WBCR - You'l fall in love with me so hard! (Grade: C)

Bleach, alongside other famous Manga, are being released later due to strict regulations surrounding anti-piracy. This makes scans of the Manga incredibly difficult to arrive on time since the cracking down on anti-piracy has become an issue. So that means WBCRS will be posted when the chapter is available and the keyword is IF. The chapter was released a day later on a different website, but nonetheless here I am to give you my review of this week's chapter. Was it any good? Was it worth the wait? Well, to be honest, again it's a set-up chapter and I was expecting a lot more. Ending last week's chapter, Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi implanted Hitsugaya with a drug and now, being impaled by Mayuri's Zanpaktou, is being administered another drug that'll either do one of two things ~ cure Hitsugaya or kill him ultimately. However, the deceased Captains Rose & Kensei alongside Lieutenant Matsumoto arrive in the scene and Mayuri orders his Arrancars to deal with them while Mayuri is dealing with Hitsugaya. Meanwhile, the unnamed Sternritter, NaNaNa, & Candice were beaten by Byakuya off-screen. We see Hisagi congratulate Byakuya, but he sees foul play as Byakuya is quick to attack Hisagi. Hisagi tries to defend himself, but ultimately unveils that he's doing this for Pepe, Sternritter L ~ The Love. Pepe Waccabrada's abilities allow his opponent to fall in love with Pepe to the point that his victims will do whatever he says. So in another words: Manipulation or Sovereignty of another person. However, the surprising thing is Pepe attacks Meninas and Meninas sucker punches Giselle. That pretty much concludes the chapter ~ Pepe's twisted vision of love is tearing apart friends & enemies. So what are my gripes with this chapter? I'll boil it down to 3 points:

1) The Offscreen ~ This is self-explanatory. When you have a fight scene going off, it isn't smart to end the fight and not even show it. What, wasn't there time to fill in so that all the fights can be introduced? With multiple fights going on, it's okay to jump back and forth depending on the context of where the fight is, but when the audience sees a fight scene that wasn't even show, but the results are there ~ it's an empty-feeling. There was no excitement or tension. There was no anticipation of a fight and when you, the audience, are invested in it ~ it's a big middle finger to us because we wanted to see the fight, but you're going to end the end rather than the start. It's like watching the end credits of a movie and saying you've watched it ~ that's horse sh*t and you know because the anticipation of watching a movie should be from start-to-finish. So that's gripe #1 ~ any offscreen fight will piss me off (much like how Yammy was sidelined).

2) The Zombies ~ Now I'm well aware that the 10th division was heavily wounded during their battle, but to think they're already dead is a bad ending to their character arc. When Gremmy was fighting, he explained that Kensei & Rose were imagined to be dead and.....BOOM.....they're dead. So does this make their deaths any more meaningful to the story progression? Well, a part of me thinks that Mayuri can reverse the effects, but if it's KO for those charactrers ~ then Tite Kubo didn't do a good job on ending them correctly. Since it's a war, there will be deaths, but at least end the character correctly rather than axing him off just because you are limited on time or just because you want to focus more on another fight. Take one step at a time and I'll ensure you, the story progresses better that way.

3) Pepe ~ When I saw that fat f*ck, I was like WTF is this guy. When his powers were revealed, I wasn't impressed. Sovereignty over a person isn't original at all. Making that person fall in love with you to the point that they'll do your bidding ~ that's "been there, done that." To me, Pepe isn't interesting and much like Mask De Masculine, I could give two sh*ts about them because their character doesn't appeal to me in anyway.

Overall, the chapter's a set-up for Pepe's arc. It'd be nice to see the Byakuya fight scene, but the damage is done and we won't know. I am curious to know Mayuri's next steps and that is the saving grace for this week's chapter. Mayuri is a smart smart man and if he can reverse the effects of the Zombified Shinigami, then that'll be cool. Other than that, the chapter has it's problems and I was expecting a bit more. Mayuri's way of thinking is something I've come to admire ~ he can either troll you, help you, or kill you ~ pick your poison. I'll give this week's chapter a C. Thanks again for following the Bleach Zealot blog. WBCRS will be posted when chapter's available. Until then, you all stay classy.