“As the battle between the Soul Reapers and Quincies continues to heat up, both sides start experiencing casualties. Yachiru now joins the battlefield and prepares to show her true powers for the first time. However, standing in her way is an opponent whose abilities may defy imagination…”
With the battle raging and Kenpachi in training, Yachiru and Isane come to blows with the sneaky Stern Ritter “V” — “Vanishing Point” Gwenael Lee as Volume 64 kicks off encompassing chapters 571 to 580. Death in Vision begins with a particularly annoying trickster to contend with, but Yachiru fights him off pretty well, even (finally) revealing her shikai in the process, which is a nice little trick in and of itself and a rare shikai at that. While the sword doesn’t change, the shikai manifests as two living creatures and with every strike from Yachiru, one creature precedes the attack while the other follows it, leaving it virtually impossible for Yachiru to miss. That being said, even with an awesome shikai, Yachiru proved no match for the actual Stern Ritter “V” – Gremmy Thoumeau, who was the real trickster and formidable foe of Death in Vision.
Though Gremmy may have an awesome imagination, Kenpachi returns fresh from training with some new skills (and bad news) of his own. He masterfully destroys the overinflated ego of the glass-encased brain in typical Kenpachi fashion. Gremmy, however, managed to work his imagination well enough to do some damage, leaving Kenpachi vulnerable to attack by the next four Stern Ritter who come in as soon as Gremmy has wiped himself out. These four Stern Ritter may prove to be more than Kenpachi can handle as he finds himself outmatched at the end of the volume while 11th Division members are being slaughtered around him and an explosion in the sky disrupts the fight. Will it be more Stern Ritter coming to join the battle? Or will someone be coming to Kenpachi’s and the others’ aide? Also, what happened to Yachiru? Last time we saw her, she was running off to get her arm mended and the next thing you know Kenpachi finds her badge and Shinigami uniform sans Yachiru, so what exactly happened? Keep an eye out for Volume 65: Marching Out the Zombies to find out what happens next!
As for this arc, while I can’t say I enjoy Uryu’s role in it as of yet, or some of the other aspects that have occurred, I have been enjoying it overall. Maybe it’s just pure bias, but I will always love Bleach and as long as there are new arcs, that means more Bleach! I particularly like the character development, learning about Ichigo’s history, and seeing some more of the captains’ abilities develop. Kenpachi has always been one of my favorite captains, especially his relationship with Yachiru, so I was happy to see him get some more training and I’m glad he’s back in action. Unfortunately, to reach his current status, Captain Unohana ended up dying in training. I’ll admit she wasn’t one of my favorites, but I didn’t like seeing her death or any death, for that matter, in the Soul Society. I can only hope from here on out, there are few deaths…and those that do die aren’t any of my favorites!
Purchase Bleach Volume 64: Death in Vision on Amazon to see Yachiru’s shikai for yourself!
