"Leap Year!" Thursday February 28th, 2008

I will preface this entire rant by saying this was almost the way I ended this chapter. My original script had left this as the last chapter before I added one last comic to kind of ease the shock of the last panel. Just how much you learn about the situation in the last comic of chapter 5, I won't say. What I will say is that it will feature the return of a character some of you may not even recognize.

As for the art, I think there wasn't anything that really stuck out for me during the process of this comic. They'll definitely be more to talk about in the last comic of Chapter 5.

In other news, I finally broke down and read Bleach. I started on Wednesday afternoon and finished around 5 in the morning. I think that's around 311 chapters. I'd give it an overall B+. It definitely wasn't as good as Naruto, but it had its moments. I think Kubo's very skilled in drawing cool designs for his characters. The story was actually pretty good until the most recent arc. I like the enemies and the natural progression of the story, but the reason for the immediate arc was pretty much the reason for the last arc just with a different character. C'mon. As advertised, the Bankai moves are pretty damn sweet. Despite my problems with the current arc, I do think it's a solid title and while it doesn't stray too far from the action manga standards, it does meet those standards exceedingly well.

One last Bleach related comment is that the second opening of Bleach probably sneaks into my Top 5 Anime Openings. The disappointing thing is that beyond the second opening, the rest of the Bleach openings have been lackluster. The songs are alright, especially AKFG, but they just don't match up to the awesomeness of the second opening. I guess that just goes to show what a hell of a job the people doing the D. Gray-man openings are doing.

Also got the Nana inspired Ana Tsuchiya album. I have to say I am enjoying it greatly. It's definitely JPop/JRock, but it's rare to see the J Ladies  delve into JRock at all. There are one or two songs I am not completely sold on, but they actually might grow on me. The songs used for the Nana openings Rose and Lucy are standouts. My current favorite songs on the album is Taste My Skin and Kuroi Namida. If you're a fan of the genre and you like good female vocals then definitely check it out.

Alright kiddos, it's time to end this with a Bleach themed Top5 list and I will see you back here next week with the last comic of Chapter 5 and a large news post to go with it.

River's Top 5 Favorite Bleach Characters
1. Toshiro Hitsugaya (as if I wouldn't be a fan of a guy with a similiar weapon to Yuki's)
2. Inoue Orihime
3. Kurosaki Ichigo
4. Kenpachi Zaraki
5. Kon