Bleach ch404-405

Even Urahara's sneaking a peek

Now that the final week of the trimester is upon me, things are getting hectic with assignments and deadlines due left and right. Caught up in this shitstorm is last week’s Bleach and Bakuman posts, so this will be yet another post where I try to sum up my thoughts that I left behind last week. Thankfully for me I was able to find a small window to write this up, so here are my thoughts on ch404 and this week’s Bleach ch405.

Bleach「 ブリーチ 」

Which means that your ass is too

Chapter 404 – Deicide 6
Read Online @ MANGASTREAM

Thoughts: The chapter actually started of pretty much the same as the last few, with a portrait shot of everyone’s reactions along with Ichigo’s “what the fuck is all of this” face. Honestly, he really should not be all that surprised at this point, especially after everything that’s been going on lately. Maybe he’s still shocked at Aizen’s horrible new look. Maybe he’s as surprised as I am at how little Yoruichi is wearing. Speaking of Yoruichi, it was great to see her comical banter with Urahara, this time about how his latest armor creation is all brittle and half-assed, leaving her exposed to Aizen’s attacks. Aizen’s speed attack again caught everyone off guard so I’m not sure what happened there, but with three powerful captain level fighters on the field, even Aizen should be a bit tied up.

The main surprise of the chapter lies in the end, as the two start battling again. Matsumoto is seen running to the scene of battle, even though she is literally half dead at this point. She won’t be able to do much in her current state, other than getting in the way of Ichigo but knowing the history she shares with Gin, I can see something happening there. What I see happening is Matsumoto trying her best to convince Gin of the good old days. I doubt that it will go through though but there are two ways that this can fold out. She could be wrong about Gin and he may have changed so much now that he doesn’t give a damn about her anymore. This scenario will lead to her death, which may motivate Ichigo to summon his super hollow 2 transformation ala Krillin’s death during the Frieza arc. The other possible scenario would be her getting through to Gin, where she will eventually die one way or another, enraging Gin and pushing him towards fighting Aizen, probably dying and leaving us with a bittersweet ending where the two die side by side. LOL. I’ll just leave it at that.

And this, dear friends, is how you apply a "condom" onto a "penis"

Chapter 405 – Deicide 7
Read Online @ MANGASTREAM

Thoughts: Well, this chapter only briefly touched upon the whole Matsumoto situation, as it’s revealed that she really is just half dead with the healing done to her barely keeping her alive. She doesn’t get to Ichigo and Gin in time though since Gin is shown manhandling Ichigo in their battle. His hollow mask again didn’t hold up that long since Gin is really underwhelmed at how unmotivated he is. Maybe Ichigo really is mentally drained at this point. Interestingly though, I think Gin managed to catch a glimpse of Matsumoto in the end, as for some reason he tells Ichigo to run, probably so that the two can share their own intimate moment. This fight seems to show how human Gin is, at least to me. He seems to be toying with Ichigo at all times and some of his acts lead me to believe that he’s much more human than Aizen. I guess his interaction with Matsumoto will shed light on this more, I’d love to see how far removed from his past he really is right now. Who knows, maybe Gin is Bleach’s own version of Snape from Harry Potter? He doesn’t really want to kill Ichigo and it seems like he’s just staying around long enough to survive the whole war. This whole thing isn’t resolved in this chapter sadly (does it ever in Bleach?), since the focus then shifts back to Aizen and co.

Yoruichi managed to dodge that last attack but it seemed to have cost her yet another armor piece, this time off her left arm. After another one of Urahara and Yoruichi’s little lover’s spat though, Aizen revealed something that I never thought he would ever say, as he actually admits that Urahara is the only person in the whole world above his level of intellect. Okay, maybe not his level of intellect since he would never freely admit to that, but at the very least I think he is complimenting Urahara on the fact that even Aizen doesn’t understand how his mind works at times. Urahara returns his sentiments by tagteaming with Yoruichi and Isshin again with another bout of combo attacks. Yoruichi managed to put a dent in Aizen’s armor again but Aizen is still unfazed since he predicted everything from the beginning. What he doesn’t realize however is Isshin’s massive Getsuga Tenchou which by the looks of it, would slice anyone in half. Knowing Aizen though, this will probably have no effect on him, with the next chapter no doubt showing us the regenerative effects of the hogyouku.

It seems to me that Bleach has been following the same routine lately in regards to Aizen. Right now it’s mostly combo attacks and while flashy, I doubt it would do much damage to Aizen. I’m pretty sure Urahara knows this and even though Isshin looks to be much stronger than Ichigo, I doubt that last attack would hold much lasting damage. I’m guessing Urahara has a bigger plan working in the background and he is possibly testing the details of Aizen’s armor. I still hope that Isshin does manage to crush the armor somewhat though, since Yoruichi did manage to shatter parts of it. I would just love to see Aizen’s shocked expression once more, without that mask. Hopefully the next chapter doesn’t follow this same sequence though, since a change of attack doesn’t compensate for the extremely slow pacing. But sadly, knowing Kubo I doubt this would happen. The next one will probably be another bout of the same combo attacks, maybe half of it about how Aizen’s regenerating powers are second to none, or a chapter long spectacle of how Matsumoto is in love with Gin. *sigh*

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