Bleach Chapter 489 – March of The Starcross – Review / Thoughts

This week I have to say that without a doubt, Bleach 489 was the standout chapter between this and Naruto. Whereas Naruto was firmly rooted in past events, Bleach was very much in the present, as well as setting up something brilliant for the future chapters.
 
Last week we got to see what looked like the beginning of Ichigo vs Kirge, but Ichigo instead starts off against a few other Quincy instead as you can see in the picture above. It doesn’t take long for Ichigo to realise that the people who before were only known to him as the Vandenreich were in fact Quincy. Kirge even comments on the fact that he invaded without even being 100% sure of who they were, not that it makes a difference to Ichigo as we all know by now.

Rather than Ichigo fighting, this chapter was more focused on the strange events that have been taking place in Soul Society, and who’s to blame for it. To begin with we just see Rukia pacing the floor in Soul Society where she is waiting for the captain’s meeting, with Renji telling her to calm down and take it easy, only for Kira to appear and interrupt. He tells them that something is bothering him, and explains how he used to think all the Vandenreich / Quincy stuff was connected with the disappearances from Rukongai, but now he realises that’s not the case.

Kira begins to explain his thoughts on the matters, and asks a question as well. When Yachiru answers, it confirms things for him, and he asks Nemu what Mayuri is hiding (having concluded that there was something odd about the way things had been done and investigated by his group). Nemu says Mayuri never told her anything about the disappearances, with Kira saying he will just have to report it to Yamamoto himself. Later in the chapter, we see Yamamoto confront Mayuri about it and asks him what’s going on. Mayuri tells him that it’s true he was behind the disappearances, as he had some Shinigami go in to Rukongai and kill the people to keep the balance between spirits and people even. Yamamoto asks why he didn’t ask for permission, saying that under the current circumstances it would have been approved anyway.

Mayuri says that if things had got worse, his unit would have been held responsible for it, hence why he went ahead and did it anyway. Yamamoto responds by saying that if they had reported things sooner, then maybe things wouldn’t have become so serious in the first place. Without hesitation, Mayuri tells Yamamoto he is wrong. He then says how right back when Ishida first invaded Soul Society along with Ichigo etc he warned him of what could one day happen, but that Yamamoto claimed his fears were baseless and denied it.

Mayuri then says Yamamoto is the one to blame because he didn’t lill “that man“  1000 years ago. Meanwhile, with Ichigo distracted by his battle with Kirge and the other Quincy, the king declares that now is the perfect chance to invade Soul Society, and so they head off to do just that.

But yes, that was the main content of the chapter. As you can tell, things are getting very serious with potential consequences being unthinkable. The dischord in Soul Society just reminded me of something Kubo said in the interview he did shortly before the arc came out, that being that Soul Society would be devastated like never before (or something along those lines).

I mean, while I know the Quincy invasion is going to have a huge impact on everything, maybe a part of what will make things so devastating and like nothing they have ever seen before will be that Soul Society will become full of rifts between the Gotei 13. With this chapter we can already see that Mayuri is unhappy with Yamamoto, and Yamamoto doesn’t seem too happy with Mayuri either. Of course we have no idea who “That man” is / was, but he could even come back to play some huge role, whether that be what happened in the past or even if he is still alive and active somehow today.

I was expecting this to be an action and battle filled chapter, but instead we were given something that is playing far more with the distrust and psychological aspect of things, and as a fan of that sort of thing then I enjoyed it a lot. Kubo really has done a spectacular job with this arc, and I can’t commend him enough for it. Kubo gets a lot of stick from people for all his trolling and “asspulls” that seemed to be brought up for every arc, but this time I can’t imagine there are too many fans who would criticise what he has done in this war arc.

This was a pretty awesome chapter, despite not being what I (and I suspect many others were expecting), and I really can see next week being fantastic, especially if the Quincy do indeed reach Soul Society by then.

Bleach Chapter 494 - The Closing Chapter Part One - Review / Thoughts

Oh damn, when Kubo said about all the major stuff that was going to happen and how Soul Society was never going to be the same, he really wasn't trolling this time. 1000 deaths in 7 minutes, who says Kubo doesn't kill off any characters?

I was so surprised by what happened in this chapter I kind of went through it in a daze, I knew things were going to get serious now the invasion had started, but damn, never did I think the first named casualty would come so soon.

Of course for those of you who have read the chapter (or have seen the pic above) will know, I am referring to Kira. No way was I expecting someone like him to die, especially so early. I always thought Kira was a decent character, I didn't love him but I certainly didn't hate him, but I am not going to lie, what happened to him here just blew me away.

While reading the chapter (and for a while after) I was just stunned more than anything else, 1000 deaths in Soul Society in only 7 minutes, and one of them being Kira?! Now it's had the chance to set in, I actually feel really sad about what happened to Kira. No kind of epic battle, no backstory, just bam! one hit and he had a whole blown through him before he could even swing his sword in the Quincy's direction.

I have to commend Kubo for having the balls to do it, and he is showing Kishimoto how a war should be written. With Naruto there have been no deaths of any notable characters throughout the whole war arc, and it's been going on for a while now. Come on, a war arc without any deaths? That's just absolutely ridiculous.

Kubo on the other hand has killed off unknown (fodder) characters, and already one named character, and he has had far less time to do so. I am not saying war in Manga should be 100% about characters dying, but if there are no deaths on either side it not only looks stupid but also shows that the author lacks the courage to get rid of a character who has any sort of fanbase.

Tite Kubo has been on fire in this arc, I honestly can't fault him for anything he has chosen to do thus far, whereas with Naruto it seems extremely dragged out with nothing much of note taking place. This is not me just using this post to have a go at Kishimoto, but instead just trying to explain why I feel Bleach is handling things 1000 times better than Naruto is, and why I have a lot of respect for Kubo at this present time.

Bleach is getting darker, more serious, and all round more epic with every passing week. Kubo has shown that he is willing to kill characters off and also how bloody and brutal war can be. I get the feeling Kira will be the first of many casualties for Soul Society, and at this present time I don't know how they are going to have any hope of challenging the Quincy.

But what I can say without a doubt is that this chapter was shocking, but very good at the same time. I can't recommend this arc strongly enough for Bleach fans, and I can see people looking back in years to come and realising just how damn good Tite Kubo was during this arc.