Join Review Bleach 491: Toden Engel

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Bleach 491: Toden Engel
A Joint Review

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Analysis:

Plot

Toden Engel (which, in German, means approximately "dead angel"),opens with Orihime who has created the Santen Kesshun to protect herself, Chad, the 3Bestia and Aizen's 2 bitches. Orihime herself wonders way she hasn't sensed neither reishi nor reiatsu now, and that will be explained at the end.

Meanwhile, in a flash Kirge appears behind Ichigo and attacks him. The latter remembers when Urahara explained him how uryu had lost his power in SS, obviously without revealing how he had gathered those infos. As we know, removing the gloves "Sanrei Shutou",which gather reishi, allows the Quincies to use their strongest and last power: the Letzt Stil. Ichigo, while Kirge is chasing him, wonders whether his enemy's technique and Uryu's are the same. Kirge reaches him and either by perspicacity or by reading Ichigo's mind (as the Quincy himself adfirms) states that the Letzt Stil is weaker than the Vollstanding, and that it died over 200 years before, although Souken Ishida refused the new form developed through years of studies. The shinigami, paring his opponent's blows, is relieved that the techniques are different, because it implies Uryu won't transform into something like that, which could make Ichigo killing his friend by mistake. After blaming on Kirge for having a too loose grip, the shinigami shoots a Getsuga Tenshou, which however fails.

Kirge,either absorbing its Reishi or just having an ubelievably resistant body, states he has no weak points. Boasting for his eerie appearance, Kirge starts gathering the reishi from the outside. Orihime is astonished watching her Santen being peeled off, but Chad points out that everything made of reishi is gathering around the Quincy. Thus Orihime understands why she didn't sense reiatsu when Kirge transformed: Quincies absorb reishi and don't emit it.

The leader of the Iacto Arme is then about to throw the Biskiel("justice of God")'s power, but it gets destroyed by Allon, who punches Kirge too!


Characters

Orihime is the character that opens this chapter, which as predictable is dedicated to the explanation of Kirge’s transformation, in this sense I can’t recall Orihime being so observant, she has obviously grown a lot, she not just a lovely girl nor a burden anymore.

The same goes for Chad: even though he has done nothing in ages he found out he has not just muscles and started using his brain.

Talking about characters who have grown up Ichigo is a surprise: he hasn’t gone bankai yet, he’s actually trying to understand how to beat his opponent (considering before now he would go bankai for everything, even a mosquito flying around him, this is admirable); he also doesn’t lose a chance to make fun of the enemy (and I must say I agree with him on the look of Kirge)
Urahara doesn’t appear in this chapter, but from ichigo brief flashback we see he still knows everything on everybody, so we can assume that once again he will have an important role.

Of course Kirge is the central character, his transformation put him on advantage because he knows Ichigo has no information on it since it is completely different from what Ishida used versus Mayuri;. We can see from his eyes that he is completely sure he will win this battle, he shows no sign of excitation or surprise not even receiving a getsuga tenshou directly to the neck; of course this is because a “mere” attack like that can’t even scratch him since, as he says, he has no weak points (he’s like: “Ichigo, why do you even try???”)

And finally, will the tres bestias have their vengeange after the humiliation of being defeated in about 2 seconds by a four-eyed poser? I doubt it, sorry girls

Impressions:

Fanboy

It was one of those chapters that puts smile on persons face for looooong after reading it
This chapter - named Toden Engel - gave me feeling that I didnt got since long time. Feeling of extremlly powereful enemy that is not like anything we have seen before. Kirge Opie in the way he looks is exact opposite of Ulquiorras segunda etapa but just like him he can be called definition of power. He is shown to be powerhouse and being able to tank Ichigos getsuga tenshou shoot to his face. If its just first of the opponents I can already imagine how awesome fights are awaiting us in near future
For most chapter it looks like he cant be harmed in any way by our main hero. If blows from point blank range cant even nick his neck than what can do the trick?! Answer is easy. Allon can. Tres bestias can summon him now even without relasing- that show us how much they evolved. End of the chapter shows us that even Quincy in final form can be put on the ground with brutal strenght of monster among monsters

Design of Kirge is getting more amazing with every chapter- all those world war II references in way he looks, moves and acts make him more and more terrifying to us, readers. Last thing beside art in this chapter that made my eyes bigger was how calm Ichigo was for most of pages. He didnt go bankai right off the bat and tried to see what he can do without it and that is awesome, making him protagonist that we want to see. Even seeing Kirge show off he didnt looked like "Im gonna PWN u with my Bankai bitch"(and we all know that he would be able to pull this off in bankai).
This chapter was complete in every way I can think off and that is BIG accomplishment. Way to go Kubo! Give us more of this!


Hater

Well, the most eloquent words befitting this tragedy of and exploded G-pen are most simply strained as, ‘this chapter sucked.’ I think we can sum up this chapter’s art with a quote from Ichigo, in what is perhaps his only notable action of this chapter, or indeed notable action of any character in this chapter, as he enlightens us to what is most painfully obvious, “such a sad excuse for a costume.” Although he was regarding only the Quincy’s outfit, it is by no means a far stretch to claim Kubo is being meta here, as give it a page or two, and our villain (forget his name, for its not important) replies that his outfit is indeed, “unnerving.” He trails on to rant about how he’ll execute Ichigo, and as a reader I can’t help but to hope he takes my head first and ends this madness. I find it annoying that Urahara takes the time to explain to Ichigo what we have known since the second arc. I find it aggravating, that Kubo then takes this established fact and throws it out the window, informing us that the so called family of ‘geniuses’, has been reduced in an instant, to ingrates that failed natural selection due to their refusal to evolve. Why would you refuse to better your race, does that make sense? Is that something a genius would choose? If so then Kubo has surely painted the Ishida’s paper thin. No, if one were to accuse Kubo of throwing the quality of his story aside so that he may troll us for another century, they would indeed be correct. And what the hell are Chad, Orihime, and Urahara doing? Picking up dandelions, bowing the seeds, and watching them fly in the wind? There’s a fucking battle going on here! Pointless!

Predictions:

When It comes to predictions I have very few ideas about how things can go from now on.
It would be great build up if Allon gets and I think its most likely outcome. Kirge for last few chapters is shown to be amazingly strong enemy, so I dont think that Allon would beat him up to pulp but we might be in for suprise.
If I go predictable route from here I think that Allon + Ichigo will beat up Kirge and then Allon- that cannot be controlled- will try to attack Ichigo. Then our main hero might go bankai on chimera because Allon IS stronger than shikai Ichi- he managed to hurt Opie using simply brute strenght, normal punch. I think that Ichigo still cant use Bankai because Kirge is badass that Ivan wasnt and he knows that he can end up with his bankai blocked/absorbed by him.
And I think that ending of next chapter would be best time to show us one of the capitans from SS almost beaten up(I hope it wont be some foot-ending chapter once more) and fighting some Awesome Quincys Stein Still.

mattiaildivino	Plot (Analysis)
Mrlazsa	Characters (Analysis)
vagabond87	Predictions, Fanboy (Impressions)
OtakuModeEngage	Hater (Impressions)
Shinsatsu	Banner

[alphabeta]

You guys asked for Bleach poll, I gave you Bleach poll

[kanamechidori]

You're saying that it was foolish of the Ishidas not to use Volstandig when there's obviously some moral conflict that kept Uryuus grandfather from using it.

Here's a list of damned good reasons why the ishidas would refuse it

1) It requires human sacrifice to make
2) It requires human souls to make
3) It uses something like the vizards inner hollow
4) He believed that the Vandenreichs militancy would lead to hundreds of thousands of human souls having to be killed to even things up, he knew that if they took over then it could destroy the world. He agreed with the soul societies policy of leaving it to the shinigami so the quincy don't destroy the human race.

[mattiaildivino]

(a bit disappointing that almost noone commented our review...)

[LordZet]

i suppose Underscore has left MH?

[alphabeta]

i suppose Underscore has left MH?

I wouldn't be so sure about that. It's true that he hasn't logged on since April 16th and it is a rarity for him to miss 4 reviews in a row without giving prior explanations or logging on and explaning the situation, but I would still wait a couple weeks before making any bold statements. I don't think I'll expose a secret if I say that every reviewer has faced situations before where he had to stop writing reviews because of RL stuff. Last time I talked to Underscore he already had RL issues which prevented him from joining our JR team, so I already had a faint idea this might happen.

Let's just hope he'll come back sometime.