Ramblings of a Crowe

Okay-- I take back the bad things I said about Byakuya..some of them....

Alrighty-- I'm gonna do some summaries for Bleach and Naruto this week, since it seems like the chapters are worth talking about. Just manga, no anime summaries. If you've read the manga's up until now, you know what has happened in the anime. Capiche?

Oh, and though I don't feel obligated to put spoiler tags on any of my posts, I will here: Don't read these or look at any of the pictures if you don't want to know what has happened. Turn away NOW!

(oh, crappy scan warnings too)

*SIGH*

Okay...

Bleach:

Chapter starts off with the initial meeting between Tousen (blind guy) and Komamura (fox guy). They seem to strike up a friendship and Tousen introduces Komamura to Aizen when Aizen was still just a vice captain. Break to the present, Komamura is PISSED. OFF. He attacks Aizen screaming at him how he will never forgive him for betraying them all. Aizen manages to dodge Komamura's huge ass fist. Komamura starts shouting at Tousen, demanding him to say something about his traitorous ways. When he doesn't respond, Komamura begins to initiate his Ban-kai, but Aizen does his "magical disappearing act" and appears right in front of Komamura. Guess what happens? Yup, Komamura is sliced and diced by the OMG WHUPOWERZ of Aizen (is this guy friggen Superman or something?)

Now that the distraction has been eliminated, Aizen's attention returns back to Rukia. He continues his tale (doesn't he ever shut up?) and informs everyone how he actually killed Central 46 Committee BEFORE he faked his death. He, Gin, and Tousen took over command of issuing orders--no one was the wiser since not even captains are allowed in the Committee chamber. After he faked his death, Aizen sealed himself up in the chamber and took over full command. He was the one that ordered Byakuya and Renji to retrieve Rukia. He was the one who ordered her death. He was the one who made sure Rukia's gigai was destroyed.

He anticipated Ichigo's interference and came up with a plan incase the execution failed. He researched all of Urahara's experiments and discovered another way to remove the Hougyoku from Rukia's body (the hougyoku is a device that allows shinigami to power up to a higher level--they can turn to partial hollows). Aizen finally stops talking and his hand turns all funny. He shoves it into Rukia's chest, making a huge hole, and pulls out the hougyoku. The hole in Rukia's chest closes up and she's still alive.

Aizen studies the Hougyoku (a weird crystal looking thing) and then tells Gin to kill Rukia, since she is of no more use. Gin fires up his Shinsou and shoots at Rukia as Aizen holds her out by her "collar".

BUT...

BYAKUYA SNATCHES HER AWAY FROM AIZEN AND TAKES THE HIT INSTEAD! Holy shit ma, I must be seeing things! *rubs eyes* Aizen looks bored, but Byakuya looks pissed, which is saying a lot considering the guy has a glacier shoved up his ass 99.9% of the time. Rukia is STUNNED. Hell, everyone is stunned. Byakuya is messed up, still bloody from his fight with Ichigo, and now has Gin's spear sticking out of his chest, but it looks like he's ready to fight...

Then the chapter ends...

Sooooooo....

What might happen next? I really have no friggen clue. Aizen has the hougyoku, which could mean he can power himself up even more. That will piss me off, since the guy has cut down everyone who's come at him so far. Ichigo is nearly cut in half, Renji is down, Komamura is fox fritter, Hitsugaya may or may not be dead along with Hinamori...Kira is out...Who else am I missing? Four people with the ability to use Ban-kai have been defeated in seconds...

Things don't look good for Byakuya...

HOWEVER...I do have to wonder how Aizen will fair against Byakuya's Ban-kai. Unlike the others (if I remember correctly), Byakuya's Ban-kai is a field wide property...meaning no matter where Aizen goes, big B's ban-kai is there. Aizen isn't fast like Ichigo, he uses illusion to make people think he's fast...so...I guess we'll have to wait and see.

There is also the possibility that the other captains will show up. That flower guy (what the hell was his name), Kenpatchi (who has no Ban-kai), that scary ass old man...and what about Yourichi? *sigh*

Until next week...

Naruto:

Okay, not exactly an action packed chapter, but we do learn some interesting tid-bits about Itachi and his mangekyou sharingen.

Last week, we saw Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura run into Itachi. The started to square off.

This week, the chapter starts off with Itachi being his "polite" self. He probably one of the most etiquette friendly villains I've ever seen. Anyway, Sakura is surprised to see him, then she gets pissed because he's the one who caused all of Sasuke's "suffering" (sorry honey, but Sasuke caused a lot of his own suffering by being and arrogant dumbass). Naruto freaks out and tells Itachi he's going to beat the shit out of him but Kakashi stops him. He tells everyone to be careful and not look into Itachi's eyes or they'll be swept up by his genjutsu. They'll have to fight him without looking into his face. Sakura seems a bit troubled by this.

The old woman speaks up and says that fighting someone who uses dojutsu isn't impossible--there are several options. Naruto wonders what the hell she's talking about and the old woman explains that they need to fight in numbers; meaning the keep his attention divided amongst them so he can't capture them all at once with his dojutsu. Kakashi says that would be a good idea, but Itachi isn't any ordinary dojutsu user. It only takes seconds to be caught up in the tsukyomi and after that there is no release from the illusion. He also explains that the tsukyomi takes a huge amount of chakara, which works against Itachi.

Itachi compliments Kakashi on being so astute. Kakashi replied by revealing his own sharingen and asking Itachi, "How bad has your eyesight gotten?"

Itachi is shocked (wow, a reaction from him at last). He then says something along the lines of "Kakashi, it's not possible," or "Kakashi, you didn't..." I have no idea what he's talking about...this has me stumped. I'm assuming Kakashi has done something or figured out something that only other sharingen are aware of. I think perhaps Kakashi has copied something (though I don't know how...Itachi uses Blood line related techniques, which are suppose to be immune to copying). Anyway, Kakashi tells Itachi he was careless and that this time around, the fight will be different. Naruto gets fired up and says he's going to help, but Kakashi tells him no; he's only going to be back up for Kakashi. Kakashi admits he cannot fight Itachi on his own.

Meanwhile, Gai is duking it out with Kisame. Kisame seems out matched, but he busts out his water clones just as Neiji, Ten Ten, and Lee attack him. Gai has managed to wrestle Kisame's huge ass sword out of his hands, but Kisame uses his water prison jutsu to capture the three students. Now it is only Gai and Kisame left to battle, and now there's a time limit! The three will drown if Gai doesn't do something and fast!

My opinions? Interesting that Itachi's eyesight is going bad. I wonder if he'll go totally blind? And what does Kakashi have up his sleeve? The last time he and Itachi fought, Kakashi got seriously owned. And where is Sasuke? I certainly hope to see him and Itachi battle it out at least once (I want Sasuke to lose).

Posted by Zoso at April 23, 2005 01:55 PM