Bleach 582 Review – “The Headless Star”

Bleach 582 Review – “The Headless Star”

Written by: ClayDragon

Apologies for the lateness of this one. It is appalling and I really should know better.

After landing in the Soul Society, Ichigo walks over to Kenpachi and asks if he can stand. However, Kenpachi rebuffs his question and tells him to worry about himself. At that moment, Candice appears behind Ichigo and prepares to fire a lightning bolt at him. Before she can attack, Ichigo flash-steps above her, grabs her wrist, and throws her into a nearby building.

Ichigo used Strength! It's super effective!

At this point, the other three Femritters move towards Ichigo, but he manages to dodge all of their attacks. Before they quite realise what’s happening, they’re all thrown into nearby buildings. As Giselle and Meninas wonder who he is, Liltotto informs them that he’s Ichigo, and she notes that she’d be disappointed if Ichigo couldn’t at least give them a challenge.

"Seriously, am I the only one that reads the notes?"

Candice chooses this moment to burst from the rubble, yelling at them to shut up. She doesn’t care that Ichigo is one of the special war potentials, and just wants revenge for him covering her in dust. In fact, she’s so mad that just her shouting causes lightning to fall from the sky, whilst the other girls are just confused over her skewed priorities.  

Well, I imagine your boss would care a little bit...

Candice then presses the heart-shaped buckle on her belt, which causes it to rise up and change shape into a bow. She then fires off an attack at Ichigo, which causes the surrounding area to be covered in smoke. As she orders Ichigo to be burnt to ashes, Liltotto points out that Ichigo is unlikely to die after being hit by one of her arrows.

Yeah, it's going to take at least three or four shots.

As it turns out, she’s entirely correct, as they hear Ichigo’s voice saying that he thought it would be hard to fight against women, but after seeing how strong they are, he realised that he doesn’t need to worry about it. When the smoke clears, it becomes apparent that all that Candice’s attack did was destroy Ichigo’s snazzy cloak, leaving the rest of him unharmed.

Not the cloak! Now he's 50% less fashionable!

At this point, the other Femritters decide to join in, and they all manifest their own bows to attack Ichigo. As they prepare to attack him, we see Yhwach noting that Ichigo has finally arrived, and he tells Uryu and Haschwalth that they’re going to start…something. Down on the battlefield, Askin looks up at the castle and asks himself whether or not he’ll be able to make a choice.

Well, that's not suspicious at all.

There’s something that I’ve noticed about Bleach lately and it’s that, despite the fact that things actually happen each chapter, the story doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It does feel as if Kubo is just going down a checklist and crossing off each Quincy’s name as they appear in the manga. At least there were multiple battles happening at once during that last war, as opposed to strict one-at-a-time battles that are going on now.

And here we have the second similarity between Candice and Kenpachi.

That being said, I’m seriously wondering if Kubo has forgotten certain characters and plot elements. I mean, we saw one page of the Fullbringers 64 chapters ago, and they haven’t been mentioned or heard from since. Similarly, we saw Urahara receive some sort of artefact when he was in Hueco Mundo, and it was hinted that the object might have a huge part to play in defeating the Quincies, but it hasn’t been brought up again.

As if Giselle wasn't unnerving enough as it is, her bow is made out of bones.

As it stands, there are a total of nine Quincies left (not including the four Femritters). Assuming all of the fights will be one-on-one, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of the Fullbringers or the Hueco Mundo Squad actually making a significant contribution to the battle unless something happens to shake things up. Personally, I’m just hoping for a Grimmjow vs Bazz-B fight.

Come on, Kubo. Make it happen.

The most interesting thing about this chapter was the last few panels with Askin. Right from the start, his exact motives have been unclear, as he appeared in Squad 12’s barracks, and then just left when Kurotsuchi refused to fight him. We still don’t know why he was there, and his mannerisms have left me wondering if he’s actually going out to turn out to be a good guy (for a certain definition of ‘good’ anyway). After all, every villainous team seems to have one member who’s a lot nicer than the others, like Starrk or Itachi Uchiha. Maybe Askin will end up being the nice Quincy.

"But what about that shadowy place?"
"Actually, we own that as well."

Good Things:     The Femritters are getting serious.

    Ichigo has now drawn his Zanpakuto.

    The possibility that Askin might be up to something.

Bad Things:        Not much really happened.

                            The story is progressing really slowly.

                                    

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. "A wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."