User blog comment:Godisme/The Closing Chapter Part 1/@comment-1904799-20120531025731

If Kira truly is dead, it has to be the most jarringly gruesome death for a main character to suffer in the series thus far. I would say that even Sasakibe had a more honorable death than that. However, it seems a bit flaky to me to introduce three new named characters simply to kill them off a matter of pages later; it reeks of trying too hard to make a big impact on the reader. If the three other 3rd Division members have truly been killed, it would be cheap and pointless; if they aren't dead, then I highly doubt Kira's injury was fatal either. Either way, that whole attack scene has been doing nothing but irritating me since I read it. Kiyone and Sentaro are heading into battle, though. I think that's interesting. Do you think we'll see either of their zanpakuto releases?