Bleach

[ben0119]

After reading that chapter, all I can say is...

HOLY SHIT!

Now, after I've composed my thoughts a bit...

You're forgetting that those empty Captain's seats have been filled by some of the Visoreds!  So,  it's not like 3rd Squad has no Captain, and it's just Izuru running the show.  So, whatever Visored took Gin's slot didn't do a very good job.  Then again, Izuru's plan was idiotic.  And why did they need the R&D guys there to tell them the enemy was going to kick their asses?

I love how Kubo introduced those three Squad 3 guys just get offed.  I guess he didn't think Izuru was enough.  Man, that was crazy!

Anyway, looks like the Stern Ritter are some of those dudes that we saw on title page for the first chapter of this arc.  And, that blonde guy was the one that reported to The King in an earlier chapter, right?  I guess Kubo decided to just introduce them right when they would start fighting, after all.  Though, I bet some of them were the Quincies behind masks during the first attack that killed Sasakibe, when they declared war.

After what happened to Izuru, I don't like Rukia's chances. D: Not to mention those bumbling third seats.  Are they actually going to fight?!  I guess Ukitake is bedridden, now of all times.

From the last page, it looks like Ichigo is still struggling with Kirge, despite going Bankai.  And the chapter was called "The Final Chapter Part One".  Bleach might be ending sooner than we thought? D:

I also wonder if any of ya'll can make anything of that last page with the ads.  I saw on the earlier page that there was a Bleach app.  First glasses, now a smart phone app.  I think Bleach might be even more merchandised than Star Wars!  I wonder if those kids on that last ad page were characters from the Don Kanonji book.

[ben0119]

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Blah_canbespanish wrote:

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ben0119 wrote:

 Either way, the Hollow Mask was more of a liability than anything.

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How? The only time his hollow side was ever any form of a liability was at the very beginning of the arrancar arc before he learned to control it. And before that it had managed to completely save his ass at least two, arguably three, times. Then it saves him again with Ulq. Seriously, the mask was almost like literal plot armor. Anytime Ichigo was about to lose it would pop up somehow and completely save the day.

I really hope Shirosaki does return, he's far too much fun to just disappear so anti-climatically like that. Oh and do remember that Ichigo's FGT form did have a mask on it, just a half-one rather than a full. I think it's too soon to say that side of him is completely gone. We can assume that Zangetsu at the very least should be back, and if one half came back the other may be as well.

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But the Hollow "helping" him comes at the cost of Ichigo's personality, self, and soul.  Presumably, if that kept happening, it would take over and there would be no more Ichigo!  So, it's not exactly a good thing.  Plus, every time the Hollow "saves" Ichigo, it seems like cheating, at least to me, especially in the Ulq fight.

Oh yeah, but that was more of a ninja mask, plus it was made of bandages/ribbons, not Hollow bone.  Then again, in a color page as recent as this arc, if you paid attention, there was a reference to the Hollow Mask.  Ichigo has a cool hoody on, and it mimicks the pattern of the Hollow mask.  So, maybe that's foreshadowing?  I dunno, I mean, the Hollow was an accident and a side effect of him getting his Soul Reaper powers back the first time, I never saw it as a good thing, more like a curse.

Hollow Ichigo was cool though, as in, when Ichigo would fight him in his Inner World, or talk trash to Ichigo in his head, but I never liked it too much when it took him over.  It was like Ichigo turning into the Incredible Hulk.

[Shadowstaarr]

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ben0119 wrote:

So, whatever Visored took Gin's slot didn't do a very good job. 

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That was my point   I believe it was Rose who got the spot, assuming the Vizard who were once captains took their previous spot in their respective squads, provided it was empty.

Still don't know what to make of the title yet, but at least I feel like these guys are enough of a threat where I can see Soul Society needing help from either Squad Zero or Aizen or both.  It would be fun to have an uneasy alliance with Aizen.

[mgangel1124]

Aww, I liked Izuru.

If this is the finale, then I'm sure it's going up to part 57 or something. Deicide was what, 30 chapters?

[Blah_canbespanish]

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Shadowstaarr wrote:
Gin wouldn't have let that happen, jussaiyan.

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I know, right? Gin would of at least gone for the heart or cut Kira in two. These Quincy are sloppy.

[stardust_whispers]

That was wow.. We are really seeing the sh!t hitting the fan.

[Blah_canbespanish]

We must of read different translations, mine had "The Closing Chapter" which presumably is referring to Soul Society itself rather than the story as a whole. Kubo did say SS would be left in ruins/flames.

For your next post about Shirosaki: The Vizards have gone 100 years with full control over their hollows, I don't think Shirosaki taking over for good was a serious threat anymore after the Vizard training was complete. And yeah, it was cheating. That's part of what plot armor is. That doesn't mean it's a liability though, which was my original point. Shirosaki/the Mask in general did far more good for Ichigo than bad.

Oh and his FGT mask had teeth at the top of the bandages didn't it? That's not really normal for cloth.

[Reignfire]

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Shadowstaarr wrote:

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ben0119 wrote:

So, whatever Visored took Gin's slot didn't do a very good job. 

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That was my point   I believe it was Rose who got the spot, assuming the Vizard who were once captains took their previous spot in their respective squads, provided it was empty.

Still don't know what to make of the title yet, but at least I feel like these guys are enough of a threat where I can see Soul Society needing help from either Squad Zero or Aizen or both.  It would be fun to have an uneasy alliance with Aizen.

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That would be interesting, releasing Aizen out of desparation.

[helpme]

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udsha wrote:

Hahaha Kira... That made my day.

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once I saw that

I couldn't stop laughing

[DarbyBoy]

Ok so I've been neglecting the boards for a bit. Hope you all didn't miss my AMAZING wit too much

So the last chapters. Wow. Kira is dead, I liked him I thought he was cute >_> And Kubo is all like "trolololol now I kill everyone so I don't have to make more bankai >_>"

And some of those quincy are adorable. Just sayin'

Umm hmmm. Oh yeah. Quincy power level >>>>>>> 9000 it would seem. We'll see how this plays out,

[silver74]

After reading the chapter all I gotta say is one thing ... Kubo you son of a ####!!!! You killed off Kira first?!!!  There was WAY more boring / annoying characters to hit the choping block first. Number one should have been Omaeda the worthless fat bastard of squad two. I accept he has to start killing people off but starting with tubby first would have been better choice.

Sorry for the rant guys ... Im pms today .

[mgangel1124]

Or Momo. Third time's the charm.

I know the Quincies are ####sed about the genocide thing, but I honestly don't believe the Soul Society was truly in the wrong. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone mass killings or anything, but the Quincies were causing the world to become dangerously unbalanced and refused to stop when they were doing more harm than good. I really can't fault the Soul Reapers for decimating them when it was their only option to keep the world from being destroyed. I have to wonder if the Vandeblargh actually have a plan for what to do once they destroy the Soul Society; have they actually figured out a way to keep the world from ending once the Soul Reapers are gone or are they just okay with killing off the entire planet to get revenge on what, a couple thousand people at most? I'm sure there's more to the whole Quincy Genocide thing that no one's told us, but I think the whole "Quincies are causing a dangerous imbalance of souls that will end up destroying the world" point is probably true.

[robertje]

momo's like a cockroach u keep stepping on her but she keeps coming back! lol but i do agree there are a few ppl that could have got torn first... my pick would have been tetsuzaemon i cant stand that guy! o and about the chapter yeah i was getting bored with soul reapers i think the new soul society would be a nice change when all the quincies kill the soul reapers rofl!!! 

[crushrose]

OMG WHAT THE HELL I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT IS GOING ON, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING I SRSLY DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING

Spoiler

RUKIA SRSLY DID NOT HAVE THAT MUCH MANGA TIME THIS WEEK

[neverkeepchangin11]

If Hiyori wasn't killed when she was cut in half then Kira has a chance to survive that.

[HardcoreHunter]

Is it true! Are characters actually dieing!!!

[SoulReaperCaptain01]

Another great chapter! Am I the only one who doesn't want Kira to die!?!?!

Anyway, this is getting kinda freaky! How many important characters does Kubo plan to kill? And how will the rest of the arc, considering that I've read that it's supposed to be longer than the Arrancar arc, play out? What role will Uryu play?

Darn! So many questions! I sort of wish there was more than one chapter a week!

[Blah_canbespanish]

This may get a bit rambley but it's late, I'm tired, and I'm having difficultly managing my thoughts.

I'm hesitant to believe SS was completely without fault after how they treated Souken, a Quincy who actually did want peace and cooperation between the two groups. He couldn't of been the only one either, right?

For the original purpose of the conflict; I think there's going to be a lot more to the consequences of the imbalance than how the shinigami are representing it. Particularly the whole "everyone dies, world is over" bit is stretching things. I mean, how do they know that is what will happen? It's never been really explained how Soul Society is able to manage souls the way they are able to, nor why they know the things they do.

The obvious answer is that it all has to do with the Soul King, the system is something he(it?) entrusted to them, which is why I think the Vandenreich's ultimate goal is along the same lines as Aizen's, at least in how it's all about disrupting the status quo of the world. The two worlds merging may not kill everyone, it just destroys the current life/death system that is in place.

Another thing that has always bothered me is how unnatural the shinigami are compared to hollows. It's not a pretty fate, but hollows are a souls natural evolution. Their world seems completely unaffected by this whole balance business too. Maybe Soul Society is a separate world that the Soul King created and sort of linked it to the human world. He and the shinigami become basically gods/rulers over the human realm - possibly tying into some symbolism regarding how souls are "chained" to their human form. It would also explain some of Urahara's comments about how SS cannot exist without the Soul King.

That's all kind of reaching I guess, but at the very least I want to believe the Vandenreich is after more than simple revenge. Otherwise this entire arc is basically a drawn out version of the first movie. Seriously: One thousand year old grudge from strong group living in a different dimension comes to try and make SS/HW collide and destroy both worlds. Only thing we are missing is a strong female lead that everyone wishes could replace Orihime.

edit - To add to the second to last paragraph, the current life/death system being something the SK forced on the world would also work with what Aizen originally said about how no god starts out as ruler, it is a throne they take for themselves.

[the_tick_rules2]

I hope Kira makes it, he's all right.

[mgangel1124]

Oh, I'm sure there's some dark secrets we don't know yet about the whole thing, but I think the whole balancing act is mostly true, or the Soul Reapers are convinced it is. When Mayuri butchers a couple thousand people in the Soul Society, he says it's because they needed to balance out the souls, and Yamamoto is only annoyed that he didn't bother telling him first since he would have given permission anyways. While I wouldn't put it past Mayuri to do something like that just for fun, I don't think he'd lie about his reasoning. If he killed a bunch of people because he wanted to see if he could harness their death screams as an energy source, I'm sure he would come right out and say that's why he did it.

[SoulReaperCaptain01]

Check out the cover of volume 55!

http://images.wikia.com/bleach/en/images/4/40/Bleach_Volume_55.pn
g

[HardcoreHunter]

Well you know what they say History is written by the victors.

[robertje]

last time i checked Vietnam was a bust and it is the most dramatised war of em all...

[HardcoreHunter]

There wasn't really anything to win in Vietnam. The only way it could have been a real win is if NK said that they liked democracy rather than communism.

[robertje]

Thats what we did with germany 30 years earlier lol