Shonen Beam

[scanlation by Binktopia]

Why bother giving Bleach the cover if Kubo is always going to make such half-hearted attempts? I can’t recall the last imaginative Bleach cover.

Matsumoto is fine, so Gin gets to be the fallen hero after all. For the record, this kind of plot device works much better when the audience has recognized a character as “good” for more than, say, two chapters.

Also, I’m noticing something wrong with the way Matsumoto has been drawn. I realize that Kubo has designed this character to be a pretty face and cleavage, and nothing more, but a little anatomical consistency would make sense. I believe the human head generally rests on the neck, not directly on top of the shoulder.

Injured more seriously than expected

So… the Hougyoku is just a Philosopher’s Stone, then?

Ed, can you transmute this into something less boring?

When the audience has any difficulty at all telling the sky apart from debris clouds, the art is a serious problem.

Background of the week

We even get treated to a little flashback with poor little nice-guy Gin, sacrificing himself for Matsumoto. Don’t over-sell this or anything, Kubo.

Oh good, it’s Ichigo, and he has another slight costume redesign. Remember when Kane still had the mask on but his costume kept losing little bits and pieces, as his character became more “human” (and infinitely less interesting)? … actually, no, of course you don’t, because you don’t watch wrestling. Anyway, this feels similar; Kubo is grasping at straws, trying little tweaks, hoping something good will come out of it. It hasn’t.

Twist of the week

Final Flash: Matsumoto knew Gin’s plan all along, yet she was shocked (or “feigned surprise,” if you buy that) when he joined Aizen. If she really cared about him, maybe she could have stopped him long before that… like, in the flashback scene we just saw in this chapter. No, instead she lets him run off and then chases after him. Stay classy.