bleach and stuff

Apparently Tosen isn’t as incompetent as he always was with this new Vizard form of his. I’ll have to admit that the form itself is cool. The eyeless, blank mask really gives the whole transformation an uber-creepy appearance. Also my opinion of Shuhei has changed a little, too. Previously I was of the opinion that he was a total loser who hated to fight because he always lost: I wasn’t even particularly impressed with his fight against that inconsequential fraccion of Barragan’s. But here, if Shuhei was actually able to pin Tosen to the ground, if only for a few moments, while the latter was in his Vizard form, there’s no doubt he really does have some sort of skills. Sadly, or whatever, Tosen appears, again, not to be as useless as I always figured he was. He stabs Shuhei in the chest like a real loser, and now has to face Komamura’s bankai. I’m sure that, since Kubo seems so intent on pushing the Soul Reapers to the limit until the savior of the world Ichigo arrives, Tosen is going to defeat Komamura without even breaking a sweat. On the other hand, I anticipate that Gin’s Vizard form is going to be deadlier than Tosen’s, since even as a Soul Reaper he wasn’t that much of a loser. I mean, even though Hitsugaya appeared to have the upper hand in the little faceoff they had over the whole Momo issue, the fight was really a draw. I was hoping I would get to see more Byakuya action in this chapter, or in absence at least Ichigo’s grand entrance, but got to see neither. This chapter was singularly about Tosen, in other words, not someone to whom I would like to give the privilege of being the fruit of my week-long wait.

On a different note, I played basketball today after over a month. I had stopped because of a chronic pain in my shoulder, which though not severe enough to impede my playing per se, distracted me greatly and occasioned me terrible frustration. Last night, however, as strange as it may sound, I had a dream I was playing basketball, and well to boot, so I decided that maybe I should give it another shot. I’m happy to report that the pain in my shoulder (which may have become fictitious after a little while) did not bother me at all, and if it weren’t for the sun, which was in the direction of the hoop, I’m sure I’d have gotten all my shots in. That isn’t to say that I missed every one of them today: I scored quite a few shots, and good ones, like I never went out of practice or anything. That’s a really gratifying thought.