Bleach

[Illjwamh]

The fact that he's behind just about everything bad that's happened in Soul Society in the last hundred or so years cements his awesomeness with me. I like a central villain who really is central. The odds of us seeing someone worse than him once he's gone are nil.

[PassiveObserver]

yo i think Aizen just made himself a candidate for one of the most badest bad asses in manga/ anime history. This guy is nice with his "absolute hypnosis" but why are they turning into hollows, did Aizen some how make them under go this transformation. And i want to know what Aizen is possible of in Bankai.

Aizen's bankai has got to be ridiculous, assuming he has one. With that absolute hypnosis he might have just gotten lazy and figured he didn't need it.

[General Suburbia]

The fact that he's behind just about everything bad that's happened in Soul Society in the last hundred or so years cements his awesomeness with me. I like a central villain who really is central. The odds of us seeing someone worse than him once he's gone are nil.
Don't jinx this. This IS a shounen series.

[Illjwamh]

*knocks on wood*

[triggerman]

yo as sick as it is to think about what Aizen's bankia is like he has to has one it is a captain must, unless he is like Kenpachi but then again he knows the name of his Zanpaktou. So he has to have one....oh my what in tha hell could it be?

[Illjwamh]

Oh yeah, it's all comin' together.

</Kronk>

[triggerman]

yeah once again had his hands in the work and from every angel and had everything covered. Now the vizards are gonna throw down too. wow this is gonna be an all star battle. but they're are way to many "good guys" and like there are only aizen, blind dude, kin or gin(watever), and the uliqua(4) and 3-1. Like there are almost 8 vizard alone and then the captains from seiretei, and if the guys from Urahara shop get involved, and even possibly ichigo's dad.....which reminds me he is the only person who was not revealed in the "pendulim" arc.

[Illjwamh]

I really want to see whose side the Vizards are going to take.


Triggerman...capital letters, man.

[PassiveObserver]

I don't think the vizards have much a reason to like Aizen. They seem to be a good natured crowd. I can't imagine them just letting Aizen go through with his plan. I think they'll side with the shinigami, even though they probably don't like them to much either.

[Illjwamh]

Well, Shinji just said they're indebted to Aizen. Obviously they like their hollow powers, and he's the one responsible for them.

[triggerman]

Well, Shinji just said they're indebted to Aizen. Obviously they like their hollow powers, and he's the one responsible for them.

yeah but it sounded like he they was gonna try and kick his ass. i think they may be dealing with their powers now they have em but i don't think they wanted them to begin with..... Illjwamh was you talking about "Vizards" needed to be capitalized?

[Illjwamh]

I'm talking about sentence structure. More than periods are necessary to discern when one thought ends and the next begins. Whenever I read one of your posts I get the sense of someone just gushing out a bunch of stuff in one breath without any breaks. It's hard sometimes to determine what you're trying to say.

No offense intended or anything, just...yeesh.

[triggerman]

I'm talking about sentence structure. More than periods are necessary to discern when one thought ends and the next begins. Whenever I read one of your posts I get the sense of someone just gushing out a bunch of stuff in one breath without any breaks. It's hard sometimes to determine what you're trying to say.

No offense intended or anything, just...yeesh.

I guess I can understand where you are coming from; and the way you feel is completely understandable. It is just, when I post on forums, I really do not focus on perfectly accurate grammer and punctuation. Sorry, but was this a little bit better?

[Illjwamh]

So much. :D

[PassiveObserver]

I predict that the soul society folk will cause a bit of damage, ultimately get owned, and then bailed out by the vizards they shunned so many years back. They to will probably be defeated after further weakening Aizen's forces, at which point Ichigo will save the day (somehow).

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

As cheesy as this week's chapter was, it did give me a warm glow and anticipation of a predictable fight that has been a long time coming. Alquiorra is actually creepy enough now to make an enjoyable opponent.

[Illjwamh]

I agree. I've been waiting for Ichigo to duke it out with him for a long time.


Good to see everyone else is alive and kickin', what with all of them having been on the brink of death only minutes before. Gotta love Shounen manga.

[genki sakura]

ICHIRUKI REUNION!!!!!


And now we can return to a discussion sans-caps lock.


Ichiruki Reunion!!!!!



And now we can return to a discussion sans-exclamation points.


I want this fight over with soon. Whether or not anyone dies doesn't matter. There's so much going on right now, that focusing anything more than a volume's worth of chapters (I'm being generous...because I'm open to the fact that this might become a long drawn out fight) to the fight between Ichigo and Ulqui would create a rut. I want one attack, a big kablooey explosion, and then cut to another part of the current plotline.

And if all else fails, someone is going to interrupt this fight.

[Zelyhon]

I sense a catfight approaching. XD

And one that doesn't actually have Yoruichi in it.

So, now that we have 5+ imminent fights, I wonder which they'll start with, and just how many people will pull bankai out without any forewarning.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

Well if we've already seen the bankai before there will be less need to hold back for the sake of audience suspence... possibly with the exception of Ichimaru who likes to make things hard for himself. Then again, the recent Captain fights lasted long enough :)

[Illjwamh]

I'm looking forward to seeing what Hisagi is capable of. He and Nemu are the only Vice-Captains whose initial releases have not yet been revealed. Well, their forms anyway. We know what they look like for several of them if not what they can do.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

I very much enjoyed playing as Hisagi in the Heat Soul games so I'll be looking forward to it too. We also haven't seen Nanao-chan in action..... Where's that pink loli of Ken's?

[Illjwamh]

Right! How could I forget about lovely Nanao-chan?

[Natsuke Takeda]

You never know, those two might be the second or third line of backup for either them or for Ichigo just in case he's getting his @ss kicked and the others are trying to fend off the grunt enemies.

[Illjwamh]

Which two? Every Vice-Captain is currently wherever their Captain is, with the exceptions of Hisagi and Kira (whose Captains are evil), and Hinamori (whose Captain is also evil) who is still out on sick leave or whatever.

[genki sakura]

Hinamori needs to make a comeback XD

Maybe all that time on sick leave will make her a crazed avenger...who despises all forms of bonds with people...and learns crazy, (illegal) techniques...and leaves the Seireitei to join a pedophilic teacher with an affinity for snakes...oh and before she leaves, she and Hitsugaya have a heartfelt scene where she says "Thank you" and disappears, leaving Hitsugaya on a random bench.

...and Hitsugaya goes on an expedition to stop Hinamori.

...and then they have a showdown in some waterfalls.

...and then Hitsugaya gets defeated.

...and then he enlists the aid of Ichigo and co.

...and Hitsugaya and Ichigo and co. go to save Hinamori.

(Granted this would happen if Aizen isn't dead after this arc...which is an outcome I wouldn't bet against.)


Yeah, yeah, I know, as a captain, Hitsugaya would probably be able to stop Hinamori at the gates of the Seireitei...>.><.<

[Illjwamh]

That all sounds vaguely familiar...

[Illjwamh]

320.

And so arrives the greatest threat yet from the Arrancar: giant codpieces.

[genki sakura]

320=funny sh*t

I like Yamichika's fight. Yes, I'm easily amused.

[Illjwamh]

321.

I'm starting to see how Yumichika managed to so easily defeat a Vice-Captain. That is one incredible technique.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

It was nice that we finally got to see that technique that was hinted at all that time ago. Visually impressive and iirc he gets something of a health boost from it too. I love the fast pace too since there's too much going on to waste on drawn out fights. Very much looking forward to the next chapters. I'm suspecting the other vice captains may have longer battles purely because we haven't seen all their release states yet (with the exception of Inchimaru).

Can't wait to see Kira and Hisagi in action!

[Illjwamh]

Looks like we're going to have to wait another week for that. This was just the "set-up" chapter.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

The extra conclusion to last week's fight was very much worth it. It's not even a bankai!
Seriously. I should utterly hate that vain character but for some reason he has GAR shining through. It also gave me more info on the Zanpakuto's which was very interesting.

[genki sakura]

Chapter 323: Kira is a bad ass.

[Illjwamh]

Indeed. I like the reason for the shape of his sword.:cool:

[Javer]

I never noticed before how full of gloating (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JustBetweenYouAndMe) this series is.

[Illjwamh]

A lot of shounen manga are like that. Naruto is particularly bad for it. They can't just beat you, they have to explain how they did it.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

You do have to admit that the gloating does add a lot to the "despair" aspect of Kira :)

The seemingly useless ability suddenly became oh so very badass.

I'm so looking forward to Hisagi!!

[Illjwamh]

Finally we get to see Hisagi's shikai...though now we have to wait until next week to see what it does.


Interesting though, I had thought only Kyouraku and Ukitake's zanpakutou were in pairs.

[Natsuke Takeda]

I kind of classify his to the baldy's kind of. If I see correctly, Hisagi's weapons aren't identical.

[genki sakura]

WAIT?! WHAT!?????? NOES!?!

(Unless Kubo wants to break the streak of people endlessly coming back from near fatal conditions, Ikkaku might actually be dead...:()

But that would be a sucky way to go...I mean, we didn't see any of his fight other than the opening trash talking.

[Javer]

Ikkaku is the last person who'd succumb to damage. :S Unless they're going for the Worf effect.

[Zelyhon]

Ikkaku is the last person who'd succumb to damage. :S Unless they're going for the Worf effect.

I'm betting he's just being himself and not using his Bankai because too many people would notice. Add that to his Shikai not being anywhere near as strong/cool as the other three and I can see why he'd go down first.

Although, my first thought before I considered who it was was, "So much for Bankai being ridiculously more powerful than Shikai, when the three of them won and the only one with it lost."

[Illjwamh]

But that would be a sucky way to go...I mean, we didn't see any of his fight other than the opening trash talking.

Nah. It'll go back and show his now. This was just to add a bit of suspense. Now we all want to see how his fight ended up this way.

[genki sakura]

I smell a bankai coming.

[Natsuke Takeda]

I'm kind of disappointed at Hisagi's shikai. It didn't have anything that satisfied the allure and mystery it had when we didn't know what it was. I was actually looking forward to seeing Hisagi do something immensely powerful, perhaps even use Bankai to captainize himself lol

[Illjwamh]

Well, with three captains gone, I'd say he's a likely candidate to replace one of them (most likely in the division he's already in) based on what we know of him and what we've seen so far. He was the "gifted upperclassman" when Renji's class were freshman, and he just wiped the floor with an arrancar who was boasting about being "captain level" (although he was obviously overstating his ability) with only his shikai.

Renji's another good candidate, seeing as he actually can perform bankai.

[Illjwamh]

Technically I'm double posting I guess; pardon me.

How is it that this week's One Piece was actually a page shorter but felt fifteen pages longer than this?

[Zelyhon]

Technically I'm double posting I guess; pardon me.

How is it that this week's One Piece was actually a page shorter but felt fifteen pages longer than this?

Because it involved plot movement and not just posing up a storm for the incoming fight?

[Illjwamh]

Rhetorical question. :p

[Zelyhon]

Rhetorical question. :p

With an honest answer. XD

[genki sakura]

So this is all exciting and all, but when are we going to get back to Ichigo and everyone else in Las Noches? If memory serves me right, he was about to have a showdown with Ulquiorra, right? I think...


Gotta love how unreal time is right now in the Bleach world. Or is Kubo going to completely forgo a fight and just cut to the outcome?

[Illjwamh]

Well, you have to remember that this is all happening at pretty much the same time. He can only show us so much at once. Every scene change is essentially accompanied by a "Meanwhile...".

[Zelyhon]

So this is all exciting and all, but when are we going to get back to Ichigo and everyone else in Las Noches? If memory serves me right, he was about to have a showdown with Ulquiorra, right? I think...


Gotta love how unreal time is right now in the Bleach world. Or is Kubo going to completely forgo a fight and just cut to the outcome?

With Ichigo and Ulquiorra? Not a chance.

With the rest of the captains, as much as I don't want him to, maybe.

And personally, I'm enjoying a little time away from Ichigo. He's not a strong enough character, in my opinion, to carry the story pretty much solely on his own for a great length of time. Then again, I don't think that very many pure Shounen-series leads are, Luffy being just about the only one who comes to mind off the top of my head.

[genki sakura]

I know he's not the strongest character to carry a series (considering that Kubo created so many other engaging characters, imo), but I'm hoping all of the chaos in Kamakura is going to end soon...pacing wise, if it continues any longer, it's just going to become a dead spot with a few cool moments.


That said, I personally can't wait for the manga to return to something of "fighting+plot development." But then again, this is a shonen manga.

I guess one of my professors was right about action, "It kills plot."

[PassiveObserver]

It would be nice if something interesting happened in this manga sometime soon. Never before have I been so bored by fight scenes. Where are the Vizards? Haven't seem them in a while and they're a fun group, when are they going to show up?

[ulokiora]

bleach is the coolest anime i luv it i plan on ordering the video games and Aizen is the man with his zanpakuto Kyokasuigetsu(water flower mirror moon)

[Natsuke Takeda]

...And on that note, the newest chapter for bleach did nothing but set up everything they did last chapter; and that only took two pages last week...

[Javer]

Stop trying to build up manly drama with worm's-eye view. It's not working. >:

[Natsuke Takeda]

I'm not. To me, this chapter did nothing but build up what it had already did last week. I look at it this way; think of an episode where in the last 5 minutes, something new happens and all the player's roles are revealed. Then the next episode spends the entire time showing all the player's roles once again, with nothing really big happening that changed what was already known. No back story or anything to make the fight much more than it is.

I'm not trying to build up anything, but I'd like to show my distate for what it's done this week. No doubt I've been having a negative reaction when I read Bleach and Naruto lately, but it's cause I can't find anything redeeming this week.

[Illjwamh]

I agree. This week was pretty much a filler chapter. Get on with it already.

[Zelyhon]

I'm not. To me, this chapter did nothing but build up what it had already did last week. I look at it this way; think of an episode where in the last 5 minutes, something new happens and all the player's roles are revealed. Then the next episode spends the entire time showing all the player's roles once again, with nothing really big happening that changed what was already known. No back story or anything to make the fight much more than it is.

I'm not trying to build up anything, but I'd like to show my distate for what it's done this week. No doubt I've been having a negative reaction when I read Bleach and Naruto lately, but it's cause I can't find anything redeeming this week.

I thought Javer was talking to Bleach, not to you. XD

That said, I haven't actually seen a translation, but it does seem like a whole lot of nothing aside from the opening words to most of the fights and DRAMATIC SWORD DRAWING!

[Javer]

I'm not. To me, this chapter did nothing but build up what it had already did last week.

Dude, not you. >_>

[Corpse]

they should have just kept telling the past arc with the vaizards, that shit was awesome.

[Natsuke Takeda]

Well, I mean, this arc can be cool, too. All their doing is making it harder for the anime to NOT catch up. It only means that the anime is going to catch up sooner by an extra week.

They just have to get things moving~ The only thing I have against this current situation is that it's another sub-boss who sends his minions to do the work.

Though the sexy lady facing Hitsugaya might be fun~

[Illjwamh]

Considering the anime is in the middle of a completely non-canon, unrelated filler arc, I don't thing they have to worry about catching up any time soon.

[zarahf]

Thank gawd they finally just gave us a melee. I don't think I could take too many more weeks of the same thing over and over. Can we move on now?

[ltj2002]

I like how all the captains are too busy standing around in mid-air to actually do something. They're all "Our trump card is the weaker guys at the pillars! Nevermind that we could get there OR (god forbid) stop them before they get there easily. Being dramatic is much cooler!"

D: If it doesn't pick up soon..... I'll just have to read it several chapters at a time.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

At least the good thing about the gotei 13 fights is that they are over quickly. I hate drawn-out battles.

[Illjwamh]

It's true. It makes sense, though. They're captains and vice-captains and so far they've only been fighting fraccion.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

Well I did say something about drawn out battles but at least we have some combined 'RIP AND TEAR' and GATTAI. Marks for originality.

The next few chapter will be fun. Might get boring when we return to *yawn* Ichigo.

[triggerman]

well i must say im surprised that guy is number 1. I really thought the old man was, but hes only two. Damn that other guy must be nice. lol

[Illjwamh]

Maybe the old man is like...0 or something.

[Javer]

Stark gives me sort of a Rob Lucci vibe for some reason.

Anyway, I wouldn't be totally surprised if Barragan's powers lay in his Fracción. There are numerous nods to his status as a monarch figure - he's been sitting around in a throne observing for the last half hour, his Hollow mask is shaped like a crown, and his Fracción refer to him as "Majesty" and number more than those of any other Espada. Except for that Apollo guy.

His abilities probably have more to do with leadership or command than single combat.

[PassiveObserver]

I can't believe they actually acknowledged that Ichigo still exits. I never thought I'd see the day where they'd actually put Ichigo in his own manga.

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

Ichigo was boring anyways. The Gotei 13 are much more interesting.

[Natsuke Takeda]

Seriously. Old man Yama alone was enough to pique my interest for a good long time.

I'm seriously thinking that yeah, Aizen's powerful and sh*t, but Yama's still gonna kick his ass if he gets real serious. There's a reason why he has the other key to that king of soul society guy, and why Aizen's looking for another way to get it xD