ULQUIORRA CIFER - Bleach Character ANALYSIS | Finding a Hollow's Heart

of all the villains in bleach of all the enemies that ichigo and his friends face and fight throughout the storyline within that core central conflict that makes up the very foundation of the bleach universe shinigami versus hollow there's no better villain that embodies that darker antagonistic half of the tale than the fourth espada cold calculating clinical and statuesque okey order is in my mind the ultimate hollow villain in the series having the aspect of death nothingness or nihilism emptiness all kia ora in my opinion is the true epitome of what makes a hollow in this series someone who is missing something vital to themselves missing that core component that should make you human and instead has left them a sort of cold almost lifeless shell of a being constantly searching constantly hungry constantly needing to devour to fill that unfillable void that makes them hollow and in in so many ways all cura so truly reinforces and embodies that ideal that makes him the ultimate counterpart to the truly human ichigo and as we've mentioned many times on this channel before the iran car arc which is bleach's longest and in many aspects i would say most famous or at least most renowned story arc one of the core tenets of that arc was ichigo's devolution into holodom his descent into darkness and madness his being pulled down being dragged down by the inhabitants of waikomundo to their level with every successive fight that he has ulchiora is a dark reflection of that an embodiment of what ichigo might become at the very bottom of this cavern this black bottom this hole that is becoming a hollow old kiara himself as we know from his backstory was born of this darkness you know he was born at the bottom of a deep dark cavernous pit and that's the very same metaphorical pit that ichigo is heading towards the further into wake mundo the further into last notches he gets and of course fittingly he reaches that point in his final battle against you guessed it ukiyora and so in many ways all kia ora is both the figurative and literal embodiment of that black pit that is becoming a hollow that emptiness inside that is the key component of every holo in the series and so in this video we're going to be taking a deep dive look at the villainous ulchiora cipher schiffer i've never been entirely sure how to pronounce his surname but it's one or something like that um who is in my opinion the principal villain of the second third of the iran car arc taking over from gurimojo and eventually seeding to eisen as the ark comes to a close and in many ways ukiora presides over perhaps the most famous part of the iran car arc as well so we're going to be trying to do a deep dive character analysis into one of bleach's most famous and most recognizable most impactful villains in the entire story so no pressure before we begin however guys if you haven't hit subscribe make sure to do that now for more bleach content like this every single week if you enjoyed the video don't forget to give it a thumbs up as well as it really does help support me and the channel as it means the video should hopefully get more exposure on the whole youtube algorithm meaning more bleach fans like yourselves get a chance to see it and if you want to take that support for me another step further we do have a patreon for the channel as well now where you can go and support me over there you can get videos like this one early and you can support me for as little as a dollar a month every name appearing on the screen right now are people who are supporting me over there on patreon i couldn't do this without you and i truly appreciate your support thank you so very much so i'll be totally honest with you from the off uh kia ora is and pretty much has always been one of my absolute favorite characters in the series i know that's pretty that's a bit of a cliche pick although my favorite character is eisens it probably doesn't get more cliche than that and i'm not afraid to admit that um but there's a lot about ukiyora that makes him so compelling and it goes beyond the surface as well yes he has an awesome design he looks so cool so instantly memorable but there's way more to him than that and what i like about old kia ora as well is it's not immediately apparent you could be forgiven for thinking that all kia ora basically doesn't change throughout his entire time in bleach his entire tenure as a bad guy in the series he's very cold very serious completely utterly humorous and basically just acts as a sort of robot for eisen someone who just fulfills his orders with efficiency and ruthlessness and he's basically like that through to the very end but all cures character development his arc is a little more subtle than that culminating in what i believe to be one of bleach's most emotional moments um of the entire series being a villain who does eventually get killed off all kia ora's manga lifespan isn't crazy long although he is definitely one of the most prevalent bad guys in the entire series with his first appearance being chapter 190 right near the start of the oran car arc and his final appearance being 354 kind of as we roll into the main course of the fake karakura town and as we move into his personality and his appearance and just his kind of character overview as i said this character is just utterly iconic there's something about his sort of weird sad clown appearance that's just so memorable it's so simplistic but also just so iconic as well of course the main factor of this character are his eyes his massive bulbous emerald green eyes that appear to be unmoving unblinking in their emotion and i just love the way it looks with those kind of teardrop lines running down his face and he's just awesome he's so cool he looks amazing he's quite sinister but also maybe a little bit unassuming at the same time he's quite small in stature quite skinny has his hands in his pockets nearly all the time and in many ways embodies those manga tropes of that character who you know is very powerful but doesn't do a whole lot to begin with doesn't look like they might be that strong but he's really hiding some pretty nasty secrets but overall i've just always thought all cure is so effortlessly cool in his design and so memorable as well but of course there's more than that too the very pale skin he has that appears to be drained of any life is just reinforces that idea that he is empty inside he's a hollow shell a husk someone who knows nothing but and and we'll get into this a little bit more in the future but all kiara fully believes that he you know all he can see is what exists he doesn't believe in anything that he can't see he believes only in the corporeal not the ethereal and that's a vital part of his character a vital part of this idea that there is essentially nothing in him in a spiritual sense which is something we'll get into a bit later on and in a way you kind of feel a bit sorry for the character in that regard too and all cures personality as i said he mostly comes across as an agent of eisen someone who is willing to follow orders to the t someone who carries them out with ruthless pragmatism someone who doesn't tolerate insubordination and basically everything all kia ora does is for eisen's agenda for moving forward with eisen's plans and while that is all ukiora might seem on the surface there is a longing for something more as we know from his backstory in 2b but b i think it's called we know that he is always searching that innate lust to find something that you are missing that all hollows share we know all kiara has had since the moment he came into the world in the most kind of dank and black pit there possibly was in waco mundo if there was a hell within hell ukiora was born in it and crawled out of it came out the top and upon the desert sands of waco mundo alkiora makes his first appearance as i said right at the start of the iran car arc arriving in karakura town with the spada number 10 yami lago who would sort of act as a kind of de facto partner to ul kia ora moving forward through the series even though they don't really share anything in common outside of being near total opposites from each other or cure being small reserved quiet very powerful and yammy being large brash reckless and seemingly fairly weak although obviously not really the whole thing of course being a massive homage to the arrival of vegeta and nappa in the earliest days of dragon ball z all cura doesn't do an awful lot during this apart from being a watchful observer giving orders to yammy as the fight progresses but there's a wonderful moment that really helped build the hype for this character when kisuke urahara attempts to attack yammy with a strike from benahime and all cure just blocks it and sends it flying with his hand removing his hand from his pocket in a very rare show of any kind of action really and i always loved that i thought it was so cool it was very exciting getting to see all kiara just effortlessly back this attack away and just stare down his enemies as kisuke looks on kind of shocked and then yammy sort of gloats about it and all cure just whacks him in the gut and says you know we're leaving um we found our target which of course was ichigo we get a nice little hint towards ulchiora's exceptional regenerative abilities when he takes out his eye crushes it and shows what he saw to everyone else there and it's a really nice moment it's really cool to see the kind of trust that eisen puts in ulchiora and the relationship that those two have i think is quite an interesting one one will delve into a little bit later now as i mentioned earlier ulchiora is only really the main villain of the second third of this arc so this first third the main bad guy really is grim joe as he's the one with the most direct conflict the most direct relationship with ichigo all kyora acts as kind of that sinister supervisor in the background who shows up every now and then you know he's bad news but he doesn't really lift too much of a finger for now he's taking orders from eisen he's watching the creation of one device he leads the second assault on karakura town and he eventually abducts orihime which is kind of the major crescendo of okiora's villainy at the end of the first third of this arc where he abducts her he says that you know she has no rights she'll come with him and it starts this kind of snowball effect that would lead to an interesting relationship between these two characters and throughout the waco mundo arc ul kia ora and orihime share an intriguing relationship he is obviously her kidnapper and eisen has also left him in charge of her he's not going to hurt arahime but he will threaten her he will try and break her spirit and it's quite fascinating to see arahime of course being highly emotive you know so in so fully vested in her friends her friendships her bonds she remains something of a perplexing figure for all kia ora someone who only believes in what he sees the physical world in front of him is the only thing that exists and so to all kia ora someone like arahime who so puts so much faith in the bonds of friendship is a complex character indeed there's a level of refreshing naivety with all kiara i think which is what you're supposed to get from his character and he just doesn't understand arahimi he doesn't i feel like he doesn't understand the way she reacts a lot of the time you get the impression that he is trying to mentally break her especially when her friends arrive in waco mundo and they start falling one by one rookier is taken down by aruniero and everyone kind of thinks she's dead when ulchiora kind of just kind of just it belittles and and insults her friends saying and saying things from her perspective like if my friends were stupid enough to throw their lives away by coming to wake her mundo to fight a fight that was obviously unwinnable i'd be disgusted with them i'd be i don't think they were being stupid or ahime slaps him across the face in a very rare show of complete defiance for this character orihime being so non-violent as we mentioned in a previous video about her that for her to take the initiative and actually hit someone shows you just how incensed all kia ora's words are making her it's difficult to know though if all kia ora truly wants this reaction or if he's literally just saying what makes the most sense to him is he is he trying to rile her up i don't really know why he would want to do that because his whole goal is to break her into thinking that she is eisen's servant or is he just saying these things because that's what makes the most sense to him he is unfeeling he is cold he is empty inside and it's this that makes me reinforce the notion that i think he is the ultimate hollow bad guy in the series he when he says these things about i would be disgusted if if my friends came to save me and threw their lives away in an unwinnable fight i think he's just saying what makes the most sense to him and that's what's so fascinating about their relationship this dichotomy between the two of them that seemingly is a bridge that can't be crossed you know they just they have no compatibility whatsoever orihime fully puts all her faith in her friends she knows from past experience that she would do the same for them even if the fight seemed insurmountable because that's what it means to have bonds to have friends to want to throw your life away in a fight if there's a chance to save them and all kia ora stands cold and alone and un and just with a complete misunderstanding of of these bonds and as we'll see later on he even starts to consider them a weakness but all kia ora is not completely depraved either there are definitely worse people in waco mundo as we see when he's approached by the fifth espada noitra who you know being very sexist being a bit of a monster in many ways kind of implies that all cure is up to no good with arahime saying you know how far have you taken her how far have you taken her training have you tamed your pet yet to which all kia ora calls him you know disgusting and he doesn't want anything to do with that and that's because all kiara again has no kind of notion of that has no has nothing inside him that would make him remotely human even if it's even if it's something bad which of course is why ulcura's main fight his main moment each chapter was named after one of the seven deadly sins because all kiara is missing all of them or at the very least begins to kind of begins to kind of get them as that fight goes on but we're getting ahead of ourself that's for a little bit later and what's interesting as well about this moment where he talks with neutral because all cura really in my opinion is now taking the reins of the main villain of the series he seems to have a an understanding of eisen that many other characters just do not have and you have to remember as well that eisen is supposed to be a god-like figure in many ways not just literally but also figuratively as well in the way the iran car see him he's not supposed to be on their level on their plane really the only character i would say is is gene from the shadows and and perhaps kaname as well but all cura seems to have a level of understanding of their master that many of the other espada just simply couldn't grasp when all kia ora says that you know this this is just a game to eisen you know at the end of the day this is all just a kind of distraction um and that's something that he seems to be able to realize but that many people can't is that eisen's just toying with virtually everyone in virtually every scenario um as we find out that's absolutely true him kidnapping odahi mate it's all just a big ruse at the end of the day losing his spada to these these many as spyder get killed in the rescue effort to save arahime and it's all it is all just a front verizon at the end of the day which is something that ukiora at the very least seems to be able to understand we then get a very short fight but in my opinion completely iconic being ichigo versus ulcura round one which is just over in a flash but it's so good and it's so good in both the manga and the anime they play i think hollowed in the anime when ichigo leaps out with his mask on and he activates gets a potentio it's just totally it is completely iconic this little scuffle but in the manga it's drawn lovely you know all cure is standing at the top of these stairs looking down at ichigo the light is behind him he's shadowed it's just a really really nicely done scene ichigo recognizes that okiara is very very dangerous and he doesn't strike him until alkira realizes that he is the one who basically abducted arahime against her will making it look like that she had betrayed the soul society and there's this lovely clash ichigo attempts to attack all kia ora he just simply blocks it with his hand and there's this whole thing that ulcura sees ichigo as being barely worth raising a fist to ichigo goes all out immediately in this fight where there's a wonderful picture of him basically swinging a massive gets a goten show and he just throws it at earl kia ora all cure is forced to bring a hand out to try and stop it and then has to bring out a second hand to try and stop it and even then he can't and he's completely overwhelmed by this attack and he like grim joe is surprised at ichigo's progress ichigo of course now can use his hollow mask for a little bit longer than he could in karakura town and so his power has increased dramatically from the last time ulikiora saw him but it's still not enough and there's just a brilliant moment where the dust settles and all kiara is there basically completely unharmed with a slightly ripped outfit and he's like okay i think that's probably the best you've got that's a little bit disappointing and he just points a finger inch ago and fires a massive green cerro at him again the whole scenario the whole sequence of events is just so iconic and was easily one of my absolute favorite moments in this arc growing up i loved it so much just just ichigo's massive attack especially with hollowed going in the background all cured unable to block it but then still being basically totally fine this all builds and builds of course to one of the series's greatest twists in my opinion that's a video i actually am thinking about making very soon bleach's greatest twists and this is very clever on kubo's part i think although it's a bit of a double-edged sword as well basically the way kubo has presented all kiara so far you know sending him to be the initial person to meet in karakura town basically seemingly giving him a lot of responsibility a lot of trust from eisen that other characters just don't seem to have keeping him in the in the minds of the readers but leaving him slightly more in the shadows having him be the one to go and get orihime it's not unreasonable obviously it's very foreign to us now because everybody in their right mind knows who this what knows what ranks the espada are but back then when this was coming out weekly it wasn't unfathomable that all kia ora was the top espada because the amount of limelight he'd been given his position seemingly in waco mundo and ichigo thinks this as well as the avatar of the reader in this situation near defeated he manages to ram tensors and getsu into ulchiora's shoulder and he says you know you're the topic spada i'm i'm willing to give everything to defeat you because if i do the others will be easy pickings and all cure is like oh okay i see what i see what your your line of thought is and he just uses tenses and gets you to rip rip open his outfit revealing to an absolutely aghast ichigo the tattoo number four it's a it's a really great moment and all kia ora even says to him even if you somehow defeat me there are three other espada who are stronger than i am and it's supposed to be a soul-crushing moment a twist that just destroys our hero because he's like i i can't even ba i can barely lay a finger on this guy you know ichigo is like if i could maybe muster everything to take down the number one espada we'd be okay but he's not the number one but of course the reason i say this is a double-edged sword is because i think most people would agree with me and saying that the top three asparagus end up being less impressive than all kia ora overall just because all kia ora ulcura is definitely treated as though he was the number one espada in kubo's eyes he's given that level of prominence that amazing final battle that really the top three just don't get and you know maybe characters like barrigan have more broken abilities than all kia ora but he's certainly not given anywhere near as much limelight which is a bit of a shame because it does come with that expectation that the top three will be stronger more impressive more dangerous than all kia ora but it never quite measures out like that so that's a bit of a shame but all cura does his trademark punching ichigo through the blooming rib cage which is really quite gruesome when you think about it there's something about it that's more gruesome than grim joe putting his entire hand through loopy just the way okira kind of gets it into the center of each of his chest and then pulls it out again it's pretty gross i like this though it's kind of cool grim joe mentions this is all cura's trademark he doesn't he he kind of ponders if ulchiora even knows that he does it um and i like that that means it's kind of instinctive for all cure to push his hand through ichigo's chest through his victim's chest and i think that it's supposed to be a sort of metaphysical um idea that ulchiora is always searching for the heart you know this idea of the heart which we'll get into ulkia is always looking for it whether he knows he is or not and clearly he doesn't realize that's what he's doing but whenever he kills someone he tries to find their heart and it's not something he knows that he's doing but it just feeds back to the idea that there is this unending need for a void to be filled within all cura's soul um that he he basically just wanders these deserts forever unfulfilled and i think that again it's that is he's a bit of a tragic character although you don't really see that until much later on for the majority of his time in the story he is a remorseless statuesque terminator like evil i think that's very effective but just before the fated battle between ichigo and grimjoe we get a nice admittedly i think pretty fanservicey moment where these two characters finally face off briefly grimjoe takes on ukiyora because ulcur again can't stomach grim joe's insubordination grim joe is way more human in many aspects than all kia ora although all kia ora is a vasto lord and i don't think grimjo becomes a o lord until beyond the iran karak korem joe exhibits very human like emotions you know anger pride you know he wants to defeat ichigo because he thinks that everyone's looking down on him whereas all kia ora is completely deadpan all the time you know he's just very like because he is supposed to be empty inside and this is the clash of those ideals the fact that grim joe manages to get one up on all kia ora is a little bit hard to believe i think all kia ora probably would have absolutely destroyed him if the fight had really continued on at this at this stage in the story um but you know krimjo at the very least uses smarts to beat him dropping a kahan negation into alciora's hollow hole which traps him within basically a prison for just a couple of hours but it's a nice little spectacle anyway i always like okio appearing above him attempting to do a cerro the just the ballsy nature of grimjoe to then grab his finger as the cerro is going and activate his own one i do respect that and that whole little scenario is nice but the stage is now set for the fake karakura town arc and all cura smashes out of the negation just as eisen is invading karakura town and says that he is now going to basically be the warden of waco mundo while eisen is away once again eisen giving major trust to ul kiara and you could say well it's just because all cure is the highest ranking person left in waco mundo and that's probably true but at the same time eisen speaks you know directly to him saying i'm leaving last not chess in your hands ulchiora and again they do seem to have this eisen seems to trust ulchiora on a level that he doesn't trust too many other people my assumption here is that eisen just knows that all kiara will get the job done no questions asked and that's what he's kind of looking for in a servant very powerful servant but one who's tightly on eisen's leash and that's that works very well for eisen uh we know that eisen just totally sees the espada as pawns for the most part which i think is very fitting with his character he has a kind of bond with gene and kaname we see that in the manga we see that in kant for your own world but the espada aranka hollows are just totally beneath him i think and he just kind of sees the espada as completely expendable as such as we see his disgust when harabel he takes out harabel but with all cure at least there seems to be a measure of respect um even if i maybe eisen is feigning it i don't know but it's cool to see nonetheless and here we get obviously the major final battle between ichigo and all kia ora but that's prefaced by a nice conversation all kyora has with orahime they finally are alone together once again but the situation has changed ichigo and his friends are now careening towards last notches to finish the fight eisen and the top espada have left the palace and basically war is is breaking out you know everything is going crazy the cap some captains are now in waco mundo so orahime is not quite as isolated as she once was and in fact the whole situation has been turned on its head but regardless it's just her and all kiara in the throne room currently and he asks her you know you're alone now you know no one's going to be able to save you are you afraid and she says no because her heart beats with her friends you know she knows they're all here she knows they're all all right and they are all they're all going to come and come and try and save her regardless but their hearts beat as one it doesn't matter where they are their bonds they can kind of feel each other and they understand each other and as as long as she has them she kind of has strength and that goes equal for everyone it's not just an arahime thing it's not just it's not just she's the only one who relies on her on them they all rely in equal measure on each other and then in the opposite you have old kia ora who stands alone against the darkness of wake mundo completely just not still you know flabbergasted at this woman who's staring into the face of what should be certain death and she's completely defiant someone who he was trying to break and she just she just still is banking on her friends even though as we've discussed already they were throwing their lives away in all kiora's eyes previously and he's he says you know you humans are always going on about the heart like it's something you can see you know he's like he doesn't get it he's like you're saying your heart's all beat as one because your hearts all live inside each other i don't understand it what are you talking about because all kyora lives in this you know pretty horrible claustrophobic trapped existence where the only things that exist are things that his eye can see and he says that to her he spells it out to her he says if my eye can't see it it doesn't exist and so he's like the heart must be a literal thing and he says you know if i break open your skull will i find it in there is that where the heart lives if i rip open your chest and we see him going to put his hand towards her chest in the same manner as he as he would when he takes out one of his victims which is what makes me think that's the same thing he says if i rip it open will i find the heart there and you kind of understand that all kia ora is more than curious he's tormented by this idea of maybe this is the thing that he is missing but he just doesn't understand it he doesn't see how it's beneficial for humans to have this to have this thing that they fight for that drives them to fight this idea of a heart this idea of bonds of friendship that forces them to put themselves in dangerous situations is so totally alien to ulchiora alien to the hollow who was born into complete pitch blackness who had to kill to survive and only eventually found something he could kind of something he could kind of not necessarily relate to but something he needed in this massive thorny white bush when he broke himself into it when he pushed himself into the thorns into the branches and it ripped away parts of his mask and he finally for once in his life felt peace at the base of this tree which turned him into a natural-born iran car because he broke off parts of his own mask himself that is the one time in ulkiora's life he has kind of felt at peace where he has found something that helps to complete him and since then he's been on that journey again and that's why i think wacom mundo is such a cool place because wacomundo more so than any other location in the series reflects its inhabitants you know it's a vast endless expanse of darkness you know it's just a pitch black knight draped like a curtain across this this desolate wasteland and these hollows are kind of doomed to wander this wasteland constantly searching that having that need to grow to find something to fill the emptiness within them and as his aspect of death is emptiness as i mentioned at the start of this video truly embodies most of all what it means to be a hollow and to be searching uh for that one thing they need to complete them now i i really like this whole heart thing all kiara has going on it was kind of added in quite late into his character but you do get the impression it's something that kubo was working with from the earliest days of all kia ora being uh a character in this series especially since he moves his hollow hole originally alkira's hollow hole was kind of in his throat and then it eventually ends up closer to where his heart might be um and i i like this whole i like this whole idea of a villain almost like unintentionally seeking out humanity and this takes us back to the dichotomy of journeys that characters go on in the iran car arc and of course the big upcoming fight between ichigo and all kia ora is one of the series most famous one of the best fights in the entire bleach story a totally transformative battle that starts out like any other fight and by the time they get on the dome things just go totally south in a way you would never expect but it acts as the ultimate culmination of the iran car arc really the iran car arc kind of ends here in many ways certainly some of the biggest journeys end here and then you just get a succession of fights in the fake karakura town to really wrap things up but certainly thematically a lot of the biggest themes of this arc are closed up here i'm not going to go into crazy detail about this fight we've talked about it before in a couple of videos and obviously i want to do a battle analysis on this in the future which will be a hefty one but one of the major themes of bleach is bonds the bonds of friendship and you know the entire lost agent arc is about the breaking of these bonds and so it's really cool to see how different villains in the series embody a bastardization of bonds in different ways perhaps the most famous is of course tsukishima who quite literally warps twists and manipulates the bonds of friendship then there's hash wolf in the final arc who basically thinks that friendship is something that should benefit you if you're getting nothing out of it it's not worth it you should have to sacrifice something to get something else this idea of balance and so hash wealth is willing to discard the bonds he has established the natural bonds he's established with basby to get a slightly more shall we say artificial bond with juha bark because hash wealth will get something out of it then there's all kia ora who is totally different again in that he just doesn't understand them at all he doesn't believe the bonds of friendship exist that's what the idea of the heart actually is the bonds of friendship that people share between them and all kia ora because it's not something literal because he's not holding a bloody heart in the palm of his hand he cannot fathom what it means and this whole fight is about that you know ichigo strives to fight even though he's massively outmatched and all kira calls him out on it at one point saying if to be human is to have a heart and if to have a heart means you will put yourself in harm's way than to have a heart is to be weak to be to be human is to be weak and all cure tries to shut this down you know he tries to say you know you are weak because of the heart the heart makes you weak these bonds will get you killed and it's because of these bonds that you will die to me now and of course ichigo does die in this fight it's the ultimate culmination which leads to the ultimate culmination of his journey into hollowdom he is brutally killed and transforms into an absolute monster which eviscerates all kia ora but then also turns on his friends as well but it's also because of bonds that this monster is really born in the first place in this horrible form ichigo gutturally tries to say that he will protect arahime that's all he's going to do that's all his mind will do in this form and that means killing everyone around him including characters like uryu and so as the fight comes to its natural conclusion as we reach the end of the battle oh kia ora ulcura kind of you know the perspective changes ichigo is now the villain he's now this horrible monstrosity that will just destroy everything in its path and while not necessarily altruistic in motive okiora saves uru's life by severing ichigo's horn from behind um at great personal risk to himself now i don't necessarily think all kira was necessarily trying to save earlier but it was more if i somehow stopped this monstrosity maybe i've got a chance of surviving but regardless all cura cuts off ichigo's horn and ichigo is returned to normality but the main i think the main reason for this moment is to show okiyora in a in a in the light of a savior to really flip the character on his head ichigo is now the monstrous villain you can't see his face at all it's behind this mask all kiara you can see his face you know he looks kind of terrified um but he's now inadvertently perhaps fighting on the side of orihime and this is the ultimate parallel between these characters which is why i think all kia ora is the superior is the most impressive epitome of what it means to be a hollow in the series because right up until this point the parallel between him and ichigo has been ichigo is becoming more like a hollow all kia ora is becoming more like a human and all kiara might see that as a weakness but what he doesn't quite understand just yet is that is that is potentially what he has been missing all this time and ichigo even spells out for us at the start of this fight saying you know i'm starting to be able to read your movements a bit better perhaps i'm becoming more like you or maybe you're becoming easier to read because you're becoming more like a human and all kiara reacts pretty negatively to that but actually at the very end of the fight here where their roles have almost been reversed all chiara starts to finally understand in what is still one of the most emotional moments of the series all kiora and ichigo ichigo now return to his normal self are primed to continue their fight but suddenly ulcura's wing bursts into dust and he realizes his time is up he has been pushed past the point of no return even though his body is regenerating it's superficial everything ichigo destroyed inside him is not coming back and it's the end uh's time has run out and there's just a nice moment where he says you know kill me now because if you don't our battle will never be truly over and ichigo says i won't do it you know he's like i'm not gonna this isn't how the fight should have ended you know i won't kill you like this and all kia ora is on his deathbed still confounded by these people you know as he stares at them he's like he's seeing no malice he's seeing no will to murder ichigo that hollow-like instinct is now gone again and replaced by the very human ichigo and all kiara says you know even in my final moments right until the very end you don't do what i expect you to do because he doesn't he still doesn't quite understand what it means to be human ichigo's not going to cut down a foe who is basically dying anyway who's missing an arm and a leg each girl even goes so far as to say take my arm and leg and i remember that actually kind of annoyed a lot of people back in the day because ichigo kind of whinging about how i didn't want to win like this when everyone was about to die anyway um but crucially you know you kind of have to separate yourself from it a little bit and and realize that this is supposed to be the embodiment of the human side of ichigo saying i didn't want to win this way i wanted to win with some nobility with some honor whereas you flash back to the the monstrous version of ichigo the instinctual version of ichigo slamming his foot on all kiara's head even after slicing him down the middle and all cure even verbalizing saying no mercier how very hollow-like of you so hollows are just gonna it's very hollow of someone to kill someone defenseless like all kia ora does ichigo can't fight back he's got his neck caught in alcura's tail and all cura still shows him no mercy and shoots him through the chest and kills him but now when all kia ora is at the end of his tether ichigo won't swing his sword at him he won't bring his blade down and and to finish him off like that and the final moment between the two of them ulchiora raises his hand to arahime you know this girl who he has been trying to figure out all this time someone who is such a believer in this metaphysical idea of the heart and he says to her are you afraid and arahime sees nothing but a pitiful creature anymore no one not someone to be afraid but someone to be pitied someone who is about to pass on and so you know she holds no malice to him anymore and she says i'm not afraid and she lifts out her hand to try and and grab his but okiara turns to dust and blows away before before they can touch hands but in that final moment as all kia ora is disappearing as his face is literally turning to ash before them and their hands nearly meet he finally realizes what it means to have a heart what it means to what what a heart actually means and in his outstretched hand even though it doesn't exist anymore he says in my hand this is a heart and so what it what it what it finally dawns on all kia ora is that odahime in that moment cares for him shows him sympathy she reaches out to him as opposed to recoiling or not moving at all and in that split second moment before his death a bond is forged um and it's powerful stuff and orihime is the perfect character for this as well because she's always been the character to understand the villains side of things to see the point of the bad guy or even just to feel sympathy for them like when maya redetonates those shinigami odahime is crying and maki the other shinigami doesn't understand it he's like why is she crying these are her enemies and here in all cures final moments as he blows harmlessly helplessly away into the wind he kind of like reaches out to her in a final desperate attempt to take what he's been missing the heart and odahime gives it to him she reaches out in return which is the last thing he sees before he dies and so when he dies he finally understands what it is to have that heart he finally understands what it is that humans fight for and all kia ora will forever go down in history in bleach history as being definitely one of the most popular one of the most influential characters in the series and his change is subtle but very effective and he certainly is one of my favorite characters and i've always just adored that final fight how it really goes through the motions starting out as a relatively normal bleach battle loads of characters jumping in it's a bit of a free-for-all but it changes the scenery changes they eventually go above the dome it's suddenly night time very sinister all kia ora activates his resurrection just destroys ichigo but ichigo keeps fighting keeps getting back up that's what okio just cannot fathom because he's a pragmatist he thinks that everything that exists before his eyes is all there is and so he sees ichigo in that moment as a wounded animal as someone who just shouldn't keep fighting because he's so injured he's so near death and that's all all kiara can see and understand the very surface layer but of course burning like a fire within ichigo is the resolve and the desire to win that fight no matter what to protect his friends to save his friends and that's why he'll continue to lift his blade no matter how battered his body is and that's why all cure lashes out at him he shouts him he says i'm telling you it's worthless and he smacks it you go sends him flying because he just he's becoming so infuriated but this is all kia ora himself growing gaining those human traits that's why the chapters are named after the sloth the greed the gluttony the wrath the lust because all kia ora he's slowly getting those human traits that he has been totally missing as the fight goes on you know he quite clearly has he quite clearly gets angry with ichigo here in this situation he quite clearly shows wrath when he transforms into his segunda itapa when he wants to teach ichigo the meaning of true despair to bring him down to his level and so the character is really nicely done even though it might seem like there's maybe little to him on the surface there's actually a lot beneath the surface which of course is the great irony for kia ora's character now i think a lot of fans would love to see all kia ora return in whatever way possible and i believe his death was actually voted something like the most impactful moment in in a manga series in the year it came out if i remember rightly but i think all cure are coming back after such a definitive end to not only his character but his journey would be a bit of a betrayal in many ways it's not the same as grim joe where his defeat anyway was completely ambiguous and he was just left on the ground the last time we saw him all kia kiora it's pretty definitive he dies he turns to ash but just before he goes just before he can be left with regrets he finally understands and to to erase that would be to take away a big chunk of the character i think but maybe he's in hell although i kind of feel like because he actually turned to dust similarly to barrigan it's gonna be difficult for him to come back in any kind of way but i could be wrong being a primary villain for a big chunk of the series ulchiora is of course privy to a number of different relationships as we've brought up he has a sort of respectful relationship with eyes and eyes and treats him almost like a number two despite the fact that it's kind of arbitrary that all cure is actually just the fourth is spada but he seems to have more respect more responsibility than even characters like stark and haribel barrigan i can understand not exactly being a big fan of eisen but those two don't really seem to have anywhere near the same level of responsibility as all kia ora so there's definitely something going on there it's kind of like maybe eisen looks all cure and he sees someone who maybe understands what he's trying to do here someone who can follow his vision a hollow unlike the rest of them unruly you know dogs eisen sees them as these unruly beasts who he's who are just there to be used but all cure is a little bit different um and you know all cure even gets a nice moment where he chats with gene briefly which i think is really cool because gene of course is highly emotive um always hiding his true self behind a veneer of big smiles and and kind of sarcasm and all this sort of thing and all cure is just what you see is what you get totally empty just blank a blank slate almost which i think is really a really again a nice little juxtaposition between those two and much in the same much in the way kaname kind of calls gene out and says that one dwice and he are attracted to one another because they are both pure beings i think kaname would probably say the same about old kiora and then of course all kia ora has relationships with his fellow espada with yami he has kind of like a superior subordinate relationship which is interesting although yami of course trash talks him after he dies anyway um and then with grim joe you know they are just total opposites of the scale ulkyori is order grimajo is chaos kubo does like to reuse tropes in different arcs there's no denying that all kia ora and grimajo are the nubiakia and renji and that's reused again with hash wolf and basby and but you know it works here as well they have a great relationship grimjoe is openly insubordinate to both all kia ora and eyes and that's something alkyl just doesn't respect at all which leads to a pretty inevitable showdown i would say in some respects it's a bit of a shame that that grim joe never kind of acknowledges all kiara's death you never you never hear that again even after grim joe's return in the thousand year blood war that is a bit of a shame um but you know you kind of imagine that grim joe's always kind of seen all kia ora as someone who stands in his way to becoming the king of waeco mundo uh even though it's not something i imagine okay would ever have any interest in whatsoever and then as we've mentioned his relationships with ichigo and arahime are based are predicated on a honor on a misunderstanding or not being able to fathom them or how they work how they mentally understand these bonds they all share how they have this beating heart between them is something that all cura doesn't know he needs but he does need and so seeing that really be brought to life in that final battle is just so exceptionally well done and just briefly about ulchiora's resurrections this was obviously going to be a pretty uh a moment that would come with high expectation for kubo you know all kia ora being clearly one of the most popular characters he's ever created him releasing his zampato was always going to be a big deal and i actually think that it was always going to be something that disappointed people pretty much no matter what and he does eventually use it uh i think it's bind mercilago and the first his initial release form yeah it's a little disappointing i remember seeing it thinking it looked cool enough but being a little bit like is that it it it had what i wanted from old kiora to a degree which was massive black bat wings i really wanted him to have that and i wanted him to have the proper helmet with the two horns i was expecting his hollow mask to appear on the other side as well and we got that but there's no denying there's just something about this form that's just not that threatening now i i thought maybe i was alone in this belief but actually a lot of people share that belief and so there's quite a bit of relief i think when he activates his segunda etapa part of me does wonder did kubo always plan to give all kiara a second form or was he just maybe not overly happy with what he came up with for his first release and so gave him something a bit more akin to what i always thought al kira might have which is this fully just like demonic back version of himself but it's cool as well though of course that the hollow hole seemingly takes on new meaning with each form in his first release there are like black strands going towards it where kind of his gown meets in the middle but you know it's imp it seems to be implying that everything comes back to the heart everything comes back to the center but in his second release where he has now become much further away from humanity than he could have been he's become a monster there's like blood oozing from his hollow hole now as if whatever hope there was of having a heart has been wrenched from his chest and now there's just a waterfall of blood that looks like it's cascading it's pretty edgy i admit it's pretty edgy gothic but i like it i think it looks really cool in a sort of teenage angst way but you know back in the day i freaking loved it when he transformed into this i was like that is exactly what i was hoping he would become so i really can't hold it against him in any way shape or form he does look really cool um but yeah i think that it really serves the final battle as well because it becomes a fight of demons which i think is again what helps it to stand out an awful lot but that's basically it for ulchiora one of the most famous one of the most impactful villains in all of bleach the fourth espada let me know what you think of this character in the comments below do you enjoy ulchiora's character is he one of your favorite characters or maybe you think he's actually a little bit overrated if you manage to get all the way to the end of this video i really appreciate it i know it's been a long one but there's a lot to say about all kia ora and like i said we got so much more to talk about in regards to that final battle which we'll do a battle analysis on at some point in the future but that's it from me guys uh if you haven't already make sure to hit subscribe i really appreciate the support and until next time i'll catch you later i'll see you then

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 70,581

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, ulquiorra bleach, ichigo vs ulquiorra

Id: 1uQiDeERHVE

Length: 53min 15sec (3195 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022