Bleach Review: Marching out the Zombies 4

Bleach took a break last week, but it is back with Marching out the Zombies 4!

The chapter begins immediately after the events of the last chapter with Mayuri saying he has tons of medicines he wants to test on the zombie Toshiro. Toshiro wastes no time and strikes at Mayuri however he dodges the blade and tries to trap Toshiro in some sort of net that shoots out from the sleeves of his robes (probably the same thing that saved Charlotte last time but to me it looks like Spiderman's webbing!). Toshiro dodges this however and they both clash with swords for a while before Toshiro tries to knee Mayuri who blocks it with a jelly - like shield. The shield attaches itself to Toshiro's leg and explodes leaving it a bloody ruin however Toshiro merely covers the wound with ice and activates his Bankai, slicing Mayuri down the middle and stabbing him through the heart. However it then cuts back to the very beginning of the chapter with Mayuri saying to Toshiro that he has tons of medicines he would like to try on him. Toshiro notices this but simply goes in for the kill again, activating his Bankai sooner and freezing Mayuri whole who then shatters. However it cuts back to the beginning of the chapter once again and Toshiro, now very annoyed, asks Mayuri what is happening. Mayuri is glad that Toshiro has finally noticed and says his drug has allowed Toshiro to "see through the future". Toshiro's short term memory is being affected and that he will be trapped in an endless loop each time he kills him but if Toshiro chooses to do nothing Mayuri says he will just kill him (It's a win, win situation for Mayuri!). He also says that the drug has some serious side effects and whenever someone goes through this loop of battle ten times (we only see three but I guess seven more has passed for Toshiro off screen) their sense of balance with be disrupted and they will collapse for thirty seconds, which Toshiro does. With Toshiro immobile, Mayuri advances on him with his sword drawn, asks of Toshiro if he ever noticed when he gave him the drug, before slashing his sword down.

This was a great chapter however it was not as good as Marching out the Zombies 3 and may not have been worth the two week wait. I will go in to why soon but first I want to go over what I really liked about this chapter.

Firstly it is great seeing Mayuri enter the front lines of battle once again (it has been ages since the last time) however this time he actually makes a more psychical effort by actually clashing swords with his opponent. His fights are always really interesting because he likes to prepare much before hand, like with Szayelaporro and here as well too, but it is great seeing him fight someone properly. Also zombie Toshiro is again better than regular Toshiro because he is such a complete badass and fights like the regular one should have all along. Like I mentioned in my previous review zombie Toshiro uses his ice moves in a more better and hard-core way and in this chapter he doesn't spam the Bankai like regular one does. We got some great cerography in the fighting, with some great art to compliment it like Mayuri's face at the end.

However there are a few things that bugged me; while the drug that Mayuri infected Toshiro with was interesting a lot panels in this chapter was repetitive. While this was a great battle chapter it just felt really short because it kept going back to the beginning again which could have been used for some more fighting. Also the effects of the drug is never fully explained; I mean this time travel? is this all in Toshiro's head? And the last thing I want to point out is that we get no shots of Giselle or the Arrancars this chapter, I really hope that Kubo uses the Arrancar more soon.

Overall this was a good chapter and follow up to the previous one but it felt really short and the repetitiveness and explaining of the drug could have been replaced with more action.

SCORE: 7/10

As for predictions it is possible Mayuri doesn't succeed in stabbing Toshiro at the end because we didn't actually see it, maybe Giselle or one of her zombies got in the way? However if Toshiro is really down for the count now I don't really mind because Kubo has been keeping the pace of this last arc really fast and I don't want him to slow down. As much as I have enjoyed March of the Zombies, I do want to see the other Sternritter fights, also I really do hope that Toshiro stays dead!

Guess I got the prediction of a new Bankai wrong :(

Bleach Review: Marching out the ZOMBIES 1 + 2

Been awhile since my last Bleach review and that is because I said I wanted to only review fights when they finished but that seems to be taking ages so I am going to do individual chapters now when I can. I thought however to start off I will review the two recent chapters in the Giselle vs. Mayuri.

Marching out the Zombies 1 starts out with the arrival of Mayuri after Yumichika and Ikkaku are injured by the zombified Bambietta. We get to see just how sadistic and perverted Giselle is when Bambietta vaguely asks for something from Giselle, who then slaps her and then says she will "reward" her after the fight is done. Bambietta goes to attack Mayuri with her Explode ability but Mayuri already has a counter for it by trapping her Reishi is several balls (that look like Pokeballs!) but releases it back at Bambietta after three seconds (just like in her previous fight her power is used against her). With Bamietta down Giselle orders her zombified Soul Reapers to attack but Mayuri is once again prepared with several revived Arrancar; Charlotte Chuhlhourne, Luppi Antenor, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio, and Cirucci Sanderwicci.

Marching out the Zombies 2 continues with the reveal that the revived Arrancar still have their personalities intact as they start to banter among each other. A very funny scene involves Charlotte trying to remember Yumichika's name but they says his usual line of "I can't remember the names of the ugly", and Yumichika isn't too happy about that. Dordoni and Cirucci complains that they wanted to find both Ichigo and Uryu while Luppi tells them not to bother with them right now. Mayuri gives them all an electric shock to the brain when he wants them to stop talking (though Charlotte only changes his pose) and reveals that the bodies hanging in Szayelaporro Granz's laboratory where in fact Dordoni and Cirucci that he took (He must have got Charlotte's from the fake Karakura but I have no idea how Luppi is here since he was blasted in half). The fight then commences with the Arrancar decimating the zombie Soul Reapers while figuring out that only the blood of Giselle will affect them. Charlotte then confronts Giselle because she looks like him (again hinting at the fact that Giselle is a transvestite) but ends up fighting Bambietta but easily overpowers her. The chapter ends on a cliff hanger with Giselle calling out a new zombie of hers; Toshiro Hitsugaya!

I guess I will start off by saying that this is turning out to be my favourite part of the entire arc so far! Not only have the art, cerography of all the fighting and the humour have been some of Kubo's best but we got revived Arrancar who we haven't seen in ages and a zombified Toshiro. Now does this mean that one of the most popular characters in Bleach is dead now? I don't know but I will go in to more detail about it further down.

As for the characters firstly Giselle is now a contender for being one of my favourite Sternritters, I just really like her sadistic, playful attitude, the way she doesn't care about anyone dying (even her comrades) and she is way more perverted than anyone else in Bleach. Not only does she say stuff like "I am getting wet" when thinking and seeing death but she treats Bambietta like some zombie sex toy, Kubo is really pushing the limits of how far he can go with her character. Now I know it has been hinted that she is a male but I just don't have an opinion yet on whether it is true or not because it has only been hinted at by other characters.

Next we have the big reveal of the four Arrancars that Mayuri has revived to help in the fight and I am pleased with the choices of who is here. Luppi has always been one of my favourite Espada and I hated the way he was killed off last time (I liked him even more than Grimmjow as number six) and since Toshiro is here I wonder if he will finally get his revenge. As for Dordoni and Cirucci I enjoyed their fights before so I am looking forward to seeing what they can do now however the scene stealer here is Charlotte who is just as comedic as ever. Like Luppi, Charlotte always been a favourite of mine because he is so funny but never in a annoying way also he proves in March out the Zombies 2 that he can still kick ass by b***h slapping the hell out of Bambietta in to a building.

Lastly we have the arrival of Toshiro and even though he has never been a favourite of mine I have to say he does look badass in his new uniform (the Vandenreich uniform makes everyone look cool). I can't wait to see him fight it out with the Arrancars but maybe we might get the arrival of other characters like Shinji or Momo?
However I do have to say that I really hope Toshiro is dead because Kubo keeps constantly teasing us with major character deaths and he never delivers. There was the build up of Byakuya's death at the hands of As Nodt but Kubo then brought him back, he is one of my favourite characters but even I thought he should have died. If the Vandenreich really are the biggest threat to the Soul Society, Kubo really has to kill off some of the major characters, don't hold back like the Naruto manga does all the time!

I think that is all I have to say about the March out the Zombies chapters so far, it is going in a really great and darker direction  and I hope Kubo keeps it up.

SCORE: 10/10

As for what I want to see in future chapters I want Giselle to bring out some revived Sternritters, in particular Bernice, Jerome and Lloyd who where killed off screen during the first invasion. This would be a great time for some insight in to these three characters we barely knew anything about. Also it would be great if Mayuri and Giselle step in to the battle personally but I won't hold my breathe on that since Mayuri always prepares before fighting so he barely has to make any effort and Giselle looks like she prefers to lets others do the fighting for her.