WSR 7-15-13

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Magi 189

We had the Kou Empire Metal Vessel users reveal Djinn Equip and team up to fight the Black Spot last time and this time we see them trying to attack, particularly Koumei, using a sort of teleportation type magic, seemingly not successful. But he also says his Djinn isn’t meant for combat by comparison. Though he also mentions he’s tired, so that may be a large factor as well. It’s possibly a mixture of both, since some Djinni are more magic users than combatants. Koumei has been depicted as lazy, from what I recall, so that may be more important to remember than what little we know about his Djinn abilities.

Alibaba says they have to target the main body and the try, but it creates a barrier that blocks their attack.

Gyokuen emphasizes the sheer amount of magoi and black rukh encompassed in it, saying a mere 6 Metal Vessel users won’t be able to scratch it, though she conveniently neglects a Magi’s involvement in this battle.

Alibaba says it’s hopeless and they just seem to keep spawning infinitely, but Aladdin says there is a finite limit, since the sphere is still using Magoi to both summon the djinns and manifest the defensive wall. The number of djinns they would have to destroy, however, would be around 10 thousand. Alibaba says it’d be impossible to exhaust its power with their Magoi.

But Kouen attacks, causing a series of explosions and showing off impressive power, blowing away 6 Dark Djinn, returning them to the Black Rukh as well, which means he did immense damage to them. But after the massive explosion that did that, he seems to have gone out of Djinn Equip. Alibaba worries that he’s out of Magoi, but Koumei says he’s merely switching Djinn Equip.

Now using Agares, which takes on a much smaller appearance, as befits the Djinn itself, Kouen drills a hole into the ground with a spinning force and releases lava after an earthquake. Using the fire element magoi from that, he powers up the fire Djinn, Astaroth, he was using before.

Alibaba is astounded at the strategy and the chapter ends focusing on Kouen, called the Flame Emperor in his kingdom.

We now know the relative abilities of all 3 of his Djinni and yet I wonder if he’ll use Phenex in battle for some purpose.

All in all, this promises to be a nice showing of the various Djinn users and even, with some time, more of Aladdin’s magical skills gained from training at Magnostadt.

Naruto 639

We saw the bodies of the First and Second Hokage attacked and I thought they were clones. Turns out I was wrong, they were the original bodies. And they’re technically Edo Tensei, so they will regenerate.

The Second Hokage tells Hiruzen and Minato to jump as he and Hashirama unleash a special technique. Hashirama binds Obito with Wood Release. Tobirama explains that since he invented the Edo Tensei he knows that one can take damage and still analyze a situation as he’s doing now. He then unveils the special talisman art that throws exploding seals that summon more exploding seals in a series of converging explosions. The power is immense, but as expected, Juubi Obito shrugs it off.

Hiruzen then decides to try his own technique, a series of shadow shurikens. Obito starts to use a new technique that generates this black energy that is pushed through a hole in his hand and can be used both offensively and defensively. The new power pretty much makes the Shadow Shuriken barrage ineffective, but the Third analyzes the technique, saying it’s similar to the Third Tsuchikage’s Dust Release technique, but even more complicated. He says it’s powerful, but there’s a limit to the time the transformations can be maintained. As he finishes this thought, the Edo Tensei body is pulverized for the moment by Obito, Sasuke reassuring Naruto along with the Fourth that the Hokage will get back, given enough time.

Hashirama moves to help Minato make an opening so Tobirama and Hiruzen can regenerate, but Madara jumps in to confront Hashirama.

Obito jumps forward to attack, but then his body bulges outwards, indicating that he is still not completely in control of the Juubi, now immobilized by the new bulk. Minato then makes his move to try to finish Obito off with his Spiral Flash Ring Dance Howl, a  technique we literally know nothing about beyond it using his Flying Thunder God seal and a shadow clone, along with multiple kunai..

But Obito still counterattacks with just the lower body, then counterattacking with his arm to strike Minato with the black Jinchuuriki energy attack, but Sasuke blocks it with Susanoo.

Naruto and Minato are kicked away by Obito and Sasuke muses that he will change things, not Naruto, represented by the picture of him, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi when they were genin, Naruto’s part getting cut

But Obito counters Sasuke’s intense glare with his own and grabs them both, the chapter ending with Minato hoping his Flying Thunder God technique will save the two of them from Obito’s attack.

So Obito isn’t invincible, though his sheer power is definitely going to require some calculated efforts on the part of our fighters, particularly Sasuke and Naruto.

Bleach 546

We had a cliffhanger last chapter with Shunsui telling Ichigo’s human friends (Orihime and Chad aren’t normal humans, that much is clear) that they may have to part with Ichigo. Keigo says he must be joking, but Shunsui says he’s being very serious. Keigo responds that this is just about Ichigo helping Soul Society, which Shunsui says is true. Mizuiro then asks why this is so different. Shunsui explains that Ichigo is in a special place in Soul Society and he may come back with immeasurable power. If it’s enough that it could affect the Human World, they will have to keep him there. Mizuiro observes that this is only a possibility, Shunsui acknowledging that the possibility is very slim. But he said that not telling Ichigo’s friends even the possibility wouldn’t be right. He then gives them Soul Tickets, allowing them to go to Soul Society whenever they want to visit Ichigo. Of course, this also means they could go even if Ichigo wasn’t there, but that’s neither here nor there. He also gave them to Isshin and family. He also says that letting Ichigo rest at home would be the best thing before the big battle starts

Back in Hueco Mundo, Orihime and Chad are still training and Orihime muses about how it’d be better if they could help people without all this fighting. I hope this doesn’t mean Orihime’s lost her resolve to fight. She says they’re helping Arrancar, so there could be another survivor besides Halibel and Grimmjow.

Back at Soul Society, Seireitei disappears, Rukongai still around, and in its place is the Vandenreich’s castle. This has something to do with the same black curtain/shadow that helped the Vandenreich travel easily before, except now on a larger scale.  Uryuu, Juhabach and Haschwalth all appear and we get a recap of the supposed legend behind Juhabach’s appearance. 900 years to regain the king’s body, 90 years for the mind, 9 for the power and then 9 days to take back the world. The chapter ends with the Vandenreich starting their attack, though we only see Uryuu, Haschwalth and Juhabach. I would hope the Stern Ritter are there as well.

The nature of the Schatten Bereich (Shadow Region roughly in German) is subtly explained a bit more. It seems like the Vandenreich are able to use it not only to teleport themselves, but also large masses like the castle. What happened before when Yamamoto died and Soul Society probably lost a few others, like Izuru, makes me curious. There was a time limit to the Schatten Bereich, so it’s possible this invasion may just be another skirmish, not a final battle to end the entire arc on. There’s supposedly been about 5 days since the Vandenreich first appeared and told Yamamoto they would eradicate Soul Society, back in chapter 483, so if we assume the first day was the invasion itself, then it’s been about 4 days. Even given that, I’m not sure Soul Society will be up to snuff, especially if we still don’t know where the captains and lieutenants are. It’s possible that only the central areas of the Seireitei were replaced, which means that the captains are all likely still involved. If the main combatants were moved to the other dimension where the Vandenreich originally were, this would be a massacre of Soul Society, even moreso than before, where thousands perished in the first 12 minutes.

Bleach will be on hiatus for about 5 weeks and return on September 9th to start fresh on what seems to be the second part of this final arc. I’m thinking we still have a few years left, though. This arc took over a year to get to this point. And if it took 5 days over 70+ chapters, 9 days will take almost 3 years.

One Piece 715

Last time we ended on Luffy knocking out Hajruudin, who was apparently considered a good contender. People are understandably frustrated, but we see one of the other major fighters, Ideo, punch him out of the ring with an attack that seems to be like an explosion, though I don’t think it’s Devil Fruit based, unless the Bomb Bomb fruit user from Whiskey Peak (I think) died and someone else found the fruit. For a moment, I thought Ideo was a Long Arm tribe member, but I think his arms would have to be a bit longer. Looks like he has weird shoulder horns or something.

Don Chin Jao and his grandsons are also doing well, using their kenpo and some form of haki or maybe just some mystic martial art technique that makes even weapons and shields useless. I would lean towards Armament Haki, though. Don Chin Jao uses his Conqueror’s Haki, making him one of about…maybe around 10 people in the One Piece universe we know for certain have it, including Luffy, Shanks, Doflamingo and Blackbeard, I think.

But one fighter isn’t affected, along with a few others obviously, Jean Ango, a bandit who steals the various weapons of the fallen fighters, revealing he’s a sniper, throwing them with what I would theorize is a Devil Fruit power.

And finally we see the Funk Brothers, one shorter, the other much bigger. The shorter one has a short fuse, beating the crap out of a guy so bad he’s long since been unconscious, his brother trying to stop him. But he’s knocked out by one of Don Chin Jao’s grandsons and his brother then suddenly seems to take on his smaller sibling’s traits and fights, effectively I might add, with his larger body. He even manages to take an attack imbued with Armament Haki from one of Don Chin Jao’s grandsons, so again, I’m speculating Devil Fruit power involved, as well as some Haki. It’s also possible they’re actually cyborgs or something, since Kerry, the smaller brother, tells Bobby, the bigger one, to put him on, making it seem like they’re equipping or something.

Luffy’s helmet has been stolen by Jean, who notes the rumor about Straw Hat Luffy being in the tournament. Don chin jao rages through the crowd and only 40 gladiators remain as the chapter ends. One Piece is on a hiatus next week too, so we’ll only be cover 4 of the usual 6 series next week, then 5 if things are lucky.

These new gladiators are always fun to speculate on and there’s only one more block after this, which has Cavendish in it. But Block C certainly has a lot of heavy hitters. I’m thinking Ideo might survive a bit longer, though the Fishman Karate Master in Block B lost relatively early himself, so I’m actually putting a bit more money on Jean.

And there’s also the fight between Law, Fujitora and Doflamingo to return to eventually.

The fact that there’s so many potential conflicts to go to makes this both exciting and a bit overwhelming, the one thing I could complain regarding Oda’s style in these arcs, especially recently, though I think this happened even as far back as Thriller Bark or even back in Arlong Park.

Toriko 242

There were hints before that Joa might be Chef God Frohze. This chapter continues that line of thought for a bit. Joa responds to Setsuno’s observation by simply reasserting that it is his, still ambivalent about whether he’s actually Frohze or a disciple, somewhat like Acacia’s three disciples

Joa then uses a powerful technique with his knife that Setsuno manages to deflect with her own knife and a technique translated as Taste Flow. The sheer power of the attack cuts a huge gash in the stadium and even continues out into the sea. Yuda remarks on the appearance of Setsuno’s personal knife, Takitsubo and Joa comments that he didn’t expect her to be able to deflect it so well, saying only Acacia’s three disciples: Ichiryuu, Jirou and Midora, should’ve been able to do something like that

Setsuno responds that she didn’t perfectly defend, slashes appearing on her body. Setsuno asks why Joa’s even here and he responds he’s looking for a certain chef. Setsuno comments that he might need to tone down his attacks, but Joa says the chef didn’t appear to be in the stadium and he’s very precise. He emphasizes this by stabbing into the ground with a dark technique, reviving the Nitro that Zebra demolished a few chapters ago, Zebra noting that they’re even stronger than before.

The Nitro start to attack and Darmala the 14th and Yuda go to help, but Setsuno tells them to stay back and then realizes her feet are bound with the roots, just like Zebra. As the Nitro start to attack, we see a finger move to flick at the Nitro and the resulting action knocks the Nitro’s head clean off. And who should appear now but Jirou hinted at a few chapters back. Now he’s come to intervene and likely force Joa to retreat, if I had to speculate.

Not as much to say on this chapter compared to what I usually do. We got teased again about Joa’s true identity. Setsuno’s weakness shouldn’t surprise people, since it was mentioned back in the Century Soup arc by Alfaro that her Gourmet Cells were weakening, so it’s likely that she is falling behind ever so slightly to other characters. Not saying she’s going to die here, but I wouldn’t put it past Shimabukuro to do something like that to make a point about Joa’s power. He managed to do something that even Zaus, Kousairou and Kuriboh couldn’t do; force her to deflect an attack instead of just taking it like she did with their attacks before. She’s had a lot of her calories stolen too, so she’s not in the best situation to continue fighting for an extended period.

Jirou’s intervention was telegraphed, to be fair, but his entrance was pretty cool. I don’t think we’ve seen an attack so shounen styled in a while: flicking an enemy’s head off is something only a person of Jirou’s level could do. And he’s not even at his full power, since his hair is white and he looks older. Once he uses knocking to get himself back to full strength, who knows what will happen? Though I think there is a limit to how long he can stay in that form.

All in all, this Cooking Fest arc could go on for a bit or it could be winding down to a close pretty soon.

Fairy Tail 344

Last time we ended with Fairy Tail going after a guild of Treasure Hunters, Sylph Labyrinth, who are probably the first non magic users we’ve seen since the Vanish Brothers, which is pretty cool.

The group splits up after being chased a bit by everyone and we see the first member, Rara, use their weapon, a giant gauntlet fist on a staff, using it like a hammer. Natsu tries to attack, but the open fist blocks the fire and then grabs him, throwing the Dragon Slayer away like a bug.

Gray uses his magic to fight, but the next member, Hiroshi, slashes through the ice lances and then reveals the sword he’s using can extend like a chain. The attack just narrowly misses them.

Wendy pushes Lucy out of the way, dodging a shot from a distance. The last member, Drake, is shown to be a sniper. Lucy summons Sagittarius and he fires an arrow at Drake, who destroys it with a bullet, his skill impressing everyone.

Natsu, Gray and Lucy (our main fighters here) realize that these aren’t ordinary fighters, even if they don’t seem to be mages.

Back at the village, Erza notices the giants’ positioning and the fact that they seem to be fighting. She speculates that they were defending the flame and by deductive reasoning, connects back to the location behind the giants, going to the top of a mountain, finding what appears to be the flame. But as she gets closer to the area, she suddenly reverts to a child, ending the chapter on that note

It’s possible the Eternal Flame has some time dilation properties and this may be relevant to the request itself, but we may have to wait, since next chapter will probably focus on the fights against Sylph Labyrinth.

Erza also asks whether it’s possible that such a small amount of Moon Drip could thaw the entire village, which is a good point. Assuming it is, it’s just a matter of getting it from the thieves and then facing Minerva and her new guild. But if it isn’t, it’s still a matter of getting it back and then using it on the Eternal Flame, which make be able to reverse things by its special powers. If it reverses time for Erza to that extent, it could also do the same for the magic, theoretically. Or it may have some other relevance that we don’t know about. Mashima’s the writer, he probably has some plan.

Minerva’s guild is probably a bigger threat than the treasure hunters, though I wouldn’t count these characters out entirely. But it’s fairly common that non magic users don’t last long against mage fighters, especially in Earthland, where magic is freely available, unlike in Edolas, where they had to use magic items.

This arc seems like it might be average, but the very fact that Fairy Tail is fighting non mages for the first time in a while is already a welcome change.