Glagh! Can somebody tell me where the "Create new post is"? Oh! There! On the top! I'm struggling to find the buttons in the new look!
Sorry, I had to say something foolish to lift this heavy feeling in my stomach. I love this chapter and yet it is so SAD
Well, I have to say it. I loved to see this new face of the great and uptight Byakuya, acting all careless and saying those wonderful and so important haoris are just "cheap". That dumb face was priceless. I'm loving Byakuya these late chapters.
The biggest relief to me was to find out Yama-jii was safe and sound. And of course yelling at those idiots for losing their important haoris. This is just the kind of light chapter we needed, something nice and cheery. Ukitake is right, nobody could replace Yamamoto, there was no way he would die. Though he lost an arm, can't Orihime restore it? Who knows. Ukitake looked very healthy and all. When I saw him, I totally forgot we had last seen him with a hand through his chest. It just hit me "I should be relieved that he's alive". It just seemed natural to see him there with that goofy smile. I love Ukitake.
It seems Hinamori is recovering too, though her organs are regenerating, so it seems the wound was pretty bad.
As for Matsumoto... Gin! I kinda knew he was gone, but I had that stupid tiny ray of hope and it's totally gone now. I'll miss you Gin! It was so sad and emotional... and Sad!! I think one of Kubo's most incredible skills is how deeply he portrays his characters' emotions. It hurts so badly to see them cry.
Hitsugaya has apparently recovered his lost arm and leg. I don't know if we can assume Hacchi and Soifon recovered theirs though, since their limbs completely dissintegrated, which according to Tosen (back when he cut off Grimmy's arm) is something that can't be restored (except by Orihime. Did that girl get to patch people up? She should've been able to fix Hinamori in a sec.)
We skip up to a month after the end of the war where Ichigo wakes up. His hair got shorter! Unfair!! Not only that but with the loss of his powers he's also losing his reiatsu? Double unfair!!
This was the saddest scene in the manga. Ichigo saying farewell to Rukia. I totally felt like crying when I saw her fading. It was almost as if she was dying just like my Ulquiorra did!! How could Kubo do that to me?!
Of course this is not the end. Ichigo seems to be settling with the idea of being powerless, but I can't imagine him staying like that for too long. And of course it would be sucker for the story if all the Shinigami ceased to be part of it and it became a slice-of-life about Ichigo being a human. We all know that's not gonna happen, so he's definitely getting those powers back. The interesting thing is how.
I didn't want to mention Aizen, but I think it's important. I was like. "Noooo I thought the damned smirk was goner and it's Ulquidamned back". It was totally Aizen Schwarzenegger (did I spell that right?) "I'll be back". Though I admit I loved the "sealed" look. It was crazy-cool. WTF with the 20.000 years sentence? That was super crazy. Do shinigamis even live that long? That's really interesting. Well, they said he's immortal, so will he be released to his own devices once the 20.000 years are over?
I'm left with tons of questions. Number one of them is. And where is KENSEI? I'm sure Kubo totally forgot he has such a character, honestly. Seriously the word Kensei'd has totally escalated to a new level. What about the Arrancars left in Hueco Mundo? Kurotsuchi apparently is now going regularly to do research so what of Grimmjow, Nel, etc. Will they become experiment subjects for Kurotsuchi? (noooo please!!). I'd also like to know about Soifon and Hacchi, the missing arm thing is concerning me. And Komamura too, I think he and Soifon are the only captains we don't know about yet, but Komamura got really grievous wounds from fighting Aizen from what I recall. I would ask about Isshin too, but I get a feeling that we'll know soon enough.
On a random note: Shuuhei's back looked so sexy in Matsumoto's imagination.
Anyway. I loved this chapter. It was incredibly sad. I can't wait to see Ichigo and Rukia reunite. Bleach began because Ichigo met Rukia, I just can't imagine a Bleach world in which Ichigo is a simple human and Rukia is not there. I'm not pointing shippings BTW.
So, I can't wait to hear your thoughts. Just a general reminding to everyone, since we had so many trouble last week. And I hate to have to do it this way, but there were just too many issues last week and it went out of control: Please be respectful and civil to other users, do not insult or swear. No character bashing. We don't wish character deaths here. No crack theories are allowed. A crack theory is that which is not supported by anything in the material. My new favorite "The Hogyoku rejected Aizen because it chose Ichigo to be his master". That's a crack theory. It's baseless and you should not post anything like that here. Anything related to the Spoilers or their content cannot be commented. And stay in-topic please.
Oh Ulqui, this entry is HUGE. I hadn't written so much in AGES. Well, I'm off, I should be sleeping now. I almost thought we wouldn't get the chapter until tomorrow, I was really excited when I saw it got released in the last moment. Awesome chapter. Now off to the two-week break. I think I'll cry!!