
I'm expecting the other 0 to show up on his other shoulder soon.
Holy crap! What a ripoff from Gundam 00?! Now we have an Espada 0. I wonder if Yammy will get quadruple reiatsu output once he features the other 0 on his other shoulder.

I'm expecting the other 0 to show up on his other shoulder soon.
Holy crap! What a ripoff from Gundam 00?! Now we have an Espada 0. I wonder if Yammy will get quadruple reiatsu output once he features the other 0 on his other shoulder.

My first reaction when I saw Ichigo in this form was
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!
Umm… In a good way, that is.

Why won't you die already?!
Watching this scene reminds me of the scene from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me where a character (Robin Swallows) was stabbed in the back, shot by machine guns, blasted by a missile in the face, fell off a high-rise (and landed as a cushion for Austin Powers), dragged behind a car—all that but yet still won’t die.

Oh no, disappoint you did not.
After 24 chapters of fillers that were the Lieutenants’ fights, Bleach (manga) is finally back to the main story.
The biggest revelation in the chapter is Stark = the Primera Espada. Honestly, I had thought he was third because of his laid-back attitude. But come to think of it, only a really strong fighter can afford to get away with fooling around like that but yet manage to stay alive.

Rangiku from Bleach chapter 336
Look more carefully, Rangiku’s entire right-side of her abdomen has just been ripped apart.
Now I am no stranger to Bleach’s ridiculously over-the-top wounds sustained by various characters, e.g. Ichigo sustaining Ulquiorra’s full hand plunged completely into his chest and Rukia impaled by the ninth Espada Aaroniero’s sword through hers, but having half of your internal organs torn out like that looks instant fatality to me. But guess what: no one in Bleach with more than a dozen of dialog lines ever dies.

Just when Bleach have almost snuffed out all my fandom, it comes back with a twist that piques my interest again.
The recent lame fights have been formulaic, repetitive, unoriginal, and unconvincing. Take the Soifon fight: here, we are asked to believe an assassin, a silent killer, would announce to her opponent her method of kill, just so that she could assess the strength of her opponents. But wasn’t she, at the same time, being assessed by Barragan who was watching the entire fight at the sideline?

Boy, would I love to play poker with Soi Fon?
OK, so you’re strong and awesome, but do you have to make your life difficult—not to mention at risk—by telling your opponent the secret of your trump card?

flocking huge
I haven’t expected a captain to draw his sword so soon, but the last Arrancar happens to be too much for anyone else less than a captain with his bankai released to handle. In a battle of giant versus giant, Ikkaku, who has refused to release his, has no chance even if he does.

kazeshini (death by wind)
Chapter 324 opens with last fight’s Kira nonchalantly asking the arrancar he just cut down for no forgiveness—a fitting closure on his philosophy that war necessarily violates unapologetically all morality and fairness. Next up, the third of the prelim fights between the Ninth Division Lieutenant Shuuhei Hisagi and the third of Barragan’s five Fracción Findor Carias.

The blah-ness he meant
Now they’re just milking it.
Quite an inconsequential fight. The Arrancar, just weak—I mean feathers that can pierce through buildings are fine, but if they can be dodged, which Kira did without even requiring shinpo, then they’re not dangerous. His second technique, even lamer: he just dashes at you, which is absolutely the worst idea against Kira whose special ability requires his sword to make contact.

Worse than two fat ladies fighting over overly expensive cosmetic at Walmart.
So, after countless chapters of chattering, Bleach is finally back to its bread-n-butter: one-on-one fights. The first fight—one of four match-ups that serve as appetizers in the Winter War arc—is between Yumichika Ayasegawa, fifth seat of the eleventh division, and Charlotte Coolhorn, one of five Fraccións under the top arrancar Barragan.

"My boyfriend is a hollow!"
I can’t wait until the anime catches up to this chapter. Ho ho ho ho…
To be able to stare down your captor who has only recently crushed your best hope of rescue, to refute his threat of ripping your chest apart and cracking your skull open with
I am not afraid,
to be able to do so not because you see your friends coming—in fact, you saw them went down one by one—but because you know since your own heart beats on for them therefore so do theirs for you; that, is
Orihime Inoue.
Possibly the biggest oversight by Aizen, counted out as completely useless by Ulquiorra, she may yet be the story arc’s biggest wild card.
Watch out, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. Her strength only grows with passion and determination, not just in her heart, but in six—six hearts as one—to be metamorphosed as her real power yet unseen…

The return of the Vizards
So these two chapters wrap up this little setup, prequel arc. Next chapter should be back to the original timeline with the battle at hand in Karakura town (or a replacement of it).

Only Aizen’s second best technique

Same old scene, just with a younger versions of themselves.
Finally an action packed chapter, but the revelation at the end just deflates any excitement that had just built up.
Why does the bad guy have to be Aizen again?
When they’re talking about events over a hundred years ago, you would’ve expected the characters to be different from what they are today. Reminiscing about the past is one plot device to give characters more depths by showing the transformation from whom they used to be—like showing the seed before the tree or the catapillar before the butterfly.
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Kisuke continues to rake up cool points; young Byakuya shows a rare hot-tempered moment; and kiddo Gin is as spooky as he always has been.
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For the fifth chapter in a row, Bleach has gone chatty. In fact, there isn’t even a sign of a sword at all. Except for one frame, everything is talk. Fortunately, the talking does reveal some interesting secret operations of the Gotei 13.
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First a few bookkeeping. Yoruichi Shihouin was indeed the 2nd Division Captain. Also, by the standing order, the Vizard Kensei was the 9th Division Captain. This makes four Vizards that used to be Shinigami Captains! This also means four Vizards capable of Bankai in Hollow mode! For whatever the reason, I used to think that the Vizards are weak. Boy, was I wrong. Two more Captains remain in mystery: the 6th Division Captain, who was some old dude whose name has not yet been revealed, and the 10th who met a recent demise. Could Isshin Kurosaki be the replacement?
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Breaking away from Bleach traditions, this chapter takes a flashback without being in the middle of a big fight. The flashback is on the day of inauguration of the new 12th Division Captain Kisuke Urahara one century ago. What is interesting is that only 5 of the 13 captains now were Captains back then, but what is surprising is that at least 3 of the 13 captains back then became Vizards today. What is even more surprising is that there is a little-known Division — the 0th Division — called the Royal Guards.
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So, the last of the players finally stepped into the arena.
So far, Bleach has done very well in establishing the awesome power of the Espada. If Ulquiorra, who broke Ichigo’s bankai without having to release his zanpakutou, is only #4, then the top three espada are expected to give me the over 9,000 feel.
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I haven’t felt this excited about Bleach for a long time. Finally, the little kids are benched on the sideline, and the real men are stepping in to show how the real game is played.
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This is it. It looks like the Hueco Mundo arc is coming to an end. They are taking the fight to the human world — the home town of Ichigo and friends.