#bleach 653

[rukia-deja-vu]

Young! Shunsui kyoraku.

[r-dahlia]

The Shonen Jump translation of Bleach 653 makes it clearer that Kyouraku’s brother was a shinigami. Nanao’s mother tells him to keep one of her hairpins so that she’ll be comforted while he’s out hunting Hollows.

This makes more sense than the MS translation, since Kyouraku’s brother appears to be wearing a shinigami uniform. It may also cast light on his death early in their marriage--being a shinigami is a dangerous profession.

[princessandshopkeeper]

Bleach 653

I actually read this on holiday, but now I didn’t post because...holiday...I basically do nothing. Like I send my kid to my parents and pretend I’ve never seen him for a week. It all works out. On to the chapter:

Bullet Points:

-A Little Less Flashback, A Little More Fighting

-Kyouraku Shunsui: Inventor of the Duck Face

-Queen Nanao is super though, but we all need support sometime

-Is this finally the end of this fight?

We start off with Big Brother Kyouraku getting a single pinwheel hairpin from Mommy Ise. Just one. To keep them bound while Mommy Ise is out fighting hollows and such. 

With her weird God-sword? I don’t know, that’s never explained. And then we get this:

WHAT IS THIS EVEN??? I imagine Shunsui’d be the selfie king if he had a cell phone (which...I mean other Shinigami have weird ones that work in both worlds...where’s his?). 

Anyway, Big Brother gives him the patented Isshin Head Butt of Love. Tells him to go study and stop being a punk. Which makes sense that Shunsui’s been a troll his whole life. To all this Shunsui responds to Big Brother that he’s mellowed out in his old age. Wha? I’d hate to see what Big Brother did to him before mellowing. Ouch. Big Brother says it’s all thanks to Mommy Ise, which brings a sweet smile to Shunsui’s face. Awww.

So it seems Nanao has never really fought with a sword before. I guess she means against a real enemy? I’m just presuming they’d make her at least try to train one at Shinigami Academy or whatever. At any rate she finds it frightening. I like that she’s shown to be so strong, yet still has fears and reservations. Like that’s clearly not going to stop her, but it makes her feel more real. Love you Nanao!

Nanao appears to have been cut by the light her enemy emitted:

She remarks that she never realized that being cut could hurt so much. She can’t even move her feet. Poor thing is doing her best to stay upright and fighting, but she soon gets some much needed assistance.

Owl Beast (I can’t even bother to remember his name at this point) sees Shunsui and assumes he’s hiding behind his subordinate, so he laughs and blows his God’s Trumpet. Shunsui and Nanao stand united though (and I’m just going to post the next two pages in their entirety cause I lurve them).

The trumpet thing blows a whole bunch of land away EXCEPT FOR WHERE SHUNSUI AND NANAO ARE STANDING UGH IT’S SO AWESOME I CAN’T TAKE IT.

Bonus Nanao looking fierce.

Long story short, Nanao’s Ise artifact reflects everything back on Owl Beast and breaks him into teeny pieces. The end? Here’s your final chapter image:

LOVE. She’s all wrapped up in him. Like I’m still working on the assumption they’re not related until I read otherwise because it’s so beautiful in my head. 

I’m excited with how this all turned out, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Hopefully we can see what’s been going on with everyone else.

[okami-fr]

[twenty-thoughts-undeveloped]

When your friend is happy to talk in front of her crush but won't admit it

[dartabolikal]

Lol Shunsei’s brother could be their dad. He's still originally adorable tho. And his hair looks so soft too. I wonder what his name and Nanao’s sister’s names were…

[r-dahlia]

Shunsui and Nanao in Bleach 653

I love everything about this chapter! Bleach 653 opens with another flashback, this one of Nanao’s mother giving Shunsui’s brother one of her hairpins. It’s interesting that Nanao’s mother mentions suppressing Hollows here—does the Ise family have responsibilities to the Gotei 13? It could be an issue with the translation, as Shunsui’s brother is wearing a black outfit that looks quite a bit like a shinigami’s. Could he be in the Gotei 13? We may need another translation to be sure.

EDIT: The Shonen Jump translation makes it clearer that Shunsui’s brother is a shinigami.

This chapter offers this great face from Shunsui, as he teases his brother about his wife’s gifts wordlessly:

Look at that brat! He gets a headbutt from his brother for that face. But when his brother explains that his contentment has grown as his wife’s kindness has begun to show through him, we see a different reaction:

In the first panel, he’s happy for his brother and his wife, and in the panel below the hairpins, it’s something else—yearning or concern? I think it could be both—their happiness is strong enough that he could want something like that for himself, and their happiness could also seem to tempt fate to disrupt it.

He now carries hairpins meant for two people by himself, and he’s shown that he wants to have someone help him in Bleach 652, when he asks Nanao to help relieve him of his burdens and let him protect her. It would be a lovely parallel if he gave Nanao one of the hairpins in the next chapter, finally having found the person who can give him the support he admired so long ago and he has longed to have for so many years.

The trees prominently visible in the background call to mind the “Black Pines Double Suicide” of Shunsui’s bankai. I believe the development of his sword was influenced by the tragic love story of his brother and Nanao’s mother. Because Nanao’s mother believed in the Ise curse at the point when she begged Shunsui to take the sword, her beliefs would likely have colored his memories of these events (leading to the prominence of trees in his recollection) and led his soul down some dark roads as he worked to hide the Shinken Hakkyouken within Katen Kyoukotsu. The path to his bankai would only have grown darker after her execution for hiding the sword.

It's interesting to consider why Nanao's mother would remarry/have another relationship resulting in Nanao after having loved Shunsui's brother so much. I think it's helpful to refer to another noble family here--the Kuchiki family. When Byakuya married Hisana, it was a large shock, and went against his family's expectations. He promised not to shirk his duty again after that, and he was really serious about it, leading up to the Rukia execution adventure.

With this example in mind, I think it's possible that Nanao's mother may not have wanted to remarry/have a relationship, but she ran up against her family's expectations that she would produce an Ise heir. Duty may have trumped her own wishes. When we see her giving the sword to Shunsui in Bleach 652, she has the air of a defeated woman. Giving away the sword is her last act of defiance against her clan, and she must have known she would likely be executed for it. If we think about who may have reported the loss of the sword to the Central 46, a member of her own family is the logical choice. Her story is truly a tragic one.

Back in the present, Nanao’s fight isn’t going well. This is a slight flashback, before Shunsui appeared behind her at the end of the last chapter. She’s never fought in battle with a sword—kidō has always been her weapon, as she’s never had a zanpakuto. This scene is an interesting dose of reality in a battle shounen, reminiscent of Ichigo’s first battle against Kenpachi in Soul Society, when he found himself outmatched and afraid.

Nanao is sweating, bleeding from an injury, and unable to move. For someone like Nanao, normally so controlled in her daily life, this must be a terrifying experience:

But she’s not alone for long. Large, familiar hands cover hers on the sword, as Shunsui finds a way to support her even if only an Ise can use the sword:

This brings us up to where the previous chapter ended. Shunsui is behind her. His focus is on her, and he has such a serious expression on his face. She’s surprised at his appearance:

Nanao’s emotions show in her eyes in the next panel—perhaps relief that he’s come and upset at her inability to finish this battle on her own. Nanao wanted to do more in this battle, to be able to protect and support Shunsui fully:

Lille rallies for a new attack, a trumpet sounding, as Lille is styled after the more grotesque Old Testament angels. Nanao has calmed, and Shunsui provides her with more support:

She closes her eyes, able to feel his emotions flowing outward into her. She remembers her resolve to support him, and thinks he is always the one supporting her. She flashes back to the incident when Yamamoto crushed her with only the weight of his reiatsu, but what she remembers is being rescued by Shunsui and kissed on the head. When her eyes open, they’re full of new resolve. She will stand on her feet this time, and defeat Lille, with the support of Shunsui. Together, they will do what neither could do separately:

Nanao needs his physical support to help her wield the sword and his emotional support to strengthen her resolve. Shunsui needs to support her in this battle, to protect her, because she’s the one who can support him emotionally in the way he’s longed for, and ease his heavy burdens of guilt and loneliness. They need each other so much. It’s a beautiful pairing to me: mutually supportive, with each person’s needs filled by the other, incredibly loyal, and full of love.

This enemy nearly killed her captain, could have killed her, but together, they are stronger. They defeat Lille together, but he laughs and says something very ominous as he falls:

Has Lille truly been defeated, or will he rise again? Does another challenge await Shunsui and Nanao? Given Kubo’s history of killing at least one member of a romantic pairing, I do feel a twinge of unease. Still, the last panel of Shunsui and Nanao standing together, looking to the sky? It’s so lovely.

I hope that the coming chapters see Shunsui giving Nanao one of his hairpins, in a callback to the first tragic love story in the parallel love stories he’s used in these chapters. It would formalize what I believe we already know from the chapters, with Nanao’s love confession in 651, Shunsui’s need for Nanao to relieve his burdens and let him protect her in 652, and Shunsui’s promise to always be at her back, providing support, in this chapter. I believe Nanao’s resolved eyes and her actions in this arc show that she has made a similar promise internally: she will always be with Shunsui, supporting him.

This is love. This is a deep bond that cannot be destroyed by Lille or other enemies. The history they share, the future they could have—it’s all in these chapters, and it’s beautiful.

Whatever happens next, whether Lille’s ominous words have weight or not, I’m truly happy at the development Shunsui and Nanao have received in these chapters as individuals and as a couple. I’m very thankful that Kubo has given us so much of these two together. I can’t wait for next week!

[yahoo201027]

Bleach 653 Manga Chapter Review ブリーチ - Shunsui tagging in against Lille? Is the fight finally over?

Hope you guys have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving yesterday, and in this week’s chapter of Bleach, Shunsui Kyoraku steps in to the ring to help out Nanao to defeat the X-Axis. This is my spolierific review of Chapter 653, “The Theater Suicide Scene 7″.

We begin with Nanao’s mom handing over the hairpins to Shunsui’s brother

Brother to Brother Interaction

Of course, we see Nanao’s mother leaving as Shunsui looks at her and smile

And here’s the title page with the hairpin and the Blade-less Zanpaktou

Back to the fight with Nanao falling on the ground

Looks like Nanao need some help right now while battling Lille. And black stuff is dropping by around Nanao

Don’t know what that black stuff is? But it indeed hurting Nanao right now

And Shunsui pops out from behind. Guessing the black stuff was Shunsui hiding in the Kageoni

As Lille about to fire his “Light Beam Ball of Death”, he notices that Shunsui has dropped by behind Nanao

Lille noticed Shunsui hiding behind Nanao and about to fire his “Trompete”, or God’s Trumpet

And Shunsui and Nanao is ready to fight back

And Nanao thinks back as she about to attack Lille with the help of Shunsui

And Lille fired his “Ball of Light”

While firing, he noticed something going on in the opposing side

The attack from Lille backfired as Nanao reflected the attack aiming at both her and Shunsui back to Lille Barro

And there goes Lille Barro

And then it’s over!

Reaction/Thoughts: So what do I think about this week’s chapter of Bleach? I think it’s a good one to at least. Like last chapter and the chapter before, this week’s chapter is half backstory and dialogue and half action. The biggest question around this week’s chapter is the fight between Shunsui and Nanao and Lille Barro. Judging from the end of this week’s chapter, it look like the fight is coming to a close. I hope this finally put this battle to rest, because if he comes back next week, I’m calling a troll on this. Just be thankful this week’s chapter ended with a bang...from Lille Barro. #PleaseBeDead. At least we got more of the backstory from Shunsui revolving around his brother and Nanao’s mom, could explain how he got the two hairpins that we saw in the duration of the series. All and all, I think this chapter ended the battle with a bang. I give Chapter 653...

...a 9 out of 10. That’s it, tell me what you think about this week’s chapter of Bleach?

(C) 2015 Tite Kubo, MangaStream, Shonen Jump, VIZ Media