New Bleach filler...

…actually looks like it might be moderately interesting.

Mostly nowadays I fast-forward through most of the anime so I get the salient points without the pointless yammering (generally it takes me about 4 minutes to watch an episode). The last little while has been “5 episodes of giant fight, some filler, more episodes of same giant fight, more filler, etc.” I generally like the filler more than the fights because it usually goes back to the real world, where the interesting stuff happens. There was a beach episode recently which was actually pretty hilarious.

Anyway, the latest episode kicks off a new filler arc that looks like it might be cool - the Zanpakuto all take human form and rebel against the Shinigami. New supervillain revealed immediately, and it might actually be neat to see the kind of conflict that this will entail.

I haven’t watched a full episode of Bleach in months, but I decided to watch this one through.

It might prove to be interesting, I foresee it’ll be about 13 episodes. Unless they pull a surprise and make it last 45 like the Bount filler. For now, it could be promising. So far I like it a hell of a lot more than the one with Princess-Princess, Captain Lightweight, and Grandpa Monkeyface.

I’m in no real rush to get to the part of the manga that follows this anyway, because it’s not all that different from what we were just watching. The Ichigo and Ulquiorra fight has a few interesting moments, but at the end it was just so unsatisfying that it really hurt my interest in the series. Maybe once this war-arc finally ends and the characters have a chance to take a breather and a new story starts, we’ll see. But this has really just been never-ending fighting since going into Hueco Mundo.

One thing I thought was funny was how it just happened that the Zanpakuto affected included Rukia, Ikkaku and his pretty-boy pal whose name I can never remember (since they’re major characters) and not Kenpachi (whose Zanpakuto was never named) nor Yachiru (who we’ve never seen fight, let alone use a sword). Just the slightest of handwaves there. 8p

Nanao and Nemu’s were also absent (Well, assuming Nemu has one, would Mayuri even be so generous?). That’s not too surprising, Kubo probably has SOMETHING in mind for them for much later on… or at the very least he figures he wants to keep them wrapped in some mystery so that when he eventually does figure out what they really are later on it’ll be more surprising and interesting.

Eeehhhh, I’ve gotten kinda cynical about Bleach lately. It’s just been so depressing catching up on both Bleach and One Piece chapters every week. One Piece consistently delivers relevant chapters where there are rarely throwaway filler chapters, an interesting story and a creative world week after week. And Bleach… well it just gives me more energy and speedlines.

You are a far more resilient man than me. After LOL SCRATCH NUMBER, I’ve stopped reading but kept somewhat updated hearing people talk about it. The current setting is pretty much everything I loathe about how Bleach handles fighting: Slow, one-by-one duels with everyone else just standing there for no strategic purpose making it blatantly clear that the fights progress as they do only because they are in a shonen manga instead of an actual battle.

[SPOILER]Old dude and Aizen’s “Let’s see who can do stand there do less” contest has been going on for months, Captain Tuberculosis still fails at doing anything, Ice Brat has mastered the art of Plot Kai and the “sudden” (Read: We’ve known it was coming since a year ago) appearance of the Vaizards seems to have changed very little, all the while our great hero is still in Hueco Mexico having what’s left of his personality drained and replaced by Yusuke Urameshi’s, everyone else is still… there, Orihime is an annoying bitch, Chad is fucking useless and Tatsuki is all but forgotten.

I’m just waiting for the Vaizard-Shinigami combo to ALSO get trashed just so Issei can come and save them. And later him getting trashed so Urahara can save them. After which Aizen will reveal this has all been part of his plan, that the princess is in another castle and that he’s kidnapping Don Kanonji, after which Ichigo will gather a ragtag band of friends and proceed to take the fight to the heavens/hells/cybertron/australia. Rinse, repeat, shoot yourself in the balls.[/SPOILER]

Those watermelon monsters were pretty scary in the beach episode. :hahaha;

The Bount Arc has actually been my favorite part of the series, thus far. This arc looks like it’ll be pretty cool if only because we’ll be seeing the artists mess around and be creative as to what the Zanpaktou personalities look like. Note to self: Ponder why the filler of a series might be the most entertaining part of it.

Well Bleach was decent, if not actually GOOD, up until the end of the SS arc. Then the Bount arc came along and I didn’t much care for it, because until then my opinion of the series was still pretty high.

But then we got into this excessively long and recycled arc we’re STILL in now (it’s been, what, THREE YEARS?) and my opinion of the series has really dropped. So in a way, yeah, I kinda am looking forward more to this filler arc than the canon story.

Sis and I gave up on Bleach during the Bount arc. We watched that to the end just for the pleasure of seeing those excruciatingly annoying asses die. I think we both really gave up the moment when they opened that portal with a magical chant in “German”. The pronounciation was laughable and the grammar, well… as I recall it, the guy said “open portal and let our Bount in”.

Wow! I didn’t even make it that far. [STRIKE]Once that first chick died I was done with it.[/STRIKE]

Actually now that I think about it, the REAL reason I stopped was because ASs switched the airing times so that it ran concurrent with Doctor Who. Guess which one won.

After seeing the second episode of this filler, I’m surprised to find myself more interested in this arc now than I am the current manga arc. It’s… kind of sad.

Though I’m disappointed Ichigo is running off to save the day (again). I remember reading the initial announcement of this filler arc, which stated Ichigo would not be appearing in it, and we’d have Zangetsu instead. Either they backpedaled on that decision (filler arc - main character = bad ratings), or what they meant by that is that Ichigo won’t be the one that ultimately saves the day. I guess we’ll see.

I admit, I was kinda hoping for this to be a chance for the Chad/Ishida/Orihime trio (well… duo minus the last part, really) to play a significant role, what with their lack of Zanpakutous. But I guess that was being far too optimistic.

Yeah that would defeat the purpose of having a shonen series based around the competition of who can press their blade against the other guy hardest. No blades != Blade Beams and therefor != pwnage.

I would have thought the store owner’s sword would have been affected as well since the main bad guy can sense Zangetsu awakening in the real world and the store owner was revealed to be a former captain. But who knows, maybe the reason will present itself shortly.

You’re giving them too much credit if you expect anything but a handwave. Urahara has yet to do anything at all with his sword, a filler arc can’t go and reveal what its propieties are.

When Ichigo was training to infiltrate Soul Society, I believe, he revealed his Zanpaktou was named Benihani (sp?) and could cut other Zanpaktous. It could also shoot a beam similar to a Cero.

I definitely remember the name, but not much else.

The training was when Ichigo took Rukia’s powers and his blade had been broken somehow so he was only left with an inch of blade and the hilt. While fighting against Urahara, even more was cut off when Urahara revealed his sword’s abilities. I think it was this time Ichigo used Gensuga Tenshou the first time and it was countered by Benihani’s beam.

When the Arrancar invaded Karakura Town, Urahara saved Chad, Ishida and Orohime by deflecting a Cero with the beam. he then said it was similar to a Cero.

Does anyone know whose Zanpaktou is the girly with the giant bells that shoot fire? It can’t figure it out…

Also, now that the second episode is proving to be as interesting as the first (ie. the Zanpaktou are stronger than their corresponding shinigami?), I’m looking forward to more of the arc.

It’s Hinamori’s, I believe. Tobiume or whatever. It shoots balls of fire, anyway.

Is really Bleach a nice anime series? Many of my friends are watching that but I can’t manage myself to watch that too. I’m still hooked on Naruto Shippuuden. But I’m planning to watch Bleach but I don’t know when and where. Are all episodes of this anime in youtube or anywhere else? I see the characters from boys to girls and they looked colorful and wonderful in their costumes. What about the battle scenes? Are they better than Naruto Shippuuden’s? Hmmm… I better see it for myself, right? Is it worth my time watching that anime? Hehe

I want more fucking Ishida. Bleach has sucked since the Soul Society arc and the most epic part of the entire anime/manga was easily when Ishida removed his sanrei glove and went into his Final Form or whatever and destroyed a captain like it was nothing.