#ch514

[opbackgrounds]

Half of this chapter is just a PSA on why you don't eat unidentified mushrooms

[every-sanji]

[stephanericherthanyou]

Ch505-527

Ch505: The Fire

kon! long time no see :’)

“burn. i am finally able to express my condolences. choujirou.” the guardian of hell...that turns everything into ashes....

/lies down, eviscerated by the old man yaoi of it all (also the loyalty that reminds me a bit of ikkaku & ken-chan....inch resting...)

CANG!!!!! HELLO!!!!!!!

“it’s been over 1000 years. juha bach. i came here...to annihilate you.” DAMN!

Ch506: The Fire 2

wait so this bach is one of the twins, right? so did ken-chan actually dispose of the other one or

“my dad can beat up your dad” - accutron

Ch507: The Fire 3

i see we have reached the era of “trollface comics included at the end of the chapter”

Ch508: Like a Raging Fire

YES THE ZOMBIE ARMY

Ch509: Tenchi Kaijin

man this art is so incredible and gorgeous

“you cannot steal something whose limit is unknown” huh

Ch510: The Extinction

so that /was/ the last time he and okikiba talked....oh :(

Ch511: Die Standing

who knows how much of this yamajii backstory is true given that it’s coming from bach...although he and unohana definitely were that kind of person back in the day so it’s perhaps at least somewhere in the middle

Ch512: Everything But The Rain

ahh it’s raining....i’d forgotten that this chapter had this title as well

“i will not last much longer...despite being a captain of one of the gotei 13, i was unable to defeat the foul enemy who invaded seireitei. i let many valuable soldiers die, causing the suffering of their subordinates and families, and in the end i was defeated miserably. i am ashamed of this. on the other hand, you are a human. normally, not only you shouldn’t be involved in all this...you should not even be here now...yet...i’m going to ask you a favor. please forgive this despicable behavior of mine. please...protect soul society, ichigo kurosaki!”

:( BYAKUYAAAAA

and the ending meme refs his ‘death’....we could not have known. we never could have known.

Ch513: The Dark Moon Stroke

“byakuya, the noble shinigami, entrusted him with his last will!” yeah there was no ambiguity there SHUEISHA

the getsuga tenshou comes out in a shape like the crescent moon huh...that would, i suppose, be the titular “dark moon stroke” (i am slow at these things sometimes ok)

Ch514: Born in the Darkness

telegraphing just as loud as your quincy bedspread in the anime: you, my child, are a quincy. surprise!

ooooh i see....kyoka suigetsu strikes again

Ch515: Relics

isane....unohana....man. we see how tough this is on shunsui, but for unohana--she’d known yamajii longer than anyone, sasakibe probably the same, all their old comrades from back then had died...this is the final order yamajii gave her (& her squad) and she’s holding onto that, and him, for just a little longer...and she probably knows she can’t wait any longer for her rematch with ken-chan, in which she’s going to have to die....and all of this happened within a few days and she is thousands of years old. :(

“-sama” wrow ichigo

and it’s still raining. and rukia doesn’t know about byakkun (did they really reveal he was ~alive~ this soon after? maybe that really long hiatus was between these parts but for some reason i thought it was like....august-september and one of the earlier chaps in this part mentioned it was mid-september on the wsj cover but it was uh. almost 10 years ago and this recap series has demonstrated the faultiness of my memory already)

heh the meme at the back was like “bleach will never end!” and....they were right, but they didn’t know it :’)

Ch516: The Squad Zero

sldfkj is there anyone who /doesn’t/ know about ikkaku’s bankai

Ch517: The Stairway to Heaven

thanks for the earworm kubo

OH MAN UNOHANA’S FACE FUCK THE PAIN

Ch518: The Shooting Star Project (Zero Mix)

og shooting star project (& its remix) were kuukaku.

lol grimmjow pls

kisuke ur right on the money, ofc ichigo will protect everyone

“ganju...he became huge and turned into stone, so im using him to hold the banner” KUUKAKU PLS

and the return of fullbringers huh

Ch519: Hot Hot Heat

so many great ichigo faces...

Ch520: Killers Not Dead

meanwhile, in soul society...!?

“i can see why the king of souls would fall for him” sldkfjs 

AWWW YEAH KENPACHI FIGHT

Ch521: A Piggy Party

ichigo, to renji: you’re staying on the bottom!

it’s just like how ichigo looks in orihime-vision....

Ch522: Love It

“mysterious plushie-chan” sldkfj

Ch523: Words of Origin

which is on top? well, sexually, yes, but also who is the king and who is the horse?

speaking of who’s on top...”you’re taciturn, but i like that. because as long as i hear your voice, the only wound i have can’t stop throbbing.” i don’t remember it being this shippy!

Ch524: The Drop

isane and the love letter huh....she /did/ know about the scar, confirmed and all, so...i wonder. and she was confirmed in love with unohana--did unohana know? were they together?

Ch525: Edges*

it’s ‘if i’m admiring i can’t surpass’ all over again huh

Ch526: The Battle

“you’re the only man in the world that could make me happy” as she is impaled on a blank background. good romantic shit.

yes being impaled on a sword is always romantic but like, the pose here? incredible. lovely.

(also thinking about how her power resembles barragan’s a bit...)

Ch527: Eliminate From Heaven

“you have enemies to fight...friends to argue with (byakuya, ichigo, and...renji apparently?)”

“the one that’s been watching” huh...well. yes i suppose.

[naruto1to700]

Chapter 514

[procrastinator-blues-blog]

HOLY SHIT

[opbackgrounds]

This chapter has enormous emotional whiplash, but it's justified by Luffy realizing his crew probably isn't dead

[opbackgrounds]

If that's not an expression of hysterical relief, I don't know what is

[opbackgrounds]

Oda made Luffy's reliance on his crew perfectly clear during Arlong Park, but it's sad to see it played out on Amazon Lily by him constantly asking for crew mates who aren't here.

[opbackgrounds]

As foretold in the ancient SBS writings some 450 chapters earlier

[opbackgrounds]

While I sincerely wish the ladies of Amazon Lily wore clothes that were in any way practical, I will admit I like Oda's decision to giving the girls some weird-ass character designs. The hats and neckerchiefs on the snakes are also very cute

[opbackgrounds]

I really like when Oda goes for sea metaphors

[opbackgrounds]

The irony of her saying this while wearing heart earrings and a flower-printed space suit

[opbackgrounds]

It's interesting to read Luffy's reaction this chapter after knowing how he responds to Ace's death. He's got such a single-minded focus that he's literally running into a mountain because that's the direction the vivre card told him to go, with an edge of frustration and apprehension that takes away what little sense he has. His response to this is to literally try to punch a mountain into dust because he thinks it's the fastest way to reach his friends

[opbackgrounds]

Considering what they do to Luffy's clothes, the flower pattern on the sword sheath is a nice touch

[opbackgrounds]

Tattoo alert, and there's nothing so glorious than seeing the aftermath of the Celestial Dragons getting the shit beat out of them

[opbackgrounds]

I can't believe Oda made Cher an Amazon