[Manga Review - 12/14/12 and 12/21/12] Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto

Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope everyone ate plenty of food and had lots of fun!

Sorry for the massive delay on the weekly BOPaN review, both the holiday season as well as a new job opportunity came knocking on my door. But, I'm back and ready to rip the shit out of these mangas, then throw them into the air like confetti. I've got two weeks worth of mangas to review, with a third up and coming shortly, so let's get started...

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Bleach 520 and 521

Recap: In chapter 520 of Bleach, Captains Shunsui Souzousa and Jirou Kyoraku have both been elected to be Captain of the First squad. Meanwhile Ichigo's healing hot spring dip is over and he's launched to the next wacky training stage, joined by a recently healed Renji Abari. Then Captain Souzousa is addressing the Central 46 and suggests teaching Captain Zaraki Kenpachi the "Art of Killing", with his trainer being Captain Unohana Yachiru, who was the original Kenpachi (the title being given to the strongest soul reaper).

In chapter 521 of Bleach, Ichigo and Renji arrive in the Piggy Palace and chow down on a meal prepared by a fat chick. She transforms into a busty and skinny, very Rangiku Matsumoto-looking really, chick due to her expending a huge portion of her reiatsu after preparing their meal. They eat their fill and apparently her work is done, so she gives a warning to them about the next training ground and the manga ends.

Commentary: Chapter 520, the only real plot development seems to be the Soul Society stuff, but that's probably the part that I have the biggest problem with. The key being this title of "Kenpachi", which is apparently given to the strongest soul reaper. Okay, first question: "What is their definition of 'strongest', exactly?" Second question: "If Kenpachi is the 'strongest' Soul Reaper, then where the hell is the First Captain on this 'scale of strength'?" Third and fourth questions: "If Captain Unohana Yachiru is the original Kenpachi, then why is she only a healer and as far away from the intense battle that Soul Society faced?" The only questions that I think really will be answered is the third and fourth questions, but even that...I doubt will really be answered.

Chapter 521 is the very definition of the word "filler" and probably a real big example of Tite Kubo's misogynistic style of writing/drawing with the fat chick turning skinny and busty because her reiatsu is tied into her fat cells somehow. I don't think Tite knows that tits are naturally made of mostly fat, because if this "reiatsu expenditure = fat loss" is to be believed, then her tits would also shrink to an appropriate size in proportion to the rest of her body as well, wouldn't they? Meaning they would probably have shrunk to a C or B cup or something like that. But that wouldn't be sexy, would it? Oh and Tite Kubo...I do read Naruto, so I know exactly where you get this idea from.

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One Piece 692 and 693

Recap: In Chapter 692 of One Piece, Luffy finishes off Caesar with his Gum Gum Grizzly Magnum, sending him flying throughout and out of the facility. Almost everyone (save for Chopper, Mocha and Brook) gathers together to escape the crumbling laboratory in a mine cart. Meanwhile two devil fruit using pirates from Donquixote/Joker's crew arrive, they are Baby 5 (she can transform her body into different weapons) and Buffalo (he can spin parts of his body, allowing him to fly like a plane or create strong winds). They see both Caesar's unconscious body come flying out and crashing into a boat, but before they can retrieve him, Franky appears in his mech form.

In Chapter 693 a fight ignites between Baby 5/Buffalo against Franky over Caesar, who has woken up and is about to kill Smoker by crushing his heart (given to him by Law). Brook, Chopper and Mocha have joined up with the rest of the Strawhats, who unintentionally held up the rest of the group from leaving before the rest of their crew arrived. Elsewhere, Monet is shown to be still alive after her fight against Tashigi and Zoro, she is told by Joker to sacrifice herself to destroy the laboratory and everyone in it by self-destructing it. She seems to be willing to give her life willingly for Joker, even if he hadn't asked her to do it. It ends with her about to press the self-destruct button.

Commentary: The pacing is very rushed for both chapters, but it's to be expected with so many events transpiring together, so the focus is more towards what everyone is doing as opposed to consistency. Honestly, apart from that, nothing really offensive to make note of. But, I do kinda wish we could see more of Monet, because she's a very interesting character, but whatever...

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Naruto 613 and 614

Recap:  In Chapter 613 of Naruto, the Jyuubi breaks free of the recent encasing and transforms into a horned beast with a single ear, a large rinnegan + sharingan eye, and a Joker-looking mouth on its head. Both Madara and Obito are forced to use Hashirama's cells to link up to the Jyuubi to control it better and they begin to unleash powerful bijuu-damas at far away locations. Meanwhile Shikaku is formulating a plan and talking to Kakashi to confirm certain suspicions to hopefully devise a strategy for defeating the Jyuubi, Madara and Obito. Unfortunately, the Jyuubi unleashes a bijuu-dama towards where the intelligence corp is gathered, leaving Shikaku, Inoichi, Ao and possibly several other minor characters, precious little time to prepare for their deaths. Shikaku uses this time to convey a final message to everyone, leaving his last strategy in the hands of the Shinobi Alliance. A blast seen by Obito and Madara seems to imply that the intelligence corp was successfully wiped out.

In Chapter 614, Naruto is shown to be ignorant to the fact that Shikaku and the intelligence corp were wiped out. The Jyuubi begins to attack by spraying giant thorns across the battlefield. The Hyuugas step up and defend Naruto, but are quickly overwhelmed and Neji sacrifices himself to save both Hinata and Naruto from being impaled. Neji then shares a final farewell with both Hinata and Naruto, then the manga ends as he dies.

Commentary: For Chapter 613, all I can really say is that this year has not been good to both Shikamaru and Ino. If Shikaku and the rest of the Intelligence corp are actually dead, I actually will applaud Masashi Kishimoto for killing them in such a noble way where they have a choice between trying to escape an inescapable death or doing what they can to help out their team before the end. Unfortunately I fear that Kishimoto will kinda cave under pressure and resurrect a lot of these guys through a future Edo Tensei.

As for Chapter 614, I have no argument against Neji dying or how he dies, but what I am pissed off about is why he died. I know for a fact that this entire death scene is to build towards forcing Hinata and Naruto together, which doesn't need to happen at all and is in fact almost stopping the narrative cold to do it. Don't get me wrong, I would love for Hinata and Naruto to get together, but I feel character and relationship development must happen naturally or not at all. If you try to force them together, they will simply look like an unrealistic couple that simply fell in love by simply bumping into one another and that the writer is biased towards characters...but I'll get into that further after I talk about the next manga, believe me, I will.

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That's it for the past two week's manga recaps. Stay tuned, around Friday or Saturday I'll probably have my next set of mangas available just in time for the arrival of the new year. By the way, a future note: my BOPaN manga recaps will not be posted over the next two weeks after this one, because of the holidays these mangas will not be produced for the next two weeks. But, I'll try and get something to review so as to fill in the gap though, so look forwards to that.

[Manga Recap - 12/5/12] Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto

Time for today's weekly BOPaN recap! Remember, it's spoiler city while reading this.

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Bleach 519

Recap: Ichigo takes a bromanctic dip in the hot springs with the yakuza-looking member of the 0 Squad, Byakuya, Renji and Rukia, with the latter three being unconscious and regaining their reiatsu through the healing powers of the hot spring of vagueness. The hot spring is apparently the inspiration for the one in Urahara and Yoruichi's secret grotto. The Spirit King apparently lives in the Monarch's floating cocoon-lair (Venture Brothers). Oh, and apparently the Spirit King is Lord Xenu...where the hell did that come from?

Commentary: Healing hot springs again? Also, the Spirit King is Lord Xenu...where the hell did that come from? No, really. I seriously want to know what the hell is going on here. When did Scientology become a part of Japanese lore? This is a pretty awesome chapter, only because of how ridiculous it was.

 

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Naruto 612

Recap: Now that the entire Allied nation army has arrived, Naruto and Obito square off with a battle of words, but it's really a ploy on the part of Naruto and Shikaku to buy some time to formulate a coordinated attack plan. The stall was successful and they launch a grand attack of several jutsus being used at once to incapacitate the Jyuubi: blinding it, Obito and Madara, with lightning, then using earth, sand, water and fire to capture and encase the Jyuubi in cement. The Allied nation army, seemingly led by Naruto, then launches an attack on a lax Madara and Obito, with the Jyuubi beginning to transform a bit.

Commentary: I really enjoyed the feint that Naruto and Shikaku pull at the beginning, kinda simple but effective. The mass-jutsu use could have been pulled off better, but I suppose it's okay for now. Other than that, the dialogue between Obito, Madara and Naruto is getting kinda stilted. Not a bad chapter, but could have been better.

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One Piece 691

Recap: After Law cuts the entire mountain laboratory apart, the amorphous blob of gas starts leaking in, threatening the Marines and Luffy's crew. Law takes the liberty of slicing up Vergo little by little and putting each part of him up on a nearby railing. He then tells Smoker that they have to get off the island before it explodes. Meanwhile, Caesar decides to step up his game after the loss of his SAD chemical, he tells his henchmen to open up the vents to allow the blob of gas into the room. They hesitate, but end up doing so anyway and allowing Caesar to power up. However, Caesar turns on his henchmen that are in the room, only for Luffy to prepare a super move that looks like a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka enhanced by Haki.

Commentary: This is probably my favorite manga for the week. It has lots of action and interesting stuff happening in it. The part where Law punishes Vergo for his betrayal is extremely cool and probably will be remembered for days to come.

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That's it for the Weekly BOPaN! Check back next week for more!

[Manga - Introductions] Bleach, One Piece and Naruto (BOPaN)

I have been debating for a while about how I should introduce the manga reviews, so I decided to just give a quick summary of what each manga is about, my thoughts on them, and what has recently happened in each one. Yes, there will of course be spoilers.

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"Bleach" by Tite Kubo

We're starting off with the most unintentionally ridiculous of the three mangas, but I'll get to that when I talk about the manga itself.
Bleach is initially about a high school student named Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see the souls of the dead. One night he encounters a Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki who gives him her powers in a moment of desperation, transforming him into a temporary Soul Reaper, granting his own sword (a zanpakuto). He takes up Rukia's job until she can recover as she in turn assists him with her job. Later on, Rukia is captured and taken to Soul Society for giving up her powers to Ichigo, leading to a series of complicated events.
As of the time of this post, the current manga chapter (518) has Ichigo fighting a new group of baddies, revealed to be a long-thought-to-be-dead Quincy group, along side the rest of Soul Society. Soul Society's been heavily damaged, Yammato has been killed, his powers taken by the main bad, and Ichigo's zanpakuto has been shattered.
My thoughts on the manga series: This has got to be the most ridiculously hilarious of the three manga I read on a weekly basis, but it also pisses me off the most. What pisses me off is that, excluding the 'red shirts' of Soul Society and the humans, the manga has a current death counter of 2 for the hero's side and the two deaths have only been in the last ten or so manga chapters. That's right, no good guy has ever died until just recently and I'm not counting the fake out death they pulled with Ichigo. Another thing that pisses me off is that this comic really is the most misogynistic of the three manga, mostly because the "power level" of the women are almost always equal to the size of their chest (yes, I will explain myself when it gets to One Piece, so bear with me). But I think what makes me more pissed of all, is that Bleach really doesn't know what it wants to be: a serious drama, a comedy, a action adventure, a character study, or a sultry manga. There's a difference between being one, some, or all of those and just happening to be one of them, but I'll get to that and a few other points when I talk about One Piece and Naruto. In the most recent chapters, there's a lot of inconsistencies and rushed plot devices that lead to plot holes up the ass, I'll probably talk more about those as I do the weekly manga recap.
Do I recommend reading it?  Not really, but I see no harm in picking it up to read a few chapters to see if it's your cup of tea. Where should you start reading? Anywhere will do just fine, but I would say pick it up at the start of the Soul Society Arc since that's where the most interesting stuff begins to happen.

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"One Piece" By Eiichiro Oda

This is probably one of my favorites, if only because it's all about the adventure and comedy more so than anything else. Unlike Bleach, One Piece is a comedic, action adventure manga with a bit of drama and sultry thrown in. It knows what it wants to be and revels in it with every moment.
One Piece is about a kid named Monkey D. Luffy, refered to as just "Luffy", who is inspired to become the Pirate King by the legend of Gol D. Rogers as well as a visit from a mysterious pirate captain known as Red Haired Shanks. During Shank's visit, Luffy ends up eating a forbidden devil fruit that ends up making his body much like that of rubber. However, the trade-off is that anyone who eats a devil fruit will become unable to act while submerged in water, risking drowning if they are ever thrown into the sea. Despite this, Luffy is determined to go forth with his dream and starts gathering members to form an unlikely pirate crew.
In the current chapter (690), a shichibukai (short explanation: one of seven pirate lords who have all allied with the World Government) named Trafalgar Law has temporarily teamed up with Luffy, along with the Marine Captain Smoker. While Law and Smoker have uncovered a scheme setup by another shichibukai "Joker", aka Donquixote Doflamingo, and the World Government, Luffy and his crew have discovered a secret test facility operated by a vaporous devil-fruit user named Caesar. The facility has several dark secrets, one being an experimentation on a bunch of kids and another being an experimental amorphous blob (now turned gas) that can turn anyone it touches into ash/stone. Currently, Luffy's crew is trying to escape the blob/gas and Luffy is fighting Caesar.
My thoughts on the manga: I honestly love it. As I've said before, One Piece knows what it wants to be: it's a story about the misadventures Luffy and his crew have in their quest to be the very best, like no one ever was. While it certainly delves into cheesecake a lot with the women, I can say that every notable woman displayed has their distinctive character that makes them stand out from the rest; Oda gives them chances to shine while developing their characters, and so I really can't call this manga as misogynistic as Bleach. If I have one complaint about this series, it just feels like there's no real direction that they're going with it, so they're trying to go for whatever direction they have available, which I can't fault it for since that's kinda the way it's supposed to be.
Do I recommend picking up this book? Yeah, I highly recommend it. If you just want to read wacky misadventure type stories with lots of mystical lands, strange powers and tons of adventure available, then One Piece is definitely a good read. Where should you jump on? Any chapter is fine. Since it's basically just about misadventures, you can just pick up the most recent one or any chapter you can find and it'll make a good starting point into the series.

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"Naruto" and "Naruto: Shippuden" by Masashi Kishimoto

Finally we arrive at the last of the three, but definitely not the least of the three. Naruto's a typical comedic action/adventure drama with a wide cast of unique and distinctive characters.

Naruto follows the adventures of Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan boy who lives in the ninja village of Konoha (Village Hidden in the Leaves). He originally is considered an outcast of the village because he contains the chakra of the legendary nine-tailed demon fox that nearly destroyed Konoha a few years before the start of the series. Because of this, he became a troublemaker that desired attention, but through several trials became determined to become not only the next Hokage, but the greatest ninja ever. At the conclusion to Naruto, his best friend Sasuke Uchiha leaves the village and Naruto, with the help of his other classmates, fails to bring him back. With the urging of his mentor, Jiraya, Naruto decides to set out on a 2 1/2 year journey to train with Jiraya before attempting to retrieve Sasuke again.

Naruto: Shippuden (Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles) picks up after the 2 1/2 time jump, where Naruto returns after his long leave of absence. He returns to the village and picks up where he left off with his attempt to retrieve Sasuke along with the help of his teacher, Hakate Kakashi, and his teammate, Haruno Sakura.

The current chapter (611) has the battle between the ten tails, controlled by Madara and Obito Uchiha, versus Naruto, supported by the nine-tails, Bee, supported by the eight-tails, Kakashi and Might Guy rages on. Unfortunately the chakra for both the eight and nine tails runs dry for now, but the entire allied ninja army arrives on the scene to back them up.

My thoughts on the manga: It's not the best manga in the world, but it's definitely one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite. While it still delves into the cheesecake with the women, I think it does it sparingly enough to not make them all into sex objects and to prefer to emphasize their character more than their physique. But that's not to say that I don't have a problem with this series, oh no...the problem I have with it is that the writer, Kishimoto, seems to not really understand relationships all that well, he seems to have a bias towards certain characters that force the others to act out of character sometimes only so that the end result is in the bias character's favor. Hard to describe that without going into a long-rant, so will have to explain that later. Another problem I have is that the most recent action scenes seems to be just random fighting that doesn't really have any rhyme or reason as to why its happening as opposed to the "tactical plans" of Kabuto's.

Do I recommend it? Yeah, I would highly recommend it. It's not perfect, but it's a pretty damn good read I would say with lots of really likable characters. Where would I suggest jumping on? Probably either at chapter 1-5 of the original Naruto or Naruto Shippuden chapter 1.

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With that, this concludes my introduction section for the weekly manga I'll be reviewing. I might decide to add in Fairy Tail at a later date, but I have to read it from the beginning and that could take some time that I don't have at the moment. Enjoy!

If you're interested in where you can pick up a copy of these Japanese manga, then check websites like Ebay.com or Amazon.com and Asian markets like Marukai, Mitsuwa or any other Asian market bookstore that may be available in your town.