A Fine-tooth Plot Comb vs Fan Dumb! An in-depth Bleach liveblog
Chapter 203: Mala Suerte! 2: El Monstruo
So… this chapter is mostly just Ikkaku fighting Edrad. Parsing it for plot points, Arrancar has tough skin, but strong enough attacks can still hurt them. Yumichika explains that he’s not going to help because of how much Ikkaku loves 1 on 1 fights, despite the fact that he knows this could get him killed. Edrad has an ability where he charges his reiatsu in his hand, and he realizes that Ikkaku’s batshit, so decides to kill him quickly by releasing,
which turns him into this.
Chapter 204: Mala Suerte! 3: Monstruo Sangrienta
Why hello, Grimmjow. Apparently, he’s a completely different level from Di Roy,
which isn’t particularly surprising given that Di Roy was a failure and Grimmjow seems to be the boss Grimmjow asks which one of them is stronger, and then beats Rukia is a single attack. Ichigo charges in, and we cut over to Edrad giving exposition.
So apparently, Arrancar’s ‘hollow’ form and a good deal of their power are sealed inside their swords, and releasing, or Resurrection as they call, causes said power and form to return to them. So Edrad, for example, now has the ability to shoot out a giant beam of fire. Yumichika lets SS know that the battles are about to get crazier, and tells them to start preparing for Ikkaku’s funeral.
Shows a lot of faith in him, doesn’t he? Ikkaku ‘is’ losing rather badly, though, and using his shikai doesn’t help things. Edrad tells him to give up, but Ikkaku doesn’t go for it, so boom. Ikkaku, however, is still alive, and pulls a bankai out of nowhere.
The titles mean ‘the monster’ and ‘bloody monster’, respectively. One might be temped to think that Edrad is the monster referred to here, since he ends up looking pretty monstrous, but since ‘he’s’ not the one that gets bloody in the second chapter, I’m inclined to say that ‘monster’ is a bit more metaphorical, and is referring to the one who’s ‘acting’ like a monster. About the Resurrection; the names have a little trick to them that’s actually pretty clever: they mean one thing in Japanese and another in Spanish, but both meanings are relevant. In particular, Edrad’s ‘Volcanica’ is ‘volcanic’ in Spanish and ‘volcanic beast’ in Japanese. It’s a weird little relationship Ikkaku and Yumichika have, by the way. Yumichika showed no signs of wanting to step in despite clearly acknowledging the possibility that his friend might be killed; and despite the fact that he ‘knew’ Ikkaku had a bankai, he shows no signs of expecting Ikkaku to actually use it, but rather seemed to expect Ikkaku to die without using it.
12th Dec 10