User blog:Xilinoc/Ch. 573 (Let Unohana return plz)

Wow. It's midnight, and Mangapanda STILL hasn't released 573. I guess it takes a lot of time to render Kenpachi's glorious SS3 hair.

I'm kinda hoping the ability of Kenpachi's Shikai goes along the following lines:

Gerrard: "But it doesn't do anything!"

Hanna: "No — it does nothing."

See y'all in 15 hours because Mangapanda is a bunch of numpties.

Also, Sun, here's your review in advance: Kenpachi was cool as usual, the ability of his Shikai is awesome, Guremi's probably gonna go Vollständig next chapter, etc.

Song to listen to while reading this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKtz5AZieWY

...and wouldn't you know it, this is the first chapter in a long time that I'm not mostly positive about. Let's run through it.

First, Kenpachi is revealed to have blown up the ceiling (okay I'll admit that's pretty cool), jumps down, and talks with Isane about Unohana, during which we learn that Unohana is really dead.

...gaaaaah.

While I love how full-on and brutal the fight between Unohana and Kenpachi was, I fully agree with everyone else that her dying within 5 chapters was a goddamn WASTE of a character. Like, seriously, conditions about the title of "Kenpachi" aside, she could've been a HUGE player in this war - maybe even one of the Special War Powers. But no, apparently she's dead for good. I had been hoping that her death had been figurative - that only her old personality had "died" and she was still around - but nope. Unless Kenpachi is mistaken or Guremi brings her back to life, she's gone, and that's disappointing (and yes, I'm STILL mad about her Bankai, as is pretty much everyone else ever. Even Gandhi was like "wtf Kubo" when he saw that shit).

Onto the rest of the chapter. After Isane expresses relief at knowing Kenpachi has inherited Unohana's title (I think it has something to do with the note), Guremi creates a huge cube out of the ground for his battle with Kenpachi. Makes sense, I'll admit. Then, Guremi blocks Kenpachi's attack and claims his body is as hard as steel...only for Kenpachi to cut through it anyway and claim he can cut through anything Guremi throws at him. Now, this is something I saw being ranted about in the comments prior to updating this review, so allow me to throw in my two cents.

Guremi said his body was as hard as steel, Kenpachi cut through it. That isn't anywhere near ridiculous considering what we've seen him do in the series prior - namely cut through Nnoitra's Hierro, which was apparently as hard as steel, with his eyepatch on...prior to the timeskip. Hence, him cutting through a steel body isn't really that outlandish, so I don't know why everyone's complaining about that. As for Kenpachi claiming he can cut through anything because he's "Kenpachi"...yeah, all I can say is you guys seem to think Kenpachi never boasts or exaggerates anything for some reason. Not gonna defend it if Kenpachi does indeed cut through anything, but as of right now I feel like hating on Kubo without knowing how things could change next week would be overreacting (Byakuya "saving" Rukia, anyone?).

Overall, kind of a meh chapter. It didn't feel like it had enough content, and Unohana being confirmed dead is a hell of a bummer. I do like Kenpachi taking things seriously from the start (maybe due to having killed his one true frenemy) and Guremi getting a last name AND a reveal as the real Sternritter V, but otherwise pretty disappointing.

(also, anyone else getting a continuation vibe from "I AM THE EDGE"? Namely Chapter 525. "Edges"?)