Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 383 to 386

Continuing from Bleach chapter 382, chapter 383 sees the battle between the two shinigami captains, Kuchiki Byakuya and Kenpachi Zaraki, and Yammy going into full force when Yammy transforms himself. The result of the transformation can be seen below.

It seems like the sole factor to make Yammy's powers stronger is to get him angry. The angrier the better. That is certainly a huge size, even for an espada. How will the two shinigami captains deal with him?

Meanwhile, the focus shifted back to Karakura Town where Aizen tries to instigate Shinji into attacking him. Will Ichigo rush back on time to save them all? Will Shinji's strong confidence in Ichigo pays off?

On the other side, chapter 384 sees Komamura Sajin, captain of the 7th division, heading off Tousen, who has gained the powers of a Hollow. His transformation is a full on head mask.

Tousen decided to abandon his shinigami roots and seek the powers of a Hollow to make himself stronger than ever. How will Komamura face off against such a strong opponent? Will calling bankai help?

Captain Komamura's bankai looks impressive but is it enough to fend off the hollowified Tousen? We have seen how powerful a Hollowified shinigami can get. Examples are Ichigo and the vizards.

In chapter 385 we see two showdowns. One between Shinji and Aizen, the other between Komamura and Tousen. Who will come out as the victor?

 Shinji and Aizen

 

Komamura and Tousen

How will it end for them?

Chapter 386 is the latest installment to this exciting series and I am glad to have caught up to it finally. Here we see that Tousen evolved into a terrible being as can be seen below.

In his battle against Komamura, he seems to have the upper hand as he striked the captain down easily. However it is actually Komanura who does not wish to fight against Tousen anymore. He wants to be the vessel to accept and heal Tousen's disillusioned heart.

However Hiragi dealt a heavy blow to Tousen before he could finish off Komamura. Finally Hiragi gets his rightfully deserved spotlight here.

Just one strike and that is it for Tousen. Will he finally be finished off in the next chapter? I predict that we will see a tribute to Tousen in the next chapter, if he is truly defeated once and for all. Too bad Ichigo still hasn't gotten his spotlight in the human world yet. Perhaps we shall see him soon in the next couple of chapters. Or we might not.

Kubo sensei sure can draw out a long battle that doesn't see the need for Ichigo's appearance. Wahaha.... Let's wait and see, shall we?

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 376 to 382

In Bleach chapter 376, we see Aizen finished off Halibel as she tried to attack him back. Now he declares his move on the Gotei 13 as well as the vizards. How will the battle turn out?

Before we see that, the story turns to Mashiro's battle with Wonderweiss, who seems intent on fighting back no matter how many times Mashiro kicked him down. At the very last moment, Mashiro's hollow mask suddenly cracks, giving Wonderweiss a chance to smash her face.

Muguruma Kensei stepped in before Wonderweiss can defeat Mashiro completely.

From the picture above, you can see how impressive Kensei gets when he releases his bankai. How will the battle turn out? The next page changes the focus back to Aizen, who is now being confronted by both the Gotei 13 and the vizards.

He succeeded in taking down Hiyori who is unable to control herself and tried to attack Aizen. The chapter ends with a picture of Ichigo, as seen below.

Will Ichigo finally made his appearance after such a long absence? Not to worry. Kubo sensei finally rewards his fans with a long awaited appearance of Ichigo and he sure appeared in style. See the picture below.

Ichigo comes to Rukia's rescue amidst a whirl of smoke. How is cool is that? As Ichigo prepares for battle, he draws his opponent away from Rukia and starts getting serious in his battle.

However in chapter 379, something goes terribly wrong with Ichigo's hollowification and at the last crucial moment, he was unable to summon his mask out. He seemed on the verge of losing when unexpected help arrived in the form of Kuchiki Byakuya and Kenpachi Zaraki.

In chapter 380, Kenpachi is fighting off Yammy as the shinigamis persuade Ichigo to return to the human world. Being the stubborn guy that he is, Ichigo refused until Byakuya told him that as a representative shinigami of Karakura Town, he is obliged to go back and defend it. With that, we see Ichigo off below.

We see Ichigo travelling back to the human world together with Retsu Unohana, the captain of 4th division, in chapter 381. Here, Unohana warns Ichigo about Aizen's shikai and that he must never see it if he wants to defeat Aizen. That is the only condition in order to escape from the influence of Aizen's zanpakuto's power.

Again in chapter 382, we see the continuation of Ichigo's conversation with Unohana. However this time round, the talk is on Ichigo's reiatsu. All the while, Unohana thought that Ichigo's reiatsu is at captain's level with that half piece of shinigami clothing. However Ichigo said that it wasn't his full recovery so his shinigami clothes has yet to grow back fully. That said, Unohana realised that Ichigo could very well be their ultimate trump card after all.

Back in the battle against Yammy, Kenpachi has yet to defeat him fully but expects Byakuya to finish the job. They ended up quarrelling and forgot about their opponent. When Yammy ambushed them, Byakuya and Kenpachi retaliated and the combination can be seen below.

Poor Yammy. Faced with such a powerful attack from the two captain, will he finally succumbed to the battle? Let's onward to the next chapter.

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 372 to 375

After the defeat of Barragan in Chapter 370, Chapter 371 continues on with the battle focus on Starrk. He was momentarily affected by Barragan's death and almost wanted to give up fighting. Only Lilynette managed to persuade to fight back to avenge his ally. And so, in his battle against vizard Love Aikawa, he produced animals, as can be seen in the picture below.

How will the battle turns out for both of them? Starrk certainly looks impressive enough to reclaim his position as the no. 1 among the arrancars.

As it turned out, those animals that looked like wolves are actually the combined powers of both Starrk and Lilynette. It took out quite a lot of energy from Rose and Love in trying to deflect them. In chapter 373, we can see how impressive Starrk can get during battle when he is serious.

Look at that serious posture of Starrk's.

However in mid-battle, he gets stabbed by a blade. Where did that come from? Was it a secret enemy hiding somewhere from him?

In Chapter 374 we get the answer from Kyoraku Shunsui, captain of the 8th division. His zanpakuto is actually twin swords that has the ability to influence all players, including the owner, into abiding by its rules through turning child's game into reality. 


One of the game techniques, Kageoni or Shadow Demon, forces the players to alter their own shadows; whoever steps on a shadow, even their own, is declared the loser. Another game technique, Irooni or Coloured Demon, involves the players calling out a name of a color and then slicing the enemy where that color is displayed. However, if the color is not on the body of the person who called it out then the damage given is minimal; the more that the declared color is prevalent on the declarer's body, the more damage the attack will commit.

The final page for this chapter ends below: 

Is that the end for Starrk and Lilynette? How will their battle end? We can see that in chapter 375. I suppose this chapter also counts as a tribute to Starrk and Lilynette. 


Starrk is totally defeated by Shunsui and as he fell, memories from his past are flashed before the reader. We see how he met Lilynette for the first time and how Aizen approached him too. It was all loneliness before he had known Lilynette. 


We see Lilynette for the last time as Kubo sensei dedicated a page to her and Starrk as seen in the picture below.

No matter what happens, Lilynette will stay with Starrk forever, even in death. How poignant. As for Aizen, he continues to be a heartless bastard. With the end of Starrk's battle, the focus now turns back to Halibel. 


As Halibel faces off against attack from 2 vizards and 1 shinigami, Aizen made a sudden move in her battle. A shocking move, I would say. In a sudden about turn, Aizen decided that Halibel is no longer strong enough to fight for him and thus he proceeds to kill her off himself. See the picture below.

He is truly a heartless man and he spares no mercy to anybody. Perhaps the only exceptions are Gin and Kaname. So far they have remain constant by his side and they did not need to engage in battle the way Aizen made the arrancars do. 


How will the plot turn next? I am curious to find out in the next chapter.

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 368 to 371

Here we get to see real action coming from the vizards as they attacked against the arrancars after the shinigamis have exhausted their energy.Most of them are stronger than the shinigamis and they managed to deal some heavy blows to the arrancars, who had been holding the upper power till now.

Kuna Mashiro gave powerful kicks to Wonderweiss and that strange creature, Fura, defeating them in the process. Sarugaki Hiyori actually quarrelled with Toushirou just before they were about to confront Halibel. Lisa decided to go against Halibel by herself when it appears that the quarrel is not going to end. 

Ushōda Hachigen managed to defeat Barragan while helping in Soi Fon's battle. It was truly fantastic at the way he tried to pierce through the defence of self-declared emperor of Hueco Mundo. It was ironic when both he and Soi Fon had lost an arm in order to defeat Barragan. I wonder if they will get to grow back their arms.

Chapter 371 is sort of like a tribute to Barragan as he dies in his final battle. Flashback to the past showed us how Aizen had approached him in the first place. His powers are truly amazing enough that he had to shield himself from them so that he won't die of old age. In the end, he is just like everyone else and is vulnerable to dying of old age.

Next I shall move forward to the next chapters.

Manga Read: Bleach Volume 42

Bleach volume 42 covers chapters 359 to 367 and I have only just finished reading them. The chapters are pretty short so it's quite fast to browse them through.

Despite the shortness, Kubo Tite had drawn many interesting plot twists into this volume. For a start we get to see Wonderweiss again and he's brought along a strange-looking friend. See the pictures below and you'll get the idea.

Arrancar Wonderweiss Margera

What is this strange thing?!

See the strange thing above? It looks so huge. Will the shinigamis be able to overcome it? Fret not. The vizards have arrived right on time to help the shinigami captains in their fight against Aizen.

The Vizards finally arrived. 

However this signals Wonderweiss to say some odd words that made the strange thing do this. See picture below:

Gillians released by the strange being

Lots of gillians were released by the strange being and this gave the vizards a chance to showcase their prowess. Hiroko Shinji almost hit Aizen but was deflected by Tousen at the last minute. How will the story continue from here?

The vizards used to be the enemies of the shinigamis but now they decided to band together with them in the fight against Aizen. However Shinji clearly specified that they are on Ichigo's side, not the shinigamis'.

So far the focus has not fallen back on Ichigo so I do not know how he's faring inside Aizen's prison. The next few chapters will reveal more story twists that promised to be more entangled than a Aldo hairstyle. Hee...

Hit 300 posts on this blog?!

Oh my.... I had just realised that I have posted more than 300 posts in this blog. I wasn't really aware of it until I was checking through my dashboard and saw the figure in the corner. Wow.... I have managed to type out so many pages of nonsense writing ^_~

Hmm it's not a milestone by any standard since this blog was started just over a year ago and I have not been posting regularly to it. If I had, the post counts would have hit a thousand. There's so many things that I want to write about but then when I get home, I have forgotten what I wanted to write.

Ad hoc postings is what I do all the time so it may seems like my blog has no proper structure. Unlike some other famous blogs where you can see what the general feel of the blog is about. Mine has no feel at all. Hee....

Ok maybe I write too much on manga and anime stuffs. I hope I am not considered an otaku even though my main interests are mangas and animes. I don't even do cosplay though that certainly sounds fun. My lousy sewing skills prevent me from doing so. Renting a costume is too expensive and so I shall continue to prance about in my normal daily wear. Oh la la....

Honestly I didn't realise there are people who do read this blog. If you are one of them, I apologise for my lousy writing skills. I put more pictures than writing. Hee...

Anyway I have applied for 2 weeks worth of leave and will be spending my time rotting at home. I am too lazy to go out and not many friends are free to go with me anyway. So I probably will post more, read more manga and watch more animes. Sounds good to me, you know.

Right now I am downloading One Piece manga and I hope to get started on my long neglected Bleach as well as Naruto. So much reading to do but since all I have now is time, it's not a big deal to spend it reading mangas.

I am so addicted to reading mangas that I don't even watch local tv shows anymore. That makes me wonder why I bought my LCD tv in the first place and a 40 inch one too.

I am such a crazy person after all. Woohoo~

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 358 to 361

Nowadays, I seldom read Bleach on a weekly basis. Instead I let the chapters accumulated and then read all of them in one go. That would be much more better than sitting around week after week, waiting for each chapter to be released.

In the meantime, I would read other mangas like Skip Beat! and Kaichou wa Maid-sama to occupy my time.

This time round, I covered Bleach chapter 358 to 361. The fight is now focused on more shinigami captains other than the initial Toshiro and Soi Fong. The two of them used their most powerful bankai to defeat their respective espadas and it still remains to be seen if they managed to eradicate them successfully or not.

Toshirou is expected to be much more powerful in future, when his powers are fully grown. So Kubo Tite probably has major plans for Toshirou in place. As for Soi Fong, she is still missing one arm, even though she managed to use her bankai, which was rather big and flashy too.

Now the shinigami captains seem to be winning their battle against the espadas, unless Kubo Tite decided to make the enemies much more stronger than they are now. So there's the possibility of the fights continuing on for quite a few more chapters before the mangaka will conclude the whole battle.

I'm guessing the battle will most likely be drawn out until around chapter 375. Maybe Ichigo's fight will also be included, if we are lucky enough. At the rate the mangaka is going, it's going to take a long time before we would know if the shinigami captains succeed in their quest to stop Aizen.

Onward Bleach!

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 357 Out

The new chapter to the ongoing manga, Bleach, has just been posted for reading.

It continues the fights for shinigami captains Soi Fong and Toushirou Hitsugaya against the Espadas. However it seems that they are on the losing end for now. The Espadas' powers are getting so powerful that even the shinigami captains underestimated them and suffered damages to themselves in the process.

Soi Fong had to cut off her arm when she was hit by Barragan's attack, Death Breathe. Her hand and arm turned to bones and would probably have killed her if she hadn't got the arm cut off. I wonder how on earth is she going to get victory out from this fight? So far the odds are stacked highly against her favour. Knowing Kubo Tite, he would probably engineered a twist that no one would think of in this kind of situation.

For Toushirou, he thought that he could use his control of the water as a weapon against Halibel but she proved to be a tough cookie as well. While Toushirou controls water in the form of ice, Halibel controls water in its original form. It seems to be that way for now.

Yet again, the chapter ended in a cliffhanger and so we don't know who is going to win their fights. No wonder Bleach has grown so much chapters. One single fight alone is enough to occupy several chapters.

Anyway tomorrow I am looking forward to the release of the new chapter for Kuroshitsuji. Wee! I can't wait to see what Yana has drawn for Ciel and Sebastian in their pursue of the Father.

Onward to tomorrow!

Manga Read: Bleach Chapter 356 Out

Woo~ finally the translated version for Bleach chapter 356 is out and it's as short as ever.

New cover for the chapter

In the previous chapter, we thought that Toushirou was fatally injured by Halibel's attack. However, that was actually a diversion created by Toushirou in an attempt to try and outsmart the espadas. The espadas are a very super tough lot of fighters and it takes smart wit to win against them, not pure brute force.

This shows that Toushirou is not all what he seems to be, despite his child-like appearance. He's got much more mettle to his credit than he would let on but his fight with Halibel is still not over yet. As usual, Kubo Tite is going to cover the battle in several chapters, so that leave us readers hanging in the balance for now. Aww...

The other shinigami captain to be featured in this chapter is Soi Fong, who is fighting against espada no. 2, Barragan Luisenbarn, and he explained how each of the Espadas embody an aspect of death. According to the series, these are the ten reasons why humans die. Each Espada govern one aspect of death each and each aspect is reflective of an Espada's personality and/or fighting style.

He himself represent aging, a form of time manipulation. He can render his opponent unable to move or even break their bones without them realising it until it's too late. Poor Soi Fong is going to have a pretty tough fight this time but I'm betting that Yoruichi Shihōin will come in to save the day. Hee...

Now Barragan has just use his release and he sure looks awesome too. See the picture below:

Credit to sleepy fans for all the pictures.

He looks like a skeleton king, doesn't he? A grand one at that too. Oh man, the next chapter will be out tomorrow and the translated version should be out by Thursday or Friday. Till then, the fate of the shinigami captains as well as Ichigo and gang is still up for guessing. Phew!

Manga Read: Bleach [Update]

As far as my Bleach reading goes, I am still in the middle of the manga but since my previous post, I have advanced to chapter 245.

Slowly I am getting closer to reaching the latest arc and its chapters. Besides, the latest chapter has just been released, bringing the total chapters to 352. Since this manga is a weekly release, the next due day is this coming Wednesday. So if I can manage to reach the latest chapters before Wednesday, I will be at the most up-to-date arc and its plot.

So far, I have completed the Soul Society arc and now I'm reading the Arrancar arc. This arc follows the betrayal of Aizen and his gang, which happened in the Soul Society arc. Aizen intends to build his own army of arrancars to invade and destroy the Soul Society, a mission which he failed to carry out in the previous arc due to Ichigo's interference.

As usual, the plot is engaging and many fighting scenes are included, though now there seems to be more focus on one of the side characters, Inoue Orihime. She is being targeted by Aizen for her special ability to reverse time and thus seems to be able to heal any sort of injury. Now it's up to Ichigo, Uryuu and Sado to save her from Aizen's clutches.

There is also a new character I find very cool, Ulquiorra Cifer. A picture of him is shown below:





I believe this is the anime version of Ulquiorra. By the way, I must admit that I am still unable to pronounce his name correctly. The spelling alone took me 2 days to get it right. Now I must source for the sound of his name. It's like a tongue twister. Meh...

Nonetheless, he still looks very cool and to date, I prefer him more than any other espadas. The one espada that I dislike a lot is Grimmjow. I think he's an arrogant and insolent espada. He always want to do things his own way. He even dared to disobey orders and start fights with Ichigo and gang. His picture is depicted as below:





He looks like he is in need of a nasty beating, eh? Heehee....

As for the Soul Society side, I am starting to like Byakuya and Toushirou more. Byakuya's love and concern for his adopted sister, Rukia, is very emotional and touching. It's hard not to like him after all he has done for her. He carries a serious on his face at all times, just like the picture below:





Toushirou is very cute but is also very stern for a boy. However his concern for Hinamori is rather discernable and this makes him more enduring. His relationship with his vice-captain, Rangiku, is rather strong and she is willing to turn against her childhood friend, Gin, to fight alongside with Toushirou. See how cool Toushirou poses below:





So now I'm off to continue my arrancar arc and I'm sure Ichigo will emerge victorious.

Manga Read: Bleach

Recently, I have started reading a hugely popular manga series, Bleach. Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he accidentally obtains the power of a shinigami—a Japanese death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from Rukia Kuchiki. Gaining these abilities forces him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife.

Book cover for Vol. 01

Currently the series is still ongoing and it has 351 chapter released. I have managed to read up to chapter 146 and so far it has been action-packed with many plot twists. I like Ichigo as he is very cute and funny. The way the mangaka, Tite Kubo, draws his characters may not be as elegant as Kuroshitsuji's mangaka, Yana Toboso but his drawings do have their own charm.

Ichigo is often portrayed with a comic face whenever he gets tricked by his friends. As it's still pretty early for me to say whether this series is good or not, nonetheless the action-plot might appeal more to guys as it's more manly.

I don't know how long it will take me to reach the latest chapters and the chapters are released on a weekly basis. Hopefully I will be able to catch up soon, provided the story doesn't bore me out in the middle. Now I'm preoccupied with the soul society arc and the plot seems to go on forever.

Still, it's not too bad as a read and maybe I will have a better opinion once I complete my reading.

=D