BLEACH: Movies & OVAs | Complete Analysis

Bleach movie 1 was released in Japan on December 16 2006 the week that Bleach episode 107 aired on TV when a long-running Shonen series goes on long enough the anime Studios usually produce a yearly movie to help push the momentum of the franchise my first experience with anime movies would be the 13 Dragon Ball Z movies they had an average run time of 50 minutes and featured storylines which had very inconsistent writing some of the movies were better than others but for the most part anime movies based on popular Shonen anime are known for being pointless and boring Bleach movie 1 was the first anime movie I watched outside of the DBZ movies it had a feature-length movie run time of 93 minutes which was the first positive I remember that I felt that the story would not be under the same time constraints that the DBZ movies were notorious for I hated how DBZ movies set up a big stage a villain and a final fight which just rushes to a conclusion with the protagonist conveniently unleashing their signature ass pull attack to end the fight what I liked about this Bleach movie was that it was telling a story that it wanted you to feel invest tested in it wasn't just a one-off villain appearing in a cool fight at the end despite memories of nobody having some of these elements in the story it does give fans a little bit more what I always found fun about the bleach movies was that the opening and endings of the anime would change to feature clips from the movies to help to promote them that was another incentive to check out the movies seeing some of the cool battles and movie exclusive characters as the subbed episodes were being released really built up a hype for the movies at the time not only the bleach movies but anime movies in general would not be available for international fans until months later when the movie had concluded its theatrical run and was released on DVD for fan servers to purchase so that they could rip and sub it for the rest of the world back in 2006 it was a different time unlike today where major anime movies like Dragon Ball super broadly and one piece Stampede which are released in cinemas in the west just a few weeks after their Japanese theatrical debuts I remember feeling really anticipated to watch this first Bleach movie so memories of nobody can be assumed to take place outside of the bleach cannon and serves as a Side Story never meant to meet up with the ongoing timeline of the manga or anime some fans do dispute that the movie is Canon and even Kubo does mention watching the movie in some interviews but I have always considered it as a filler additional Side Story the movie begins with Ichigo and rookia coming across Spirits called blanks this is where we are introduced to the mysterious Shinigami called Sana who destroys the blanks with the shikai release of a zombac doe it appears that Sana has forgotten what Shinigami division she belongs to and she attacked the blanks because she felt it was the right thing to do rookie are puzzled by the appearance of Santa and the blanks heads back to the soul Society to report about the strange occurrences meanwhile Ichigo is tasked to stay with Sana and to not let her out of his sight we see that Senna appears to be carefree and laid back while Ichigo tries to get some answers out of her about who she is hitagaya interrupts Ichigo and takes him to urahara's shop to inform him that a city within the human world suddenly appeared above the cerate urahara explains that the human world and the serite remain separate due to the dungai which exists between them but a new dimension has appeared within the dungai a few days ago which has grown larger in size to the point that it now connects the human world to the cerate urahara concludes that this is the reason that the human world is appearing in the cerate Ichigo also adds that he encountered the blanks earlier which prompts hitagaya to mention the valley of Screams urahara explains that some Souls can accidentally be removed from the process of passing over to the soul Society leading to them becoming lost and destined to wander the dungai aimlessly urihara continues by stating that when a large collection of lost souls gather within the dangai it forms a new dimensional space called the valley of Screams and it is here within the valley of Screams that a soul has its energy and memory separated so that they may return to the natural cycle and be reincarnated into the soul Society the blanks that Ichigo saw earlier were Spirit energy which have had their memories removed this prompts Ichigo to ask what happens to their memories if the spirit energy becomes blanks urahara reveals that the memories of all of these Spirits merge into one being this entity then returns to the human world and is known as the shinenju although the valley of Screams is a natural phenomenon and has occurred previously without Consequence the issue is that this newly formed Valley of Screams is connecting the human world to the soul Society hitsugaya further adds that this is being done intentionally by someone Khan also remembers seeing a mysterious armored man standing in the crowd of blanks earlier urahara guesses that this individual would have been looking for the shinenju while urahara continues to research the enemy's motives Ichigo returns to find Sana he learns that she knows nothing about the shinenju and the blanks but she agrees to help Ichigo look for the shinenju Sana eventually begins to remember her memories while she was alive along with ichigo's help she tries to learn more about her past and who she is the gotai 13 appear and reveal to Ichigo that there is no present living Shinigami on record with the name Sana rookia also reveals that the zambakto Santa was using was lost in the dangai over 100 years ago as well as the honor being absorbed by the value of Screams one question how she arrived lived in the human world Sana becomes confused she can remember several different memories all at once which don't make any sense and begin to cause a distress Captain ukitake reveals that the shinenju they have been looking for is Senna they have also learned that the people behind these strange events are being led by a man called gun Ryu an exile from the soul Society he was banished the dangai hitsugaya reveals that gunru's plan is to merge the human world and the Soul Society to cause their destruction his objective stems from a vendetta against the soul Society for exiling him it appears that the sheninju is the key requirement for gun Ryu to complete his goal hitagaya says that they have been ordered to capture Senna Ichigo objects to them taking Sana as he defends her and her existence but suddenly gun Ryu and his group attack Ichigo and Company they have returned to kidnap Senna the shinenju Ichigo tries to stop gonryu and his group called The Dark ones from taking Senna but he ultimately fails ganriyu leaves with Senna and Begins the final steps of his plan to destroy the Two Worlds Ichigo ends up feeling responsible for Senna being kidnapped and and begins to search for an entrance into the valley of Screams urahara states that there should be one near to where the shinenju Sana first appeared eventually finding the entrance Ichigo enters to save Sana while rookia returns to inform the others that they are founded meanwhile in the valley of Screams ganri explains that Cena is the shinenju and has the memories of countless Souls within her when the sheninju is placed within the center of the valley of Screams it causes the blanks to gather searching for their memories once near the shinenju the blanks collide with each other rapidly multiplying and causing the expansion of the valley of Screams leading to the human world and the Soul Society colliding together in the soul Society mayori calculates that they have an hour to stop the destruction of the worlds head captain Yamamoto refuses to send reinforcements to help Ichigo due to the time constraints of an hour so instead he decides to fire up the keto Cannon to fire at the valley of Screams Ichigo arrives to save Sana he confronts the dark ones while Santa is surrounded by blanks while fighting alone Ichigo is joined by kempachi and the other members of the gotai 13 while they fend off the dark ones Ichigo heads to Santa to save her he faces off against the leader of the dark ones gonryu he doesn't understand why he wants to save the shinenju as it is just a collection of memories and thoughts but Ichigo defends Senna by saying that she is alive and here now Ichigo could feel how afraid Senna was knowing that she wanted help in typical fashion Ichigo has sworn to protect Senna and persists through fighting gonryu the dark ones are defeated by the gothai 13 while Ichigo gets closer to Cena gonyu rushes towards Ichigo while the charges against attention that he Fires at gonryu at last the enemy's leader is defeated and turns to Ash Ichigo rescues Senna and leaves the vadio screams returning to the human world however the vadio screams is still expanding and is linked to the human world and Shinigami World Sana realizes that she can use the power of the blanks to return everything back to normal she tells Ichigo she doesn't want the world that Ichigo lives in to be destroyed Cena destroys the valley of Screams and stops the destabilization of Both Worlds returning everything back to normal as a final request Senate asks Ichigo to carry her to the graveyard where she believes her family rest Sana who at this point is Clinging On To Life tells Ichigo that she lived nearby and lived here with her family she asks Ichigo to check her name on the gravestone it is a Bittersweet finale as Senna asks Ichigo if her name is on the gravestone but Ichigo doesn't see her name written on it but to make her feel at ease before she disappears Ichigo tells her that her name is there making her feel like she was truly once alive in this world that she grew to love Ichigo affirms to her that she lived in this town with her family and was certainly alive before becoming a shinenju Sana feeling happy hearing this begins to fade away Rukia later tells Ichigo that as the blank's energy completely disappears so will the memory of senna since you cannot remember someone who didn't exist in the first place the movie concludes with a post-credits scene with Ichigo walking while seeing a red hair ribbon similar to the one Senna had been wearing he can hear a girl running towards him while she is talking to her friends she runs past Ichigo as he realizes she looks just like San Ichigo Smiles as he remembers her and continues walking forward when it comes to Anime movies they never really live up to the expectations that are set out by the show that they are based off of but the first Bleach movie left me feeling pleasantly surprised it isn't perfect and it does have some problems but I really found it to be enjoyable firstly the characters from the show are all here accompanied by Cena who quickly becomes a much-loved character Sana has a personality which is full of life and a love for being alive she is curious full of energy and strong-willed despite being stubborn her strong character is broken when she is haunted by memories of past which contradict any reasonable timeline she tries to relate them to she even tells Ichigo how afraid she is and he can see her visibly shaking it is definitely heart-wrenching to see her exhibit such a Carefree love for life but to realize she never was meant to exist throughout this movie everyone constantly tells Ichigo that she is nothing but a shinenju but who refuses to just accept her as a tool or a byproduct of the value of Screams Ichigo adopts the Shonen Trope of I don't care what you say this person's life life matters because they are a live Trope Ichigo helps Center and validates her concerns once he realizes the sadness associated with their existence the ending to Center Story shows that she cares for and respects Ichigo as she sacrifices herself to save the human world and the Soul Society ensuring the world each girl lives in is not destroyed although doubt Ichigo reassure Center in the final scenes of the movie making her life feel validated Santa cries as she hears Ichigo confirmed she lived once as a fun fact Kubo mentions in the bleachette art book which was released in 2018 that senna's character design is the design that he intended to use for renji and rukia's daughter ichika abarai he even goes on to say that their designs only differ when it comes to their color schemes the movie is scored with the same soundtrack from the anime which I found to be a great choice along with music composed just for the movie which is a nice treat for fans of the anime score I definitely enjoyed the character interactions and The Slice of Life moments in this movie I didn't particularly remember any of the battles or enemies for that matter they were very forgettable and their motives seemed rather generic and unoriginal the story is pretty predictable and can slow down especially during the moments when each go and Senna are not present and there wasn't really any plot twist aside from Center sacrificing herself at the very end of the movie as you watched the movie and tried to piece together what the blanks are and who Senna is and who is behind the creation of the valley of Screams initially is a very interesting concept and the ideas do enough to pull you into the story but in the end I only rarely continue to be invested in Cena's character and the Mystery surrounding her origin personally I couldn't care less for a banished Clan who wants to destroy the soul Society the movie was in need of a more memorable villain who can back up the level of threat that the movie was promising despite the movie setting up a time limit of an hour until the world is destroyed the tension just doesn't feel present because the villains are predictably defeated like how Goku defeats almost all of the movie villains with an Spirit Bomb Ichigo uses his signature attention to defeat gandryu I am glad that the movie brought back almost all of the characters from the series but some of them have little to no consequence if they weren't there I didn't see the point of uru Chad or some of the gotai 13 being in this movie aside from familiarity I didn't see much of a point in including so many characters that we see so little of despite the flaws within the movie I still enjoyed it a lot memories of nobody is entertaining enough to keep fans of the anime and manga engaged but there is little here to enjoy if you have never seen a red bleach particularly due to the movie featuring many Concepts and characters from the show itself Cena and the enemies are the only new characters featured within the movie understandably it would be confusing for newcomers I love pieces of media which leave fans with endings that are open to interpretation the ending to memories of nobody leaves fans wondering if ichigo's memories were also erased as he holds a red ribbon a girl resembling Santa runs past him Ichigo looks at her and smiles and decides to continue walking and for me this shows that in the end he didn't forget Sana the title memories of nobody refers to the collection of memories that Senna has as a shinenju she is born as someone who should have never existed she is literally a nobody the title of the movie fits so well with with the story that is played out the redeeming quality of this movie is the introduction of senna and her character you feel sorry for her and can't help but to get emotional at the movie's ending as the movie progresses you learn more about her character and when you understand the significance of what she is and why she keeps remembering different memories it is upsetting the movie largely feels like a prolonged filler episode but surprisingly I enjoyed it more than any of the filler content featured within the anime memories of nobody also ends with a credit song which is sung by the band Aqua times and it rings through with a lot of nostalgia listening to it over 10 years after watching the movie for the first time I definitely recommend fans of bleach to watch this movie if they haven't because it can't hurt to have more fans of Cena and her story in this video I'm going to prove how Cena is a canon waifu in order to do this I'm going to talk about how Bleach movie 1 fits into the timeline of the Bleach Manga then I'm going to go over every instance that anything from Bleach movie 1 is mentioned within the actual manga in addition to this we're also going to talk about what Kubo thinks about the first Bleach movie and the last point that I'm going to speak about in this video is the state of Ichigo at the end of the movie referencing him having forgotten about Senna and speaking about the Bleach movie 1 post credit scene so I'm really excited to talk about the topic of this video because I love Bleach movie one and that I know I'm about to make somebody's wife you out there Canon so yeah this is my video on how Bleach movie one is Canon to the manga so the first Bleach movie memories of nobody debuted in Japanese theaters on the 16th of December 2006. at the start of volume 25 Kubo had commented on the release of the movie stating that bleach is now a movie and the filmmaker's attention to detail is evident in everything from the background art to the StoryBots he goes on to say that he thinks it's going to turn out amazing and people who like the anime will really love it and those of you who don't like the anime that much may be pleasantly surprised Kubo himself states that he cannot wait to see it from this comment it is evident that Kubo was somewhat involved within the production of the first Bleach movie what if that's just always seeing the background art and the storyboards and giving his approval on the overall story none of this is actually confirmed and for the most part is just speculation but from the points that I'm about to make it's going to be evident that Kubo did actually like the story from Bleach movie 1. as he Incorporated some of the elements that were introduced within that story into his own manga now the first Bleach movie introduces us to several new characters of which include Sana and the members of the ryodoji family which was once a former Noble family within the soul Society but they had been exiled over a thousand years ago and at present they are now referred to as the dark ones or the Fallen we don't really know the reason behind why the Rio doji family had fallen in status and thus were exiled from the soul Society but we do know that after being exiled the family themselves wanted to be distanced from the soul Society these surviving members of the family united and led by gun Ryu had come to be known as the dark ones that escaped into the dungai and it was not too long after going there where they had arrived within the valley of Screams it is within the valley of Screams they had discovered entities known as blanks blanks are in fact Souls which live within a new the introduced Dimension called the valley of Screams and they no longer possess their memories from the living world this occurs when Souls who migrate from the human world to the soul Society end up getting lost within the dangai these Souls end up wandering aimlessly together and gradually over time they are drawn together as more and more of these Souls come together they end up creating a whole new dimension called the valley of Screams within the valley of Screams these souls are separated into memories and energy the memories that are separated from the blanks fused together and return to the Living World in order to form what is known as the shinenju and the shinenju that appears within Bleach movie 1 is of course Senna so these are the key plot points and Concepts that are introduced to us in Bleach movie 1. now the main area of interest is the value of Screams which is also referred to as the kyogoku now this is a dimension that forms between the human world and the Soul society and it stems from the dangai so before going into how these concepts are introduced into the Bleach Manga and the bleach novels let's first understand how memories of nobody fits into the timeline of the Bleach Manga So within the movie we clearly see Ichigo activate his Bankai so we are aware that this definitely takes place after the soul Society Arc and some time before the fulbrangark in addition to this Ichigo doesn't express any surprise to see that Rukia has a Shinigami Powers returned so this confirms that memories of nobody has to take place after chapter 201 of the manga since it is in that chapter that Ichigo first sees Rukia with her Shinigami powers back so knowing this we can now propose a very realistic time for why this movie can fit into the timeline of the manga so between chapters 228 and 229 there is a one month time skip during this one month time skip everybody is preparing for the battle against Eisen and his army of Iran cause which is set to take place within the winter now we don't really get to see what happens within this one month time skip so it is for that reason that we can assume that Bleach movie 1 fits into the timeline of this one month where everyone was training so let's now talk about how Concepts that are introduced within memories of nobody are referenced within the actual manga now the first instance of this occurs within the Thousand Year blood War Arc in chapter 625 your EG references the kyogoku or the valley of Screams as she describes the kyogoku as an area where Fallen Souls exist she goes on to state that urahara had figured out that the kyokuku can maintain itself as a reishi space because of its different reishi structure during the final org urahara manages to find a way to use the valley of Screams to his advantage in order for Ichigo and the others to plan a surprise attack against the quincies through utilizing a modified Valley of Screams thanks to ruruka and yukio's abilities they are able to enter the enemy's territory without releasing any spiritual pressure now the valley of Screams is mentioned once again in chapter 627 when Ichigo advises Yukio and ruruka to stay behind while Ichigo and the others enter into the modified body of Screams he tells rirakad that he has entered the kyogoku once before and for somebody who only likes cute things there isn't anything cute about the girl now we have never seen Ichigo enter into the valley of Screams within the manga and the only time that he did in fact enter within the valley of Screams was during Bleach movie 1. there was even a panel here that Kubo draws of the valley of Screams that matches the environment that we see within the movie now in bleach volume 69 at the end of chapter 627 Kubo draws a sketch while he advises his readers to see the first Bleach movie for more info on the kyogoku now this instance is so fascinating and it is so relevant to the recent bleach news that we have had now we know that Kubo had released a One-Shot chapter in August of this year where he had introduced the possibility of exploring hell in an entirely new story arc now if Kubo goes ahead and releases more chapters then it would be fascinating to see how many Concepts from the fourth Bleach movie he carries forward into his work I have already discussed how much Kubo didn't like the direction of helvis in my review of that movie but despite this a lot of people still believe Bleach movie 4 to be Canon because the animation studio claimed that Kubo had a supervised advisory role within the movie which Kubo later on went on to denounce in comments that were made on the DVD release of helvis now this attitude is entirely different to the author notes that I had spoken about at the start of this video from volume 25 where Kubo had expressed how excited he is to see the movie and he believed that the filmmakers at the time had paid particular attention to detail maybe it was because of this that he had no issue with introducing the valley of Screams into the manga and even recommending fans to go see Movie 1 for more information on the kyogoku this is significant because it confirms that Kubo has connected Bleach movie 1 into his story he even went as far as to confirm that Ichigo had been to the kogoku before Within Chapter 627. now aside from being referenced within the Bleach Manga memories of nobody is also brought up within the confir on world light novels so in chapter 15 of the second volume of convia onworld tokinada mentions the ryodoji family as he states that the house of Rio doji were an ancient aristocratic family who were the first ones to her Adventure into the kyogoku after they had been banished from the great Noble houses they were stripped of their status and were exiled into the valley of Screams he goes on to state that it must have been unpleasant for them to have to face their sentence in a completely unknown place so after having been referenced within the actual manga and now being referenced within cart for your own world so it is very difficult for me to believe that Bleach movie 1 isn't Canon anymore so this leaves us with one final problem which is the state of ichigo's memories at the end of the movie now just before the movie wraps up just after Santa has died rookia states that they will lose their memories of Sana including their memories of the valley of Screams and the Rio doji family now in the post-credits scene of Bleach movie 1 Ichigo catches a red hair band which looks exactly like the one that Cena had been wearing and as soon as he grabs it his expression on his face changes as his eyes widen through the shock in his face you can see that he is remembering and just after it appears that he has remembered a girl runs onto the bridge with her friends as she is laughing running towards Ichigo Ichigo watches her running past him as we see from the close-up that she not only looks but sounds exactly like Senna after this happens Ichigo stands still and smiles before he continues on walking now this post-credits scene for me has always confirmed that Ichigo did not lose his memories in fact he had regained them this also explains why he was able to remember that he had been to the kyogoku in chapter 627. now funnily enough Santa also makes a cameo appearance within episode 204 of the anime during one of the scenes where Ichigo is talking you can see a girl that is stood behind him her hairstyle is strikingly similar to Santa's and she also has her iconic yellow herabin which is the same colored herabin that she wears when she first meets Ichigo in the movie The Last point that I want to mention about Bleach movie 1 and Santa in general is that Kubo had spoken about her in the bleach jet art book yet stated that Cena's design was actually the design that he was thinking about when he was designing the daughter of Rukia and renji he even goes on to say that she is like their child from a parallel universe and the only difference between Cotton Center is their color schemes so to summarize all of the points that I've made in this video Bleach movie 1 fits into the timeline of the manga during the one month cap where Ichigo and the others were training to defeat Eisen in chapter 627 Ichigo states that he had been to the kogoku before the ryodoji family and the valley of Screams is not only mentioned within the manga it is also mentioned within the card for your own world light novels and lastly at the end of chapter 627 Kubo had even taught us to go and watch Bleach movie 1. for more information on the kyogoku before researching for this video I was under the impression that the second Bleach movie the diamond dust rebellion was disliked by the majority of bleach fans but apparently a few people really enjoyed this movie and even believe it to be better than memories of nobody is this movie as bad as I remember it to be let's check out the story told and look at the pros and cons of this movie and if it improves upon the flaws of the first Bleach movie Bleach movie 2 was released on December 22nd 2007. its theatrical run began in Japanese Cinemas while episode 105 53 add on TV that same week the story of this movie revolves around Toshi rohitsugaya and the Mystery behind the ownership of izombakto let's briefly go over the events that take place during this movie before analyzing the pros and cons of this movie Squad 10 and their Captain toshirohitsugaya along with his Lieutenant Matsumoto rangiku are ordered to escort a sacred item called the king seal while the rare item is being transported The Carriage carrying the king's seal is attacked during the attack the king's seal is stolen by Rogue Shinigami called Sergio kusaga he is assisted by his accomplices who are two girls called yin and yang hitsugaya who recognizes the Shinigami kusaga decides to pursue him he abandons his Squad in rangiku as he looks back at her with a face of sadness before leaving to chase after kusaga rangiku is abandoned and hears of the casualties from the attack the sole Society deemed hitsugayo to be a traitor and place his whole Squad in isolation within the squad 10 Barracks Ichigo in the human world comes across an area which is sealed off by a wall frustrated that somebody may be up to no good near his home he breaks through the seal and he sees the casualties from the recent attack Ichigo encounters Captain soifon who informs him about what occurred she also tells Ichigo to report to her if he knows anything about hitsugayo's whereabouts uriu joins Ichigo as siphon leaves with their squad they try to make sense of what is happening as it begins to snow uriu realizes that hitsugaya must have been concealing his ratsu to be in hiding suddenly a worn out hitsugaya appears and collapses in front of them Ichigo takes hisugaya into Kurosaki clinic so that he can recover his strength hitsugayo dreams of his days at the Shinigami Academy as he sees kusaka complement him as the boy Genius who is consistently scarring well in his classes he dreams about how they train together back at the Academy and is awoken as he hears kusaka ask him if the two of them are friends Ichigo who is concerned about hitsugaya checks up on him and advises him to rest as he will call Orihime to check up on his wounds in the morning but the following morning hitsugaya sneaks out of Kurosaki clinic but Ichigo can confront segment asks him why he is behaving like he has something to hide Ichigo tries to offer to help hitagaya with whatever it is that is bothering him but he denies that there's something going on but Ichigo asks if he is concerned because of kusaka which prompts hitagaya to be surprised by the mention of that name Ichigo assumes that it was kusaka who attacked and stole the king's seal but hitsugaya states that kusaka is someone who was murdered a long time ago Ichigo asks who killed kusaka but hitsagaya ignores the question and continues to walk away when Ichigo tries to stop hitsugaya he attacks him the two of them are then attacked by kusaka subordinates yin and yang they have come to take hitsugaya with them Ichigo tries to not let them take him but hitagaya attacks Ichigo and tells him to let him go with them the three of them overpower Ichigo by attacking him one after the other they leave while Ichigo covered in blood shouts out asking where he is going before collapsing he is later woken up by Rukia and renji he tells them about how itsugaya left with two girls who resembled arankaz also informing him that itsugaya mentioned he he needs to get the king's seal back from someone called kusaka Ichigo tells them that he also mentioned that kusaka had died a long time ago renji then returns to the soul Society to learn more about this mysterious individual called kusaka in a flashback we learned that hitsugaya and kusaka are standing in front of the central 46 who declare that there can only be one owner of Yori Maru as that cannot be two Shinigami who possess the same zampakto there has always been one rightful owner for each sampakto hitsugaya attempts to resolve the Dilemma by stating he will relinquish ownership of yorimaru but the central 46 states that this is not his decision to make alluding to the two of them having to face off against each other to the death to decide the rightful owner of the zambakto back in the present day Ichigo and the others try to investigate hit sugaya's connection to kusaka but keep coming up with dead ends primarily due to hit sagaya not speaking about his past and not having really opened up with anyone including his own Lieutenant rangiku she tells renji she has never heard the name kusaka before renji hands over hitsugaya's Captain kotu rangiku telling her that he left it at ichigo's house rangiku noticing there is blood on hitzugaya's court realizes that he must be hurt rangiku is unsure whether to feel happy that hitsugai is still alive or upset because he has abandoned everybody back in the past we see kusaka obtaining the zambakto Hiro Maru an Overjoyed kusaka tells hit sugaya that it is amazing that they both have the same power in present time captain shunsui and his Lieutenant now looked through the library to find any records of kusaka but they find nothing they do however note that there is a student who is missing from the class that hitsugaya graduated from they learned that this missing student is from Northern rukongai and is named Sergio kusaka however this person is confirmed to have died as Captain shunsri leaves the library for a walk he is confronted by kusaka who battles with a captain meanwhile in the human world hitsugaya is confronted by a group of Shinigami led by the two lieutenants Kira and hisagi they order hitsugaya to return to the soul Society but he has known intention of returning their battle with hitsugayo to try and subdue him and it's got him back they plea with him to not fight back as you will be accused of treason hitagaya resists and attacks the Shinigami with his Bankai daigur and hiramaru back in the sariete shunsui is left injured after his battle with kusaka his wounds attended to by Captain unohana and Squad 4. the rest of the Shinigami learn of hitsugaya's actions after he badly injured hisagi and Kira they are shocked that he would hurt his own comrades that were on his side not too long ago the next day in the soul Society head captain Yamamoto declares in the captain's meeting that capturing hitsugaya is top priority and that he now has an execution order placed on him Ichigo in the human world learns of this news and is confused as to why such an order would be issued vyakiya along with Mayuri questioned how hiroimaru could have attacked captain shunsui in the soul society and lieutenants Kira and hisagi in the human world at the same time Mayuri begins researching the possibility of twin zambakto existing he begins to look into the Historical Library of the Soul Society another flashback reveals that the central 46 ordered hitsugaya and kusaka to battle to the death to determine the rightful honor of yorimaru during their battle they are interrupted by the Kagan who are the Elite assassins from the stealth division they revealed that the central 46ers declared hit sugaya as the rightful owner of yorimaru proceeding to then restrain hitsugaya as they run their blades through kusaka he starts panting while in his final moments he recalls how he devoted his entire life to the soul Society to then be betrayed by them in the end yorimaru Fades from kusaka's hands as he dies back in the present day Ichigo is attacked by kusaka and his allies and he has shown how kusaka was murdered and learns of his past with hitsugaya Ichigo relates to hit sagaya as he too felt his view of the world change after losing his mother he assumes hitsugaya must have similarly been affected by the death of kusaka it is clear that both of them built up emotions within themselves so as to not burden the people around them Ichigo realizes that when he bottled up his emotions he was in fact causing those around him to worry and feel concerned for his well-being Ichigo remembering the desperate look on hitsugaya's face realizes it was like the look he had back when his mother died hitagaya is entirely shouldering the burden of kusaka's death he feels responsible for it Ichigo now understands why hit sugaya has been behaving irrationally and pushing everyone away kusaka gets away as Ichigo is left to battle the female arancas meanwhile we see that hitsugaya finally confronts kusaka asking him to return the king's seal but kusaka intends to use it to exact his plan the king's seal begins glowing as it pulls hitagaya towards kusaka as the two of them are teleported away rookia and Ichigo can send an incredible surge of ryatsu the aranca girls yin and yang reveal is the power of the king's seal stating that hitsugaya and kusaga have begun their eventual plan against the soul society hitsugaya and kusaka appear on sokyoku hill with the increasing riatsu of the king's seal alerting the soul Society to their location the Shinigami prepare for battle kusaka tells hitsugaya of the power of the king's seal about how he could manipulate time and space via teleportation thus explaining how kusaka is alive as he is able to undo his wounds or injuries by returning to a form before he sustained the injuries the Shinigami then arrive and begin battling with kusaka while in the human world chadan uruyu battle yin and yang allowing Ichigo and Rukia to head to the soul Society back in tokyoku Hill the Shinigami are about to clash with hitsugaya and kusaka but before they can fight they are stopped by a gatsuka tencho from Ichigo head captain Yamamoto also arrives and states that the king's seal brought kusaka back to life and resurrected him into hueco Mundo kusaka confirms this and reveals his plan to become the king of the Soul Society hitsugaya then attacks kusaka revealing it was never his intention to be his accomplice much to his surprise everyone is confused on wonders why hitsugaya abandoned everyone if he didn't intend to betray the gothai 13. Ichigo and Rukia explained that hitsugayo feels responsible for everything and could not deal with having to kill kusaka again his emotions led him to pursue kusaka and abandon his post resulting in him being branded as a traitor kusaka rejects hitsugaya's help and cuts the king's seal in half Ichigo arrives and snaps him back into his senses by persuading hitagaya to let everyone help him and to not shoulder the burden and responsibility on his own preparing to fight their watch as the dust settles and kusaka appears in a new form as an iced Dragon the irancar girls also arrive beaten and beg for kusaka's forgiveness but he traps them both in ice he then begins gaining more power as the king's seal releases more riyatsu going out of control Mayuri comments that if this continues then the sarite will be destroyed the orankar girls have now been transformed into large Hollows as they keep the B-side company while the a side which includes Rukia Ichigo and hitsugaya head for kusaka who is located at the top of his Stone Tower he has just created Hollows block their path but with the help of renji byakia ikaku and the others defend them off Yamamoto komamura and and Mayuri are all holding back the expansion of the riyatsudome formed by the king seal while both hitsugaya and Ichigo make their way to the tower where kusaka is located as they reach the top Ichigo and hitsugaya begin to battle kusaka Ichigo stubs kusaka and then fires a getsaka tencho through his head the rest of kusaka's body shatters as everything begins to return to normal as the dust clears a breathless kusaka emerges Ichigo respectfully tells hitagaya to take care of the rest they both charge towards each other and Clash one last time as kusaka's blade shatters he admits that hitsugaya is the rightful owner of yoremaru his body begins to disappear as hitagaya tells him they will always be friends the king seal reforms and drops to the ground Ichigo hands the king seal to hit sagaya as he consoles him as the movie wraps up hitagaya places kusaka's broken zambakto on his grave as he says farewell to his friend after re-watching this movie I can only say that I was expecting more from a movie scented around hitsugaya who is easily one of the most popular characters Within each this movie just feels lackluster from how Ichigo abruptly defeats kusaka to how kusaka's motivation feels rather contrived and unconvincing he randomly just States towards the end of the movie he wants to become the king of the Soul Society it probably would have made more sense if this goal was stated in the beginning it would have been more in line with his desire for Revenge even so a more convincing goal like taking out the central 46 would have made more sense as they were responsible for his death the plot of this movie centers around the concept that no two individuals may wield the same zampak though the central 46 enforced this rule without any real reason as to why just simply Fate has determined it to be so in general from what I have seen online this movie is enjoyed by a lot of fans and I can relate to some extent but overall diamond dust Rebellion leaves much more to be desired the second Bleach movie Falls shot in several areas the most notable being its plot that it is trying to tell we get to experience hitsugaya's past as well as seeing his day spent studying at the Academy aside from this all we have left is a generic plot centered around revenge kusaka is magically brought back to life through the king's seal but we have no idea of knowing if this was purposeful or a mere coincidence kusaka somehow now understands the power of the king's seal and knows the exact day that the seal was changing location it is established that the relocating of the king's seal is a highly confidential Mission which only a limited number of people know about just how on Earth was kusaka aware that the seal was being transported on that day this is the first of many plot threads which are not explained within the movie the next unexplained mystery is why hitsugaya runs away immediately after everything occurs I understand seeing kusaka must have been a shock to him but he just leaves considering he is a captain you would assume it wouldn't have taken him long to catch up to kusaka but hitsugayo just runs away he gives no explanation he exhibits none of the traits of an honorable and well-respected Captain he literally bails on everyone but in actual fact we quickly learned that he didn't run away he was just hiding right next to where the Ambush just took place so this then leads directly to head captain Yamamoto who makes their first of his very irrational decisions he deems hitsugayo to be a traitor and commands that Squad 10 are confined within their housing he has no faith in hitsugaya who holds the well-respected position of a captain no benefit of the doubt is given he is declared not to be trusted due to breaking the rules and not following orders the head captain even goes as far as to threaten shutting down the whole of squad 10 which seems a bit Overkill if you ask me Squad 10 didn't really break any rules or disobey any orders seems like a stretch to punish them in all fairness From This Moment On the movie turns hitsugaya into the most unlikable version of himself I have yet to see a character Go full 180 to the extent that hitsugaya did in this movie so he makes his second getaway during the crack of dawn as he runs away from Kurosaki Clinic Ichigo spots him as he is shoehand into the story as the voice of reason for hitsugaya unlike head captain Yamamoto Ichigo is willing to give absolutely everyone the benefit of the doubt in the most confusing moment of the whole movie hitsugaya teams up with the two aranca girls and attacks Ichigo before leaving with them so who even are these two weird aranca girls we never see how kusaka met them nor is their motivation to help kusaka explained they are just there and helping kusaka for no apparent reason at all I have no idea where hitsugaya goes with these iranka girls but he doesn't meet kusaka the next time we see them we see the girl speaking to kusaka and hitsugaya on his own daydreaming about his past if someone wants to explain how on Earth hit Gaia ended up in an abandoned Factory and not led to kusaka I'd be rather grateful the single most unforgivable scene also plays out in this movie when none other than Captain shunsui heads out for a breather and is confronted by kusaka who proceeds to off-screen slap shinsui so hard it leaves him struggling to breathe even if he was surprised that kusaka removed his mask revealing his true identity I don't think it would have made shunsui forget his hundreds of years worth of training shunsui pretty much just read about kusaka being some dude that died a long time ago would he rarely be that shocked to discover his is alive causing him to forget how to hold a sword even with the king's seal in kusaka's possession it wasn't even activated at that point power scaling clearly was thrown out the window during this movie I mentioned earlier that Ichigo was shoehorned into the story before well I will never understand why he delivered the final blow to kusaka so if we examine the final blow how did Ichigo one shot kill kusaka who was an ice dragon God who obtained the power of the king's seal which he never utilized Beyond constructing a nice Tower to stand on top of the final confrontation did need to be longer but with such a predictable plot I can't say that the issue lies with the end fight the problem began when hitsugai decided to run away and hide within 10 minutes of the movie opening and the Iran car girls turning up for God knows whatever reason I think it is pretty obvious now that the story was party executed at this point the movie like the first Bleach movie also suffers from including way too many characters who don't need to be there I once again didn't see the point of uru Chad and Orihime in this movie the only major involvement was from chadan uriu who had a fight with the orankar girls and in all honesty why are they even hear what what is their purpose again also yuriichi is never mentioned in the movie nor do we see urahara but magically during the final fight we hear a shanko out of nowhere and she appears also if they were going to have a movie about hitagaya I'm confused as to why they didn't commit fully to this idea instead we have Ichigo shuhan into the movie his involvement fell very fast and unnatural I think the story would have been improved if Ichigo remained as a supporting role despite that long run about the cons of this movie I must say that the art and animation is as incredible as ever the battle sequences are enjoyable to watch if you're not trying to work out the logic behind the sword swings so the movie did kind of redeem itself during the final battle sequence which involves everyone once again and some of the captains get some great screen time like kimpachi and byakia the soundtrack from the anime also features within the movie along with some newly composed Pieces Just for this movie when I first heard about the idea of a movie centered around hitsugaya and his past I found it to be a very intro interesting concept But ultimately it was executed very poorly even the title of the movie makes no sense or holds no meaning diamond dust Rebellion makes it sound like a cool Iced Out rebellious battle but all we got was hitagaya running away and hiding and kusaka who was accompanied by two random girls he found in huekomundo trying to have his cliched revenge plot unfold in all honesty this movie felt more like the diamond dust disappointment it definitely had potential and could have been an insightful story about the past of hitagaya but instead it ends up telling a very unoriginal plot which has more holes than you can count the concept of twin zambakto was interesting but even upon analysis how did two people obtain the same zambak doe when the essence of the zambokto is generated by each person's unique individual spirit hitsugaya in the manga is a voice of reason especially to characters like Momo but in this movie he is nothing like his level-headed composed self he liked the other captains has a very distinct and well-defined personality which makes him a joy to follow in the original Source material this movie Just fail to translate the likable traits with tsukaya onto the big screen if you do want to just zone out and watch 90 minutes of great bleach animation then this movie is for you but if you desire a rich fleshed out story then look elsewhere fader black bleach is the third movie based on the very popular Manga and Anime series bleach the first movie was centered around the movie exclusive character called Senna the second was hit sugaya and this third movie revolves this plot around Rukia let's see how this third character-centered movie compares to its predecessors is this another cliche forgettable movie or will calling back to the memories of Rukia in the series pull on your heartstrings enough to win you over Movie 3 was released in Japan on December 13 2008 while Bleach episode 198 aired on TV that week directed by noryuki Abe this movie tells a story about how the memory of Rukia Fades away from the Shinigami this movie does recycle story Beats from the previous movies and even causes you to feel Deja Vu as moments from the anime are repeated and we get to see old feuds reignited for the big screen fate to Black tells a story about a pair of siblings who disrupt the order within the soul Society so that they can kidnap Rukia this movie begins with a pair attacking Mayuri cutting him with a sight which makes him forget his memories myri who has now forgotten everything panics and damages his machines which causes a large explosion to erupt from his research facility Rukia is then attacked by the mysterious Duo as she falls victim to the same Scythe that cut mayori this causes everyone to forget about rukia's existence as well as rukia's own memories being entirely erased this is a very interesting premise and definitely a stronger opening than the previous two movies in karakura town it appears that Ichigo has forgotten Rukia that is until Khan who happens to be the only one who has not forgotten her reminds him Ichigo visits urahara who appears to have forgotten both Ichigo and Rukia and doesn't recall anyone called Rukia aside from confirming he has records of someone going by that name who frequently purchased items from his store he then tries his luck at the soul Society Ichigo and konbot arrive to learn that nobody recognizes who Ichigo is and they treat him like an enemy frustratingly once again he is an intruder to the soul Society yes this is another movie where Ichigo and the Soul Society are at odds with each other in every movie so far this has been a recurring theme and it's not just this you can see that many elements are borrowed from the anime and manga to tell these movie exclusive stories recreating aspects of the Soul Society Arc as well as mentions of huecon Mundo and its involvement are some of the repeated or borrowed elements within this movie returning to rukio we see that she has been taken to the rukon district she is kept company by the brother and sister Pat who kidnapped her reassuringly she does remember that she grew up in the urukon district the siblings tried to remind Rukia that they used to know each other a long time ago and she even named them rookia doesn't recall any of this and even states she doesn't remember the names that she called them meanwhile Ichigo continues to struggle against the Shinigami he meets byakya and attempts to remind him that Rukia was hisana's sister but he is interrupted and battles renji which results in some cool flashbacks to occur that call back to their first encounter within the soul Society shock I really like this confrontation between the two of them the placement of the music the intensity of renji and the animation which brings this fight to life there are stubborn attitudes and determination is what made their Feud within the manga feel so enjoyable thanks to the plot of the movie we get another chance to see them battle but this time Ichigo doesn't waste any time as he activates his Bankai he taunts renji to activate his bunkai but he doesn't remember having one this is a great scene as Ichigo says to renji that he developed his Bankai so that he could save Rukia without any memories of rookia he cannot remember ever attaining it I thought this was a nice addition to the movie Ichigo raises his blade in the air with the resolve to make renji remember which causes renji to have a flashback to how he did the exact same stance when they fought in the soul Society Arc just when the battle was getting good vyakiya sadly stops the fight as he helps Ichigo by directing him to the birthplace of his wife lisana hoping Ichigo May learn more about Rukia if he goes there this action reveals that byakya does have a softer side to him as he helps Ichigo by giving him information about rukia's possible whereabouts it's a great contrast especially if you compare this to his behavior towards Ichigo in the soul Society Arc Ichigo arrives in the ubucon district where he finds Rukia and tries to remind her about her forgotten memories but to no avail the siblings can see that ichigo's efforts to remind rookie about our memories are distressing her so they escape with her we are then updated to the whereabouts of Mayuri as we see him imprisoned surprisingly urahara appears out of nowhere to meet Mayuri he explains how his memories were confused and Compares it to losing his own memories of Rukia urahara deduces that Mayuri and Rukia were attacked by the same individual he helps Mayuri by locating his memories that he regularly backed up which is rather convenient it does feel strange and out of nowhere to see urahara appear it's not given much context we just see him there and are supposed to accept it especially if we consider the fact that he is exiled from the soul Society but no explanation or attention is given to that fact the great thing about the bleach movies is that we experience events and character interactions which never occur in the manga or a Haro meeting Mayuri and helping him is an excellent callback to his days as a captain and he turned back the pendulum Arc the movies provide great fan service for those who want to see more interactions from their favorite characters we learned that the siblings holiday grudge against the Shinigami claiming that they took everything away from them including Rukia however Rukia begins to remember flashbacks of her memory after having seen Ichigo earlier Ichigo and Khan are then confronted by the gotai 13 who tried to attack the two of them however renji defends them and states that he may not remember Ichigo but his heart is telling him to trust him head captain Yamamoto eventually arrives accompanied by the other captains they intend to capture Ichigo however out of nowhere urahara interrupts them with his old Captain natairon which doesn't make any sense but looks cool regardless once again under the Callback to the turn back the pendulum Arc seeing orahara with his captain attire along with the other captains is so pleasing to see it may not make any sense but I can't bring myself to disagree with this fan service urahara requests Ichigo and renji to go and find rookia while he explains to the gotai 13 what he has discovered regarding their memory loss he begins to describe his studies on a parasitic Hollow who has the ability to erase memories with a scythe that is attached to his body urahara deduces that it is this hollow that is controlling the two siblings Rukia is taken with his siblings to myri's lab where they intend to destroy the Shinigami by tampering with mayuri's spiritual machine to cause another reishi explosion it is pretty evident that these siblings are annoying especially the girl their story just doesn't really make you feel invested or care for them personally the only thing that I really wanted to know was the relationship with rookia and their past with her which only confirms that they were only interesting due to their connection to Rukia who is constantly in their company it was her memory loss and how she is affected by the events of the movie which helped me to keep my attention towards the siblings as I mentioned earlier their siblings believe that the Shinigami are responsible for rookia being taken away from them when they were children rukian notices that their siblings slip up and she realizes that she was a Shinigami prior to forgetting her memories while Rukia argues with the siblings renji and Ichigo begin making that way over to mayuri's lab one of my favorite Bankai Transformations occurs here while Ichigo is standing on top of zabimaru's head he yells Bankai while absurdly cool explosions occur behind him this movie just keeps hitting you with over-the-top action which pays homage to the relationships between the characters it really is the Small Things Ichigo and renji teaming up is super exciting and is an enjoyable way to begin the final confrontation with the yet to appear main villain of this movie Rukia refuses to let their siblings hurt the Shinigami as Ichigo and renji finally arrive she remembers them and her memories appear to now be restored this frustrates the female sibling who becomes enraged and causes a fusion of the siblings and Rukia to occur the result of the fusion is super emo goth dark rookia I have to just get this out there I really like how this form looks it's really cool she has a great design and a menacing Scythe that she is carrying along with her soulless eyes make her feel like a real threat this new design along with a changed attitude turns the Beloved rookie into a real monster that has lost a sense of reasoning with you go on the others it appears that dark rookia is also horrified as she transforms mayuri's racing machine into a giant monster a battle then ensues between Ichigo and dark Rukia he tries his best to hold back his power so as to not hurt her but dark rookia on the other hand is going wild and not holding back at all urahara then proposes to the gotai 13 that they need to destroy the reishi machine within mairi's lab so that they can stop the giant Hollow from continuing to destroy the soul Society in a pretty hyped scene the head captain along with kyoraku and shunsui unleash their zampark though and attacked the giant Hollow the newly composed music made for this movie makes the attack on the giant Hollow feel more enjoyable and exciting we then see yuriichi team up with siphon and even orihara involving himself in the battle now these are moments which you don't see often within the anime kimpachi also mixes obligatory Rampage in this movie it wouldn't feel like a Bleach movie if kempachi wasn't laughing and attacking the opposition meanwhile each girl frustratingly tries to get Rukia to remember her memories but she continues attack senselessly yakiya then arrives to ichigo's Aid as the other captains along with urahara make some progress against the monster yakiya binds dark rookia as he claims it is his responsibility to stop her as she is getting out of control and is gradually transforming into a hollow Ichigo then recalls back to when Rukia saved him and his family their flashback is very relevant and fits well within the context of this movie it is this connection between Rukia and Ichigo that forms the foundational beginning of bleach as a whole I love how this movie pays respect to it through rookia losing their Memories We already know her impact on ichigo's life but in the movies finale we see just how much she means to Ichigo and how she has made an everlasting impression on him it is for this very reason that Ichigo cannot stand aside on that byakya resolve the battle by killing her this time Ichigo is going to save her as we see Rukia share her powers with him in a dramatic flashback while Ichigo runs his sword through rookia's chest driving out the parasitic Hollow the logic seems to be that Ichigo sharing his powers with rookia would restore her which indeed appears to have done Rukia returns to normal she reassuringly recognizes Ichigo confirming that her memories have been restored meanwhile biakya and renji unleash their Bankai and help in putting his stop to the giant monster as the movie begins to wrap up the siblings who are responsible for this whole movie's plot lay heavily wounded on the ground as Rukia consoles them we then see a flashback which provides much needed context to explain why the siblings behaved like they did during the movie in the flashback we learned that the two siblings were harassed by a Shinigami who had been possessed by a parasitic Hollow the same one that urahara earlier had mentioned Rukia comes to their aid but fails to protect them she falls unconscious as the Shinigami attacks the two siblings urahara explains that Rukia had forgotten these events due to the parasitic Hollow these siblings managed to trap the hollow within their body and hide in huecon mundo until they escaped and reunited with Rukia due to their intense desire to return to her rookia finally remembers the siblings but unfortunately they both die from their wounds the movie concludes with rookie are feeling determined to not let the memory of the siblings fade away again as she will remember them from now on fader black centered around the bond between Rukia and Ichigo and focused on rukia's memory loss and it proved to be very enjoyable with the involvement of most of the cast but not needlessly involving uriu Chad and urihime which definitely was an improvement on the prior movies which did that the characters all seem to get a nice Spotlight ikaku has a little scrap with Ichigo the several different captains all have moments to shine during the final battle even byakia has a small role he plays within the movie as everyone has forgotten Rukia but for byakia it wasn't that easy to completely forget hisana's younger sister also orahara's involvement although out of nowhere is welcomed and fits well within the story of the movie his interactions with the other captains and their teamwork while battling is satisfying to see I definitely think they struck the right balance of supporting characters for this movie especially when compared to the prior bleach movies as to be expected for a future length production the animation here does not falter the art and animation in general I felt were improved upon from the prior movies which were very well done in their own right the story told in fate to Black features callbacks to the anime series when characters remember their memories we get impactful flashbacks to iconic Bleach episodes each one fits within the context of the movie they are done with enough respect that they don't feel contrived or forced into the story without a doubt this movie has similar elements to the prior bleach movies taking the concept of Forgotten memories from memories of nobody taking the character-centered plot from diamond dust Rebellion but improving upon it rukio was the right character to base a movie upon as their bond with Ichigo drives this movie and fans will easily be able to relate to this due to already knowing the backstory between these two characters without it having to be shoehorned into the movie's plot like it was with diamond dust Rebellion between hitsugaya and kusaka it does have to be said that movie 3 features the best music from any of the bleach movies the soundtrack composed for this movie are first heard while I was watching the anime episodes and immediately looked up the OST and to my surprise I learned that the music was from the Bleach movie 3 soundtrack if you're a fan of Shiro sagisu's bleach compositions then this movie is a must-watch fader black does falter as with all bleach movies in some elements when it comes to its plot despite being an improvement on the last two movies some areas of the story just are not explained as well or felt hard to believe like the plot device for everyone forgetting rookia it fails to establish what criteria are required for her friends to remember her again Ichigo remembered her after Khan spoke to him renji is convinced to team up with Ichigo because his heart is telling him it's the right thing to do rookia meets Ichigo after having a couple of scenes where she suffers a headache or a migraine she remembers everything at the most convenient moment in the plot before the final fight and her transformation into dark rookia we don't really get any clarification as to why Ichigo remembered quicker than renji or why characters like byakia didn't remember Until Dark rookia Was Defeated urahara also decides to help Ichigo which is done convincingly as urahara had made journal entries of the plot up until 9 and knew something was up when he couldn't recall anything about Rukia despite her being mentioned in his General entries the issue with his involvement is how he convinces the soul Society to help him the gotai 13 agree with orahara and yuruichi who helped them to understand why they feel like they have forgotten someone or something after explaining his theory regarding the parasitic Hollow which seems like a complete guess by urahara to be honest they believe and trust him despite urahara apparently being an exile traitor urahara's explanation to the gotai 13 is long-winded and hard to believe he even explains that they forgot Ichigo because his memories are related to rukia's past as Ichigo saw Reaper Powers originated from Rukia to which head captain Yamamoto of course mentions that sharing Shinigami Powers as a serious criminal offense which makes me cringe at how predictable he is despite this like I mentioned earlier I do like urhara's involvement just how he won over the trust of the Soul Society could have been done better the only other problem I have with this movie is in regards to the siblings well one sibling in particular the female sibling who is so needy demanding and annoying her constant crying and whining was so off-putting due to this it resulted in her not really feeling like a threatening antagonist I guess ultimately the villains were a pair of confused siblings who had just set up for the real villain dark rookia who rarely stole the show in the end overall this movie did not feel like a party written filler Arc squeezed into a 90 minute movie I think that this movie does Justice to rukia's character and succeeds in telling an entertaining story revolving around her it also features great reminders of iconic bleach moments and heavy emphasis is placed upon the bond between Ichigo and Rukia the title of the movie Fade to Black explains the context of the movie and makes sense as the memory of Rukia is faded into nothingness despite having similarities to the previous two movies fatea black improves upon them and rarely learns from the shortcomings of diamond dust Rebellion getting to see characters who don't interact much in the anime and seeing them fight together in this movie and exchange meaningful dialogue was exciting to see if you rarely love the characters within bleach and enjoy their witty banter sarcastic remarks and playful conversations then you need to watch this movie movie 3 features an enjoyable story along with great animation it expands upon the dynamic between Ichigo and Rukia and tells a new story which feels very reminiscent of the Soul Society Arc but with a Twist if you have seen this movie then let me know your thoughts on it did you enjoy it or find it not as good as the other movies the fourth and final animated movie based on the popular manga series bleach involves our characters visiting the unexplored realm of hell this movie is titled helvis or Hell chapter it is directed by noryuki Abe and features character designs from Musashi Kudo the same creative team behind the previous movies and the anime series in this video I want to cover the story told within the movie as well as what the strengths and weaknesses of bleach's final animated film are let's see if it is as good as the other movies from 2010 onwards mankaka began to be more involved with the animated movies based on their series the first movie I remember were the mangaka was personally overseeing production was with ishira Oda and his involvement with one Piece Film strongworld following this trend the creator of bleach taite Kubo had been announced as overseeing production for the fourth Bleach movie Once the movie had released the credit of executive director was given to Kubo but there was some controversy regarding this which I will cover later halves released in Japanese theaters on December 4th 2010 while episode 299 aired on TV this movie had a few promotional tie-ins including episode 299 which was a prologue to the movie Kubo even released a special hellverse chapter titled imaginary number one the unforgivings the special prologue tells the story of the espadus aaroniero and zaizal Apollo arriving in hell this movie featured a lot more promotion than just simply changing the anime's opening intro to feature some movie scenes which was the case with the prior three movies being gay fan at the time I remember there being a lot of hype for this movie to release the concept of hell was brought up with the first and only time in episode 5 when each God defeated the Huddle called shrika who is then and to hell when we see the gates of hell for the first and only time in the series how these Gates were portrayed definitely left an impression on me when I first got into the Bleach anime remembering the appearance of them I can recall how Sinister it looked with the skeletons on either side of its doors as well as the menacing laughter which can be heard as the gates opened to take the hollow shrika it was a brief glimpse into one of the darkest aspects of the bleach universe and was compelling to see so early on in the series how is Hell depicted in this fourth movie installment is it as Sinister as what early bleach made it out to be let's briefly go over the story told in helvis and see if it does Justice to our expectations of the movie helvis begins with one of the greatest scenes adapted from the village manga the intro of this movie retells the battle between Ichigo vs ukiora heavy emphasis is placed upon Ichigo transforming into the incredibly powerful vastalore form after this really cool intro sequence we see renji and Rukia who arrive in the human world to investigate some strange goings-on when Ichigo bumps into them and questions them neither Rukia orenji reveal much about what it is that they are investigating shortly after while Ichigo and the others are at school they are attacked by a group of powerful masked individuals when one of the strangers masks breaks during their battle with Ichigo and the others it causes the Gates of Hell to appear a guardian of Hell called a kushinada comes out of the gate to stab this mysterious masked person the kushinada dragging back to hell we learned that the masked men are sinners who usually reside in hell they cover their faces so as not to be dragged back there the leader of these masked men is called shurin he attempts to kidnap Karin and Yuzu while Ichigo is distracted at school by his underlings renji informs him that Rukia is attempting to stop shiren from taking ichigo's sisters Ichigo arrives in time to help Rukia and to stop shiren but then a stranger appears called kokido who helps Ichigo by retrieving Karen from shurin's possession but they are unable to stop shuren from leaving with Yuzu who is taken to Hell by her kidnappers it appears that shurin and his men require ichigo's assistance so that they can fulfill their one wish to be released from hell kokuto then suggests that he can help Ichigo by showing him the a path to Hell Ichigo accompanied by uriu Rukia and renji agrees to kokito's offer of help we learned that cocktail is also from hell so what are his reasons to help Ichigo and the others ichigo's primary concern is that if Yuzu is not saved from hell then she will die there due to its incredibly poisonous atmosphere Rukia and renji are the only ones among our familiar cast of characters who know what hell actually entails it is described as a place where souls go to when they are not given permission to cross over to the soul Society this happens when a person has committed unforgivable acts during their lifetime we learned that the Dwellers of hell are bound by chains unable to ever escape their Eternal fate this description alone was a great way to build up the anticipation to finally get to see hell and experience how it is depicted within the bleach Universe Coco also explains that he is helping them because he doesn't like shurin and his allies and for that reason they are his enemies it seems rather convincing right rookie however questions him and asks what he did to become a sinner himself he replies by saying that he sword his heart to Darkness during during his lifetime so that he could protect what he cherishes I guess we should just accept this as his answer and totally trust this guy renji also speaks some sense and questions how they can just trust kokuto as he could be anyone but Ichigo insists he will accept anybody's help as long as they can help him to save Yuzu despite all of the caution and apprehension each goes two seconds of Shonen headstrong attitude convinces everyone to go along with kokuto's offer of help I guess we know who to blame if something were to hypothetically go wrong later on it is reassuring to hear Rukia tell renji about a sort of plan to emergency escape from hell if things were to go wrong not saying that they will but you never know who you can trust arriving in hell they rush through to get to Yuzu as quickly as possible while battling one of the many kushinada who tried to capture them while Ichigo is fighting them off his Hollow Mask appears without him summoning it he unleashes a incredibly powerful getsca tencho which causes the others to scold him as he could have hurt them with the amount of power that was released Ichigo is surprised by this until kokuto explains that in Hell an individual's true power is easier to harness hence why Ichigo lost control and his mask appeared without him summoning it cocktail also explains that if the kushinada catch any of them then they will be trapped within hell for eternity and will be subjected to torture by the kushinada they consume Sinners were killed and then are forced to be reborn into the lower level of hell where if they are caught again then they will be consumed once more as the cycle of death and rebirth repeats endlessly until their willpower is non-existent and their physical body reduces to dust shurin's underlings make another appearance as the group makes progress by going deeper into hell's different layers renji Rukia and uriu keep them occupied while cocktail and Ichigo progress further to where shurin is located with Yuzu while on their way there kokito and Ichigo have a little hot hot as cocktail recovers from an injury he just sustained cocktail refuses ichigo's pity or help as he states that experiencing pain is normal within hell you do feel somewhat sorry for him despite being in pain he insists that Ichigo focuses his energy on saving his sister Ichigo learns that cocktail is concerned about his sister because of what Coco mentioned earlier about summing his soul to Darkness to protect what he cherishes Ichigo assumes that there's someone he cherished was related to him kokuto reveals he too had a younger sister once but she died due to kokodo being an irresponsible older brother kokito then makes Ichigo promise to him that he will save his sister I guess this guy isn't so bad anymore I can totally see myself wholeheartedly trusting him I mean he had a younger sister too he knows how it feels like he can't be that bad even if he is a dweller of hell I presume back to ranji and the others they systematically defeat Sharon's minions one by one meanwhile Coco requests that after they save Yuzu if Ichigo could break his chains of hell so that he can go back and apologize to his sister Ichigo agrees to help him to be freed from hell I guess if Ichigo is convinced to trust Coco then who am I to doubt him but wait how does kokuto know Ichigo has a power that can break the chains of hell he asked Ichigo for his help before Shirin even had a chance to explain how Ichigo could help them to be freed from hell this is very suspicious finally arriving in front of Shirin he demands that Ichigo destroys the Gates of Hell believing it will say save the Sinners he blackmails him saying he won't hanuzu over until he does as he says refusing to accept his terms Ichigo battles Sharon and his men along with cocktail kokuto sacrifices himself to defeat shirin's minions so he turned out to be a great guy who could have been trusted from the beginning of the movie I feel so bad for doubting him now Ichigo then becomes enraged and defeats Shirin through using his Hollow Mask which amplifies his power within hell before being defeated shurin explains that it is ichigo's hollow Powers which can destroy the gates of hell then in a shocking turn of events as Ichigo is about to rush towards Yuzu he is impaled through the chest by cocktail's blade yeah I was totally being sarcastic about Coco being trustworthy this was the most obvious plot twist in the history of plot twists I mean how are you going to trust a guy who lives in Hell without being stabbed in the back so finally the cat is out of the bag as it is revealed that cocktail Lord Ichigo into hell so that he could use ichigo's hollow abilities to break the chains that are bound to his body keeping him in hell I mean why did he do this if Ichigo agreed to help him break his chains as long as Yuzu was saved let's see see what he has to say for himself I shall hope it isn't anything cliche cocktail proceeds to spout out cliche backstabbing villain dialogue he explains that Ichigo now needs to hollify to help him out as he promised we then that cocktail did indeed have a sister he murdered the people responsible for the death of his sister but it didn't bring his sister back to life no matter how much he had hoped that it would have he then decided to make others experience the same pain he was going through as a formal Revenge I don't understand completely what he means here did he become a murderer and kill others senselessly hoping that their relatives could feel the same pain as he does or was he sent to hell because he murdered the people responsible for the killing of his sister I suppose either way he is in hell for murdering people he continues to explain that one day he saw Ichigo as a vasta laude battling ukiora through the barriers of hell I learned that his power could be used to free him from hell it was at this point in the movie where the story took a huge nosedive for me I mean how convenient was it that he just so happened to see Ichigo in huecon mundo and knew he was in karakura town the movie doesn't fit into the continuity of the series there is no way for the events of this movie to occur between Ichigo vs ukiora leading up to the fake karakura Town Arc it's difficult to believe what is going on because they linked back the plot of this movie to the plot of the series and this just really ruined it for me he continues on to anger Ichigo by telling him that Yuzu has died within hell thus making her a sinner and doomed to be binded to Hell via the chains on her chest Rukia renji and uriu eventually arrived to help Ichigo but they are defeated by kokuto Ichigo who is enraged by the situation transforms into a vast or Lorde and attacks cocktail with a blast which destroys most of his chains along with being powerful enough to actually damage the gates of hell renji then breaks ichigo's Hollow Mask which returns him back to normal and activates a technique which transports Ichigo and his sister out of hell but at the cost of leaving everyone else behind the gotai 13 have arrived in the world of the living as they try to restore the Gates of Hell which appear to have been damaged by Hollow Ichigo finally appearing back in the human world Ichigo frantically tries to get help for Yuzu but even Orihime is unable to remove the bindings of Hell from her body head captain Yamamoto sternly tells Ichigo that it was his responsibility to save her and he failed he scolds Ichigo by stating how irresponsible he was to go to hell without any authorization and he didn't achieve anything but make the situation worse than what it was the head captain is referring to the broken Gates of Hell releasing their poisonous atmosphere into the human world now as if Ichigo didn't have enough reasons to be devastated the head captain is literally kicking him while he is down of course he feels bad about putting the human world in danger as well as not being able to save his sister Yuzu while Ichigo is set with a lifeless Yuzu byakya arrives to speak with Ichigo this is a great interaction between the two of them as biakya questions why he won't look at him while he is speaking to him Ichigo understandably cannot face him while knowing he left renji Rukia and uruyu behind in Hell their sacrifice appears to have been in vain as it was too late for Yuzu byakya reminds him that he needs to consider the meaning of why they stayed behind to let him Escape just as he says this Yuzu remarkably makes a recovery as a body begins to levitate in the air and the chains of Hell on her body disappear I don't understand how this happens nor is it explained just Yuzu is brought back to life maybe they wanted to get on with the next ACT and save the others Trapped In Hell already Yuzu is healed and brought back to Kurosaki Clinic where Ichigo sits and contemplates on byakya's words I rarely love the color palette during this scene I mean the intense emotions on ichigo's face you can really see just how much he has lost in thought it honestly is one of my favorite scenes in Bleach it just embodies the character of Ichigo someone who persistently protects and cares for others and doesn't rest until his loved ones are brought to safety so after taking his sweet time Ichigo finally heads back to hell he uses a cushionado who is poking his head out of the gates as a distraction to slip by the Shinigami who are guarding the gates of hell he flies past all the levels of hell and arrives exactly where his friends are he sees that renji and uru's bodies are rotting away in Hell while Rukia has already been reborn as a sinner this is really brutal and so hard to see Rukia is covered in the chains of hell reassuringly know that Ichigo can break hell's chains with the hollow Powers so it doesn't really raise the stakes during this final battle however seeing rookia being reborn from burning hot lava and the decomposing bodies of renji and uru felt pretty graphic for a Shonen movie Ichigo then begins to battle kukto who appears to be fighting with the upper hand as he taunts Ichigo to use his hollow Powers as without them he cannot defeat him so Ichigo gets knocked around and badly beaten by this overpowered sinner we don't really know why he is so strong and how he was able to defeat Rukia renji and ulyu 3 against one and how on Earth is he absolutely schooling Bankai Ichigo Ichigo stops himself from hollifying as the kushinada sends ichigo's incredible release of ryatsu and walked towards him suddenly in the tent plot twist in this movie we see that the kushinada have lent their power to Ichigo revealing a new movie exclusive form a skull clad Ichigo appears and brings down renji and uru from where they were hanging while also bringing Rukia back to safety he also instantly removes the chains of Hell from Rukia renji and uriu while doctor wonders like us one Earth has happened to Ichigo he begins to explain that hell itself as requested for ichigo's help to stop Coco he attacks kokto which momentarily destroys his chains as he celebrates but then a sea of chains binds him as Ichigo passes righteous judgment down upon him like some sort of God he condemns Coco to punishment for all eternity to repent for his sins that he has committed I felt that this was a really rushed ending to the movie it was all over the place containing so many loose threads that it conveniently wrapped up just before the 90 minute Mark of the movie was hit so everyone appears to have written to normal as the kushinada began to chase after them again they all run out of hell while the credit song plays and finally arrive back to the world of the living with Orihime and the gotai 13 watching as they return I always thought that this movie was somewhat unfinished quite possibly because of these scenes that played while the credits rolled which I'm pretty convinced were not properly animated due to not fitting the runtime of the movie this is all due to the movie juggling too many villains with a total of two rescue attempts and a rushed ending to wrap up all of the plot point points before the 90 minute Mark hits personally it just resulted in it feeling very disappointing at the beginning of this video I mentioned that tattoo Kubo was given the title of executive director of this movie so what exactly happened if he was overseeing this movie how did it turn out to be less than satisfactory apparently there was some controversy regarding his involvement according to the initial anime News Network article which announced helvis we were under the impression that the series author tati Kubo would have a very involved role for this movie however with the Japanese DVD release of helvis a message from Kubo was included here is what Kubo had to say in regards to bleach Movie 4 hellverse in this movie I was credited as executive director however honestly speaking for the DVD version I want that title to be removed I already asked them to do so this is because I feel I didn't participate enough in the production of this movie to Warrant such a title I had felt this way since the premiere of the theatrical version however when I met with the producer staff to persuade them the movie was already in the editing process so it couldn't be removed I had a meeting with the scriptwriter I think it was in the year preceding the movie's premiere in early summer the meeting was incandescent and we discussed ideas until nearly Dawn the scriptwriter took careful notes of the ideas that I had contributed jointly during our meeting the result of the meeting was that we were able to come up with some very interesting ideas I had the feeling that before winter at the latest this scenario for the movie would be completed but in the end the scenario was only sent to me in the spring of the next year the same year as the premiere of the movie furthermore the scenario didn't contain any of the ideas from the meeting that we had apparently the notes taken from that time were not forwarded onto the director and to the other members of the staff later on we had some trouble with the production Department agreeing to some of the script changes made by the scriptwriter the scriptwriter had worked hard with the changes that were made but unfortunately there was no more time for further adjustments the fact that characters that first made their entry in the original work like Ichigo cocktail and shurin had a very bleach-like feeling is all thanks to the voice actors who gave them their voices and to all of the stuff that drew them prior to making this video a new Kubo wanted his name removed as the executive director but I didn't know the reason as to why this is explained entirely why Kubo didn't want his name associated with this movie rightfully so as he States none of the ideas he discussed with the scriptwriter were communicated onto the team I don't understand what they were thinking they got Kubo involved but went on and did whatever they wanted anyway and proceeded to promote the movie as a production that had close involvement from Kubo himself I remember thinking that if the original series author was going to be involved then it will be a movie which is A Cut Above the Rest but unfortunately it had so many plot holes from kubo's comments it is evident that the production indeed didn't have enough time to include script rewrites and additional changes which were needed to make the movie feel maybe more coherent after watching this movie recently it is evident that something feels off and not right about hellverse just look at the inclusion of the two antagonists Shirin and cocktail neither of them are given the right amount of time to develop an interesting story around them especially in regards to shurin who we know apps absolutely nothing about he is a very generic filler character this movie was very ambitious you can see that there was an attempt to read the engage fans by trying to fit this movie within the continuity of the series but it just doesn't make any sense if they included kubo's original ideas then the story of the movie may have done well to fit within the continuity of the manga the story of this movie really does feel like way too many ideas crammed into a short amount of time it results in the movie feeling rushed and not providing enough Exposition and dialogue for some scenes and it makes me further believe that there may have been Cuts made to fit the story within the specified run time of the movie I mentioned previously that cocktail as a character had a few flaws that made me wish that they had taken more time to write his character a bit better instead it feels like he was forcefully trying to gain the trust of Ichigo and the others especially in moments like when he made Ichigo promised to save Yuzu it just felt so unneeded and generic almost like he was saying nice things just to appear as though he didn't have ulterior motives it felt to me that he was trying a little too hard to relate to each girl's ordeal the plot twist where reveals that he is a villain was honestly like watching a train wreck in front of you how the Music Drops the dramatic scene composition and the shock on ichigo's face it is funny because you can see they really wanted you to feel a sense of betrayal and suspense but it is so hard to feel this when it was so predictable what I did enjoy about this movie was the beginning portion of it it was enjoyable to see Ichigo and the others battle in karakura town also seeing the build up to what was leading up to be an interesting plot until they rarely dropped the ball and didn't properly develop the characters or continue to make the story feel captivating in terms of Art and animation it is without a doubt that this movie features some of the best action scenes from the bleach media franchise this really is the best that bleachers ever looked despite the shortcomings in the plot and characterization I felt that the team behind the art and animation really brought their best effort to the table here I did like the concept behind hell in the bleach universe and even found that some of the imagery was pretty grotesque and brutal which is exactly what you expect from a place like hell continuing the same Trend with the previous movies the operatic soundtrack for this movie is a great Edition and once again the credit for the musical composition goes to Shiro sagasu the music really adds to the visuals and helps convey the terror and misery within hell I really didn't intend to dislike this movie or want to find its flaws I was in fact looking forward to watching it I remember when it came out I did enjoy it a lot but having to look at it with a critical lens it rarely does fall apart due to its flaws and obvious shortcomings to put everything into perspective this was the fourth movie where Ichigo battles a villain the sole Society disagrees with his actions but eventually ichigo's will to protect is too overpowered and he ends up saving the day the end the movies follow a very formulaic plot and I had hoped with the involvement of Kubo this movie would have been a breath of fresh air instead they canned kubo's ideas and banged his name onto the promotional media as a fan of this franchise I really feel cheated by this it does make me wonder what kind of ideas Kubo had suggested in his meeting with the scriptwriter and what this movie may have turned out to be like if they had better communication and organization for the production of the movie what did you think of bleach hellverse let me know if this video has changed your mind about this movie or if you still found it to be an enjoyable experience recently on the channel I reviewed the second ovier of bleach and I was very disappointed but despite this I had high expectations for the first OVO of bleach by fans it is regarded as a solid piece of work and this is for several reasons of which include excellent art and animation being more faithful to the manga and in general hearing a lot of praise for it over the 15 years that I've been a fan of bleach so after having just watched this 30 minute OVA I want to share with you my thoughts on it going over the story that is told the difference is that this OVA has with the manga and the anime adaptation as well as going over some bits of information that you may not have known about this OVA and finally by the end of this video you'll know whether if you should go and check out this OVA or not so let's begin my review and breakdown of the first bleach OVA this ovier is named after the third volume of bleach which is titled memories in the rain this is because this half an hour ovier attempts to adapt chapters 17-25 which comprises the entirety of bleach volume 3. the memories in the rain OVA has a lot of differences from its anime adaptation chapters 17-25 are adapted into episodes 7 to 9 of the anime for the most part the anime has a lot of filler and padding resorting to even adding an entire side storyline of a Shinigami being tasked by the onitsukito to locate Rukia while the ovier remains much closer to the source material having very little to no filler content and any added content that does appear within the OVA adds to the story that is being told and I'll give an example of an addition that is made to the OVA which adds to the source material in a meaningful way so very similar to the sealed sword frenzy OVA the memories in the rain OVA was created for the 2004 jump super animator and what some of you may not know is that this OVA was actually the first anime adaptation of any Bleach Manga content as it served as the pilot episode for the Bleach anime as we know it is a retelling of the events that occur between episodes 7 to 9 and chapters 17-25 of the manga it pays particular attention to the emotions and feelings that Ichigo has regarding the death of his mother after the titles screen of the OVA we have shown the poem that features at the start of volume 3. the poem that goes if I were the rain that joins the sky and the Earth that otherwise never touch could I also join two hearts as one we then cut to a flashback six years ago on the 17th of June where on a rainy day Ichigo had been walking alongside a riverbank with his mother we are quickly shown the events that lead up to the death of ichigo's mother as we then cut back to school as the OVA begins to adapt chapter 17-25 to quickly summarize the events that occur within this OVA Ichigo and his family are going to see the grave of their mother on their way there they meet Rukia after some time while ichigo's sisters are praying at their mother's grave they are attacked by a mysterious Hollow we quickly learned the identity of this hollow as the grand Fisher the hollow who is responsible for the death of ichigo's mother after transforming into a Shinigami form he learns about how the grand Fisher kills his prey and how in particular the hollow enjoys targeting women initially it appears that the grand Fisher has the upper hand until he changes the load that is attached to his head into ichigo's mother this angers him enough to prove that his tricks are not enough to deceive him Ichigo is able to successfully stab the ground Fisher who has no choice but to retreat the OVA then wraps up with Ichigo speaking to his father about the death of masaki as his father reassures him that nobody blames him for the death of masaki and instead he should live his life to his fullest because after all his life was valuable enough to be saved by the one that Asian had loved after speaking to his father Ichigo tells Rukia that he wants to get stronger in order to kill the ground Fisher in the future requesting for her to allow him to be a Shinigami for a little while longer and this then brings an end to the OVA so I mentioned earlier that this OVA is more of a faithful adaptation of the manga than episode 7 to 9 of the anime the most notable piece of filler content that was within the anime that isn't within the OVA is the omission of the Shinigami ekichiro saido he was the Shinigami who had been working for the on meets kiddo who was assigned to find Rukia within the world of the living He is present within episode 7 8 and 9 and there is no real reason for him to be there his entire purpose is meaningless and his appearances serve to extend scenes within the anime the only meaningful aspect of his character is that through him we get some early glimpses of the Soul Society within the anime the memories in the rain was about focusing on ichigo's feelings and his emotions and how he felt about the death of his mother but I feel like the anime adaptation of these chapters stays away from this especially in regards to how this Shinigami who was tasked to retrieve Rukia ends up teasing her that she is staying within the world of the living in order to pursue a relationship with Ichigo I felt like this was completely unnecessary and just didn't need to be there and I feel like scenes like this all too often occurred in the anime where they tried to ship Ichigo and Rukia together which are completely absent from the manga now after discussing some of the issues with the anime adaptation of these manga chapters let's now focus more on the OVA the OVA has a very short run time of 29 minutes and in this time it attempts to adapt nine chapters of the manga in general it is very successful at what it attempts to do but because of this half an hour run time it is inevitable that this OVA does have some differences with this manga counterpart I'm going to be covering some of these differences now but I do want to end size that the changes that are made within this OVA are less detrimental to the changes that are made within episode 79 of the anime while watching this OVA I had the third volume of bleach in my hand and I was following along with the scenes that it was adapting and in general scenes that are not absolutely vital for the progression of the story a cut and in one instance that I'm about to go over there is an addition that is made which I feel like adds to the story so the first notable change between the OVA and the manga is that during the ovier Rukia is with Yuzu and Karin when the grandfisher first attacks them while in the Manga she is accompanied with Ichigo who is rushing to protect his sisters while on their way to the Grand Fisher she tells Ichigo that whenever he is ready to speak about the death of his mother she will be there for him to listen to him but until that day she will be waiting this entire speech about Rukia being there for Ichigo is omitted from the OVA and again I don't think that it is for any other reason than the short run time of the OVA not everything that occurs within nine chapters can be included within a half an hour OVA unfortunately and for the sake of runtime a lot of comedic moments that occur within the manga are cut especially in regards to the character of Kong one other very interesting piece of information regarding Khan's appearance within this OVA is that he is actually voiced by Kubo himself who voices two lines for his character you'll notice him speaking after rookia tells him to protect ichigo's sisters while watching the ovai had to pause because Khan's voice sounded different and after having looked it up sure enough Kubo had made a cameo appearance within this pilot episode so the most notable addition that is made to this OVA is when rookie remembers that there are two kinds of battles while Ichigo is facing off against the grand Fisher now we know from chapter 23 Rukia hesitates to help Ichigo as she remembers a mysterious flashback from an individual who asks the question what about his honor without much context within the manga rookie remembers a flashback while she is told that there are two kinds of battles the first being gay battle to preserve life while the second being a battle to preserve honor sure enough this scene is extended within the OVA we get a reveal of this mysterious character who had asked rookie about honor it is indeed Captain ukitake they even get brief glimpse of cayenne battling against the parasitic Hollow these are events that occur from chapters 135. I feel like adding to this flashback emphasized the similarity between Cain and ichigo's struggle kind had been fighting for the sake of his wife who was killed by the hollow while Ichigo is fighting for the sake of his mother who was killed by the ground Fisher and in both instances rookia had to prevent herself from getting involved in order to preserve Ichigo unkind's honor I feel like this is an excellent addition to the OVA and I believe that chapter 135 was released just a short time before the release of this OVA so I think that it is incredible that they were able to include it with India I totally approved expanding on scenes in this manner as opposed to how episode 7 to 9 of the anime were treated where any additions that were made were just filler content that didn't need to be there and the last few points before the grand Fisher escapes within the manga he ends up transforming into ichigo's mother and taunts Ichigo before escaping while in the OVA he transforms into the little girl that Ichigo had saw on the day that his mother had died and the last significant change between the OVA and the man anger is that scenes of Orihime leaving tatsuki's home a cut from the OVA but like I had mentioned despite all of these moments being cut I'm still very impressed with what this OVA manages to accomplish within its 29 minute run time it does an incredible job of adapting chapters 17 to 25 far more Faithfully than its anime counterpart with fewer instances of filler material and needless padding the memories in the rain OVA also has an excellent ending which previews the soul Society Arc and it also introduces us to the various cast members of the gotei 13. this ending sequence has Flawless art and animation throughout this is also a praise that needs to be given to this OVA in general it has superb animation quality incredible art and Direction and in general I believe that it is one of the best adaptations of the Bleach Manga that we have received and it does surprise me that this was the pilot for the Bleach anime I would have loved if the series had continued with this quality but because of the time that the Bleach anime was created this would have been impossible to do having to follow a strict weekly schedule for the anime while also paying particular attention and did not catch up to the manga unless the anime had taken a break and had gone down the seasonal approach that we all too often see now filler and needless padding was going to be an inevitability it is only very recently that Shonen series have started to take breaks and have allowed for more buffer space to build between the anime and the manga but this OVA really does give you a glimpse of what could have been if Studio Pirro had brought their A-game to the Bleach anime this ovier is a must-see for any fan of bleach as it focuses a lot on the character development and feelings of Ichigo and it's a perfect example of quality over quantity as it condenses episodes 7 to 9 into one very enjoyable OVA and if you want my honest opinion I didn't want it to end so if you've never seen this OVA before I urge you to go and check it out as soon as possible so I've just gotten done with watching the bleach second OVA titled the seal sword frenzy I thought that it would be fitting to cover an OVA since I've spoken about all of the bleach movies so in this video I'm going to be talking about the plot that unfolds the characters that feature within the story what I liked about this OVA and what I disliked about it and in the end deciding whether if you should go and check this out or not so let's get into my review of the sealed sword frenzy this OVA was released during the anime tour of junk Fester 2005. as of recently bleach fans considered jump Fester to be like a meme but we all look forward to the event year on year expecting bleach news but continue to be disappointed but what most people don't know about jump faster is that it holds a separate tour to several different cities across Japan and this is titled the jump super animator and during these tours exclusive newly animated specials or shorts from very popular jump series are showcased to typically attend one of these jump super anime tours you have to send in an application form which is printed within weekly Shonen Jump selecting which city you would like to attend for the tour not everybody who sent in an application form gets selected to attend so imagine if you're a lucky Japanese teenager in 2005 and you get the opportunity to attend the jump super animator and you're presented with this train wreck of a bleach OVA the ovas and specials that are featured within the jump super anime Hall are typically released on DVD a few months later but imagine if you had no experience of bleach and you had attempted the jump super animator to watch another OVA special from a series that you like like one piece or Yu-Gi-Oh and you come across this bleach OVA you probably would never even check the series out because of how terrible this OVA is so the story follows a Shinigami called baishin who is sealed by the soul Society over 400 years ago during this OVA they really attempt to make you care for the Shinigami but because of the very short run time of 32 minutes there's nowhere near enough time for us to develop a meaningful connection with him the Oba begins with as you've guessed it by Shin being released from the seal that was placed onto him the premise reminds me a lot of Dragon Ball Z movie 9 Bojack Unbound so in typical fashion these Soul Society are alerted to the release of baishin and some Shinigami are sent on an urgent mission to the world of the living and this is where renji has an unforgettable introduction within the story as he appears with a shotgun not only does he shoot ichigo's dad with it he also very confusingly attempts to battle against bison with this very shotgun baishin ends up attacking Ichigo while he is with ranji and it is that at this point that they end up being saved by Captain hitsugaya they regroup at urahara shop and unfortunately we don't really get to see urahara within this OVA but while there are other captains from the soul Society arrive including kimpachi ukitake shunsui saifon and lastly Yuri Ichi now what are these incredibly powerful characters utilized for now if you guessed splitting up and fighting against Hollows all across karakura town then you would be correct all of these captains are brought into battle against Hollows one we know that captains have the potential to destroy multiple Hollows with the flick of a finger but during this OVA they seem to be overly exerting themselves like they've got nothing better to do so while the captains are battling Hollows Ichigo renji and Rukia eventually come across baishin who ends up draining ichigo's spiritual pressure like his Android 19 attacking Yamcha it is here that we learned that baishin had been attacking Ichigo because of his lack of control over his own spiritual pressure as it is constantly leaking from his body baishin does end up activating his Bankai form as he transforms into gaggio from fairy tale and it is at this point that Rukia and ranji are easily defeated hitsugay does arrive to assist them but he too fails now with most of the characters taken out and the OVA runtime running very short Ichigo is left with no choice but to activate his Bankai he ends up overpowering and defeating baishin as we understand that the enemy of this OVA had trained to the extent that he had become one with his zombok doe and he had been absorbing ichigo's spiritual pressure because he had wanted his body back we do get a very brief moment where an attempt is made for us to feel sympathy for bison but let's be honest none of us could give a crap about his character and it genuinely made me laugh how the characters were just stood there after bison's defeat and sad OST was playing you cannot convince me that any of them cattle by Shin I think the worst offense of this OVA is that kimpachi didn't get to battle against baishin we only get to see him briefly take out a handful of Hollows the rest of the time during the OVA he is running around karakuru town with no sense of direction looking for baishin of course at the end of the OVA there's a credit sequence and we get to see various Bleach characters dressed in attire from the world of the living now you want to look at what they did to my boy hisagi me what on Earth is he wearing some of these outfits are very hilarious years and right at the end of the OVA we see gin tozen and Eisen were sat at a coffee table as they tell the attendees of the 2005 anime tour to be careful on the way home of course the issue with this OVA is its incredibly short run time during this span of 32 minutes I asked to introduce and develop a complete storyline attempting to make his care about a new villain as well as providing us a reasonable context for Ichigo and the others to defeat the sad villain this OVA feels spectacularly at attempting to do this we have a terrible storyline that unfolds we have regular cast members of the series behaving out of character a dull villain who has barely any Lines within the OVA and constantly repeats this stupid phrase I'm a blade the motive for baishin to separate from his zambakto is haphazardly put together but like the rest of this OVA it felt very rushed and contrived maybe if this OVA was extended to an hour and it had time to develop the story a bit more and if it didn't feel so rushed then it may have been enjoyable but the entire ovier is party executed and rushes from one scene to the next there are some instances where you'll look at bison's character and he'll feel like a ripoff of kimpachi he has the similar sadistic Expressions that kempachi makes and of course that oversized stature which makes him come across as very intimidating when it comes to the battles that takes place within this OVA I feel like we saw a lot more of the characters battling against generic Hollows rather than the actual villain of this OVA this special takes place after the events of the Soul Society Arc which explains why the other Shinigami are so friendly with Ichigo my first experience of bleach was watching the actual anime but I know that the anime has at least five filler story arcs I'd only watched the bound Arc because at that time I didn't even know what filler was and it feels like this ovier was created while the episodes of the bound Arc were being released I don't think Studio payroll is really good at creating filler content maybe in the future I'll have to do some bleach filler Arc reviews but from what I've seen from this OVA and the bound Arc they are rarely doing a disservice to the Bleach Manga Kubo was even asked to draw the DVD cover of the sealed sword frenzy OVA in a comment that was included with the OVA Kubo states that while he did design baishin's character he wasn't character that Kubo had created himself so he wasn't confident with how bison should be like so it is for this reason that Kubo had drawn by Shin with his back to us on the DVD cover moving on to the art and animation the best way to describe it would be very inconsistent we do have one or two redeemable moments most notably during ichigo's final battle against baishin but for the most part the animation is very disappointing the soundtrack of the OVA is exactly the same as the anime soundtrack so it's perfectly fine for the most part with the only issue being that some of the music that is utilized doesn't fit the mood or the tone of the scene that it is playing under now if I were to offer some suggestions to improve this OVA the first will be to reduce the cast of characters that appear within it I can understand for an anime tour special you want a lot of fan service but even with characters like kimpachi hitsugaya shunsui and nukitake appearing they are badly utilized and to be honest there's no reason for them to really be there I mean there are some moments of light comedic relief with kimbachi running after a train but it's not like he's Zorro from one piece so this gimmick of him having no sense of direction gets really old very quickly so with cutting the appearances of some of these captains it may have given us more time to have baishin's backstory fleshed out giving us more of a reason for us to sympathize with him as a former captain of the gote 13. maybe even going into the moments that led up to him becoming one with his zombie doll and the final area that I feel like needed to be padded out was the final battle between Ichigo and baishin maybe if the final battle was padded out a bit more then baishin could have had a meaningful exchange with Ichigo and the others explaining his situation and his circumstances but none of this occurs there definitely was potential with the story that was told here but sadly it just leaves much to be desired there are one or two moments that I did like about this OVA the first of which is ichigo's Bankai transformation I thought that they did an excellent job of animating it and it was really fun to see an animated sequence of Ichigo actually doing his Bankai very close to the release of the episode where Ichigo had first showcased this ability another noteworld thing is that Ichigo didn't really meet hitsugaya during the soul Society Arc so surprisingly during this OVA we do get to see the two characters being introduced to each other and the mix complete 8 cents as to why Ichigo doesn't know it's a guy's name and he hilariously refers to him as little one and the final thing that I liked about this OVA was the appearance of renji with a shotgun this was completely out of the blue and had taken me by surprise and once more I have to reiterate I laughed out loud when I had seen renji fire his shotgun against bison so wrapping this video up with a rushed storyline low quality animation and a villain that barely speaks during his run time he sealed sword frenzy is not something that I would recommend that you all go rush out and see in fact it's not something that I recommend for you guys to watch at all if anything it's served as a reminder as to how terrible these early bleach filler stories were this OVA was released in December of 2005. exactly an entire year from memories of nobody and if you've seen my review of Bleach movie 1 then you'll know just how much that I'd like that movie so it's surprising for me to see an OVA that I disliked so much despite it being released so close to the release of Bleach movie 1. if you enjoy my content then you can support my channel through patreon for as little as a dollar a month or even through you YouTube by becoming a channel member you will gain access to exclusive Channel perks and a Discord server which I frequently use so become a member of my zero Division and be the first to know about my upcoming videos and once again thank you for sticking around till the end of the video and whatever you contribute will mean a lot to me foreign [Music]

Channel: DBZimran

Views: 40,192

Keywords: bleach, bleach anime, bleach brave souls, bleach manga, bleach hell arc, bleach 2023, bleach tybw, bleach new anime, bleach tybw anime, bleach new chapter, bleach anime trailer, bleach tybw trailer, tybw anime, bleach hell chapter, dbzimran, dbzimran bleach, memories of nobody, fade to black, diamond dust rebellion, hell verse, bleach movie, bleach movie 4, bleach movie 5, bleach ova, sealed sword frenzy, memories in the rain, bleach thousand year blood war

Id: pTDCx_5JQMA

Length: 98min 34sec (5914 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2023