Bleach Chapter 581

So what do you know, the main character finally showed up in his own series again!!! Amazing stuff I know, but more on that a bit later.

The chapter starts out with Omaeda looking pretty damaged and carrying both Sui-Feng and his little sister, both of which are heavily damaged and unconscious at this point. As useless as he is, normally Omaeda would have no problem taking out the small fry that he was currently confronted with, but protecting two people with a heavy injured body can complicate things.

As a response Shinji and Momo save the day, annihilating the enemy instantly. Something that I would like to point out here is that all Shinji did was land and talk. It was in fact, the sweet, innocent little Momo that mercilessly incinerated the Sternritter leaving them to be nothing but a distant memory. Scary stuff indeed.

The best part was when Shinji, despite being as damaged as he was, was still able to be a total smart ass about everything and bring in some legitimate laughs to the scene.

(Shinji pulls off the best troll face)

Once everything calms down, Shinji makes the correct analysis, judging from the direction of spiritual pressure. The Bambi Slut Brigade was planning on killing off Zaraki while he was damaged. Upon this analysis, he decides that it would be best for them to scoot on over there the help Kenpachi out, but they were inevitably stopped by none other than Bazz-B.

This is undoubtedly a set up for a big fight. Who with? I’m not quite sure. Shinji seems to be having trouble moving at the moment and as I mention, Omaeda is pretty banged up himself. In a weird way, Momo might actually be the one who he faces off against in flame battle or sorts. The sheer destruction power of her initial attack was something certainly new and makes me wonder how powerful she has become since we last saw her. I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say that she would be able to defeat Bazz-B by herself. However, if she is able to perhaps harness his flames from his attacks and use them against him, she may be in with a chance. 

Bazz B also seems to notice the immediacy of the situation, straight out using three fingers to attack the group, when he spent the majority of the previous fight fighting with one or two.

Bazz B’s return means that Toshiru and Matsumoto are most likely dead, which is sad, but I doubt it will be the last of them. Perhaps someone quickly rescued them and Bazz-B had no time to chase after them.

 

Suddenly the sky lit up, with what seemed to be like several sound barriers being broken on Ichigo’s speedy trip to the ground. Ichigo promptly ruins this return by hilariously crashing straight into a building and completely destroying it.

At this point, everyone has noticed this new powerful presence on the battle field and they all know who it is. Ichigo’s strong point has always been his speed and he shows it off by traveling several kilometres in less than a second to be to Kenpachi. Scaring the living shit out of the BSB, very, very badass stuff.

Even though he is definitely powered up now, the cheeky bastard is still there inside of him, teasing Kenpachi about having to come and save him for a change.

 

So the main character decided to return to his own show after being away for just shy of a year now. Nothing really unexpected there. What I really liked about this return chapter, was that it was not entirely what I excepted. Return of the hero type chapters usually follow the following formula. 

1. Character returns leaving big visual evidence of the fact

2. Display some sort of power to show just how strong they have become

3. Retain strong determined serious face, no matter what the situation they discover, in a slightly out of character manner (for most protagonists anyway)

4. Proceed to fuck shit up with new power

Ichigo ticks most of these boxes, but what I liked the most is that he hasn’t let his new strength go to his head. He is still the cheeky, smart ass little bastard (figuratively speaking) that he was at the start of the series.

 

Kubo once again left us with another cliff-hanger chapter ending leaving endless room for speculation and predictions. Personally I am still undecided about who will face who. I still think it would be a waste from Ichigo to simply take down all the BSB before they could even think, and if he didn’t take them down quickly, it would make him look weak.

Ichigo’s first priority is the get Kenpachi out of there asap, and I think that is just what he will do. In short, I have no idea who is going to fight who. There is literally about 20 fight capable fighters either close to the fight, traveling towards it or are already there. Some of the injured from pervious fights that may now be healed. It will all remain to be seen next chapter.

(it would be a crime not to put this in)

I give this chapter a 9/10 simply because of the fact that Ichigo is back, it could have used a bit more dialogue to make it a bit slower to read, but apart from that it was a very enjoyable chapter all round.

- PandaSlayer