Bleach 401 is up on Mangasteam

Lots of exposition out of Aizen, not a whole lot of action. Nice moment when Aizen's speech got interrupted by Gin and Ichigo's ongoing fight though. Interesting explanation of the Hougyoku and what it does.

 

Hougyoku was certainly interesting enough, way better than we though it was. Aizen is becoming a bit obnoxious, though XD I can see why some people dislike him, even if he's still awesome.

Like father, like son, huh XD Both dumbasses.

And I loved the page of Urahara's appearance. That pic was GAR and badass. Now, his bankai is all we want <3

 

I feel like a lot of what Aizen actually said will be lost in translation.

Hougyoku is a little too reminiscent of philosopher's stone (FMA), but we'll see how it develops.

 

I kept waiting for the fight between Aizen and Isshin to be shown beyond "INTENSE FACIAL CLOSE UP" "DRAMATIC EYEBROW RAISE" "WEIRD 'GIVING THE BIRD' GESTURE."

I mean Aizen just walked through all, all, of the Gotei 13 hardcases present on the battlefield. He finally meets his match in Isshin, and we don't get to see the fight at all?

No, instead we watched Gin's swords's retraction/extension speed (depending on translation.) Wtf? The Big Bad finally is having to go on the back foot and all we get are either close-ups or buildings falling down. The latter is not nearly as impressive as it was oh, say, in the first ten chapters of the series. Even effing Rukia can take out a building.

 

lol @ Gin "Did I interrupt your big speech?" line.

Urahara snipes you from the back like a boss

 

Wall of Text

When I pretended Aizen was just pulling all this out of his ass, and his plan had been fubared when they switched out Karakura town, I like him a lot better. It takes a lot of balls to stall a fight with a (completely fresh) opponent that is at the very least equal to you in terms of abilities long enough to recover. That, and "I have known about you...since you were born!" was one of the greatest Narm moments I've read in recent memory.

Then reality comes crashing down on me and I realize that no, Aizen isn't making this up, he really believes what he's saying. His repeated repetitions rendered to the reapers that rang "Just as Planed" remained, regretfully, rotten. R

*clears throat*

So yeah. In the fine tradition of RPG bosses everywhere, Aizen's monologue made him contract "One Wing Angel" disease. In one hundred years, he will be re-incarnated as Dr. Willy. Way to stop a dramatic transformation sequence Urahara, but when you’re sniping it helps to aim for vital spots. It's understandable that you were confused, as you were to busy reading about Spiritual Physics to attended the lecture about Meta-Physical Anatomy, so I'll give you a crash course. If your opponent is a regenerator, either destroy the entire body or look for a weak point. Like, you know, the one you invented. That was all of seven and a half inches from where you aimed. Hyogoku might be indestructible, but I'm wiling to bet it's still affected by gravity. And with the flesh around it vaporized by your magic lazer beam, the flesh that was holding it in place, chances are good it's gonna fall.

Giving your *select one of the following*

A) BFF
B) Worthy Rival
C) Nakama
D) Gay Lover
E) Fellow Middle Aged Man
F) Other

…time to decapitate a bitch.

Blah blah, he might have hit Ishin, blah blah, to anti-climactic, blah blah. Still, Urahara made a nice dramatic entrance, but hitting a guy who can regenerate *above* his right lung? Couldn't be bothered to go down three inches? It would have been great to see Aizen's head explode in the middle of his naked transformation sequence.

Yeah, I know, raging at a Shonen fight about realism -_-. Also, anybody who wants to argue with me about where Aizen was shot: Your right, I'm wrong, go directly to the nearest bar and tell that hot chick how you worked out the size of Aizen's body using official data books, the average size of the buildings, and Japanese building codes to totally pwn some dude on a forum. Don't forget to mention the placement of the shot and those articles about lasers and ballistics on Wikipedia you looked at. That shit will get you laid.
True story, brah. -_-

I've been thinking. Bleach isn't going to end with this. And I doubt Kubo's going to let Aizen run away. So unless he pulls a villain out of no where(in the tradition of the anime filler) or makes an existing character the next big bad(I'm looking at you Hanatarou) Hyougoku's going to end up taking over Aizen and being the next villain. I don't like it either, but is preferable to the filler I'll have to go through if they beat Aizen and have wacky hijinks for awhile before the next big bad comes along that I won't care about. We've had so antagonists many already, I find it hard to care about anyone new. Way to go extended cast.

Urahara's (predictable) monologue next chapter better be awesome. D8




tl;dr:

Good Aizen, you look kind of cool. :awesome

Lrn2 Headshot, Urahara.

Where do you guys think Kubo will go with bleach?​

 

Maybe Aizen dodged...

 

...Aizen dodged sniper fire from a blind spot while standing completely still?

During a transformation sequence?

Can you even move during a transformation sequence?

*Does not compute*

If you can find an example in any anime/manga I'd have to watch/read it on principle of having an awesome gimmick. I fell in love with the Needless anime because at the time I was thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be weird if the male lead hit the tsundere for once?" and lo and behold it delivered, sort of. Eve wasn't really a tsundere, but that moment still had enough misogynistic schadenfreude that I had to watch the rest of the series. And read the manga. It was a lot better once I learned to treat it as an affectionate hot-blooded parody.

But yeah, anything I can think of is either 'Transformation Is A Free Action', Temporary Invulnerability, they immediately finish the transformation, or the transformation gets disrupted. I can't think of any examples where anyone has dodged in the middle of a sequence.

More to the point, the expression on his face, the lack of special effects implying movement, and the fact that he's standing completely still in the next panel he's in point to towards the theory of "No, he didn't dodge".

 

"There will be no Naruto, OP, Bleach, Bakuman, or Psyren scans this week, as it's Golden Week."

:*(.

 

Bleach is up on onemanga.com

 

Holy shit. Urahara is awesome, too bad we all know that it won't there. Also, the chapter is up at mangatoshokan.com too.

 

It seems like kido is gaining significance in the story, we're seeing more and more of it lately.

 

Maybe Kubo finally decided to give it some fair screen time. There was some pretty cool stuff in the anime fillers, but not too much kido has been seen for the most part.

Cool stuff, but of course it's not the end.

 

Now, if Aizen will again go: 'Just as planned! :awesomeResistance is futile.' I'll get really annoyed, but really, I already know that's how it's going to be.


Urahara is cool, although I'd like to see more from Isshin and Gin first.

 

I don't really understand how that seal works. It stops reiatsu from flowing out of Aizen's hands and blows him up because of that? Maybe it'll be explained next chapter or it's just a bad translation.

 

Yeah, the Aizen Trollface is starting to get just a little bit tired now. At least there are almost no more people left to jump into the fight and get owned (Yoruichi possibly, and maybe one more round of Yamamoto), so the main event should kick off before too long.

 

Bleach 403 is up.

Surprise, surprise, Aizen is still alive and fighting.

 

God damn Kubo is a lazy motherfucker.

Spoiler

As I thought, Aizen's entire Hougyoku transformation was little more than an excuse to draw less.

 

I think that might be her zanpakuto.