So as it turns out, I'm madly in love with a sword.

I'm here today, continuing my coverage of the Zanpakuto filler arc of the Bleach anime. I'm gonna kick this off with yet another comparison shot because I forgot to cover this last week.

We already learned in Magic Knight Rayearth that Debonair is a GREAT mommy.

Am I the only one who thinks Muramasa is the bastard son of Debonair from "Magic Knight Rayearth"? The white skin, the color scheme, the obscenely long fingernails? How the hell does this guy even hold a sword?! and so far he's done next to nothing except for blathering on and on about how Shinigami suck. He is either the worst, or the greatest villain ever. I think it's too early to tell.

This week was mostly a "Let's recap what we know and remind you all that this shit is bad news." episode. Also there were a lot of things in this episode that really didn't make sense to me.

But the first five minutes of this episode were just a dream~ to watch. As it turns out, I am apparently madly in love with Sode no Shirayuki. Rukia pretty much falls out of the sky in Karakura and Ichigo finds her, trying to figure out why she's hurt. and then Sode no Shirayuki turns up.

Don't be fooled by the pretty face. She will wreck your shit.

Ichigo quickly decides she's not a hollow, but still has no idea who she is. This was the first thing that made no sense to me. Sode no Shirayuki should, in theory, have the exact same reiatsu as Rukia. I know Ichigo isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, but he should be able to at least be able to figure out she has the same Reiatsu as Rukia. And once she starts using Rukia's abilities, maybe you'd think something would click?

Sode no Shirayuki using her second ability, Hakuren.

Another thing that bothered me was the opposite. Sode no Shirayuki not recognizing Ichigo. After all, Rukia's power was transfered too Ichigo via Shirayuki. But when they fought, she was curious to who he was, and then figured out as they fought that he was "the substitute shinigami". She did some adorable blowing snow in his face thing, and then just sort of got bored and left.

Again, because of her connection to Ichigo, you'd think Sode no Shirayuki (who I assume is far more intelligent than Ichigo), would recognize him immediately and, due to context, probably react like "OH. YOU'RER THAT GUY WHO TOOK ALL MY POWER THAT ONE TIME. 8D HAVE SOME STABBINGS!". I also feel this might have made a little bit more sense, than her just randomly fighting. But the fact that Shirayuki is even acting against Rukia at all has me a bit perplexed.

There's a reason she's got the title of the "Most Beautiful Zanpakuto In Soul Society".

Ichigo then took her back to Urahara's and got everyone together to fix up Rukia and figure out the situation. Rukia wakes up and explains what's going on and we flash back to some more of the fighting between the zanpkauto and their masters. This whole segment just made me want to slap the shinigami.

You have all just lost your main source of power. But go right ahead and attack said source of power with your useless swords and no plan at all. That truly is the most brilliant of ideas.

No wonder you are getting your asses kicked. Geez. And these are supposed to be Captains and Lieutenants. You would think after everything that they have dealt with they would not make such stupid mistakes. Though Iw as really hoping to see Hianeko attack Rangiku so there could be some more sassy banter.

I think she was hoping it would be more of a challenge.

The worst off, supposedly, is Byakuya, who disappeared while fighting off Senbonzakura so that Rukia and Renji could escape. By all logic, he should be dead, but we all know that's not true because this is Bleach and the only one who ever really dies is Ulquiorra.

When Rukia finds out that Byakuya is the only one who wasn't found and taken care of, she apparently runs off when no one is looking to go back to Soul Society and find him. Everyone gets concerned and Ichigo and Yoruichi decide to head to Soul Society to find her.

All I'm really sure of is that I am heavily anticipating next week so I can find out the context behind Sode no Shirayuki making this face that she made in the preview:

Oh shit. We are all going to die.

So when 232 is fansubbed and available, I suppose I'll be continuing my coverage. Until then!

Its like one of those "Breaking News" stories, except no one but me really cares.

THIS HAD BETTER NOT SUCK. IF THIS SUCKS, I'M GONNA GRAB MY SHIRAYUKI AND STAB A BITCH. IT WILL BE IRONIC.

- Me to Suri about 5 minutes before watching episode 230 of Bleach.

-----------------------------------------------------

This is something that I never thought I would be talking about here -- the Bleach anime.

As much as I love the manga, I declared the anime dead to me months ago after the "replacement captain/lieutenant" filler arc in which Sora form Kindgom Hearts was the new Captain of the 3rd division (It was a fucking keyblade, goddamnit.) and his lieutenant was the bastard offspring of Sosuke Aizen and Szayel Apollo Grantz. no matter how untrue that statement may or may not be, that's how I feel about it and I lost all desire to ever go anywhere near the anime ever again.

Aizen is the daddy and Szayel is the mommy, and together they spawned this horrible abomination against God.

I'm not a big fan of Bleach's filler arcs. The Bount arc didn't do much for me, but it did bring about the line "Everything it touches turns to snakes!", which has lead to some great moments hanging out with my friends in which we've randomly shouted that out in public. But the latest filler (Which, according to what I've heard, will only be four or five episodes?) is focusing on one of my favorite aspects of Bleach -- Zanpakuto.

For those not familiar with Bleach's cosmology, Zanpakuto are sentient swords belonging to the shinigami. They are spirits born from their master's soul and are the force of power behind all of the sword's abilities. There are a few other things that were brought up in the second movie that I think are bullshit because Hitsufag likes to make up his own rules, so we won't go into that.

But I've loved this concept from the beginning. I've been absolutely fascinated by the idea of learning what the appearances of everyone's swords were. And as soon as we came out of the Soul Society arc and were shown Sode No Shirayuki, Rukia's Zanpakuto, in action for the first time, I fell head over heels in love.

So when it was announced that the Zanpakuto would be the focus of the new filler, I became intrigued. I still had no real plan to watch, but I was curious, and a little excited to see what might become of it. The idea that the zanpakuto were rebelling against their masters interested me. And the nest part was that we would get to see them, even if they were all forced into humanoid forms. But there was one thing I was worried about...

I've always had a very clear mental image of what I believed her to look like. Anyone who's read the short CLAMP manga "Shirahime-Syo" may remember the story "Hiyoku no Tori" and the Heron woman in them. That woman has always been my image for Sode No Shirayuki. Would this arc, shatter my perception of her?

Left: Heron ("Shirahime-Syo") // Right: Sode no Shirayuki ("Bleach")

Surprisingly, no! Sode no Shorayuki is presented here actually very similar to how I pictured her to be. This helped a lot in getting me to want to keep watching. I was very worried about this, because I am resistant to change and didn't want to have to rethink my entire perception of her as a character.

So I torrented the episode, sat down, and watched...

My opinion so far is pretty neutral to the story as a whole, but as for the characters, my head is racing around trying to keep all of my perceptions of them in line.

Haineko was the most hilarious little bitch in the world. I loved when she shoved Rangiku aside and told her to get out of the way. I'd love to see her also have a more kindhearted side to match Rangiku's but I think she is perfect. and oh my god those pants. Wut.

I like Suzumebachi's appearance (especially that she's so fucking tiny), but I can't say I'm too thrilled with her personality. She is way too bubbly, happy, and excitable. Even before Soi Fon was an angst bucket, she did not act like that. Zanpakuto are meant to share many of their master's personality aspects and Suzumebachi doesn't act like Soi Fon at all. 

Kazeshini... I have never liked Kazeshini. Ever since his shikai was revealed and it was shown that he was a dual wield, I've hated him. It was established in the Soul Society arc that the only dual-bladed shikai were Katen Kyokotsu (Kyoraku Shunsui) and Sogyo no Kotowari (Ukitake Juushiro). I refuse to believe his shikai was a secret, since he's a lieutenant. It's possible Kubo hadn't thought it up yet, but for the love of god, Kubo, stick to your rules.

Anyway, the zanpakuto arc has proved that Kazeshini is a dick. this was hilarious to me because I just dislike him so much and how his personality just fell into me continuing not to like him. I'm not a fan of Hiyorinmaru either (gay Chrsitmas trees, wut?) for various reasons, but all he's done so far is stand around and stare at people so I can't really judge him yet.

But oh man the opening and ending? Hot shit, yo. I actually watched the opening twice before I started the episode because Iw as just so fascinated by Orihime and Rukia dancing. I want to dance with them so bad. XD Also everyone was just hanging out and being really hot. What the hell? SDid everyone suddenly realize how sexy they are?

The ending was fantastic. I'm completely addicted to "Mad Surfer" now. that's the kind of song I will hang out alone in my house and dance to in my underwear. I liked the kind of retro feel to the visuals and how it really depicted the personality aspects of all of the zanpakuto.

My big worry about this arc? That it's going to end up focusing on Hitsugaya and Hiyorinmaru. With the way they were introduced in the first episode of the arc, they seem to be getting special attention, and I'm really worried this is going to be another one of those instances of undeserved attention for them.

So I guess there will be followups to this as the arc progresses, because I anticipate having very strong feelings on this. We'll see where it goes.

Otakon 2009

Last weekend Suri and I, along with several other friends, made the long trip down from central New Jersey to Balimore, Maryland for Otakon 2009. It's our one big convention of the year and we're usually pretty psyched to rock it out. It was great this year, as always.

General reports for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday can be found via their respective entries in my LiveJournal.

But overall, it was a great con. This was my second year cosplaying Simon form Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and this year I got to be accompanied by Suri and my best friend Cass as my Kamina and Nia. We all hit up the Saturday photoshoot which was a lot of fun. Cosplay is about 50% of the reason I do Otakon, and it was really great to get to see other cosplayers and join in on photos and things.

We are the bitch-sassiest pair of Simons ever.

In an amusing twist, a friend of mine form high school who writes for Japanator ended up writing a short entry about when the Gurren Lagann shoot and the Super Smash Bros. shoot decided to wage war against each other. I ended up in a few of the photos he posted and we had a laugh a little later about what a small internet it is.

The better part of the weekend was spent in the Artist's Alley and the Dealer's Room, which is the other 50% I do Otakon. I got to see a lot of good friends in the Alley. These are people that I only really get to see once or twice a year at Otakon and NYAF, so it was really great to see them and catch up for a while. I also bought a few posters and prints, and a comic from the amazingly talented Hilary Florido, who is maybe one of the coolest people I know.

The Dealer's Room was fantastic this year. I bought two figures (Urahara Kisuke and Kuchikir Rukia) and an old Magic Knight Rayearth doll (Hikaru. I already have Fuu. Now I'm on the hunt for Umi.), and a really fantastic Sailor Moon pencil case.

I also got myself a few doujinshi, though I was only really satisfied with one of them -- an Ukitake/Unohana bleach doujinshi that looks like it's really cute. I may have to eventually try to translate it. I somehow ended up with another Ukitake/Kyoraku doujinshi, but while sitting outside of one of the panels we were waiting to go to, I decided to narrate it with hilarious dialog for my friend Jess and it turned out to be the best purchase ever.

"Blah blah blah I have cancer."

"No you don't. You have lupus."

"Well shit..."

I really don't have the slightest idea what was going on through the whole thing other than that Ukitake and Kyoraku kept fighting and bitch-slapping each other, but it made for an amusing little tale. I also got another Bleach doujin about Kon and some members of the female cast, and a FullMetal Alchemist Roy/Havoc doujin that also includes Riza somehow. Again, I need to learn to read Japanese so I can know what the hell is going on.

But the real prize for the weekend was buying a replica of Sode no Shirayuki, Kuchiki Rukia's sword, for $25. Anyone who knows me as a member of the Bleach fandom knows the crush I have on Shirayuki. So when I found it, I was sure it was really expensive and made Suri lead me away. But then he kept suggesting going back to ask how much it was, so we went and found out it was cheap enough for me to buy!

The unfortunate part is that she'll probably remain in her box until the spring when I either move back down to central NJ for good, or move in with my good friend Boomer over at Downtown Otaku. Then she will be proudly displayed on my wall where I can admire her.

So over all, it was a great con. I may switch up my cosplay next year, or I may not, but either way I'm looking forward to it.