BLEACH: RIGHT ARM OF THE GIANT (MANGA VOLUME 5)

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BLEACH: RIGHT ARM OF THE GIANT (MANGA VOLUME 5)

March 2nd 2010 17:14

Category: Graphic Novels/Comics

Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Story & Art by: Tite Kubo
English Adaptation: Lance Caselman
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
Touch up Art & Lettering: Dave Lanphear
Design: Sean Lee
Cost: AU$14.95/US$7.95

Did you know that March is officially Bleach month? Well maybe not officially, unless they have some kind of festival celebrating all things Bleachy over in Japan which would be outside of the cards; but over the month there is going to be quite a bit of Bleach reviewed on this website. The Green Lantern has decided to cast its eternal emerald gaze over the manga series, television series and the most recent movie to hit the shelves here in the land down under. So let’s start off things with a gander at Bleach Manga Volume 5: Right Arm of the Giant…

Ichigo Kurosaki, high school student and substitute soul reaper finds himself in an unusual situation. His comrade in arms and actual soul reaper, Rukia Kuchiki, keeps getting assignments for the two to carry out but when they get to the scene of the action the hollow they’re supposed to be eliminating has been well and truly eliminated by someone else…cue dramatic music. Of course this is giving Ichigo a bit of grief, especially when he has exams coming up and he needs to study to be able to keep his grades up, so what the heck is going on? Who or what is disposing of the hollows before he and Rukia can get to the scene?
Enter Uryu Ishida, ace student and dab hand with a needle and thread. With the appearance of this particular character the whole world of Bleach begins to open up just that little bit more and we the reader get to realise that there is more than just soul reapers and hollows inhabiting this particular fictional universe. Uryu is the last surviving member of the Quincy’s, a clan of people who developed spiritual abilities many years ago and over time honed them to such an extent that they were able to use their talents in combat against hollows. A Quincy uses a missile weapon, usually a bow, formed from spirit energy in combat against hollows in contrast to the katana like zanpakuto employed by soul reapers.

However where a zanpakuto cleanses a hollow and allows it to pass on into the greater cycle of existence, a Quincy’s bow vaporises the hollow, destroying it forever. In actively hunting down hollows and destroying them the Quincy’s were slowly and surely eroding the natural balance of the universe, a fact that would ultimately lead to their own demise at the hands of the soul reapers. Two hundred years ago the soul reapers engaged in a systematic campaign against the Quincy’s in order to prevent their actions from unbalancing the universe, such a conflict lead to the situation whereby in the contemporary era Uryu is the last of his kind.
Now Uryu is out to prove himself against a soul reaper, and unfortunately it’s Ichigo that he decides to measure himself up against, feeling that it’s going to be all a moot point. He challenges Ichigo to a hollow killing competition, whoever kills the most hollows in twenty four hours is the winner, he then crushes some hollow bait which swiftly disperses upon the winds and begins to draw forth hollows like the proverbial locusts. Whilst this is all going on though there are other, greater things afoot that are happening. Things that our spiky haired protagonist is completely unaware of, but strangely that Uryu has managed to pick up with all the keenness that his sharp and discerning intellect has blessed him.
It seems that much like the light of the sun which when raining down upon the plants promoting the whole process of photosynthesis Ichigo’s own spiritual energy is having an effect upon several of his close and immediate friends with rather unusual consequences. Chad and Orihime are the two who immediately feel the effects of this change as the hollows literally rain down on Karakura town like a deluge of golf balls. First to undergo some change is Chad, Ichigo’s tall Mexican-Japanese friend who he has know since middle school, Chad sees something strange with the sky and realises soon after that something has fallen to earth and it is after him, and not for any good reason, much like a psychopathic telemarketer seeking that deal clinching sale…
For Orihime the change comes when she and her good friend Tatsuki and classmate Chizuru are busy cleaning up a load of glass from broken windows in the gym of their high school. The cause for the shattered windows seems to be something of a mystery although the guys in the judo team claim that their arms moved of their own volition and broke the windows, a fact that Chizuru finds totally ridiculous. But it seems as if there is something deeper afoot than any of the three realise, in fact its only when Orihime notices the shape of particularly horrible looking hollow resting like a rather bloated octopus upon one of the nearby buildings does she have an inkling that her world and that of her friends has changed, possibly not for the better.
Of course in the hurly burly of the impromptu hollow killing competition when Ichigo immediately rushes off to dispatch hollows his first thought is on his family and on Karin. He has no idea about what has happened to his friends, how could he? He has no idea of the fact that contact between himself and his friends have awoken dormant abilities in them. Even though he has the abilities of a soul reaper there is a lot about the spirit world that Ichigo has no idea of, in fact it could be said that he has only managed to last as long as he has not so much due to blind chance and fortune but because he has a natural aptitude for it. Ichigo is a natural soul reaper, when it comes to dealing with hollows he has a knack and drive; no doubt heavily tied into his desire to protect and defend people from such menaces. Bleach manga volume 5: Right Arm of the Giant was an enjoyable read, especially if you’re waiting to get operated on as I was when I picked it up from King’s Comics, definitely worth the effort of tracking down and getting.

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