Bleach Reviews: Rubb - Dolls 2 & 3

Been busy so I forgot to review Rubb - Dolls 2 so I thought why not review 2 and 3 together.


As Shūhei Hisagi continues to battle Byakuya, Pepe gives a speech about how love is the driving force for every battle. However when Byakuya defeats Hisagi by severing his tendons Pepe launches is Love Beam at him, which he can even move around like a beam of light. Though Byakuya dodges and blocks it all Pepe ask Byakuya if he doesn't remember if Zanpakuto have hearts as well and then Byakuya's Zanpakuto then attacks him. Byakuya discards it but it is picked up by Hisagi who then fights Byakuya again. Pepe then activates his Vollständig (which makes him look like a fat, bearded, black cupid), summons his Love Rope and impales Byakuya. Pepe then grabs his bow and arrow from his mouth and his just about to shot Byakuya when he is kicked in the face by the zombie Kensei and Rose, who have black markings around their eyes.

Hisagi tires to attack the zombies from behind but is quickly defeated by Kensei, who then hands Byakuya's Zanpakuto back to him. Mayuri then appears and is delighted with how well his new zombies are doing before we get a flashback. It seems to Kensei and Rose where defeated by the Arrancar off screen by the same way Toshiro was defeated because the same drugs exists in the Arrancar's  blood. Mayuri then explains to Giselle that his blood - drug counteracts her blood abilities and places her zombies under his control, before she is cut down by Kensei and Rose. Back in the present Byakuya seems to disagree with Mayuri's methods but Mayuri says that soldiers should continue to fight even after death however Pepe then appears out of the rubble and fires his Love Beam at Kensei. Pepe says how his Love is stronger than Giselle's zombies because he has taken them over in the past but is punched in the face again by Kensei while Mayuri comments that there is no love in his zombies. Pepe is scared by this announcement before being punched hundreds of times again and knocked in to rubble but before his can do anything else he is confronted by Liltotto who stares down at him coldly.

These chapters where defiantly an improvement over Rubb - Dolls 1 but not by that much. My main issues with these chapters is that it seems that Giselle is out of the picture for now and it was resolved just too fast and in a small flashback. Also Askin commented earlier that Pepe was a monster and even though he put up one hell of a good fight it looks like he might be killed soon by Liltotto because I don't think she took it kindly being punched in the face by a love - sick Meninas and Pepe saying he wants to kill everyone and take all the credit. One more thing that I am unsure of yet is that from Mayuri's words Kensei and Rose are really dead and while this is good in the case of Toshiro and Rangiku (don't like them), I have always liked Kensei and Rose and Kubo doesn't use them as much as I would have wanted. Also it is a shame that the Arrancar fight with the captains was skipped if it was just going to be an endless loop battle like with Toshiro then I guess that is ok.

However what I really liked about this chapter was the fight between Pepe and Byakuya. It may have been really similar to the fight with Zommori but this one was a lot better because at least Byakuya felt really pressured during this fight. Pepe's abilities where really cool and even though his Vollständig was a bit of a shock I did like the cupid symbolism.

Overall the Rubb - Dolls chapters have been improving but they have been skipping over too many fights and events and the fights we do see might be a bit too fast paced. However I am interested in seeing what Liltotto is going to do.

SCORE: 6/10