My favourite anime and manga of all time

10. Attack on Titan/ Shingeki no Kyojin

Like many I hopped straight on the hype train with this anime last year and my love for it may have calmed down now, but certainly not receded in the slightest. I generally consider myself to have a well rounded love for genres, but my soft spot will always be intense action paired with a hard hitting dramatic story. For me Attack on Titan nails so many good points: originality, well written characters, etc, etc. In the first episode we were hit with absolute destruction and devastation all the while creating the questions that became the premise to the story and what kept us all intently interested throughout the series. To top this off we have the fantastic animation. For the most part this only really applies to the action scenes, as general scenes where people are sitting around talking, or landscape scenes are not bad, but they are nothing special either.

A classic scene that I will never forget is Eren scraping on buildings and the ground as he uses his semi-working 3DMG on his way to fix the hole in the wall (sounds more exciting if you’ve seen it). That scene for me was one of the best pieces of action animation I had ever seen, a truly unforgettable experience.

Attack on Titan is not flawless but it is an example of how good action anime can be in the modern industry.

9. Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon was an anime I watched early on and was I first anime I watched that did not involve super natural powers. Black Lagoon has a strong fan base in the west and Japan and for good reason. The show has a vey interesting story that is driven by the interesting and unique characters. The two main characters Rock and Revy both come from very different situations and its fascinating watching how they carry out the same situation differently but still work together. Out side of the main characters is a small army of morally questionable side characters. It is never really clear who is on whose side. You don’t feel the typical, he’s a good guy because he’s a main characters. This is mainly because they are no good people in this show and that makes everything incredibly unpredictable. Everyone does terrible things for their own selfish reasons and watching how they react deal with their actions is equally interesting. The dubbed version for this anime is also very good, and for that reason is well suited for someone just starting to watch anime. However I must warn you, some of the scenes and topics in this anime may be confronting to those who are not expecting it. Overall I love this anime and its manga. It has a simple story line with no real ‘goal’ but because of the strong characters and their constant development, I will never tire from watching this anime.

8. One Piece

When it comes to top ten lists One Piece is always a given to be on the list. One Piece simply covers so many bases when it comes to anime, action, story, comedy and other less specific sub categories. The best thing about One Piece is that you don’t have to pay any attention when watching it, making it a fantastic ‘chill’ anime to marathon when you’re perhaps not feeling the best or just want to have a good time. It also has a simple yet interesting story and epic moments to keep you fanboying. Unfortunately One Piece does have problem with its overly simplistic animation and slow pacing, nevertheless One Piece is a fantastic anime experience that will entertain many including myself for years to come.

7. Naruto

Naruto is no doubt one of the best Shounen mangas ever written and that’s not just my personal opinion. Naruto is a two part series that has been going for over 10 years now. The strengths of Naruto come from its technical fighting, well written characters and story. The series noticeably increases in quality as it develops to a point where it is almost an entirely different show than it was in episode/chapter 1. The show also matures and darkens as the main character grows older making you feel almost like you’re growing up with the main character. Naruto has similar problems with One Piece, it is a victim of its own popularity. The animation in Naruto is either really good, or really bad. Filler is also an issue as almost half of the total episodes are filler, but people will keep watching despite this and the studio knows this well. Naruto is overall, a fantastic series that is slowly coming to an end after many, many years in the spot light, it has been a fantastic ride, but it’s not over just yet.

6. Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist was the first anime I ever watched and since then I have re-watched it numerous times since. The series has two animes, the original was made when the manga was yet to be completed with an original ending and Brotherhood was the remake once the manga was completed. FMA performs well in many areas making it a great series overall. The characters are very relatable and the story is just the right length with a satisfying resolution in a brilliant ending. The series is commonly acknowledged as being university loved, sitting at no1 on MyAnimeList.net for quite a while now, with an average rating of 9.23. Full Metal Alchemist is a good anime for those who have never watched anime before. The dub as won many international awards and it’s not too long of show that it will seem different from watching a regular tv show.

5. Hajime no Ippo

Hajime no Ippo has been going since 1989! Making it the oldest manga that is still publishing chapters weekly. It has nearly 1100 chapters and is most likely not going to finish anytime soon. Unfortunately the anime has not covered much of the manga, with the third series reaching the 550 chapter mark. Nevertheless it is still a series I love to death. Hajime no Ippo has brilliant intensity that I have only ever seen in the likes of Initial D and a few other series’. The author is knowledgeable on boxing, has nice art, easy readability all of which adapts well into the anime. The series is funny, intense, loveable containg well written characters and above all, is a classic Shounen story of a hopeless good for nothing kid proving to everyone one by one that he has what it takes to beat the worlds best. Hajime no Ippo is in my opinion (and many others) the best written sports series in existence and it’s a series I will always love.

4. Chuunibyou demo Kai ga Shita (Love, Chuunibyou and other delusions)

Now at this point you may be reading this thinking that I am a real he-man who craves action and hates the colour pink or anything remotely feminine immensely. For the most part you would be right, however it does not change the fact that I have an embarrassing soft spot for a good romance, and Chuunibyou is all that and more.

I first discovered Chuunibyou about 2 years ago and instantly began to love it. The original storyline combined with Rikka’s multi layered interesting backstory played a vital role in giving Chuunibyou individuality. Distancing it from the hordes of boy-meets-girl romances or harems that we see year after year. It takes a while but as Yuuta begins to understand Rikka’s unusual nature better and learns of her reasons for doing so, everything comes together. Chuunibyou also doesn’t just end as soon as the two get together, although the second season was not as good as the first, it was still amazing and delivered everything Chuunibyou is about.

Chuunibyou is an anime that ticks all the boxes, is extremely adorable and a truly fantastic anime.

3. Fairy Tail

To honest, until about May last year Fairy Tail was sitting around 7th-8th position on my top ten, but ever since the story entered the Sun village arc and the anime returned, it has been a really good time to be a Fairy Tail fan. Hiro Mashima is a fantastic artist and it shows in his artwork, which at times can be staggeringly good. The detail, the features and the consistency are some of the best you can find in manga and yet he is renowned for his incredible drawing speed.

Hiro has spent the last three years fixing everything that was wrong or lacking in Fairy Tail and it has taken his series to another level. Fairy Tail is not a series to be taken seriously. It has it’s moments of darkness and tragedy, but for the most part Fairy Tail is a series filled with fanservice, friendship and truly, truly epic fights that I can only pray will be adapted well in the anime. Overall Fairy Tail is a long running series that is just generally a good time. I won’t pretend the series is without fault,  but I have had a really great time watching this series.

2. Bleach

Bleach was the first long running anime I ever watched and it instantly loved it. Bleach’s strength is in its fights and it doesn’t pretend otherwise and as a hot blooded teenager and now adult, this ticked all my boxes. The fighting in Bleach is simply unparalleled with moments that have quite literally had me gawking at my screen for extended periods of time like I had dislocated my jaw.  It also helps that Ichigo Kurosaki is also one of my personal favourite protagonists. He is relatable, humble, more mature than most protagonists and most importantly, fights for completely selfless reasons. Ichigo doesn’t really want to do anything but live a happy and easy life but he also understands that he has a responsibility and fulfils this responsibility time after time without questioning it. For a long, long time Bleach has been my favourite series and even though it has had its ups and down, I will still fanboy this great series to everyone I know.

1. Gintama

Gintama is one of those series that people either love or simply don’t understand. The first 25 episodes of Gintama are rather bland, they provide an interesting premises, characters and setting however the story never really goes past that. Once you get past these episodes you will understand why Gintama is so universally loved. There is something about Gintama that feels so different from any other anime. The characters almost feel like they are real people the way they act and react to situations. Almost everyone in the show has experienced some hardship in someway, yet they still live their lives how they want to and that, is the true message of Gintama.

The action while generally short is truly amazing. The fights are fast, skilful, filled with emotion and character driven purpose. It is truly a testament to Sorachi to write in a Shounen magazine dominated by powers and magic and yet can still write fight scenes that are on par with the highest level of anime fights.

Yet, this isn’t even the best part of Gintama, The real strength of Gintama is its comedy. Shinpachi plays the perfect straight man to Gintoki, with constant parodying off of other animes, Japanese companies, celebrities, you name it they parody it.  A key reasons for the hilarity is much of the humour is character based resulting in the series just getting even funnier as the series progresses. I have often cried with laughter while watching it or had jokes stuck in my mind for days sending me into laughing fits on the bus, making me look like a complete psychopath.

Gintoki is a fantastic protagonist, he is on the surface a total waste of a human being but once you see past the initial shell you see a totally different person and begin to understand the reason why he acts the way he does. Although fictional, he is a character I have legitimate respect for, and for a fictional work to do that is quite amazing.

Gintama in my opinion is a solid anime in every respect. The author himself was laughed at by his peers and family in his initial attempts to draw manga and this cycle of living the way you want to live, not the way others tell you should live is heavily reflected into Gintama. That is why Gintama is my no.1 favourite anime and manga of all time.

-PandaSlayer

Bleach chapter 585 – The Headless Star 4 review

First off I would just like to apologise on the behalf of myself PandaSlayer and Simple Productions* for our lack of posting. We have both been finding it hard to deal with our increased workloads of our first semester of Uni, but im currently on holidays and Simple Productions will be in one week. So to make up for this along with the HxH reviews and Bleach reviews returning, I will be writing full anime and manga reviews along with each of our top 10 personal favourite animes to date.

Now on with the epic Bleach review!

Well what can I say but to put it simply this was one of the top chapters of Bleach this year. It seems that Kubo has started to realise the results of his lack of content and with his rankings doing really badly I would expect that his editor is really on his ass as of late, telling him to put more content into his story. For this reason I think we have missed out on a few fights like Shinji vs Bazz-B that was foreshadowed heavily last week, which would have been a great fight. Bleach’s strength has always been the fights, they are almost always amazing and it’s no surprise that Kubo just loves drawing them, however the content has been heavily neglected lately it has been leaving the fights without much purpose and therefore effecting the series overall.

The chapter starts out with the mysterious column of light and Juha chanting the same words as last chapter ‘The one who will lead us to the light is….’. Ichigo seems to put his hand up to his ear or the side of his head, signifying that Juha may actually be communicating telepathically at first, or even communicating with the people back at squad zero at first.

We learn that Ichigo has clothed himself in some serious gear with heavy defence properties. From what has been said at the start, the soul reapers clothing is generated by the properties’ of their own soul and its physical representation of the soul. This is why Ichigo’s and other clothes change when entering Bankai or gaining new powers. This coat he is wearing however was a gift made of the kings key material, which rather creepily, is made of the hair and bones the Zero Division. Subsequently this means someone else apart from Ichigo, including Juha Bach, can use the coat.

The part that makes curious is the specifics of Juha’s information. He clearly states that there are 72 barriers and that Ichigo broke them open for 6000 seconds (1:40 hrs). This information makes me believe even more that Juha has a strong connection to the Soul King and the Soul Palace as this could not simply have been discovered by observation alone.

 

Upon hearing this Ichigo charges straight in with no real thought at all and as a result stopped by several Sternritter. Now when I say stopped, its important to note that Ichigo isn’t even bothering to really acknowledge the attacks or follow them up, he is simply powering on though them. It was also interesting to note that Ichigo easily dodged a bullet that was fired 2cm from his face, he was always fast, but that is simply amazing speed and something that will be a key moment of awesomeness when it gets animated.

Now for some reason even after all of the Sternritter have seen what Ichigo has done they have a huge amount of confidence about themselves when attacking. I don’t expect them to throw their hands in the air and run away wetting themselves in fear, however, perhaps some better focused and well coordinated attacks would be more effective instead of everyone charging in one after another.

From what we know Bazz-B seems to be the strongest of the group, with Renji’s blocking of an attempted attack on Ichigo may be a potential foreshadowing for a Bazz-B vs Renji fight. With there similar personalities and different yet seemingly equal strength, could make for a very good fight.

The appearance of Renji and friends seems well timed by Kubo. We have seen in previous chapters in side panels each character making their way towards Ichigo making it feel like everyone didn’t just happen to be there just in time.

The match up as it stands is the four Sternritter girls, Bazz-B, a man I shall call Mr Moustache, an old man using pistols and a gap toothed guy who was following Renji prior to the battle. Facing off we have Renji, Byakua, Rukia, Shuhei, Ikkaku and Yumichika. We have yet to really see either Ikkaku or Yumichika fight 1v1 since the time skip so their power remains unknown, Renji has had a power, Byakua the had one as well, Rukia is mildly injured by still a very, very opponent and Shuhei has recently unlocked his Bankai. Despite the number difference they don’t really need this many people, just Renji, Byakua and Rukia would be fine, but things may change as we discover more of the Sternritter’s strenght.

I give this chapter an  8/10, fantastic art as always a nice bit of progression and just generally covered all the bases.

- PandaSlayer

*note: SimpleProductions work with me on my our Tumblr Page at http://theanimemangahunger.tumblr.com/

Bleach 583 – The Headless Star 2 review

The continuation of the bambi slut brigade continues as Ichigo still shows so sign of giving the slightest fuck. The Thunder and the rest of the BSB continue to relentlessly attack but none of them really seem to be trying with the exception of The Thunder herself. They all seem to remain calm and emotionless throughout. At one point, agreeing that he should be killed, but none of them are willing to try. The Thunder quickly goes Vollstandig, which honestly doesn’t help her much. For girls that killed off Bambietta, their team leader simply because she was defeated, they don’t seem to be that strong in comparison and could afford to lose such an asset.

Once The Thunder releases Vollstandig, he power naturally changes and so does her appearance. He weapon is 6 thunder like blades which I assume deal some sort of Quincy based electric power upon touching their opponent. The idea is cool, but I don’t really understand why she needs 6 of them when she only has two hands and throwing them would be pretty ineffective considering her opponents speed.

She uses one of her Vollstandig moves ‘ Galvano Javelin’ which is a much stronger version of a Quincy arrow. Ichigo responds by using a quick Getsuga Tenshou to nullify the attack. Now it’s hard to see because it’s a drawing, but because Ichigo used his Quincy power, it could be possible that what he did was in fact void the power, rather than over powering the attack. This could make for some interesting power exchanges in the future given the different powers. He also seems to have much finer control over his powers now, as he only whispers the name of his attacks after the movement, the attacks also seem to be noticeably smaller and more specific.

(ichigo’s classic post power-up smug face)

The Thunder then follows up with her final attack, ‘Electrocution’, nice play on words there Kubo. Ichigo then takes out both his hollow sword (the big one) and his Quincy sword (the small one) and performs a cross blade Getsuga Tenshou called: Getsuga Juujishou. Literally translating to Moonfang Cross-piercer which sounds very awesome indeed. From here I think we can say that The Thunder is no longer alive or at least won’t be for very long. 

Now, upon seeing the mergence of the Quincy and the hollow attacks, it had me wonder. The attack of a soul reaper, hollow etc always attacks the soul directly, so if a Quincy power combined with a hollow power somehow infected the Quincy and that soul was transported back to Juha Bach, would he be damaged, or at least wounded. If he was wounded in a battle this way it could prove to be very deadly indeed and even play a key role in the way he is defeated. I give this chapter a 4/10, its was entertaining, but apart form FINALLY seeing his new move, there wasn’t really anything happening.

 - PandaSlayer

Fairy Tail S2 - 09 Review

This episode was hands down the best of the second series. With action character development, epic fights and surprising reveals. As a manga reader, I had been looking forward to these events for some time now, but I wrongly assumed they would be spaced out in separate episodes.

Two events took part in this episode, which were broken up and switched between, but I will cover them individually.

The start of the episode returned to team Natsu as they were heading towards to escape route of the cave.  They discuss all the information they currently know, giving a nice conversational recap for those who may not remember everything about the beginning of the arc before series two.

On a side note we found out that the reason that Arcadios survived falling into the lava was due to a magic stone that he wore around his neck, given to him by the princess. This all seems very… stupid to me, he literally fell into lava and emerged with what seems to be a very bad sun burn, very illogical indeed.

 

The group approaches the exit where, after some Natsu silliness, a mysterious figure appears. This figure is of course Lucy. If the opening didn’t spoil it enough for you, there where constant signs in several other moments. Although it did seem illogical without the inclusion of time travel. 

Future Lucy doesn’t really have time to say much however we do learn that the country will be destroyed very soon if something doesn’t change. Unsurprisingly, Future Lucy seems very distressed as she breaks down as soon as she sees Natsu.

The episode ends there but I was personally very happy that we got to see Lucy at all, so I’m willing to wait for the explanation next week.

 

The following scene is a discussion between the princess and one of her advisors. The advisor makes her aware of the fact that he knows she is leading Project Eclipse. The princess states that she is using the grand magic games to decided whether the information given to her from a mysterious person from future, is actually true. It really doesn’t take a tremendous amount of brainpower to work out she is talking about Lucy.  This means that we will most likely be seeing the princess over seeing many major event and battles in the following episodes as she decides what to do.

 

The first fight between Juvia and Cheria in the episode is more used as comedic value than action at this point. The fight didn’t really get much screen time this episode, however these are two very strong individuals and there is no telling who is going to win at this point. The fight will most likely get serious once the three way battle finishes.

 

By far the most epic part of the episode was the three way battle between Erza, Kagura and Minerva. There is a sightly humorous moment with the first as her initial prediction of Erza facing off with Minerva turns out to be wrong. The first’s reaction was very cute which is kind of funny considering she most likely probably died at an old age and is now a ghost.

Kagura brings back the issue of Jellal again which I had honestly forgotten about. For Kagura, the fight against Erza seems personal but she is not angry at her specifically, she just wants answers out of her. By far my all time hated fairy tail character is Minerva. Everything about her just really makes me cringe, I suppose that makes her a fantastic antagonist but I still hate her.

We saw a lot of fighting with little talking so there isn’t really much to talk about this peisode. One thing I did find interesting was that they were all facing against each other equally. I presumed that as soon as Minerva rocked up Kagura and Erza would gang up on her but it seems I was wrong and I am personally glad that I was.

 

Next episode it seems the fight will continue, however I think it will focus more on Kagura’s issue with Erza more than the physical fighting. We will also have to see some more of future Lucy’s story, even as a manga reader, I am very intrigued as to what she has to say. I give this episode a 9/10, by far the best episode to date and left me very keen for the next. 

-PandaSlayer

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.

Fairy Tail S2 - 08 Review

Its over everyone, its finally over. Throughout this episode I had a bad feeling deep in my stomach that this was going to be like the last few episodes with just a few exchanges and monologues with no real development. Fortunately this was not the case as at the end we see the simulations end of all of the separate fights.

 

The fights interchanged throughout the episode however the exchanges were much simpler than the last few episodes as we now fully understand their powers and potential capabilities. The Lucy fight was not very serious at all, while many drew their will power to win the fight from past training and strong bonds. All Lucy had to do was summon a very emotionally unstable Aquarius to the battlefield and wait for the time bomb to go off. In a surprising development Aquarius showed some trust in Lucy by discussing her relationship troubles with Lucy in a rather hilarious manner. This could be dismissed as a moment of comedic relief but regardless, it was a nice change from her usual ‘I hate Lucy’ speech that she often gives.

 

The next battle was Mira’s and honestly, it was frustrating to watch. Mira is one of the strongest in the guild, at least in the top 5 with her destructive power. So watching her look helpless for 5 minutes straight was a little painful to watch. It  simply was not believable. At one point her opponent was simply firing off one elemental based attack after the other and Mira was just standing their making cute noises and internally monologue how she felt about it. Fortunately, as soon as Mira actually TRIED the fight was over with two punches. It was nice to see her in her old Satan Soul form with the new animation. The colours were much more distinct than last series were yet it was still a very good blend of dark and  seriously looking colours.

Wendy’s fight was the shortest and most simplistic of them all. Wendy’s fight was in a way the best out of all of them. She used her various support techniques and modified them to boost her physically capabilities. It was interesting to see her incorporate her wind power around her hands, similar to Natsu with his fire.

The last fight was Natsu’s and it made the least sense of all of them, yet it was also expected of Natsu. I had to laugh when Natsu’s opponent nullified his fire power with his specialised blade and even told him which blade it was… not the most educated soldier. Although this did make me wonder, if there is a material or magic that is capable of nullifying magic in its entirety upon contact, why is nobody making armour out of it? Natsu, not being the most crafty of people decides to then fight him with no magic power. Using his bare hands to defeat an armoured man wielding two axe blades….. right… Natsu however, posses incredible strength and strong skin as show when he physically broke the blade with his hand and then punched him into the next dimension.

 

Thus the fight with the Garou Knights is now over and I could not be happier. When looking at the series overall there have been some very well written, strong and in-depth villains that has amounted to some fantastic fights in the Fairy Tail series. This however, was not one of them. The fighters were simplistic, repetitive and overall rather irritating to listen to constantly monologue about how strong they were. In my experience the fight against the Garou Knights is a small blemish on an otherwise great series, especially considering the amazing standard the manga is current setting.

We also have to consider that the animators were stretching a fight that only went for about 4 chapter in the manga over several episodes. This stretching is due to two reasons.

1. To prepare for episodes were major development takes place were they will often pack 2-3 chapters per episode to sustain the intensity.

2. To make sure they don’t have a repeat of the last series where they caught up to the manga and were subsequently cancelled.

Next week well will likely be seeing an episode mostly focused on the Grand Magic Games and a small section on team Natsu’s escape from the castle. Regardless, there looks to be some good fights and story development so sit tight for now. I give this episode a 5.5/10, it was entertaining enough but it was seriously lacking overall and felt very thin in content.

-PandaSlayer

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