User blog:Xilinoc/Ch. 588 - The Headless Star 7

Song to listen to while reading this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os9Hu78TcPk

Christ, Mangapanda, what on earth took you so long to get this chapter out? It's like 3:40 AM over here!

So we start off with the Royal Guard noticing that three Quincy just kinda showed up by destroying the front end of the palace. Great entrance, guys, 10/10 for sure. Yhwach apparently has some sort of interesting opinion about the palace itself, or at least Haschwalth thinks he does, but the latter got stonewalled when he tried to say as much, or, as Mohrpheus so elegantly puts it:

"Do you need a shoulder to cry on, your majesty?" "I SHED NO TEARS" "Sorry, your majesty"

Next, we witness the return of the shadow ability we saw way back in 511 after Yamamoto's death. Interesting that Haschwalth's version is a six-pointed cross instead of just a Quincy Zeichen; I have a feeling this is gonna be a thing with him, what with the shape that they key took in 584. But then, just as the Soldat are rushing in, who should arrive but Kirinji...with a GOSHDARN LENS FLARE ON HIS POMPADOUR. *ahem* Turns out, Kirinji's the First Officer of the Royal Guard, AND he can use the water from his hot springs in battle, which is pretty cool. But the best part of this segment is Kirinji being the first RG to use his Zanpakutō (I find it interesting that the SEALED form, of all things, is a naginata), otherwise known as Kinpika. Apparently it glows on release, and Kirinji's gonna fight Yhwach. Yay!

Then we cut back to Soul Society, where somehow Ikkaku and Yumichika have ended up confront Giselle, who does not have her Quincy: Vollständig active. Yumichika's surprisingly shrewd during this part, deducing Giselle's strategy and power fairly quickly. But then we get to by FAR the funniest part of this chapter; Yumichika claims Giselle is actually a MAN because she smells like semen. Oh lawdy lawd, her reaction is priceless. But THEN Giselle does what Lemursrule has been patiently waiting for; she calls forth Bambietta's corpse and prepares to fight with it. YES, FINALLY.

Despite coming out at a VERY unreasonable hour, this chapters works for me. I'm glad that my prediction of Kirinji being the first to fight came true, and I can't wait to see what his Zanpakutō does. The last 4 pages were also interesting for...different reasons; I found the idea of Giselle pretending to be a girl pretty funny, and I'm glad that we finally know what happened to Bambietta, as well as how Giselle plans to fight. I'll readily admit that the part about Yhwach's feelings was just...confusing, but that doesn't detract from the overall chapter all that much, at least not to me.