BLEACH: A Blind Review (Part 3) | Soul Society Arc

special thanks to opera gx for sponsoring today's video hello my lovely people and welcome to my review of the soul society particularly its second half last week i covered the beginning and this week we discussed the climax as well as all the narrative tricks kubo implemented to pull this proverbial rabbit out of this narrative hat this arc was enormously fun to read and review so without further ado i'm totally not mark and these are my first impressions of thoughts on and review for an arc that honestly needs no introduction it's the undeniably widely beloved arc that tells the classic hero's journey in a powerful fashion it is of course bleach's soul society the conclusion [Applause] so as many of you might have noticed in the first part of my review for soul society i outlined the introductory plot points that built up to the significant midpoint in the narrative ichigo chooses to accept the call to action at the beginning despite the dangers with him meeting a series of increasingly more difficult physical and introspective challenges helping him to become a more complete individual until he finally makes it to the top of the proverbial mountain or in this case literal tower to achieve the goal he is set out to accomplish to challenge the final boss that stands in his way from rescuing rukia who i am quite literally struggling not to call damsel in distress atop a tower i'm realizing however just as ichigo steps forth to challenge this proverbial dragon in byakuya this is where kubo decides to implement what most writers refer to as a midpoint reversal i've mentioned in this video's intro as well as in this arc's first half that what helps the soul society feel so much more cathartic and complete when compared to something like substitute shinigami which i did also enjoy was its adherence to a more traditional story structure and the implementation of a midpoint reversal further demonstrates this a midpoint reversal is a particular technique an arthur might use to increase the intensity or drama of a particular conflict in the case of bleach's soul society it's ichiko's dramatic arrival and intense confrontation with biakuya this midpoint reversal however is achieved by providing a surprising turnaround to shake up either the status quo our expectations and or the general direction of the story and boy does that happen in bleach but it can be seen in a large variety of anime and western media also pretty much every arc of one piece has this midpoint reversal in alabasta for instance we're introduced to the characters and culture of the island we arrive with a goal and once the halfway point of the journey comes around luffy has the chance to achieve what he set out to do however he wasn't strong enough to fight against croc forcing him to leave and increase his capacity for a second and a third shot upon which he succeeds but it doesn't have to be quite as emphatic as that for a midpoint reversal to be effective it could quite simply be something as passive as what happens in the saiyan saga in the case of that the working plan for the majority of the first half was for goku to receive the training he needs to overcome vegeta and napa on king kai's planet he accepts the call to action and begins to run on snakeway the first of many challenges he will eventually have to overcome on his journey to become powerful enough to defend what he needs to defend during which all the supporting cast and subplots revolve around this particular event with the plan and therefore our expectations being goku will finish his training in time to be there to begin the fight with the saiyans but that's when the midpoint reversal occurs goku has finished his training but not with enough time to coincide his arrival with that of vegeta and napas this by cause and effect injects tension by placing significantly more stress and pressure on the supporting cast to survive this fearsome encounter from another world and these are all just examples i've chosen but in reality this can be seen in almost any story whether it be a book tv program or feature film as long as it adheres to one of the most popular and flexible narrative structures being used today odds are you'll have a midpoint reversal seriously keep it in mind the next time you watch a movie it's almost always there and why wouldn't it be plans going awry tension rising and regrouping are all terrific means of keeping an audience engaged in whatever you're writing to help guide the plot and set up for the big finish in the climax all the while pushing the hero character back down again for him to have to lift himself back up sometimes farther than he ever has to have done so in the past like luffy during alabasta and that's exactly what happens almost beat for beat in the soul society arc which is why i think this arc's pacing is extremely strong in the manga kubo guides us and the characters involved through this story allowing us to believe that we have an idea of what's happening we have a goal and we have a plan to achieve it they then act on that plan and then about halfway through something happens which changes everything watching ichigo genuinely get some blocks in was one of the most cathartic things this manga delivered to me successfully thus far that little smirk right in the face of yakuya was a genuinely brilliant moment the likes of which capitalize on the tension and the scene perfectly alleviating our feelings for a moment before dunking on them moments later later breeders oh yeah mr cat is actually miss cat and you guys must have loved that in the comments of my last video when i was calling it mr cat her entrance into the scene literally cuts through the tension like few things this story has achieved and hand to god this sudden shift in direction the story has taken i absolutely love watching ichigo lifelessly carried off by her as she manages to make byakuya look like a fool was thrilling all the while establishing a new expectation for the audience immediately which is important for the entire soul society the tale has effectively led to this moment only for each goat to be carried off lifelessly naturally this removes the goal or at least adds an air of uncertainty around it because of this i think kubo decides to put another time limit on it in other words three days of training and i thought that was a high value move adding a lot more to the story than it otherwise stands to gain in surprise and uncertainty without an idea of what happens next it's difficult for the audience to fully appreciate what to expect and by association get excited for it's one of the many reasons i think game of thrones final season killed the ending jon snow's story had been entirely about him dealing with the night king and the oncoming winter with white walkers only his story surrounding that came to nothing his birth meant nothing and ultimately he sort of floundered around until the end muttering to himself about his aversion to crowns however before that horrible ending came halfway through he lost an obvious goal that differentiated him from others and thus just sort of was there thankfully kubo didn't do this here establishing exact parameters for which ichigo is to aim helps focus us and also offers him a chance to involve other more established characters to shake things up in byakuya now awaiting a rematch in three days something i do want to show my appreciation for that i otherwise didn't in the first half is the sheer variety of personalities littered throughout this arc each and every captain seems to have a different demeanor set of values and overall vibe reflected by their respective design philosophies which were fantastic biakuya is very regimented and cold with his robes hair and clinical appearance reflecting that aizen seems introspective warm and attentive to those around him with his softer looking hair and character reflecting that reality by showing appreciation and concern for his company unlike others we've been introduced to some are ruthless others seem laid back but all are interesting and offer a life to this place it otherwise wouldn't have without it okay now it's at this point in the story that things start to feverishly rush to the climax with all the various pieces once in different complex scenarios reaching similar conclusions resulting in a much more tidy setting for our hero the bleach himself to come and save the day later after his training of course now before we touch on that last week i glanced over it but today i'd like to talk about it in more detail the side characters and their exploits while ichigo is busy being let's kick things off with chad as we know chad along with the others were all split up to varying degrees during the initial arrival beyond the walls for the most part urdu and orihime have managed to avoid conflict but chad wasn't so lucky well okay to an extent he does run into the third seat of eighth company someone called in joji or should i say in joji runs into his fist [Music] then chad is confronted by a particular captain called kyoraku of eighth company presented amidst a sea of cherry blossoms seeing this i won't lie i began to worry for chad's future in the series this was before we had ever had any confrontation with the captain directly before i mean this was before the kenpachi fight with ichigo and cherry blossoms typically symbolize a host of different things across the world from love to brilliance to new beginnings however in japan it can also symbolize the transience and fragility of life stunningly beautiful and a dominant feature of their area during bloom all good things eventually come to an end acting as a timeless metaphor for human existence powerful and glorious when in season but tragically short-lived visually acting as a reminder that our lives too are fleeting and this captain dude is surrounded by them i'm not sure if it's an aesthetic but at the time i genuinely feared for chad going forward here i genuinely thought that it could act as a visual indicator that chad might be dying here alternatively it could also have been alluding to the short-lived amount of time ruki has spent with the group having arrived in ichigo's life at the same time as when the cherry blossom bloomed in japan this could also indicate the great impact she had on the group despite the short time she spent there having created in effect a new beginning for herself on earth or perhaps i'm reading way too much into it and kubo just thought hey this look cool either or whatever this is my second time partnering up with opera gx and i once again couldn't be happier to be talking about a product i actually use on a daily basis the last time we checked in i spoke about its fantastic ability to monitor what resources the browser is using as well as being able to limit just how much power it can take from your system if you're ever gaming or editing and trying to browse at the same time i'm sure you can appreciate just how great this feature is you may also remember me talking about its awesome pop-out feature that's invaluable for multitasking i'm often pulling up episodes to refresh my memory when writing scripts for these videos so being able to float an adjustable video frame with just a click over my work is so unbelievably helpful what's great is that unlike most browsers opera gx is fully customizable and supported to the extent that they even have their own dedicated platform for it with just a few clicks you can have your own awesome animated wallpaper right in your browser and it's largely all contributed by the gx community so a huge shout out to them for making these and if you're into this sort of stuff i definitely encourage you to try your hand at making some to submit download the browser now and see what you think opera gx is always evolving though and one of the cool new features is the ability to keep track of your social media directly from your sidebar with just one click you can pull up your twitter or discord while browsing anywhere and check in on what's going on no more navigating to a new tab it's all there at the touch of a button heck if you connect spotify to it it'll automatically pause for you if you feel like watching a video in a tap and then resume when you're done for those of you that like to stay on top of things you'll also love gxcorner it's a one-click stop for notifications on free games deals and most importantly breaking news for those of you who love video games and anime this thing really is an impressive all-in-one beast of a browser so if you're looking to make a switch simply click the link down below in the description and download opera gx today the fight however is much like the others in the ark quite short-lived with its purpose being to show us another taste of the captains in action how all of them seem to be totally different from each other some interesting backstory for chad and of course his resolve additionally as i mentioned this fight also takes place before the confrontation with biakuya and ichigo which honestly is part of what makes that confrontation so intense yakuya as a result is painted as the best of the best and if this is what happened to chad when he faced off against this guy a captain certainly but perhaps not the strongest of them then how would ichigo fare sneaking into the ranks of the soul society was honestly really fun and a nice change of pace it's less fighting and more avoidance of that very conflict it also creates some really nice interpersonal intense moments as they at least try to employ some subtlety and attempt to bluff their way through the ranks while avoiding the pursuit of a captain that knows who they are this captain in pursuit of them is called kurotsuchi and to put it bluntly i was stunned at how on the nose he was depicted as a heartless psychopath willing to throw the lies of his subordinates away as bait detonating and murdering them all in an effort to seize or kill orihime and urdu it's obvious life is meaningless to this guy willing to as we later find out operate on and augment his live test subjects torturing them and reveling in their suffering i don't want to assume he was inspired by some less than savory events that took place during world war ii in nazi germany but it sort of seems that way and now that he's cornered urdu we get a really good fight here [Music] this might be the most twisted and disturbing individual we've had one of our heroes fight against and the fight makes urdu look like an absolute badass but outside of the obvious awesome visuals i've come to expect from kubo at this point i think there's a lot to love about this fight specifically after an impactful and triumphant opening against this dude uryu gets caught up in a move of his that leads to his own paralysis once again opening urdu up to impressing him more by overcoming that now i love kurotsuchi's design it's intentionally clinical cold and psychotic looking kind of like a creepy doll come to life however his dialogue sort of embellishes this physical trait also admitting proudly to having tortured and experimented on the quincy people this naturally is enough to offer early the resolve to deal with this but i also enjoyed how it led to another flashback for the character himself similar to chad's we see the impetus for urdu's knowledge some complexities concerning his past with his father and most importantly the essence of a technique that ends up being his salvation i might have touched on this once or twice broadly speaking in my previous videos but the way this manga is paced has an effect on the battles i only recently noticed the fight in question is honestly quite good teaches us as i said a bit about uru shows us how virtuous he can be how powerful he truly is in some of his past not to mention describes to us the sort of captain this dastardly person is however despite the battle feeling like it covered a decent amount the fight itself is remarkably sparse and short and has honestly little to it basically packing a strong punch into a proportionately small run time each chapter because of how focused kubo seems to be on not cramming tons of story in seems to cover one major plot beat per issue one chapter could deal with exploring who the bad guy is and another on overcoming a particular attack and with this focus on step-by-step narrative progression systematically overcoming an opponent like this has the knock-on effect of attacks that eventually meet their mark feeling significant and pivotal while also keeping things short and simple in other words all killer no filler so to speak it's worth noting however that there are other effective means of structuring and presenting a battle in a manga it just depends on the sort of themes and style you're going for really personally i like what bleach is doing here but there are tons of others like one piece during onogoshima which saw a ton of fighting that while every action might not be pushing or driving the story still aided oda's desire to establish a chaotic and frantic setting however even outside of the more frantic team-up battles one-on-one contests in one piece due to the amount of exposition necessary tend to have a lot more back and forth crammed into a single chapter which again isn't a bad thing just a difference in approach i noticed concerning this fight with urdu however i think it is his best outing yet it demonstrated a bankai being used something we'll be exploring a lot more in the second half ultimately raising urdu in my estimation and placing him in a victorious albeit compromising spot following the contest and so following both of these fights chad and uryu's they find themselves in captivity i wonder if at this point chad felt bad because he is the only one of the main group to both get captured and not take down a captain hmm while he goes training does take up a small amount of time in the story it doesn't really get the focus i thought that it would now with that said there is story for ichigo and his training where he achieves a chance to unlock his blade's second phase bon kai which allows him to be many times stronger than he already was and honestly it's kind of cool it's achieved by fighting zengetsu who on some level represents ichigo mastering his weapon so to speak it's a nice metaphor however more attention during this time is dedicated to other characters that surround rookie's dire situation and of course the aizen murder and honestly i thought this was really important we get to see the hidden details of the letter izan left behind and learned that the blade used for execution the execution for rukia might be something someone would be after something massively powerful and thus presupposes that ruki's execution has been orchestrated to create an opportunity to steal it of all the things i was reading in this manga whether it be the direction of rukia's fade ichigo's character and the supporting cast it was this mystery surrounding the execution as well as eisen's murder that i honestly just couldn't wrap my head around there were so many variables to consider so many different pieces of information pointing me into recording that seem misleading or curious like for a few pages toshiro becomes the prime suspect until we see his inner monologue moments later and learn as readers that he is in fact innocent like what's going on and now renji is training with ichigo i mean kiss already okay jokes aside upon reading through this section sharing time with rukia as she sits in prison just contemplating her fate it really made me reflect on the first arc substitute shinigami and its importance without it i honestly wouldn't have a strong enough connection with rukia to make this arc work at all and thank god that bond is strong enough between myself and her because now i get to befriend new cute characters like kenpachi as he acts as a pack mule for the supporting cast that appeared to have nothing left to do with that said however i think it is cool that characters like kenpachi ikaku and another part of the company whose name i completely forget stay behind to hold off the people involved with the execution i think it's a nice touch having the people each go defeated and ultimately changed act as the barrier between rukia and her impending demise sort of like the time he spent there struggling against these foes actually meant something and wasn't wasted after all [Music] alright so this is a minor complaint but one aspect i've shown that's very common that is in all of the big three and is something i honestly don't know how i feel about has to do with conveyance and what that conveyance is meant to do for the reader in an action film if someone gets impaled then we know they are done if someone gets shot then we know that they are done well most of the time anyway but in a shown in battle series what differentiates whether or not someone is going to die versus someone who isn't going to die isn't very clear all the time in fact if you remove the dialogue entirely where they tell us how they're feeling it's actually quite difficult to know take this fight with kimpachi for example he gets impaled several times over and he's barely affected in fact it doesn't seem like he's affected at all and so it makes me wonder at what point does damage become an insufficient metric for us to understand the flow of the fight in every other medium where fighting is a driving force of a narrative the strikes that land typically serve a purpose a purpose that indicates that the battle is either being won or lost and when death blows are treated as nothing more than a scratch how exactly are the actual final blows in these fights visually meant to have any impact if they look like they are framed no differently than the others that supposedly have no effect and i want to stress that this isn't a problem unique to bleach by the way i just kind of wanted to talk about it naruto and dragon ball have this issue too heck i'm sure at a number of points in one piece characters literally get shot in the head or have their skulls literally shattered to pieces only to shake it off moments later i mean if usopp can have his skull literally shattered to pieces in alabasta and walk it off then i don't know why ace can't survive this the answer honestly is thematically it needed to happen personally i think i'd sacrifice meeting this visual spectacle for cohesive narrative and visual consistency and honestly i feel like it would make the fights feel so much more meaningful as a result but i don't know that's just me [Music] rinji is determined to save rukia and i'm all here for it but gets stopped on his way to save her by biakuya brilliant everyone's favorite person i love the civil war type vibes of the soul society by the way it's really working for me having spoken about the significance of cherry blossoms earlier i think it's also fitting how cherry blossoms are a theme with one of byakuya's finishing maneuvers and speaking of which during this interaction or clash between byakuya and renji i was reminded time and again how ridiculously condescending he really is solidifying my hatred forum and my admiration and awe over rengi's bangkai which was really cool and to tell you the truth rengi's really started to grow on me over the last few dozen chapters as a character anyway i liked him pretty much from the outset because of his awesome design but it's his inner conflict loyalty and resolve that honestly wins me over most of the time as a reader also did i mention his bankai looks really cool it's like this bone snake thing it's awesome and i really like how it sort of looks like his blade too the way it kind of extends and is kind of like i don't know articulated in a way but i think more than anything regarding this particular fight what i really liked was the way that he wins the battle by getting biakia down to one knee now i say he wins the battle but this is a war not a battle [Music] this dude is scary elitist and i have absolutely no idea what he ultimately wants either now that i think of it does he want the execution blade if so why the battle ends with him making a fool of renji making him feel like dirt however once again much like how kompatchy and ikaku have been moved to action ichigo is at the back of their minds in renji's case he acts as inspiration a source of resolve to remind him of what's important of what's possible as a result it creates one of the best fights in the series it's awesome and the poetry of biakia's arrogance contrasted perfectly against renji's tenacious boasts culminating ultimately in the fight being won by biakiya but only after being proven wrong by renji not once but twice the fangs of the simple beast that he was referred to as could in fact reach the magnificent moon that is and all of this is taking place during ichigo's training i mean it really plays second fiddle to this and honestly rightfully so kimpatch's fight with the two other captains was way more fun to watch than i thought it would be he seems to be a simple character thus far but to be honest that helps make the fights easy to read through they're straightforward bursts of fun and passion for this guy and watching him use his monstrous instincts to overcome these hurdles that present themselves like the blind situation is just as cathartic as you would expect particularly now that he's on ichigo's side interestingly despite this being the moment we've been building to for the bulk of a volume and a half once biakia and ichigo exchange words the fight we've been waiting for just gets put on pause in favor of checking in with a series of other fights like that which concerns miss cat and a couple of other more chill captains duking it out with their superior and i think i know why when i first started reading the soul society arc i did so with the knowledge that many consider it to be the best arc of the series others refute this claim however but the bulk seemed to agree with the sentiment so why i wondered this to myself and now obviously i'm writing this not having finished reading the arc itself and there is of course room for me to be wrong but one of the strengths that made this arc as terrific as i think it largely turned out to be was the groundwork that was set by the substitute chunigami arc significantly more episodic in nature than soul society all the setup for this fan-favored second arc of the series was done long before it ever appeared on the pages before you or on the screens in front of your eyes everything from the gold to the systems that govern how this world works not to mention the motivating factors all of it was there and it's that which i feared this arc might be missing however potentially it might also be trying to do that here with these fights that are taking time away from the main event in order for this story to progress beyond soul society in a satisfying fashion this very arc needs to set up plot elements to catapult us onward towards the next story seamlessly without that it runs the risk of killing the momentum and as of right now there seems to be only a single goal and once that goal is accomplished it's sort of back to the drawing board the saiyan saga for example seamlessly segues into the frieza saga in z but in super the goku black act abruptly ends and then the universe survival arc starts in its own new story the fights that are taking place right now are interesting however but they feel like i should care about them a lot more than i otherwise do particularly the leader of the soul society that old man versus his two pupils i don't know any of these characters well enough to get as much from this outing that i otherwise feel like i should be so my hope is that these fights result in a continuation to the story rather than existing purely for spectacle because if it is for spectacle i feel like it's being lost on me oh also because the spectacle feeling isn't really there some of the time either despite mrs cat's opening gambit against shaolin there's a flashback that kicks things off with a page crammed full of exposition and i'm gonna call it out because it's really an anomaly thus far in this series which has been as i've said panels brilliantly so i'm gonna give this one a pass but that page wow that that's not a good page after all of that we do eventually get back to the ichigo fight where we learn that the blade's power is called piercer of the heavens and i honestly love that name for ichigo perhaps a poetic callback to something biaki equipped at renji when they fought citing himself like the moon unable to be reached by mere mortal beasts this blade offers ichigo that very mechanism with which he can reach byakuya with it he can pierce the heavens the heavens being in this case biakia's stupid face and to tell you the truth this fight is awesome made possible because biakia has effectively been depicted as this god amongst captains in the soul society composed arrogant cold talented and immeasurably powerful the most we'd ever gotten out of him up until now was a bending of the knee due to some uneven footing but in this fight we get to see something else ichigo's bankai this is a level of vulnerability i've never seen byakia have to endure and it only gets better there's a really nice chapter entitled the one who changed the world with the message and implication being that rookie's presence in ichigo's life changed him as a person for the better however i do also like that it ends with ichigo's friends who've been absent from this climax for the most part getting to see how great each go has in fact become however i think it's also trying to convey that much like rukia each go has changed or he may and all of his allies now also as the fight rages on ichigo goes on the back foot he's slowing down running out of energy he's going to lose he begs pleads with his body to move he says out loud that he wants to win and then i [ __ ] knew it as soon as i read the cayenne flashback with rukia i knew that something similar would happen to ichigo here that flashback earlier we get with cayenne and rukia i feel will be exploring contrast with later on with each or maybe it won't i don't know but you gotta admit cayenne seems to look an awful lot like ichigo it also explains why rukia is so steadfast in wanting to protect ichigo's life at all costs but i also knew as soon as cayenne went berserker mode that something like that might also be possible for someone like ichigo and seeing as that seems to be the case i've been predicting that this would happen since the beginning of the soul society or more specifically ever since i saw him first transform with the mask on but i don't think that's the interesting part of this narrative decision at least not entirely it feels like right now while this is a part of ichigo that he is literally fighting against physically and thematically i think that very lack of acceptance is what's holding him back actually we've seen him acknowledge the utility of this monstrous form and now we're seeing how effective he can be once again but one thing they both share in common is a lack of respect and synergy with each other the idea and mistake i think being committed by ichigo here potentially is that he thinks this isn't him when in reality they are one of the same partners as it were to borrow a phrase from their previous meeting my initial impression right now is as it was last week it feels like the message is that we all have a monster inside of us one that is capable of doing tremendous harm and damage if left unchecked and in response to this reality many might try to either hide or indulge in this form however both are bad choices the idea being that if you totally reject this side of you you run the risk of becoming a useless doormat unable to stand up for yourself or your loved ones and on the other hand if you are overly indulgent in this monstrous side of you you become just that a monster so in reality i think the story being told here quite brilliantly might i add is that of learning to respect and control the monster inside of you accepting that it's a part of you and using it to your benefits so that you become neither a monster or a doormat but instead a powerful and caring person this is something i honestly thought naruto tackled rather well with kurama taking advantage of him when he was weak similarly this is happening with ichigo however i think bleach could tell this particular narrative in a much more compelling and effective way simply because this creature living in ichigo isn't some fox spirit but instead is very much him and of all the fights in this arc this one felt the most massive in scope at least so far however following this event things get weird we've all but achieved the goal so all we would think that needs to be done is leave right well not so much we end up spending a considerable amount of time with other characters as they stumble across a room full of dead bodies but that's not even the weirdest part [Music] this legitimately knocked me for a loop i mean this is a great way of skewing the audience's point of view because i was using eisens left behind information as gospel for me to base all of my assumptions on as i'm sure kubo wanted me to but now with this sudden realization i'm like okay so all of it was a lie which means once again i don't know anything and once again i don't know what the implications are of this i was definitely misled by his kind outward demeanor but other than that i had no idea someone like that could conceivably fake his death with high-ranked members of the soul society surrounding him so in a way while i don't get the aha moment like i wanted to get it is an interesting ruffle to the story that makes me ask more questions which is good considering this isn't the last arc of the series and kubo does want us to keep reading the ending to this arc is utter chaos with so many different plot threads being paid off taking twists i didn't expect along with revealing new information considering the world i never knew and yet strangely enough it ends rather conclusively however not entirely so eisen is the driving force of this ark's conclusion and he is every bit deserving of that position immeasurably powerful cunning in all the most underhanded of ways disappearing from before toshiro only to find himself before renji carrying rukia and even moments like this where we see someone like rinji struggling to defend and survive against eisen helps to bring attention to the real strengths of this arc how the newly introduced characters have progressed far beyond what they were first introduced as someone like renji nothing but a dog for the soul society now fights for something he believes in against insurmountable odds despite the rules and eisen someone who i genuinely thought was a chill guy ends up being the big bad on the entire arc and by the looks of it multiple arcs with the struggle itself against eisen coming out as brilliant specifically because it gives ichigo the opportunity to say this come on that's a great line there is a period of monologuing eisen enjoys a little too much right after he puts down ichigo that felt a little too expository but honestly that's just a taste thing villains have been doing this for centuries and the fact this character is rooted in his own arrogance lends this scene a believable quality that i think it needed he explains the reasoning behind why he's doing what he's doing and alludes to something called hollification the process of exceeding your potential i think by means we've seen through the likes of ichigo and cayenne and following that he takes out the whole gyoku out of rukia and jin goes to kill her but oh my god the [ __ ] did something right he did the right thing i retract what i said about hating him and also he's your brother-in-law and was married to your now dancing what's happening this can and sheldon show up to restrain eisen which was badass and despite other forces that complicate the matter showing up to fight against the sight of good the giant at the gate from the beginning as well as the souls from the slums rushed to their aid all the folks who ichigo helped along the way have come to their rescue to make a difference giving this arc a wonderful sense of completeness and closure however one thing i will say about this ending that i didn't like in retrospect was the lack of involvement of the main crew after all the training they did it didn't really amount to much of anything substantial in the story beyond a couple of interesting fights and some comedic scenarios for otohime unless i'm forgetting something their involvement didn't feel all that important in the end what could have been a cool idea i thought would have been to hint at urdu's powers still somewhat being there and then when the time came for ichigo to be motionless or crippled on the ground in front of aizen for uru to puppeteer him to get either him or rukia to safety i thought that would have been a really cute idea and i don't know orihime could have healed ichigo off to the side away from eisen something it's a dumb idea but it's honestly stemming from me wanting the og gang to do more than they ultimately ended up doing in this arc and i think that's unfortunate and also kind of reasonable but overall i thought this arc was really fun and pretty solid it does the traditions shown in arc structure justice in many respects and is filled with all the trappings bells and whistles that you'd expect from the genre at this time in all the best ways but one thing that did surprise me was how i felt about the arc and this series after finishing this story especially considering i'm such a big story and narrative guy the ending of this arc really hit the spot for me and maybe not for the reasons you or i might have expected when it was just the guys healing out in the afterglow of the battle when it was just orihime and ichigo running around like goofballs with renji and byakuya it was just fun and sort of made me miss the first arc that little bit more because it had more time for those more understated less consequential moments and character-rich dialogue ruki again to apologize and ultimately choosing to stay in the soul society was an interesting idea but ichigo immediately respecting that decision was the icing on the cake that this arc really needed for me i mean i just love these characters they are by far and away the story's strongest quality and this is coming from someone who loves the arabic in this manga to an unhealthy degree i don't know where the story will go from here obviously but considering eisen pieced out through a giant menos grande mash pit in the sky i'm guessing the options are limitless next week i take my first step into potentially controversial territory and i'm honestly very hopeful but until then i've been totally not mark i'll see you all next week and thank you all so much for taking the time to watch this video [Music] you

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 264,671

Keywords: blind review, bleach anime, soul society, a blind review of bleach, bleach manga, soul society arc, totally not mark, bleach review

Id: vD7NK5HQ8zU

Length: 36min 39sec (2199 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 17 2022