Bleach 629 Review – Gate of the Sun

Bleach 629 Review – Gate of the Sun

Written by: ClayDragon

Having decided to name his new fortress ‘Wahrwelt’ (which means ‘New World’ in German), Yhwach declares that it will hold the future of the Quincies. Haschwalth agrees, saying that the only thing left to do now is to commit genocide against the Soul Reapers. Meanwhile, Urahara admires the structure from the outside, and Shunsui states that the Quincies are waiting for them. With this, the Soul Reapers begin to advance towards the castle.

"You dragged us out of bed for this?"

As they proceed, Urahara comes to the worrying realisation that he hasn’t seen Kurotsuchi for a while, and notices that he isn’t among the group of Soul Reapers. As he wonders where Kurotsuchi went, the spiritual door opens in another area of the Soul King’s Palace. Kurotsuchi and Nemu step out, with the Captain claiming that he wanted to investigate a specific set of coordinates without the rest of the Soul Reapers interfering.

 

"Great, we just had to lose the crazy one!"

Just as he announces that his research is the most important thing in the world, Kenpachi shows up behind him, giving Kurotsuchi the shock of his life. It turns out that when Urahara had opened the door, Kenpachi was in the toilet, and when he returned the door had been closed. Luckily, he saw Kurotsuchi open the door again and followed him through, accompanied by Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Hanataro (who was also in the toilet).

 

For such a big guy, Kenpachi must be surprisingly quiet.

Kenpachi sees this development as a good thing, as he reasons that with less allies around, he has more room to run wild and fight to his heart’s content. He and Kurotsuchi begin to threaten each other, and just as it looks as if they’re about to fight, Ikkaku and Yumichika decide to walk away and leave them to it. This leaves Hanataro with Nemu, who has no opinion on what’s going on.

 

Hanataro: Master of the pick-up line.

On the other side of the Soul King’s Palace, Ichigo and his group have decided to meet up with the rest of the Soul Reapers. Since they can’t create footholds in the air (as Ichigo found out the hard way), they’ve been forced to move on foot. However, Grimmjow has other ideas about teaming up, and points out that the more people are in a group, the higher the chance of there being fatalities. With this not-totally-unreasonable logic, he decides to go on ahead.

 

In all seriousness, did you guys not see this coming when you recruited him?

Despite Ichigo’s attempts to warn him that there’s someone up ahead, Grimmjow advances anyway. It turns out that Askin was ordered to intercept Ichigo’s group – a task that he isn’t very enthusiastic about. As he points out that it’s better than going against the Gotei 13, Grimmjow jumps up in front of him, and destroys the entire building (and quite possible Askin as well) with one attack. Whilst effective, this does mean that the group has now lost the element of surprise.

 

"INCOMING!"

At the very top of the tower, Bazz-B, Liltotto and Giselle note that the ‘Gate of the Sun’ is still active. From their vantage point, they overlook the original headquarters of the Vandenreich, which has been rebuilt at the top of Wahrwelt by Yhwach. Despite the layout of the area being changed, Liltotto says that they arrived somewhere near Silbern. Bazz-B then claims that they’ll settle things once and for all, with Yhwach and Haschwalth.

 

Meanwhile, Giselle is playing Eye-Spy.

While Urahara was confused about Kurotsuchi’s disappearance, I’m more concerned about where Hitsugaya has gone. He was last seen being Kurotsuchi’s unwilling lab rat, but despite Kurotsuchi showing up later, Hitsugaya (and, to a lesser extent, Matsumoto, Rose and Kensei) hasn’t appeared yet. It’s only a matter of time until he shows up, but given that he was turned into one of Giselle’s zombies, I wonder whether he’ll be used by her or by Kurotsuchi.

 

Actually, they're just happy to have gotten rid of you.

The moment with Kurotsuchi and Kenpachi was easily the best part of this chapter, and it does raise the possibility of the two Captains working together. Since they’re the most antisocial Captains in the Gotei 13, it’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic unfolds. I’m a bit confused as to why Hanataro was lumped together with them though, as unless he’s achieved Bankai, I don’t see him being particularly useful in the upcoming battle.

 

Best panel of the week, right here.

Whilst I thought that Grimmjow’s attack wasn’t that impressive at first, I realised upon rereading the chapter that this was done without him even using his sword. Grimmjow has now gotten so powerful that he can destroy a large building using just his hands. If he has defeated Askin in one shot, I wonder when we’ll see if he has obtained a Segunda Etapa, as it looks like there won’t be an opponent who will be that much of a challenge for him.

 

Minutes later, Ikkaku and Yumichika beat up Hanataro and take his lunch money.

Finally, I’m surprised that the three Quincies made it to the top of the tower so quickly. I had hoped to see them interact with the Soul Reapers some more (especially Giselle and Kurotsuchi), but it looks like that won’t be the case. However, given that they’re about to invade the old Vandenreich headquarters, it’s entirely possible that they’ll end up freeing Harribel in the process, which could make for an interesting development.

 

If Chad hadn't been there, this series would have ended very differently...

Chapter 629 Review – Gate of the Sun:

Good Things:     The heroes are on the move.

                             Kenpachi’s surprise entrance.

                             Poor, out-of-his-depth Hanataro.

                             Grimmjow being awesome.

Bad Things:        Possibility of Askin being defeated already.

                                    

Manga Rating:   4/5

"THIS HAKUDA HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THE SHIHOIN FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!"

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. He has an ask.fm account at ask.fm/ClayDragon. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in his hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics. The reason that there was no review last week was definitely not to do with the fact that he's been playing The Witcher 3 non-stop.