ONE PIECE (chapter 564)
No chapter this week. One Piece is on break.
NARUTO (chapter 471) – Tailed Beast, Version 2
Kisame’s sword transforms, with the top of the sword opening with a mouth and tongue. Killer Bee goes into his tailed beast mode, with seven chakra tails. He attacks Kisame, but it’s parried, and Kisame’s sword eats six chakra tails. With the attack failing, Killer Bee decides to use the next version. Meanwhile, Mizukage and Choujuro find traces of where Ao has been, and continue to track him. Ao is still trapped in the wood doll from Fuu’s attack, and Fuu is unable to get Ao’s Byakugan eye thanks to a seal placed on it. Instead, Fuu ties a sickle to a branch, and plans to lunge Ao’s body to it, severing his head. He hopes to switch out just in the nick of time so as to not kill himself, too. Ao adds pressure to his jump, telling him to not make a mistake: too late, then they’re both dead; too early, and Ao will save himself. Back at the battle, Killer Bee has an internal dialogue with the 8-Tailed Beast, who wants to be let out and go wild against Kisame. But Bee wants to keep him in check for the moment, because he’s supposed to stay hidden, and Sabu and Ponta could get hurt. Instead, he decides to use Version 2. He still has 7 tails, but he’s not completely black, a fusion of the tailed beast with his human form. He goes in for a lariat attack that Kisame tries to block and absorb, but he can’t absorb it all. Bee connects and sends Kisame flying, but he’s reverted back to his previous form with chakra tails. However, Kisame uses the absorbed chakra from his sword to regenerate his wounds. He uses a water technique to engulf both Bee and Sabu. Sabu tells Bee to take Kisame’s sword, since it is the source of his strength. Unfortunately, Kisame has merged with his sword, turning into a shark/reptile hybrid.
Alright, the fight does continue, for the most part anyway. Kisame’s sword appears to have its own sentience, or at least some sort of chakra dependency. Kisame is definitely one of the stronger villans of the series. We’ll probably find out what happens to Ao and Fuu next week, at least, hopefully. That storyline just took an interesting turn. So far, the fight’s going okay, although I’m still disturbed by the way his sword is about alive. Decent chapter.
BLEACH (chapter 382) – The United Front – Discordeque Mix
Ichigo leads the way, with Unohana following; but Ichigo’s reiatsu path deteriorates pretty quickly. She suggests that she leads the way instead. Her path is clean and precise. Ichigo comments how he could do better if he had captain class reiatsu, but she says that their reiatsus aren’t that different. However, Ichigo says that his isn’t at full strength yet, since only his right sleeve has been restored. Usually his whole top is whole, when his reiatsu is at full strength. Realizing this, Unohana tells Ichigo to lead the way instead, while she will continue to heal him. Meanwhile, Kenpachi has cut up more of Yammy, who’s now out cold. Bored with him, he calls Byakuya, telling him to finish him off. Byakuya doesn’t want to clean up Kenpachi’s mess, and the two argue who should actually finish him off. Yammy ends up getting back up, and fires a Cero. Kenpachi decides to finish him off. Byakuya complains that he should’ve done so much earlier, and is surprised that it’s taking this long. Their bickering causes them to finally face each other in a match, but Yammy is still in the way. They both attack him at full force, so they can continue their duel.
So I guess just like with Dragonball Z, Ichigo gets stronger each time he’s nearly faced death. So now he’s supposedly one of the strongest. I guess he couldn’t actually face Yammy back then because he wasn’t at full strength. Kenpachi and Byakuya arguing was kind of funny. I guess we’re just at an interim point until Ichigo gets healed and they arrive back at Karakura Town. Decent chapter.
HAJIME NO IPPO (chapter 873) – Uncanny Wildness
Woli leaps to Ippo’s right, right into the turnbuckle just as Ippo planned. He turns to face him and is about to throw a punch, but suddenly, Woli is no longer where Ippo expected him to be! Like he just vanished! Facing his own, empty corner, Kamogawa has to point out that Woli’s behind him. But it’s too late, as Ippo takes two shots to the head. He can’t help but wonder how Woli managed to change direction in mid-air. It’s impossible. Ippo is completely surprised. Kimura is worried that Ippo is going to panic and loose his cool. The others try to figure out what exactly Woli did, but Takamura barely caught a glimpse of what it was, saying that the audience behind Woli knows exactly what’s going on. Ippo composes himself, and charges again, trying to figure out what just happened. He forces him to jump to the corner again, but this time he keeps a closer watch. To his surprise, Woli seems to have stopped in mid-air, and is just floating. Because of his perspective, he can’t see Woli holding himself up with just one hand on the top rope of the ring. Woli uses the ropes to push off and get behind Ippo, who’s still confused as to what just happened. Now mentally shaken, will Ippo regain his composure before the end of the round?
Takamura’s foresight comes through. Never expected Woli to grab the ropes like that, but in hindsight, it makes perfect sense. I don’t know too many of the rules of boxing, but I’m fairly certain that what he’s doing isn’t illegal. With Ippo shaken up, Woli has him right where he wants him. Man, next week can’t come soon enough. Hype for this fight definitely made it worth it. Also, it could just be because there’s a Pacquiao fight coming up as well. Good chapter.
FAIRY TAIL (chapter 159) – The Flame of Rebuke
Natsu is able to get up after getting hit by Gerard’s surprise attack. Zero suggests that Gerard’s memories have returned, which he says they have. Natsu rushes at him, but gets hit by another flame attack. He tells Gerard that fire won’t work on him, which Gerard states he knows. He knows that fire can amplify fire dragon slayer magic. Zero questions his “memories,” which Gerard replies that he only remembers Natsu being a ray of hope, and that everything before today he doesn’t remember. Through Erza, he knows he’s done some horrible things, but now he’s here to help. Natsu still hasn’t forgiven what Gerard has done to make Erza cry, but Zero interrupts with another attack. Gerard manages to push Natsu away and take the attack head on. After, he falls to the ground, exhausted. Just before collapsing, he manages to convince Natsu to trust him, and take his golden flame, the Flame of Rebuke. At the 6th Lachryma chamber, Wendy prepares herself to destroy the crystal. Moments before, Gerard asks Wendy to try to heal Natsu, but Charle disagrees, saying that she’s used up enough of her healing power already. Instead, Gerard will go to heal Natsu, leaving the responsibility of the crystal destruction to Wendy. He convinces her that there is destructive dragon slayer magic within her, to trust in her own strength to protect her guild. Natsu finally eats the golden fire, just before Gerard collapses. He gets the first attack on Zero, who’s surprised at his new speed increase. Firing another Dark Capriccio, Natsu easily swats it away this time. Zero notices scales starting to appear on Natsu’s face, and that he’s being surrounded by light, which he recognizes as “Dragon Force.”
So he didn’t get all of his memories back, and was able to team up with Natsu for a short while. Chapter was extra long thanks to the color pages and the slight recap of what’s happened thus far. Artwork has been improving gradually, and I’ve only noticed it just now. While the story hasn’t always been great, this week’s writing and pacing was done very well. Not sure if Gerard will stay in his “good guy” mode, but so far it’s working out okay. Wondering if Natsu will defeat Zero in two or three chapters from now. Also, it’s kind of funny that Natsu gets a temporary power-up that’s highly reasonable in shonen logic. After this, he’ll still most likely stay weaker than Erza. Good chapter.
HISTORY’S STRONGEST DISCIPLE KENICHI (chapter 360) – The Struggle for the Excellent Swords
Kagerou recognizes Kenichi as Shigure’s disciple. Instead of extracting revenge, he begs Kenichi to ask Shigure to give him his sword back. Kushinada says he can find a better sword inside; but Kagerou doesn’t want to go, until he sees Shigure fighting on the balcony. He carries Kenichi with him, to go ask Shigure for his sword back. Inside the castle, the armored person breaks the glass case to claim the sword they were after. The katana wielder prevents Sakaki from stopping the armored one. He says that a karate master technically needs three times the ranks of a katana master in order to be equal, and being an 8th rank master, he thinks that Sakaki is a 24th rank. However, Sakaki deflects his blade with his hand and almost hits him with a counter attack, stating he has a 100th rank. Kagerou comes up to the room with Kenichi, and the armored guy gives Kagerou the recently stolen sword. And with Kushinada appearing, must Sakaki fight four members of Yami at the same time?
With four Yami members at once, I’m not exactly sure what Sakaki will be able to do. Don’t know how much help Kenichi will be, and there aren’t really any disciples for him to fight except for Chikage, and they aren’t going to fight anytime soon. Perhaps one of the other Ryouzanpaku masters will be able to come by to help? Fighting is still pretty interesting. And hopefully Shigure will be able to help out a little more than just attacking one of them. Decent chapter.
