Anime

Kristina Pino

Fairy Tail Episodes 134-135

Continuing with the fluff arc (and I'm actually, officially caught up with the anime now - yay!), everyone is on the move and getting to the various clock parts.

After some scuffling with Earthland's Sugar Boy (who was finally beaten to a pulp by Gray and company), we saw our heroes gain that one part. Juvia also seems to have acquired a new trauma for her devotion to Gray, which is some confusion over Lyon and his badass-ness. I don't really think it'll steer her away or anything, but it's kind of cute to see her get flustered in a different way. On the other hand, it really felt like the animators were trying to force some more serious scenes for her to diffuse her almost-constant presence as a complete fangirl. I appreciate it, though it did, you know, seem forced.

I'm not even going to tough Gajeel and their part since they haven't done much, but Erza and company are seeing the return of the Jiggle Butt Gang. I actually recently learned that like a lot of background denizens (including Plue) of Fairy Tail, they are visitors from Rave Master. I think it's pretty cool that both the anime and manga versions have incorporated some things from Mashima's previous works, so I guess it makes me hate those characters a little less.

As for Natsu's team, it definitely looks like Lucy is working the Naruto Magic on Coco, while Natsu gets his fight on with this other fanboy dude. He's pretty annoying, mostly because he and the rest of Samuel's goons (except for that chick) are pretty much just chumps. Sugar Boy was a chump, and Coco is basically just a transfer from the Edolas version. And goodness I hate that Ekseed genius character.

I suppose next episode we'll maybe see Natsu's showdown (and finally see if this guy will pull ANY moves besides shooting his shrinking lasers at Natsu and deflecting his magic). The preview promises some Jiggle Butt Gang action as well, so I'm also looking forward to seeing Erza in her full "playing along" glory. Until next time!

[Catch the jiggling action on Crunchyroll, Hulu and FUNimation]

Manga

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Chapter 670 & 671

Not that I thought Luffy would keep to Law's plan for long, but I didn't expect for him to wreck it so fast. Well, Luffy, Robin and Franky come and start laying waste to everything. Smoker takes a swipe at Luffy, but isn't too much of a fight at the moment. Everything is interrupted when the Slime arrives and explodes when it comes into contact with some flame. I'm not talking about a little spark here, I'm talking about some serious ignition here. The Slime was just the warm up for Caesar himself, who show up and begins to monologue. Unfortunately for the unfortunately-named villain, Luffy jumps up and picks a fight with him. Despite a solid initial showing, something in Caesar's gas lays out the rubber man.

Back in the labs, Law ends up having some alone time with Monet the harpy. He draws her away, giving Chopper access to Caesar's labs. While walking down a corridor, Law clutches his chest and collapses. A shadowy figure walks toward the fallen pirate and greets him. It seems that Law recognizes the figure, but we won't know who it is for another two weeks, as One Piece is on break next week. Lovely.

Josh Tolentino

Bleach chapter 496

As expected, the opening bells on the first round of fights ring, but the sound isn't so much that of a bell but of poop hitting a fan. The Soul Reapers are aware of the Quincy's bankai-busting gimmicks, and their apparent solution to the issue is to toss a few Captains out there to get theirs busted, and find a way to deal with it post-facto. It's a little worse than they thought: the Quincy steal, bankai rather than seal them. Given that even non-elite Quincy are capable of absorbing the traits of other peoples' powers (as shown in Ichigo's current battle), it's conceivable that the Soul Reapers will end up fighting their own best powers at some point.

Conveniently, the captains who have had their bankai stolen - Byakuya, Komamura, Hitsugaya, and Soifon - are all ones we've seen before. This could potentially be an awesome occurrence, seeing as the other fighters have not yet shown theirs. Once someone comes up with a workaround to the bankai-buster, it would be wonderful to witness the likes of Ukitake, Kyoraku, Rose or others' powerup modes.

Throw us a bone here, Kubo!