Noblesse Oblige.

Look what I found today! =D
All nine Jinchuuriki with their Bijou's true forms! =o

This week, the Barragan fight finally comes to an end with his demise.

Soifon's direct hit with her Jakuho Raikoben managed to damage Barragan, but he still lives. Barragan brags that he is the god of Hueco Mundo, but Hachi puts him in place by killing him with his own power. However, Hachi sacrificed his right arm in the process.

The fight itself wasn't too exciting. Barragan was strong, but lacked creatively and variety. All he did the entire time was rot breath. I thought his axe was so frickin cool, but he used it once and it didn't matter much. Nevertheless, we get to conclude from this fight that Hachi's combat skills involves the formation and piecing together of prismic shapes. Like LEGOs, but it kills you =P. Also, I won't ever complain about Soifon getting screen time, because she's so cool =]. We got to see her ballah Bankai.

I also want to point out a trend Kubo's been addicted too recently, which is robbing our beloved characters of their arms.
Casualties to date (reverse chronological):
Hachi - Soifon - Hitsugaya (clone)- Ishida - Ulquiorra - Halibel's Fraccion (Allon)- Nnoitora - Grimmjow - Jidanbou - Kukaku (didn't have one to begin with)

Zetsu crashes the meeting and alerts everyone of Sasuke's presence, and due to Hawk's response to this they didn't plan on Zetsu revealing himself. I was confused on what happened next. From what I read it seems that the Raikage killed Zetsu in the course of couple panels. Here, Zetsu lies dead on the floor, ignored by everyone: I was surprised how easily he was killed considering that he is Akatsuki. But then again I'm almost positive that he's not dead, either because he can meld into the ground or can survive with only one half. I was disappointed though because all Akatsuki members so far has had something interesting to reveal, yet Zetsu just got pwned without much of a struggle.

Tobi pays Naruto a visit to talk about Sasuke, and at the same time Sasuke and Jugo annihilates the samurai guards. What's interesting here is when Karen looks at Sasuke with her chakra sense and notice how Sasuke's aura is even more evil than that of the curse seal. Maybe it's just me, but the aura looks kind of like Naruto's 4-tails Kyuubi transformation. At the moment, we don't know the importance of this aura. Finally, the Raikage shows up and the clash between Sasuke and Raikage begins!

The Hachi vs Barragon combat consisted of naming a bunch of kido - ryubi no jumon, koko no jomon, kigai no jomon, hoyoku no jomon, shiju no saimon - which has no meaning to me whatsoever.(none of these has a number assigned to it, so they probably aren't a part of the Shinigami kido-learning curriculum either)

Anywho, here's the fight in laymen's terms:
Hachi trapped Barragon with kido, Barragon rots.
Barragon rots, Hachi blocks with the prism kido shield.
Barragon rots some more, Hachi strengthens his shield defense by enchanting and adding more layers and making it bigger.
Barragon says Hachi is stalling but does nothing more.
Hachi creates more shields and circles out of similar type kido that confines Barragon.
Barragon says Hachi is stalling but still does nothing.
Hachi has Soi Fon insert her Bankai into the chasm and shoot. Giggidy.
*note that all Barragon did was breath, talk, and stand x]

This chapter of Bleach reminded me of France's Maginal Line during WWII. I feel like Barragon could have just walked around the big shield and everything Hachi did would be for naught.
Also I don't know what Soi Fon has against Urahara, it makes it seem as if Urahara had experimented on her before without her consent because when she talks about it she avoids eye contact.

I thought Ao and his discovery on Danzo was the coolest thing about this week's chapter. I really like how they tied in storyline from pre-Naruto timeline, like Itachi's bestfriend Shisui and the Hyuga Byakugan secret. Also Zetsu's appearance hopefully means there will be some combat and Sasuke action next week!


Now, the story back in Konoha is annoying me. I don't know why Sakura and Ino loves Sasuke so much. Their affection is completely trivial - based just on his looks and genius skills. They have little inkling about Sasuke's personal life like Naruto does. Sasuke's personality is just horrible too, he doesn't care about his friend and the consequences of his actions. I think their emotions were overplayed. In my opinion, surprise and reluctance would have been a more appropriate response to the Sasuke-kill order than tremendous sadness.