Bleach 573 Review – “I Am The Edge”

Bleach 573 Review – “I Am The Edge”

Written by: ClayDragon

Somewhat underwhelming, but a good set-up.

After pretty much tearing the roof off of the safe house, Kenpachi jumps in to confront his opponent (who I am still going to call Guremi, regardless of what this week’s translation says). When Isane asks what happened to Captain Unohana, Kenpachi simply replies that she’s dead, and that he killed her. He goes on to tell Isane that if she hates him, she can kill him. Instead of taking him up on the offer, she’s thankful that he’s inherited the title of Kenpachi.

"Knock knock."

At this point, Guremi decides to interrupt, noting that Kenpachi seems strong, as he expected. Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet begins to fracture, and a massive block rises from below, carrying them up into the sky. However, this doesn’t include Kensei and Rose, whose beds begin to fall. Isane then jumps down to grab them before they crash into the ground, leaving Kenpachi alone with Guremi (maybe. It’s not really clear where Yachiru is at this point).

"Those beds were expensive!"

Guremi proclaims that he has set the stage for his fight with Kenpachi, and that it would be rude not to welcome him properly. When Kenpachi asks what happened, Guremi reiterates his ability – he can make illusions come true, and make anything he imagines become real. He then tells Kenpachi that he’s lucky to fight him, as he believes that he’s the strongest Sternritter.

I can think of about 23 Sternritter who'd disagree with you.

In typical Kenpachi fashion, he pretty much disregards Guremi’s claims and brings his sword down upon him, only for the blade to stop at Guremi’s shoulder. He explains that by simply imagining that his body is stronger than steel, it becomes reality, meaning that Kenpachi’s blade can’t cut him.

Was I the only one who thought that this would turn out exactly like Kenpachi's 'fight' against Giriko?

This doesn’t work out too well for him, as Kenpachi just applies more pressure and cuts right into his arm. As Guremi falls to his knees, Kenpachi says that if Guremi’s body was as strong as steel, then he’d simply need to slash him in the same way that he’d cut through steel. Even though Guremi imagined Kenpachi being unable to cut through him, Kenpachi tells him that even with his imagination, he can’t conjure up anything that he can’t cut through.   

"I knight you....Sir Guremi of Vandenreich."

To be honest, this chapter was kind of disappointing, as nothing much really happened until the last few pages. In particular, Kenpachi’s conversation with Isane took up a lot more space than was necessary, and it felt as though Kubo was just padding for time in order to make up 18 pages. I’m also quite confused as to why Kenpachi hasn’t even said anything to Yachiru, despite the fact that he arrived purely to check on her.

You can't deny that there are some similarities.

Hopefully next week will involve either Kenpachi unleashing his Bankai, or Guremi activating his Vollständig. Whilst there are lots of theories going around as to the nature of Kenpachi’s Bankai, I’m also interested in what Guremi’s Vollständig is, as it’s hard to imagine how his power could be upgraded.

There is literally a 0% chance of her succeeding if she tried that.

Other than that, there really isn’t that much to say about this chapter, so I figured that now is as good a time as any to go over the details of all the Sternritter introduced so far. I’ve made a small table below that shows the Sternritter’s name, letter, epithet, and status, as well as any notes about them.

Name	Letter	Epithet	Status	Notes
Yhwach	A	Unknown	Active	Enemy leader. Evil. Insanely powerful.
Uryu Ishida	A	Unknown	Active	Double Agent (Maybe)
Jugram Haschwalth	B	Unknown, presumably ‘The Balance’	Active
Askin Nakk Le Vaar	D	Unknown, possibly ‘The Door’	Active	Last seen leaving Kurotsuchi’s lab.
Bambietta Basterbine	E	‘The Explode’	Active	Defeated by Komamura, but still alive.
As Nodt	F	‘The Fear’	Deceased	Frozen solid by Rukia’s Bankai.
Liltotto Lamperd	G	Unknown	Active
Bazz-B	H	‘The Heat’	Active	Last seen observing Cang Du’s defeat by Hitsugaya.
Cang Du	I	‘The Iron’	Unknown	Last seen getting attacked by Haschwalth, but the nature of the attack makes it difficult to know if he’s alive or dead.
Quilge Opie	J	‘The Jail’	Deceased	Nearly killed by Ichigo, then nearly killed by Urahara, then finally killed by an unknown attacker (presumably Grimmjow).
BG9	K	Unknown, presumably ‘The Knight’	Unknown	Was last seen in the same position as Cang Du.
Driscoll Berci	O	‘The Overkill’	Deceased	Cremated by Yamamoto during the first Quincy invasion.
Meninas McAllon	P	Unknown	Active
Berenice Gabrielli	Q	‘The Question’	Deceased	Subjected to an impromptu tracheotomy by Kenpachi during the first Quincy invasion.
Jerome Guizbatt	R	‘The Roar’	Deceased	Silenced by Kenpachi during the first Quincy invasion.
Mask De Masculine	S	‘The Superstar’	Deceased	Incinerated by Renji’s Bankai.
Candice Catnipp	T	Unknown	Active
NaNaNa Najahkoop	U	Unknown	Active	Last seen stalking Renji.
Guenael Lee	V	‘The Vanishing Point’	Deceased	Due to being an imaginary construct, his nature as a proper Sternritter is debateable.
Guremi Thoumeaux	V	‘The Visionary’	Active	Currently fighting Kenpachi.
Loyd Lloyd	Y	‘The Yourself’	Deceased	Impaled by Kenpachi during the first Quincy invasion.
Royd Lloyd	Y	‘The Yourself’	Deceased	Killed by Yhwach during the first Quincy invasion.
Giselle Gewelle	Z	Unknown	Active	Last seen promising to ‘help’ Bambietta.
Shaz Domino	Unknown	Unknown	Deceased	Killed by Ichigo before even getting a chance to introduce himself.
Unnamed Sternritter #1	Unknown	Unknown	Active	Last seen shooting Shunsui’s eye out during the first Quincy invasion.
Unnamed Sternritter #2	Unknown	Unknown	Active	Last seen spying on Haschwalth and Askin. May be the Quincy who caused Jidanbo to attack the Sqaud 12 barracks.

Well, that's my weekly nightmare fuel quotient filled.

Good Things:     Guremi isn’t going down easily.

                            Kenpachi being awesome.

Bad Things:        Not much actually happened.

                            No interaction between Kenpachi and Yachiru.

                                    

Manga Rating:   2.5/5

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. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle...