Bleach 532 Review – “The White Noise”

Bleach 532 Review – “The White Noise”
Written by: ClayDragon

As if Aizen wasn’t powerful enough, now he can turn invisible!

Well, almost. After seeing Aizen cut down Isshin, we get a bit of exposition about how he was able to sneak up on the 10^th division captain. It turns out that when Urahara fled the Soul Society after the events that created the Visoreds, he left his cloak behind, which can apparently render the wearer almost invisible. Immediately after Isshin realises that he was attacked by a Soul Reaper, Aizen prepares to leave, noting that Isshin shouldn’t be able to use his Bankai due to his wound. It also turns out that the Vasto Lorde is the first Hollow created by Aizen that was modelled on a Soul Reaper, making it a prototype Arrancar.

Down below, Isshin is losing ground fast, and figures out that using his Bankai will be impossible. After getting thrown into the air, he holds his hand over his face, almost as if he’s going to turn into a Visored. Sadly, he doesn’t, but we do see him blow a wave of fire at the Vasto Lorde – a move that wouldn’t look out of place in the Naruto universe. Even this isn’t enough to stop his opponent, so he decides to rush at the Vasto Lorde instead. As luck would have it, Masaki arrives at the scene in time to see the Hollow’s severed arm land at her feet.

"Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!"

However, even with this severe handicap, Isshin is still having trouble. The Vasto Lorde rushes in and is about to fire a point-blank Cero at Isshin’s face when an arrow causes it to dodge out of the way. Masaki fires a few more but sadly they all miss their target. Her arrival surprises everyone, including Aizen, who looks a little too excited at the prospect of her messing up his plan.

"Stop her! She's ruining my plans!"

Despite Isshin’s attempts to stop it, the Vasto Lorde decides to aim for Masaki instead, and swoops down to attack her, whilst dodging every single arrow she fires at it. As opposed to doing the sensible thing and moving out of the way, she stands still and lets it attack her.....at which point she grabs it, and fires an arrow straight into its head.  Maybe that was a sensible idea after all, despite the fact that she’s most likely dying now.

Thankfully, this chapter was a little more fast-paced, and it’s good to see Masaki finally arrive at the combat zone. It was disappointing to learn that Isshin can’t use his Bankai at the moment (and, given that the Vasto Lorde is now (probably) dead, it seems he won’t be using it in this flashback at all), but I’m willing to wait and see it later.

Insert obligatory 'disarmed' pun here.

The fact that Aizen now has an invisibility cloak raises the question of why he hasn’t used it in the main storyline yet. In fact, using the cloak to hide in the Soul Society seems to be a better plan than faking your death and then hiding out in an underground lair – especially given that there were so many things that could have gone wrong with that plan.

Unlike last week’s chapter, this one got the story moving straight away, and – barring some overly-long fight panels – continued to move at a fast pace. Hopefully Isshin and Aizen will have a confrontation soon, as it would make the flashback that little bit more interesting.

Manga Rating: 4/5 

ClayDragon:









ClayDragon is currently studying Physics at university, and is constantly bewildered by it. The main method of contacting him is his Gmail account at kyleroulston1993@gmail.com. The alternative is his Skype account at kyleroulston1993. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in his hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics.