General Discussion

Bleach #496 - Kill the Shadow

In a Nutshell

No edits needed to make this frame look silly

The Vandenreich Sternritter's contine their attack on Soul Society. In order to understand their Bankai sealing powers, the captains decide to purposely get their Bankai's sealed and let their vice-captains figure out how it happens and how to undo it.

High Points

• There are some really cool looking frames in this chapter.
• Nazis stole the Bankai.

Low Points

• The Luchador Vandy makes another appearance.

Rants and Raves

Nothing to really rant or rave about, but $50 says the vice-captains won't get it done and another group of captains or Ichigo and friends will show up. I'm not betting money on the next part, but I wouldn't be shocked if it turns out that only a certain type of Bankai can be sealed and the ending page of some future chapter is all of the captains who haven't gone Bankai in the series appear with a text bubble that reads something like, "luckily their Bankai are different."

Grade

C+

There was more good than bad, but still not enough to really get me interested. I didn't groan and facepalm throughout the chapter so that's a marked improvement over last week's. If things continue as is, next week could be interesting as two of my Why I Like Bleach things may appear: good art and crazy power ups, hopefully in the form of evil, corrupted, stolen Bankai.

I read your comment on the previous chapter discussion about wanting to see some people bite the dust, in particular Toshiro. I could be proven wrong soon but I'd be tempted to bet that Toshiro, Renji, and Byakuya come out of this okay considering they always seem to be near the top of popularity polls.

My guess is every single “normal” Bankai is vulnerable regardless of how different it is from another Bankai. The sole exception so far is where their Leader showed concern over Ichigo, so my guess is that the Getsuga Tensho changed the spirit somehow which means that Ichigo and Isshin are the two known people who are invulnerable to the sealing. I’ll go a step farther and guess that members of the Royal Guard have a similar condition and that is why they’ll finally show up.