene was the very end of it. On page 13 where Orihime tells Riruka how nice she is, you can see a look on Riruka’s face as though something is tearing her up inside. Now this could just be her feeling bad for being a bitch. But if you choose to read more into it, it could be her feeling bad on the inside for what they (Xcution) are planning to do.

The caption on the next page forces me to believe the latter scenario. It says “What are the true intentions…,” my thoughts exactly. To follow that up, Ichigo goes on about how he can’t feel a thing from clashing swords with Ginjou, like he’s “put a lid on his soul.”  Why would somebody do that unless they didn’t want you to understand their true feelings? He goes on to explain that while Tsukishima was around, at least he could feel his murderous intent, but my question is, what if Tsukishima’s murderous intent wasn’t actually aimed at Ichigo? Wouldn’t it be a real humdinger if Tsukishima was actually trying to protect Ichigo from Ginjou and them in his own weird way? Or maybe he is working with them?  Or maybe I’m just jumping to conclusions…

Also, Ginjou blinds Ichigo on the last page, so I assume he will be doing some training Kaname Tosen style. That might be interesting.

I don’t know what to believe, but I have decided that Urahara and Isshin are trying to help Ichigo. Therefore, Ichigo should be weary of Ginjou and company.