Well, that is certainly a way to explain Zarakis blackouts. Getting killed does that to you

I liked the telling of what Unohana considers her "sin." Nothing boring or cliche like unintentionally killing an innocent or something like that. It fits her Kenpachi persona.



Actually, I was still internally debating between this and something similar to what Ichigo experienced back in his first encounter with Zaraki.



In effect yes, though it seems to be by much smaller increments per death and is "actually" a case of returning back to the original strength that is being supressed subconsciously, instead of gaining new strength.


Last edited by Baalzebup at 6:59 am, Jan 30 2013

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Was kinda obvious from the last chapter that she healed him, what wasn't was why.....this is like the saiyan racial ability all over again -_- Kubo, first the hyperbolic time chamber wannabe now this?!

The only chapter I liked in Bleach from the last 200 chapters

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But the idea is basically the same, getting strength through close encounter with death, regardless of gaining it back or not.

Sure, but without the slightly different flavours to it, the whole Sayan racial thing is as common as water in Shounen. Calling it out separately at this point is kinda pointless, especially since Kubo at least tried to give it a small twist to it. Sayans had it as a part of their bullshit biology, here it is a psychological thing.

@jrdragon2003 I question plenty of things that I used to like, but Sayans and their antics were never on the list, excluding the first volumes of the original manga, which were genuinely hilarious. DBZ is only a fountain of memes for me. No nostalgia attached.

Last edited by Baalzebup at 8:52 am, Jan 30 2013

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It always cracks me up when people trash talk Sayains, but forget how awesome it was to watch them in action when they did something. But i digress it was an interesting chapter, but it makes me hate how powerful Kenpachi happens to be, but during all of those fights he's been through that we've seen he's had a real hard time dealing with those guys when he could've just iced them right away. It's a sad train of thought knowing the Aizen saga wouldn't have been so bad and long if what we've seen of the Captains now happened then.

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Yea it is kind of a silly how strong he was as a bloody kid -_- I mean at the very least make him an adult for christs sake, that would be reasonably believable and seeing as hes not one to dwell on things still work with the psychological thing. But curing a bloody psychological thing by close death is silly and makes no sense if you ask me, I don't know much about psychological therapy and the like but that makes no sense.

Does anyone else get the feeling that Kubo is setting up Zaraki for a fight against Ichigo.

Yeah the whole concept is kind off putting given the character, and to top it all off, what about Yachiru... why use her like this of all times, it really makes everything that's happened seem like bad judgement calls for the most part on everyone. This is one of the main reason why Kubo has taken an idea that should be gold and turned into copper. He's made way to many characters for himself to even deal with properly and it's costing him story wise, when you look at it from the beginning he could have done a good clean up job dealing with the whole SS arc and finished all the problems and established his characters from there in one go instead of rushing into building the whole Aizen plot. Aizen's storyline is what majorly killed everything cause we got introduced to so many characters that not everyone has had a chance to shine properly since, ex. Chad. what an underused character, introduced early on had and had potential to be something great, then was turned into Yamcha. The way Kubo is explaining and defining the characters now seems like a too little, too late, I really don't think it's necessary to know Kenpachi was some uber viciously strong kid, and held himself back from being powerful. It really doesn't amount to much in the story now, and only serves to annoy.

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Man, it seems that Kubo is on killing spree now. Even though Unohana didn't get much screen time, it still sucks if she dies. Oh well.

As for the power-up through near death experience, well, its been done in many mangas, so why make a big deal out of it in this one?

Well maybe because it was such a sudden ass pull that it is kinda annoying, I mean so far in the story and we get an explanation that he psychologically restricted his strength? And the only way to get it out is by going near death? Wow how convenient that the opponent he desires to kill is also an healer! Meaning endless strength till Kubo believes it is enough!! The problem is that it is just way to convenient and late to pull something like this in my opinion.

Called it! Zaraki Kenpachi was the 2nd AND the 10th Kenpachi. And thus the reason she is 4th Squad captain and not 11th right now, having only suffered one wound in her lifetime (or rather deathtime).

I wonder why this focus on kenpachi strength. Ichigo is still the main character and it's a given that the story needs him to be the strongest. Making Ichigo roll over kenpachi later won't look any better just because of this set up.

You called it but in no way has it been confirmed, she may have resigned because of guilt from forcing someone to grow weaker because she was not stronger than him as a kid and instead went to learn healing in hope to cure his psychological state or some crap like that, but in no way has it been said that Zaraki took over. Neither do we know who won since he had reduced his strength subconsciously while they were fighting for the first time.

True, though he clearly defeated her with at least one witness. The "strongest" title is gone. That might be the pretense for creating the rule of stepping down for being defeated. No other squad does that, but the first makes the precedent. George Washington not seeking a third term created a precedent that has only been broken once, causing it to be codified in the law.



It's clear to me that he won, but did the same thing he did with Ikkaku, that is letting her live so that they can fight again. It's the first and most important of the "shackles" he placed on himself. He also refused to kill Nnoitra at first as well.

She was pretty messed up in one of those scenes, so the only way I can see for her to eke out a victory would be to "pull an Ichigo" ... and the only ones who can do that are the humans, Rukia, and Renji. Edit: OH, and Zaraki himself, as he did against Komamura and Tousen when fighting both bankais at once.