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280. Jugulators 2
This chapter continues the streak Kubo’s been on for the past month—but for a very different reason.
We got some more great looking art and melee fighting this week, which constituted a much greater part of the chapter than last week. Not only that, but Ichigo did a much better job of keeping up and holding his own than in his last 2 fights, when he was barely able to do anything without the mask at all. I think it was an indirect method of showing Ichigo has leveled-up, which complemented the change in the design of the mask itself. Hopefully, all of this will come to bear next week in a longer time limit for the mask, at the very least—though my hope is that the limit will simply be done away with altogether.
We already know Ichigo can’t fight the Espada without it, and having it on all the time wouldn’t be enough for Ulquiorra, let alone the top 3 Espada and Aizen. So from a storytelling perspective, there’s no point in limiting its use anymore. We get it already.
But the highlight this time around wasn’t just the art or Ichigo’s implied new strength. This time, Grimmjow’s challenge of Ichigo’s fighting philosophy figured in just as prominently, if not more. This is the first time that a major opponent has directly called Ichigo on his natural instincts, which signals the theme’s ever increasing prominence in the story. It wasn’t addressed for several volumes after Sakikuro and “Zaraki” first brought it up; in this arc, however, it has basically figured into every fight Ichigo’s had (though it was mostly indirect in the Ulquiorra match). So I feel that it’s just as important as any power-up would be, if Ichigo really wants to move forward. He can’t put his all into the fight if he’s not honest about why he’s fighting in the first place.
In the next week or two, I expect that we’ll get enough concrete evidence to determine just where Ichigo stands relative to the Espada now. I really hope that no one comes in and interrupts the fight, and that Grimmjow does release. It would be really cliché if someone stepped in and stopped him beforehand again (which was joked about in the Arrancar Research Time segment in the anime), so let’s hope Kubo doesn’t take that route.
Rating – 4 out of 5 (Very Good)
This chapter continues the streak Kubo’s been on for the past month—but for a very different reason.
We got some more great looking art and melee fighting this week, which constituted a much greater part of the chapter than last week. Not only that, but Ichigo did a much better job of keeping up and holding his own than in his last 2 fights, when he was barely able to do anything without the mask at all. I think it was an indirect method of showing Ichigo has leveled-up, which complemented the change in the design of the mask itself. Hopefully, all of this will come to bear next week in a longer time limit for the mask, at the very least—though my hope is that the limit will simply be done away with altogether.
We already know Ichigo can’t fight the Espada without it, and having it on all the time wouldn’t be enough for Ulquiorra, let alone the top 3 Espada and Aizen. So from a storytelling perspective, there’s no point in limiting its use anymore. We get it already.
But the highlight this time around wasn’t just the art or Ichigo’s implied new strength. This time, Grimmjow’s challenge of Ichigo’s fighting philosophy figured in just as prominently, if not more. This is the first time that a major opponent has directly called Ichigo on his natural instincts, which signals the theme’s ever increasing prominence in the story. It wasn’t addressed for several volumes after Sakikuro and “Zaraki” first brought it up; in this arc, however, it has basically figured into every fight Ichigo’s had (though it was mostly indirect in the Ulquiorra match). So I feel that it’s just as important as any power-up would be, if Ichigo really wants to move forward. He can’t put his all into the fight if he’s not honest about why he’s fighting in the first place.
In the next week or two, I expect that we’ll get enough concrete evidence to determine just where Ichigo stands relative to the Espada now. I really hope that no one comes in and interrupts the fight, and that Grimmjow does release. It would be really cliché if someone stepped in and stopped him beforehand again (which was joked about in the Arrancar Research Time segment in the anime), so let’s hope Kubo doesn’t take that route.
Rating – 4 out of 5 (Very Good)
