Bleach Chapter 582 Review

At Shounen today we had a fantastic line up of chapters from all of the big three and return of the Hunter X Hunter manga. It seemed that they were all fantastic with no clear winner as to who was the best. Bleach this week covered a bit more content than previous weeks and still retained a large portion of action scenes and full page sketches for some nice eye candy.

In the start of the chapter picked up where the last left off with Ichigo and Kenpachi having a little bit of an ‘are you alright bro’ moment. I thought it slightly funny and also strange how Ichigo expected Kenpachi to be able to walk his potentially fatal injuries off without much hassle like he had seen him do so many times before.

The Bambi Slut Bridge however, is having none of this happy moment stuff, still sightly scared from Ichigo’s startling entry last chapter.  **The Thunderbolt is the first one to charge in and is quickly thrown off into and then through the surrounding buildings. All the while Ichigo still hasn’t really moved away from Kenpachi at all. The remaining three simultaneously attack him and he simultaneously shit kicks them into buildings around him, although they didn’t seem to take much damage.

Here is where my first problem arises. The Thunderbolt emerges and she decides she has a problem with being thrown into a building, and honestly I don’t really blame her. However, it turns out that the direct problem was not what she was complaining about, it was that her hair happened to get dusty at the time. Kubo has never been particularly brilliant at distancing female characters from cultural stereotypes and this girl seems to be no exception.

Kubo has written these girls very well. They are powerful, have unique personalities, have unique powers that would make more even more interesting battles given the right opponent and they are still savage enough to be villains that you hate, but still love. This is why things like this stereotyping matter. Kubo has invested serious time and thought into creating these original characters and by making them stereotypical females it kind of ruins it.

 

Upon being heavily denied on their attack, the girls give it some thought and The Glutton tells them who they are facing is the no.1 war potential Ichigo Kurosaki. Upon finally realizing the situation they all take out there bows, which are named Heilig Pfreil. As Kubo Continues to follow the German language route with the Sternritter. These have approximately zero effect on Ichigo and if anything just gears him up for the fight. Keep in mind that it is only at THIS point that he draws his swords (in a very badass manner might I add!).

 

Enter: Juha Bach, Uryu and Haschwalth, the boss man, his successor and his right hand man. Not exatly the type of cannon folder we have been dealing with up until now. If I were to guess, I’m thinking that Ichigo will fight and defeat Haschwalth while Uryu and Juha will go off somewhere to do something else. I just can’t see Ichigo fighting the boss as soon as he gets back from the Soul Palace. Juha obviously means business as he states “we’re going to start”, start what, I don’t really know.

None of this is particularly surprising, we have seen in many shots in previous chapters that they three have been watching the battle unfold from afar.  What is surprising is Sternritter D’s inclusion with the words “let’s see, will I be able to make a choice, or not”. Interesting stuff indeed.

Something I would like to add is the remarkable resemblance between Sternritter D and Aizen. I personally believe that he in fact could be Aizen for many reasons.

One, the moment that the soul society first got broken down and revealed the quinces society the structure of many buildings completely changed and some even disappeared entirely, its not that unlikely to think he was freed from jail during this event.

Two, Aizen is capable of using his mind trickery powers even without his sword thanks to the Hogyoku. Using this power he may be very likely to trick the Sternritter that he is one of them. This would also explain why despite being one of the strongest of the Sternritter, he has yet to lift a finger.

Three, Even if Juha realises that he is Aizen. It would be in his best interest to go a long with it, as it gives him a key hold on Aizen. Plus he can always know where his sneaky as ass is that way.

 

The next chapter could feature pretty much anything. Lately Kubo has been making a habit of completely ignoring my generally logical theory’s based on the limited information we know, and then diverting entirely into something else I did not expect at all, so don’t hold me to my word too closely. I give this chapter a 7 out of 10, a bit more content than the last chapter, nice art and some interesting information. Not perfection, but still very enjoyable to read as always.

-       PandaSlayer

** Note: I will be addressing all of the members form the BSB by their nicknames as they are more relieved to the characters abilities and their original names are extremely long and hard to remember.