Happy New years, everyone! I apologize again for the delay getting this review out. A couple things came up that prevented me from releasing this. One is a bit of a writer's block of some sorts, but I'll get to that later. Another is that I caught two colds, both before and after New Years, that knocked me on my ass. But enough about me and my projectile puking, let's get to the stuff you want to hear about.
Bleach 522
Recap: Ichigo, Renji and Kon arrive in the Palace of the Phoenix and are greeted by Oetsu Nimaiya, the apparent creator of the zanpuktos. All of them are quickly surrounded by brothel-dressed women who all turn out to be zanpuktos. Oetsu is hassled a bit by his zanpukto, Mera, and so he leads them to the "real" Phoenix Palace, made to look like a shack, where Renji and Ichigo fall into a dark pit-like area after walking in the front door. Oetsu summons up the two Shinigami's swords, Zangetsu and Zabimaru, and tells Ichigo and Renji that he'll reforge their zanpukto if they can survive the zanpukto's rage inside the pit and climb out alive.
Commentary: Yet another chapter that really doesn't advance anything and just gives an excuse to show more busty women. However, this may surprise you, but Bleach is NOT my least favorite manga this week. This maybe bad, but it's not on par with the shafting that is in store for a certain manga's fans.
One Piece 694
Recap: The battle between Franky (in mech form) against Baby 5 and Buffalo rages on. Caesar is nearby, looks at the heart in his hand, and declares that Smoker's going to die before he does. Meanwhile Don Flamingo, through a den-den mushi, talks one last time to Vergo, seemingly comforting him in Vergo's last moments alive before the island's self-destruct gets him. Elsewhere, the Strawhat crew, Trafalgar Law, Smoker, Tashigi, the giant children and their marines are escaping via minecart as the island explodes around them. Momonosuke discovers his father is turned to stone from the gas and mourns. Caesar stabs the heart with a spike and Smoker is unaffected; however, Monet suddenly topples over and reveals that her heart is missing from her chest, then finally collapses. Smoker asks Law about why Caesar believed he had his heart, to which Law reveals that he handed Monet's heart to Caesar instead and Caesar mistook it for Smoker's heart. Failing to contact Monet, but aware there wasn't any explosion, Doflamingo leaves his castle and heads towards Vega Punk island.
Commentary: Surprisingly, there was a lot that happened in this chapter. Again, there's no real complaints, but if I might nitpick: how the hell did Doflamingo know there wasn't any "earth shattering kaboom"? Logic would dictate that after Monet pressed the button there wouldn't be anyone to respond to. I guess maybe the den-den mushi would only produce static or something? Other than that, it was a fun read of a chapter, still a bit rushed because of the compressed story, but entertaining none-the-less.
Naruto 615
Recap: Neji's death shocks the battlefield. Naruto is horrified and Obito taunts him, telling him to side with Madara and him instead, to help the Eye of the Moon plan. Hinata slaps Naruto awake and tells him to never give up. Naruto regains his resolve, then he and Hinata stand up together, holding hands.
Commentary: Alright, this is where I really had to struggle for words, because as much as I love Masashi Kishimoto's writing, this is the stuff I'm talking about when it comes to his bias towards certain characters. I'll just say it outright: Hinata is a terribly written character. Her relationship with Naruto is almost always forced, with the ONE exception being their interaction during the Chuunin exams. Every time we saw her, she was either with someone else besides Naruto, hiding in the shadows away from Naruto, on a rare joint mission with Team 7, or putting her self in danger for Naruto like a suicidal tool. If you want a comparison as to what Hinata acts like, she is basically like Sakura was towards Sasuke in nearly all of the pre-time skip Naruto.
Now, if you want to see a well-written character that would be compatible with Naruto, look at Sakura: she has gone from hating/ignoring him, to respecting him, to seeing him as someone to look up to and help, to finally wanting to protect him from both threats and his over-eagerness. Sakura has developed as a character from being a talented damsel in distress to a helpful assistant to people. If you really want a view as to how much Hinata really understands Naruto, just take a look at the battle between Tobi and the 8 man Konoha team, where Hinata is worried after Naruto is struck by an attack, but Sakura is resolved that Naruto is okay, which he was and gets up a moment later, and Hinata should concentrate on the enemy instead of worrying.
This may seem like a nitpick, discussing the relationships of characters, but relationships are a part of the story and if the relationships of characters are unnatural, then the story will also seem unnatural. If Kishimoto really wanted Hinata and Naruto to get together so badly, then he should have set time aside for honest character development for Hinata instead of focusing on other characters like Shikamaru. That's not to say I hate Shikamaru's character development (quite the opposite infact), but it would have greatly benefited Hinata's character and her relationship with Naruto if she had interacted with him, gave the two of them time together instead of using events such as the battle with Tobi, the battle with Pain, or Neji's death as sort of a way to force them together.
As of right now, Hinata and Naruto's relationship is probably just one step above Edward Cullen and Bella Swan from the Twilight novels.
With that, this manga review comes to a close, I did promise I'd have something between last week and this week, but I've yet to actually think about what else to review. I'll think of something though, so stay tuned!
