User blog:Xilinoc/Ch. 549 - The Stormbringer

Song to listen to while reading this chapter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rihpED_obk

So, this was one hell of a chapter. First, we've got the obligatory "confirmation of the enemy's defeat" with Bazz-B and Hitsugaya, which was nice. But then we get to the meat of the chapter: Ōmaeda and BG9. While we may not know the latter's epithet, we can certainly tell that he's strong. I like what Kubo did with his abilities and personality: he speaks in this very objective and information-based way, almost like a computer. And he's definitely remorseless, what with spearing Mareyo like that. It was pretty cool to see Ōmaeda get serious like that again, though I echoed his sentiments when BG9 created that chain-gun.

And, of course, there's Suì-Fēng, and this is the best part of the chapter for me. See, aside from movies and such, Suì-Fēng has never used Shunkō after her fight against Yoruichi, and now she's mastered it. It's great to see Kubo bringing back something like this, and making it a "wind type" is rather interesting: seems to me like there can be different types, and Yoruichi's is something else. Aside from that, her powering up gave me chills because we haven't really seen a powerful Suì-Fēng in quite a while, and blowing BG9 away like that was a testament to her new power. But, of course, Suì-Fēng and Hitsugaya's fights are not over, and that's good because it wouldn't be fair if Kubo pulled a Hungry Joker and had all of the final fights happen in one chapter.

Anyhow, this was a great chapter to me, mainly because of Suì-Fēng finally mastering and using her Shunkō and the fights not being over. Additionally, I like what Kubo is doing here with those who have lost their Bankai: rather than coming up with a deus ex machina that magically gets their Bankai back, he's having them improve and use their other skills in order to win, and that's wonderful to me.