Manga – The Other White Meat

Well fans, I have good news and I have bad news…or maybe it's bad news and bad news depending on what series you like. Naruto has the week off this week so we will only have a recap of chapter 409 of Bleach this week. Luckily I found this week’s chapter to be pretty exciting and with a few genuine surprises and also Aizen doing villainous things. This week’s recap will therefore be shorter than previous weeks.

That said, starting next week I am going to change the format of this a bit. I will continue to do recaps of Bleach and Naruto as the powerhouses that they are, but I will also comment on a pick of the week of sorts for chapters. There are other manga series that I have begun reading and enjoying and if all five of my readers are aching for something else to look into, I’ll do my best to do brief overviews of what the series seems to be all about and why I selected it to highlight that week. Hopefully that will add a little spice to this article in the future while providing some much needed variety. Onwards to the recap for the week!

NARUTO

Nothing happening! With Chapter 500 pending I for one would be happy to see a massive double issue of Naruto finally conquering the Kyuubi and living up to his full potential. After that, Sasuke vs. Naruto is really the only thing I want to see. I’m sure there will be other fun fights; Kisame is still hiding inside his sword that Killer Bee is now carrying around with him. That will no doubt turn into an epic showdown. So, while I am sad to see the series take the week off, I am hopefully for the future.

BLEACH

Chapter 409 picks up with Ichigo finally visiting a place he hasn’t been inside his soul to unlock his full potential. So, every sword has a materialized form that stays pretty constant. The physical sword itself has various shapes and sizes that change as people transition from sealed form, to shikai, to bankai. The materialized form of the sword, however, usually remains the same. For some it is a dragon, for others a combination snake monkey, etc.

Well Ichigo is a mess. He has a hollow form inside of him that allows him to undergo the transformation into a Vaizard. His sword, named Zangetsu, takes the form of a badass old man with sunglasses and a long black coat. Who the hell knows what his new hollow form discovered in his fights in Hueco Mundo is. He expects to see any number of things when he journey’s into his soul this time. What he ends up seeing is something else.

When Ichigo goes into Bankai he calls his sword Tensa Zangetsu instead of just Zangetsu. Perhaps I should have expected this and maybe it does happen for every Shinigami and we haven’t been shown it, but Ichigo meets a new materialized form. This form is fast, deadly and attacks without question causing an injury to Ichigo in reality that his father sees when it happens. This battle for control will ultimately lead to SSJ4 Ichigo, which should be fun.

In the meantime in Soul Society Aizen has arrived at the transported Karakura Town and is walking through the town. He is leaving a trail of bodies in his wake and has just spotted two of Ichigo’s friends on the horizon. He better hurry up and finish his training. I strongly suspect he will appear just before Aizen kills his friends, but that is just my humble prediction.

Until next time!