Bleach Chapter 453 – The Puppeteer And The Marionette

Scared, confused and isolated, Ichigo's mind crumbles...

Oh Ichigo, I remember when you were the star of Bleach, shining so brightly that nothing was impossible for you and even an otherworldly organisation boasting insane levels of power like Gotei 13 couldn’t wall off your desires and conviction. But now Ichigo, truly sadly now, in most situations you are no more the star of Bleach, but instead the darkness in the background that brightens and emphasises the “star”. Throughout this arc, rather than Ichigo grabbing hold of his conviction to get his Shinigami powers back, he has instead been thrown around like a ragged doll, pushed and pulled, manipulated and fooled, Ichigo has become nothing more than a string-puppet being controlled by the new mind-manipulating characters in Bleach – Ginjou and Tsukishima.

Bleach Chapter 452 – “It’s Shuu-chan!”

Ichigo's Fullbring Form - colored by bensuit (http://bensuit.deviantart.com)

With a pretty boring start (those first five pages didn’t really convey much) and an average but amusing middle, I wasn’t expecting much from the end, but hahah, guess I was in for a surprise with the cliffhanger which left things off on a very suspenseful and intriguing note (oh more possibilities to think about now).