Bleach 590 Review – “Marching Out the ZOMBIES”

Bleach 590 Review – “Marching Out the ZOMBIES”

Written by: ClayDragon

Today is a good day.

After noticing that Kurotsuchi has arrived on the battlefield, Giselle tells him that she can’t properly see him due to how much light he’s emitting. Meanwhile, Ikkaku and Yumichika are still lying in the rubble, and they note that they could only tell that it was Kurotsuchi due to his voice (and unique fashion sense). Before anyone can attack, Bambietta steps in front of Giselle in order to protect her.

How very modest of you.

Bambietta then begins to drool, and starts spouting lines that wouldn’t seem out of place in a hentai work. Specifically, she keeps begging for something of Giselle’s, only to be slapped away by her former comrade. Giselle then promises to ‘reward’ her when the fight is over, and Bambietta tearfully agrees. Kurotsuchi decides to interrupt this touching scene, and Giselle realises that he turned down the brightness of his suit.

I don't know whether I should be horrified or aroused...

Upon being called a peon by Kurotsuchi, Giselle orders Bambietta to fire a barrage of reishi bombs at him. He manages to dodge the explosion at the last second, along with Nemu (who for some reason has changed back into her normal clothes), and he notes that the speed of the bombs is pretty much constant. He orders Nemu to activate a device, and as Giselle and Bambietta fly towards him he tells her to set the delay for three seconds.

I have this feeling that I'm going to end up very similar to Kurotsuchi in the next 20 or so years.

As Bambietta fires another round of bombs, Kurotsuchi is suddenly surrounded by floating white orbs which fly towards the reishi bombs. However, the orbs don’t explode on contact with the reishi, and instead remain stationary. As Giselle wonders why they didn’t blow up, she and Bambietta pass through the group of orbs…only for them to all detonate at once in a huge explosion. As the smoke clears, it’s revealed that Giselle used Bambietta as a meat shield to protect herself.

Well, you did ask...

Kurotsuchi and Nemu land on a section of a destroyed building, and he answers Giselle’s question – the orbs are actually devices that are able to disrupt the flow of reishi for a certain amount of time. When Bambietta’s attack hit the orb, it turned into a bomb right away, but stopped working for three seconds, which means that Kurotsuchi is now able to completely negate Bambietta’s power. He then tells Giselle to surrender and allow the two Quincies to be experimented on by him.

"I have a very good dental plan...By which I mean I'll steal your teeth whilst you sleep."

Giselle has other plans, and she summons a large group of Soul Reapers around her. She then claims that she’s been creating zombies ever since she first arrived in the Soul Society, and has amassed quite a collection. Ikkaku and Yumichika comment on the situation, pointing out that they’re now largely outnumbered. In fact, it would appear that Yumichika recognises a few of the now-dead Soul Reapers (although there’s no-one there that we know).

Random thought of the day: Outside of Captains and Lieutenants, you never see any female Soul Reapers.

After considering his options, Kurotsuchi then says that, despite the fact that they’re now zombies, they’re still members of the Gotei 13, and due to his personality he claims that it would be too hard for him to fight them all (blatant lies). He then declares that he’ll have to ask someone who has no attachment to Soul Reapers, and he points to the roof above him. It’s then revealed that there are four Arrancars standing above him – namely: Dordoni, Cirucci, Luppi and Charlotte.

yes. Yes. YES.

It’s good to finally see Kurotsuchi fight, as his last one was against Szayelaporro way back during the Hueco Mundo arc. What’s even better is the fact that, once again, he’s shown us just how crazy-prepared he can be. I’m still not sure why he’s wearing his new outfit though, and it would be nice to find out what its purpose is. For that matter, what was the point in showing Nemu wearing an outfit similar to Kurotsuchi’s? It only appeared for a panel, and she’s back to wearing her normal clothes now. Was it just a small bit of fanservice?

"Dordoni! Circucci! Luppi! Charlotte! Arrancars, I choose you!"

On the other hand, going by their current condition it seems unlikely that Ikkaku and Yumichika will fight against Giselle. Normally, I would complain about this, but given the arrival of the Arrancars it means that Ikkaku and Yumichika will most likely team up with them in order to defeat the zombified Soul Reapers. Speaking of zombies, I was somewhat correct last week when I deduced that Bambietta does still have some personality left – however, it seems that her current personality is a side-effect of Giselle’s blood, and not an aspect of her original personality shining through.

Bitch Slap Level: Giselle.

Finally, I’d like to talk about the best aspect of this chapter – the return of the Arrancars. It would appear that they’ve also been reanimated in a way, as we’ve already seen them all die. That, and each one now has a prominent scar running along their body, as if they’ve been stitched back together. Knowing Kurotsuchi, he probably collected their remains and performed some Frankenstein-like experiments on them to bring them back. On a side note, going by the poses that Dordoni and Charlotte struck, it would appear that they have all retained their original personalities, unlike Giselle’s zombies.

When we last saw the Arrancars.

Normally, I’d complain about how we still haven’t seen Grimmjow yet, but in this instance, I’d argue that the arrival of these four Arrancar is better than seeing Grimmjow, for three reasons. Firstly, it means that Grimmjow is still free to fight someone else (hopefully Bazz-B). Secondly, given how hilarious the interactions between Yumichika and Charlotte were last time, I’m hoping that it’ll be equally as good this time. Also, Charlotte knows about the true form of Yumichika's Shikai, so it might be quite interesting to see if he divulges this information to Ikkaku.

"Benevolent and compassionate", you say?

The third reason is this: given that we’ve already seen each of the four Arrancar die, then the fact that they’ve been brought back can now be extended to every Arrancar. There’s now no excuse for Tite Kubo to not bring back anyone he wants. In fact, when Luppi died his entire upper body was disintegrated, and Kurotsuchi has been able to fully resurrect and reconstruct him, so that means that no matter how much damage an Arrancar took when they died, they can still be brought back. Theoretically, anyone can make a reappearance. Starrk, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra…we might be seeing even more of them in the future.

 

Kubo, I will pay you money to bring these guys back.

Good Things:     Kurotsuchi’s Batman-level of planning.

                            The snarking between Kurotsuchi and Giselle.

    Bambietta’s attacks being made worthless.

    The epic return of the Arrancars.

Bad Things:        N/A

                                    

Manga Rating:   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, but he doesn’t use it that much. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in his hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics. I'm finally learning to draw! Only faces, but still.