Bleach Review: The Theatre Suicide

The moment we have all been waiting for!

Gerard Valkyrie finds Shinji's group and prepares to take them on all at once meanwhile Shunsui, having trouble dealing with Lille's Vollstandig, activates his Bankai, Katen Kyokotsu: Kuromatsu Shinju.

Finally we have! The confirmation that Shunsui will be using his Bankai because he activates it at the end of the chapter. I knows lots of fans have been waiting for this since the nature of his Bankai was hinted at during the FK arc where Ukitake says "it shouldn't be used where others can see it". Shunsui eludes to this before activating it by hoping Nano is far enough away and to forgive him if not. This makes me thing that his Bankai is something so massive those caught in a specific area are in danger and based on the title of the chapter and the namesake of the Bankai (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki) my guess is that it takes the form of some sort of play. We don't see much of it other than the fact that shadows appear in the ground in the form of a tree and a shadowy figure appears next to Shunsui so shadows are probably involved in it. Other than that we also get to see Shunsui evaded Lille's attacks and preforming a Kido, Hado #74 Zangerin, that takes the form of a blade, which I really liked because Kido hasn't been used as often as it should in this arc. However I got to say that I am a bit disappointed that after Lille's Vollstandig was released last chapter we don't get more info on it; all Lille did was chase Shunsui around (and teleport) and we don't even know how Shunsui freed himself from the paralysis.

About time we see more Kido

Apart from the fight between those two I was surprised to see Gerard finding the rest of the Soul Reapers and challenging them to a fight. That was great because I want to see Gerard in action and to see what his Miracle power is because he does come across as someone who will be tough to beat. Well he has to be because he is insisting that all of the Soul Reapers fight him at once rather than one on one which I was so pleased to see because I don't want another one on one fight. You know I get the feeling that Lille's and Gerard's fights won't be as long as Pernida's because well Lille activated his Vollstandig after only a few chapters and Shunsui is now using Bankai. I think Kubo doesn't want to spend many months on these fight, it's a shame but I also think Askin's will be pretty long because he has been teased at being stronger than he looks for ages no.

"Your going no where" 

Overall I am excited to see Shunsui's Bankai and how the Soul Reapers will fare against Gerard but I feel that we didn't see enough Lille and he has been neglected after just releasing his Vollstandig,

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: Shunsui activating his Bankai
                   Shunsui using that cool Kido move
                   Gerard finding the rest of the Soul Reapers

Let - Downs: Lille should have played a larger part in this chapter