OK, so episode 223… that was weird. Is that something that happens in the manga at some point? Because the anime has never shown Ichigo in a full Hollow form like that before…
It did, yeah. And it was shown in the anime, way back when he went through his Vizard training. (something like episode 123 or 124)
Right before he finally conquered his hollow, he took that form in the real world. It was only around for a brief period, though. It even crumbled away in the same fashion.
This is reminiscent of what happened in the Bount arc where Ichigo briefly went Hollow and it was more or less a copy of what happened in the Byakuya fight, complete with Ichigo telling his hollow side to GTFO and ripping the mask off.
Heh… I can be excused for not remembering something that happened over 100 episodes ago. 8p
Why did the main bad guy (forgot his name) pull Zangetsu out of Ichigo but didn’t do it with the other captains? Logistics aside, you’d think he’d use the same method on Ichigo.
Yeah, Lex. That’s one thing that stood out to me too as being rather odd.
If the method of extracting the zanpakutou was that invasive, why didn’t anyone else notice before then? I’d think that would be something they would be able to feel happening. If he had some other method to do it discretely, why not use THAT instead? Maybe he was just in a hurry, worried Ichigo would flee back to the real world before Muramasa could work his influence on Zangetsu or something. But either way it was kind of odd.
I think it’s because Ichigo was the only one who was in the real world when Muramasa worked his mojo. He had to act pretty much instantly, whereas he had plenty of time with the others.
After the last episode I think I can guess what the arc is about. [SPOILER]Muramasa frees the other Zanpaktous because since he killed his wielder he’s been getting weaker and wants to find out why. Because the other Zanpaktou’s aren’t experiencing this he suspects it has something to do with residing within the wielder’s soul.
Since he’s shown an intrusive and a discreet method of extracting the Zanpaktous and an intrusive method of entering the wielder’s soul, he probably has a discreet method of entering the wielder undetected. Using this discreet method he’s tried to join with a wielder but unsuccessfully so far.
After encountering Ichigo, who has two souls within him other than his own, he realizes if he can kill either Zangetsu or the Hollow, he can take its place.[/SPOILER]
Wow, those are pretty shrewd guesses.
I quite liked the fights this time round, they were over fairly quickly and were marginally more interesting than usual, since it was more personal. It’s not Avatar, but it’s also further away from DBZ than usual.
Wow, episode 239 was actually… good. First time in a very very long time that something was actually emotional without Narm. I really like how the different Zanpakuto all have different relationships with their masters and each other. And it finally showed how Shinigami are chosen in the first place.
Shame it had to be Toushirou, though, does anybody else get any development?
This is pretty much the whole series.
I would hope Kenpachi gets more development. I think I remember Yama-ji commenting on how he can hear Kanpachi’s Zanpaktou calling out nd wanting his name to be heard.
I dunno, Kenpachi is badass, but I don’t find his backstory remotely interesting. I’d like to see more information about, say, Soi Fong, Unahana, Kyoraku, some of the vice-captains we barely know anything about… and what the hell happened to Ganjuu and his one-armed sister?
As an aside, I downloaded the full version of Shoujo S (the current intro song) and damn, it’s really good. The singer has an awesome voice and although I have no idea what the words mean, I just really like the sound of the syllables.
Shame about the actual animation of the intro, though; it’s like the three of them are strippers but with all their clothes on.
Who’s Zanpaktou is the one that shoots purple lightning? They mentioned the guy’s name but I can’t put a face to it.
Purple lightning? O_o Doesn’t ring a bell.
Btw, anyone took a look at the third movie, Fade to Black? I thought it was okay… better than the second but not as good as the first.
It’s Gonryomaru or something like that. If it doesn’t ring a bell that’s half the joke. It’s the zanpakuto that belongs to the lieutenant of the 1st division, ie: Yamamoto’s direct subordinate (the OTHER old guy that everyone forgets about).
Sad thing is, despite how much of a non-presence that character is we STILL know the name of his zanpakuto where Iba’s is still a mystery.
The guy with the little pencil moustache, right?
There’s still a bunch of people who we’ve seen but have never seen in action… Yachiru, the 4th squad lieutenant (that tall woman with the pinkish hair), Mayuri’s clone-daughter… Kubo likes to focus on the boring characters. X-X
You’re right. They even made Ukitake and Kyoraku’s Zanpakuto guard Yamaji’s, sidestepping the need to explain dual blade wielders. Except for Hisagi’s, of course.
Heh, Spoony, both of your points were lampshaded in the last episode. Iba did the voice over where he refused to say the name of his zanpakuto, and Soi Fong couldn’t recognize the zanpakuto of the pencil-moustache guy - and his “reason” for rebelling is precisely because he’s so bland nobody can remember him. 8p
Well either I’m brilliant, or the jokes in Bleach are just that predictable.
Anyway, this week’s episode began a new opening and ending sequence which suggests this filler arc is lasting for at least another season. There wasn’t a hint of the manga canon story in the opening (similar to the fourth opening in the middle of the Bount arc), so we’ll have to deal with Muramasa and his emo tears of blood for 20-ish episodes at least.
Seriously. The opening begins with him flinging away some of his bloody tears in an exaggerated motion. But with those fingernails of his it’s hard to imagine any of his hand gestures not being exaggerated.
Yeah. Ouch. How can he do things like pick stuff up?