Bleach – Chapter 471

If that's not creepy enough, keep in mind she's technically talking to a stuffed animal.

The flashback in this chapter really got my attention. I’ve seen a lot of them in manga, even very recently, but I’ve never seen a series combine multiple flashbacks into one. It was an interesting style choice which, if nothing else, was rather unique compared to a lot of other flashbacks. Of course Kubo may have just done it to save time, but considering some of the longer flashbacks I’ve seen in D.Gray-man or Dengeki Daisy, I know there are worse things than making them too short.

An interesting effect of this style of flashback was how the members of Xcution came across during it. If they had gone for a full flashback for each of them, it most likely wouldn’t have made them any more sympathetic than they are now. After Yukio told us about his backstory, it was clear that we were dealing with messed up people, so it isn’t as though sympathy was the sort of emotion we were supposed to have for them. Instead, the way it was presented felt more like an origin story for the group as a whole. It’s not like there’s some grandiose tale of how the group came into existence; they had Fullbring powers and their lives sucked, so Ginjo offered them a way to feel powerful. It isn’t a very big puzzle, but this flashback was a nice way of gathering the pieces together into a clear image.

I don’t have much to say for the rest of the chapter. People were fighting, Riruka is trying to drain something from Rukia, stuffed animals were involved. You know, the usual. It’s still likely that Kubo didn’t have any deeper meaning behind the flashback, but I thought it was a clever way of showing their group and how they think. I also think I understand Riruka a little better now. She didn’t want to fight all that much, but she’s still loyal to the group and their way of thinking. I’m still confused as to how the mentality of the group works (they believe in majority rule, so forming a group of 7 or so makes them better…or something…), but at least we have a clearer understanding of how they got there.

Oh, and I was going to say that having boots as your most treasured item still felt stupid, but I just came back from watching Puss In Boots. It’s a little more believable now.