HOLLOW MASK EXPLAINED! - Why Ichigo Stopped Using His Hollow Mask | BLEACH Breakdown

despite having made an entire video on holo ichigo i still often get asked in the comments on my videos what is up with ichigo's holo mask why is it that he never used this hollow mask after his battle against eisen or what is the meaning or significance of these stripes that appear on ichigo's hollow mask so in this video once and for all i want to go over everything that we know about ichigo's hollow mask including all of the times that it appears within the story covering all of the variations of his holo mask and ultimately understanding by the end of the video why ichigo no longer calls upon his hollow powers via his holo mask after his battle against eisen so let's get into the topic of the video this is my explanation of ichigo's hollow mask as we know throughout the story whenever ichigo needed to call upon its hollow powers he had donned a hollow mask this concept or idea of the holo mask is first introduced to us in chapter 64. during ichigo's training with kisuke urahara he obtains his own shinigami powers he appears with a shinigami shihaka show and a hollow mask you'll note that ichigo cracks this holo mask and immediately removes it this iteration of the holo mask only appears to have two stripes running down it as you're about to notice as the story progresses and ichigo relies upon its hollow powers more and more these red stripes increase there is debate about what these markings on the face of the holo mask represent are they a visual representation of how much control ichigo's hollow has over his powers or do the red stripes represent ichigo's battle instincts some people have also theorized that these red stripes were like a ticking time bomb until ichigo's vast arlor transformation as we see that the number of stripes continue to increase the more that ichigo had summoned his holo mask and thus finally culminating into ichigo's vast old audio transformation against ukiyora the first time that this hollow mask begins to form on the face of ichigo is in chapter 62. ichigo is given a strict time limit of three days in order to activate his shinigami powers during this time a hole appears within ichigo's chest and his chain of fate begins to consume itself a white substance seeps from this hole that is formed within ichigo's chest and it begins to form a mask on ichigo's face as we see that ichigo is gradually being transformed into a hollow and the only way to stop this is by ichigo gaining his own shinigami powers while ichigo is struggling to gain his powers within his inner world this hollow mask that is forming on ichigo's actual body appears to differ from the hollow masks that we are used to this hollow mask appears to have no mouth and the lines that we see typically running down from the eyelids are drawn right to the bottom of the mask covering where the mouth should be one similarity of this early iteration of the holo mask that we see in chapter 63 is that it also has two red stripes running down the left side of the mask like i mentioned earlier chapter 64 is the first time that we see ichigo's hollow mask as we know it it appears strikingly similar to a human skull the only difference being the distinctive markings and the menacing slanted eyes which convey this sense of emptiness and i would totally agree with this notion that ichigo appears as a monster while donning his hollow mask for me the hollow mask invokes fear and a lack of control it is raw instinctive battle power we next see ichigo's hollow mask appear sporadically during the early portions of the soul society arc where it appears to automatically manifest itself on different areas of ichigo's body prior to him being attacked by the enemy as if to demonstrate that the holo masks are protecting ichigo from being injured and we see this firsthand during ichigo's battle against renji which occurs between chapters 94 to 97. when ichigo is being healed by hinatro he discovers that ichigo's holo mask had protected him from being damaged by one of renji's attacks you'll immediately notice that this hollow mask that henatro had found in chapter 100 appears to have three red stripes on the left side of its face other than this it appears completely identical to the mask that was formed in chapter 64. her natural questions why ichigo has in his possession a mask that resembles a hollows mask and he comments on the durability of this mask that it was able to stop an attack from renji another instance of ichigo's hollow mask appearing to protect him occurs during his battle against kim party in chapter 116 yurichi reveals to ichigo that if this holo mask had not appeared then ichigo would have been cut clean in half from yurichi's questioning it appears that ichigo didn't even know that he had this hollow mask in his possession we learned that ichigo had thrown the previous mask away that hanatro had found but the uruichi is shocked to learn that it had reappeared ichigo goes on to say that he is going to hold on to his hollow mask but yurichi demands that he gives it to her this moment is very vague and mysterious but it is clear that yurichi is worried about something as she says to herself that she doubts it but it's better safe than sorry referring to ichigo wanting to hold on to this holo mask yurichi's reaction clearly proves to us the reader that there is more to this holo mask than meets the eye and it's an excellent setup for a mystery that kubo slowly interwines into his story and again you'll see that this hollow mask that we see in chapter 116 has a further stripe on the side of his face it now has four red stripes running down the left side of the face the holo mask next appears in chapter 165 during ichigo's battle against byakuya when ichigo's inner hollow takes over ichigo's body and battles against biaqia for him the holo mask begins to gradually form on ichigo's face but before it can completely form ichigo removes the holo mask from his face he doesn't want to rely on any external help not even from his own inner hollow during this time similar to the appearance of the hollow mask in chapter 116 it only had four stripes on the left side of its face the only difference is that the holo mask did not completely get a chance to form on ichigo's face but despite this it was the first time that we saw this alternative personality that lays dormant within ichigo manifest and it certainly added to the era of mystery surrounding the origin and the purpose of the holo mask during the early portions of the aranka arc ichigo can feel the presence of its inner hollow increasing and in chapter 193 an attempt is made by his inner hollow to take over ichiko's being but ichigo refuses and is then beaten by yami we next see ichigo's hollow mask appear in chapter 220 while he is trending with the wizards and trying to gain control of his hollow abilities during this time ichigo's inner hollow has taken over his body and he is gradually becoming horrified in chapter 222 you can see that ichigo has taken on this hollow form he has the very famous hollow mask on his face and is transformed into what appears to be a lizard-like hollow the markings on the left side of ichigo's hollow mask have now increased five red stripes after ichigo regains control of his body he emerges from the remains of this hollow form he appears to be donning a hollow mask but there is a considerable change as there are now nine red stripes running across the left side of the mask we see ichigo utilize this hollow mask during his training with yuri as he tries to increase the length of time that he can stay in his masked form during ichigo's rematch with grim zhao in chapter 231 ichigo dons his hollow mask after his training with the wizards he is only able to retain his hollow mask for 11 seconds what you'll notice kubo does a close-up shot of ichigo's holo mask in chapter 231 the red stripes are divided into three sections with the top half of the left hand side of the mask having four red stripes through the close-up shot we see that the middle portion of the left hand side of the mask has three red stripes and it is easy to distinguish that the bottom half of the mask has three red stripes so during his rematch with grim zhao there were 10 red stripes on each ghost hollow mask at this point you can only assume that these red stripes represent ichigo's control or race hollow abilities as he deals heavy damage on grimjal while his hollow mask is intact but the tables quickly turn when ichigo's hollow mask cracks in chapter 232 and he begins to be soundly beaten by grimgel we then see ichigo utilize his hollow mask in huikumundo during his battle against dodoni the prieverone spada convinces ichigo to use his hollow mask he desires to fight ichigo at his best ichigo momentarily manifests his holo mask and the markings appear to be similar to the last time that he had utilized it against grim gel and similar to before ichigo's power is increased dramatically while he is donning the hollow mask he is able to cut down the privilege espada dodoni with one strike in chapter 280 during ichigo's final battle against grimgio he dons his hollow mask in order to protect orihime and nell from a grand racero that grim jio fires towards them you can clearly see 10 red stripes on the left side of ichigo's hollow mask and i don't know if it's just me but these stripes appear to be getting thicker and thicker each time that the holo mask is being formed in chapter 282 we get an excellent close-up shot of ichigo's hollow mask during this battle you can see how terrifying it is and it strikes fear into the heart of orihime as she begins to be scared of ichigo in chapter 344 ichigo dons his holomask in order to battle against ukiara and the theme continues as the red stripes appear to be getting thicker and longer covering more of the left side of the holo mask in chapter 350 when ichigo transforms into his new hollow form the vaster lorde form it results in a complete change for ichigo's hollow mask while ichigo is in his vast old order form there are two black lines running down the left and right hand side of his mask and this is consistent with the first time that ichigo uses his holo mask after he had defeated ukiara in chapter 378 ichigo activates his holomask while he is battling yami and you'll notice that the colour of the stripes that appear on each ghost holo mask are no longer red there are two prominent black lines running down the left hand side and the right hand side of his hollow mask the change is so prominent that even rookier comments upon it in chapter 379 as she states that the pattern on ichigo's hollow mask appears to be different she was aware that the markings on each ghost hollow mask do change with time but this time the markings are completely different even ichigo feels that there was something different about utilizing his holo mask on this occasion as he states that his hollow mask had felt too heavy in the same chapter when ichigo attempts to summon his hollow mask again he is unable to even eisen comments upon this in chapter 388 when he states that ichigo should have surprised attacked him while wearing his holo mask it is like eisen was aware that ichigo is unable to use it ichigo ends up activating his hollow mask for the final time in the story in chapter 404 during his battle against guinea chumaru once again nothing changes and the markings on ichigo's hollow mask remain the colour black so trying to understand what these markings mean on ichigo's hollow mask you can see that the colour red is used within bleach to represent shinigami powers not only this the inside of ichigo's bankai shinigami shihaku show is also red so you can assume that the early iterations of ichigo's holo mask which had red stripes can allude to ichigo's own control over his hollow powers and you'll note that a change occurs after ichigo's vast outlaw day transformation where the markings on each ghost hollow mask completely change and the colour also changes the colour black representing ichigo no longer having control over his huddle powers there are two instances where ichigo's hollow mask undergoes a considerable change the first is after his training with the vizards and we see nine red stripes on the left side of his hollow mask and this is completely in line with this theory that the red stripes represent the control that ichigo has over his hollow powers since the highest number of stripes appear after he trains with the visas and gains control of his hollow abilities and the second major change in ichigo's hollow mask occurs after his vast lorde transformation these very symbolic markings that appear on the various iterations of ichigo's hollow mask can be seen to be inherited in each ghost fullbring form as he has multiple black markings all over his body along with a brand new shinigami shihaka show and most notably he has this x mark on his chest and if you followed my videos long enough then you're aware that ichigo's full brink form has his hollow powers incorporated into it and thus he no longer needs to don a holo mask which explains why we never see him use a holo mask after chapter 404 now ultimately this is just my theory on what the markings on each ghost hollow mask mean and represent but i would love to know what all of you think what kind of meanings and symbolism did you derive from ichigo's hollow abilities and his hollow mask do you agree with my explanation or disagree with it and is there anything that i missed about ichigo's hollow mask i can't wait to read all of your comments on this aspect of bleach which has barely been covered by anyone and if you want to learn more about ichigo's hollow abilities then check out my hollow ichigo character analysis video in that video i go into great detail about ichigo's hollow powers explaining how they are eventually incorporated into his shinigami powers and the truth behind who holo ichigo really is so if you're interested in ichigo's powers then definitely check out that video but for now thank you for making it to the end of this video and i can't wait to see you in my next bleach video if you enjoyed this video and would like to see more like it then please consider supporting my channel on patreon i have multiple tiers with rewards including access to an exclusive discord server video scripts as well as being the first to know about unreleased upcoming videos thank you for your time and whatever you choose to contribute i will appreciate and it will mean a lot to me [Music] you

Channel: DBZimran

Views: 713,601

Keywords: Bleach hollow mask explained, hollow mask explained, why ichigo stopped using hollow mask, bleach hollowfication, truth about hollow ichigo, ichigo vs hiyori, bleach breakdown, hollow mask, bleach hollow mask, bleach analysis, hollow mask analysis, hollow transformation, ichigo’s powers explained, ichigo powers, hollow powers, ichigo training, hollow stripes, hollow mask stripes, hollow ichigo analysis, hollow ichigo character analysis, dbzimran hollow mask, ichigo, bleach

Id: naMDNklWRJI

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021