BLEACH: A Blind Review (Part 5) | Is the Arrancar Arc Good?

this video is brought to you by keeps this is the climax to the orankar arc and you know what I'm proud of you guys last week's feature length video had some praise had some criticism but you guys were cool with all of it this is great will this week be the same what did I think about it well I'm not gonna give it away this time so with this week's material I ask you in the immortal words of High School Musical 2. the answer is I don't [ __ ] know because something really weird happens immediately following last week's material where the chapters I thought we were going to get were going to take us to the finale instead take us 110 years into the past so I guess it's time for a flashback and to be honest I'm always excited when we get some juicy substantial flashbacks to sink our teeth into so let's dive into it I'm totally not Mark and this is my review of bleach's short turn back the pendulum flashback and everything that comes after [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign so in the last section I mentioned how urahara was a bit of an enigma to me particularly after it was revealed that he and Mr Kurosaki had some sort of shared history and understanding additionally during that introductory portion we were also introduced to another group called the Visas with predominant characters like Shinji and he already to name but a few prior to all of this we had only been aware of two sides the good and the world the evil or at least that's how it's depicted so far beside if Ichigo and his allies versus The Mysterious Eisen and his lackeys as they tried to overthrow the current world order the addition of these two other factions with the Wizards and Mr kisuke's group offer other points of view by which we can try to make sense of the world this story is taking place within and hopefully I hope add Nuance to the ending here that just because bleach is depicted artistically as black and white it does its best work when operating within the gray areas of human nature it's precisely why ichigo's inner conflict is so captivating and it's precisely why Eisen went undetected allowed to plot and scheme for decades and decades and so because this is where my head is at and where I pray The Story Goes you can imagine that I was very excited when I discovered that this flashback offered not only a history of Mr kisuke or urhara but also a history of Shinji hiori and many other folks that now call themselves visors [Music] this is the Curious verbiage that leads us into easily the most unique part of the story since its Inception over 300 chapters deep and well over halfway into the current Arc we are hurled with hundred years into the past to take a sneak peek at the inner workings of certain characters and how they came into being the way we understand them today this was very strange to see to say the least the majority of this Series has been told through a rather consistent point of view normally Ichigo and without him in the story it still managed to feel like bleach and oftentimes that can be quite difficult to pull off instead of each go this section largely focuses on the origins morality and history surrounding kisuke urahara as he gets promoted from a warden of a rather dubious preemptive prison for potentially dangerous souls to a captain of 12th company there's a very easy to appreciate quality to this flashback that none of the past parts of the story have offered us purely by virtue of what it is it allows us this abstract chance to see established characters as we've never seen them before from Miss yuruichi as the captain of second company and a very young byakya prior to his Ascension in that society and countless other familiar faces from past arcs however that simply tickles a romantic and nostalgic part of my brain and so I figured it was a distraction to what could be communicated during this flashback amidst a sea of distractions you could easily be fooled and this is a philosophy or approach many authors take when trying to pull the bull over their reader's eyes and when it comes to flashbacks that feature and put focus on a large number of characters I normally ask myself what makes this specific date that we've flashed back into so significant why not one week prior or one week after this and when you ask yourself that question you find yourself asking a very useful and more focused second question what happens on this day that can't happen on any other day the answer to that might be obvious it's the day urahara accepts his promotion as the captain however it's also the integration of another prominent albeit as a yet underused character Keen or Jin or whatever his name is a young kid presented to us as a sociopathic killer and one that we're obviously familiar with from Soul Society this is also his first day working beneath another Eisen as he starts to build his Empire around him these are the two stories that are intertwined in some way and so for me the mystery presented in this tale wasn't so much who was responsible for the sudden disappearance of certain civilians and Soul Reapers later on though that was creepy but instead it is how these two plot threads between urahara and Eisen were connected so let's explore that right now [Music] foreign [Music] this is advice that Shinji offers following his first day on the job it's evident that kisuke isn't a natural-born leader and is filled with his own self-doubt it's cool to see Shinji participate in this segment knowing where he eventually ends up a casualty of the brutal nature of Eisen there's a portion of this flashback that takes part in the prison that's honestly an interesting ruffle to this short story that concerns the motivations of otahada particularly when it comes to his work at least his past work known as the maggot Nest before becoming a captain urahara was awarded in a prison facility built to contain potentially dangerous individuals before they committed crimes the pool of folks that would be put into this would be chosen from the 13 companies of the Soul Society if the opportunity presented itself that on its own is crazy however one of the folks held there was kurutsuchi making the current situation all the more crazy seeing as we know where he ends up today approaching kurusuchi in the depths of a cell designed to detain him urahara expresses that he wants to start a research and development organization within 12th company and once could atsuchi to be assistant director with his final offer basically making him a de facto leader if he urahara was to ever die or leave this occurs around the same time Eisen asked gene or Gene to take out a third seed and thus sets the stage for the SEC second half of this flashback if you're a fan of this channel in my analytics or anything to go by you're most likely a male approaching an age where male patent baldness is starting to become a concern unfortunately two of three of you will experience it by the time you're 35 and that can be 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the link in the description to receive 50 off your first order again that's k-e-e-p-s.com forward slash not mark nine years later it's here that Eisen decides to bring to the attention of the class that quite a few of rukongai's residents have disappeared in the last month the ninth company investigates and once their discover bush is filled with garments of 10 Soul Reapers after saving a young kid called Shuhei the fact that this little kid is asked his specific name means I assume he'll be a significant character once this flashback concludes because in this he really doesn't matter so I wonder why he would even give us that Exposition meanwhile urahara is continuing his work with GI guys that might be able to Aid this very problem but since he orid his second in command to scope out the area instead while on Route 9th company gets obliterated thus alerting all back at base to what just occurred in response to this urahara asked for permission to Aid her but is denied naturally he protests as he doesn't want his assistant Captain to die but that's when yoruichi chimes in she tells urahara to cool down and to not dishonor hiori by losing faith in her abilities and to that I say uh you do know another company Captain seems to have been killed here right whatever about not talking back to superiors and maintaining cohesion in a tight spot this feelings-based excuse presented by yoroichi feels like a big cope If Ever I did hear one but anyway enough Preamble hiori is saved by Shinji at the last moment so around now I'd like to talk about how this Arc ties into the themes of the greater aranca Arc and it's actually integrated in a way I didn't notice or anticipate making its reveal by Eisen all the more satisfying as a reader recontextualizing a lot of what I thought came before in the process it's about trust and all the trappings that come with it The Good The Virtuous and the bad something I didn't mention towards the beginning of this video was that there was a third significant event that took place that day 110 years ago alongside Jean's graduation and urahara's promotion it too involved these characters however there was a third member a third participant a third person that facilitated the ending and overall message of this Arc and that person is Shinji all right the mystery or surprise element delivered for this flashback for me was never the reveal that Eisen was behind it all and managed to manipulate the others such that he would get away with it we always knew that he would because he ultimately does this is the nature of dramatic irony in literature and Kubo is aware of that so if he's not trying to surprise us with eisen's reveal as the man behind all of this then what well it's actually more abstract than that it's how trust can be interpreted offering up the driving philosophical footnote that crafted the perfect environment for this event to take place one that destroyed Shinji enabled Eisen and led to urahara's banishment trust is a phrase thrown around a number of times in this short flashback koraku suggests to urohara that he ought to trust and have more patience is such an example however this is the arc that illuminated for us the exact drawback to not showing trust and Eisen explains exactly why to his former Captain Shinji as he laid there before him he says because you didn't trust me you maintained a certain distance from me you never opened yourself up you never tried to get to know me this is why you never saw the truth even when I replaced myself with a complete stranger that is a really interesting direction to take this theme in and not what I honestly saw coming when that ties not only ichigo's current struggle into the picture with Shinji and urahara but one that unilaterally ties eisen's very existence into that theme's framework he's the result of this lack of trust Shinji said he chose to keep Eisen close in order to keep an eye on him but in reality Eisen could have chosen to deny that very promotion to become an assistant similar to how others have done so in the past or earlier in the story so in a sense Eisen was the one in control he chose Shinji because he offered him the perfect opportunity to succeed the emotional distance Shinji put up against Eisen acting as the perfect environment for him to curate his plan behind the scenes it's an outstanding narrative twist that even alluded to earlier in the arc with shinji's very advice he gave to urahara foreign [Music] trust Isn't So straightforward in this world it has consequences and it opens you up to being hurt however in the same way that he already mentioned the urahara that the philosophy surrounding his former prison was crazy that the facility too worked on a no tolerance policy when it came to the prisoners who hadn't yet committed crimes there was no trust there removing trust can for sure be there for a reason perhaps you were hurt perhaps you wish to protect Society or perhaps you want to shoulder all the work for yourself but at the end of the day this short flashback highlights through eisen's rise in success that there exists benefits to altruistic trust that just go undetected now following this I was a little disappointed but just FYI it's because I'm a giant baby and because I thought I knew something that was going to happen but didn't actually end up happening okay so Shinji and the others just started holifying right that's great it's at this moment urahara interrupts and saves the day before Eisen says something cryptic about urhara being the man that he thought he was and then leaves now I knew urahara was going to make the save eventually he did leave to do just that but I thought hi Yori was going to be one of the only ones to make the save as a holified Masked Warrior I remembered back towards her introduction we were told that she was one of the fastest to adapt to that form so I thought this high-stake situation would have been an incredible place for it to occur and for that to then transition to urahara save but oh well I guess this is fine following this the status quo shifts to something much more familiar to us we learned that urahara created the hogyoku he's exiled Shinji and his allies end up in their own situation and yoruchi sacrifices her standing within the soul Society for what she thinks is the right thing to do which is a nice change from where she stood pertaining to this sort of insubordination earlier in the story with the final note that this flashback enzyme being from Shinji as he feels as though he owes urahara and Eisen for what he has become there's a Nuance to this story that's emerging one that's no longer a two-sided Affair but one being approached from multiple angles and overall I really enjoyed this short flashback [Music] we're finally here time to dig into the real meat and potatoes of this Arc the part we've been building up to for the last 150 chapters so what were my general thoughts well they are neither entirely positive or entirely negative there are aspects of this finale I thought were really well delivered and honestly brilliantly delivered I thought the story being told was fascinating and I thought the artwork above all else was consistently fun to read though that's nothing new with Kubo before I specify what parts I loved and what specifically I saw as a slip in quality I'd like for us to appreciate that I've taken the time over my career to criticize long stories like one piece Naruto and Dragon Ball all these stories like bleach are not perfect and I think there are serious problems with this Arc that I personally think had they been rectified I would consider this the strongest Arc overall however I think it might have fallen short of that though I'm still not entirely certain I'm collecting my thoughts on this so let's explore a little more and I'll give you my final verdict at the end of the video so what are my thoughts on the beginning of this final section [Music] for the vast majority of this section the plot is fractured between two scenarios or points of view the main crew of Ichigo oruhime uru and Rukia in the world of hueco Mundo and of course the Now new scene of fake karakura Town defended by the soul society's best from the tyrannical and now terrifyingly powerful Eisen both of these sections have their ups and their downsides and overall I think both came out delivering more good than bad let's start off by covering some of fake karakora's opening and draw attention to by far by single biggest issue with this story and yes I think it hurts the story in a substantial and significant manner however I'm only going to point out this once in pointing out this issue with bleach I am not simultaneously putting Dragon Ball Naruto and one piece on their own pedestals above it I have dedicated large sections of my past reviews to criticizing what I consider to be very substantial pacing issues in one piece as well as criticize its layout work in the manga I've even made some very damning criticisms of Dragon Balls Buu saga and with the series writing in general I mean it is true the dragon balls do take away a lot of the stakes in that very series does that mean I don't love each of those stories absolutely not every series has their own unique issues and wild bleach I believe has issues here it's better I think than other Series in other areas so what specifically is the issue I have with bleach there are too many fights that stop the progression of the story in its tracks and this is an issue because I genuinely really enjoy the story of the aranca arc but to me it feels like Kubo consistently gets in his own way to make sure I had the best faith argument I could muster for this very argument over the last few weeks I've taken the time to speak to a few friends of mine who really and truly love the bleach series to help process my thoughts to sharpen my criticisms in a precise Manner and to learn what people who do like this section specifically love about it and what they love are other characters they love spending time in this world and with these individuals and this is the case whether they be secondary tertiary or background players because they love learning more about this world and the history of the individuals that populate these pages and let me tell you I have no issue with that answer it's a really good answer when I personally agree with too I've even said as much myself that character writing is kubo's strongest trait as a writer that scene where Orihime says goodbye to Ichigo before she's taken away to hueco Mundo is genuinely heartbreaking in the most brilliant of ways however I think there's a distinction to make here an important one and that is World building in storytelling is very important it helps the world feel alive but it is not more important than the plot World building serves the story and if it gets in the way of it that's where I personally start to have problems bleach as a manga is a Shonen story and Shonen is a genre that uses fighting to propel the plot forward oh by the way I'm gonna say Shonen a lot in this next section but when I say it I want you to know that I mean battle Shonen specifically Shonen that focuses and tells a story through battle so whenever I say Shonen I mean battle Shonen okay cool bye similarly to how Mysteries use the Enigma of the plot to guide our curiosity or how romance uses interpersonal relationships and emotional conversation to walk us through their stories Shonen in turn uses fights for that very purpose and this is honestly out of necessity so much time in a Shonen is spent fighting it of course needs to utilize this time to push the plot forward to help illustrate what exactly I'm getting at I have two great examples of fights propelling the plot forward and the first one is Raditz versus Goku and Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z's Saiyan Saga despite the specific issues Dragon Ball has when it comes to fights propelling the story forward Akira toriyama's approach is phenomenal and it makes for a very Snappy story as a result and how does this fight achieve this by making it crucial to understanding the story moving forward without this fight the ark just can't work simply because it serves a ton of narrative purposes it establishes what Gohan is capable of acts as an important piece of development for Piccolo that facilitates his section of the arc with Gohan in its entirety it kills Goku setting him on his journey to Otherworld and it establishes what the goal of the arc is to stop the incoming Sands that we also learn in this very fight are stronger than Raditz himself and due to it carrying all of this narrative weight I genuinely think it's an almost perfect example of a Shonen fight propelling the plot forward and even if you want me to go through the smaller fights in the arc like those that occur with the likes of Napa once they arrive a ton of that is used to establish who these villains are which becomes important very soon after and perhaps the most important aspect of this Arc as well were exposed to how far Gohan still has has to go mentally before he can truly help his team and as we see later this aspect this Exposition for him in the story became vital for us to both understand and appreciate what he offers to the climax for without him things would have turned out very differently for Goku and that's just one dimension of this fight bleach however seems to do the opposite of this when characters other than Ichigo are taking part in a fight where it would be impossible for the Saiyan Saga to make sense without raditz's fight there are dozens of fights in this Arc and that's being generous where it feels like if I removed them all that would be lost would be the personality and history of the secondary and background characters involved and unfortunately that has no effect on the story of this Arc and it should and while yes that does build up the world around it it doesn't do anything for the story which makes it by default filler flavor and Canon filler is never a good thing but what am I suggesting as an alternative am I suggesting to remove these fights not necessarily what I am asking for is if you are going to spend time with all of these wonderful characters make it necessary to the story instead of getting in the way now my second example of a fight that propels the plot forward also manages to splice in the personalities of the characters we all know and love while making that a pivotal part of the narrative and that fight happens to be my favorite fight from one piece Luffy versus Usopp from the water 7 Arc I use the Dragon Ball example to explain how one can use fights to drive a narrative so let's use one piece to demonstrate how you can exposit the mental state of characters through fighting and how those very exposited personalities can create the fuel that pushes the story in a specific Direction and funnily enough it's for that very reason this is my favorite fight in all of One Piece on the surface this isn't a fight that's carried by the weight of the physical task standing in front of Luffy but instead the emotional baggage it represents the main plot thread most people recall from this section of the story concerns that of Robin and her now famous declaration to live however the story that usop represents complements that main plot thread perfectly faced with a deteriorating condition of the going Mary and the decision Luffy and the others have made to move on to another ship better prepared for the rougher seas that they now have to face he equates this to his own sense of inferiority how he doesn't feel like he can be a valuable member to the crew how if they can replace the going Mary they must too be capable of replacing him this is where usopp's motivation comes from on the opposite side of the coin Luffy is forced to deal with his first big foray into what it means to be a leader and as a captain he has to make a very tough decision he isn't happy about replacing Mary but if she was to be used into the future it would be a danger to the crew he's now responsible for this is a non-negotiable point for either side and what spawns from it is one of the most emotional and character Rich conversations and intense battles not because the foe is mighty or some strange monster but because as the foe is precisely the opposite in the conversation that takes place prior you could hear the subtext of every word the insecurity of us the indecisiveness and fear in Luffy the strength Zorro gives his captain as his number two you can even feel it in the words Nami pleads to both of them with this argument threatening the very thing she's always wanted a family it's an utterly incredible piece of character writing climaxing in a fashion unlike anything we've yet seen in the series with the straw hats fractured in a serious and now personal way causing a butterfly effect that creates the specific mood and circumstances the ark contends with moving forward it birtheds usop's impromptu Alter Ego sniper king and the position of the vital pieces that outline and Define the ark as a whole Luffy's struggle against usop is emphasized when looked at alongside the lengths he's willing to go to for another in Robin it emphasizes how difficult that conflict with usop must have been for him and how happy he stands to be once he returns and so if you take anything away from this this video and this argument I want it to be that World building within a fight is more than possible while also propelling the story forward whether it be like Dragon Ball is able to do within a fight like with the armor of the Saiyans the scouters spaceship and Technology Etc not to mention Otherworld which establishes so much on route to King Kai that will be used from that point onward or whether it be the state of various personalities all at once like one piece demonstrated neither one piece or Dragon Ball are perfect but I hope these examples highlight a specific issue this Arc of bleach has I've read through all of those other stories and I have never seen this specific problem so massively prominent in them knowing the good guy will win isn't the issue it's how the fight plays out in the same predictable ways while offering nothing new to the story outside of their own self-contained segments and personalities and knowing that it hurts because this Arc has so many upsides that I will most definitely discuss for the rest of this video but had this Arc been made more focused and refined with a shorter page count I think it could have easily stood to be one of the strongest arcs in the big three and certainly the best Arc of bleach as it stands the Iran karak of bleach is a staggering 247 chapters long and out of Interest how far do you guys think that would get you into Dragon Ball Z from its beginning with Radix the ginu force maybe the Frieza fight it is a long Arc well if you had guessed that you'd have been wrong 247 chapters into Dragon Ball Z will plan you squarely into its final Arc of the story towards the end of the world tournament at that in the boo Arc and with all of that said I am not suggesting that no one can like this material I am not suggesting someone would be wrong for liking this material all I am suggesting is that if these characters are worthy of our respect then they shouldn't be pigeonholed into exception of the story contributing little to nothing to the progression of the narrative they should be important it should be the case that these are meaningful fights that changed the course of the story but instead they just feel like they exist solely to create obligatory fights to show off the 10 big stronger rankers of which there didn't need to be so many to overcome in this story in this opening section we have characters like ikaku which I enjoy but again there wasn't anything substantial he contributed Beyond fighting an enemy that doesn't matter then we have shuhe remember him shui you know the kid from the flashback well yep he's there too and then we have the pretty eyelash guy whose name I honestly have no idea of and finally we have izuru I've never seen this guy before and if you told me that this was the first time I've seen him I would have believed you but I get the feeling that I should know who this person is for the reasons I mentioned over the last 10 minutes of the video I won't be covering their fights again not necessarily because I didn't enjoy them or at least parts of them and some of their callbacks to Prior events but because I am here to review the story and as I said I think they get in the way of that to a large degree for what feels like 20 plus chapters and even when it comes to the bigger contenders like the captains and Commander against the stronger rankers it all just feels like it exists only to kill time in the plotline until Ichigo is done with his plotline in huakamundo with ulquiora which I will absolutely be getting to in just a second by the way but what can I say about this section with the captains and the commander fighting well the artwork in this section looks brilliant hinomori arriving on the scene is something I honestly didn't expect and offers up one of the segments that serves the story in conveying just how monstrous Eisen truly is but then again it's consistent with my criticism of the story that nine times out of ten the story only progresses when each ago is on the screen and during that particular moment with hinomori he is but that's not to say there aren't good parts that don't involve him either General Yamamoto stepping in once things start to turn South is if nothing else a curious Affair for me at least we don't know much of anything about his character other than that he's the best so seeing this stronger rankers and eventually Eisen match up against this guy can be quite compelling in a spectacle sort of way the feeble old Ban against the hulking monster makes for a strong contrast but with equally but opposedly strong contrast and strength making for a satisfying visual finish much the same way Goku and Krillin offered up in early Dragon Ball and heck even in later Dragon Ball with the likes of Gohan and even Goku and facing Napa the smaller more honorable Fighter versus the brutish enemy is a tale as old as time it's David vs Goliath's story that always works similarly one chapter later he enjoys the benefit of being the one in a 1v3 affair again putting him in what appears to be an unfavorable situation only to subvert it again used in countless others shown into great effect but yeah after 20 or more chapters of what feels like the story on pause for the majority of the time we eventually get back to Ichigo and Orihime and most importantly back to bleach delivering what it's truly capable of Ichigo versus ulquiora I'm going to say it now as an individual fight of which there aren't many in this Arc I mean there might even be more fights in this Arc alone than all of Dragon Ball Z but out of all of those fights in this Arc ukiora vs Ichigo was my favorite there are stretches later where I thought the story really got going and hit new Highs but when it comes to 1v1 fights that take place in this Arc none in my opinion come close to touching this one it is outstanding and probably the best fight in the series at least that I've seen so far firstly let me say I'm a big fan of the way Ichigo vs ulkiora looks the black versus white aesthetic really suits the battle it helps both Fighters pop and honestly helps the contest look more straightforward to read through and as a fight it's much more nuanced and interesting it's not as simple as the other fights have been because it's directly connected to the plot in a meaningful way there's been a concerted effort across this Arc to deliberately make us question more and more about Kiora what his morals are how conflicted he might be and as Ichigo curiously points out after being told he's becoming more Hollow he says to okiora that he's becoming more human he's shown a much more considerate side than others in this story and if nothing else is alongside grimjo the most interesting antagonist introduced in this Arc something this fight and the rest of the Ark loves to enjoy is the awesomeness of a certain moment it loves to bathe in the Moonlight of a lion someone delivers a pose someone assumes and the transformation that naturally follows standing in the way of Ichigo saving orehime UL Kiora is positioned and don't listen away or you he pops in at the last moment to make the save this is epic and honestly I went nuts when I was reading it because I was thinking at the time damn uriu Chad Rukia they haven't added much to this story and I kind of wish they would and when he did I felt so much better about his character at the very least setting up the perfect circumstances for ichigo's transformation into his hollow form in the manga which given that Kubo is The Man Behind the pen it is stunningly depicted [Music] this is the moment that starts Ichigo down a road where we haven't yet seen him Venture battered left and right the Gap in power between the two of them is clear and obvious and to add insult to injury ulquiora has a second transformation at any point it feels like he has the ability to kill Ichigo to end it here and now but he isn't instead he seems to be more interested in learning why Ichigo is fighting and to which he responds I'm not fighting because I think I can win I'm fighting because I have to win Orihime is brought to the Top by Urdu she sees odukiora put a hole in Ichigo Urdu holds off ulquiora Orihime kneels over him crying and that's when it happens the situation is dire Stakes are high this is what I'm talking about she screams for each go to help her and [Music] oh [ __ ] Ichigo could hear her and in an effort to protect her this is his response the Beast is Unleashed he slashes off okiora's arm and uses a zero blast it's an awesome Affair I love the dynamic of this fight and it feels as though at times it shares the same appeal of something like the Frieza fight did for me in Dragon Ball where the hero character was being totally outclassed by a massive magnitude only to be pushed over the edge into attaining a power that was unlike anything that came before like an inner demon of some description when he had been reluctant to engage with has suddenly and powerfully been released and in the same fashion the Frieza came to realize that discrepancy between he and Goku so too does the significantly more matter-of-fact and nuanced alkiora as Ichigo utterly obliterates him outclassing him in practically every conceivable metric known to combat and this this is how you weaved suffice into your narrative this is it the story of bleach concerns these characters and their respective Journeys they've been on the flow The Twist turns the harrowing circumstances and the ramifications of every single decision speaks volumes about who these characters are where their values lie and where they will eventually end up it's wonderful and a nice visual touch I noticed while in this form has to be the design of it even the ones blacked out eyes of the previous form have now entirely vanished All That Remains are these dark holes in the husk of a skull almost as if to emphasize how hollow it is unlike the power-ups that were very much enhancements to ichigo's current design alterations to a mask and some palette swaps this very much feels like something entirely different to Ichigo and the character with no discernible familiar characteristics obvious for us to see the veneer is porcelain white the hair no longer short and spiky but instead long flowing and straight ruthless in nature with no Humanity Left Behind the actions it takes the difference it's fright okiora a hollow made more human to achieve his power for the sake of fulfilling another tyrant's goals in Ichigo a human who's thrown himself into holification Beyond a point familiar to him in a world he's shown genuine Terror in adapting too all for the sake of saving the person he cares for most oddly enough the most human decision made is by Ichigo to distance himself from his Humanity in this instance with that very lack of humanity evident for all to see and it's at this moment as Ichigo starts to repeat protect her protect her protect her to himself that the pin drops for Orihime as she realizes that she's the one responsible for what's transpired I think this scene while emblematic of orohime is naivety with regards to her decision to leave alone in the first place it also highlights the Stark similarities between herself and Ichigo two sides of the same coin in many respects in the same way Ichigo would want to go on his own to shoulder all of this responsibility in what would no doubt turn out to be a suicide mission Orihime has done the very same with both of them being driven by effectively each other to push themselves into becoming better and more helpful people capable of carrying the weight of more and more responsibility they in a way together are great for each other however as we're witnessing extreme situations with extreme actors like this lead to extreme outcomes with Ichigo having chosen for the immediate safety of Orihime to lose what reason he has left in the name of protecting her foreign and honestly this is my only issue with the scene this strange desire Ichigo has to have a fair fight with ulkiora seems to come out of nowhere the idea that he's doing it for the sport of it this sense of Duty that he doesn't want to win quote this way is a bizarre proposition to me he's there specifically to save those he loves from danger now he did Express earlier that he believed okira was becoming more human which would hint to something worthy of preserving that's the approach oruhime is taking and I understand that as I said he's been a very unique type of a rancor to contend with in this Arc but ichigo's reasoning that he himself verbalizes and outlines feels like a total cop-out like something out of character and one that didn't need to be there he could have just agreed with Orihime he even pointed out earlier that he wasn't fighting because he thinks he can win but because he felt like he needed to needs to because he has to protect people but it should be obvious that he doesn't need to fight now and so that should have been reason enough not to fight ulquiora once he regained his senses not this chopping off of his own limbs to create a fair fight that is utterly idiotic and not to mention risks putting the very people he came there to save in danger it runs entirely counter-intuitive to his underlying motivations in other words I think it would have been better if Ichigo came back to life totally dead to the world from this transformation Zapped of energy I did however love the fear that descended across his face once he realizes that he had done what he did in the Berserker form [Music] soil Society versus the Olympus okay so for reasons that should be very obvious at this point I'm not the biggest fan of this section in karakura town either though I will say that it is far more enjoyable than the prelim matches we got towards the beginning with Shuhei and izuru or whatever his name is this is helped mostly by us getting to see characters we're already familiar with fighting and we understand that they represent a certain ceiling or ability the back and forths that take place and the implementation of strategy is refreshing particularly compared to the standard 1v1 Affair that colored the prior section over and over and over this time it's a 2V1 with special conditions that make for a very competitive cat and mouse contest conceding how the fight itself progresses with the variables that are compromised and known to us ukitake and kiraku versus the combination of two rankers lilanet and the other one she's the gun and can fire Sarah blast so that's different these Dynamics these 2V1 scenarios are exactly what I was looking for to change up at least the visual representation of these repetitive fights a monstrous symbol of eisen's growing impatience this hulking monster matches forward into this realm greater in scope and size than anything we've yet seen moments past anukitake is pierced through his abdomen kyoraku is shot from point-blank range toshiro's opponent escapes from her icy prison and that aging death ranker emerges from the smoke all the supposed progress we made in the last dozen or so chapters has been essentially for nothing the enemy is monstrous and in the wake of that upset in ruin stands Eisen tosen and gin they have arrived but they are not the only ones okay I'm not gonna lie seeing these guys I was genuinely excited however unfortunately despite being armed with far more knowledge surrounding hyori and shinji's respective histories with Eisen we once again find ourselves in a sea of fights that offer little Beyond helping acquaintance with certain characters half-heartedly before defeating them I mean I guess for these tertiary characters getting that vacuous Exposition is better than nothing in terms of building the world up for later but I still think that this Arc doesn't do this nearly enough in situations that have consequences for the story being told I'd prefer a Snappy Pace to a story of real world populated with 5 to 10 extra characters that don't offer much of anything however that is my preference and it's not going to be everyone's preference so I will acknowledge that and while this section was less annoying than that first part with that guy whose name I'm convinced I've never heard before it managed to irritate me by dangling something genuinely interesting with potential for story progression like Shinji vs Eisen but then it'll cut for a ages away to the other fights that I expressed earlier significantly matter far less to the story before suddenly switching back to that interesting fight only to reveal that Shinji isn't squaring off against Eisen anymore but instead kin which again still would be better and more interesting than everything else we're being forced to look at here [Music] holy [ __ ] finally some tension Shinji is now in a situation where he desperately wants Ichigo to get back with this crew to heal his comrade and we know how that's going interestingly rookie remarks that Ichigo seems different that his eyes have changed and that's not the only thing that's different it's the mask he has on too Ichigo lands a big attack but it only really Nicks him following this he's unable to put the mask on again I suspected at the time because he lacked conviction maybe because he's conflicted about what he has become maybe because he has reservations now whatever the case this won't be the last time someone in the story remarks on the change in ichigo's eyes and when it happens again I'll be sure to draw attention to it because it is valuable to the story anyway piakuga and Kenpachi turn up and make the save well on route we're told that Ichigo is the only one that can stop Eisen and this is partially due to his not having seen Eisen shikai if he does see it essentially he will lose again I love this setup because it offers a nice bit of tension a nice stipulation and gives Ichigo a unique purpose that others can't have by virtue of their station meanwhile tozen becoming a Hollow mask wearer is interesting Shuhei stabsman head after he is resurrected and oddly enough becomes blinded by his own Newfound ability to see in nice little piece of irony there but enough of that time for the plot Ichigo arrives and so does the plot it was at this point in the story that something remarkable happened all of the pacing issues I once complained about totally vanished and the story was utterly compelling I was glued to the pages of this manga suddenly and the contrast between that feeling of disinterest moments prior to sudden enthusiasm to read forced me to take a step back and think why like why how is it that right now I am feeling so engaged the reader when moments prior I wasn't and honestly this is my theory now this isn't a hard rule but I find it to be a very useful way of looking at the story in order to diagnose certain issues in storytelling typically you can have things called the three Central questions that once answered your story is resolved One Professional question one personal question and one private question now for the sake of examples let's take Star Wars the professional question in that movie was Will Luke destroy the Death Star the personal question was will he save Princess Leia and the private question was will he be a Jedi like his father and when you look at that first Star Wars film through that lens you can clearly see that once all of those questions have been satisfied the story itself wraps up and ends however keeping those questions in mind is Paramount to the pacing of your story too for if you aren't dealing with one of those questions at any given time to some degree then it can run the risk of feeling like you're not progressing through the story which for parts of it is totally fine but when you deal with large swaths of time like the Iran characters it starts becoming more of an issue so what are the central questions surrounding the aranca arc well from what I can see this is where the issue is and oddly enough it stems from an area Kubo is very comfortable and confident with in writing it's Ichigo the professional question of this Arc is Will Ichigo be able to defeat ice the personal question of this Arc is will he be able to say Orihime and the private question of this Arc is will he be able to resolve his own internal conflicts and if these are the central questions what's the issue well the issue I can see is that despite having a massive and still growing cast of characters the plot-central questions tend to circle around one or if you want to push it two characters each going maybe Eisen and I think a massive part of what makes this an issue is that ichigo's questions are separated in two distinct locations divorced from each other in important ways in Star Wars to ensure that the climax is satisfyingly climactic all three of the film's central questions are answered at once the ultimate goal is to destroy the death stare which is pointed at a planet that Princess Leia is on but in order to destroy the Death Star he needs to use the force the film creates a set of unique circumstances where each of those questions can only be answered when the others are satisfied and this created what I'm sure few people can argue one of the most pivotal moments in cinematic history influencing countless other projects to come and this isn't just true for film let's go back to that example I used earlier in the Saiyan Saga of Dragon Ball Z the professional question was will the forces of Earth protect their Planet the personal question was Will Gohan be able to rise to the occasion and the private question was is Goku stronger than Vegeta can he rise to that challenge and what I think makes this section of Dragon Ball work is that we are given two equally compelling plot lines to follow in the two different settings the plot is split between in other worlds we're following the journey Goku's on to gain the power necessary to make a difference and on Earth we're following the story of Gohan's maturity and development this keeps us engaged both Within These two settings and you can pinpoint the high points of this Arc by keeping an eye on which questions are teased with being answered Napa demolishing the Earth's forces killing Piccolo and about to stomp on Gohan is one boot stomp away from answering two of the potential actually three questions with a definitive no only for Goku to arrive and undercut that very tension setting up the third question Goku and Vegeta's beam struggle shows Goku defending the Earth from an attack that would certainly end it while also trying to answer the question is Goku stronger than Vegeta but the point I'm trying to make here is throughout the climax of this Arc in their battle with Vegeta and Napa all of these questions are flirted with being answered right up until the end with the conclusion concluding that yes they could protect the planet yes Gohan could rise to the occasion and technically yes Goku was stronger than Vegeta momentarily but once transformed he had all but lost had it not been for Gohan bleach on the other hand while doing what Dragon Ball did in splitting the locations the plot takes place between fake karakura town and the hueco Mundo area the central questions of the Ark can only really be answered in hueco mundo where Ichigo is and Eisen could in theory help this situation but he's hardly involved at all until the latter half of the climax furthermore another issue I noticed comes in the form of one of the questions being answered long before and entirely divorced from the Finish which sort of makes orihime's contribution to the arc feel a lot less significant than I otherwise anticipated it to be can he rescue Orihime the answer is yes and following that Ichigo rushes off to fake karakura town and later this is why the battle with Eisen and his internal struggle with himself during their first encounter is so interesting because that moment it's flirting with answering two of the three remaining questions back in fake karakura Town everyone is teaming up against Eisen and it's actually kind of fun to watch specifically when shinji's ability actually starts to disorientate Eisen foreign it's a great swerve and it really makes me wish we had more of this in the story or at least if the story was less long it would have been more impactful because it would have been closer to other Great Moments after all of this Yamamoto steps in to fight Eisen grabs him while he stabs him and while I can appreciate some are interested in this matchup I can't say that I'm massively interested we've all but been told explicitly that Ichigo is the only one that can defeat Eisen and I'm aware that story isn't going to conclude or be contributed to by Yamamoto in any meaningful way or at least I'm fairly certain of that I can't be sure and so I'm just waiting for Ichigo to get involved because as I mentioned the only two aspects of this story yet to be resolved in valve Ichigo and that is the issue where the Saiyan Saga split up its questions from the beginning between two different characters Gohan and Goku across two different areas Ichigo seems to be shouldered with everything ironically enough seeing as that's sort of his mission to overcome that idea and while that can work for a regular length film like Star Wars when it comes to a 247 chapter long epic like this for the focus to be all on one character primarily that can create problems with that said the Battle of yam has with Eisen is fittingly epic in scope and scale with the commander himself reminding us who he really is and how dutiful he really can be following this Ichigo lands a magnificent attack but Eisen reveals that hogyoku is protecting its Master him healing him completely in an instant and it's here Eisen reveals that all the growth Ichigo has undergone has occurred within the palm of his hand thematically chapter in 397 is a terrific move one that makes Eisen the perfect villain for Ichigo Kurosaki to face off against standing before Ichigo Eisen unravels what appears to be a complicated but carefully curated path for Ichigo to follow throughout his life one that assured his own personal development as he grew from the countless battles Eisen placed before him all in an effort to test him treating him like a test subject oddly enough everything from the moment this manga began seemingly all occurred due to the control of Eisen his influence and his agency and that's the key word here agency the irankar araken really this entire story has been about Ichigo and the struggle he's undergone to enact his will both onto himself and the world around him he's consistently coming up against foes that seem impossible to defeat and whether it be political decisions interpersonal decisions or physical collisions there has consistently been forces of work in the story preventing Ichigo from achieving his goal preventing him from enacting his own agency but the story of this manga has been that of struggle against adversity with struggle winning out in the end struggle in the face of insurmountable odds to save your loved ones to protect your friends and to in this Arc accept and value their help the very idea that something like this is being propositioned by Eisen is the Ultimate Weapon against ichigo's mind and character it's an utter slap in the face proposing that he's never actually achieved anything that he's never really made any choices but has in fact run on a hamster wheel set up by Eisen from the very beginning that all of this time he thought he was winning and making a difference in the world has been eisen's schemes going according to plan it's a devastating bomb to drop on Ichigo specifically as his entire character is built around this very idea of reacting to challenges and overcoming them with his own will it's one of the central questions and one of the reasons why this works so well for me is that it takes two of those questions and makes them feel impossible to overcome and right now he's being told he never had any agency to begin with and it's just a chilling thought Eisen had said didn't you ever think it was strange did you chalk it all up to Faith did you think that this attack was a coincidence as well did you think your victories were the result of your own efforts and just as this meeting of the Minds comes to its climax Eisen says that he's had his eyes on Ichigo since he was born because he's both human and foreign this is by far the strongest aspect and maybe even the strongest section of the story and can we guess why because it's contending with most of the central questions in this Arc Orihime is saved so that's checked off but can he defeat Eisen well this certainly seems to be insurmountable the more Eisen speaks and reveals to Ichigo and that's to ignore the mental state he's under it's the perfect interaction and I wish we got more of this in the arc cause it's so good also kind of a cool touch here uh gin swords Bankai is perfect for his character design I mean it should come as no surprise to anyone that his appearance is based on a snake I mean I didn't mention it because I mean look at him he's got a weird ass eyes all he needs is a fork tongue to complete the transformation but what's more is his sword extends quickly to Great Lengths in order to attack and as we find out later leaves with it a little bit of poison just like a snake striking like a coiled spring I mean I don't know I thought that was a really cute touch but anyway back to the story set him up once he's back and fully formed for yoruichi to attack but to no effect and honestly it's pretty cool getting to see the older generation take on Eisen and I think it's made all the better knowing that Ichigo is present to watch all of this unfold and during his short-lived battle with gin Ichigo is showing signs of uncertainty and a lack of conviction emphasized by gin in chapter 405 page 4 where he says were you always this weak your mask is brittle too is this the extent of your holification you were scarier back then referring to when he first clashed swords with him during the soul Society right now Ichigo needs to have a clear goal to fight for back then he was striving to reach Rukia after that he was fighting to rescue oruhime but now he's fighting out of a sense of Duty when in reality that's never really been enough for him foundationally his character has always needed something to fight for to get the best work out of himself Rukia had to twist his arm back in the day in the beginning and he himself said that he wouldn't let someone die in front of him when he was first speaking on the topic in the first Arc so basically he would need his friends or his father or someone he cares about to protect right now and he doesn't really have that in an obvious way with the mask being brittle almost acting as a metaphor for the tenuous and half-hearted purpose he possesses to fight with and for in this moment and nowhere is this tackle better than with his most recent Venture into his mind to confront himself in chapter 406 page 3 ichigo's father says to him the only person who can perceive eisen's power is someone who's in the same state he is it's a weird thing to say in the moment and a fact I don't know how he could possibly verify but it matters to the story because Ichigo can sense his energy continuing on ichigo's dad puts him into this state to confront zangetsu for what might be his very last time while Eisen arrives at the real karakura town as his friends start to run around the Now Quiet home they grew up in and once inside his own mind the depiction of zangetsu is quite different and his words are somewhat cryptic he says I don't care what happens to things you want to protect and his reasoning for feeling this way the rain that once poured down in this world may have stopped but now it's being sunk to the bottom of the ocean all because you lost hope and stopped moving forward there are a number of strange metaphorical interactions that take place in this realm none of which are more striking than ichigo's other side revealing himself now wearing the mask of the monster he used to protect and save Orihime and while this is happening Eisen is chatting with tatsuki citing that he knows that Ichigo will show up with some new power up once again adding fuel to the tension surrounding ichigo's ultimate arrival oddly enough however something I didn't anticipate was how hyped I would be for both kananji and Matsumoto showing up to make the save on a downed tatsuki following this Matsumoto engages with gin and during this interaction he describes himself in a rather curious way there's always been the similarity between gin and the snake but the fact that he himself refers to himself as such way back when they first met was kind of interesting he says I'm a snake my skin in this cold I have no heart I Slither looking for prey with the time of my tongue I swallow the people I care about hope the last line suggests that he does care about people maybe the real gin hasn't ever really been known to us but it exists still deep down somewhere perhaps he didn't kill matsumo [Music] holy [ __ ] okay so that was the shortest live Theory I've ever made no joke I swear to God I made that prediction before reading that very part of the chapter so I technically predicted the moment getting turns on Eisen but albeit in the same chapter it's revealed but whatever it's still a cool scene but Eisen is still in full control foreign the design Ichigo shows up to fight against Eisen with is interesting sort of like a combination of the beings that stood in opposition to him in his mind moments before his hair is much more floppy than spiked and not to mention longer his robe is in tatters with a black chain coiled around his arm to his fist wrapped in Black they even remarked that he's taller so maybe it's forced him to age up a bit and as I mentioned with eyes being the running thing to comment on with his appearance in this Arc he'd mentioned that earlier he looked weak referring to Ichigo when he last saw him prior to his short stint training whereas now he looked into ichigo's eyes and says your eyes are stronger good now I can die and leave this in your hands and with that Ichigo decides he wants to take this fight elsewhere I just thought that was really funny it's it's really good the cam and composed Eisen slowly over the course of this beat down becomes tattered and disfigured by his own inability to stop he truly became a horrifying monster and honestly there isn't much to this battle I can comment on apart from the incredible artwork but I suppose that's a belabored point at this stage but the truth is now that Ichigo has answered the second question already now all that he has to do is defeat Eisen and naturally that does come now to be clear I did enjoy this fight I'd even read it again maybe but I think if all of those Central questions instead of being answered at gradual points across a number of scenes in the last 50 chapters would have better served the story had they been answered all at once or somewhere close together to create some sort of Crescendo for the story but alas it didn't quite do that alternatively it does deliver a very satisfying Beatdown of this weird Hollow Eisen monster culminating on a moment where if Ichigo uses this technique he you lose all of his soul Reaper Powers it looks awesome and there's a really nice message about giving everything you have ever worked and struggled for in the name of doing the right thing and I think that's a really cool thing for this act to do it weakens Eisen tremendously but he is still standing however urahara steps in to weaken him further eventually Eisen reaches the point where the whole Goku doesn't recognize him as its master and then reverts back to his normal State unable to overpower those Superior to him thus ending the threat he poses for now I say for now because he goes to something like the soul Society jail or something for a comically long amount of time and if they had no further use for him in this story I would have thought or I thought it would have made sense for him to be killed off or at least lead to his own demise so I'm going to assume he's coming back at some point but I mean I could be wrong stranger things have happened uh than me being wrong so yeah I could very well be wrong in the aftermath of the battle however there's a really nice piece of subtle writing I very much appreciate it following his transformative meeting with tenses zangetsu he reflects on his battle with I Horizon asking urahara in chapter 422 page 14 and 15 did the hogyoku really reject Eisen my dad told me hogyoku could read the hearts of those around it and make their wishes come true if so maybe Eisen wanted to lose his powers I was finally able to feel his sword in the battle after I gained enough power to fight him as an equal I only felt loneliness from it if he was born with exceptional Powers maybe he was looking for someone who could see things from his perspective this has very similar wording to how his counterparts angetsu spoke in those interactions in his mind and using that as the basis for this conversation it's clear to see that interaction that transformative experience has not only transformed him physically but mentally too and off the back of that to close out this Arc there's a really touching end to the story with Ichigo Awakening from a month-long recovery Slumber when he wakes rookie explains that his powers are gone and that in moments he won't be able to see her anymore and there's something really sad about that and honestly would have made for a really nice ending to this series if not a little melancholic just as suddenly as she entered his life she leaves taking with her all the spectacular and terrifying things that brought with it all the Adventure all the understanding and all the Visions my suspicion at this point now having completed this Arc is that much the same way rookia lost her powers but slowly regained them through exposure to a certain environment so too might Ichigo I mean I can't exactly imagine he'll be without his powers for the rest of this series I mean looking at the amount of chapters left I he must have powers I mean it doesn't make sense for him not to all in all despite my point to criticisms I did very much enjoy this story being told during this section the first 40 of the story is nearly perfect and while I found far too much blows in this final 60 percent I still felt as though it managed to deliver a strong final battle with Eisen and some terrific character work with Ichigo however similarly to Soul Society I thought this lacked any substantial use of its secondary car characters Rukia played a tiny role and even Orihime and Urdu while they played bigger roles I thought it would have made thematic sense for them to contribute in some shape or form to the conclusion of the story given how it was framed and certainly more than the little they ended up offering so I did find that disappointing too I mean with what felt like hundreds of fights in this Arc Chad had like what two fights with that said this concludes my review of the iraqarak if I could describe the Iran karak in one sentence it would be a compelling personal story surrounding two or three characters that ultimately spends too much time not dealing with these characters until the very end with really only one getting a substantial ending another sort of getting an ending though I would have liked to see her get a bit more and the third who was also there I guess oh yeah and Chad was there too kind of next week's video will deal with the full bring Arc and that's significantly shorter so hopefully that'll work in this arc's favor until then I've been totally not Mark and thank you so so much for watching [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 274,887

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Id: X6wSqhzlYKk

Length: 63min 11sec (3791 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 17 2022