Bleach #502 – Falling Soul
In a Nutshell
As Nodt turns Byakuya’s Bankai against him, “killing” the captain and critically wounding Renji and Rukia in the process. Meanwhile, Kenpachi is doing his usual kicking ass and taking names thing.
The Good
- Wow, so these are battles with actual stakes with life and death being on the line.
- Kenpachi is about to do his thing.
- A lot of well drawn frames and some particularly gory scenes.
The Bad
- The return of the Luchador Vandy.
Rants and Raves
It’s funny. On paper, everything about this chapter was pretty awesome but I couldn’t get excited about much of what I saw despite the fact that I really enjoy the Bleach franchise. This isn’t the manga’s fault, but I believe a big kick for both this and Naruto was reading something and then thinking to myself, “this is going to over the top excellent once they animate it and throw vocals and score in the mix.” Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen anymore for Bleach and what I’m left with are essentially storyboards for a television series that’s never actually going to be made.
Grade
B+. I’m loving that there’s an actual threat of life and death in this arc and, despite my desires to see it animated, this was good chapter for Bleach.
Naruto #595 – Chaps
In a Nutshell
Tobi finally shows that he can do more than beat up children and get his ass handed to him in every battle that matters.
The Good
- We finally get the Tobi vs Naruto fight we’ve been waiting the entire arc for.
- TOBI IS A BEAST!!!!!
The Bad
- Chapters like this really show the weakness of still image mediums at conveying action.
- “Chaps”… lol. Terrible title.
Rants and Raves
Much like Bleach, this chapter was awesome on paper but I couldn’t get as excited as I felt I should have been. The main reason is that the action was awesome, but the medium of manga simply can’t capture that acrobatics in this fight. There were frames that I had to study multiple times to #1 grasp what was being drawn and #2 tell what was happening. I think that at this point, the artist is essentially viewing the chapters as storyboards for the anime and is providing play-by-play for the anime creators. This is awesome for animation junkies like me, but as a manga reader much of the art comes off as a jumbled, incomprehensible mess. Unlike Bleach, however, Naruto still has an anime being produced and whatever episode this content falls in should be unfathomably good as long as they don’t go ultra cheap and crappy on the animation.
Grade
A-. I would give it a flat out A, but I just couldn’t make out half of what was going on. I get the desire to draw it in a way that is instructions for the animation team, but I think it was done at the expense of manga readers. Despite that, what’s happening here is awesome. Uchiha insanity continues.Bleach #502 – Falling Soul
In a Nutshell
As Nodt turns Byakuya’s Bankai against him, “killing” the captain and critically wounding Renji and Rukia in the process. Meanwhile, Kenpachi is doing his usual kicking ass and taking names thing.
The Good
- Wow, so these are battles with actual stakes with life and death being on the line.
- Kenpachi is about to do his thing.
- A lot of well drawn frames and some particularly gory scenes.
The Bad
- The return of the Luchador Vandy.
Rants and Raves
It’s funny. On paper, everything about this chapter was pretty awesome but I couldn’t get excited about much of what I saw despite the fact that I really enjoy the Bleach franchise. This isn’t the manga’s fault, but I believe a big kick for both this and Naruto was reading something and then thinking to myself, “this is going to over the top excellent once they animate it and throw vocals and score in the mix.” Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen anymore for Bleach and what I’m left with are essentially storyboards for a television series that’s never actually going to be made.
Grade
B+. I’m loving that there’s an actual threat of life and death in this arc and, despite my desires to see it animated, this was good chapter for Bleach.
Naruto #595 – Chaps
In a Nutshell
Tobi finally shows that he can do more than beat up children and get his ass handed to him in every battle that matters.
The Good
- We finally get the Tobi vs Naruto fight we’ve been waiting the entire arc for.
- TOBI IS A BEAST!!!!!
The Bad
- Chapters like this really show the weakness of still image mediums at conveying action.
- “Chaps”… lol. Terrible title.
Rants and Raves
Much like Bleach, this chapter was awesome on paper but I couldn’t get as excited as I felt I should have been. The main reason is that the action was awesome, but the medium of manga simply can’t capture that acrobatics in this fight. There were frames that I had to study multiple times to #1 grasp what was being drawn and #2 tell what was happening. I think that at this point, the artist is essentially viewing the chapters as storyboards for the anime and is providing play-by-play for the anime creators. This is awesome for animation junkies like me, but as a manga reader much of the art comes off as a jumbled, incomprehensible mess. Unlike Bleach, however, Naruto still has an anime being produced and whatever episode this content falls in should be unfathomably good as long as they don’t go ultra cheap and crappy on the animation.
Grade
A-. I would give it a flat out A, but I just couldn’t make out half of what was going on. I get the desire to draw it in a way that is instructions for the animation team, but I think it was done at the expense of manga readers. Despite that, what’s happening here is awesome. Uchiha insanity continues.
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