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.
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