Bleach ch 317-320, D.Gray-Man ch 166-168

[meganbmoore]

Bleach Ch 317: Orihime has a bad habit of making me wibble. Shounen is not supposed to bring out my inner mush. And hey, look, Renji, Rukia and Chad! Who we haven’t seen in…more chapters than I can think of. But no Ishida. *frets* Yes, Ichigo, run off and save Orihime now. (I’d really rather her go “I reject you, loser” and devolve Ulquiorra into a harmless ghost or some such or otherwise save herself, but Tite Kuobo will never let that happen. As an alternative, I vote for whatever gets her out of Aizen and Ulquiorra’s clutches the fastest.)

Ch 318: Blah blah Arrancars I don’t care about, none of whom immediately jump out as interesting or cracktastic. Last page was the most interesting part of the chapter, even if it does promise another round of endless fighting. Though…was it ever really explained how Kira went from jailed and then getting caught up in Aizen’s plot, and then just apparently not being in trouble any more?

Ch 319: QUESTION! (Again, faulty memory taking over.) Have we seen “How come no one told me?” guy before, or did I just designate him “annoying and uninteresting” and forget about him?

Charlotte…Coolhorn. Who seems to have gender identity issues. And poor pants fabric distribution. He was obviously posing in front of the wrong person from the start.

CH 320: Has it ever occurred to anyone else that Gin and Kira kinda look alike? (but then, so do a lot of Tite Kubo’s guys by just the faces…) Aww, Gin is kinda-sorta-but-not-really worried about/happy for Kira

“Ugh” is about right for Charlotte’s description of the attack. Is there a betting pool going for whether or not Tite Kubo will forget he broke Yumichika’s arm? In three places, no less.

I highly doubt this  will ever be topped in terms of “What was that mangaka on?” pages and designs.

D.Gray-Man Ch 166: So, did anyone get “little Kanda” vibes stronger than “little Allen” vibes in the flashback?

Allen’s new wardrobe and slightly different hairstyle: Approved.
Absense of ponytail and those paper clearly meaning “Handcuffs”: Not approved.

So, Allen has the 14th’s memories implanted in him. Interesting.

Ch 167: Eeh, pretty much explanation of the above. Allen trying to cover Lenalee and getting caught is cuteness.

Ch 168: Somebody get rid of Hitler already, please. Maybe have him scare Lenalee in front of Kanda and Crowley, when he’s in one of his bad moods? Uhm…do we really think Cross is dead? 

 

Comments

[rekallthegreat.livejournal.com]

I was both disturbed and amused when I first saw that last page of Bleach 320. I still crack up when I look at it, lol.

As for DGM, I'm definitely in the Cross is not dead camp. And I definitely think Hitler needs to die (either that or just go far far away and everyone forgets about him). I also got 'little Kanda' vibes from the flashback. When I read it, I didn't realize it was Allen at first.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Just make Hitler scare Lenelee in front of Kanda, Crowley and Komui. He'll never be heard from again. They all have Issues on the Lenalee front. (None of which I interpret as romantic, btw.)

When I was reading the flashback, I was "the setting says "Allen" but the personality says "Kanda."

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

I want Rinali to kill him herself.

I got those vibes too, at first, but I don't think Kanda would ever break down crying in front of someone.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, Lenalee would hate herself if she did it. The others would have no such problems.

(And, like Orihime and Bleach, the mangaka would never let it happen...)

Yeah, the crying is pretty much when I went "ok, definitely not Kanda." I think even a little Kanda would have looked obstinate and refused to cry in front of someone.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

What led you to that definitive conclusion?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

What do you mean?

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

That Rinali would hate herself for killing someone. I'm just curious; she struck me as being capable of being quite ruthless to protect the people she loves.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think Rinali would kill in a heartbeat if she thought it was the only option open to her to survice or save someone, but not if she had any other option, and I find it hard to picture Hitler doing anything that extreme. His kind of evil is the subversive kind that gives a "HELLO WRONG!" but provides no obvious "kill me now to stop me" target.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with that--but since he's been pretty much promising to have Allen executed, I'm hoping that'll give one.

You're probably right about the whole mangaka thing though; she manages to make quite a few of her female characters kick shounen manga conventions, but that might be going a bit too far.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he's (unfortunately) doing it within the bounds of the law, which makes it harder to strike out against in that way. I can see her, Lavi, Kanda and Miranda(or some combination of them) freeing him before he can be executed and going on the lam, though.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

If I wasn't already disturbed enough by the fight between Yumichika and the other guy, I then had to see the last page of this chapter. Ewww! I thought I was past being traumatized by anything from Japan, but I guess I was wrong...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The whole "I'm pretty! You're ugly!" "No! You're ugly and I'm pretty!" thing was funny despite the deeply concerning wardrobe choice...and then it went there.

[madame-parker.livejournal.com]

The last chapter of Bleach has me wondering what the hell was Tite Kubo smoking, this fight looks to be silly as hell.

I'm more on a DGM roll, with Cross appearing dead is a good time to go into the next plot arc of the story. But really, it's a little crazy that it looks like theres now someone more powerful than Cross, I mean, the building didn't even go down, it wasn't that much of a fight. I hope that gets answered soon.

And yes, I got Kanda vibes as well in the young Allen chapter, it was sweet.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Tite Kubo seems to be having the Shinigami face off against Arrancar similar to them in some way, so the fight itself wasn't much of a surprise. The lengths he went to, OTOH...(And I'd even already seen that scan.)

I think the fact that no one knew there was a big fight going down is pretty good proof that things aren't what they seem with Cross.