Bleach: Pendulum Arc
Aka: Where Kubo has been hiding the plot and character development for the last 200 chapters.
A lot of people have been telling me to wait for this, and I did. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Which then preceded to make me incredibly mad. There was more character development and revelation of what the hell is going on in those 12 chapters than there were in the previous 150 at least, maybe 200. Is it too much to ask to have something like that every 50 chapters instead of every couple hundred?! Chapters come out once every week or so, and the idea that people reading this for the first time had gone over a year without anything other than that slugfest in Hueco Mundo made me mad enough to spit.
Seriously, I was raging the entire time I read it.
*deep breath.*
Soul Society is a bunch of stupid idiotic twatmuffins and deserve to get the shit beaten out of them.
*deeper breath.*
Alright. The Vizards/however you spell it. I actually never particularly cared for any of them when they were first introduced and in subsequent appearances as anyone who's been reading my LJ reviews will know. I still don't much care for them, sadly, and the 'revelation' that these guys were once captains and lieutenants was hardly 'gasp surprising' either. Although it did bring a sense of history to these guys, it didn't add too much to their personalities and the only ones that really came out any better defined in my mind were Aizen, Gin, Hiyori, Urahara and Mayuri and I suppose a little for Tessai.
Leaving those aside as actually mostly being interesting and satisfying it's time to hit up the major disappointments: Tousen. He still doesn't make any sense at all, and his general blood thirstiness is overwhelmingly off-putting. Previously I was rooting for some sort of Heel Face Turn followed by Komamaru stabbing him through the face ... now I just want him stabbed, repeatedly and possibly violated. His character motivations don't make any sense and I don't believe they ever will.
The Central 46. Wut? I mean yeah Hollofication, bad, but jesus christ towards the end of the arc I was wondering how Aizen could possibly get away with anything after Shinji found out his release and everyone and their dog out in the field knew Aizen was responsible for the whole piece of crap. The closing of the arc left me very unsatisfied and just generally thinking that the whole lot of that governing body were a bunch of frigging idiots with no redeeming value. I don't think that we're going to have a sudden 'surprise Aizen's good!' moment coming up any time soon but ... I kinda wanted to nuke and pave those dumbasses too.
Some of the folks I expected to see more out of, especially Jushirou, Soi Fon, Komamura, Kaien, Kyoraku ... hrm probably some others, had just cameos at best and that was disappointing too. The Vizards should have had their moment in the sun when they were introduced, not over 100 chapters, and two years, later. The Soul Society has been in the background for a really long time and if they are supposed to be major players it would actually be nice to know much about them.
I'm not saying there's not any characterization of anyone ever, that's clearly not true, but the characterization comes only in bursts and quiet moments that are far too few and far between.
As the battle gears up to start I should know a lot of things, where everyone has come from is a good start, but I'm not stupid enough to think that this is just about some bloodbath to form a key. The battle for Karakura Town is about something more than that. For Ichigo it's about his home, I suppose, but it seems like everyone is fighting over something small without really cluing me into the big picture. Aizen's motives, Gin's motives, Tousen's motives, Soul Societies backwards rules and ideas of the Central 46, anything about the entire damn world ...
The minute Ichigo - or anyone's - blade goes through the back of Aizen's skull is too late to explain, because by then I'll already not care any more.
If all of this just boils down to Aizen wanting more power or to be like a god or whatever I will personally fly to Japan and break Kubo's hands.
Just saying.
Stay tuned next week for the exciting conclusion: Katie reviews the rest of Bleach up to the present!
A lot of people have been telling me to wait for this, and I did. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Which then preceded to make me incredibly mad. There was more character development and revelation of what the hell is going on in those 12 chapters than there were in the previous 150 at least, maybe 200. Is it too much to ask to have something like that every 50 chapters instead of every couple hundred?! Chapters come out once every week or so, and the idea that people reading this for the first time had gone over a year without anything other than that slugfest in Hueco Mundo made me mad enough to spit.
Seriously, I was raging the entire time I read it.
*deep breath.*
Soul Society is a bunch of stupid idiotic twatmuffins and deserve to get the shit beaten out of them.
*deeper breath.*
Alright. The Vizards/however you spell it. I actually never particularly cared for any of them when they were first introduced and in subsequent appearances as anyone who's been reading my LJ reviews will know. I still don't much care for them, sadly, and the 'revelation' that these guys were once captains and lieutenants was hardly 'gasp surprising' either. Although it did bring a sense of history to these guys, it didn't add too much to their personalities and the only ones that really came out any better defined in my mind were Aizen, Gin, Hiyori, Urahara and Mayuri and I suppose a little for Tessai.
Leaving those aside as actually mostly being interesting and satisfying it's time to hit up the major disappointments: Tousen. He still doesn't make any sense at all, and his general blood thirstiness is overwhelmingly off-putting. Previously I was rooting for some sort of Heel Face Turn followed by Komamaru stabbing him through the face ... now I just want him stabbed, repeatedly and possibly violated. His character motivations don't make any sense and I don't believe they ever will.
The Central 46. Wut? I mean yeah Hollofication, bad, but jesus christ towards the end of the arc I was wondering how Aizen could possibly get away with anything after Shinji found out his release and everyone and their dog out in the field knew Aizen was responsible for the whole piece of crap. The closing of the arc left me very unsatisfied and just generally thinking that the whole lot of that governing body were a bunch of frigging idiots with no redeeming value. I don't think that we're going to have a sudden 'surprise Aizen's good!' moment coming up any time soon but ... I kinda wanted to nuke and pave those dumbasses too.
Some of the folks I expected to see more out of, especially Jushirou, Soi Fon, Komamura, Kaien, Kyoraku ... hrm probably some others, had just cameos at best and that was disappointing too. The Vizards should have had their moment in the sun when they were introduced, not over 100 chapters, and two years, later. The Soul Society has been in the background for a really long time and if they are supposed to be major players it would actually be nice to know much about them.
I'm not saying there's not any characterization of anyone ever, that's clearly not true, but the characterization comes only in bursts and quiet moments that are far too few and far between.
As the battle gears up to start I should know a lot of things, where everyone has come from is a good start, but I'm not stupid enough to think that this is just about some bloodbath to form a key. The battle for Karakura Town is about something more than that. For Ichigo it's about his home, I suppose, but it seems like everyone is fighting over something small without really cluing me into the big picture. Aizen's motives, Gin's motives, Tousen's motives, Soul Societies backwards rules and ideas of the Central 46, anything about the entire damn world ...
The minute Ichigo - or anyone's - blade goes through the back of Aizen's skull is too late to explain, because by then I'll already not care any more.
If all of this just boils down to Aizen wanting more power or to be like a god or whatever I will personally fly to Japan and break Kubo's hands.
Just saying.
Stay tuned next week for the exciting conclusion: Katie reviews the rest of Bleach up to the present!