Bleach Thread

Looks like Uryu's going to be the one to defeat Shutara.
Presumably they're going to reveal both A schrifts at the same time.

Just give Ukitake SOMETHING before he bites it, that's all I ask.
And if Aizen MUST show up, at least have him do more.

I didn't do my review yesterday so I'll do it today so it won't be as indepth:

10/10 for both episodes, absolutely the best episodes of the entire Cour. It fixes one of the hugest problems with the Final Arc(The blustering of Squad Zero just for them to be defeated offscreen outside of Ichibe) by having them be fully worthy of their status by even having Uryu and Haschwalth fight them but also get absolutely destroyed by them.
While there isn't anything added in for Ichibei vs. Yhwach, there was no need to really add anything(Outside of having Yhwach use Auschwalen here which honestly flows better) meanwhile the Schutzstaffel in Volstandigt ultimately comes off superior to Squad Zero, we STILL end it off with Squad Zero showing they are absolute bullshit on toast and potentially at the 3rd Cour why Uryu is chosen as Yhwach's successor.

Like it cannot be understated how much I like these two episodes and I'm absolutely going to rewatch them when I can.

Really should be putting this stuff in here... more bullshit about Senjumaru's Bankai that includes you actually getting inflicted with what she does to you in there... OOF.
That means that Uryu was actually Auschwalen'd which explains why he survived since he's immune to it.

Additional note - The transformation being referenced here is Hollowfication, not Complete Hollowfication.

So yeah, this 100% means the mask of his Hollowfication is the same mask as H2. He would not adopt his H2 form in its entirety, his Hollowfication is only the mask.

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Okay, so apparently, Ichigo's H2 Form was always meant to look like the form Hollow Ichigo looks like before he fused with Tensa Zangetsu:


However, the way I'm reading this heavily implies the Mask that Ichigo gets after he defeats Ulquirroa actually did in fact boost him to his H2 version either way(Since it's ultimately no different than what Hollow Ichigo has) and...
Remember what happened when he went against Aizen

So the Blu-Ray came in with more details about Season 2, none of them are hugely major, just explaining how they wanted to do certain things(Like show that Haschwalth really is Yhwach's "Shadow King" when he sleeps), Kubo wanting to actually do the scenes where Ichigo trained with Ichibei but apparently he wouldn't be able to fit it with the Soul Reapers fighting(I believe Kubo is stating this out of his ass... but at the same time, I can slightly believe it?)

The images Ichigo witnesses while walking on the Irazusando path are very important as they shall be explained later on, in the remaining seasons. We would be very grateful if you could rewatch the Irazusando memories and what happens to Ichigo's eyes. Rather than being 'sacred' as it seems, the pathway of Irazusando is actually 'cursed', but we did not tell the rest of the animation team this, because we felt they would consider it too dark. The training ground is supposed to give an impression of a very old, abandoned, decrepit and terrifying shrine. As the story would become very 'scary', we somehow managed to balance the terrifying aspect with 'beauty'.
Kubo-Sensei made sure that we could depict the Irazusando road as an 'Inka hall'. 'Inka' means a philosophical 'seal' in which obtaining the seal is considered to be the highest form of understanding of one's innermost soul. 'Inka' translates to 'transmission' in which a student receives his teacher's philosophies. Here, Ichigo's zen buddhist teacher is the monk, and Ichigo obtains the seal from Ichibe Hyosube. The status of Ichigo's soul has been uplifted. In the same context as the training area under Urahara's shop, the path of Irazusando is underneath the monk's sitting ground. As one walks through the Irazusando road, they are not supposed to look at the stone path, but focus on the torii-gate instead. Ichigo suffered because his gaze was on the stone. The heavier his steps became, the torii-gate turned whiter and whiter. Originally, the torii-gate was black, the essence of Ichibe Hyosube. The rain that falls outside makes the body decay, so if Ichigo had strayed off the road, his body would have rotted away.

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So it confirms what we already knew in that the Soul King's backstory has been massively changed and will factor into the story of the anime this time. It also just basically beats you over the head that Ichibei is one fucked up dude, for real.

Rukia:-

I asked Kubo-Sensei about Rukia's Bankai because I didn't understand why her appearance changes. So Kubo-Sensei explained that an icy aura emanates from her blade similar to the first dance 'Tsukishiro' and pierces her through the centre. That's why it has been called a dangerous Bankai. And that's also why there's the word for 'punishment' in her Bankai.

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Yeah basically, it's hard to see if Rukia's Bankai will ever be truly "safe" for her because holy fuck, that's a pretty fucked up Bankai for the enemy and the user alike.

Wandenreich:-

We wanted to add a scene in which the highest-ranking member of the Sternritters, Jugram Haschwalth calls everyone to order. This was done to show how cold the faction was. We had Haschwalth sit on a throne, explaining very clearly that what they had to do was 'break the souls of the Shinigami'. We also wanted to highlight how powerful Jugram Haschwalth is as a commander. This scene has been portrayed to stand at par with the meetings called by Yama-jii and Aizen. It was not fan-service.

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So Haschwalth is their equivalent to Yamamoto? That's... honestly a surprise, I know it doesn't mean powerwise(Though he WAS able to withstand Yamamoto's Bankai heat) but it just further shows the hierarchy of the Sternritters being similar yet not to the Seiretei.