Bleach 350: The Lust 4

Ichigo's awaited transformation! There's not a whole lot to say concerning this chapter, as it's quite light on dialogue and exceedingly heavy on visual impact. If Ichigo manages to keep his form, this battle should reach its resolution in 1 to 3 chapters. Suffice it to say, while this battle between Ulquiorra and Ichigo has been (generally) pretty epic, it will be nice to transition (hopefully) to the fake Karakura town fights. My main complaint about Bleach right now is that the plot has barely been moving forward for the last few months. Some more character development would be nice.


Now...what to make of the new Kurosaki. He looks like a fully developed Visored, whereas his prior lone mask form was an early transitional version. This could be Ichigo's resurrection, or perhaps what he gained when he (if he) managed to suppress his inner hollow, and infinitely retain his mask. Either way, it's something Ulquiorra couldn't predict and he's in trouble. We still have to see if the new Ichigo is ultimately uncontrollable (violently indiscriminate), and whether or not he can maintain this form.

In the meantime, it's nice to see the 4th cornered and starting to feel a bit of distress. He'll probably come to realize that the human heart has its uses after all.

Epic Battles Week #3

Prince of Tennis: Ryoma Echizen vs. Seiichi Yukimura ('The Child of God')

The final match in the first Prince of Tennis series. One of the greatest sports manga battles of all time. Ryoma opens Muga no Kyōchi's final door, Teni Muhō No Kiwami (Pinnacle of Perfection), and makes an unbelievable comeback. Watch out for the final attack!!

Unfortunately I couldn't find a non-AMV version of this match, but this compilation is excellent nonetheless. Much credit to kate051121 for using Brahms to underpin this battle's intensity.

Page of the Week 03/09 - 03/15

One Piece 535: Friends

Luffy's valiant efforts to repel Chief Warden Magellan reflect his utter determination to save his brother Ace from the 5th and deepest level of Impel Down: Freezing Hell. Unfortunately, due to Magellan's poisonous fruit user ability, the battle doesn't end too well for Luffy

Bakuman 29: Literature and Music

This relatively new series has held my interest since it debuted in August of last year. Perhaps what is best about Bakuman is the insight it yields on the manga industry. We learn about competitive and painstaking process involved in getting serialized as artist and wannabe mangaka Moritaka Mashiro and his friend, talented writer Akito Tagaki begin to work their way up the ladder of success.


In this chapter Mashiro and Tagaki - having been given the necessary motivation by their advisor, Weekly Shonen Jump editor Akira Hattori - enroll themselves in the Future Golden Cup with the hopes of ex post facto serialization (assuming that they can best their competition by becoming more popular, or by receiving enough endorsements).


The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce us to (the rest of) Mashiro and Tagaki's competition in the Future Golden Cup, who appear to be formidable at the very least. We meet the demure yet forward Aoki Ko, as well as her (the earlier introduced) assistant Nakai Takuro, who is waging his dreams and future career and her success. By the end of the chapter we also get a glimpse of hip and stylish musician Makaino Koji, who placed 2nd in his pursuit of the Tezuka Award (which is given out to future mangakas, who are often thought to have incredible potential), with his manga debut 'Colorfusical.'


Suffice it to say, it will be interesting to see how Mashiro and Tagaki will fare against their competition with their up and coming 'detective manga.'

As has been listed in this chapter the main competitors in the FGC are as follows:

- Fukuda Shinta with "Kiyoshi Knight"
- Ashirogi Muto with "Detective Trap" (serving as a collective pseudonym for Mashiro and Tagaki)
- Aoki Ko and Nakai Takuro with "Hideout Door"
- Makaino Koji with "Colorfusical"

Quick aside: For those who are looking for a new series to 'get into,' and haven't picked up Bakuman, I highly recommend it. It's nice to see a manga that uses a fair number of non-fictional elements; as I'm almost positive that the experiences of Mashiro and Tagaki in some way mirror the experiences of Bakuman's authors Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba (who ended up penning the incredible, enormously successful, fresh and cerebral Death Note).

Bleach 349: The Lust 3

Well, Ichigo's been getting pretty well reamed for the last couple of chapters. Now we get a chapter that mainly serves to reemphasize Orihime's despair. Generally, The Lust 3 feels like a set-up chapter, not too much happens this week. We do get to see some pretty killer Ishida action though.


Sadly, Ishida's Licht Regen (literally translated from German as 'Rain of Light') fails to even scratch Ulquiorra. As this is undoubtedly one of Uryu's most powerful techniques, the chances that he will even be able to stall the released 4th Espada for anything other then a negligible amount of time is next to zero. I applaud Ishida's valiant efforts though, he really has guts; if it was me up there I would probably start crying and wet my pants.

Orihime is aggravatingly pathetic is this chapter; almost humorously so. She has proven herself clearly incapable of being able to mentally deal with her own plight. It seems like - at least for the time being - she is mainly a foothold for Ichigo to reach the next level. About ten 'Kurosaki-kuns' later and Ichigo appears to have gotten sufficiently riled to reawaken as something abnormal.


I'm guessing the real, savage battle begins next chapter. It looks like (or perhaps this is something completely new) Ichigo's uninhibited hollow form has resurfaced (or should I say: the king and the horse have switched places). This doesn't bode well for Ulquiorra to say the least; and if this does in fact turn out to be true hollow Ichigo next chapter, Orihime and Ishida better get the hell out of there.

Epic Battles Week #2

EVA Unit 02 (Asuka Langley Soryu) vs. EVA Series

Finishing this week out with a classic battle from End of Evangelion. The animation during this fight is particularly notable; as is its brutality. As much as I enjoyed Asuka's erratic damaged character, its good to see her go down in a blaze of glory.



Just a quick aside: the videos I'm posting are not mine. I do not own any of these videos, or their content.

Naruto 439: Chibaku Tensei

Naruto was jam-packed this week! As expected, we got to see Pain's forbidden technique, Chibaku Tensei, which didn't fail to disappoint. Despite Pain's demonstration of sheer strength this chapter, I am starting to get the sense that his energy is waning significantly. Pain's excessive pride, as well as his overreaching obsession with power (as has been proven to be motivated by his flawed, ironically destructive idea of peace) - as with so many manga antagonists before him - will eventually end in his downfall. I don't think Nagato has too many more cards up his sleeve, and his difficulty in maintaining God Pain is becoming more evident.



Naruto's seal fractures further in this chapter, which obviously has huge implications for him and everyone else in the area. Naruto's six-tails becomes eight; let the rampage begin!


Honestly, there is not much keeping Naruto alive at this point, as he is in the process of being completely consumed internally. Luckily, the seal had a fail-safe and with the release of the eight-tails, Naruto's father and former Hokage reappeared within Naruto's consciousness.


The prospect of a rematch between the former 4th Hokage and the nine-tails within Naruto is thrilling, as it is poetic. It may be more prudent for the eight/nine-tails to complete destroy God-Pain before it is suppressed though (that would bring a nice resolution to this ongoing epic battle); it would be nice (as well as devastating) to see the full nine-tails emerge in the next week or so. Suffice it to say, this chapter was fantastic action-wise, and the twist with the seal was satisfying.