Bleach Chapter 493 – 494 – the Ones we Lost in Only Minutes….

Ahoy all, Pein here for another Bleach Manga Breakdown.

I wanna take you all back, back to the Fake Kankuro Town Arc and Decide Arc, which to many seemed the greatest let down and began Bleaches downfall and even seemed to push it outside the “Big 3” Manga rating. One of the major issues was the lack of “Death” within this all out war, the 3 Top Espada had done little to no damage on Soul Society making the arc’s feel fake in a sense.

It seems Kubo looked around and though in many ways I feel trolled by this recent Chapter, there is an underlying difference to it. It seems that in this final war NO character will be excempt, or at least not the Fringe Characters…

I am getting ahead of myself, lets begin with 493. If I had to make a title for just this Chapter it would be “When Buckbeard Became Legend”

Sklaverei which would literally translate to “Holy Servant”, I found these Quincy pretty overpowered before but this… This takes it to a whole new level. We knew Krige is on a much Higher Level then most of the Foot Souldiers to maybe “these” Techniques he is using is like Shikai and Bankai for Captain Class Shinigami. Since all of Soul Society and Hueco Mundo is made of Reitsu and the people there in this Technique at first seems like an unstoppable force.

This got me thinking though… Firstly this explains what the 1 Squad Lieutenant said “They can Bankai” which could have translated to they can nullify Bankai and Absorb it. Since each Bankai is just the “Spirit” of the blade that the Shinigami wields. Now to go back to Ichigo’s special weapons title, Ichigo spent an entire Fullbring arc training his “Real” Body and gaining the ability to use abilities without needing to become a Reitsu body, this would nullify this terrifying technique once. (Though Currently he is in a Soul Body)

Ichigo attack on Krige also showed the Technique has a massive “weakness” it basically creates a giant bullseye on the users head or I would assume for each Quincy it could be placed on a different part of the body… Though this is still to be seen.

It seems difficult to use in a battle environment, he hasn’t been able to use it while moving and fighting this would make it almost impossible to use in a “Captain” level battle.

I found it funny how Kubo trolled us and this one of my favorite moments in the arc so far.With all of Soul Society in a panic for the war. Some seem to be relaxed believing from the previous invasion that if they are infiltrated it would be through a gate.

and “Buckbeard” being the legend that he is, just stand there in the air above the “Safe” Shinigami and his rebuttal to all this, “I see… That makes sense” but here is a massive blast, “cause why you ask?”

“Cause F&^k you that’s why” That to me was pretty impressive move, he destroyed all those Shinigami’s confidence in their own system of protection, something that had never seen before. Finally saying “War is Tough” it just seems that he is too ironic to not have more depth, he is fighting a war for peace (in his own words) and I seen a sign that aptly explains that logic it went something like… “Fighting for Peace is like F&%king for Virginity” but then to as he is killing hundreds if not more of his enemy to still be so calm and state “Wars are really Tough” seems mind-boggling to me. If for nothing else I would just read Bleach to find out WTF is up with him.

Moving to Chapter 494 we beginning a series chapters again “The Closing Chapter Part 1”

This seems so rushed and placed at such a strange time, we are currently sitting at 494, exactly 6 chapters away from the 500 mark a massive achievement for any manga series. So I believe Kubo is going to count down to something big for the 500th, and as far as I can see it will be the destruction of Soul Society.

You could sometimes love or really hate Kubo but I think after all this time I realized his is the true “Troll” of Mangaka and he hate’s colour spreads. With this chapter literally having a single colour page with almost nothing on it, I just started laughing thinking seriously AGAIN Kubo! He did it during the Fullbring when Ichigo regained his ability and again now.

Yup, that’s all folks. The other spreads where cool though they seem like glorified backgrounds he could have done ages ago, but getting past the Empty Colours and Screensaver stuff the chapter really developed well from there.

It has been weird, I read a chapter and think ‘come on nothing really happened’ but then I go back and reread it. It almost feels like because Bleach isn’t “word” heavy there is nothing to it but if you forced to read it and take in each panel you see there is more depth then meets the eye.

For example Kubo will use 3 to 4 panels, just showing panic. He doesn’t say, “OMG we panicking” he shows people’s reactions, Renji, Rukia, Kira etc. Then he uses a double spread to show the wide range of the destruction <__<

The rest of the chapter seems to build slowly but surely, showing each Shinigami getting ready to battle and heading towards the Pillar’s of Light Fire Death. Which itself seems to be a massive trap the Shinigami are headed for (like a moth to a flame) the Pillars actually help hide the Quincy intruders. Squad 3 has always seemed a “Tragic” Squad…

Kubo quickly introduces us to a couple of “Filler” Characters, but the true point of this chapter has been to show Kubo’s intent with Bleach to come. As I said before Bleach seemed “unbelievable” the strongest character and “fan” favourites seemed to be Plot protected or like we call it “Plotkai”, Bleach has shown it won’t make that mistake again. This will be a war and though I feel sad to see one of my favorites go I also think this will spark something bigger for Bleach in the future.

Kira’s death is the marking point, I guess to the pain’s of war. He has been one of Kubo’s favorite in the past so loosing him has shown there is gonna be a free for all.

Even still the Quincy seem sympathetic and even slightly arrogant, “sorry we were ordered to kill you” it seems this is a War where people say one thing but act differently <__<

I find the new Quincy Characters quite boring, just from their looks they seem like knock off’s of previous characters or types of Character Kubo likes to draw. The rebellious hardcore member (Guy with Mohawk, kinda like Grimmerjow and Renji even Kenpachi to a degree), the Brute Character(person left of Mohawk man, seen in characters like Yammy), I mean there is even a darked hair female with a heart for a belt… <__<

We see the Shinigami research centre and it truly puts into perspective the size of the loses, in the previous war the low-level shinigami where protected but in this war they are truly on the front lines. 1000 deaths in only 7 min’. That is something that is hard to swallow 1000 people died in less time then it took me to read this chapter! O_O

So we end back with Ichigo, kind of an anti climax but these “series” chapters are usually more enjoyable after you have gone back and read them from part one to their finale. I think Kubo wants to fit too much in one space and this causes a sort of “meh” feel but when you look at it as a whole it goes through quicker and you enjoy the full effect ^__^

Makes me wonder though, with Soul Society on its back foot could this be the time they release their most powerful asset to come to the battle lines and I wonder how powerful he will be against an enemy of this magnitude…

~ by pein0avenue on May 31, 2012.