Let’s keep it short today as I’m still in a heatwave. Hopefully the last one of the year but I feel like I’ve been saying that for weeks now and it’s never true. And just like that we’re back in the present day with Reg asking Faputa to help him get Nanachi back. Faputa tears off a limb to give him what he needs because she’s willing to do everything for the promise that Reg made to her that he’s apparently forgotten. Faputa is definitely unhinged and I think we’re all starting to see why. We get reminded of Wazukyan and Vueko’s talk at the end of last week’s episode. Oh, Kevin Penkin tweeted something about a song, so I’m going to keep my ears open for something extra cool.
Belaf is suffering
After the opening theme we go back to the past. We see Belaf suffering with guilt because he ate one of the children of Irumyuui. Wazukyan on the other hand seems to have no issues with any of this which horrifies Vueko. Irumyuui has turned into what can only be described as a terrifying monster at this point, suffering permanently as her babies are being taken from her over and over again. Let’s not forget that although they are bound to suffer and die, Wazukyan is happily cutting up living babies. Yeah, did I mention that this show is messed up? Vueko laments the fact that she’s not going insane like the others. Irumyuui still loves Vueko and in the embrace she still feels Irumyuui’s heartbeat. It’s tough to watch.
Wazukyan using another one of these really solidifies him as a horrifying villain
Inside of Irumyuui’s…. Birthing scar, Vueko finds a secondary cradle of desire that Wazukyan apparently put there. Maybe Irumyuui wasn’t the one who wished for this after all, and Wazukyan is the one behind it. The entire village follows Irumyuui to a strange place, not knowing what’s going to happen. Several of them get snatched up and die. Even though these people had no place to live before they went here, I feel like this was definitely not a good place to go. Irumyuui is now a borderline eldritch horror. I really feel for both Belaf and Vueko, they have such horrible regret for their actions. And it wasn’t even their actions, it was mainly Wazukyan. But unfortunately life in the abyss isn’t always fair. Irumyuui warps once more and Belaf steps inside her, turning into the serpent form he has in the current timeline. Vueko attempts to end it all, but is thwarted by Wazukyan. Vueko is now locked up where she’s freed by Riko in the modern day. We finally see Irumyuui’s wish come to fruition. A final child, one that doesn’t die immediately. This is how Faputa was born. And this explains the rage that Faputa has towards the world, immediately killing the interference units that approach her.
Poor Faputa.
As I mentioned, let’s keep it short. I didn’t find the particular song that might have been special for this episode, but I was also fully enthralled by what was going on. The story is still incredibly sad. Riko now knows what happened in the past. Faputa wants to destroy this village. In my opinion rightfully so. Wazukyan sacrificed so much and so many for the village to become what it is today and seems to have very little regret about any of it. This show is messed up. It’s also going at a lightning fast pace. I’m starting to think it can adapt this entire arc into one season. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, but the first 8 episodes have been very solid in my opinion. But that’s my opinion, I’d like to hear yours too! Thanks for reading.
It’s time for more Made in Abyss. We jump back in time to the three sages and their party reaching the Golden City. They meet up with several interference units who wish to learn more from the humans. It sounds like they’re a perfect match. Vueko reminisces about the things they learned and how cruel of a place this truly is. Friendly reminder that all of this stuff happens in Volume 8. Using the hollow that they found they tested if the elevator could go back up again and boy oh boy do we know the answer to that. They’re now stuck in this golden city at the bottom of the abyss and as we’ve all learned, they never did manage to leave this place. The interference units can come and go though, but since they’re not affected by the curse they also don’t know how far humans can go up and down. This is also a reminder that kind seeming Belaf turned into the weird snake like creature that’s eating Mitty’s brains for a snack. Irumyuui, the little girl they picked up on this island, knows a little bit about this place, but not much more. They find a strange animal and decide to keep it.
What a lovely, adorable duo, I’m sure nothing terrible will happen to either of them.
As time goes on, the humans slowly start to adapt to their environment, procuring water and food. Irumyuui recounts her traumatic childhood to Vueko because she can’t have children. Neither can Vueko apparently. As if to make matters worse, the cute animal they found only recently gets eaten by one of the dragonoid creatures. Remember folks, this anime is suffering and nothing but suffering. Not long after this, Irumyuui gets very ill and she’s not the only one.. A bunch of people start pooping small eggs and one person’s foot looks like it’s melted. When it rains it pours. The food survey team dies, only three of them make it back, looking like part trees and dying soon after coming back. Turns out the water is also unhealthy for them. They’re still putting some level of faith into Wazukyan even though he’s clearly lost it at this point. Things are looking dire for the sages. Their drinking water is a living organism that doesn’t die when boiled. To top it all off, one of the members of the food survey team comes back with a strange relic that even the interference units have never seen before. They learn it’s the cradle of desire and it grants a wish. A juvenile is needed to ingest the egg and wish with it. As the people are getting more and more ill, the sages start getting desperate.
I know it’s because I’m rewatching Bleach, but that strand of hair makes me think of Aizen’s manipulative nature.
And there we have it, Wazukyan’s face is showing his desperation and his lack of sanity clearly now. They decide to have Irumyuui use the cradle of the desire to fix the people living in the village. Having absorbed the egg, Irumyuui starts feeling better immediately although her hand still looks very messed up. More people die and they start wondering how the wish will turn out. And oh man does she not turn out well. She’s starting to hollowfy and looks like a mess. Turns out the cradle of desire has a monkey paw effect to it. Who would have guessed a relic from a cruel place like this would have a cruel effect on those using it. Irumyuui gives birth to a strange creature that literally burrows out of her chest. At least she finally has a child, oh wait, never mind, it dies the next day. Remember how I’ve been saying repeatedly that this manga is ridiculously messed up. Not long after a second baby gets born and dies. And a third, and many more. This is where the story went from sad to beyond cruel for me. Everyone’s in pain and dying. What did Wazukyan see that makes all this suffering worth it? Here’s where we thank Kevin Penkin once more for a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack to accompany all of this misery. While Vueko is in dire straits she gets fed a delicious meal by Wazukyan that helps her recover. Finally things are going well for the people. What do you think was in that meal? What strange meat could heal people from this disaster? Oh, of course it’s Irumyuui’s dead children.
Haunting.
I think it’s now safe to say that this is the most messed up story I’ve ever read to the point where I considered dropping it several times during this arc. It’s haunting, it’s gruesome, but it’s also extremely gripping and I feel that I need to know just where it will go next. As strange as it is, it’s so rare for a story to be unpredictable to such an extreme that from page to page I have no idea what to expect. After this episode I’m extremely curious what people think about the story so far? Are you still continuing to watch it or is it getting too much? Let me know in the comments down below.
Let’s dive straight into it. Today we’re recapping up to episode 150. As everyone is training to get stronger; Ichigo with the visored, Sado and Renij at Urahara’s place, Ishida with his dad and Orihime and Rukia in the training grounds with Ukitake, more arrancar arrive. This time it’s a more dangerous bunch. Aizen has shown that with some manipulation he can use the Hogyoku before it’s awakened, but only for a little bit at a time. This is how we see him create Wonderweiss, who seems to have some intelligence deficit of sorts. I always found this a weird character in the past, but it’s not a big deal. Wonderweiss, Luppi (who is the 6th Espada after Grimmjow fell from grace), Yammy and Grimmjow are back in Karakura town. Grimmjow goes off to find Ichigo while the others confront Toshiro and his companions. The group struggles but luckily Urahara shows up to save the day. He shows off that he’s a lot stronger than he seems and quite easily fights off Yammy, who is one of the Espada and thus easily in the top 20 of strongest people in Aizen’s army. Grimmjow goes to face Ichigo who gives the blue-haired Arrancar a run for his money until his Hollow powers reach their limit. He’s saved by Rukia but the fight is still going poorly. As Grimmjow is about to inflict serious damage, Ulquiorra shows up and they’re all liften back into Hueco Mundo as their mission is complete.
Shinji is permanently done with your shit.
Speaking of their mission, after Rukia is sent through the gate back to the world of the living, Orihime follows her once it’s made safe. Ukitake sees her off and with two guards from Soul Society she makes her way home. Unfortunately, Ulquiorra was prepared for her to show up and ambushes her in the tunnel on the way to the world of the living. He threatens all her friends and Orihime agrees to go with him to Las Noches, Aizen’s palace in Hueco Mundo. She’s given 12 hours to get her things together and say goodbye to one person. She thinks about choosing Tatsuki but eventually says goodbye to Ichigo. Tears falling down her face she says goodbye and goes to Hueco Mundo with Ulquiorre. There she’s asked to demonstrate her amazing power, which she does by completely restoring Grimmjow’s arm. Grimmjow then kills Luppi for being a prick and takes back his spot on the Espada as number 6.
Orihime feels like such a wasted character
Ichigo, Sado and Ishida all pause their training to go to Hueco Mundo to save Orihime. Yamamoto “absolute dickhead” Genryuusai forbids them from going and even sends two captains to pick up the Soul Reapers still in the world of the living, including Rukia and Renji. I know he’s representative of the fascist government that has no qualms sacrificing a person for the greater good, and on a level that’s very sensible, but he has no right to tell Ichigo what he can and cannot do. With the help of Urahara, the three go to Hueco Mundo through a gate similar in setup to the one to Soul Society, but a lot more ominous.
Don’t underestimate Sado, he’s defeated many strong opponents like *checks notes* that one random Hollow.
Meanwhile we have the reunion of Kurosaki Isshin and Ishida Ryuuken. Ryuuken remarks that Isshin got his powers back, which tells us that he lost them at some point. They talk for a little bit and Ryuuken does hint that he let Ishida go and could have stopped the kid. Ishida rules lawyers’ that Ichigo is not technically a Soul Reaper so he can help him. Unbeknownst to them, Keigo, Mizuiro and Tatsuki find Urahara’s underground base and the latter is about to explain some things to them. In Hueco Mundo, Ichigo and the gang fight two weaker arrancars and Ishida and Sado show off some new powers. Then they try to make their way towards the palace, which seems to take forever. On their way there they find a group of friendly hollows, one of which is a young girl named Nel Tu. They are ambushed by a big sand hollow but Rukia and Renji show up to save the day. After his we go into several filler episodes, which I will cover here quickly because I’ve read somewhere that Kubo had input in these, so here goes:
Nel and her friends. Nel is an interesting character I’ll talk about more later
The gang falls through the floor into an underground forest filled with Menos. This seems to be where the grunt hollows live. Rukia gets separated and is saved by a soul reaper named Ashido. Rukia and Ashido fight some Hollows who are after the intruders and have captured Nel and friends. Ashido reveals he came here from Soul Society hundreds of years ago. He thought of a big brain plan of killing Hollows before they got to the world of the living. It’s a good plan and seeing as technology to travel to Hueco Mundo exists, it makes me wonder why they don’t do it more. Probably because the 13 squads are a disorganized mess. Some fighting with a gang of underground Hollows ensues and the gang is eventually reunited and back on track again. Ashido ends up staying behind.
It has to be unfortunate to spend such a long time fighting Hollows in Hueco Mundo only for the effect to not even be noticable.
The gang goes through an underground tunnel and after some mishaps find a large room with several ways out. They decide to split the party which is rarely a good idea, but yet here we are. Nel follows after Ichigo, Pesche and Dondonchakka immediately lose sight of which door she went through. Ulquiorra and Nnoitra talk, and Ulquiorra explains that he’s emotionally manipulating Orihime. He basically planned that Yamamoto Genryuusai would be a dick about Orihime betraying them. Aizen shows the Hogyoku to Orihime. He wants her power and is doing everything he can to actually get Orihime on his side as opposed to her just being a captive. Orihime on the other hand plans to undo the Hogyoku’s existence.
We’ve made our way to episode 6 and I’m going to try and keep it brief since, as I’ve talked about way too much already, it’s a heatwave. Riko is currently deciding on the value of organs. She thinks they’re overrated. Kaja stops her from offering up something she can’t get back while Nanachi says she just wants to stay here with Mitty. Kaja has the sense to drag Riko out of there safely and we jump to the opening theme.
One small mistake and you can never go back. The abyss is a scary place.
The luring seems to be in full effect right now. With the villagers being unable to leave the village they instead try to lure a creature into the village to kill it and add its value to the village. Unfortunately the villagers aren’t particularly good at killing this creature. Riko realizes Prushka might be in danger and goes to retrieve her. It turns out she was fine and looks very improved and cool now. “It’s an instrument in the form of a crystalized person.” Vueko remarks. The jeweler tells Riko to take it and run, as the dangerous creature approaches. Also, the jeweler was way too into carving Prushka, and it’s probably best they only talked about it after Riko left the shop. The weird jeweler then gets brutally murdered and Kaja says that this creature has been in the village before. That’s a bad sign.
Prushka in her newly carved form
Juroimoh of the three great sages fights the creature. Vueko remarks that they’re the one who’s taken on the role now. I don’t recall seeing a Juroimoh during the quick flashback episode we got to Vueko and them’s past, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a Juroimoh there, just that my memory is bad. The shopkeeper that taught Riko letters last episode shows up and reveals their name to be Moogie. I have no idea how to gender most of these creatures since the main giveaway is their voice, so I’m going to keep it as neutral as possible. If anyone has a better idea about this, let me know.
Juroimoh is straight up not having a good time
The creature goes to the center of town, where the market is. Riko is waiting here and she has short hair now. Even cooler, she’s using Kaja as a motorbike while the creature chases them. The CGI is a bit jarring at times, but I think it’s done well enough where it’s not a big issue. Riko and Kaja go through a strange force field and set off a bomb, blowing the creature into a net to capture it. With Riko’s leadership and some good teamwork the remaining villagers then take out the creature. Riko decides to name the creature Oogasumi and then describes her tactic. Riko describes that she can be selfless in her selfishness without it being contradicting and Oogasumi wasn’t quite dead yet. With it about to hit Riko, it instead grabs Maa who jumps in front of her to protect her and Riko has a vision of human Prushka before blowing her whistle.
There she is! There’s our unhealthy dose of pure horrifying PTSD
Blowing the whistle has summoned Reg, who looks at least a little bit different now. He’s more powerful and Riko recalls Bondrewd explaining that white whistles allow her to drag out the true power of relics. Now that everything has been resolved and we’re safe again, Wazukyan shows up to explain how the creature works. Basically everything’s been resolved and Reg’s armor goes back to its normal colors. Wazukyan argues that the suffering and horror the villagers experienced is better than boredom and then leaves again. He does leave with Riko the idea that any part of Faputa would be enough value to get Nanachi back. That’ll go great. Reg goes back to Faputa and Riko asks Vueko about Faputa. Moogie and Kaja both say they don’t know who Vueko is. Vueko then reveals to our protagonists that she’s one of the survivors of the suicide squad Ganja, who came here looking for the city of the golden sun. In the manga, we had no idea what this meant at the time, but in the anime we’ve already had a little bit of the three sages’ backstory. Vueko talks about Irumyuui. I had no idea what this referred to in the manga because I thought it was just another word in their strange language. I definitely find that watching this show again in anime form makes a lot of things less confusing. It’s still a really weird story, but I actually feel like I’m properly understanding the flow of the narrative right now. Let me know if you guys feel like it’s easy to follow or not. I’m curious if front loading part of the three sages arc improved the story as much as I think it has. I’m going to go sit outside and read some manga now, thanks for reading!
Having skipped over the Bount arc, we go right into a whirlwind of a continuation of the Soul Society arc where we’re just barely recovering from Aizen’s schemes. Luckily we get to do so in great company as Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumechika, Rangiku and Hitsugaya all join us in the world of the living. I am going to also skip the filler episodes at the end of this arc, so do keep that in mind. This recap will cover episodes 110 till 127. It’s a short bit, but a lot happens here so let’s strap in.
It’s everyone’s favorite irritatingly charming boy: Shinji Hirako! I’ve always loved the Visoreds, ever since they first appeared and it’s good to confirm that after all these years they’re still great.
Besides a bunch of the soul reapers appearing in Karakura as a forward scouting force, we also have Shinji Hirako, the creepy masked guy who is part of a group called the Visoreds. They’re soul reapers that have hollow powers as well and he offers Ichigo to help him control his inner Hollow if he joins them. Ichigo refuses and they’re kind of at a stand-off for a while due to it. We also finally get confirmation that Kurosaki Isshin is in fact a soul reaper. Not only that, but he also works with Urahara Kisuke.
Not only is he friends with Urahara, he’s a Captain-level Shinigami. That implies he has a Bankai too!
But we’re probably all wondering about the Arrancar at this point, aren’t we? That’s right, they’re the new big bad guys. Aizen created humanoid hollows that can wield a Zanpakuto. Their version of Bankai enhances their hollow powers. We also learn that there are three kinds of arrancar. The important ones are the espade, the ten strongest numbered Arrancar and Aizen’s main followers. The first Arrancars we encounter are Yammy and Ulquiorra, who come to kill Ichigo on Aizen’s orders, but only if they deem him to be dangerous. At this point in the story, Ichigo is still seriously struggling with his inner Hollow and doesn’t seem to be a threat. They do get their butts kicked by Urahara and Yoruichi, but the rest of the gang has now realized that they’re pretty weak. Yammy and Ulquiorra retreat and we get some scenes with Aizen which include another Arrancar by the name of Grimmjow, who seems to be less eager to follow orders. He takes his personal goons with him to Karakura town to kill everyone who has even a tiny bit of soul power.
There he is, crowd favorite edgy boy Ulquiorra. He looks like a more mature Sasuke in a way.
Several unimportant Arrancar get their butts kicked by the forward scouting squad which includes Rukia showing off her snow Zanpakuto as well as both Hitsugaya and Ikkaku going bankai during these fights. It does show us viewers that the Arrancar mean business and even these less important ones give captain class soul eaters a run for their money. They can’t sit on their laurels just yet. Ichigo ends up being rather useless and when Grimmjow retreats due to Tousen showing up, Ichigo feels like he didn’t win at all. Defeated and down on his luck he decides to go find Shinji and force the Visored to help him control his inner Hollow. Here he gets his butt kicked until his Hollow takes over and the entire squad jumps on him to subdue him. His training then starts. In his training he fights his inner hollow as well as some other previous antagonists in an effort to figure out what knowledge he can use to control this power. The Visored lock him in a barrier and take turns keeping his Hollow form subdued while he battles it out. Fortunately, Ichigo eventually manages to beat his inner Hollow and now has control of his Visored form.
Couldn’t make a post about this without showing off Ikakku’s Bankai. What an absolute legend this guy is. And he’s rocking that bald head. With the way my hairline is receding I’ll join him soon enough.
In the meantime, both Sado and Renji have been training with Urahara in his underground cave. Ishida is still training with his dad and has promised to never work with Soul Reapers again. I’m sure that’s a promise he’ll keep. Ishida’s dad is kind of a dick, but I suppose Soul Reapers did kind of genocide the quincies. What are they, Europeans with access to undiscovered land? Moving on, Hitsugaya and Rangiku get a call from Yamamoto Genryuusai. While they take the call Orihime shows up as well. It is her apartment after all. After she asks to leave, Yamamoto tells her to stay because they’ve figured out Aizen’s goal and it’s important for humans too. He wants to make the Ouken, which is a key that unlocks the dimension in which the Soul King lives. Only the Captain Commander knows where the key is held so instead Aizen decides to figure out how to make his own key instead. To do so, you must sacrifice 100.000 souls and find an area with highly concentrated spirit power. That area, you’ve guessed it, is Karakura town. So they now have limited time to prepare a welcome for Aizen as he waits for the Hogyoku to mature enough to set his plan into motion. Hitsugaya gets to talk to Hinamori Momo through the same demonic TV as well. Zoom really looks different in Soul Society. They make up which I’m sure really helps Hitsugaya’s mood. She does go back to thinking Aizen might still be a good guy and Yamamoto has to put her to sleep. It is slowly dawning on me that Kubo made the Soul Society more villainous early on and is now dialing things back a bit because they are supposed to be the good guys from now on.
Grimmjow is great. That’s all.
One thing I will spoil for later is that I’ve always found both Sado’s and Orihime’s characters to be wasted in this series. I know shonen manga has the habit of making one character super powerful and neglecting the rest, but shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer are showing us that it doesn’t have to be that way. Sado and Orihime end up as fodder which is unfortunate since Sado’s a super cool character and Orihime could have been so much more, as we’re shown here. She’s able to pass by the super powerful barrier that is protecting Ichigo’s training with the Visored. After talking to the Visored and Ichigo for a second she leaves again where she is found by Yoruichi, who asks her to come to Urahara’s shop. Upon arrival, Urahara tells her to sit out the fight because she’s too weak. She appreciates his honesty but is still understandably heartbroken by the request. It’s not unreasonable from Urahara to say this, and she knows this as well, but even though she’s weak, she wants to help out. Her and Rukia talk for a moment before Hiyori shows up and kidnaps Orihime. She brings her back to the Visored hideout where Hachi asks her if he should repair Tsubaki for her, which she gladly accepts. He tells her something similar to what Urahara has told her, that fighting on the front line is not ideal for people like him and her, who have similar powers. Orihime says she still wants to fight and Hachi tells her to follow her heart. We end this arc with Ulquiorra visiting Yammy, who’s arm has just been repaired. To test out his newly attached arm he smashes the nurse that helped him recover to pieces. Real evil guy stuff. It’s also revealed that Yammy is part of the espada, number 10 to be precise.
This is one of my favorite shots/panels in the entire show. We learn pretty early on that the Visored are tight with each other and they seem like goofballs for most of the time, but when one of their own is in danger they don’t fuck around.
Now, the next 10 episodes are filler content, so I will once again be skipping those. As of posting this, I literally just finished the last two episodes of this arc. There’s a heatwave approaching The Netherlands at high speeds and the next five or six days are going to be borderline unlivable by our standards. Our houses, like those in similar EU countries, are built to retain heat as opposed to letting it escape, so they literally turn into an oven at high temperatures. We also do not have air conditioning, that’s for fancy rich people and we’re not that. I will probably buy a cheaper aircon for upcoming years though, but that’s not here yet. So I will probably not do a lot of writing and I don’t know how much I’ll be in the mood for watching Bleach. I’ll probably chill in the back garden instead, enjoying the last two weeks of my vacation before teaching again. What I’m saying is, the next recap might be in two or three weeks instead, so bear with me in the meantime. It’ll cover episodes 138 through 167. Following this arc is another filler arc which I will skip. Thanks for reading.
One of the biggest reasons for the massive success of Bleach is the structure of its different groups. And the main group that we encounter early on in the story is the Gotei 13 or the 13 guard squads. Each squad is led by a captain and a vice-captain with several seated officers ranked by their power. Some of the squads have their own niche, like a healing squad or a ninja squad or a violent squad. In today’s post I want to quickly go over each squad during and at the end of the first big arc. When we reach the end of the anime I’ll go over the structure of the squads as well as some of the other organizations going into the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, so everyone is up to speed. I hope that’s useful to people because I don’t really remember the state of the Soul Society at the end of the anime, nor do I remember the state of the Soul Society at the end of the manga either. But that’s for later, for now let’s jump into the thirteen squads.
First Division Captain: Yamamoto Genryuusai First Division Lieutenant: Chojiro Sasakibe The first division’s leader is the captain-commander, the leader of the Gotei 13. Yamamoto is an old man with one of the most powerful fire zanpakuto available. His power was shown in fighting both Kyoraku and Ukitake during the Soul Society arc, intimidating both captains. His lieutenant was shown getting beaten by Ichigo with ease.
Second Division Captain: Soi Fon Second Division Lieutenant: Marechiyo Omaeda The second division is basically the ninja & kunoichi division. They do stealth operations. Yoruichi Shihoin used to be the captain, with Soi Fon working for her, before Yoruichi and Urahara went to the regular world.
Third Division Captain: Ichimaru Gin (former) Third Division Lieutenant: Izuru Kira The captain of the third division was the always smiling Ichimaru, who was one of three captains to betray the Gotei 13 and leave to Hueco Mundo. His Lieutenant, Kira, is friends with Renji, Momo and Hisagi. He is used as a pawn in Aizen’s schemes but turns out to be a good guy in the end. The third division is without a captain at the end of the Soul Society arc.
Fourth Division Captain: Unohana Retsu Fourth Division Lieutenant: Isane Kotetsu Another squad that is very specialized. The fourth squad is the healer squad and are looked down upon by the other squads because they’re not as strong. Their captain does command a lot of respect and is seen as quite strong. She’s been around for a long time as well. Her zanpakuto is focused on healing people and it’s the same for some of the squad members.
Fifth Division Captain: Aizen Sosuke (Former) Fifth Division Lieutenant: Momo Hinamori (Unavailable) So yeah, the fifth squad contained Aizen, who is the big villain so far. He orchestrated everything around Rukia’s execution, getting the Hogyoku and killing all of Central 46. He almost killed his lieutenant Momo, but she seems to have survived. The last we’ve seen of her is that she’s unconscious and Unohana has been taking care of her. As of now, the squad is without leadership.
Sixth Division Captain: Kuchiki Byakuya Sixth Division Lieutenant: Shirogane Ginjiro Byakuya is a major antagonist during this first arc and is the moment where Ichigo first uses his bankai. He’s from one of the four major noble families and because his deceased wife was Rukia’s sister he has since adopted her into his family. He is a big proponent of law and order.
Seventh Division Captain: Komamura Sajin Seventh Division Lieutenant: Tetsuzaemon Iba Iba is one of the cooler lieutenants in the Gotei 13. Komamura is a wolfman, who was close friends with Tosen Kaname. He hides his face for most of the story so far and he ends up fighting Kenpachi while things are going down in Soul Society.
Eight Division Captain: Kyoraku Shunsui Eight Division Lieutenant: Yadomaru Lisa When I was watching Bleach for the first time, Kyoraku was my favorite captain. He was both cool and laid back. He wears a pink outfit compared to most who wear the basic white and black ones, and he has a straw hat he often wears. His favorite things are lazing around and (borderline) sexual harassment. He’s not too bad for an anime character but if he was a real person in an office he’d probably be in trouble for his behavior.
Ninth Division Captain: Kaname Tosen (Former) Ninth Division Lieutenant: Hisagi Shuhei Tosen is one of the three captains that ended up betraying the Soul Society, alongside Gin and Aizen. He is blind and his zanpakuto makes other people blind too with its bankai. He claims he wants to find the most peaceful path and he seems to think Aizen will lead him there. According to the wiki; the ninth division oversees art and culture, like the news magazine. I did not know this, so here’s a fun fact that I learned while writing this.
Tenth Division Captain: Hitsugaya Toshiro Tenth Division Lieutenant: Matsumoto Rangiku Hitsugaya and Matsumoto are both fan favorites and they play a pretty big role early on. Hitsugaya is the one who ends up figuring out that something is wrong at Central 46 and faces Gin and Aizen there. Hitsugaya uses an ice zanpakuto and is the youngest captain. He’s voiced by the same voice actress that voices Al from FMA: Brotherhood and they both have a height complex, which is pretty funny.
Eleventh Division Captain: Zaraki Kenpachi Eleventh Division Lieutenant: Kusajishi Yachiru Kenpachi is the fighting crazy captain that Ichigo first fights in Soul Society. He loves fighting and nothing else. His lieutenant, Yachiru, is often riding on his shoulder. Notable members of the squad are Ikkaku, Yumichika and Renji. Iba, the seventh division lieutenant, is also a former member of the eleventh division.
Twelfth Division Captain: Kurotsuchi Mayuri Twelfth Division Lieutenant: Kurotsuchi Nemu Kurotsuchi is a creepy guy with a strange mask on his face. We do get one shot of him in the shower looking somewhat normal, with blue hair. Reminds me of Hisoka from HxH. He treats his Lieutenant extremely poorly because he created her body so it belongs to him. He killed Ishida’s grandfather and is defeated by Ishida, but has an emergency escape plan. He wasn’t really present towards the end of the arc because he was still recovering. His division is in charge of research and development.
Thirteenth Division Captain: Ukitake Jushiro Thirteenth Division Lieutenant: Shiba Kaien (Former) Ukitake is a friendly man with long white hair. He’s been ill for a very long time and is often staying on the sidelines. Kiyone and Miyako both take care of him and share the third seat. Rukia is a member of Ukitake’s squad and was there when the lieutenant died. Ukitake and Kyoraku both face Yamamoto when they realize that the orders coming from Central 46 are weird as well as the urge to protect Rukia. They’re probably the two nicest captains in the squad.
And there you have it, a round-up of the Gotei 13 early on. There’s a lot to remember but I’m sure this will serve as a nice list. Next week I’ll be talking about the Arrancar arc, which comes after the Soul Society arc in the manga and after the Bount arc in the anime. Thanks for reading!
I don’t say this lightly, but after finishing this part of the anime I really had to sit down and think if I could think of more hype moments than the best that Bleach has to offer. There’s some that came to mind, some of which I discounted, but it really only boils down to the walk to Arlong Park and the Enies Lobby scene, both from One Piece, which feels unfair. But let’s go back a little bit to where we last left off before diving straight into the absolute hype that was these episodes of Bleach.
Yachiru is a menace
Two major plot elements are currently happening in the show. One one hand we have the Soul Society dealing with the death of Aizen, the possible betrayal of Ichimaru or Hitsugaya, Momo sure hasn’t figured it out yet, and whatever weird things are happening at central 46. There’s a lot of people who have thoughts on the matter and have their own plans. Meanwhile Ishida, Sado, Orihime, Hanataro and Ganju get broken out of jail by Kenpachi and Yachiru because they’re cool like that. They run into Tousen and Komamura on the way to Rukia’s execution site. Ikkaku and Yumechika are taking care of their respective lieutenants while Kenpachi fights both captains head-on. The fight ends with Tousen and Komamura leaving due to a disturbance at the execution site.
Ichimaru and Hitsugaya ready to throw down!
Somewhere off to the side of all of this, Hitsugaya had a run-in with Kira, Momo and Gin, who has tricked Momo into believing that Hitsugaya is a bad guy. Frustrated with how things going and following up on a suspicion he already had, Hitsugaya makes his way to Central 46, the SCOTUS of Soul Society. Matsumoto is with him and the two make their way inside where they find Ichimaru Gin and Sosuke Aizen, who has just badly wounded Momo. It turns out he was alive all along and has been plotting something. Hitsugaya fights Aizen but is easily defeated and as Aizen and Gin leave, Unohana arrives. She heals up Momo and Hitsugaya best she can.
Meanwhile, Ichigo has been training for his bankai and after his training is done, he heads to where Rukia is as well. He cuts up the execution place, blocks the halberd and takes Rukia with him, defying all of the captains. He then tosses Rukia to Renji who is tasked with escaping this place. Three vice captains, of squad four (this is before Unohana went to Central 46), squad one and squad two, go after Renji but Ichigo defeats all three without using a weapon. He then gets to fight Kuchiki Byakuya. In this arc we’ve also gotten some backstory for both Renji and Rukia, who grew up together in the slumbs before joining the Gotei 13.
At the same time (yes, this arc is crazy), Kyoraku and Ukitake have staged what is basically a mutiny, in an attempt to save Rukia. They both realize something is amiss as well and go against Yamamoto Genryuusai’s will, who just does what Central 46 dictates. The three clash and it’s looking really bad for our two captains, since Yamamoto is an absolute beast. Think Netero from Hunter x Hunter but with more fire.
These two are always hype whenever they show up.
My favorite moments of this arc are when Ichigo shows up to save Rukia and a moment that we’ll get to later. But I can’t ignore that for a lot of people the fight between Byakuya and Ichigo is absolutely a highlight. And it’s an amazing fight. Both reveal their bankai and fight a close match, where both take a ton of damage and Byakuya considers Ichigo the winner. We get a bit more insight into Byakuya’s thinking here (and later, but let me consolidate the information a bit). Rukia is his wife’s little sister. After his wife’s passing he wanted to find her. He promised to never break a law again. Which makes this arc particularly cruel for him as the laws he’s been following came from Aizen, a traitor, as opposed to the actual lawmakers of central 46.
It’s the IchiGOAT
Speaking of Aizen. Right as Ichigo and Byakuya are weakened, Kenpachi is tired from fighting, Unohana and Hitsugaya are out of it and both Kyoraku and Ukitake are preoccupied with Yamamoto, now is when Aizen, Gin & Tousen show up and reveal their big plan. You see, there is a reason why Rukia got so weak and was hard to find in the human world. Urahara Kisuke hid a very powerful artifact in her gigai, because it was too dangerous to use. We’ll learn throughout this story that a lot of what is wrong in the world is probably Urahara’s fault in some way. Either way, this powerful artifact, the Hogyoku, allows a soul reaper to attain hollow powers. This gets important later on as well, so take note of it. Komamura shows up to challenge them, because Tousen is his close friend, but Aizen defeats him with ease. It turns out he’s crazy strong. We find out throughout this arc that even though they call Kenpachi the strongest captain, I’m pretty sure at this point that half the captains would take him out. He does probably have the most physical strength though. Everyone who’s still able shows up to fight Aizen, but the trio escapes with the Hogyoku and ascend into Hueco Mundo, the world where the Hollows live. Ichigo and friends end up making it out alive and the problems are put on hold for now.
They running away.
So there we have it. Everyone is safe and sound and the bad guys have all left. And now a word from our sponsors: The Bount arc. In all honesty, I was planning to cover the fillers as well, but after watching about five or so of the first episodes I got so incredibly bored that I had to give up. It went from Ichigo having clashes with two captains of the Soul Society to losing to a geezer with a snake pet. It was pretty awful. Instead I moved on to episode 109, where the story picks up again. Next review will cover that, but in between I’ll do a post about the squads, their captains and members at the end of this arc. I’ll do another update on that at the end of the anime going into the final arc. For now, I’m still really enjoying this rewatch, definitely when I’m skipping the fillers. The next arc is already shaping up great, I forgot how good Bleach was. Thanks for reading.
We’ve made it to episode 3, aptly titled “Village of Hollows.” And we immediately see a whole legion of creepy crawlies. Majikaja, who introduced themselves briefly last episode, is leading them towards where they need to go. Nanachi explains that the forcefield isn’t present in this village, so they can ascend the stairs without issue. We get a quick nod back to Bondrewd, the Sovereign of Dawn, who was a major antagonist in the previous arc, before we make our way into the place where Prushka is. This was the first hint in the manga for me that this arc was going to be weird. Prushka is being chiseled away at, but when Reg jumps to defend the whistle, Riko says that Prushka strangely doesn’t seem to mind. The whistle as it was isn’t her true form, and the creature working on it is changing it to have the right value. That word is going to be important so keep track of it.
“Because the stone’s not in its true form” – Kaja
Kaja explains their real body consists of smells, and this is just a vessel they’re using. Second hint for me that this arc is weird. And now we’ve arrived at the circus of value, hahahaha. Sorry, I’ve been replaying the original Bioshock and the vendor machine boldly exclaims that. What I meant to say is that we’ve arrived at the market of value. Reg’s noticed the trend as well. Riko finds a part of her mother’s letter but she’s told to turn herself into value. The symbols on the money, Nanachi notes, are the same as the threatening symbols on the threat letter they received. The person who wrote that assigned value to Nanachi and Riko, as if planning to pawn them off, but not to Reg. Riko is way too unbothered by the strange things happening around her. In a sense it’s clear she was made for a journey like this in how easily she adapts to the craziness around her. We get introduced to a bunch of vendors and Kaja explains that hollows’ bodies have the shape of their desires. Meinya jumps on the head of one hollow who proclaims “maaa” and then very quickly kills Meinya.
Squish
That’s what it seems like but after some quick inspection Nanachi shows that it’s fine. Just a bit hurt by the squishing. The discussion is interrupted by a scream which Kaja refers to as the balancing. The hollow known as Ma quickly runs away in fear. Ma is caked up by the way, which is a strange sight to say the least. THey get enveloped by strange tentacles that take things straight from their body to balance out the attack on Meinya. The customs hollows have are very different from Riko’s sense of justice. There is no such thing as subtlety in the way they deal with things. It’s a very interesting way of looking at things. Oh, and Ma gets part of their body brutally torn off. This place is pretty metal. Riko quickly switches gears and tries to talk to the locals. They’re looking for a bed and breakfast and Riko learned the word for it. With Kaja bidding them goodbye, they move on.
This scene is freaking brutal. Poor Ma.
They’re led to what looks like an inn of sorts and the innkeeper just kind of blindly stares at them and takes some of their money. The rooms look pretty good, the toilet and the food less so. There’s also insects everywhere. Riko takes some shots at Nanachi’s cooking and they eat the awful looking but surprisingly edible food. Should not have done that, should not have done that. The author’s obsession with little girls pooping has quickly returned. I’ve been saying for months this season is going to be weird and I’m even reminded of exactly how weird it is. A commotion outside catches the attention of Reg and Nanachi. Kaja explains that it must be Faputa, the embodiment of value. Faputa can go anywhere and usually isn’t seen. Reg goes to see Faputa. Here we finally meet Faputa, princess of the hollows and her bodyguard. Once again it confirms for me that the human expedition from Volume 8 is important, as we’re shown a quick flashback to the young girl that they picked up at the edge of the abyss. Having now made their way to the hollows, we’re shown a little bit more from their story, although not much. There isn’t much room to look at the splendor though, since the hollows they found are almost immediately attacked.
The creepy stalker from last episode is revealed.
So that gives us the conclusion to this episode. Like last time, this covers more of Volume 6 of the manga, with a hint of Volume 8 in the last minute of the episode. Can we all pour one out for Ma who just wanted to play with Meinya and ended up watching all their prized possessions destroyed before being shredded to bits. The village of hollows don’t fuck around. Where the first two episodes were fairly tame, this episode really started upping the weirdness that I’ve come to know from this manga. At some point the manga went from a curious and cool idea to a challenge of how weird can it get before people lose interest. I think that’s the reason I’m still reading this manga. It’s so incredibly bizarre and I’m pretty sure the author has some issues with the way he likes to portray little children but at the same time it’s also such a compelling story that I can’t look away. And the show’s popularity makes me think I’m not the only one. Enough rambling from me though, I’m already looking forward to next week’s episode. And as always, thanks for reading.
I remember thinking when I first watched Bleach that the Soul Society wasn’t very believable. It was this authoritarian run place where the rich elite did whatever they wanted while the poor suffered. No branch of government seemed capable of communicating with other branches and half the people in leadership positions were basically sociopaths or downright violent idiots. It’s now 2022 and when I look at the ruling class in many parts of the world I’m starting to think that Soul Society wasn’t nearly as unbelievable as I thought it initially was. And it’s a good thing that Soul Society is such an uncoordinated mess because if not for that there is no way Ichigo’s group would have been half as successful as it was. But let’s not jump too far ahead.
What an absolute queen. The fact that it’s been ten years does not excuse me forgetting she exists.
The crew lands in what is basically the slums after going through a strange tunnel that connects Soul Society to the real world. We’ll see quite a bit more of this tunnel as the story continues but for it did its job. The gate into Soul Society proper is guarded by Jidanbo, a massive soul reaper wielding two axes. Without too much issue, Ichigo manages to defeat him and he turns out to be a pretty reasonable guy. A loss is a loss and he opens the gate for Ichigo and crew. Unfortunately they’re not lucky enough to just waltz into the premises. Instead they’re met with one of the Captains of the Seireitei: Ichimaru Gin. He’s a creepy looking dude who’s always smiling like he’s scheming something. His Zanpakuto is able to extend at rapid speeds and he pushes everyone out of the gate, firmly shutting it, without much issue. He doesn’t finish off the intruders though, I wonder why that is.
The gang is now in need of a plan to enter into the Soul Society proper, which is guarded by barriers that they need to get through. Luckily, Yoruichi has some contacts in town, one of which is Shiba Kukaku. I forgot about this character completely if i’m honest but immediately fell in love with her design again. If memory serves, she doesn’t appear much later on, but hot damn does she look stunning. Ichigo and the gang need to train with special orbs and pour their spiritual energy into them so they will help them pierce through the barrier. How are they going to be sent to the barrier? That’s simple, we put them into a massive cannon and just launch them. Sounds good? Great, let’s do this!
Ikkaku was my favorite character for a while in early Bleach.
After making their way through the barriers, all hell breaks loose as the 13 squads are on high alert because of these Ryouka intruders. This is where the severe lack of communication comes in handy, because everyone’s just doing their own thing, allowing Ichigo and friends to make their way through the streets fairly easily. Ishida shows off his new gears and bullies a soul reaper. Ichigo and Ganju, who is Kukaku’s brother and joined them to help out, fight the two joint third seats of the eleventh squad: Yumechika and Ikkaku. Ikkaku is a great character, he’s a brute with an awesome fighting style and Ichigo has a tough time against this opponent but manages to beat him in the end. Ichigo brings up Urahara during the fight and there’s a moment of recognition on Ikkaku’s side. We know that Urahara has soul reaper abilities and was rejected by the gate to Soul Society, and now we know that he is a known person in the Soul Society. Ganju beats out Yumechika with trickery and the two then head towards where Rukia is. Ikkaku told Ichigo where to find her, but later also tells Zaraki Kenpachi, the eleventh squad captain, where he sent Ichigo. They find a squad four member who helps them out through the sewers and before long Ichigo and Ganju find themselves in front of Abarai Renji once more, who is defeated by Ichigo after a drawn out battle. Renji tells Ichigo to save Rukia and we get a flashback of their past where it shows their life in the poor Rukon district before joining the soul reaper academy.
Renji gets bullied quite a lot this arc. It’s to atone for being a dickhead early on.
Meanwhile the thirteen captains aren’t sitting still either. Some of them are moving about town and trying to find the intruders while others seem disinterested or are just doing their own thing. Ichimaru Gin, who we talked about earlier, is also under suspicion of doing some treacherous things but we don’t learn much yet about what this could be. The meeting is cut short regardless because that is the moment where Ichigo and friends entered through the barrier. We do see some of the captains. There’s thirteen in total, as the name implies. I’ll go over all of them when they become relevant to the story, so for now just know that most of them are very cool and one of them has the same voice as Edward Elric and also gets made fun of for being short. He’s great by the way. Moving on, and bear with me since this post is getting long already.
This fight was so cool back in the day and, spoiler alert, still is!
Things escalate very quickly from here on out. First Sado runs into first division captain Kyoraku Shinsui and gets defeated easily. Kyoraku is a very laid-back person who doesn’t want to put in too much effort. But he recognizes Sado’s resolve and fights him seriously at the end, defeating him with ease. A moment after that fight ends he gets the news we as viewers already know. Aizen Sosuke, captain of the fifth division, has been murdered. We don’t have much time to process this as viewers because we dive straight into Zaraki Kenpachi fighting Ichigo, dealing him a grave wound in the process. But why does his Zanpakuto’s human form appear before him? This is the first good look we get into Ichigo’s Zanpakuto. From his flowing cape he summons a bleached (get it) looking version of Ichigo to help him out. They’re working together, with the old man being called Zangetsu and the other Ichigo seeming to have their own will yet also being a part of Zangetsu. After this second wind Ichigo pushes Kenpachi quite a bit and the latter has to remove his eyepatch. Keep in mind he’s supposed to be the strongest captain of the strongest squad. So barring Yamamoto Genryuusai he’s probably the strongest Soul Reaper in the Seireitei. Either way, his second wind isn’t enough to secure the victory and instead the fight ends up in a draw.
It’s the artist formerly known as Zangetsu! He’s here to personally help our boy Ichigo out!
Next up we see Ichigo retrieved by Yoruichi who reveals her (that’s right, her) real form. Turns out she’s a very attractive woman and former leader of the stealth squad. Ichigo then runs off to help Hanataro and Ganju fight against Byakuya but before he’s allowed to do so, Yoruichi intervenes. Due to her interference and Ukitake being present, the worst case scenario is avoided. Ichigo now starts his training to unlock his Bankai, the second state of release that a Zanpakuto has. Elsewhere, Ishida uses his trump card to fight the captain of the twelfth division, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, defeating him but giving up his powers in the process. After being given the antidote to Kurotsuchi’s poison he goes towards Rukia but is quickly defeated by the captain of the ninth division, Kaname Tosen. With Sado, Ganju, Ishida, Inoue, Rukia and Renji all caught in some way by the Soul Reapers, we start the second leg of this arc. I wanted to cover quite a bit in this post because things quickly ramp up from here on out. I’ve left out a few details that I will talk about in the nex post, it just makes more sense to move these around a bit. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I’ll see you next week for the next installment!
One of the coolest characters in this show. No doubt about it.
Hello and welcome to the second installment of my series on the anime Bleach. If you missed my introduction you can find it here. You can skip it if you’re just here for the recaps and don’t care about my sappy introduction but I would appreciate it if you checked it out as well. Today we’re going to be talking about the first part of bleach, spanning the first 20 episodes of the anime. Like any good story, we start at the beginning. The first arc of Bleach mainly covers the basics and introduces us to the cast of characters. I’ll quickly go over the story and then I’ll talk about each of the characters and their powers a little bit, because that’s the important part.
Kurosaki Ichigo and his inconveniently large sword.
Kurosaki Ichigo is a high school student with orange hair, who is able to see ghosts and spirits. He has a father who is a doctor and two younger sisters. His mother died tragically when Ichigo was still young and during this first arc it is revealed she was killed by a rather infamous Hollow; Grand Fisher.
The one who set everything in motion, Kuchiki Rukia.
Ichigo then meets Kuchiki Rukia, a soul reaper, or shinigami. Rukia is wounded and grants him substitute soul reaper powers so that Ichigo can protect his family in her stead. After this fight she stays around. The story then follows Ichigo and Rukia as they fight several Hollows. Eventually Rukia is apprehended by two soul reapers from the illustrious Soul Society. Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Byakuya. Rukia is to be retrieved and put on death row in Soul Society. This first arc ends with Rukia gone and Ichigo gravely wounded. Now it’s up to him and his friends to solve this. Speaking of his friends, let’s introduce the characters I’ve not mentioned yet.
On introduction, Ishida is this very cocky guy who hates soul reapers, but he’s actually a good guy.
Uryuu Ishida is a classmate of Ichigo and is a quincy. Early on in the story we do not learn a lot about what the quincy are, but we get a few tidbits. The quincy are a group of humans who kill hollows. They were at odds with soul reapers and were eradicated a long time ago. It seems like Ishida’s master was able to avoid this. Quincy use a bow that is created from a cross to fight hollows and kill them, whereas soul reapers purify them. Ishida is fairly arrogant and challenges Ichigo to a duel by using Hollow bait. This quickly gets out of hand and leads to the two of them fighting a Menos, which is a huge and terrifying Hollow.
Sado always worries about others before worrying about himself. He’s the definition of a Chad.
During this fight, Yasutora Sado (Chad) awakens his own powers. His arm is coated in a strange armor and he goes from being able to see a vague shape of the hollows to seeing them fully. He already has beastly strength as is demonstrated early on, but he’s a kind soul. His arm makes him even stronger. The armor looks similar to the material a Hollow’s mask is made out of, and it’ll be no surprise to hear that the power has a somewhat similar origin. Also, both Sado and the Hollows have a Spanish origin, with the Hollows coming from a place called Hueco Mundo.
Unfortunately Inoue becomes more and more annoying as the show continues and is frustratingly powerless most of the time.
Another classmate of Ichigo, Inoue Orihime, awakens to strange powers as well. Her hair ornament turns into six small fairies. The fairies each have a name and a power. Three of them make a shield that protects something and rejects everything outside of the shield. Two of them can reject things inside a shield, which amounts to healing power and rejecting damage. The final one rejects things on both sides, basically counting as an attack of sorts. It’s not really explained too well where this power exactly comes from. The fairies say it’s because Ichigo’s spirit power rubbed off on her, but in my opinion it’s one of the more wacky powers in the show. Either way, this power allows Orihime to protect her friends and defeat the Hollow that’s attacking the school.
Captain Kuchiki Byakuya and Lieutenant/Vice Captain (both names seem to be used in the subs I have) Abarai Renji.
Let’s talk about the remaining characters really quickly. Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Byakuya are both sent by the Soul Society to retrieve Rukia from the human world. Renji and Ichigo are fairly evenly matched in a fight but Byakuya is so much more powerful than the both of them that Ichigo is on the ground bleeding out before he realizes what’s going on. Urahara Kisuke is a local vendor who is probably more than he looks, he helps out here and there but mainly just watches as things happen. He has Soul Reaper powers as well, but isn’t shown to use them. Tessai, Ururu and Jinta are working with him at his store as well. He also has a black cat named Yoruichi, who is able to talk.
The entry into Soul Society rejects Urahara.
Urahara trains our protagonists to get ready to enter Soul Society. Where Ishida is off on his own training his quincy abilities, Ichigo is approached and healed by Urahara and his group. He’s now a normal human again. Urahara has absolutely zero chill when it comes to training and it’s rough right from the start. Sado and Orihime are approached by Yoruichi (the black cat that’s friends with Urahara) and the cat leads them to where Ishida is training. They want to help out too and improve their budding spirit powers. Ishida works better on his own though, and he has some secrets of his own. Seeing the two of them definitely motivates him though.
The squad in all its glory. The fate of Rukia is in the hands of these teenagers. I’m sure everything will go great.
And there you have it, a summary of the first 20 episodes of the Bleach anime. The gang’s all ready and powered up to travel to the Soul Society and get Rukia back. I’m sure things will go swimmingly when they arrive and there won’t be any roadblocks. But all of that is for the next installment of this post, when we’ll be talking about the next arc that follows our heroes into Soul Society. I hope this is helping you all up to speed, I’ve been having fun rewatching this show so far and I’m looking forward to the rest of it. Thanks for reading and see you all next time! Leave a like or comment if you enjoyed it.
Opal Kaharis 