Noblesse Oblige.

Izanagi has the capability to make anything an illusion and make any illusion real. It blurs the line between reality and illusion, thus making it the most powerful genjutsu ever. The after effect of using Izanagi is that the user's eyes will never open again. Danzo circumvents this by having 11 different Sharingans embedded within himself. Thus if needed, he can use this technique 11 times. Since Izanagi can hypothetically make some insanely powerful offensive illusion real, it is very dangerous to the opponent. As a result, Sasuke pulls out all his techniques to force Danzo to use his Izanagi defensively. In addition, it seems that the Sharingans on Danzo's arm does not give him any nerve response or visual feedback, so he does not know when one of them has been closed. Consequently, Danzo has to keep checking how many Sharingans he has left to use, and Sasuke took advantage of this by casting a genjutsu on Danzo to make him think he had one more Sharingan than he actually did. When Sasuke and Danzo lunged at each other with their swords Danzo tried to activate Izanagi with his non existant Sharingan. Since it didn't work, he got critically injured from Sasuke's sword. Both Madara and Sasuke comments how a real holder of Sharingan is stronger than someone who borrowed the eyes. Karin quickly heals Sasuke, but Danzo gets up once more after severing his out-of-control Shodai cells. He reveals Shisui's Sharingan to Sasuke. It seems there's something special about Shisui's Sharingan which stops Danzo from throwing it away as a defensive Izanagi. He hinted that it might be a powerful genjutsu, but I don't know what could be more powerful than Tsukiyomi and Izanagi, which manipulates time and space respectively with illusion. Danzo wasn't sure whether to use the Sharingan on Sasuke or Madara, so he takes Karin hostage to buy time. However, Sasuke is merciless as he stabs through Karin with a Chidori blade to pierce Danzo's heart. Karin dies immediately but Danzo as a last attempts activates a sealing jutsu that tries to seal all those around him to his dying body. However, Madara recognized it and both he and Sasuke are able to avoid the jutsu. Moments before Danzo's death, we learn from a flashback that the reason for everything Danzo has done is to measure himself against the Third. Prior to Danzo's activation of his final jutsu, Madara said he was going to take Shisui's eye; however, now that Danzo has sealed his body it is not clear whether Madara can still do so. On another note, Sakura and her group is closing in on Sasuke while Kakashi is close behind in his attempt to stop the encounter.

Labels: Manga, Naruto

Shinji finally releases the true form of his zanpakutou and it is cool as hell =]. However, the scanlators called this form a Bankai, even though I am pretty sure it's his Shikai. Sakanade has an interesting ability of instigating Opposite Day. Basically everything is flipped: front is back, left is right, etc. Dynamically, the direction in which one looks and the direction of an attack is inverted as well. Shinji manages to land a hit on Aizen, but Aizen quickly accustomizes and reciprocates Shinji with a slash of his own. We should note that this is the first time anyone has drawn blood from Aizen. The only other notable attack is when Urahara sliced off his armband. Right after Aizen saw through Shinji's ability, Ichigo crashes through the Gargantua and attempts to end Aizen in one blow from his blind spot. However, Aizen planned safeguards against this and Ichigo's attack was futile. Ichigo now no longer had the element of surprise, and Aizen challenges Ichigo to attack him head on in Hollow form. Ichigo abides and shoots a Getsuga Tenshou at Aizen. Aizen effortlessly flashsteps behind Ichigo and starts taunting him. Komamura intervenes Aizen's provocation and tells Ichigo that he and the other captains will protect him from Aizen's zanpakutou release so that Ichigo can find a way to defeat him.

Labels: Bleach, Manga

With Karin analyzing Sasuke's fight against Danzo we find out that Danzo used neither a kage bunshin or genjutsu to evade Sasuke's attack. To find out Danzo's powers, Sasuke continues to probe at him with all out attacks such as Susanoo, Amaterasu, and Tsukiyomi. However after seemingly being destroyed by each of the jutsus, Danzo reappears unharmed shortly after. Karin continues to ascertain that what Danzo is doing is not genjustu - or at least one that she can detect. Danzo manages to catch Sasuke with a binding curse, but his taunting of Sasuke and Itachi pissed Sasuke off. Sasuke proceeds to upgrade his Susanoo through his anger, and it now has a ethereal bow and arrow. With this intensified assault, Danzo is forced to reveal another one of his secrets - that he collaborated with Orochimaru to have the Shodaime's genes implanted into his arm. Since Danzo has both Senju blood and Uchiha Sharingans, Madara notes he will have enormous control over Tailed Beasts, specifically the Kyuubi. This means Danzo is also after Naruto. Finally after Sasuke's relentless blows, Madara recognizes Danzo's jutsu as the forbidden Uchiha jutsu Izanagi.

Considering Karin's constant observation of the fight, I thought she would be the one to figure out Danzo's secret. Instead, she gets kicked aside by Danzo with no effort and Madara ends up explaining he knows the jutsu, which makes me ask why didn't he recognize or speak up about it right away. In addition, other than Danzo's sporadic plummets in chakra levels, we didn't need Karin's comments to see that the closing of the Sharingans is crucial to his jutsu.

As for abilities, Sasuke revealed that he made a new contract with a hawk for his Kuchiyose no Jutsu. His Kuchiyose tends to mirror the name of his group: Hebi - snakes, Taka - hawk. Danzo showed that not only can he utilize Futon jutsu, but also Mokuton from Senju blood and Kekkei Genkai Sharingan from Uchiha eyes. Finally to reiterate the obvious, Izanagi involves the closing of the Sharingan eyes, drops in chakra level, and the "illusion" that the user dies from an attack but instead escaping unharmed. We still can't be positive the order in which this happens, because in manga there is no concept of time gaps. As a result, the closing of the Sharingans could be an initiator of the jutsu, or an after effect of using the ability. Similarly, the changes in chakra might indicate that using the skill drops the chakra and closing the Sharingan restores the chakra. Finally, it should be noted that after an eye has been closed, Danzo has yet to reopen them.

Labels: Manga, Naruto