One Piece 594, Bleach 414 & Naruto 504

Well, I completely forgot that Bakuman was on a week’s hiatus. Oh well. We still have One Piece, Bleach and Naruto, all of which are in very interesting parts of their stories. Sort of.

One Piece 594

Kid is so metal. That was a really bad pun based on his Devil Fruit abilities.

We open with the Gorousei. Hurray. Haven’t seen them in a while. They discuss the goings-on since the Whitebeard War finished. The dreadlocked elder says that Luffy has caused a stir, but since he’s Garp’s grandson, he can understand. Then the tall, bearded elder ponders his relation with Rayleigh. The birth-marked elder then brings up Jinbei, and how his status as Shichibukai was meant to show the reconciliation between humans and fishmen. The bald elder then asks how they’ll fill the three missing Shichibukai spots, which I assume means Blackbeard’s, Jinbei’s and Moria’s, though the last could easily be Hancock’s. It isn’t really clear. Anyway, the last of the elders then goes on to say that they should wait and see how the balance fixes itself, and that they need to elect a more influential person. They then go on to talk about Blackbeard, and how he has two Devil Fruits, and how he is the closest to Whitebeard’s empty Yonkou slot. They then suggest that Marco and the remains of the Whitebeard Pirates could stop him, as well as the other Yonkou. The bald elder then says that “D.” always means “Danger”, and that it has been reaching people’s eyes too much as of late. Elsewhere in Marijoa, World Government Commander-In-Chief Kong tells Sengoku that Garp has stepped down, but will be kept in the Marines to rear younger Marines up. He then says that if Sengoku quits his Fleet Admiral position, he asks he do the same. Sengoku accepts, and after a pretty boring speech reflecting on the old days, he recommends Aokiji as the next Fleet Admiral. That’ll be fun, I’m sure. At Marineford, Aokiji is speaking with Smoker, about how Luffy is back, miraculously from the dead, and has given ’16 rings’. Smoker cuts the talk and asks about his reassignment. Aokiji says he’ll put it through Sengoku, and asks if Smoker is serious about moving to the G-5 branch of the Marines, to go to the New World. Smoker simply states that he wants to keep his targets close.

In Marineford’s Medical Building, Coby wakes up and the doctor says he has some sort of Haki. Didn’t see that coming. Nor do I care, for that matter. He’s still pretty much a minor character, though with the Marine lineup being messed up, he may get more presence later. In the Agenda Chamber, Lieutenant Commander Brandnew speaks about Luffy, and his actions that have made the newspaper. Apparently, he came back to Marineford with Jinbei and Rayleigh. With the Marines spread out around the world, stopping pirates who have been provoked by the death of Whitebeard and the heightened rate of crime, they stole a marine ship, got through the now-paper-thin security at Marineford, and sailed a ring around the Marine capital. Then, Luffy came to Marineford, rang the Ox Bell 16 times, threw flowers around the war zone and did a silent prayer. Photographers then snapped it all up and put the pictures up around the world, also showing the Marines’ ineptitude at catching him whilst at Marineford. The fact he rang the bell 16 times apparently means he is declaring war. In the New World, Eustass Kid reads Luffy’s actions in the paper, and Killer explains to him that when rung eight times, the Ox Bell represents the end of one year, and another eight represents the start of another. He interprets the 16 rings as “the end of one age and the beginning of the next”. Kid instead sees it as Luffy signaling that he would start the new age, and gets irritated at him. He then goes on to torture an unsuspecting pirate crew that he captured. Evil bastard. Elsewhere in the New World, Capone Bege’s ship begins to be pulled up into the sky. He’s pretty shocked about it.

Meanwhile, on the Grand Line, Luffy is being tended to by the Kuja Pirates, on Hancock’s orders. Rayleigh says that his crew should get the message, as its something unlike Luffy. He says that whilst there was Jinbei and him with Luffy, they’ll definitely get the hint. Then, we see a montage of Luffy’s crew understanding his message, with respective people they’ve met in the background. Perona holds the paper up for an injured Zoro. Hilarious. Meanwhile, in the New World again, Basil Hawkins is reading cards, like always, when Brownbeard shows up and confronts him. He asks Brownbeard to repeat his name, and says that it sounds ridiculous, before saying that his Shadow Of Death is visible. He then draws his sword. I think we all know where he was going with that. Elsewhere in the New World, Urouge’s ship sails toward an island with lightning striking from the ground up. Strange. Then, an old man sails towards his ship asking if they need umbrellas. Strange. The captions say that those in the New World say that the first half of the Grand Line is paradise. Couldn’t bloody agree more. Nice to see we’re getting somewhere now though. Soon, Luffy’s crew should be back together, and they should set off to the New World after the other Supernovas. Maybe we’ll see what Law, Bonney, Apoo and X. Drake have been getting up to next.

Bleach 414

Tag. You're it.

Well, well, well. I have to say, whilst I imagined it would happen, I never thought Tite Kubo would listen to my thoughts. Again. If you want to know about my grudge against Tite Kubo, read my fanfic. You’ll see a lot of noticeable ideas that somehow were in both my fanfic and his manga around the same time. Anyway. Let’s start at the start of this chapter, where Gin has returned from his moment with Rangiku. Deicide 16. I don’t care about that anymore. Aizen asks about Rangiku, and Gin says he killed her. Aizen agrees, being unable to feel her reiatsu, but says that he is surprised, as he thought Gin held emotions for her. Gin is surprised by this, saying he has no emotions, that he is a snake with cold skin and no emotions, searching for prey and swallowing those he finds tasty. I can imagine that Gin, no need to explain it. We then get like 3 seconds break from them, as the group of humans (plus Zennosuke) run from Aizen and Gin. Aizen starts to get bored of running after them, and Gin asks what they’ll do after they kill them. Aizen replies that they’ll hang their dead bodies outside the town in visible areas, and then start creating the Ouken. Gin steps forward, touching Aizen’s outstretched blade, and says that he’ll be the one to kill them all.

Suddenly, though, Kubo steals my idea, and probably what everyone thought would happen eventually, and Gin spears Aizen with Kamishini no Yari. Gin starts to explain that touching Kyouka Suigetsu’s blade is the sole way of breaking its ability before Complete Hypnosis is activated. He then goes on to say that after decades of listening to that sentence, he never quite heard it, and that the other shinigami all tried to kill Aizen whilst not knowing that fact. He watched them all fall as they all kept him in suspense. He then states that he is the only being able to kill Aizen, and continues to stab him. Aizen however apparently saw this coming, and says that Gin cannot kill him by merely stabbing him. Gin interrupts, saying he knows. He lied about his bankai’s ability, not just to Ichigo, and probably many of his opponents, but to Aizen too. It isn’t the fastest zanpakuto nor is it the longest, it merely turns to dust whilst elongating and contracting, and the inside of the blade secretes a poison that breaks down cells. He reveals he has lodged a fragment of his zanpakuto inside Aizen’s heart, and that it will break Aizen down from the inside. Gin utters his ability “Kill, Kamishini no Yari”, whilst Aizen curses him and looks generally threatened for the first time since Shinji used his shikai. Gin says that he’ll die with a hole in his chest, like his life-long ambition, obviously referencing hollows and arrancar, before his ability quickly takes effect. Wow. Didn’t see that coming. Well, I did, as it said there may be some uneasiness at the end of the last chapter. But this was on another level. Congratulations Kubo, I don’t hate you for stealing my ideas now.

Naruto 504

What you have here is a classic case of Giant-Fox's-Claw-Through-Your-Chest disease. The prognosis isn't that good.

Continuing on from last week, Minato tells Kushina that after performing the seal on the Kyuubi, he’ll seal her chakras into Naruto, so that she can meet him when he’s grown up and wants to control the Kyuubi’s chakra. Kushina says that Naruto is their son and she doesn’t want him to bear that burden. She goes on to yell at him for sacrificing himself to protect the balance of the Biju, or for their country or village, as she wanted him to stay with their son. Minato merely says that abandoning one’s village or country is the same as abandoning a child, and that as someone who lost their own village, Kushina should know this. He then says that they’re a family, but of ninjas. He then gives another good point, saying that Kushina could give Naruto a mother’s role, whilst he could not, so he’s doing all of this for Naruto’s sake. To finish, he says he is willing to die for Naruto, as that is his role as father. Truthfully though, its all just a prolonged moment to try and make a chapter out of Naruto’s parent’s deaths.

Nearby, the Third Hokage sees what Minato is trying to do. He tries to get to them, but they have set up a seal to prevent anyone from getting in or out. Minato then performs the seal on the Kyuubi, drastically reducing his size to become a chibi Kyuubi. Minato reveals he is then frozen as the Kyuubi’s chakra is heavier than he thought. Minato then attempts to seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto, but Kushina starts coughing blood, and Minato is distracted. The Kyuubi takes this as his opening and strikes at Naruto. Kushina and Minato obviously get in the way. Kushina says that she’s alright with Minato’s plan now, using the metaphor that he finally won an argument. Minato then summons Gamatora and asks him to give the key to Naruto’s seal to Jiraiya. Kushina then is given control of the seal to seal some of Minato’s chakra inside Naruto. They then give their final words to their son, in a quite boring couple of pages, to be honest. After they say their goodbyes, he activates the seal and they die. Back in Naruto’s ‘Inner World’, per say, Kushina apologizes for making Naruto a Jinchuriki. Naruto says that whilst he was burdened, he never hated them. He then says that he now knows that they sacrificed themselves for him, so he had love in him before the Kyuubi. Kushina starts to disappear, crying, and thanks Naruto whilst trying to embrace him. She then vanishes, leaving Naruto alone. Great. Now that the whole ‘flashback’ thing is over (hopefully for every Jump series now), maybe we can get to some action? Thanks, Kishimoto.

K-ON!! – Episode 17

The cake was a lie?!

Looks like they’re off on holiday or something…

Nice cheerleading section…

This is a recording studio, not the barbers

Yui’s always suspicious…

Don’t ask…

Big news, the music room has been sealed off. Apparently water’s been leaking through the roof and they don’t know the cause. So with nowhere to practice, they borrow their classroom. But they’re too loud, enough to shake the floor, and other people also doing club activities complain. Therefore they head off again. Next up, the gym. But with too much going on and looking out of place, they give up practicing there as well.

Doesn’t seem like either Mio’s nor Mugi’s songs are done due to Ritsu disliking the lyrics. So she asks everyone to come up with some lyrics.

Next day, no rooms are free. But Sawa-chan suggest they go to the recording studio that’s apparently quite nearby. Due to tea and sharing lyrics, they don’t get any practicing done.

Luckily the club room’s fixed the next day and they finally get back in.

More lyrics and this time Yui’s are quite good, only because she got help from Ui.

For some reason Ui is struck with a cold and Yui’s calls everyone over because she doesn’t know what to do. They help get Ui to bed and then leave. Taking care of Ui makes Yui realise that Ui’s quite precious to her, which inspires the lyrics for their next song.

First half was a bore to me. Nothing happened. The only interesting thing was the lyrics and we didn’t even get to see all of it. I’m too tired to write more, and I’ve got nothing more to write anyway. I did say I won’t write much now. Come on big development, where are you?

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi – Episode 5

Ewww…

Christmas tree hair?

Why so stiff?

Excuse us for a minute

Give him a left, and another right!

So pretty…

As the episode starts we see Otogi bank’s president visiting Aragami Lamp. We find that he’s rather, well… a perverted old man… Anyway, Aragami is in charge of the bank and he’s also the one who gave them their underground facilities. The president is here to give him his report, and apparently Onigashima highschool’s getting rather rowdy.

A change of scene and we get a glimpse of the person who’s been behind all of Ryouko’s attacks.

Morning, and as school begins, it’s Momo who’s guarding the gates as she’s part of the disciplinary committee. She won second place in the beauty pageant. Anyway, we see Ryouko hiding behind a tree and then Ryoushi greets her, so she uses him as a shield to sneak past Momo. Except it didn’t work and we see Momo ‘playing’ with Ryouko, before she finally escapes…

After school Momo visits the bank and after a bit of ‘getting to know each other’ between Ryoushi and Momo, she asks for her favour. Seems like she wants to raid Onigashima to talk to the student council president there to complain and she wants them to accompany her. And with a quick hand shake with the bank’s president the deed is done. With a convincing talk from the president, they set the next day as the date for invasion.

On the day, Ryouko’s suited up with some cat like armour… and Ryoushi’s also got some weird armour thing on. Momo then arrives with her backup in the form of three guys called, Inuzuka, Saruwatari and Kijino, oh and Urashima, which prompts Otohime to drag him away like usual. Therefore they are without Urashima and the president as he decided to stay behind too, when they arrive.

They are greeted by a large bunch upon arrival, which they easily dispatch. They lose Inuzuka, Saruwatari and Kijino as they stop to hold off a huge horde, and Ryoushi as he holds off a guy from an earlier episode. As Ryouko and Momo press on, they fall into a trap and are separated.

Urashima comes to free Ryoushi, and the president’s also back to help Ryoushi. Elsewhere, Ryouko make it to the council room to meet the president. His name is Hitsujika and it seems that Ryouko’s had a bit of a past with him, enough to make her freeze in fear. Luckily Ryoushi arrives and snaps her out of it. Momo also arrives and she warns him to tell his little ‘Onis’ to stop being so rowdy. He replies with a less than satisfactory answer, in my opinion, but they seem to let it slide.

We end with a nice scene between Ryouko and Ryoushi that may have just made them a little closer.

So, what? That’s it? That’s how they finish that hard long fight? They let him go?! I was rather disappointed by that. I mean, alright I know you can’t do anything without evidence, but still, they could’ve just burst in slammed a fist in his face and then said whoops my hand slipped or something. That was so anti-climactic and the episode was brilliant up until that point, oh well, guess they couldn’t take out the big boss too soon otherwise there’d be no story, but still, why not put a mini-boss there to fight or something… hmm… maybe I play too many RPGs…

This history that Ryouko has with this Hitsujika guy sounds like the type of background story I was speculating. Y’know, how Ryouko’s got a very troubled or maybe traumatising past and Ryoushi will help her overcome it. He’ll probably need that as a final push for their relationship, though their relationship seems well on its way already. Much faster than normal tsunderes at least.

Oh and to point out a mistake I wrote in my first blog of this series where I said I haven’t heard May’n before, well that’s not true. I recently went through my itunes and found that Shangri-La’s opening is indeed by May’n so I have heard her before, though I think both of these songs are quite similar in style, though ‘Ready Go!’ Has a much happier mood. And I never got into Shangri-la, which is probably why I didn’t remember it at that time.

Anyway, it seems the main storyline will be circling around Ryouko and her relationship with that Hitsujika guy. Or I could be speaking too soon, but I’ll speculate that for now.

Last thing then. The monkey, pheasant and dog, I remember this fairy tale from Kaichou wa Maid-sama in that filler episode. Correct me if I’m wrong. Momotarou from Japanese folklore I believe?

Shukufuku No Campanella – Episode 4

Episode 4: In the Darkness

The episode opens with Agnes on the train with Tango. Tango asks how Agnes is going to find Maitresse. She replies that she is going to rely on her instincts on knowing that Maitresse is looking for the Artifact and that she would have a more understanding once she reaches Ert’Aria.

I am flying without wings!

Agnes is performing her talent in front of a crowd, when she notices the old lady; one of her regular audience members. After the performance, the old lady tells Agnes that she was going to Oasis clan to summit a quest. Later, the clan arrives at the station with Agnes buying some food, whilst asking the man a question, only the answer is heard; that it came from the mine up head. The clan is walking along the path discussing the quest, which turns out that the hot spring crystal supply is running low and that the old lady requested that the clan bring some back. Meanwhile the Tortilla sisters have followed the clan again and are up on a higher route and of course Salsa rides Golem off the cliff with Ritos avoiding the disaster.

The clan enters the mine and immediately start their search for the crystal. After some digging they stop for lunch. After lunch, Agnes goes on ahead to look for more crystal, Leicester offers to accompany her. Meanwhile back at the clan headquarters, Nina looks out the window worried as a storm approaches. Back in the cave Agnes tells Leicester that she is doing this quest as way of thanking the old lady for attending her performances. Suddenly, both of them arrive at a part of the cave with many of the crystals gleaming along the walls. They return with the rest of the clan and start digging. Chelsea starts sensing an aura from somewhere in the cave, we then recap back with Agnes talking with the food tender, who is talking about a SOS being sent from the mine as a mysterious light was seen from there.

The mysterious crystal

Nick swings his axe which knocks down a wall to reveal a large chamber with a giant crystal glowing at the centre of the room. The clan is struck in awe of the crystal, and then suddenly Montecchia starts flashing red and shouting danger with the room starting to shake violently. Meanwhile at the bottom of the cliff, Salsa is hanging upside down in a tree with Golem on the floor after falling down. Ritos asks her sister if she is striking a pose when an earthquake occurs, making Ritos fall out the tree.

The laws of gravity can a harsh mistress...

The clan inside the mine exit the room as the tremors increase and just make it out of the large chamber. Suddenly, the ceiling collapses splitting Leicester and Agnes from the rest of the clan. Both sides escape uninjured and suggest that they try and make their way out the cave. Trying to find an exit, Agnes starts trembling with fear, but Leicester reassures her and they both continue. The find an exit out of the cave and are welcome with a beautiful sight of a rainbow, Agnes thanks Leicester for before when she was afraid in which he gave her encouragement for her to continue, the rest of the clan made it out being just below Agnes and Leicester.

A beautiful sky

Back at Ert’Aria, the clan offer some hot spring crystals to the Tortilla sisters, which they accept with Ritos suggesting a hint that Leicester wants bathe with her.

At the clan headquarters, Shelly suggests that Leicester should bathe first, so he does. After bathing, Leicester exits the bath just as Agnes is entering. Both naked and embarrassed, Agnes realises that Shelley had tricked the both of them, however before both of them can sort out the situation, the rest of the clan enter the changing rooms. Chelsea, Carina and Minette thought that Agnes was there but there is no sign of her, they continue on to the bath, whilst Agnes and Leicester (still naked) are hiding; Agnes is so close to Leicester that she can hear his heartbeat racing and is relief that he is scared as she is. Once the coast is clear, Agnes realises she didn’t need to hide and tells Leicester to go and proceeds into the bath. Later, Leicester shouts at his mother; Shelly for tricking him, which then she replies that it was thrilling.

What no rubber ducky?

This episode was not too much in detail, but the switching between past and present got a little bit confusing. There is development of the relationship between Agnes and Leicester as well, but I don’t know if this continues in future episodes. Hopefully, we can find out a bit more about Minette in future episodes and what her purpose is other than giving Leicester great big hugs and calling him papa… otherwise this is going to get boring really fast.

Guest Post – Complete Halo Series

This is going to be a post from one of my very close friends. He will be publishing this on my account, I hope you enjoy.

Halo – A Brief History

Nearly 10 years ago a little game called Halo came out on the original Xbox, and now after 4 highly successful games all exclusive to Xbox, Bungie the original developers are releasing their final Halo games and swansong to the series Halo: Reach, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, first I’m going to cover the earlier games and how Halo became the gaming powerhouse it is today.

Back before Halo 1 (Also known as Halo CE) was released Bungie were developing it as a real time strategy game, however Bungie was bought by Microsoft before the release of the original Xbox and the game became the first person shooter it’s known as today. It was released simultaneously to the Xbox as a launch game as was met with exceptionally positive reviews averaging 96%. Fans loved the deep storyline revolving around a somewhat religious battle in the future between humanity and an alien race called the Covenant. The main protagonist Master Chief was a super enhanced human known as Spartans, and his general kick-ass way of things meant he soon became a gaming icon, and the mysterious ring world he landed on quickly hooked gamers to it for hours on end.

Soon after its release its success was clear and an expansion called Halo: Custom Edition was released on PC allowing players to build their own levels and most importantly play online against each other in tense heated battles on all kinds of weird and wonderful levels, and simply put it was a damn fun game to play, and set the bar for many other First Person Shooter games down the line.

3 years later Microsoft was hyping up one of the biggest console releases ever Halo 2. H2 saw Master Chief leave the mysterious ring world in order to protect humanities most prized possession: Earth.  With this Bungie followed up Halo 1 with another great single player campaign, but what really made it stand out was its multiplayer. The recent addition of Xbox live allowed Halo 2 players to battle other players online similar to what PC players did on Halo 1, and with new maps constantly being released and with a fantastic matchmaking system (Still used in games today like Call of Duty) Halo 2 became one of the most played and most loved online games ever.

Keeping to tradition 3 years later after the launch of the Xbox 360 Microsoft and Bungie were preparing for one of the most monumental things in history the launch of Halo 3, Bungie’s epic conclusion to the Halo trilogy were the fate of Master Chief would be decided, the battle with the Covenant would be concluded and the mysteries behind the ring world would be solved. After the massive launch Halo 3 dominated online on Xbox live and is still doing well to this day (2^nd most played game on Xbox) it was also met with hugely positive reception averaging about 93%. It was also treated in the same way as Halo 2 with new maps being released and updates constantly tweaking game play to keep it fresh. It also had Forge Mode (Map Editor) and Theatre Mode allowing you to see your online matches from any angle or perspective you want allowing you to take film clips and pictures of your antics for others to see. There’s only one way I can say this, if you have an Xbox 360 and you don’t have this game you are really missing out.

A few years later Microsoft hired Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) to make a Real Time Strategy game to be what Halo was before it was a shooter, and the product Halo Wars came out in early 2009 to receive positive reviews and became the most successful console strategy game. It followed a new protagonist Sergeant Forge and was set many years before Halo 1 Later that year Bungie released an expansion to the Halo Series, Halo ODST, it was set between Halo 2 and 3 and followed the tale of the Rookie an ODST soldier on

Earth fighting the Covenant (ODST’s were normal humans but were the best of the best behind Spartans) ODST was praised for its deep character driven story and more ‘human’ characters. It also featured a mode called Firefight a survival mode similar to Gears of War’s Horde mode were you fight constant waves of progressively harder enemies battling to survive

Now this brings us to Halo: Reach the big daddy of the Halo series due for release in little over 6 weeks (September 14^th) it promises to combine the brilliant campaign ideas of Halo 1 with the atmosphere and human feel of ODST, with the fantastic multiplayer of Halo 2 and vastly improved versions of Forge Mode and Firefight mode (Allowing you to play as the aliens fighting against the Spartans) Now to the story of Reach, again this game does not have you playing as the iconic Master Chief instead it has you playing as Noble 6 the 6^th member of an elite Spartan team. (In Halo 1-3 you learn Master Chief is the only known surviving Spartan; however Reach is set just before Halo 1 when there were more) In it you are fighting the Covenant on the human controlled planet Reach. These events revolve around the fantastic Halo book series and are mainly based on the tragic tale Fall of Reach

So if you’re a Halo fan or not you should be very excited about Reach as it looks to be the definitive Halo game and the best one yet, and if you haven’t played a Halo game before this is a perfect place to start as it is set before Halo 1-3 and ODST and     has the best graphics and game play of the lot.

For anyone interested in the series or if you want to learn more I would highly advise you play the games, check out the vast book/comic series, or the recently released Anime series Halo: Legends available online or on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Thanks for reading and at the very least I hope you’ve learned something new and if you start playing the Halo series, well that’s just fantastic. Have fun y’all.