Manga Breakdown - Bleach Chapter 421 Decide 23

Well here goes, my first ever manga breakdown, first things first though, I get all my images from mangastream, so if you wanna read it I recommend going there, its light weight, generally add free and very easy to use.

Anyway now thats out the way here we go;

See what I meant about fantastic art? He may not be much on the narrative, but the man can draw, and this is a perfect example of that, with Ichigo in Getsuga form.

This chapter kicks off with Ichigo using his final technique after we see a flashback to his training, we were informed by Hichigo last chapter that after he uses this technique his Shingami and Hollow techniques which are so intricately linked will leave him.

Hichigo/Zangetsu's last appearance? 

Next we see Aizen being hit my Mugetsu, but immediately he starts regenerating, thanks to the Hogyoku. Seriously, this thing is so boring, it seems like the most powerful object in the manga and I'm just a tad sick of it, hope it gets smashed up after this arc.

As Aizen regenerates thanks to that cheat code stuck in his chest we see the impact of Mugetsu on Ichigo

Admittedly depriving the main character of his powers is a brave move by Kubo, and my interest was peaked for the first time in a couple of months. If Ichigo dies then what? It would go into interesting territory, and Aizen gets ready to finish Ichigo off, as he prepares himself look what happens

We never get to see your bankai?

His sword disappears. This really hacked me off, first we get deprived of Yama's bankai which is really a piss take considering he has the strongest sword in this manga, and now Aizen's disappears too? Considering the power of his shikai giving him an awesome bankai would be ridiculous, but I still wanted to see it! Sounds like another whole this illustrious manga-ka got himself into. But as he moves forward this happens

Really??? REALLLYYYY?!?!?!

Out of nowhere some random Kidou appears, at this point my face was kinda like Aizen's, highly unamused, turns out that Uruhara used some kidou well over a year ago and its now finally taking effect! And he hid it in, another Kidou. This is the most half baked end to a main villain I have ever witnessed, and guess why the Kidou took effect? Because the Hogyoku did not want to recognize Aizen as its master after the heavy beating he took from Mugetsu. Don't you wanna smash it to bits too? One wonders why it bothered regenerating him in the first place.

I play Swords of Revealing Light!

9 years ago I used to watch Yu-Gi-Oh! Before school, seems Kubo did too as the kidou turns out to be none other than swords of revealing light.... Great....

After this oversight however, we approach the subject of the Soul King. For me the Soul King and his royal guard is certainly one of the most intriguing aspects of Bleach, and we hope for some element of clarity here, however there is no clarity, just more confusion.

So we are left unsure if the Soul King is actually a person or just, part of the make up of the universe, and it just has to exist.  Confused? Yeah me too. Aizen actually calls him a loser though which it seems will be his last words as this happens

Seems like Aizen is sealed, all of this raises a few questions though, like how did Kusuke know the Hokyoku would turn against Aizen? Why did the Hogyoku turn against Aizen? He wasn't that badly injured.

And is this it? If so its really a rather pathetic end to Bleach. In Naruto we are gearing up for all out war between nations, with several players fighting on what we presume would be a major battlefield if the flashbacks to previous ninja wars is anything to go by. In One Piece we got Marine Ford, a great war, and not even the final one. If this is it for Bleach, well then its all a bit anticlimactic. I wanted more, I wanted the squads pitted against Menos Hollows. And if this is it, only one good guy has died in the entire manga and that was Yama!!! There was barely ever any investment in this unlike Naruto with the deaths of the third hokage and Jiraiya for example, or One Piece with Ace.

Anyway an intensely disappointing ending to this arc, and perhaps to Bleach itself