Darknives Anime & Manga Blog

The Fearless Child

Tousen criticizes Hisagi for having no fear, even though Hisagi had a nice speech about that earlier. Anyway, unless I know Tousen’s reasons, I can’t help but feel he’s a stupid bastard. I hope they kick his ass, I wish Kenpachi was there lol.

For a moment, I though Wonderweisse was going to show some ultra power but, it doesn’t seem likely for now.

About Hitsugaya, he goes crazy for a while, planning to fight Aizen lol. Liza starts the fight, no idea how it will go.

Meanwhile, Barragan is probably the most important for now, as I can not imagine someone with a skill that can beat his. And even worse now that it seems he can age kidou too.. Not sure how it will go, maybe Haichi will have a stronger kidou or something..

Very little happened but, things are being set for the fights to develop, I expect the next one to be more focused on a particular fight. Although weren’t shown Stark’s situation yet.

• Personal Enjoyment: 4/5

The Five Kage’s Argument

Gaara starts the discussion. It’s cool to see his attitude and that he’s not intimidated by the others despite being the youngest. He also has the best mentality in my opinion, while the other Kages are all about suspicion and standing alone

By the way, some interesting facts are known. First, it seems the 4th Mizukage was either a host or had some bijuu controling power, like the 1st Hokage. Also, the plan for Akatsuki to be a mercenary group, it seems it’s not some future plan, Villages have already used them before. Although that’s no reason to keep them, it’s also stupid because, having no alliance, the Akatsuki could be used against anyone. And really, it isn’t hard to figure out that once they become powerful enough, they would end up defeating the shinobi vilages.

Raikage, who doesn’t trust anyone, gives in to rage and almost causes an epic battle in the room. Not sure why he called a meeting after what he said. Anyway, the Hokage lets the others in on his info, Madara is still alive and in control of Akatsuki.

Mifune interrupts and asks that the five Kages make a temporary alliance to deal with Akatsuki. He asks them to respect his decision on the leader. And, as Konoha has the last remaining jinchuriki (Naruto) he asks for Danzo to be the leader. Everyone protest and it ends.

Everything is really going Danzo’s way, from his thoughts I don’t think he was expecting this so, I don’t think he and Mifune have some agreement but, you never know.

Meanwhile, Sai has told Sakura about Naruto’s feelings and how his action for Sasuke are somehow related to that. I mean, even if Naruto is a little pissed at Sasuke’s actions (and he has reasons enough to treat him as an enemy) he still has Sakura’s promise, that he will bring him back. I hope, after this, Sakura lets Naruto ou of the "curse". She too needs to change her mind about Sasuke. It would be cool if Sai and Sakura departed to the snowy country too.

• Personal Enjoyment: 5/5

Darkening

It’s time to delve into Canaan’s past. Instead of a normal flashback, we’re told the story in a re-cap manner. She’s found by a guy, Shan, who acts as her father/friend. He’s the one who trains her. Their relationship is cool and healthy (minor the assassin training lol). And then, from nowhere, Alphard appears and kills him. I think he may have trained Alphard too..

So, Canaan, even though she knows hatred does nothing, is trying to get revenge on Alphard. Meanwhile, Maria thinks she was mistaken about who she thought Canaan was and it doesn’t seem like she wants to see her again at the time. Still, later she understands her selfishness.

Meanwhile, we discover Santana has something to do with the organization using Canaan. He’s also somehow responsible for the attack on Canaan’s village (I think, strange subs..). It seems he’s letting his old bad life go, because of his love, Hakko. Still, he sounds much like a bad guy.

Anyway, for the second part of the episode, Alphard, Liang-Qi and Cummings go to some business party and Canaan goes there to take revenge. She fights with Alphard in the bathroom but, Alphard’s comments on Shan make her mad and easy to defeat. Still awesome fight.

Alphard lets Canaan escape. Canaan has become more of a mess than she was before the attack. Not sure she will sbeokay. I guess she’ll needs to meet Maria in order to calm down. Meanwhile, Maria is making friends with Yunyun.

Beautiful art and super smooth animation. I hope this keeps up until the end of the series.

Very cool episode, not perfect but, really entertaining. The next one seems to advance the plot, with many characters meeting each other for the first time. The main theme seems to be about friendship.

• Next Episode: Lights

A New Enemy!
The Materialization of Zanpakutō

The new filler arc starts with a short "re-cap" about what zanpakutou’s are, along with some facts. So, some strange characters are gathering around. Not sure but, they seem to be Zanpakutous.. Anyway, in Soul Society, Byakuya and Renji are fighting, some sort of training or show off and in the middle of it, Senbonzakura cuts Byakuya on purpose.

Meanwhile, other stuff strange things are happening. Zangetsu warns Ichigo about something, and Hitsugaya feels something odd with Hyourinmaru. After hearing about other shinigami’s problems, Hitsugaya starts suspecting something.

Meanwhile, something arrives at Soul Society. They do something to do the captain commander and assemble a fake meeting. The leader of the mentioned group appears then, and explains what’s happening. Not sure if he’s a zanpakutou himself. He somehow has the power to free zanpakutou’s from their shinigami. The zanpakutou’s take physical form and align with him against the shinigami.

I really liked this episode’s art, it was nice and had lots of dark scenes. Really cool mood for the filler arc, reminds me of the last movie. The animation was good too. I’m looking forward to this arc, it may actually be good. The new ED starts in this episode, there’s cool art concerning the "new" characters.

Nice episode. I really liked the dark mood and most of the new "villains’"personality. I’m really interested, hope I don’t get disappointed.

• Next Episode: Byakuya

Formation!

This episode is mainly about Juugo’s past, with lots of "fillers". Still nice enough to explain things better. Basically, Juugo had Kimimaro to act as his cell, because he was strong enough to stop his killing urges.

Anyway, he goes after Sasuke who just dodges him. He eventually gets back with Karin and Suigetsu. Suigetsu interferes and starts fighting him. No one of them listens to Sasuke

Sasuke has to stop both of them. He shows them his power and they both get scared. He then explains to the now normal Juugo that he can act as his cell just like Kimimaro did.

Juugo accepts and now, Hebi is formed. His objective, as expected, is to find and kill Itachi. Suigetsu also has the objective of taking Samehada from Kisame.

There’s a part of the manga that wasn’t shown in this episode. I guess it will be shown next, after the Kakashi Gaidens, still it really fit well now and I’m disappointed they didn’t show it. The story lost a lot of tension just from removing that little 3 second scene, it really got me excited at the time, when I read the manga.

Overall, nice episode, just wanted that little scene to appear at the end but, nothing that much. The animation was actually good, even though the art was bad at times, still enjoyable, was expecting worse.

Anyway, the Kakashi Gaiden is next, always wanted to see it animated, thought they would make a movie or ova out of it, doesn’t matter, the animation seems completely awesome.. Can’t wait.

• Next Episode: Kakashi Gaiden

Cry of the Soul?
The Rug Shinigami is Born!

A hollow used for research by Soul Society escapes to the real world. Ikkaku and Yumichika are sent to take it back. Ichigo refuses them shelter. So they go to Keigo’s. Comedy happens as expected. It was funny. Glad I could see Ikkaku dressed in flower pajamas.

But, Mizuho stars going crazy over Ikkaku and doesn’t allow him to concentrate one the mission. So they decide to give Ikkaku some hair so that he isn’t bald anymore.

It works so well that they end up being put out of the house. Still, Mizuho ends up going after him and that’s when the hollow they were after finds her.

They then realize Ikkaku can’t get out of his faux body because of the hair glue.  Anyway, everything ends up resolved and Ikkaku saves the girl. It ends with a funny scene. By the way, liked this week’s zanpakutou section.. "apple poisoned candy", and he says it naturally lol

Nice episode, funny. A real filler arc starts next week. I liked the preview, it was dark. I hope the story isn’t too stupid and the fights aren’t filler-boring.

• Next Episode: A New Enemy!

^{The Society For The Study Of Modern Visual Culture}
Chapters 1-6

Basically, this manga is about nerds/otakus. Not sure why I got it, it sounded really different from any other series. A lot of jokes and other stuff actually use real world references so, real otaku knowledge is need to fully enjoy this lol still, you can get 95% of what’s happening with no problem (I think..).

The main character is Kanji, a freshman. He has a dream of joining an otaku club (yep lol). Then, there’s another guy, Makoto, who also belongs to the group Kanji joins, and Saki, who’s in love for Makoto, for no specific shown reason, besides Makoto being handsome.

I didn’t know what to expect. This manga doesn’t really have some major plot line, it’s mainly slice of life style, centered around otaku life. What I enjoyed more was the humor, often related to adult stuff. The characters are also somewhat interesting and, even though they all represent a little bit of the otaku stereotype, they are actually quite different from each other.

It was light and entertaining but, I’m not sure I would recommend this unless you got nothing else to read.

Anyway, past the introductions and resolutions to Makoto and Saki’s relationship, comes an important Otaku event and some other stuff.

Then a girl that returns from living abroad joins the club.

Overall, nothing much happens, just the progress of their otaku-oriented lives. Mainly, it shows Kanji fitting in with the group and Saki as she stars to experience the otaku world because of her boyfriend. Even though it’s really light, and has nothing much to pull you right now, I’m still planning on reading it lol.

About the art, not really my favorite style, and not that much detail but, it’s ok.

• Personal Enjoyment: 3/5

Millennium Falcon Arc
Chapter Of Falconia
Fantasia

Well, if anyone was worried with some minor multi-headed snake or some unicorns, they are not really relevant when colossal dragons are landing in rooftops, and armies of undead and stupid looking monster are running amok.

So, basically, the parallel reality/world where demons and fairies inhabited just fused with "our" world. Now all those beings from fairytales are living in this world as if they had always been there.

There’s a lot of really freaky yet cool art, specially some shots which I have no idea where they came from.

The next chapter’s preview talks about Griffith’s dream coming true.. Not sure what it means but, I guess there’s two possibilities.

First, he would reverse all this, which, together with the fact that e defeated Ganishka, would make almost everyone recognize him as the world’s ruler.

The second, in my opinion, and I’m saying this based on some pages of the chapter, the world would stay well just the way it is right now. Why do I say this? The narrator describes this new world, first as something bad but then as something just new, and something people would actually wish for, not sure. The same way bad creatures appear, good ones appear too. It’s like there’s just more species..

Anyway, probably not, I really can’t figure anything out from this manga anymore lol

Cool chapter, hope the next one doesn’t take too long.

• Personal Enjoyment: 4/5