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They're just full of glee! Except for Tousen, anyway.
Once again, apologies for taking a long while to post up a Bleach review. This time around, though, it was more due to time constraints.
Thanks to all our translators here for doing their usual excellent work again, and also to M7 who gave us an outstanding Edited Manga (even better than usual) this week. At least I now have some genuinely HQ images to work into my Bleach review this time around, which doesn't happen often.
Hope you enjoy!
* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Bleach Chapter 247: United on the Desert * * * 
Off with their heads!
1. Kids These Days! Looks like Genryuusai wasn't pleased at all with the rebellion of Rukia and Renji. Methinks that these two may be in for some harsh words upon their return, if they don't get demoted outright.
Right now, looks like they could be considered an equivalent to "missing nin" (in the Naruto series) for the Soul Society. But with all the highly independent personalities in the Gotei 13, I wouldn't be surprised if Genryuusai has to deal with these issues quite often. I mean, early in the story, we had Gin acting on his own, after all. Shunsui and Ukitake disobeying the order to execute Rukia. Now Rukia and Renji deciding to go to Hueco Mundo instead of staying at home.
But while the old man can go ahead and grumble all he wants, I do think the two did the right thing. Especially Rukia - not to mention that she was very nearly put to death by Genryuusai not too long ago, so I don't blame her for feeling a bit rebellious!
You wanna try us? Huh? Huh?
2. Yay for Color! Bleach is the only manga to my knowledge other than Naruto that generates so much excitement at MH whenever there's news of upcoming colored double-spreads. And rightfully so. Tite Kubo knows how to color - plain and simple. And he's also a master of drawing dynamic poses. His covers are nearly always very impressive.
Although this time around, I sort of feel like he stretched the colored spreads over a little too much space. We get the five invaders of Hueco Mundo on a double spread all of their own, and the three traitor Shinigami captains on the other. If Tite Kubo could have managed to put them all on ONE double spread, I think it would have sufficed, and made for an even more awesome spectacle. But I may just be picky there.
HELLO!
3. Tough Love. Heh, when I saw Rukia and Renji smiling like that as Ichigo approached, I knew right away that something violent was about to happen. Sure enough...!
Good thing Ichigo's had plenty of practice being sucker-punched (by his own father, that is, of course. He beats nearly everybody else up.) His face's probably invulnerable by now.
If you stop hitting me, maybe...
4. Trusting in Friends. You know what? Rukia is possibly the only one in the whole series who can knock some sense into Ichigo's head. She also seems to know better than everybody else exactly what Ichigo needs to hear and she's able to say it at the right time.
One of Ichigo's weaknesses lately is he can't stop worrying or fearing about his friends, to the point where he'll alienate them just to keep them out of the way. So what's the first thing Rukia does when she gets to Hueco Mundo? Make Ichigo realize that he was disrespecting and even betraying his friends by not trusting them. Excellent. These words may play a very strong part in the storyarc later on.
Even if Rukia doesn't turn out to be a strong asset there (which I doubt), at least she serves as very effective moral support for Ichigo.
So, it's not just for looks? Heh...
5. Beware the Desert... Guess sandstorms must happen often in the Hueco Mundo judging by Rukia's words here and their mantles. I'm not going to argue that they can be deadly even to powerful Shinigami, because I can easily see something like that being an inconvenience. But my question, then, is why exactly Urahara didn't think of warning Ichigo and his friends about THAT beforehand, and even giving them some protection of their own. They probably would have appreciated that!
Maybe Urahara's just forgotten what Hueco Mundo was like.
Secretly.... you're a nice guy, aren't you Bya-kun?
6. Unexpected Help. Well, didn't expect that. Thought the one who would have helped Rukia and Renji get to Hueco Mundo would have been Ukitake, or somebody with at least an interest in either Orihime's safety or the three traitor Captains. But not Byakuya.
And you know what? Even if Byakuya denied that he was doing anything wrong, he had to know that going against Genryuusai's wishes still qualified as indirect disobedience. He can make up any excuse he wants to, but he knew that was the case.
So I think that he may be getting a little less strict about following orders all the time, and he's following his gut instinct more often. Even if he doesn't admit it here.
But I'm pleased. It at the very least showed a definite change in Byakuya's character. He's not a mindless drone anymore. When Kenpachi and Byakuya came to take them away a while ago, I had thought that, boy, some things didn't change. But on the contrary, seems like they have. That's good. And extremely fortunate for Rukia and Renji that they now have a very strong ally on their side in the Gotei 13.
Ok, so at least Don Kanonji's troupe has better coordination...
7. Out of Sync. Pretty good comedy moment here, it definitely got a chuckle out of me, and I know it did some others too.
Nothing more to say really... just good for a chuckle. And also, kind of surprising that Rukia and Renji didn't really react right off the bat to the presence of Hollows in their midst. Or maybe they noticed them, and decided that they were somewhat beneath their notice as they may have seemed pretty weak to them. At least Rukia did ask about them.
Seems like Ichigo's already accepted them as friends too, and Rukia may have seemed somewhat put off about that.
And just for the record, I like "Three Great Desert Bros." the most
Who exactly was bantering there...?
8. Wearing Different Colors? Seeing Orihime in an uniform similar to the ones Aizen, Gin, and Tousen are wearing - definitely made me feel like she had no choice but to join them for some reason. More than ever now, I'm really curious to find out what exactly they had threatened her with to get her to cooperate so readily with them. Very odd.
And heh, that's the first time we've seen Ulquiorra kind of loosen up, too - although he immediately reverted to his old self the next panel. Hmm. Well, now we know that he appreciates beauty - or has a fashion sense of any kind - a little bit at any rate.
Damn heroes!
9. Good News... or Not? Orihime seemed very distressed when Ulquiorra delivered to her the news of Ichigo's group coming to attempt to rescue her. Is it just because she realized that they may not be a match for Aizen's group? Or - and I think this is more likely - is she afraid now that she may have to confront them herself?
Again, whatever the hold the Arrancar has on Orihime, it's pretty strong. This may be a case in point where Rukia's words may have a profound effect on Ichigo, to the point where he decides to trust that Orihime knows what's best for her at this point and let her handle things her own way.
When knocking doesn't work... use swords!
10. Crashing the Party...! So the chapter ends with Renji and Ichigo trying to break their way through the walls of Las Noches. Something tells me that the wall may be a tad harder to break than they all thought, even if it's not made out of sekkiseki, whatever that may be.
RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars. I did like the chapter okay, but now that I've actually had the time to do some comments on it, it's also one of the most underwhelming chapters I've ever done a review on. Nothing much really to talk about, hence why my review was so short. Sort of a disappointment after last chapter, actually. But for the art, it still gets a slightly higher than average grade.
Predictions: They actually have to figure out how to enter the place a different way. Also, there may be a fight coming up at the end.
Credits: Thanks to M7 again and our translators.
Hope you enjoyed, and looking forward to seeing what you think!
Yeah, now it's your turn to make some noise <3 Comment! XD
