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True Blade Reviews...
Bleach 330: Crossing Swords
Greetings and hello! Welcome to True Blade's review of Bleach 330. Oh I mean True Blade's official review. See? I'm official! Cower at my might or whatever. Or you could just read the review? Yeah, let's go with that.
The Edited Manga used in this review is the high quality work of SleepyFans! Oh wonderous joy!
Fire and Ice
Last chapter, the clash begun! We saw our favorite captains line up to do battle, and numerous fraccion and Espada ready to take them on. After a few chapters of build up, we are finally to the actual fighting! Just as a reminder:
- Soifon and Omaeda are taking on Barragan's two remaining fraccion.
- Hitsugaya's facing Halibel.
- Matsumoto is taking on all three(!) of Halibel's fraccion.
- Shinsui is taking on Stark, while Ukitake and Lilinette enjoy eachother's company.
On HitsuHalibel
Well, neither Hitsugaya nor Halibel have even spoken since they matched up. I guess they have more in common than one would initially think! They're both silent, focused, and perceptive, and they both know that any words would be meaningless now. However when it comes to looking cool while drawing your sword, I think Halibel has Hitsugaya trumped! As Hitsugaya and Halibel clash swords, Halibel's fraccion discuss our sneaking suspicions: that Hitsugaya doesn't stand a chance.
Obviously Halibel's fraccion have no clue how strong Hitsugaya is, and likewise Hitsugaya and Matsumoto can't make any judgements on Halibel. All we know as readers is that we've seen Hitsugaya struggle against presumably far weaker opponents. It could be time for Hitsugaya to shine!
Halibel's Zanpakuto
Definitely a strange one! The blade and hilt are much larger than an ordinary Zanpakuto, and the hilt is very ornately decorated. However the truely distinguishing feature is the gigantic hole in the middle of her sword. While it could be simply for catching an opponent's sword and disarming them, it could also be a hint as to what her power could be. As for what the hint means, your guess is as good as mine, I think it's too early to speculate.
Battle of the Beauties
While Hitsugaya and Halibel match strength, Matsumoto and Halibel's three fraccion start to heat things up. The similarity's between Matsumoto and Halibel's fraccion are obvious, both physically and in attitude.
On Matsumoto
Of note, unlike the bickering between Sun-Sun, Apache, and Mila Rose, Matsumoto has kept her game face on for roughly this entire arc! Besides the little joke about being able to freely destroy the false Kurakari town, she's been as serious and focused as we've seen her! It's nice to see that like another laid back character (Shinsui), Matsumoto can be as deadly as any other Shinigami. She's not taking fighting three arrancar lightly, and she'd do well not to.
However, that's not to say she's above some playful chiding of her opponents, as she easily gets Apache and Mila Rose riled up with her sharp insults. Her few barbs get Halibel's fraccion lashing out at not only her, but at each other.
On Apache
Apache is fiercely loyal to her master, which is a common trait most fraccion share. While it doesn't quite seem like the worship that Barragan's fraccion have for him, she seems to have great respect for Halibel. One could say Halibel is her princess, and the fraccion are her royal guard. Apache is a pretty archetypal tomboy from what we've seen. Fiery, easily offended, and aggressive.
On Mila Rose
While Mila Rose looks like an amazon, she doesn't seem to have the self-restraint and dignity one would expect. While she gets everyone focused on Matsumoto, she falls prey to Matsumoto's taunts just as easily as Apache does.
On Sun-Sun
While some may argue Sun-Sun is the most mature of Halibel's fraccion, her attitude to me seems more like that of a snob. She chastises Mila Rose and Apache's bickering only because it makes her look more distinguished. She acts high class and important, which in turn makes it easy for her to anger the other two, due to their easily goaded personalities.
On the fight!
And what do all three of them have in common? They're in range of my Eight Trigram- wait I mean they're all grouped closely together, making them easy targets for Matsumoto's Haineko. In an eruption of ash, all three are surrounded my Matsumoto's zanpakuto. Apache is not impressed by the initial effect, and is about to walk headfirst into slash-city, but Sun-Sun saves her by chastising her lack of perception. Apache has her doubts, that is until her entire left arm is lacerated by Haineko's special ability.
It seems that despite their constant bickering, they at least have some concern for what happens to each other. I'd say that these fraccion are almost like sisters! As Matsumoto prepares to finish them off with an Ash Slicing Cyclone, they simultaenously use Ceros to break free, putting Matsumoto on the defensive. While Sun-sun and Mila Rose's cero fire from their fists, Apache's almost comically fires from her horn. Finally Matsumoto calls Haineko back to sword form to defend the incoming strike.
While it may seem like Matsumoto's in trouble, she's merely been put on the defensive. Given that she has had interaction with much weaker arrancar, I don't think Matsumoto's stupid enough to take three on with out something else up her sleeve.
The School of Hard Knocks
On Omaeda
Well, it looks like any hopes of Omaeda being a competent combatant are fading quickly. He jumps towards his opponent screaming "Hiya?!", hinting that he has little to no idea how to actually fight. The unnamed Arrancar easily overpowers him as Soifon and her opponent look on.
On the Unnamed
This guy is actually kinda creepy. He doesn't seem to talk much when fighting, and instead he just giggles. He's of the same physical build as Omaeda, heavy set, but he seems to be on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to fighting strength. There's really not much to speculate on, either Omaeda's gonna put on his gameface/get really lucky, or this guy may kill him off!
On Soifon's relationship with Omaeda
As Omaeda and the unnamed male fraccion "fight", we turn to a similarly one sided bout. The unnamed female fraccion comments on how badly Omaeda is getting beaten to Soifon, but the 2nd division captain shrugs it off, saying it is a lesson he needs to learn. I don't think Soifon is the kind of person to simply throw away the lives of her subordinates, so she must at least have enough confidence in Omaeda to think that he won't die and/or lose. The comments she does make though seem to hint that she's well aware of his ineptitude and inexperience in actual combat.
I guess the question comes down to this: Is she willing to let Omaeda die? If she's trying to toughen him up, a near death experience is a surefire way to do it. I personally don't think she'd let that happen, and while this battle certainly is dangerous for Omaeda, I doubt we'll see him perish, for one reason or another.
On the fight!
It seems that the unnamed female Arrancar fights similarly to Soifon, as her first attack involves not her zanpakuto, but her feet. Of course, Soifon is a master of hand to hand combat, possibly moreso than anyone in the series (other than Yoruichi), and she counters hard enough to send the unnamed Fraccion to the ground. It looks like Soifon isn't messing around, as she casts a Kido to pin the fraccion in place, and then immediately releases her shikai. It's nice that we're seeing Soifon dominate to such an extent, as a captain struggling here would be laughable. At this rate, we probably won't get to see her bankai though.
Chapter Wrapup
Predictions
Hitsugaya and Halibel will definitely heat things up, and I'm starting to think that Hitsugaya may not get stomped like we had all initially thought when we saw this match up.
Matsumoto is on the defensive, and barring her getting rescued, I think the only way we'll see her defeat these three fraccion is with a new bankai. Her shikai simply can't cut it, as we've just seen.
Omaeda probably won't die. Barring rescue, my guess is he'll win either by some secret power he's been hiding, or through sheer luck.
While Soifon does have the female fraccion on the ropes, I'm sure we'll get to know her name, as well as her resurrecion. Soifon's bankai on the other hand, I doubt we'll see.
Chapter Summary
- Halibel and Hitsugaya are feeling each other out.
- Matsumoto initally had the advantage, but has been pushed to the defensive against Halibel's fraccion.
- Omaeda is struggling in his fight against Barragan's unnamed male fraccion, almost comically.
- Soifon is dominating Barragan's female fraccion, again, almost comically.
