Bleach 572 Review – “The Blaster”

Bleach 572 Review – “The Blaster”

Written by: ClayDragon

Wait…what the….I don’t….what?

To Isane’s complete and utter surprise, Yachiru starts dancing with the embodiment of her Shikai. As she watches the cheerleading show, Isane wonders what type of Shikai it is, as it doesn’t physically transform into a living object (like Unohana’s) and it isn’t made of a living material (like Hitsugaya’s). As she ponders this, Guenael appears from behind the doorway, panting and dripping blood.

A fairly accurate representation of my face during the course of this chapter.

When Yachiru asks how he managed to survive, Guenael explains that he can concentrate all of his spiritual pressure into sliding back quickly, causing him to react faster than his opponent’s reaction speed. Just after he finishes talking, a large section of his shoulder is gouged out of existence. Following his gaze, Isane realises that there’s another person inside the barrier with Kensei and Rose, and he managed to get in without anyone seeing him.

"Yay! We killed a guy!"

As Guenael starts to lose more blood, he asks if it’s the end for him, and the new person replies that it is, even though he did his best. He then finishes by calling Guenael a product of his fantasy. Guenael argues that he can still fight, and that he can use his abilities to defeat Yachiru and Isane. The newcomer agrees that it’s an amazing ability, but says that even now, he has vanished from his memory.

Sadly, his bedside manner sucks.

As the sudden realisation kicks in, Guenael pulls out a knife and leaps at the newcomer, who is apparently called Guremi. Without flinching, Guremi apologises, saying that he simply can’t imagine the future that Guenael once had. With this, Guenael explodes, and Isane decides to step in, asking Guremi to step away from the comatose Captains. He complies, but says there’s no need to get worked up, as he’s already killed them.

.....You have some really weird fantasies.

At this point, Isane rushes through the barrier to check on them, and realises that Guremi was telling the truth, and that Kensei and Rose are dead. As he says to Isane that he wasn’t lying, Yachiru attacks Guremi, only for him to effortlessly dodge her and insult her technique before he grabs her arm, causing her to fall to the floor. Dropping her Zanpakuto, she holds her arm, noting that it feels as though the bones are breaking.   

How dare you (pretend to (probably)) kill them!

Guremi tells her to imagine what it would be like if the bones in her arm were made of cookies, and then asks if Yachiru just thought they’d definitely be broken if that was the case. He then goes on to say that she thought that if the bones in her arm were made of cookies, then so would the rest of the bones in her body. As Yachiru tries to stand up, she notices that all of her fingers are broken, and she collapses in a heap.

Mmmmmm......cookies.....

Guremi then explains his power – that imagination is the strongest force, and that anything he can imagine becomes reality. Just as the implications of this power sink in, the wall behind Guremi explodes in a rather over-the-top way, and a voice shouts through the rubble asking what’s going on. Apparently, the owner of the voice noticed that Yachiru’s spiritual pressure was getting weak, and decided to come and investigate. The smoke then clears to reveal:

And about damn time.

Kenpachi, who’s rather pissed about Guremi causing all this trouble for Yachiru.

This chapter had both ups and downs for me this week, so let’s look at the downs first. The fact that Yachiru’s Shikai still wasn’t explained was annoying, and given her defeat, it seems unlikely that it’ll be explained in the near future. So far, we’ve ruled out that the two creatures summoned by the Shikai are living beings, and that the actual sword doesn’t transform when the Shikai is activated. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Shikai works in a similar manner to Komamura’s, but beyond that I’m a bit stumped.

Me after any strenuous exercise.

The other thing I wasn’t too keen on this week was Guenael’s death. Okay, the fact that he was an imaginary construct of Guremi was an interesting twist, but I did like Guenael’s ability, and I’m quite disappointed that we didn’t get to see a Vollständig version of his power. I suppose his true nature makes a bit of sense though – how could he be a proper member of the Vandenreich if every living being forgot his existence when he activated level three of his power?

Hey, cool! An eyeball!

On the ups side, the new Sternritter is very interesting, even if his ability is very similar (if not identical) to that of Fairy Tail’s Rustyrose. The fact that he can warp reality simply by imagining it seems to be a nigh-unstoppable power, and I can’t really see how his Vollständig will improve on that. The one downside to his power seems to be that it works for his opponents too – it seemed to me that he got Yachiru to imagine her skeleton being made of cookies, and her imagination made it real as opposed to his. On a side note, chances are Kensei and Rose aren’t dead – after all, even though Guremi did say that he killed them, we didn’t see it happen, and he can alter reality.

Well, except the strong nuclear force. And electromagnetism. But yeah, imagination's pretty great too.

Finally, Kenpachi! Whilst I am a little disappointed that his opponent is a random Sternritter and not, say, Haschwalth or Yhwach, it does mean that we get to see him and his Zanpakuto work together for once, and the chances are high that we’ll get to see his Bankai soon. Personally, I think it might alter the flow of time to make battles last longer, thus giving Kenpachi more enjoyment, but that’s just my opinion. Fingers crossed we stay on Kenpachi for the time being, and don’t jump back to focus on Renji.

It was at this point that I began to rethink my views on cannibalism.

Good Things:     A new Sternritter appears.

                            Said new Sternritter has another interesting ability.

                            KENPACHI!

Bad Things:        Guenael was killed off before we saw his real potential.

                            Still no proper explanation of how Yachiru’s Shikai actually works.

                                    

Manga Rating:   3/5

P.S. In honour of Kenpachi appearing again, here is a GIF of the Doctor high-fiving the TARDIS:

ClayDragon:









ClayDragon is currently studying Physics at university, and is constantly bewildered by it. The main method of contacting him is his Gmail account at kyleroulston1993@gmail.com. The alternative is his Skype account at kyleroulston1993. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in his hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics. Silence will fall...