Bleach 546 Review – “The Last 9 Days”

Bleach 546 Review – “The Last 9 Days”

Written by: ClayDragon

Well, Soul Society is screwed.

Continuing on from last week, Shunsui gives more information to Keigo, Tatsuki and Mizuiro about what Ichigo has been doing. He says that once Ichigo has finished training, he will be even stronger, and he might be so strong that his power might affect the world of the living, in a similar way to Aizen’s power. If that turns out to be the case, then the Soul Reapers will not allow Ichigo to return to the world of the living. However, the chances of such a thing happening are very low – less than one in 10,000.

"Yes, my kimono is very nice. Now get your filthy hands off of it."

Shunsui then gives each of Ichigo’s friends a Soul Ticket that allows them to freely visit the Soul Society, so even if Ichigo has to be kept there, they can still visit him. He then tells Ichigo’s friends that the battle won’t start today or tomorrow, so he’ll tell Ichigo to go home and rest when he returns.

Meanwhile in Hueco Mundo, Chad and Orihime are taking a break from their training, and Orihime reflects on how she likes the fact that humans and Soul Reapers are working together to save Arrancars. She then wishes that it would go on forever, without any fights actually starting.

Fool! You've jinxed it!

In the Soul Society, a black substance begins to pour out of a building, and starts to cover the protective dome that surrounds the Soul Society. As it climbs the dome, a new landscape of buildings can be seen in the areas that were covered by the substance, one of which is Yhwach’s palace. From the roof, the Emperor looks down, flanked by Uryu and Haschwalth. A number of Soul Reapers notice the new buildings, and react fairly appropriately. In the Squad 12 headquarters, Akon and a few other technicians are in full panic mode, as the Seireitei has apparently vanished.

Under the Dome Season 2: Coming soon to CBS.

Yhwach notes that the invasion was successful, and asks Uryu if he knows of the ‘Kaiser Gesang’. This turns out to be the legend of the Quincy King, who regained his heartbeat after 900 years, his intellect after 90 years, and his power after 9 years. Yhwach then tells Uryu that there is another part to the legend, and it states that the King regained the world after 9 days. He then prepares to move, and says that the world will end in 9 days.

The fact that Shunsui said how unlikely it would be that Ichigo would have to stay in the Soul Society makes it pretty clear that those odds will come true in some way. There would have been no point quoting the odds if they weren’t going to happen. And even if this doesn’t turn out to be true and Ichigo can return home after the battle, chances are that the Soul Tickets will end up being used somehow in the future.

EPIC FORESHADOWING.

Yhwach’s means of invasion is a little confusing, as it’s not really made clear what he did. My first assumption was that the black substance created a portal linking the Soul Society and the Vandenreich’s base, but that doesn’t explain why Akon noted that the Seireitei had vanished. The only other explanation I can come up with is that Yhwach somehow transposed the Vandenreich base onto the Soul Society, meaning that every building in the Seireitei was replaced by the Quincy’s base, thus cutting off supplies and reinforcements for the Soul Reapers.

At this point, it’s probably a good idea to sum up how the war has gone so far. The first Vandenreich invasion of the Soul Society ended with the deaths of 116 Soul Reapers, as well as the lieutenant of the 1^st Squad. This battle lasted for three minutes, and not one member of the Vandenreich was killed. Next, they invaded when Ichigo was occupied in Hueco Mundo. This incursion lasted much longer, and ended up with four Captains losing their Bankai, and the death of Captain Yamamoto, as well as a huge number of Soul Reapers. By contrast, only six of the Sternritter died, and two of those fatalities were inflicted by Yhwach himself.  And now that the Vandenreich are invading yet again, the body count is only going to rise.

"Everybody's dead, Dave."

Good Things:                 A proper Vandenreich invasion.

                                       Ichigo's friends are getting more involved with the plot.

                                       Yhwach getting more and more genre-savvy.

Bad Things:                   The Hueco Mundo Team section felt like filler.

Manga Rating: 3/5

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. He is simply one hell of a reviewer.