Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Bleach Review: 556 – 558, Komamura vs. Bambietta

Been a while so I thought I would do another Bleach review, however I also thought instead of reviewing the chapters individually I would group them together. For example this reviews the chapters about the fight between Bambietta Basterbine and Sajin Komamura, so let’s get to it.

What happens in these chapters is that Komamura protects both Shinji and Momo from Bambietta’s attacks, who is in her Vollstandig form, with his new armour. Bambietta reveals that her letter stands for ‘The Explode’ (really obvious) but her ability is not just firing bombs; she fires out reshi that turns whatever it goes in to, in to a bomb that shortly explodes (this kind of reminds me of Gambit’s mutant power from the X – Men). Komamura however tanks all of it which destroys all of his armour and underneath reveals that he is now human! Komamura explains that he has undergone his clan’s Human Transformation Technique and then unleashes his Bankai; Kokjuo Tengen Myo’o – Dangai Joe, which has the giant shed it’s armour to reveal a skeletal body underneath.
With this new found power Komamura explains that he gut out his own heart to achieve it and that he and his Bankai are now immortal. He tanks every attack that Bambietta throws at him and then slices at her with Dangai Joe’s sword which backfires several of her reshi bombs causing them to explode. Shortly after this Komamura starts to change back in to a full wolf and collapses to the ground only to be picked up by Iba. As Bambietta lies on the ground, wondering how she could be the first to be defeated, her friends show up saying they want to help her which Bambietta begs them not to do. We get a last shot of Rukia and Renjo falling down from the royal palace and heading for the Soul Society.

First off I will just say that I loved this fight, Komamura has always been one of my favourite characters that I feel has never had a moment to shine in battle. This I feel mostly has to do with Kubo pitting him against opponents he can not win, a hollowfied Tosen and Aizen for example, but always thought he is a great character with an awesome Bankai. This was his moment in these chapters, Kubo finally gave him some new abilities and they were great; his human form really suits him and Dangai Joe looks so menacing. It surprised me that it is Bambietta who is one of the first to be defeated because I thought she would be one of the main Sternritters but it was a good surprise. I am also glad that we finally get more back story on Komamura, his clan and why they are wolves (Won’t spoiler that for you) because he has been long over due for one. Finally I really like how Kubo contrasts Komamura’s need for revenge with Tosen’s because even after all of this time since Tosen’s death the two are still connected with each other.

The art work throughout these chapters were top notch, the highlights being Dangai Joe, who I think Kubo put a lot of effort in to designing. I was glad whenever there was a panel of it and there is this one scene where it jumps towards Bambietta which was so cool. Another part I would like to point out is the cool designs of Rukia and Renji’s new costumes, just like Ichigo they have an Arabic theme going.

I only have two small complaints about this fight and that is I wished there could have been a bit more fighting between Komamura and Bambietta because Komamura used a lot of the pages explains his powers and having flashbacks with his grandfather. Another is that even thought I really like Renji and Rukia I do not like seeing them now, I want the fight with the Sternritter to focus on none of the main characters right now, for example I want to see the fights with Rose, Kensei and Shunsui. Ichigo, Rukia and Renji are going to be way more powerful now so I do not want them to enter the fights and take all the spot light and save everyone; I want the Sternritter to be annihilating the Soul Reapers.

In conclusion Komamura finally got the spotlight that he finally deserves and his fate at the end was confusing because I thought he was going to die. Solid fight that could have done with more action but Dangai Joe more than made up for it.

SCORE 8/10


I will most like review chapters in groups from now one and give them an overall score. They will be reviewed after full fights or major events.

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