User blog:Silver-Haired Seireitou/Sei-san's Classroom: Chapter 497 - Kill the Shadow 2

Well, it's that time again! Welcome to Sei-san's classroom, please be seated. Today, we shall be reviewing Chapter 497 - Kill the Shadow 2

As a quick notice, this will be the last blog that will be rather bland. I was going to start today with more picture-esque blogs, but I'm a bit busy multi-tasking, so... Next week for sure. Anyways, this will still be a good one.

To begin, I'm seeing that Kubo is doing his whole Deicide thing again. It seems to revolve around killing all the time. Deicide ideally means "death of a god" or "killing a god", so "Kill the Shadow" seems to somehow do some kind of opposite thing here. I mean, Shadow can be used to describe evil, devils, Satan, et cetera, so instead of "Kill the God", it's essentially "Kill the Devil" if you wanna get philisophical about it. Aizen viewed himself as a "God", a transcendant, so the chapters leading up to his defeat were all given the name "Deicide XX". For this, "Kill the Shadow", which "Shadow" can be seen as darkened, black, et cetera... think about it. Shadow, Dark, Black, and Death are all related in some way. Shinigami carry "death" in their name and wear black robes, so... to "Kill the Shadow", may refer to the Quincy's assault on the Shinigami. Considering Deicide led to Aizen's defeat, whom was the "God" in question, the titles of these chapters may actually imply that the Shinigami will be losing this initial battle and a good majority of them will either be killed (in my opinion, mostly Seated and Lieutenants will die, maybe one or two Captains), or be forced into hiding until they can plan a counterattack.

After all, this is a war, not a supression or defense, as the Aizen wannabe who was one-shotted a chapter ago by Blondinekurl put it. In addition, what I am hoping will occur is Yamamoto's death at the hands of the Vandenreich Leader, after a stunning attempt at using Bankai, which will result in the leader obtaining Ryūjin Jakka's Bankai (ho-ly shit). This, in turn, will cause the Shinigami to scatter and retreat, losing all hope in the situation, which would keep true to Kubo's original claim that this event will cause "the Shinigami to cry out in despair" (I mean, think about it. In Harry Potter, after Dumbledore died, whom Yamamoto is essentially the Bleach version of, the students and teachers pretty much realized they were fucked), and the death of the Captain-Commander would logically warrant an immediate call to action by the Royal Guard. When you consider my theories, they would all fit together and make for quite an interesting plot.

So, I'll move away from the deep analysis for a bit and continue with the chapter.

The chapter itself was very slow. I was not impressed. Kubo was moving slow to start, picking up the pace, things were good, and then this chapter was just redundant. Seriously, the first 15 pages was "FUUUU- THEY TOOK 'UR BANKAIS!" in a deep southern accent.

"TOOK 'UR BANKAIS?"

"THEY TOOK 'UR BANKAIS!"

"THEY TOOOOOK 'UR BAAAAANKAAAAIS!"

"DURKDEDURRR!"

Yes, the entire chapter was essentially this.

In addition, I didn't point this out before, but I'll say it now. I hate Rangiku's new hairstyle. No real reason why, it just sucks. And not as good as Rangiku do- I'm getting off-topic.

But one cool part was Shunsui vs Old Man Starrkie. I'm calling him that until we get his name, don't ask why. It may have only been like four pages, but it was the best part of the whole chapter. Kyōraku lost his fucking eye after being shot, and he's all "Pssh, whatev's." He continues to show how among the Captains, he's my absolute favorite, with Unohana being a close second.

Also, one thing Aha pointed out and I realized as well. Shunsui seems to always get the gunslingers. Starrk and now Old Man Starrkie.

I also like how Mayuri is like "OH FUK U GUYZ! Y U NO WAIT FOR ME?!" And Yamamoto's jumping into battle in style. That was a small scene, but enjoyable nevetheless.

Renji was able to release Bankai (Oh boy, what a shocker! Not.) One of the major trends in Bleach is, once a power has been revealed, it is spammed and raped to no ends. Think about it. Hisagi pwned ass for about 200 episodes (or about 300 chapters in manga) with just his sealed Zanpakutō. Once he revealed his Shikai, all he uses now is Shikai. Soifon is another example. Once she used Bankai, something you'd never expect, given her Shunkō and "death-in-two-steps" Shikai, and once she did, what a surprise, she uses it once the fight against the Quincy starts.

Seriously, if the Captains knew how powerful these Quincy would be, and that it'd warrant Bankai, why was she so against using it from the beginning during her fight with Barragan, whom was Segunda Espada? This only proves that Kubo doesn't mind raping epic powers once they get revealed, which easily makes an awesome character a cliche one.

But theeeeen...

Byakuya screamed out, "RENJI, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" like a little girl.

Pulling a complete 180, Byakuya told Renji to not use Bankai. Apparently, getting a Bankai sealed is okay. But if it gets stolen, it's a freakin' train wreck.

Moving on, anyways... We are brought back to Akon and the 12th Division, where Akon has decided to give Mayuri a big middle finger and call in Ichigo. I'm sure that'll go well. I'm sure Kirge will have no objections! And even more so, Kirge's even going to supply a Garganta for Ichigo and gang to go help! Amirite?

That about sums it all up. Comments are welcome, as always.