Anime

Chris Walden

Hunter x Hunter Episode 48

We get a short break from all of that fighting to see Gon, Killua and Leorio trying to raise money to buy Greed Island. Gon notices that several items for sale have nen auras, so they plan to locate and purchase them to try and make a profit. A man known as Zepile seems to have the same idea, and is also bidding on the same items. Luckily with the two of them able to see nen, they manage to win three of the four items they tried bidding on. 

Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed Zepile in the shows ending for some time, so you could tell immediately that he was a character of significance. How he'll factor into later episodes I don't know, but the guy seems nice enough to want around. Being able to sell items for Gon and Killua doesn't exactly seem like a role that'll be needed for too much longer, but hey, who knows. 

Looks like the trio are ready to hunt some Phantom Troupe members. Let's see how that goes, but I fear it's not going to go very well. 

[Hunt for this show on Crunchyroll!]

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Episode 566

What's interesting in all of the fights in this arc is how they've had to make the Strawhats a bit weaker than they appeared in the manga. On paper, Luffy took a couple critical hits from Hordy, but he was easily able to defeat the Fishman. Hell, Zoro was handily able to take Hordy out with one simple blow. In both cases, the fights have been extended, probably to fill out time. It works on-screen, but it's still worth noting.

Anyway, Luffy and Hordy scrap it out. Luffy takes another critical bite while Hordy babbles about being chosen by heaven. Pretty standard stuff by this point. Hordy uses some water attacks against Luffy. The rubber man activates Gear Third, boosts it with haki and pins Hordy agains the wall. Luffy then activates his other arm, boosts it with haki and proceeds to use Elephant Gatling to crush Hordy and destroy Noah.

On solid land, the Strawhats begin to finish off their fights. My favorite ending belonged to Brook's ice cold finale. I've always dug Brook's combat style and it's only gotten better. The episode ends with all the battles complete and with Luffy's decisive win against Hordy.

[Sail over to Funimation for more One Piece goodness!]

Manga

Josh Tolentino

Bleach chapter 509

Wait...what? What? WHAT?!?!?!?!

Four theories:

1. It's a decoy. He hasn't revealed his true power yet.
2. Second Form incoming.
3. It's a Decoy version 2, the real king of the Quincies is about to arrive, and Uryuu will somehow be involved.
4. This whole storyline is yet another 'effing boondoggle that will raise more questions and answer virtually none. It's had that trait since the beginning, since the Quincies have barely anything to do with recent events in Soul Society anyway. It's practically filler. Filler that makes Yamamoto look awesome and may actually kill a major character (Pffft), but filler nonetheless.

Oh, Bleach! Oh, Tite Kubo!

Naruto chapter 603

Well, now we know where Obito got his first mask design from: Wearing creepy spore-people as clothing. Plus, that singular hole reflected his missing left Sharingan, though he eventually came upon another by the time he became "Tobi".

In any case, we're still in the "Obito is proto-Naruto" portion of the flashback, though things seem to be approaching a head. My prediction will be that he arrives at wherever Rin and Kakashi are just in time to see Rin buy the farm, forever changing his life and turning him into a world-hating jerk. I'd bet money on it.

That predictable stuff aside, I would like to see the point where he starts training his heretofore unique powers. It's implied he used them unconsciously to survive his "death", but so far he's been trying to bust through walls rather than ghost past them.