The Underscore's Double Bleach review, 487 & 488

[The Underscore]

DOUBLE BLEACH REVIEW

Fufufufu, and there you guys were thinking the switcheroo between Aizen and Ichigo's names was the April-fool's joke, while it was actually the part where I said I'd be back with another review in one week's time! The funniest part of it all? I had little to no control over either of these two facts!
Whatever the case, might as well do a double review to cover the last two chapters. Let's see if I can review two chapters in the time it usually takes to review one .

Bleach chapter 486, Crimson Cremation, rated by 7 voters, gets an average score of:

9.0

Awesome


Chapter 487: Breathe but blind

Really Ichigo, you could've noticed the man wearing a hat standing right in front of you house...

Urahara managed to show up at Ichigo's house with perfect timing. Though this "coincidence" is often glazed over during most forms of storytelling, Ichigo decides to question this "coincidence" for once. Urahara then states that he had been waiting outside of Ichigo's window the entire time. Though it's obvious that Urahara could be this perverted, Ichigo doesn't buy this impractical joke.

Urahara then explains just how logical it is for Urahara to show up when he did. Two Arrancar fall from the sky, Ichigo has a fight with an Arrancar that fires countless lasers around town, and there's the incidents in Soul Society. All these things link together according to Urahara, and even Ichigo should've had a suspicion of this being true. It's like Urahara has been reading the manga to get his information . Though this doesn't explain how Urahara timed the moment he would sit in the window to the last second as he could've entered midway through the conversation or a couple of minutes after that .

With all of this taking place in the Garganta, they should be arriving at their destination soon. What better place to re-conquer Hueco Mundo than to start at Las Noches? This spread in colors isn't exactly what I was hoping to see, hearing that there'd be colored pages for this chapter. But I have to say, the way Kubo drew the chapter title looks pretty awesome. With Hueco Mundo burning blue and the collapsed dome of Las Noches in the background, it leaves a pretty good impression of what's going on here.

Stealth

Not even Tom Cruise could sneak into enemy territory with these guys around

Falling out of the sky, Nel can't help but think she's going to fall to her impendent doom. Ichigo, however, has flown with Urahara airlines more than once, knowing this is all part of the Urahara brand customer service. Urahara is pleased to hear Ichigo knows him so well . Still falling (even though Ichigo could've just stood in the air...), Orihime uses her Santen Kesshun to catch everyone. Nel is overjoyed at their mid-air stop. Ichigo isn't quite as overjoyed with her overjoyfulness... (yes, I just made up a word again).

One of the Arma guards notices the noise made by this sudden invasion. But the other one can't be bothered with these suspicions as he knows that there's nothing but corpses lying around. The two guards then continue guiding the prisoners to the meeting point.

Meanwhile, Chad notifies everyone that they haven't been noticed. Considering Chad's size and his current get-up, I'm surprised that they have him on the lookout. Then again, looking at the others in the group, it wouldn't make that much of a difference . At least they're well hidden behind a broken wall. Ichigo, however, is fully aware that he had to shut up the two Nel-desert-brothers. Surprised to hear that they haven't been noticed, Ichigo can't help but wonder whether these guards are just inept. Though he isn't as surprised as he is hearing Pessche saying the guards are just idiots.

Pessche then explains the physics of a mask. Even if you close the mouth (or in Pessche's case, protuberance) on a mask, the mouth BEHIND the mask can still move. Too bad for Ichigo that his action had the opposite effect of what he wanted to achieve . Lucky for them, no one's going to bother checking out their location, and Urahara knows exactly why...

Indigo flames of war

Either that, or the after party to Aizen's rule has really gotten out of hand...

With the area covered with corpses, Pessche explains exactly what it is they're witnessing here. The Vandenreichers apparently have no issue with killing one half of the captured Arrancars, while abducting the others. Their method to do so was basic. Take off the head to stop the limbs. What better way to remove a head then using blue flames created from condensed Reishi?

The fact that all of the Vandenreichers are capable of making these Reishi flames is interesting. Sure, we've seen Rukia fire off plenty of blue firebolts more than once, but I've yet to see those flames burn the unburnable. Most likely, this ability stems from the Quincy part of things we've seen from Ivan. Rather than turning the particles into arrows, they turn them to flames, consuming the reiatsu from the material in Hueco mundo and turning them into fuel for those flames.

Whether this is the case or not, Ichigo is more set on freeing all the prisoners. Though Pessche rejects the idea at first, because Dondochakka isn't with those prisoners and all, Ichigo feels it's just as easy to save everyone and Dondochakka along with them. As Ichigo rushes off, Urahara speaks Pessche's mind. What kind of an idiot would save the people who were his enemies only a year ago? Ichigo that is . Heck, he even asked for a burial for a man who schemed to take his powers, manipulated his family and friends, and wanted to destroy a society Ichigo saved only 17 months prior to that... With Ichigo taking the lead, everyone else decides to follow.

Spitting on one's throne

Don't think you can pull off an Aizen, Opie. No one can...

Meet Opie. Opie is the supervising captain of the Iacto Arme. Opie thinks it's wise to sit on a throne in Hueco Mundo with a pose reminiscent of Aizen's. Opie clearly wants power he doesn't have. Waiting for his colleagues to line the Hollows along a wall, two captives reveal that they're planning to do something about Opie.

Opie then stands in front of the prisoners, explaining that he's holding a tournament. This tournament's rules? Stand still and get stabbed, or lick boots begging to join the Vandenreich army. I get the feeling this tournament isn't all that fair . A nameless Arrancar seems to agree, though he's opting to immediately join the Vandenreichers. Opie, however, doesn't like it when people don't want to play according to his rules. Again, his obvious desire for power he doesn't have shows through here. It's shown through his stabbing of Arrancar and Hollows alike. Meanwhile, two of the Vandenreichers can't help but wonder whether the captain will leave any of the captives alive, though they are pretty sure he's going to kill them all.

As Opie is stabbing the captives, one of them suddenly evades the attack. All of a sudden the captive grabs the halberd, while the one standing next to her cuts it in two. As Opie has two weapons pointed at him, the other Vandenreichers finally realize they messed up by not taking their weapons. But Opie is more concerned with the time it took for them to scream out for him. In the meantime, Loly and Menoly reveal their true identities.

Add another mystery

Wait a sec, never mind where Loly hid her weapon, how do you explain Menoly hiding hers?

Faced with Aizen's former aides, Opie is forced to show his real weapon for once. Using his Quincy mark, he creates a sword to give Menoly superficial wounds, while knocking out Loly with the back of his sword. As Opie turns around and walks away, the other Vandenreichers retain the two Arrancars. Opie then reveals that Buckbeard wants Arrancars with guts, meaning Loly and Menoly get to keep their lives. Though they do get a beating to make sure they comply.

As if Opie hadn't insulted Aizen enough, he starts to measure Aizen to the level of his aides. It's clear that Opie has no clue as to who or what Aizen truly was. After all, Opie thinks that beating Harribel is proof of beating Aizen as she is the one who became the successor to the throne. Guess that means Aizen beat himself 17 months ago the moment he cut down Harribel himself . At least we learn that Buck didn't have any trouble facing someone of Harribel's level. It'd be bad for the final villain of Bleach to have trouble with someone of her level.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the beating of Loly and Menoly isn't going as smoothly as Opie wanted it to go. Just as he wants to tell his colleagues to tone it down a bit, he almost gets a disc to the face. But Opie apparently knows how to play catch, but who does he have to throw the weapon back to?

488: Bond Behind Blast

That's right, I'm using the last picture from chapter 487

Chapter 487 ends with Harribel's flunkies showing up with renewed and improved looks. Well, can't say it's an actual improvement, though it's better than the burnt look they had after they met up with old man Yamamoto . Seeing these three again reminds me of how much I didn't really miss them. I am rather curious as to why they suddenly have lightning bolts on their outfits right now. Perhaps they're trying to go for a Valkyrie look of sorts?

As Apacci tries to act tough, but Mila Rose doesn't like the way she's acting overexcited. What better way to get someone to calm down than to tell them you're going to kill them if they don't? Apparently there has to be one, because Apacci isn't too happy hearing this and starts to bicker with her Gorilla friend (admittedly, Mila Rose looks like she's been hitting the gym quite often in the past 17 months).

All the while, Sung-sun decides it's best to let the two play while she cleans up good old captain Opie. This decision of Sung-sun's leads to an explosion of anger in the other two. An explosion so big, that it actually takes place! Ichigo, who had been heading there, sees the explosion and is surprised that there's already something happening there. But Nel surprises Ichigo even more with her piece of information.

Tres Bestia

Basically, the way to beat these three is to wait and have them destroy themselves

Nel decides that she can do what Yachiru does again. Though Ichigo isn't quite as interested in competing with Kenpachi in this way (or any other way for that matter), he allows Nel to "protect his back". In return, he asks that she tells him who it is that's fighting over at their destination. The Tres Bestia are apparently the ones who took over the Espada function from, well, the Espadas. With amazing power, they're capable of destroying armies in seconds, assuming they don't succeed in their attempts of killing each other. Terrified at the thought of these three, Nel clings to Ichigo's head, covering his eyes in the process. This causes Ichigo to break the unspoken rule of silence, which even Orihime realizes...

Meanwhile, the Tres Bestia are having a field day with the Vandenreichers. It would seem that Nel hasn't spoken a false word about the three. One of the Vandenreichers sees no other option than to flee from these overpowered women. But Opie isn't one to retreat from the battlefield only because all of his men are being slaughtered by the opponents. No, he is a man who slaughters the men who suggest they retreat before proposing that the Tres Bestia surrender and join Harribel to fight for Buckbeard. I have to say, for a douche, Opie certainly has balls. He shows no signs of fear in spite of three powerful Arrancar facing him. He even knowingly mocks the three of them, thinking his appearance alone is enough to convince them. But Apacci makes it quite clear that them joining is something that isn't going to happen.

Identity revealed

Well, Mayuri should know. He knows Quincy inside and out... literally

As all of this is taking place in Hueco Mundo, Soul Society has their own business to attend to. Akon gave his report on the events caused by the Vandenreichers, formally known as the rebel army. After Mayuri dismisses Akon, he continues the explanation. He confirms what Urahara said in the previous chapter, saying these rebels are responsible for the disappearance of Hollows that was revealed at the beginning of this arc. But more importantly, the rebel's true identity has been confirmed to be Quincy!

Though this has been rather obvious during the past couple of chapters, it's good to see a confirmation of this status. Of course, it's still possible that these are the spirits of Quincy, rather than living Quincy, but we'll have to wait and see. Mayuri then reveals that he apparently doesn't know everything there is to know about Quincy's. He doesn't know how they got into Soul Society, how they managed to get this much influence without being noticed, nor how they can block Bankai's, or at least render them useless. Guess that means Mayuri will have to go back on his words about saying he isn't interested in dissecting Ishida .

Hearing about Sasakibe's death again, Genryuusai gets straight to the point. He wants to know where he is going to unleash flames of wrath that will make hell look like a lukewarm place!!!~~ err, where the enemy is hiding . Probably wetting himself a little, Mayuri has to admit to not knowing where the Vandenreich base is located. Genryuusai isn't too pleased to hear that they can't be the ones invading. This leaves him no choice but to prepare for a defensive battle. But he won't let his captains take five days to prepare for war. He wants them to be ready as soon as possible, and even faster than that. The cowards who had the nerve of killing his vice-captain won't be trusted with their words of a five day time limit. Soul Society has been outrun once, but never again!

Opie's day out

So this is beating people up without going too far.... I see...

Ichigo sees another explosion, one even bigger than before. Nel says this is all the work of the Tres Bestia, meaning Ichigo doesn't have to bother going to the location anymore. She won't even make fun of Ichigo running away from a battle! Guess that's reason enough to turn around, right? But Ichigo isn't convinced by the child banging on his head.

Ichigo arrives at the battlefield, witnessing the results of the fight between the beasts and the Quincy. It turns out that Opie likes to keep his shirt and cloak white as well. Without being scratched, the three Fracciones have been beaten to an inch of their lives. After cleaning up here, Opie is more interested in the arrival of a Shinigami than he is in the fact that the Shinigami is Ichigo!

I'm getting rusty, reviewing two chapters like this. Well, it's obvious that chapter 487 had more content than 488. With the reintroduction of several characters and the introduction of a new one, there was plenty going on. Add to that the explanation of the Vandenreich way of conquering, and you've got a filled up chapter. 488, however, focuses more on moving forward with things. It wrapped up the arrival of the Tres Bestia. It showed us that Genryuusai's still as angry as can be while managing his troops for the sake of revenge, or as he's bound to call it "the protection of Soul Society". It even made sure that Opie's arrogance wasn't just baseless boasting by a Quincy, it is actually based boasting! Of course, beating three Fracciones without being scratched isn't something new .

What I'm enjoying about these chapters is that Kubo isn't wasting too much time introducing new characters. He even makes sure that some familiar faces get their time in the limelight. Sure, not the most intriguing characters, but at least the time he spent on introducing them in the Arrancar Arc isn't going to waste thanks to this. The snide remarks aimed at Aizen during chapter 487 were somewhat familiar. It's like the first comments people had about Aizen's army when they were introduced a couple of years ago. Why bother with the useless fodder soldiers? At least we know it had to do with Aizen's egomania, not trusting anyone, and most importantly being unbelievably strong himself.

This week's chapter's most redeeming feature (to me) has to be the part where Genryuusai made Mayuri wet his pants . Besides this, this chapter was little more than a way for Kubo to show that there are captains in the Vandenreich army that may actually be of a captain class. Of course, it even showed that there were plenty of weaker soldiers amongst the Vandenreich army as well . Still, this could be a sign of balance between the two forces. But that's something that can only be said after seeing how Opie fares against Ichigo in battle during next week's chapter.

The fight between Opie and Ichigo will start quickly. But after two or three blows, Opie will realize that he's facing Ichigo. He will then want to take Ichigo's Bankai, but the others will arrive at the scene by that time. Urahara will then tell Ichigo not to use his Bankai and offer to fight Opie himself. Opie will make a remark that it doesn't matter who faces him, though he would like to take Ichigo's Bankai for Buckbeard. Urahara then offers Opie to try and take his Bankai instead...

That’s it for this week’s review. I hope you guys enjoyed it even if it was long overdue and a bit rushed towards the end. Be sure to let me know what your thoughts are on these chapters and/or review, give any theories that you may have and to vote in this week’s poll. I’ll see you guys again next week!

[Super Angillis]

Is it just me or have the last few chapters been really bad for female Arracannar?

[Jamil2009]

Thanks for the review dude!

Just want to comment on what you proposed concerning whether these were living Quincy (sorry, is the plural Quincies or Quincys...sounds like it's just Quincy all around) or the souls of vanquished Quincy. These should be souls and not living Quincy because:

1. Quincy are human beings afterall; and
2. They dedicate their lives to eradicating Hollows which cannot necessarily be a sin, which in turn means that they don't go to hell when they die.

So I'm guessing they wound up in a different dimension besides SS and Hueco Mundo because of their, well, Quinciness. SS wouldn't have them and HM wouldn't take them. And for all we know, Quincy could have their own kind of soul burial and SS.

What else...

Oh, yes, I'm still hoping Kubo has not shot Bleach in the foot with the plethora of mysteries he has lined up to solve such as:

1. The true dynamics of death in Bleach, i.e., if all slain in the World of the Living become souls in need of burial then can we assume that Ichigo's mum, Kuugo, etc are currently in some part Rukongai? Not to mention the fate of all the slain hollow who would, at the very least, contain enough reiatsu to become Shinigami themselves. (Thinking about that last one and for all we know ex-Hollows become potential Shinigami who get trained in the Shinigami Academy and whatnot; at least that would make some sense).

2. Who the hell are Zero Squad?

3. Who (or What) is the King of SS?

4. If we see Hollows (Arrancars) that had once fallen to a Shinigami's blade return as Hollows (Arrancars) again, does this mean that Arrancars can no longer be purified like normal Hollows? (Which means that Stark and Barragan should still be alive; either that or the Tres Bestia and Aizen's aides never really died in the first place).

5. Does anyone really die in Bleach?

6. Where is Kon for Kon's sake?!

Yes, yes, I know I put the most important mystery at the end but it is still number one...

Thanks again for the review. I'm sure it's alot of work and I appreciate your dedication weekly (well...bi-weekly when applicable ).
Till next time.

[mattiaildivino]

thanks The Underscore. female arrancars getting owned is awesome ,men are those who rule

[cynical_mushroom]

@mattiaildivino
Considering the author/artist of Bleach is male, and he lives in a country where women are subservient I can understand why the female characters he creates are usually weak and easy to defeat. However, many women who read Bleach do not come from Japan and are not subservient to men, therefore if I were you I’d be more considerate and careful about what you write on a public forum.

[slmcknett]

1. The true dynamics of death in Bleach, i.e., if all slain in the World of the Living become souls in need of burial then can we assume that Ichigo's mum, Kuugo, etc are currently in some part Rukongai? Not to mention the fate of all the slain hollow who would, at the very least, contain enough reiatsu to become Shinigami themselves. (Thinking about that last one and for all we know ex-Hollows become potential Shinigami who get trained in the Shinigami Academy and whatnot; at least that would make some sense).

2. Who the hell are Zero Squad?

3. Who (or What) is the King of SS?

4. If we see Hollows (Arrancars) that had once fallen to a Shinigami's blade return as Hollows (Arrancars) again, does this mean that Arrancars can no longer be purified like normal Hollows? (Which means that Stark and Barragan should still be alive; either that or the Tres Bestia and Aizen's aides never really died in the first place).

5. Does anyone really die in Bleach?

6. Where is Kon for Kon's sake?!

1) Ichigo's mom had her soul eaten by a Hollow, iirc, so she can't really go to the Soul Society. Not sure about Ginjo, but he was probably using a Gigai the entire time we saw him, so when Ichigo killed him, his soul was probably reincarnated (his Gigai was just taken back to the Seireitei until Ichigo asked to bury it in the World of the Living).

Slain Hollows just disappear. Their souls aren't sent to the Soul Society or anything, which is why the Quincies had to be wiped out--they killed Hollows instead of purifying them, which messed up the soul balance between the World of the Living and the afterlife.

4) When Arrancars are killed, it's probably the same as killing a Hollow--their soul dies, too, so they can't be reincarnated. So Starrk and Baraggan are both still dead. And the Tres Bestias and Aizen's aides never died. Uryu saved Loly after Yammy threw her out the tower, and Orihime healed Harribel and her Fracciones after the war in the fake Karakura Town. I guess Menoly just survived through a miracle. XD

5) Only the bad guys. XD And Sasakibe.