Bleach Chapter 611 – The Death Of The Soul King

Finally it is time, the main characters are back in focus!

Well that was interesting, Ichibei gets brought back from the dead by merely having his name spoken and the Soul King, whom should have already been awakened, has seemingly been killed by Yhwach. What a twist to learn that Yhwach is in fact the Soul King’s son, I guess now it makes a bit more sense why Yhwach has such a broken power. Still I wonder why exactly Yhwach was so determined to kill the Soul King, I’m sure he is aware that the worlds will collapse without some consistent force connecting them, unless of course Yhwach has a plan to deal with the imbalance that should be create upon the Soul King’s death.

Bleach Chapter 610 – The Thousand Year Prayer

The King of Quincy unleashes his true power

How interesting, so at the exact moment Yhwach was about to be defeated, the thousand-year wait he had to endure for his pulse, intellect and power to return reached its completion allowing Yhwach to nullify the what would have been finishing blow Ichibei had served to him. If Yhwach had already regained his power earlier in the fight why exactly didn’t he unleash it and crush Ichibei opposed to painfully dragging out a fight that had its conclusion already determined from the beginning? With Yhwach’s eyes “opened”, Ichibei stood no chance…which is what all the readers knew before the fight even began.

Bleach Chapter 609 – The Almighty

Of course Yhwach had something like that up his sleeve to turn a hopeless situation completely around

So he finally reveals his true self, the man capable of bleaching out the blackest black. I was waiting for this all the while wondering how exactly Yhwach will go about turning around the hopeless situation he found himself in against Ichibei. Getting overwhelmed by Ichibei was just a step in overcoming him, thanks to the ability Yhwach has in managing to understand the workings of any powers while perceiving it or so Haschwalth says. Yhwach was able to nullify Ichibei’s power on himself at the end and instantly turn the tables on the situation. I’m sure Ichibei spilling the beans regarding his abilities helped as well but I suppose even if Ichibei omitted expressing any words to Yhwach and focused solely on crushing him, the result would have still been same. Such a shame that Ichibei was forced to face such an opponent, one not able to be defeated until the main character is ready.

Bleach Chapter 607 – Paint It Black

Ichibei unleashes on Yhwach

Of course Yhwach had the ability to restore his power back to normal…What other counters does Yhwach have up his sleeve which he plans to use right after an ability affects him? The fight he is going to have with Ichigo should be quite interesting indeed. Anyway, I was impressed by Ichibei this chapter, I was expecting him to be completely overwhelmed by Yhwach, but it turns out he is actually putting up on decent fight and has Yhwach overwhelmed for the moment. The gleeful Ichibei sure can be frightening when he has an opponent entirely disrespectful of the standards he abides by. Will be fascinating to see how Yhwach ends up overcoming Ichibei, if he does that is.

Bleach Chapter 606 – Impending Danger

Glad to see the Visored again

My goodness, wherever Kisuke threads, a mass wave of mystery follows, just what exactly is he up to and what does he have planned? I’m confident that Kisuke does genuinely rely on Ichigo but based on the conversation Kisuke and Hiyori had there are certain things he seems to have omitted sharing with Ichigo. My guess would be the energy balance between the dimensions being out of sync and posing some form of danger to the worlds. Hiyori was investigating the distortion between Soul Society and the Human World, so it would make sense if the context of the conversation she had with Kisuke was concerning such a matter. Still, I find it interesting that Hiyori believes Ichigo doesn’t stand a chance against the enemy at the Soul King Palace O.o.

Bleach Chapter 605 – Ichibei VS Yhwach

Seeing Yhwach so surprised by Ichibei’s attack was quite pleasant, too bad Yhwach isn’t destined to be defeated until Ichigo appears and does so…

I’ve been wondering how Aizen will end up being used in this final arc and it seems Kyouraku heading to Central 46 is heavily implying that he intends to have Aizen freed or at least temporarily aid in the defense against the Sternritter invasion on the Soul King Palace. It should be interesting to see what Aizen ends up doing when he is told that Yhwach is on his way to annihilate the Soul King. Despite Ichibei standing against Yhwach and holding him off, it is inevitable that Ichibei won’t end up stopping Yhwach. But thankfully, his efforts are buying Ichigo valuable time to arrive at the Soul King Palace.

Bleach Chapter 604 – Empowerment

Will Yhwach finally be tested?

I wonder why the Sternritter were so surprised when Yhwach deemed them unnecessary and began to sacrifice them for those he does deem worthy. The Sternritter were probably around long enough to realise what type of person Yhwach was, especially seeing as they were around long enough to put their belief in him. Yhwach was pretty transparent in how he does things, if he doesn’t agree with something, he makes sure he is heard out, so it was expected that when he came to the conclusion that the Sternritter aren’t doing what he expected, he would put into motion a plan to remedy that and in this case it was transferring the power he bestowed on the Sternritter to those he deems worthy. With the Royal Guard on the back-foot, it seems like a great moment for Ichigo and Co. to show up and utilise some Hollow power to combat the power-up Sternritter.