Bleach Thread

[Adamant soul]

Shinji's Bankai confirmed to appear in the anime? That's neat I guess.
Gives it SOMETHING at least, even if Rukia's Bankai will still inevitably be the highlight of this section of the arc.

Probably not gonna be enough to save it, especially with at least one actual 0/10 episode already being confirmed (it's in the trailer after all) but we have to take what we can get.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

You always come off so pessimistic lol.
It is something to actually bring in Shinji's Bankai during the War and not in CFYOW(I'm guessing Kubo decided to tweak it due to how unbelievably crap it is) but I do like how they are actually making the Vandenreich as an actual Military group like the Seiretei and Las Noches and expand a little more into them.

They are also looking like they will also go further in on Ichigo's training as well but it won't completely suffocate Part 2.
The main thing to hope for is that there's more expansion in the fight scenes and actual feedback into making it all work.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Apparently the Trailers has a quick flashback showing Tokinada...
So it definitely proves that CFYOW is canon to Kubo but it's still not certain if that arc will ever be adapted to the anime and how different it will be.

 

[Adamant soul]

You always come off so pessimistic lol.

Hey I went into Cour 1 with the same pessimistic expectations and ended up enjoying it far more than I thought I would.

It's just made worse here because I because of the Komamura shit and several elements of this cour being not so great to say the least.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Okay so the first Episode of Part 2 aired and it seems like there is a big difference from the jump already:

So apparently Ichigo DID try and leave early but the Squad didn't want him to as he still isn't strong enough yet to fight Yhwach even now...
So it's definitely an interesting reason why he didn't just peace out faster and why Rukia, Renji and Byakuya went down before he did.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

The prerelease screening of cour 2 is going on in Japan right now, so I thought I would make a thread to gather some of the info that's coming out on Twitter.

• People are overall very impressed with what they saw. The animation looks amazing as expected and the voice acting is good.
• The two episodes cover 9 chapters. Probably ending on 551.
• There's a lot of new scenes in even just these two episodes. Ichigo training with Ichibei, extension of Toshiro and Bazz-B's fight and something with Omaeda have been confirmed.

I really don't care about Japanese VA as long as they truly impress me so whatever, nice on the animation being great. 9 Chapters per Episode is good enough, better than going One Piece speed or rushing through it like Inuyasha: Final Act. So there was 2 episodes shown and apparently there is alot more new scenes than just the one that was mentioned before with Toshirou and Bazz having an extended fight and maybe even Omaeda has an extra fight scene with BG9?
BG9 is one of the most neglected Sternritter and Sui-Feng absolutely needs to get something from this arc than just being worfed and tossed aside.

• The Bambi "sex" scene is confirmed to be there.

HAHAHAHAHAHA... I remember people bitched hardcore about the fanservice being gone(Though the issue is that most of it was just gag scenes that didn't add anything) from the 1st Cour so I guess the studio made sure to soothe people's worries

• There is more use 3D than in cour 1, but I don't see people being negative about it, at least.

3D alone isn't bad at all, it's how it's used and how well it's implemented that is the key.

• In the talk after the screening Kubo said that there will be multiple extra scenes with the bambietta and extra stuff with Ukitake in cour 3. Both these are probably big considering they are being mentioned already. Might be flashbacks for both.
• There's some screens from the first episode and info on the new ED here: https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1687676487

Now THAT is interesting. Bambietta getting extra scenes could mean more of her fight with Komamura, potential backstory and/or seeing her true personality that she hides with her bitch aura that CFYOW brought up.
Also, Ukitake absolutely needs something major as his biggest issue is that his only major thing in the final arc... is basically his death. Give him a fight, show his Bankai, something.

 

[Adamant soul]

New Bleach MOBILE game trailer.

 

[Ral]

New Bleach MOBILE game trailer.

Suddenly I had flashbacks of Bleach: Heat the Soul for some reason

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

New Bleach MOBILE game trailer.

The gameplay reminds me of Punishing: Grey Raven which is a great thing.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Okay so First Episode Review is a go:

The first scene with Yhwach's Origin is both something we knew and surprisingly new at points(So Yhwach was born naturally, not just appeared in the wild like we first thought... but he literally absorbed his mother after that) and we see a really cool shot of hundreds of hands touching baby Yhwach just to get absorbed and fuel him which I gotta say is actually very effective.

The OP is... actually pretty nice. The Song is catchy but ok and while the Opening itself is weird(As it's not a typical action OP), it still parallels everything that will happen in the arc.

While the basics are the same(There are no fully revamped scenes), they add in alot of extra context Kubo didn't do before(For instance, we barely get anything from the type of training Ichigo, Rukia, Renji and Byakuya go through, it's explicitly stated by Ichibei that he's still not strong enough to tango with Yhwach and he "has to go beyond the level of a Soul Reaper" to do so, we get a scene that has Shunsui actually question Ichibei's motivations for taking Ichigo, showing that while he will do the fucked up thing, he's not a fan of doing it to Ichigo at all). It only sucks we still get nothing with Chad and Orihime though outside of their bare scenes of them stating they are training and after that.
While we do get a bit more into the context of the Schatten Briech, it's still not much either which is also a minus. The effect of it overriding the Soul Society is A+ though.

Ultimately, I will give the episode 7/10. It's obviously not action and the calm before the storm and while they did add extra context here and there, I wish they would show more and revamp some scenes entirely(Show Chad and Orihime train or even fight off some of the remaining Quincy in Heuco Muendo, show an extra scene of the Stern Ritter chillin' and being human like releasing that Omake of Bambietta trying to ask Haschwalth for a pay raise in disguise of Holiday money, actually state why Ishida survived Aushwalen(I think this may be stated later though considering I know people have asked Kubo questions like that and he basically deferred to the Anime). But it's not bad overall for what it's setup to be and everything else was still fine.

 

[Adamant soul]

Episode was a 6/10, not as good as last season's opener, but what can you do when the episode's all dialogue and establishing people training without actually showing any of it.

Still waiting on that explanation for how Uryu survived Auswalen, since they only teased it here and Bazz B's reaction STILL doesn't make a lick of sense give his backstory and true motivation for being there in the first place.

At least we have Ichibei confirming no mere Soul Reaper can defeat Mustache (at least present Mustache anyway), almost certainly confirming himself as transcendent as well.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Episode 15 is a 7/10

Not much changed outside of discussing the fact that the Sternritter who stole Bankai are tasked with killing their wielders to destroy morale(Which honestly makes more sense than just being poetic) and Mareyo wasn't gored by BG9(Which I guess Kubo decided it was too cheap for that to happen, especially for Omeda).
Otherwise, it was basically 4-5 chapters put into one episode fine... but it makes sense as these was never going to get major shakeups.

 

[Adamant soul]

7/10 better than last week's episode for sure.

I do kind of have to admit that I never looked up Soi Fon vs BG9 so I never actually saw the stuff with Omaeda and his sister. Which I thought was super nice and that extra point was largely won by the big guy's giga chad moment of taking the strike for his sister, good on ya Omaeda. Now if only this was on a character who mattered more in the grand scheme of things.

Bazz vs Toshiro went about as well as it could have done and now I want to see BG9 get wrecked for even thinking about threatening the sister.

Unfortunately HE (having already assassinated and buried his much better cousin off-screen) is either going to show up at the end of the next episode or the start of the one after (especially with Bambietta giving the preview line). Either way that 0/10 episode is 2 weeks away at most at this rate.

and Mareyo wasn't gored by BG9(Which I guess Kubo decided it was too cheap for that to happen, especially for Omeda).

WHAT?

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

WHAT?

Yeah in the Manga, she actually got gored by BG9 to basically get Omeda to talk where Soi-Fon was or he would remove the tentacle and she would bleed out.
I can see this change being Tite Kubo realizing how it's too brutal even for him and to inflict on Omeda so it was changed to him defending his sister when BG9 finally tried it.

 

[Adamant soul]

Yeah in the Manga, she actually got gored by BG9 to basically get Omeda to talk where Soi-Fon was or he would remove the tentacle and she would bleed out.
I can see this change being Tite Kubo realizing how it's too brutal even for him and to inflict on Omeda so it was changed to him defending his sister when BG9 finally tried it.

Yeah that's a good change, having the sister get hurt is needless given how the scene plays out and this way Omaeda gets a few points as a character.

Now if they wouldn't mind changing it so that Soi Fon actually sends that useless Nazi sack of crap tin to the scrap heap (preferably after a schrift reveal) for even thinking about hurting that little girl, that would be nice.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Yeah that's a good change, having the sister get hurt is needless given how the scene plays out and this way Omaeda gets a few points as a character.

Now if they wouldn't mind changing it so that Soi Fon actually sends that useless Nazi sack of crap tin to the scrap heap (preferably after a schrift reveal) for even thinking about hurting that little girl, that would be nice.

I mean, she does ultimately defeat him but yeah, we do need atleast a better change for her and what his Schrift is exactly(Like it's pretty obvious it's Knowledge but it's better to figure out WHAT it is too).

 

[Adamant soul]

I mean, she does ultimately defeat him but yeah, we do need atleast a better change for her

Yeah I don't want him just getting lolexecuted, in fact if the team kills on the part of the Nazis could be kept to a minimum, it would go a fare way towards salvaging something here.

Especially if Soi Fon isn't gonna get to do anything else, then just have her be the one that kills him.

and what his Schrift is exactly(Like it's pretty obvious it's Knowledge but it's better to figure out WHAT it is too).

Yeah hopefully the fight just continues post-Bankai retrieval and he gets it shown before he goes down.

 

[Adamant soul]

5/10 It does some good things, it does some bad things and the end result is just kind of meh

The Bankai retrieval scene is good but BG9 not revealing his schrift and neither actually being killed by Soi Fon or Toshiro is crap, 'cause it means we're sticking to the stupid team kill for no reason.

Shinji showing off his Bankai and getting to troll Bambietta for a bit longer is nice and cool and all, but it's spoiled by Discount Tosen showing up even momentarily and Vollstanding still looks lame with only a couple exceptions.

Ichigo finding out about the Soul King's past would pretty much necessitate a massive change to the ending as there's no way Ichigo's going to be okay with that shit.

 

[Xhominid The Apex]

Honestly, I'm going to give this episode an 8/10

There are ALOT of little moments in the Anime that are new and actually surprised me seeing them outside of the typical(We see that Mayuri and Squad 12 is trying to fuck up the Vandenreich's Communications and screw them over in kind, the Leiutenants are struggling more often with the Soldat and fighting their own battles than it just being implied, Komamura was explicitly heading for Yhwach but still has enough control to help out others, etc.).
EDIT: They also go well out of their way of explaining how the Medallions work, that they should be stealing Ressurcions too as they explicitly recruited Arrancar Quincy but don't, why they most likely can't and otherwise. It's actually far better than the manga in that it feels like it skipped too much going into that explanations even for Urahara and Mayuri.

Shinji's Bankai was beautifully done without it being wanked in excess or weakened to so it can make more sense(And it still keeps it's sinister undertones like in the Novel like he waited till all of his current Squad near him was dead in the same way that he wanted Hikone to be in it too so he can be slaughtered alongside Tokinada) and he actually fucks with Bambietta a hell of alot more and show how screwed you are if you aren't someone like Aizen.
EDIT: I forgot they gave us a bit more of Hitsugaya vs. Cang Du which ended way too fast and made him come off like a scrub.

The biggest shift is Ichigo actually learning about the Soul King's past(Which is absolutely looking like it's going to be a massive shift in that direction) and also beginning to show that Ichibei planned on making him it's replacement at the same time. So Kubo is absolutely adding in elements from CFYOW as he stated himself, he wanted to add these elements in the Final Arc but his failing health stopped him from doing so.

 

[Adamant soul]

3/10 It was about as bad as I expected, Nanao-chan keeping Haschwalth at bay and the last Ichigo scene gave it a couple points.

The only thing I feel like a "winner" about is the Clan Elder specifying that the ritual "grants immense power", confirming once and for all that Discount Tosen is indeed MUCH stronger than Sajin Komamura on top of being immortal.

Now we're only two, maybe three episodes away from the real highlight of this arc, but at least we're passed the absolute worst part of it (still bad shit to come, just nothing as bad as this).