The Thousand-Year Blood War arc

There's no way Byakuya's dead. Kubo likes drawing him too much. As much as I would love for such a major character to eat it, I'm not holding my breath.

What the hell is Yamamoto doing in all this? Did something happen to him already and I just forgot about it?

And I was fucking right, they only stole the bankais.

Also, there's a Luchador.

I too wonder where the hell Old Man Yama is during all this chaos. Also, I counted again. Kenpachi took down 3 Quincies. The gorilla looking 1 was impaled, & 2 more are on his shoulders.

I don't care that Byakuya probably isn't dead, seeing him get this absolute shit kicked out of him is glorious!

And Yamamoto is busy having a cry and a wank over his dead lieutenant. Once he's finished doing that, and by sheer coincidence this will also be when all the captains have been defeated, he'll join in the fight.

PolarisAmane wrote:

I don't care that Byakuya probably isn't dead, seeing him get this absolute shit kicked out of him is glorious!

Indeed. It makes me genuinely curious to see how Kenpachi (and to a lesser extent, Sui-Feng) fair in their fights, since the Quincies have all but admitted that without the ability to steal Bankai's they wouldnt be fairing nearly as well and they can't steal Kenpachi's since he doesn't have one and Sui-Feng is probably thanking them for getting rid of hers.

PolarisAmane wrote:

And Yamamoto is busy having a cry and a wank over his dead lieutenant. Once he's finished doing that, and by sheer coincidence this will also be when all the captains have been defeated, he'll join in the fight.

What an asshole!

Has anyone else noticed that since the anime got canceled, Bleach has gotten hella violent? It was always violent, but since this new arc it's gotten into the brutal territory.

Kenpachi went right to Buckbeard, though. I foresee him getting his ass kicked.

Alright, I'll bite: who the hell came up with the name Buckbeard? I know who it's referring to, but it just seems... weird. Probably just me. At this point, we can expect some more violence & details or appearances of more characters. And of course, Ichigo continuing his role as the series's protagonist.

FullMetal Spartan wrote:

Alright, I'll bite: who the hell came up with the name Buckbeard?

I'm fairly certain it came from the title of the Chapter he was introduced in.

SoldierG65434-2 wrote:

I'm fairly certain it came from the title of the Chapter he was introduced in.

And the name is purely fan-speculation from that chapter, right?

Don't know why i'm looking at this thread right now. I'm going to get caught up on all my shonen manga madness this weekend...

I read on another forum that Kubo is sick and we won't see anymore Bleach chapters until the week of Aug. 15. So we won't see anything this week. Still looking for a source to confirm this...

Yep, no Bleach this week. Kubo has pneumonia or something. Which to me seems like the perfect time to draw because he'll be on meds and I want to see Bleach as directed by David Lynch.

503 - Wrath as a Lightning

Well well, it's finally arrived. So Kenpachi did kill 3 Quincies. Loyd Lloyd? Wow, what a name. And there's 1 nicknamed, 'The Question' (who looks nothing like the DC character of the same name), which I can't believe is a girl, unless I've got the wrong person.
And Old Man Yama finally shows up, stepping in to save Shuuhei from a Quincy whose face kinda reminds me of Jidanbo.
...with Ichigo's appearance in this chapter, it makes me think he'll use his Hollow powers to break out & go nuts on the Stern Ritters. I'd like to see how the fight goes between Kenpachi & Buckbeard.

FullMetal Spartan wrote:

And there's 1 nicknamed, 'The Question' (who looks nothing like the DC character of the same name), which I can't believe is a girl, unless I've got the wrong person.

Goddamnit, I was going to make that joke.

The most interesting thing about this chapter is that it came out of fucking nowhere. And apparently Hisagi has a bankai? Hey guys, remember when having a bankai was supposed to be some kind of bid deal?

Even if Hisagi has a bankai, he hadn't used it for the Sternritters to steal it.

I think actually that the Sternritter meant that he had Sasakibe's bankai.

Fastest way to piss off Yamajii - tell him you're the Sternritter that killed his vice captain. That guy's not going to live long.

504 - Before the Shadows

This week's chapter really didn't interest me. Aside from the Head Captain shutting up that Quincy, anyway. So we got some back story on Yamamoto & Chojiro, alright. Now can we move on?

Well, I suppose after so many fast paced chapters that he would eventually want to slow things down a bit. Not a terribly interesting chapter still though. But man, I can already hear the fanfiction writing itself.

"Your polished Bankai"

... I see. That say it all really.

I actually liked the chapter. It was really interesting seeing a younger Yamamoto, and I liked seeing the flashback with Sasakibe. You really don't see Yamamoto get emotional much, but when it does happen, it's really touching.

Humanizing Yamamoto, eh?

Do Unohana next!

505 - The Fire

So it seems that Kenpachi was 1 of the war potentials. Too bad we didn't see him fight Buckbeard. And when Yamamoto jumps in to face the enemy, all other Shinigami that are still standing get up and get ready to fight back. Can't wait to see where where this goes next.

Sui-Feng seems stoked that Yamamoto's mad. And Kubo's a punk bitch that should stop writing checks he can't cash.

Kenpachi being defeated offscreen just means that we'll get to see a longer fight between Buckbeard and Yamamoto.

I loved the chapter, though. Kubo's really setting up for how hard it's going hit SS when Yamamoto is killed.

SoldierG65434-2 wrote:

Sui-Feng seems stoked that Yamamoto's mad. And Kubo's a punk bitch that should stop writing checks he can't cash.

I'm curious as to what specifically you mean by this (since that could apply to a lot)

Soldier, are you talking about character deaths?

I honestly now would not be surprised if no one died this arc. In order to send SS into despair, they don't actually need to kill all the captains. They don't need to really even kill two captains. They just need one captain, and that's the Head Captain.

This chapter illustrates how much the other captains look up to and take hope from Yamamoto. As much as this chapter lifted them out of despair and made them ready and willing to fight, how much is all of that hope and enthusiasm going to crash when Yamamoto is taken out of the picture?

None of them are as strong as Yamamoto, and once he's taken out there really will be nothing that Soul Society can do. Fighting an opponent that is strong enough to take out the Head Captain will be a futile effort. Hence, the reason why the Royal Guard will have to finally make an appearance.

I know to people that aren't huge fans of the characters, or that wanted a more realistic death toll this arc, it sucks knowing that Byakuya and Kenpachi are probably not going to die after all, but in theory Kubo can still pull off what he's trying to go for without that happening.

Mr Khan wrote:

I'm curious as to what specifically you mean by this (since that could apply to a lot)

CaptainYoruichi wrote:

Soldier, are you talking about character deaths?

I'm speaking mostly about Kenpachi getting trounced off screen. It was a wasted opportunity to display the Quincies' power and establish them as (even more) threatening. Not to mention seeing te arguably-strongest Captain get worked would have made Yamamoto's pep-reaitsu all the more meaningful.

Chapter's out. It's pretty short.

Yamamoto went bankai! Holy crap.