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Bleach 262
Thanks to some supportive words from those who replied to my One Piece review and also from the guys here in the Bleach reviews, Ive decided to start up here as well. Ill try to get these out on a regular basis quickly after a Edited Manga appears and probably at the very least by Saturday nights. Both gigantor21 and inana do such great jobs I just hope that this will match up. Lets start!!!
Chads 15 Minutes of Fame
i wished those days would last forever
After last week, we all feared that Kubo was going to end the fantastic run he gave Chad. He did. The boost in Chads power was one of the biggest in the series but oh no, it wasnt enough. I for one was in denial this whole week that Chad would lose once again. Kubo uses him to set up the power of the top tier fighters. In general, Id say that it fits his role in the manga quite nicely. Chad is a rock. Ichigo himself says during the Soul Society arc that he cant even imagine Chad losing. The beauty of that character type in a series like Bleach is that once that character loses, it marks the point where the real threat begins. That worked out perfectly in the Soul Society Arc as his defeat also marked a major turning point in the Zaraki fight for Ichigo.
why does Kubo hate Chad?
In this case though, Kubo seemed to want to use Chad for the same purpose, but it wasnt quite as effective for multiple reasons. First of all, since weve already seen Chad lose to Shunsui, so his unbeatable image can no longer be fully applied. Kubo tried to make up for this by giving him a more complete victory against Gantenbien, but the way he rushed through 2 huge upgrades made it quite clear that he would not be getting anymore anytime soon. This being the case, all logic says that fighting an Espada directly afterwards spells certain defeat (but quite a few of us went into denial anyways). While we are sad that Chads character has gone down that road again, we can only hope for his safety and a triumphant return later on.
Orihime's Collapse
What did the five fingers say to the face...? SLAP!!!
This chapter also returned Orihime to the story. As seems to be the case in nearly all of her scenes, her only interaction is with Ulquiorra. The scene is absolutely beautiful because it shows Orihimes first open signs of resistance since coming to Hueco Mundo. Up until now she has been plotting to destroy the hougyoku in secret and all Ulquiorra noticed was a slight hesitation while he questioned her. Now Chads fall has caused her enough worry that she has broken her image of obedience. In terms of her status under Aizen, this hurts her ultimate goal. By letting Ulquiorra see her like this, she has proven to him that she has escaped his psychological cage and now he will have to use threat of force to make her act as Aizen desires. This leads into a perfect showcase of Ulquiorra skill at using psychology to get desired effects.
He's so cold blooded and emotionless
Ulquiorra immediately senses her mental pain from Chads defeat and changes his tactics to a different psychological ploy. While before he elaborately set up events to remove her free will, this time he used Chads defeat to push her mind to its limit and reveal its true feelings. From the previous conditions of the cage, Orihime had convinced herself that her motives were hidden and safe as long as she played along with Ulquiorras game. By forcing her to act out of anger, he will have broken her confidence that she can pull off the charade.
I really wanna give her a hug
While he might not know exactly what shes planning, he knows that all her obedience was an act and thanks to her own impulsive action, she proves to herself that she cannot keep up her front long enough to reach her objective. When she slapped him, she destroyed her confidence in herself and she is once again in the position of feeling ashamed of herself.
Kaien WTF!!!!!!!!
Nothing describes this better than WTF!!!
When the fake spoilers about Chads Abuelo were proven false, many of us lost hope that anything could make up for the pain of watching Chad fall again. Boy were we surprised when the real stuff came in. Ever since the table scene, there was something strange about the tall masked Espada. Now that we know that it is Shiba Kaien (yes I know he uses a different name and its unconfirmed if he is the real thing or not, but Im going to call it now), there are many pieces of the puzzle that now fit and even more new ones that look like theyre from a different puzzle altogether. The reason I say that he is the real Kaien is because Kubo would be an idiot to do this otherwise. The way he is introduced and even the mere fact of the revelation both make it impossible for Aroniro to be anyone other than Kaien. If he was simply mimicking Kaiens face the only reason would be to cause mental distress to Rukia, but if that were the case, it would have been more effective to use Kaiens name as well. The actual setup more implies that Kaien lost his memories upon joining Aizens side. Also, in terms of creating an interesting and complex story, Kubo could milk all kinds of emotion and power from their relationship while otherwise it would simply be a mere one time trick to make one battle more interesting (and its not even a battle Rukia could win as she is not even near Espada level). Now lets move on to the actual analysis of Kaiens defection to Aizens army.
This was my second thought after i saw how he took off his mask in WTF
From the appearance and use of his mask, I can only assume that he is a vaizard instead of an arrancar. The mask is clearly not shattered and the way he can completely remove it has been seen among the vaizard weve already met. In addition to the mask related support, he also does not have a visible hollow hole and the fact that he was a shinigami first goes to pretty much solidify this theory in my mind. Now how could he have lost his memory and become a vaizard when he was apparently killed by Rukia? Here is my theory.
And finally the WTF from before i started reading Bleach
I cant say its perfect yet, but it is the best explanation I can come up with. First of all, remember how Rukias shinigami powers helped awaken the latent ones within Ichigo. It is likely that the hollow that possessed Kaien awakened hollow powers within him. At first those hollow powers were weak and were insignificant compared to the actual hollow possessing the body, so it remained dormant as Kaien died. Weve seen the regenerative capability of Ichigo, whose hollow has been strong from the start, so it is likely that even that weak an inner hollow would have enough power to stay barely alive from one stab of an unreleased zanpakuto. From that point, as the inner hollow grew inside his corpse-like body, it did not have any resistance from the shinigami part of his soul as the zanpakuto was destroyed and the he became a hollow-dominant vaizard after the body had healed. The hollow was born just about when Kaien died and since his shinigami half was so far suppressed, the dominant hollow basically started a new life with new memories. As I said, the theory isnt perfect (and chances are low for it being the actual explanation in full), but it gave my mind some exercise to try and logically justify it, so I like it.
Overall
Wow!!! Just wow!!! Id expect Oda to do something like this (and he has), but this took me completely off guard. I mean the repetitive nature of Chads sad role in this manga definitely saddens me but still, the final page is just so fantastic that it makes me forget about the flaw at the chapters start for a while. This is something that no one could have guessed and I just cant wait to see how he will develop it.
edit: accidentally mislabeled the chapter number initially cause i was looking at a file with an old reference pic
