KYORAKU SHUNSUI & NANAO ISE vs LILLE BARRO - Bleach Battle ANALYSIS | The Final Game

at the tail end of the thousand-year blood war arc the varvelt sub arc it really became apparent that kubo was in full-on wish fulfillment mode firing on all cylinders to bring us some truly titanic showdowns between shinigami and quincy in what was in my opinion an excellent set up for the ultimate final battle i really loved the idea of having these last remaining shinigami assaulting uh mark's brand new palace the cornerstone of what would be his resurrected quincy empire and meeting his ultimate warriors along the way i thought it was an awesome idea a great concept to essentially turn the shinigami into the ryoka an inverse of the soul society arc effectively and i thought it was just really neat and honestly the should stop all battles are excellent uniformly they are all generally pretty good fights some of the best maybe in the entire series because i think they include a lot of what people want from fights in bleach now are they perfect no but they are in my opinion mostly fitting final battles for the end game of bleach now of the shutstoffel fights we've already made a video about kisuke vs askin and so with the remaining options i made a poll relatively recently to find out which fight you'd like me to talk about next and the winner by a considerable margin was kyoraku and nanao versus liabaro and so that's what we're going to talk about today and that's absolutely fine with me because this is a really cool really unique fight that i think is unique in the way it is so polarizing with the audience and that's of course something we'll discuss as well later on as always though there was very vocal support in the comments for another of these options and that's another fight i really want to discuss so let it be known that the next analysis after this one will be maiari and nemu vs purnida pankajaz before we get started on the video guys if you haven't hit subscribe yet make sure to do that now for more bleach content like this every single week and if you enjoyed the video make sure to give it a thumbs up as well as it does help to support me and the channel and if you really like what i do here and you want to take that support for me another step further i do have a patreon for the channel as well we can get videos like this one early and you can support me there for as little as a dollar a month to everyone who's coming up on screen right now who is a current patron of the channel i just want to as always give you guys a massive shout out and say a huge thank you for helping me do what i love i really appreciate it so settle in get a drink or something because i know for a fact that this is gonna be a long one and the most obvious reason for that is this is an incredibly long battle the fight between kyoraku nanao and lia i think that's how you pronounce it i'm not entirely sure but stern ritter x the x-axis is one of the longest unbroken fights in bleach and you know full well that's what we like here on the channel a straight battle with no interruptions or at least minimal interruptions and this fight runs from chapter 644 right after the maya reverses purnita fight has ended all the way through to chapter 654 so unbroken and 10 chapters long pipping the myori and purnita fight by a single chapter and that in itself is a very long and unbroken battle as well and so what you have here is truly one of the tentpole perennial battles in the entire series this is one of the longest battles in all of bleach and i think personally this is a fight kubo was really invested in really looking forward to getting to it felt like he'd been building to this for the entire final arc kiyora kushin sui as you know received some of the best character development this arc has to offer and he's a truly shining example of what this arc did for some characters and so because of that it felt like we were always building to an ultimate moment for kyoraku specifically he just needed a fitting enemy of course he has his skirmish against robert acoutron in the first invasion and a brief meeting with ugram hashworth in the second invasion so it felt like kubo was always going to deliver on a big final battle for kyoroku the new captain commander and this is it in many ways the fight feels like a trial by fire for our new captain commander yes he's helmed the goatee 13 throughout basically this entire war but in a 1v1 scenario he hasn't really had to do too much yet since taking on that mantle of responsibility and now here is his chance to shine and this fight should have been an easy win for kubo that's what makes it so intriguing to me you've got kyoraku who's an absolutely beloved character that only became more beloved as a result of the thousand year blood war arc you've got liabaro who was a character that people were interested in i think his personality made him seem like maybe the most boring in quotes of the shitstopple but at the same time he has a cool design and people were just really excited to see the supposedly all-powerful elite quincy in action and not only that but there was a ton of hype going into this battle for really one reason and one reason alone it seemed pretty obvious we were going to be getting kyoraku's bankai as soon as this fight began which is something i probably mentioned back in my weekly chapter review but kubo had specifically mentioned kyoraku in interviews prior to this arc coming out regarding who's bankai we were going to see so it just seemed like we were playing the waiting game before getting that big reveal so like i said this fight should have been an easy win but due to the way this fight ends what i would call the final third of this fight it has gone down in history as being a strangely controversial battle a polarizing battle among fans and that's something i'm really looking forward to getting into now this might be something of a hot take but i feel in my opinion this is really kyoraku's only quote unquote proper fight in the series of course he has his battle against chad in the soul society arc but really he's just messing around and he barely has to lift a finger and then there's his fight against stark which is obviously great and very popular but it's incredibly broken up to the point where two other people take over the battle for the second half essentially and kyoraku only returned for one last chapter to administer essentially the killing blow so really what you've got here is kyoraku's proper fight from start to finish and i think again maybe that is why there is such controversy towards the end here it felt like this should have been our new captain commander's chance to really shine and i think he does i think he does shine in this battle in a way he never has before but a lot of people were i think understandably slightly disappointed with the way things took a turn in this fight so we'll get into that so who is involved in this fight well not many people which is ironic considering it is the longest of the stoffel battles and you have like gerard valkyrie going up against the entire goatee 13 somehow that is shorter than this battle i don't know what that really says but this is an intimate fight um as far as the stuff all battles go this probably feels the most close knit you have essentially the first division kiraku shin sui and his vice captain nanao ise who up until now has never really been involved in a battle situation uh whatsoever to the point where she was completely absent from the fake karakura town arc so this is really new ground for nanao now she has taken a slightly more active role alongside her captain in this final arc you know going up against hashforth briefly but again not really doing that much so this is kind of new ground for her and then of course like i said you've got liabaro as well a stern writer who i think was just waiting to really show off what he could do and would turn out i think again to be one of the more controversial elements of this fight because of what kubo chose to do with this character and i don't think anyone was expecting the outcome for liam maybe that's a good thing and maybe it isn't but i think that is that is one of the more controversial aspects of this overall battle so for some context around how and why this fight takes place in my opinion the setup for this battle is great it's really unique it's a totally unique situation for bleach and i think it's just done handled really well so basically like i said the last few shinigami the last few surviving members of the upper echelon of the gotei are assaulting varvel you harbox new palace they are running through his streets to try and reach this main central tower unfortunately for them the quincy have the upper hand they have completely turned the rayatsu in the air the reishi they have made it totally dense and completely impossible to figure out where you're going to go how to work out if there's an enemy nearby this is a tactic they use in the second invasion as well but it basically means is the bad guys have the home field advantage here and so because of that liaise is able to essentially hide on a rooftop and pick these guys off one by one with his sniper rifle really awesome that kubo gives this guy a sniper rifle and actually lets him use it in this kind of way that might sound a bit ridiculous but there have been a few examples in the past of someone having a really awesome and unique ability and just not getting the chance to really show it off in a way that is fitting lee picking off weaker characters as they run from afar is both terrifying ominous and just really cool really a really great use of his unique weapon we see him take out his sargi and then we get a small time skipper when it returns to this fight we discover that most of the vice captains are gone it's difficult really to ascertain exactly who li has taken out um but we can kind of work it out based on who is not around anymore so it seems to me like the characters that are now missing are isane quione centaro and potentially siphon which is weird but she just doesn't appear anymore so it seems likely to me she was taken out whereas a mida actually appears very briefly could be a mistake because you literally never see him again but he appears very briefly against gerard valkyrie and the way this fight begins is pure kyoraku goodness it's just fantastic he decides that they have to figure out where the shots are coming from because they're just losing people left right and center and so he decides to make himself the target stopping in his tracks turning around and trying to catch sight of where these bullets are coming from there's a great little panel i don't know why but i really like it showing leo's rayatsu kind of like pinging on top of the building basically you know giving away where he is it's like the glare on his sniper rifle essentially revealing his location and kiraku you know he calls out i found you he spins around but he suddenly gets popped in the chest his eyes are bulging he's horrified he's taken the shot straight through the heart similar in the way to oetsu does in the battle in the royal palace and lee is kind of disappointed you know he's like i took you shinigami for a slightly higher form of enemy that i'm used to but this is apparently all it takes all it takes is one idiot and the entire pack falls apart and you know i'm disappointed in that and suddenly he hears this faint almost it's like a song or like a chant and he's like you know where's that coming from when out of nowhere kyoraku is behind him a super goofy look on his face that transitions it flips like a switch to being incredibly sinister as he seemingly just tries to kill the year in one hit with this one stroke it looks like he's going for lee's head which is very cured our q2 dance around the fact that he's actually just trying to end the fight in a single blow and it kind of exposes that darkness beneath the surface which again is a massive theme of kyoraku's that's really amped up in this fight and this is just such an awesome a badass way to start this fight to kick things off i love that kyoraku tries to take his head immediately and cuts off the end of his gun instead there's a great panel of them staring each other down and kyorak who's like wow you know nice dodge in the way that he does i love the way he compliments his enemies as the battle goes on but he says nice dodge but i've taken your gun next i'll have your life and like that is so awesome i mean that as far as starting lines go to fire off a fight to kick off a fight it doesn't get much better than that kiraku is on excellent form here just being a total badass and i think that's a brilliant way to get the ball rolling and of course nanao is there as well and she arrives to assist kyolaku after she appears behind him keeping up with him using her shunpo which feels like a small reference to the soul society arc to me when she wasn't quite able to catch up with him beforehand and he kind of sends her on her way you know to tell the rest of them that you won't be they they won't be following on with them and then she needs to return to his side and he says that she's starting to remind him a bit of lisa but lee ain't having it he's like you know are we done with the chit chat and i like that because lee is kind of the straight man to the more eccentric kyoraku which i think works really well they play off each other really nicely here and this is where liye's more stiff personality is mostly in check and i mean he does kind of fly off the handle a little bit as the fight goes on but because of the way he's kind of straight laced here uh many people did see lee as the boring shitstopper member myself included to be honest i mean i'm a huge fan of askin and you can't really get much more disparity between their two personality types but i think the way leah acts the way he responds to things works really well here and establishes a great dynamic between these two characters as they couldn't really be more different i absolutely love kyoraku's tiny little mention of stark here mentioning the iran car's number one guy i didn't expect it but it's just so cool to see stark is still somewhere in his mind he remembers this opponent and i think that's really nice a little reference for him to bring up but more importantly here we get our introduction to a brand new game for kyoraku shikai daruma san gakkaronda which is a variation on the game red light green light so the idea behind that game of course is that somebody is it they kind of turn away from the rest of the players and the players have to creep up on them when the person who's it turns around the players have to freeze or else they're caught so what happened here is kyoraku initiated the game with lia without him knowing so making him it so basically lia was the one who was trying to catch the person who was coming up to him what happens then once this game is initiated a pathway of rayatsu is linked between the two players and kyoraku being the one who's trying to approach lee begins to make his way up that path which is how he was able to get to his location so quickly this is really cool again you know it's also kind of broken kioraku can just initiate these games without even being able to see his opponent unless he initiated it literally the moment he caught sight of that flash but i mean we don't even know if that's a literal flash or we're supposed to be he's supposed to be sensing the person's presence either way this is a pretty powerful ability and another one to add to kyoraku's ever-growing repertoire so the rules of this game are pretty simple if the person who is it catches sight of the other player coming towards them that other player dies and of course if they don't then the other player gets a chance to kill them which is what kiraku did he appeared right behind lia and almost took his head off of course lee is pretty powerful and was able to get out of the way pretty handily lee theorizes that what he shot initially was an illusion placed there by kyoraku to be essentially a decoy while the real kyoraku ran towards him and he basically says that as long as i can stay on top of the illusions i'll be absolutely fine in my opinion all of this and what comes a little bit later as well constitutes the first third of this fight and i'll be totally honest with you the first third is probably my favorite section of this entire battle it feels like a real classic bleach fight i love the banter back and forth between the two characters the explaining of abilities the choreography on show is excellent and the whole scenario has a distinctly sinister feel to it you know there's so many shadows on show here cured who looks completely evil at one point with this big grin on his face lee also looks similarly kind of scary coated in darkness one of his eyes visible i really like it it's great both of these characters look totally like they are invested in this game to the death at this point and i think it's a fantastically well portrayed moment and really kind of a precursor to the true darkness that will come later but in my opinion the way this fight is handled in the first third is my favorite part and like i said another reason why the beginning of this battle is so good especially as a kiraku fan but i think anyone who can really appreciate a good traditional bleach fight kyoraku feels like he's on top form here you know lia says at one point you know i think you put yourself at a disadvantage by telling me the rules and how ridiculous is that and kyoraku just grins at him from underneath the rim of his hat and he's like well it's only when we both know the rules that it can really be called a game kyoraku then feeds us a small piece of fairly interesting law saying that in battle a an experienced warrior sees via two different methods the first one is using eyes like everybody does and the second one is something called ray kaku where eventually this experienced warrior stops using their eyes to see and will see using rayatsu alone a more experienced warrior in particular is more likely to abandon their eyesight for reikaku as a battle gets going and kyoraku uses this to his advantage knowing that li yet being so very experienced will be just using ray kaku and he says that you know that wasn't actually an illusion of me that you shot previously i actually hardened and solidified my own rayatsu into my own image you know essentially a projecting a version of himself and just leaving it there for leah to see to shoot you know almost like a scarecrow or something like that and lia is like you know there's literally no way you can do that you know that's way too advanced i would never fall for something something like that and kyoraku gets a grand moment of kind of character development here where he straightens up and he says oh but i think you would fall for it you'll do well to know who it is you're fighting against i am the captain commander of the goatee 13 kyoraku shin sweet and he's there you know kind of just like looking down on his opponent towering over him you know they're both roughly the same size they're essentially on the same plane of elevation but the way kubo draws this scene is to show kyoraku looming over him uh being you know i am the captain commander leah's horrified realization of the caliber of enemy that he's up against and what kyolaku is truly capable of is very satisfying to see and it's a great moment for this character because like i said it's a trial by fire for kyoraku someone who was really thrown into the deep end as far as his promotion to the captain commander role went and this is him really beginning to embrace it for the truly for the first time i think i mean he's kind of thrown his weight around a little bit regarding the central 46 and all that sort of thing but it's really here where he talks down to a stern ritzer basically says shut up you know i am the captain commander and i deserve respect and i think that's awesome i think that's so cool it's a real renewed sense of confidence for this character who has done really well for the most part i would say in the shoes of the leader in this crazy war that soul society is in with essentially the fate of the universe hanging in the balance so it's really nice when kiraku gets a moment to be able to talk himself up deservedly so and so as the fight begins in earnest finally we get some wonderful choreography here kyoraku tries to play that game again reciting the chant but lee snaps off the broken barrel of his gun potentially turning it into something slightly more close range maybe and he spins around to kyoraku planting the barrel of his gun in kiraku's chest and he's like you know i know you're there he tries to blast him firing this huge massive star of light which seemingly wipes kiraku out it's lovely lovely choreography i love seeing the angles that kubo draws kyoloku dashing to the side lee is swinging around it's all very very dramatic and again another reason why i love this kind of close quarters combat this fast-paced battle it looks fantastic but kiraku is one step ahead now mixing games which is completely insane but what he's trying to do is trick lee into looking the other way so he is then free to step on lee a shadow and activate kage only however lia realizes this and he leaps into the air kind of avoiding the shadow blade that comes bursting out of the ground and as he twists around in the air he fires his gun straight into the shadow as kiraku is leaping out of it it's just it's just so cool this whole section is awesome to see i really hope they do it well in the anime because it's just great choreography on show here and as kyoraku seemingly evades that blast by leaping out of the shadow he kind of says you know i've got nothing on you this isn't very fair you know you seem to know all of my abilities and as he says that kiraku realizes that lee's blast went straight through the shadow and connected with his foot and kyoraku is now missing a a big chunk of his foot um which would be the the first of many holes that will be punched into the captain commander by the time this fight is done i have to say within this first third this is exactly the kind of application of kating kyokotsu that i love to see and it really feels like kyoraku is so amped up here and we're really getting to see him go all out we're getting to see the best of him and his abilities it's basically fantastic i mean what happens next is lee tries to shoot kyoraku again and it seems like he struck him once more only he's only hit another of kyoraku's shadows not the real thing kyoku appears behind him and he's like you know you seem to really enjoy shooting those shadows revealing yet another of katin kyokotsu's games of his sheikai being kage okuri which is basically this idea where if you stare at someone's shadow for long enough you're able to then project a version of yourself onto the battlefield which is exactly what kyoraku has done here as lee looks on struggling to really comprehend the situation kiraku says you know children's games are completely unpredictable and you have no idea when a child will suddenly grab your hand and whisk you into a game and now that lee his own hand has been snatched they'll play until they die and kyoaku again just these awesome one-liners for this fight kind of coming out of nowhere to close off these chapters as a cure kiraku fan the beginning of this fight is just brilliant to me and i think the way kubo depicts his character as being a sinister but playful captain is just so perfect a perfect representation of his personality the imagery on show is great the application of games cutting kyokotsu getting to fully show off its full range it's so it's so much fun and i love the way this fight begins it's just awesome and honestly at this point in the battle i have just nothing to complain about i love how everything is being depicted there's a nice little moment with shinji here as well uh where he kind of talks about how it's you know a captain commander's duty to be left behind to put his life on the line for his other comrades so that they can continue the fight and that's again really nice because it means they're all putting their faith in kyoraku who is coming into his own as the captain commander and the other shinigami are seeing that and they're acknowledging it as well and so that is just again it's really wonderful to see the dynamic of the goatee 13 shifting and you know shinji even compares him to old man yammer as well so kyoraki is really just coming into his own and filling the big shoes left by yamamoto and is seemingly doing so in everyone else's eyes as well again continuing with those bleach tropes that i love so much kyoraku has managed to get in really close to lia and leah says you know did you really think you would get the advantage by getting in this close to me and kyoraku says well yes i already have after all i mean you've been cut haven't you and i just love the drama the the cinematic way that the moment he says that lia's gun just snaps in half like why didn't it do that before that well because it's cooler for it to break when kyoraku says that he's cut it that's why and i love that sort of thing and lia darks backwards you know to try and put some distance between himself and kyoraku kyoku is really feeling on top of this fight currently um but we get a nice little moment here where leah instantly creates a brand new gun i thought this was really badass to be honest revealing that his gun's name is diagram and he just sort of swipes his hand across it to reveal a brand new design what's really cool about this moment and this little nugget of information is that lee actually explicitly says that this gun is his bow so i really like that i think it's really cool that he actually says that because a lot of quincy who use slightly more unorthodox weapons don't ever say that they have a bow um so i like this a lot basically means he's firing arrows all the time out of it which is really badass it also goes with the idea that kubo said that he has modelled each of the shutstoffel members after an era of war and leah is supposed to be based on the idea of modern warfare which again i think works really well with him taking that very medieval idea of a bow and arrow and turning it into a freaking you know sniper rifle that can be transformed at will thanks to being made of reishi unfortunately for lee despite him putting on this flashy showcase he's forgotten the rules of the game and taken his eye off kyoraku allowing kiraku to appear immediately behind him again very sinister and attempts to slice him lee makes his crazy dodge ducking downwards going underneath and as they're doing this small scuffle kyoraku suddenly says oh you know did you do you ever remember that feeling of when you were young and you might suddenly catch sight of your own shadow and it scared the living daylights out of you and as he says this lee turns and looks up to the sky horrified as loads of clones essentially of kyoraku come raining down from the sky i mean artistically this has to be one of my favorite panels pages in the entire series i mean shadow clones are nothing new in fiction but it just looks so awesome here the way each individual cureloku is kind of bleeding out of the shadows themselves which one's the real one they're all wielding the massive scimitar blades of cat in kyokotsu and they're just raining down on leah who looks absolutely tiny in comparison the perspective is awesome and again this is kating kyokotsu at its absolute finest and of course crucially kyoraku is clearly winning at this point in the battle despite lia having scored a single hit on him kyoraku does seem to be absolutely dominating this fight kating kyokotsu in shikai is enough to completely run rings around and confuse lee and i think that's fair you have to put yourself in leah's shoes there's so many different rules he has to pay attention to and all of these different games all seemingly happening at the same time now this idea of fairness is a really interesting one because kiraku always brings up how his opponent needs to know the rules as well but realistically nobody knows them as well as kyraku he's the one initiating the games he knows when they're going to activate he knows how they work much better than anyone else and so he has a very clear advantage here as he brings down numerous blades into lia's body and it looks like he's dealt him a serious blow however this is where things start to get weird for lack of a better word and we begin to leave behind that feeling of a traditional bleach battle and transition into something different uncharted territory in many ways and from here on out really crazy stuff begins to ensue and if you ask me i would say this is where the second third of the fight begins so after taking that pretty brutal attack from kyoraku we are suddenly treated to a surprise panel of lee with both eyes wide open and he reveals that when he opens both eyes the true power of the x-axis is able to take hold which in effect simply makes him totally intangible to most attacks in the same way as his power the x-axis allows his blasts to pass right through his enemy's body in the same way once the true ability is activated his enemies attacks will slip harmlessly through his body and we actually see kyoraku's own blade almost seemingly being forced from lia's body now normally lia has one eye closed with the x tattoo over it and he can only open it when he's in serious trouble in a fight and we see uh that this happens twice previously the first one is when kiraku appears right behind him at the start of the battle using daruma-san gakuranda and the second time lia's eye is forced open is when kiraku appears behind him again this time using kage o kuri i've got to be honest i really really wish kubo had actually drawn lia's eyes open in those two shots as it would really have just made the reader question what was going on what's this all about what does it mean and it would have meant that this true in quotes ability of the x-axis wouldn't have felt like it came out of literally nowhere it also just doesn't really make sense he says that he's forced to have his eyes open when he's in danger um but he doesn't have them open in those two shots and that's weird it makes it feel like an afterthought whether it was or not it's kind of impossible to say but for consistency's sake and for just a little bit of in-battle foreshadowing it would be really nice if his eye had actually been open for those two panels and we as readers would have been like hey his eyes open in that panel what does that mean you know it's not open in the next panel and that would have been really cool little reveal to get a couple of chapters later but leah says that once he has had both eyes opened three times in a single fight he is then allowed allowed by whom i don't know but allowed to continue that fight with them open for the rest of the battle meaning that he will stay intangible until the fight is over and he claims himself that the reason being for this limitation is that it wouldn't be fair to the sinners if he was allowed to fight like this from the get-go now we actually get a small amount of exposition on leah's character here and the translations for this are weirdly all over the place with some saying that he is the last quincy to receive a shrift from juha buck and some saying he was the first quincy to receive a shrift from yuharbach but what's basically the most important thing about this is that he considers himself to be you harbach's masterpiece warrior uh the soldier that is closest to god himself and i just have to say that the overall importance of this fight is is really cool as well it's just really awesome seeing the leader of the shinigami taking on the quincy who was revealed to be the leader of the shutstoffel but leah says that for him to be forced into this position where his eyes have been opened three times in a single battle by a lowly shinigami a sinner like this is basically impossible to and shouldn't be allowed to happen and we get a really nice um ritual for the activation of his voston dig here where he just kind of opens that eye really widely it begins to shine brightly you see the light start to like whirr around it spins around like crazy and then it basically forms this massive fleur-de-lis style star that like crashes into the ground it looks really cool and it's been a while since the quincy has had a proper transformation ritual so it's really awesome to see this and again it lends credence to the idea that lia is really a cut above most other stern rita while i think the eye-opening scenario is a bit gimmicky and like i said it should have been foreshadowed a little better in the fight itself i do like again that bleach trope that idea of a villain really getting backed into a corner and then activating their transformation i just i do love that and it feels like again this fight so far the pacing is perfect i think and really again i've still currently outside of the slight weirdness around the two eye thing don't really have any issues with this fight thus far the smoke begins to clear around uh lige's holy form and we finally get to see zeliel divine judgment this is one of those forms where i'm like i don't know if i like it or if i don't like it i'm a bit i'm a bit weird on it i think it does look okay but there is that there is that strangeness to it that kind of other worldliness that makes it inherently just look a bit strange um and strange is not necessarily a bad thing it is a considerable departure i think from the kind of cold calculated sniper that lia was previously which i think is maybe where the biggest uh issues come from because it really in no way resembles that form of his at all outside of the fact that each of his wings that he has in this form i guess has you know barrel gun barrel holes on it or something like that maybe that's the only thing that's about the only thing that is really comparable crucially though above all else where this design is concerned there are plenty of things about it i like i like the massive halo i like the long white the long white robe and the massive wings i think he does look perfectly angelic here and i think that's obviously what kubo was going for so as far as this conform is concerned while liam might now look like a bit of a weird banana or something at the same time i do like it i think it gives off that divine godly vibe which was probably the most important thing to kubo when designing this form basically i think this form looks better in some panels than others in some panels it does look really weird especially with his like strange sort of stubby legs but in others i think it does give off that kind of terrifying angelic otherworldly vibe and i think that's the most important thing so as far as i'm concerned this folsom dig i'm all right with it and actually i really appreciate like i said the grandiose spectacle that was its activation and the fact that it is a totally new transformation where a lot of quincies just don't get that but somehow kyoraku is suddenly immobilized and lia basically snipes him with three blasts from his wings and you see the chapter ending with kiraku taking a serious hit really for the first time since this fight began he did get shot in the foot but this is the first one where it really looks like he might actually be in trouble i might be wrong about this but i don't think it's ever explained how he is suddenly frozen to the spot and i don't think it ever happens again so that is kind of weird but now the tides have turned and kyoraku is on the back foot so where most characters in this series have some kind of high speed running ability whether that's shin po hirenki aku sonido anything like that um kubo reserves certain elements for truly godly characters and one of those is actual teleportation eisen does it once he has transcended and leah can do it now in his volstendig form his body kind of like twists and disappears and then reappears like his head appears and stuff in front of kyoraku it's all like suitably creepy and weird i do think this um holy form i guess the main issue with it and you kind of see it in the way this fight begins to play out is the fact that it does feel and look very different to his base form which maybe some people are looking for that in a transformation which makes total sense but in terms of the tone and the way the fight is playing out it does suddenly feel like kyoku is fighting a totally different person but kyoraku is you know really forced onto the back foot here and he starts running away he runs through some buildings which is a small detail i like when kubo does that it gives some added depth to the fight um it is kind of weird how this massive quincy area is just apparently completely just there's no population whatsoever it's just you hawak and the shut stoffel um but i do like that it does add a nice little detail but kyoroku basically just runs away um lee appears in front of him at one point and kiraki uses a hardo 78 i think zangarin which is a massive kedo blade which makes sense to try um but kyoraki would later discover that even kido has no effect on lee and now he's totally intangible and so pushed to the very edge kyoraku we see he has run right back to the start where they began on the edge of one of the uh of one of the pathways in varvel kyoraku's gone right back to the beginning led them led the fight as far away from the rest of the goatee as he possibly can and i'm going to say right now that i think the page where he activates his bankai the build up to the bank i activation is kind of everything i ever wanted it to be right down to the smallest bleach cliches that i love and and tr and cherish in my opinion my favorite banankai reveals are generally the cheesiest you know where the person is like oh you know i'm right down to my to my my last resort here i'm at the end of my rope i hope no one sees this i hope no one gets caught up in this you know all of those tropes that are associated with bankai reveals for instance i think it's done perfectly here it's done exactly how i wanted it to be kyoraku you know he's sat just like slumped against the wall you can actually see the injuries he has massive holes in his body where he was shot by lee before he's sweating and he says you know oh man i knew he said he couldn't be hurt but i didn't think he wouldn't be hurt by literally anything including kedo and he says you know down to my last resort here raises both of his scimitars holds them down in front of him like that and he says uh now chan i hope you're you know you're nowhere near you get a small glimpse of nanel sprinting back towards her captain which again is really cool and then he says i'll see what's waiting for me on the other side ban kai and i just want to say as well it's really is so clear that kubo was taking his time with this fight like i said at the beginning of the video it feels like he is really invested in this battle and kyoraku you know kyoraku was definitely one of the most anticipated barangay in the series there's no doubt about it but then so was kisuke and kisuke's bankai reveal is way more rushed in my opinion than than kyoraku kyoraki who's given this lovely um kind of monologue where he's you know at death's door essentially and he does his little pose and all that is perfect for a barn kai reveal but in my opinion key skates could have been so much better i'm just comparing the two directly because they are about the same i would say in terms of fan anticipation they happen at basically the same time and it just goes to show how two volumes from now kubo was really not only feeling really rough but just running out of time as well and so everything is so sped up all of a sudden you can really see it in the presentation of these two reveals um but kyoraku you know finally finally activates his bahankai and like i said as well when we went into this fight we were we were expecting it or at least i was expecting it you know i think everyone was and it was really great to get that payoff so i think in terms of the actual ban kai activation this is a top-tier reveal and the curtain is lifted on the first stage of kyolaku's play but the bankai itself is controversial just like the kind of latter half of this fight really from i guess about now onwards the fight is very divisive very polarizing and i think a lot of fans were unhappy with what we got i think it's important to remember you only have to look at this fight even if you don't jive with how it's necessarily written it's very obvious that kubo is trying his absolute best here to deliver something truly epic and i think you see that in the narrative that unfolds as this fight goes on this fight is is like on the level of a of a milestone ichigo battle it's it's just as long it's got real massive character moments in it all the way through and i think you know whatever you think of this fight from about this point onwards um i think it can't be understated how how i think much work kubo was putting in here and i think for the most part it does do the characters justice but that's another issue we can confront a bit later on now i have done a full video on kyoraku's bankai in the past so we won't go too deep into the meticulous details here but the first passive ability of his bankai really sets the scene in a wonderful way just draping this shroud of darkness over the area but it hasn't turned to night it's just an illusion that creates this deep dark feeling of dread this sense of having the chills like your hair is standing on end like you know someone's watching you or something like that combatants all over varvel feel this sinister this sinister feeling just lingering in the air it's really awesome again again that that lovely build-up that characters like kisuke just don't get and they they should have done now i'm not saying that kisuke has the same ability as kyoraku to create this area of effect feeling in the air he doesn't but i think i mentioned this in the video i did about their battle i think it would have been awesome since key skates banankai is effectively a massive puppet well why couldn't we have seen her like actually putting herself together in like some kind of freaky way or something this is the sort of thing that makes habankai reveal really special that that scene setting really awesome to actually have a passive ability that just basically sets the scene i love that and it works really well of course with this being like a theater play but now that we've moved into the realm of kyolaku's bankai and away from his shiikai it's kubo symbolically telling us that the time for games is over and now the real fight begins essentially and of course katan kyokotsu shikai and bankai in turn reflect the two different halves of kyoraku's personality but anyway kyoraku confronts lee who has transformed further uh making his volstin dig look even weirder than it did before the base of his massive robe kind of unravels like spirals open and these very strange hind legs kind of emerge that have like protrusions coming off the back of them that make him almost like a centaur or something again it is supposed to be weird he kubo is really going hard here on the biblical imagery the fact that you know you think of something lovecraftian or something like that we as mere mortals aren't supposed to be able to understand lia's form here that's exactly what kubo's going for and it does mean that on a conventional sense on a superficial sense lee is going to look weird i think i don't i don't think he looks cool but i think there's more to it than looking cool and i think that's equally important as well is how he looks thematically and i think thematically it works perfectly um but he doesn't look cool but anyway kyoraku arrives confronts him it's really cool that panel where kyoroku steps out in front of lee there's like a tether almost attached to him which is great um he basically says to leah you know have you noticed the change in this in this world in this atmosphere you know does it feel gloomy and full of despair and lia says well you know someone's turned the lights out but i don't think i don't really feel any despair and that's because a a messenger of god feels no such thing as despair as he leaps above kyoraku his massive wings uh outstretched lights appearing in each of the holes uh in the wings to basically just blast kiraku with everything he's got and a massive beam of light just wipes out a huge chunk of the platform there on and another thing i do like about these fights as well is they do like level the playing field like the ground and the place they're fighting is just completely annihilated a huge chunk of the platform that they are on like collapses to the ground it's just kind of funny that kyoraku doesn't seem to care about that issue like hitsugaya has a real problem with the idea of these uh these kind of buildings and and platforms and bridges collapsing onto the sailrite far below but kyoku just doesn't seem to care or maybe it's more that he can't do anything about it so he's not bothered i don't know but either way leah basically says you know if we destroy the person using the bankai the bankai itself will disappear at the same time so i won't have to worry about it anymore only to suddenly be blasted in the side by some kind of mystery attack a huge chunk of leah's body just kind of explodes sending blood everywhere and of course being intangible he's like what the hell's going on suddenly another hit takes out his shoulder and he's like completely shocked and terrified by this and kyoraku emerges from the smoke unharmed and says you know the first stage of my bankai is the sharing of wounds so act one takes hold then act two takes hold as lee is basically covered in the plague these boils and blood is running from every orifice on his face it is pretty pretty gruesome actually but it's also really cool as well and it's just this idea that li year was kind of a you know felt like sort of shamed by getting injured by kirakuz so the second phase activates as well and i love kyoraku again just taking control during this being like now no more talking between acts as he just kind of continues his play um leaving li yeah to just squirm and i think it's a it's a big testament to kyoraku how strong he actually is how busted this bankai actually is lia is the leader of the shuttle easily one of the strongest not only stern ritter but characters in the series and he is still running around like a headless chicken when in the uh in the grip of cat in kyokotsu karamatsu shinjuku so because lee regrets wounding kyoraku because of the damage it's done to himself he then is afflicted with the plague and then cast into the abyss this massive illusory body of water which again is just a great spectacle and it's just really cool to see them both under the water kiraku saying you know now we've been cast into the deep end and we will stay here until one of us expires one of our rayatsu's runs out again ending the chapter is such a badass line but it's just the imagery here is so good it's of course following this idea of this story about you know the lover's suicide which we go into great detail in kirakus bankai's video but you see lee beating his wings trying to get to the surface there's a great panel of him underneath you can see the light of the surface and he just can't reach it because of course the water's not really there um it's you know an illusion but his resolve vanishes the moment he touches that ice cold water and so he tries desperately to to escape only to find it's impossible and of course katyn herself arrives draping herself around kyoraku's shoulders awesome moment really cool to see that filler design be made canon because it's a great design his arm practice spirit looks fantastic and it's just so cool seeing her here and again this feels like a really fitting moment for the captain commander i guess seeing him again looking down on his enemy with his own zan puck toe spirit over his shoulders his bankai active it's just really cool really awesome this whole scene this whole sequence of chapters is just a big celebration of kyoraku's character which i guess makes the ending sting even more but right now we're enjoying it and so kyoraku activates the final act of his play where basically he cuts the throat of lee takes off his entire head his throat just engorges and it bursts and his head blows up that panel of course where he slits his throat cuts his windpipe is is great as well just that awesome panel image of kyolaku lunging forwards and the white rope around lia's neck and this is what i mean but leah just doesn't stand literally doesn't stand a chance the moment kyoraku activates his bankai um from that point on he's just along for the ride until he dies um and it's it's i think it's again like i said a testament to kiraku's power that he's able to damage the lead of the shuttle to such an incredible degree were it virtually any other character the moment the headless lie falls into the dark depths the fight would be over but of course it's not going to be that easy there's a nice moment between kyoraku and katen where they kind of talk to each other about you know how he is he using a barn kite every now and then is nice if he gets a chance to hang out with katyn once in a while and she's a really intriguing character as well when she talks about how he's injured his kimono is damaged and you know that's what he gets for wearing other women's clothes and all this sort of thing um you know you do get the sense that there might be some kind of romantic relationship between these two characters and it's a it's a fascinating dynamic for shinigami and zan pak toad but of course as kyoraku lies there and katin says you know she's just glad he won even after everything even if they s if they quarrel and uh squabble she's just glad he's alive at the end of the day but suddenly of course a holy beam of light bursts down rains down from the sky and scores kyoraku in the gut and you know his eye just widens in horror caten looks down in horus how can he possibly be getting attacked but in the air the headless leah has risen again and he screams you know as his as his head is reformed out of light that there's no way a captain's barn guy could ever kill him his face is contorted with like insanity as he screams at the top of his lungs as he as his head is rebuilt the very fibers are rebuilt with the light it's a cool visual it is a cool visual again lia's volson dig does look kind of weird there's something oddly two-dimensional looking to his volston dig i think which i think is a result of it being a made of light so there's not much shading on it but it does look a little bit strange but this transformation is pretty wild and the light builds and builds and builds and twists and creates like this massive dragon like neck you see it lean back then it flings forwards it has this huge neck as the transformation is underway and in my opinion this is where we enter act three of the fight the third the final third and probably where it goes off the rails the most in my opinion like i said at the start of the video the first third is my favorite and i think it gets progressively crazier as the fight goes on it's already pretty unbelievable that this character just survived having their head destroyed um by the captain commanders bankai of all things um and things only get weirder from here on out and more controversial so kyoraku's long-awaited bankai was rendered completely ineffective essentially and that's where the first i would say real issue arises in this battle you have to ask the question was there any need to keep the fight going beyond li getting his head destroyed well maybe because of what comes later there is some valuable information here but it does come at the cost of completely neutering kyoraku's most powerful ability something we've all been looking forward to for a very long time so you have to ask yourself the question how important is it to you that abankai succeeds or is it more important or at least as important that we just got we got to see it before the series was over at least we know what kyoraku's bankai does now was it successful no and that's a that is a big shame especially after all the hype and all the build-up and and when you see as well compounding the issue how kubo does eventually dispatch of leah well yes it it is a contentious subject that's for sure and as a kiraku fan myself i'm really i do find myself fence sitting with this fight i find because i have things i really like about it you know particularly that first third i think is virtually flawless in terms of execution but things like kyoraku's bankai failing in my opinion it's not the biggest issue in the world and i think there are bigger problems with this fight than that but leah's transformation ends not quite as elaborate as his actual vulstrondig activation but we get to see what he looks like and i don't hate it i actually think it looks pretty cool more so than the last version of his volston dig it's very clear overtly so what kubo is going for here this is probably the most explicit i would say quote-unquote religious iconography we've really had in the series up until this point with his strangely human-esque face with the human ears and the very wavy curly hair yet the the pronounced owl-like visage there's definitely a weird eldritch angelic almost cherubim look going on with leah here make no mistake any vestige of the original version of this character is completely gone at this point he doesn't resemble himself in any way shape or form and that extends to his personality as well which i think is an issue um i'm not huge i'm not a massive fan of that i think that a character should retain some kind of their identity no matter how many transformations they go um even eisen retained at least some something his personality was at least somewhat the same by the time he reached his monstrous form and that was like five forms deep here this version of lee is really just in no way any kind of resemblance to the original version which was that cool calm and collected sniper character who i think people enjoyed and now we have this version of the character who is screeching about sinners and being god's divine emissary and talking about how everyone is so sinful he's just a very different character all of a sudden it's way more talkative and it could be that the further into these forms he gets the more unhinged he gets along the way which i could totally see as well but on a surface level yeah i don't hate this form i mean it's essentially his original volston dig but with the top half missing and now replaced with this strange new uh dragon like head um but yeah i don't hate it he looks absolutely mad uh you know kubo was going crazy with this design but i don't think he was going off the rails crazy i think kubo very much knows what he's trying to do here with this character which is to create that truly biblical looking figure again like i mentioned something we are not really supposed to understand and and i like it i think i actually maybe prefer this form to his original volsteen dig so despite the fact that we've now gone extremely far from the man lee used to be i like the i like the fact that the core of the x-axis remains somewhat intact um he grows these massive arms made of light they look strange and segmented and he lifts one up kind of very straight into the air like that and it just fires a beam of extraordinarily straight light which just cuts straight through um the battlefield essentially severing base of this in this entire area and at this point lee is doing colossal amounts of damage with basically every hit he does um but again i like the imagery on show here there are some really several really cool panels of him now in this dragon like form silhouetted against massive walls of flame that he has just created from his attacks and i think it does give off this this this kind of godly vibe that this fight has now gone up another notch um in terms of kind of power level on show here i think it it can't be overstated this is now one of the most powerful beings we have ever seen in the series and i guess in that in that sense it didn't really matter if he stayed the same character in any sense of the word whatsoever kubo just needed somebody who could take kyoraku and by extension the now to a place where they hadn't been before in terms of how how cornered they were how weak they felt um and you know leah gets the job done in that sense um but it's difficult to i guess i guess the hardest part is rationalizing just how powerful this this villain suddenly is in terms of what we've seen before in the series this kind of power level this ability to just regenerate from an obviously fatal wound had really mostly been um reserved for characters like eisen or even ichigo at this point and now suddenly leo barrow is doing these kind of attacks and the fight has just it's just gone a long way from that tightly knit great choreography at the start of the battle that equips back and forth and i get it fights evolve as the time goes on and you know i'm not complaining like i said i enjoy this form of lea i think it's cool but i do think that this is where the fight begins to stumble that being said there's a really cool moment here for kyodaku where he is slumped up against a wall obviously he's been blasted through the stomach now as well and despite managing to evade that last beam of light from leo who is now just like scouring the area for kyoraku his face like contorting his eyes like clicking open either side it you know he has this really weird alien vibe to him there are some elements where i'm a bit like what is going on with this character design when when you know it's funny because i look at we're talking about leah again but he sometimes he looks quite good there are moments where he says things like you know oh you know your sins are so great i like the whole owl thing i think that all looks fine but there are some moments where i wonder if kubo took it too far and stretched this character way beyond the point of believability and just turned him into a bit of a joke and it's like i don't it goes beyond the point of me getting what he was going for i guess so for example most the time this form looks okay but once kyoraku has evaded him and he starts trying to search him out his head like contorts to like some massive like planetoid donut thing and his eyes are like scoping out the area and then he brings his head back in again it's all wobbly and weird like jelly and then i'm just like what is going on here and it gets even worse as well later on but kyoraku is you know resigned to death essentially at this point he's collapsed against this wall he's bleeding out his blood just like around his legs around his his lap and his feet and katyn comforts him and you know she says you tried your hardest but this is an enemy that the karamatsu shinju cannot kill i've exhausted all my options here and you know she's like we should just go and she says to him you can you know sleep now slip away and i will i will take you away and i when i read this the first time i thought she meant die you know i thought she meant you know just accept death and we'll go together you know i will take you away into a sleep and we'll just both pass away i'm not entirely sure i would prefer it if that's what she meant because i think that's really cool and it harks back to what she said when she first arrived when she said you know i am your blade you are my master but we are one and i swore i'd be by your side until you died um and this is that moment and it feels like that this is the end for the captain commander and he looks so beaten and down trodden these bags under his eyes but she could simply be saying that she will literally whisk him away um and get them out both out of there perhaps maybe using something like kageoni or something along those lines but it's a it's a it's a powerful moment you know kyoraku is such a jovial character most of the time he is a he's one of these captains who is like always in control even when he's not but he's even when he's not in control he's still cracking wise you know when he gets his eye shot out by robert he has a grin on his face and he's like he's sweating but he's making a smart ass remark about how okay maybe this isn't looking quite as good as i thought he's not saying anything you know he's not saying a word he's just like his head is lolling he's panting heavily katen is like talking about and it's it's it's pretty heavy and this is the kind of character moment that i relish from a fight like this where the stakes feel real you know a bleach fight doesn't tend to reach this point and that's the benefit i guess of having so many chapters dedicated to this battle you've now reached the point where kiraku is cowering behind a massive tower there's that there's a torrent of fire surrounding it because lee is just raising the area to the ground to try and find him and he begins to close his eyes and it is this moment that makes me think he's going to die it's it's it's framed in such a way that it looks like he is going to disappear as he he closes his eyes and then suddenly he hears this voice saying you know you know wake up suicide wake up and then suddenly it's now in front of him in the present day shaking him like captain you know you have to wake up you have to get up and this is where it gets controversial nanel's re-entry into the battle is where people have a major problem with this fight and the fight goes from being what should have been we said at the start of the video a guaranteed win for kubo to something that i think was a bit of a gamble um and my own thoughts and feelings on the essentially ending of this fight is something we'll discuss as well so nanao wakes up kyoraku and they're in this totally desperate moment and suddenly li appears behind her having heard her shouting at kyoraku again he does look pretty ominous here totally covered in shadow except for his glowing piercing eyes going on and on again about sin which again sort of feels like comes out of nowhere for this character a bit um but we're kind of reinvigorated by the fact that nanao is now in danger kyoraku uses his unpacked toe to disappear into the shadow world which is really cool i'm not gonna lie it's awesome that we actually get to see kyoku and nanel hanging out in the shadows i think that is so cool and the next phase of this battle is really weird like it's unlike anything we've ever seen before it's highly cinematic i think and i actually really like the way it kind of starts in media res and then begins again with a flashback that takes us back prior to them again basically the timeline for this next set of chapters is a bit all over the place in the way events happen but i think it works really cinematically kyoraku takes the now into the shadows and they get a small breather and a chance to talk to one another about the current situation and and uh kiraku kind of says okay so you know about yours unpacked toe you know everything and she says yeah i literally i i know everything i know about the promise you made to my mother all of this of course is total news to us we're all finding out brand new information here which you know is part of the problem i i also want to say that i think there is an annoying fake out here as well which is done purely for cliffhanger purposes where basically kyoraku says all right i'll give you your zampakto kyokotsu and you see the zampato spirit of kyokotsu standing next to uh nanel and it's like a what moment it's like a now zampato has been kyokotsu all along except that's not it at all it's a total misdirect that is done i think just for the purposes of a cliffhanger in the next chapter nanao is like wait kyokotsu is my zampakto and kyoraku sort of says yes but no and then he reveals that kyokotsu is actually hiding nanao's true zampakto at this point leah is just getting weirder and weirder as well as he tries to find where they are his head is doing that thing or it's like stretching out like some disc to try and locate them and he realizes that they are hiding in his shadow and this is what i mean when i say that the sequence of events is is handled uh weirdly here but i like it i think it is quite cinematic like i said he summons a massive orb of light to basically rid the entire battlefield of shadows but in doing so he creates a small shadow on the tip of his beak and from it and now like emerges and i think that panel is cool as hell i'm not gonna lie i don't know why i just think it's really awesome the way she like jumps out of the shadow and lea is like whoa like you could even come out of a shadow that big um but i just think it's great and you can see her already holding something in her hand which i think again is a nice detail it's wrapped in in a like a cloth so we don't know exactly what it is yet that's what i mean by kind of starting in the middle and then we go back to their discussion in the shadow world basically we get this exposition about kyoraku nanao her family his family how their families intermingle intertwine how their pasts connect i'm tempted to do a video on this in the future i think because there's a lot to talk about here um but basically the entire thing is talking is justification for a magical blade that is perfect for bringing down leah so essentially kyora kuzanpakto used to be just catin but kyokotsu was created to hide the secret ceremonial blade of the issei family this all stems from a legend called the isai curse now the ise clan is a women-only clan there are no men born into this family whatsoever and every man that married into the issei clan would eventually die of a mysterious curse believed to be associated with this mystical blade in an attempt to escape and subvert the curse nanal's mother instead married outside the family finding a man and marrying into their family instead but unfortunately the curse still seemed to activate and that man eventually died and apparently it's basically custom for you know uh widows in that in that um kind of era to be exiled and shunned from the family they married into so nanal's mother was dragged back into the isa family and that man that she married that outside family she joined was the should swee family shinsui being a lesser noble family as well and so that's how they they are kind of interlinked in that way the man she married was kyoloku's older brother so now that nanao's mother is kyoraku's sister-in-law she returns to the ise family obviously completely disheartened but she tells kyoraku to hide the ise blade to protect her daughter who of course will eventually grow up and presumably marry at some point and the curse will afflict her as well so she wants kyoku to take this burden and hide it away forever more so that nanao can never be affected by it and it's a little bit weird here because kiraku mentions that he gave the sword to kyokotsu because she was fond of hide and seek except i thought kyokotsu was only created to hide this sword so that's a little bit weird we get a big moment for kyoraku and nanao's relationship here their relationship has kind of been building a little bit i would say i don't think it changes that much throughout the series nanao has always kind of been irritated by kyodaku's antics but ever since the seoul society arc has very clearly had great respect and admiration for this character and their relationship goes both ways as well um but i think it really comes to the forefront here and kyoraki maybe more than anything stops protecting nanao like he has always done he protects her from yamamoto in the soul society arc and now he finally lets her take hold of her own destiny she says that he doesn't want to give her this blade even though it's the only thing that can currently save them because he doesn't want her to fall victim to the curse perhaps out of some worry for himself if he might die being the man currently associated with nanao but nanal says she's not worried about the curse she chooses to accept the blade herself and she thinks that kyoraku being the man he is the man she admires so much would simply brush off a curse as being something ridiculous and superstitious and kyoraku says you know he relents and he smiles and he says all right with this blade i'm sure you'll be able to and it cuts back to that present day where nanao has leapt out of liabaro's beak and she's preparing to do battle with him what's the big deal with this blade though why is the blade so important how is this blade going to help against someone who's totally intangible lia is a being of pure light at this point and seemingly cannot be stopped if he can't be destroyed by having his head destroyed by kiraku's bankai then nothing can except this blade this ceremonial ise sword is exactly what they need to get out of this situation it is basically the only thing in the bleach universe that could have saved them in this moment and it just so happens to be hiding in kyokotsu's face and the ceremonial blade is probably the biggest aspect to the overall controversy of how this fight ends there's no denying there is no denying that this sword is a deus ex machina it's a term i think people are a bit sick of being bandied around and it does apply to a few things in bleach there's frankly no way a weekly serialization like this could run for as long as it did without needing some kind of author injection like this every now and then and it does feel to me like kubo got to the point where he was like i don't know how to realistically get rid of this bad guy so he invents this ceremonial blade with the ability to reflect god's holy light basically this sword it has no edge it cannot cut things but what it does do is reflect and disperse the light and therefore ergo the power of god himself and so nanal leaps out of liabaro and kiraku explains that the ise family has no zanpak tone anyone in this family just cannot manifest as an of their own although this early vice captain spread would maybe suggest differently um but basically they pass down instead this ceremonial blade which is supposed to dispel god's power and that blade is shinken hakyoken really awesome and dynamic page where now releases basically removes the cloth and reveals the blade itself and it is cool it looks awesome the sword is very unique and it is really cool from a law perspective to see one of these ceremonial blades being used in action there's just no denying that it's unbelievably convenient that this is exactly what they need at this time and they've exhausted all other options and by you know in terms of all intents and purposes lee barrow cannot be killed but he can be defeated by this magical blade that nanao's family happens to have and not only does nanal's family happen to have it kyoraku happens to have it on him at this very moment due to the circumstances surrounding their past yes it was a lot to it was a lot to confront back when this chapter first came out and it was especially grating that kubo had essentially sacrificed kyolaku's bankai for this now what do we get out of this in return well we do get some really nice flashbacks that come up a little bit later regarding kyoraku and now their history and ultimately it is entirely down to you what your where your enjoyment is in this fight how you feel about the ending is going to be a personal decision on your part but as lee kind of squints at this blade we see that is reflecting his light brightly back at him and so revealing that when he says it's like blinding me nanal realizes that the blade will work against him and she lunges at him and basically prepares to fight and again i think another thing people just weren't expecting is no disre no disrespect to nanel but she'd never been really in a battle scenario before this one and so for her to take on the most monstrous version of lee at the end of this battle after kyoraku had nearly died really stretched at least my suspension of disbelief a little bit it seemed like she'd been handed this godsword out of nowhere and was now about to clean up one of the most unfathomably powerful enemies the series had ever seen but like i said we get some nice history for these characters so there is a trade-off here and clearly kubo really wanted to show this flashback and it seems like flashbacks were supposed to be a big part of the shit-stuff all battles mayory and nemu have a really nice origin flashback as well and now kyoraku and nanao are getting them too again heralding kind of house rushed the next two fights were that there were no flashbacks whatsoever when clearly i think kubo wanted to have flashbacks play a major role in each of these fights and this is a it's a cool one it's really cool seeing the now struggling to bond with the nasa of her own and instead deciding to join the kedo core but instead her request is denied and she's picked up strangely by the eighth division and she discerns that kyoraku is the man who her mother confided in before dying um and it's it's really cool and i love the fact that we get to see kyolaku in like almost every stage of his life like he's a little kid way earlier on in the flashback of the yamamoto we see like a sort of teenager version of kyoraku here really really hitting home i think this idea that kubo just loved this character i absolutely loved this character which maybe runs slightly parallel to the idea that he didn't give him the win although i think what you're supposed to take away from the end of this battle is the win belongs to both of them but again you know it's nice seeing kyoraku as a teenager conversing with his older brother who is of course marrying nanelle's mother um and as these two people die these two lovers die they're always giving kyoraku something to look after whether it's the hairpins um whether it's shinken hakyoken itself and kyoku always feels the burden the weight of what these people hand him just before they die why does he always have to shoulder it this guy who has always felt like he has very little in the way of responsibility actually literally bears the weight of the world on his shoulders in the form of nanao's mother's kimono and also the hairpins that he wears he literally bears it on his back and so that is really cool to see it i will never say no to more flashbacks to more in-depth exploration of characters like this is exactly what i want to see and if i have to if i have to have a pretty silly ending to a fight to get it i'll probably take it but anyway nanao lunges at liyelier kind of goes to block the sword but his arm is instantly severed light bursts out of his arm as it is cut in half striking the now hitting her on the foot and sending her flying and leah kind of says well i'm surprised that you could attack me and actually hurt me with that um you know that blade is actually dangerous um and it's funny as well because she says you know well it's reflecting god's light and he's like well i don't know what that means but i like you calling me god i think that's i quite liked that but now again we get some nice character work for her here she goes flying backwards and she's like terrified she's managed to land one hit on him but doing so injured her as well she's got a huge chunk of her ankle missing blood is going everywhere and she says like this is really painful you know holding a sword is like terrifying and i'm sweating i can barely move and i'm in so much pain just from this one injury a lot of people didn't like this characterization as far as i'm concerned it makes total sense and now is a full-on bookworm she's you know the admin officer she's the shinigami who's supposed to be in the library supposed to be behind the desk and for her to be out on the front lines like this against such a terrifying foe is a big step forward for her and her really much as it's a trial by fire for kiraku as the new captain commander it's a trial by fire for nanao as the new first squad vice captain but lia decides that he has had enough of this he thinks that blade is actually kind of dangerous so he again summons a massive orb of light basically being like you should have killed me with that i will never let my guard down again typical villain speech and they basically summons this huge orb of light which creates a massive shadow behind the now she's like terrified she's probably not going to be able to have the courage to lift the blade um and stop leah's final attack but as the shadow stretches out behind her inside the shadow world we see kyoraku sitting alone lamenting the fact that he always has to take on everyone else's burdens lamenting the fact that nanel readily accepted the curse and that he is still just sitting here in the darkness and i think it's a visual representation of this idea of moving on moving on from the past letting that curse die in the past where it was it doesn't have to end that way basically and kyoraku takes that and takes his own destiny into his own hands much as nanal did earlier and he steps up rising out of the shadows behind the now and he helps steady her and prepare her and calm her for the final assault realizing kyoraku has returned to the battle leer readies his ultimate attack which the orb of light transforms into a massive angels trumpet called trompet and lille basically prepares to blow the trumpet and utterly obliterate everything in front of him the ending of this fight is so is weird and i think your enjoyment will vary based on how you feel about shin ken haken it is this god sword this god defying blade which was exactly what they needed as we've said and it came to them as though were handed to them by the author himself which is the definition of a deus ex machina but i think i can look past the sword thematically i like the development we get for kyoraku and now i like this situation that they are put into and i think again this whole fight looks and feels so cinematic right to the very end i do think this very final moment is maybe a tad anticlimactic um and i think we just maybe should have had a bit more for this final exchange of attacks but basically kyoroku appears behind the now he takes her hand he says you know ready yourself i'm here behind you always he holds the blade as well nanao feels relief rushing over her she realizes that she can face this guy down now that kyoraku is with her the two of them this is what i mean when i think you're you're supposed to think that the battle the win belongs to both of them is that together they can beat lia but on their own they would have both lost in separate circumstances you know i don't think obviously kiraka was basically about to die on that tower and i don't think nanao would have been able to steady herself enough to get the courage to deflect trumpet but they ready themselves and lee fires trumpet and he basically just blows this massive horn and it i again i like that it's very angelic i think that's really cool ability and it just completely washes over the battlefield completely devastating the entire area that they are on except for the small platform that kyoraku and nanao are on because she is wielding the blade shinken hakyoken in front of her face and trumpet a bit of trumpet anyway obviously not all of it but a bit of trumpet goes flying back towards lia and wipes out half of his entire body uh nanal does look pretty cool undeniably wielding the blade like that steely determination in her eyes but i do think it's a little anticlimactic it's just kind of like over too quick i think um i think it would have been cool if there was a bit of maybe more in a monologue and we see trumpet coming towards them nanel maybe swings the sword to bring it up into her in front of her face i don't know i just think it happens a little fast maybe um but leah kind of like feels his face is gone and his body starts to crack and he says oh you know you did say that you could reflect my power and he says you know dispersing the power of god like this is very sinful as he breaks into a thousand feathers and all of the feathers rain down on kyolaku and nanao for what i think makes a fairly satisfying end to the fight except it's not over why is it not over i don't know what this is where i i'm starting to more and more think i don't know what kubo was thinking with the end of this battle should liye have died when he was decapitated by kyolakuzbankai probably yeah should liya have died when his power was reflected back at him by the only sword that could do that yes absolutely instead the disbursement of god's power is taken very literally and leah is hit by this attack and i guess it's it's his own attack infused with the ability of shinken hakyoken somehow and when it says it disperses his power it literally does exactly that his body is turned into like a rainfall of energy which just completely just falls down past varvel and back into the seireitay and we're going to carry on with this in a minute but i want to discuss briefly how i think this could have been handled better this this ending of this fight so basically to sum it all up kyoraku is about to die nanao arrives back on the battlefield and she has the only zanfak toe in the world that can currently stop li and she brings it out deflects his attack and he is defeated and it's not hard to see why people were let down by that we had to sacrifice kyoku's long-awaited bankai to get this moment but i do think it's a trade-off for the interesting character work and the interesting flashbacks as well and i don't hate the ending i do think it's a bit anti-climactic and i do think it could have been handled a little better but regarding shinken hakyoken itself this could have all been fixed imagine if prior to varvel say we're down in the in the seireite during the second invasion the soul king is killed maybe or this or or it's the moment where kyoku says you know the royal palace is in danger actually that is the perfect moment kyorak who's looking out across the battlefield all of the lights of al-shvalen are raining down and he says it's now the royal palace that needs our help from that point he could have turned to nanao and okikiba and told them a bit about the past of the soul king and why it's so important to protect him told them about the heads of the noble houses and how they pulled apart the soul king's body and he could have said something like how do you how on earth though could they have possibly dispersed the power of a being like rayo well they had a mystical sword uh called the shinken hakyoken which is a ceremonial blade designed to break apart the power of god and then he could have had like a shifty look on his face and been like but rumor says it's been lost and you know you could have a panel on nanal's face when he says it that is how you do foreshadowing like that's literally just something i've just come up with right now it's not perfect but that's how you do foreshadowing and at the same time you get a much needed backstory for the soul king but basically from this point on people will always be thinking oh yeah kyoraku talked about some god sword and oh yeah he looked at nanao when he said that so when lia transforms into this unkillable being of godly light where is your mind gonna go oh yeah back to that conversation kiraku had with nanao maybe she's gonna actually do something because oh oh there she is and she oh shinken hakyoken that's exactly what he was talking about and i just think people would have been all right with it if something akin to that had happened so that is kind of how i guess i would have done it if i had the chance to do it but it's just uh a fleeting thought anyway the fight is for all intents and purposes finally over this is a very long video but it's a very long fight like i said it's one of the longest unbroken battles in the entire series lord help me if we eventually do ichigo versus all kiara but i just think kubo i don't know if he just didn't know how to end it or where to end it lia's body rains down on the ceiling literally and he rises up as multiple weird little flamingo bird things taking this transformation to the extreme past the point of absurdity to just complete disbelief and i i will be honest like the patience that i had has gone at this point i hate this form i think it just looks really silly i think it's it leah is completely dead his character is just gone at this point replaced with some squawking bird that just like goes on and on prattles on and on and on about like losing his halo and like i kind of like that i like that he has literally lost his divine powers so can he even return to human form again i don't know i i think maybe he's like kind of screwed at this point um but he says that he has enough power still to wreck soul society but of course he is attacked by izaru kira and it feels like the only reason that this epilogue exists is to reintroduce kira into the story for this one chapter don't get me wrong i still think there is is good symbolism on display here leah has literally fallen from heaven and crashed onto onto earth below having lost his divine powers and he said he himself is like i've lost my high league schlein and my divine powers and i've fallen from heaven it's as though i myself have sinned and it's like well yeah you're the bad guy you know and i like that i think that's really cool it's like his own hubris has caught up to him and he's been hoisted down to earth i think it's fitting for a character so so pompous essentially as lee i just think he looks absolutely ridiculous at this point like i was fine with his volston dig i actually kind of liked his second cherubim form but this i just cannot get behind because i think it does it just completely removes any threat or any serious nature that this character had and i don't know what kubo was thinking apart from making an enemy weak enough that kira could mop him up and so it's it's a shame for me that the fight has to end this way in many ways it does feel like an epilogue it is still attached to the battle so it's part of it but it does feel like an epilogue the actual fight has already ended up in valve kyoraku kind of collapses to the floor but they're both alive and now rushes over to him and he says you know maybe we'll catch up together once i've had a bit of a rest and you know so comes to an end one of one of definitely the biggest tentpole battles in the entire series i mean this fight is huge and i don't think anyone expected this from this battle when it began and i think in many respects kubo absolutely delivers here i i really think he does i think he's trying so hard to deliver a great fight that at the same time covers major law points for these characters and i think the major hiccup is that he didn't know how to get rid of lee without adequate foreshadowing um and and so for me you know it's that question of what do i feel about this controversial deus ex machina ending do i hate it my honest answer is no because i don't i don't i can't hate something that gives us so much lore and so much character development that's the price we have to pay to get these flashbacks and i like the flashbacks and i do think the ending sequence is pretty cool as well i i like it what i don't like is the silly bit at the end with the flamingo birds which i think is completely unnecessary i think kubo was already pushing it with what was necessary having lia survive the bankai and then he just goes too far here that's my main issue but as for the fight itself i i think it's pretty good i do think it's pretty good i think it's i think it's meant to be very popular in japan i think it was more polarizing here in the west i believe and i think a lot of the themes of kyoraku's bankai really swell in japan they you know they land a lot better the same goes for the ever so ever so thin slither thin foreshadowing if you can even call it that around the name issei the isa clan you know it's uh you know it's literally like saying she is a family from the church or a family of priests you know people who deal with the divine you fine but i think there should have been more i think there should have been actual foreshadowing around the blade itself but i think when all is said and done you kind of take a seat you look back on this fight ten whole chapters i think kubo personally did right by these characters kyoraku gets like what five or six chapters of being a total badass and then he gets a few chapters of like some real deep introspection and the now gets a chance to do something and i think maybe leah is the only real casualty here in that any semblance of his personality is almost completely erased by the time you get to his second form and then he just gets completely ludicrous after that but for the most part i really i think i really enjoy this battle between the leader of the shinigami and the leader of the shut-off i think kubo's putting in a ton of work to bring us an epic battle here and i'll be really interested to see how it translates to the anime and see if people like it a little better see if they can maybe retroactively add a little more foreshadowing in somewhere i wouldn't say no to that at all um but that's it for this video it's an extremely long one i'm sorry about that this is a super long and super in-depth and detailed fight that i want to talk a lot about like i said these stuff all fights are very enjoyable and i think there's a lot to say a lot to dig into here even more than i mentioned which is why i think i'm going to do a video on kiraku and nanel's pasts as well um but yeah that's pretty much i think everything i have to say on the matter but that's it for this video guys i really hope you enjoyed it if you made it all the way to the end i i really appreciate it as well do let me know in the comments below what you thought of the battle between kyoraku nanao and lia did you like it do you like it as much as i do how do you feel about that controversial polarizing ending regarding the now's super super convenient god defeating blade i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below what did you think of kyoraku's bankai and what did you think of lia's volston dig transformations really this fight kind of has it all which is why i feel like i can't be too hard on it like i really love the atmosphere and everything like that um this feels like a very feature complete fight i think it's a good way of putting it which is why i think i ultimately find it quite satisfying even if there's some there are some elements that i would have slightly changed but that's it for this video guys i really hope you enjoyed it don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done already and until next time i'll catch you later i'll see you then

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 409,989

Keywords: bleach, bleach manga, bleach discussion, bleach tybw, bleach anime, bleach new anime, bleach tybw anime, bleach new chapter, bleach hell arc, MrTommo2304, MrTommo2304 Bleach, bleach anime trailer, bleach tybw trailer, bankai, tybw anime, bleach hell chapter, bleach ending, gotei 13, bleach anime pv, sternritter, shunsui bankai

Id: SvkBysSXKAc

Length: 92min 58sec (5578 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022