User:Big red01027

Welcome to my page.

What do I do here? Not a whole lot, to be honest. But when I do make an edit, it's usually to add kanji, or to correct something I think is wrong. I have a knack for finding the kanji Kubo uses, and for getting the readings right on those kanji. I do that despite having never taken a course in Japanese, and just learning as I go. Still, my kanji recognition skills are rudimentary at best.

But I'm here to help where I can. And that's what I try to do.

"Murciélago, eh? What's next...Cabriolet?"

"Fear the Zangetsu!"

"I hate the never-ending story...hate, hate, hate!"

Captain Power Ranking (Aizen and co. not included), According to big_red01027: 1.) Kyoraku 2.) Yamamoto-Genryusai (Yama-jii) 3.) Unohana 4.) Ukitake 5.) Hitsugaya (unless and until Halibel breaks out of Hyouten Hyakkasou) 6.) Byakuya 7.) Kenpachi

The rest don't really matter, as they're not strong enough to defeat the top four (0, 1, 2, 3) Espada, much less the three former Captains that lead them.

4/28/2009: Hitsu has been wtfpwned...Soifon and Omaeda are next. Kyoraku and Stark will slug it out, bankai vs. resurreccion. But it'll probably take the power of two or more bankai to take down the Primera.

Prediction: Yama-jii or Ukitake goes bankai to "assist" Kyoraku. Whoever isn't helping him takes on Halibel. Given her incredible speed and strength, a win by Yama-jii or Ukitake is far from guaranteed. Either one would make a fun battle.

Yammy crushes his opponents, and then fights the four captains. Unohana would appear to be the only one strong enough to take him out.

4/30/2009: Just how strong is Unohana, anyway? She hasn't been featured in battle yet, so we haven't seen her fight. As Captain of 4th division, it can be inferred that she's the best healer in SS. And we know that her shikai is for healing purposes, so her bankai must be her primary offensive weapon, if her opponent is strong.

We also know that she is a kendo master. Given Kenpachi's ability when using kendo (and his disdain), it can be inferred that Unohana's kendo is quite strong, since she's a master and he's more of a dilettante. When Kyoraku mentions that he, Ukitake, and Yamamoto are the only Captains remaining from 100 years before the start of the Pendulum gaiden, Ukitake reminds him that Unohana was around as well. Kyoraku then refers to her as "dai-sempai", meaning that not only was she ahead of Ukitake and Kyoraku, she was also second only to the sensei (likely Yamamoto). Whether that's an official contradiction of Yamamoto's statement that Ukitake and Kyoraku are the two strongest Captains is unknown.

One other factor is the seeming respect that Aizen has for Unohana. When she and Isane find him in the residences underneath Central 46, he does not attempt to fight her, instead running away to Sokyoku Hill with Gin. He clearly does not show the disdain toward her that he did toward Hinomori and Hitsugaya. If Unohana is the kind of opponent that even Aizen would run away from, she's clearly hiding some impressive strength.

My conclusion after looking at the few things we do know about Unohana is that she is strong, and her bankai is probably on par with that of Ukitake and Kyoraku. It's difficult to say what form Minazuki takes in bankai, so I won't bother to speculate. But as I posted a couple days ago, I think her bankai (in addition to her experience and expertise in swordsmanship) would be strong enough to take out Yammy in his released form. I also think she's the only one of the Captains in Hueco Mundo at the moment that could take out Yammy. Considering how much trouble Ichigo had with Ulquiorra, I think even his full hollow form would fall to Yammy, and the other three Captains there are clearly weaker than Unohana.

5/1/2009: Wonderwice (Wonderweiss?) Margera is a Vasto Lorde? I believe he is. While there are certainly throw-away characters in Bleach (Szayel Apollo and Zommari LeRoux come to mind), I don't think Wonderwice is one of them. His arrancarization was clearly shown, and there were a number of Espada present. I don't think such an event would be shown if Wonderwice was intended as a throw-away.

So far, obviously, he hasn't done very much, besides going to Karakura once with Luppi, Yammy, and the then-demoted Grimmjow. Even then, he didn't do much besides surprise Urahara. His personality would seem to suggest that he's not a worthy fighter. But it is a possibility that if he were to release, he would be much more nefarious. As it stands right now, he's the only one left guarding Las Noches (that we know of, at least...it seems as though there are quite a few Numeros that haven't gotten into any action, and possibly more VL's). Should Yammy bite the bullet against the four Captains currently in HM, Wonderwice may be pressed into action.

Or maybe he'll appear whenever Tousen starts fighting. Wonderwice showing up and fighting isn't something that'll happen soon, in all likelihood, but it is something to look forward to.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons I read Bleach; there are a TON of loose ends, and eventually they have to get tied up. Wonderwice's prowess is just one of many.

5/29/2009: Why Japanese can be confusing - Kanji, and their readings. Each Japanese character, or kanji, can have one or many readings. In some cases, such as with Ulquiorra's release, Kubo has chosen to substitute a different reading for a kanji.

So now we come to Halibel. She says in Japanese that she's the Third Espada. But in Spanish, she calls herself Tres Espada (or Espada Tres, whichever you prefer). Why would Kubo do this, especially when everyone besides the obviously moronic Yammy introduced themselves with the correct word? Apparently, he intended for Halibel to appear a bit different.

Also, she gives her name as Tia Harribel. Normally, this would be taken at face value, that Tia is her first name and Harribel is actually her last name. Both her names are in katakana, the syllabary that Japanese use for foreign words (like Spanish, for example). But given the tres/tercera discrepancy, maybe there's something to this after all. We won't know until Kubo clears it up for us, obviously.

6/6/2009: Ah, Soifon. What a big deal being made for such an irrelevant character. The problem here is people editing the article that don't understand fundamental things about Japanese, such as the difference between readings and the kanji themselves. Her bankai is Jakuhou Raikouben, but people keep insisting that the name of her zanpakutou is part of it. It's not, because even though Kubo uses the same kanji, he assigns them a DIFFERENT READING. What that means is that the kanji don't SAY the same thing. They say "Jakuhou", not "Suzumebachi", and not anything else. If people could get that through their heads, there'd be no problem. And all the data we need as editors is right there in front of our faces. The furigana for the kanji are clear enough to be read. Hell, if a guy like me with little to no actual knowledge of Japanese can figure this out, damn near anybody can do it.

Anyway, I have faith that Barragan will eventually win this battle with Soifon. As far as I know, Soifon has never topped any character popularity polls. That means Kubo will have no overriding need to make Soifon plotkai the (fudge) out of Barragan. This is a good thing, because sooner or later a Captain is going to lose. Not only that, but they're gonna have to die too. As far as I can tell, there can be no satisfactory resolution to Bleach if all the Captains live and none die. Because if none of the Captains die, what are the Vizard going to do? Twiddle their thumbs on the sidelines? I doubt that. The Captains may come out mostly unhurt against the Espada, but none of them can stand toe-to-toe with Aizen, or possibly the VL's, if they ever show up. So they're either going to have to back down, or they're going to get mutilated. At this point, I'm not certain Yama-jii can fight Aizen evenly; that's how much of an advantage Kyouka Suigetsu bestows.