Bleach 168

[immortal squish]

DB sub of the new Bleach is released! Waiting on bittorrent to deliver the goods...

http://www.dattebayo.com/t/b168.torrent

edit:

And so the fillers begin...

[slight spoiler]

Man, one of the things hate about fillers is they try to fit too much story into a single episode, and then drag out boring crap later because they're out of material.

I think the story would have been better had they stayed with the 3rd Squad versus new captain drama. Maybe had Kifune actually fight for the third seat, and make everyone think the captain was a douche for a while.

We'll see where they go with it, though. I actually thought the Bounto arc was watchable (better than Naruto's recent non-filler episodes by FAR), so maybe this one will rate similarly.

[/spoiler]

[obake]

Just finished watching it. Man, this filler arc is gonna be rough.

*shudders*

[LaZie]

Pretty good first episode of the filler arcs. I like the new captain. I also like the opening. Who sings it?

[Sam98034]

Is it me or have menos just have been completely wussified in Bleach? Before it seemed like they were really really strong. Now that we know there are two classes above them, suddenly they are easy one-hitters. It really downplays when Ichigo managed to scare one off in the real world when he was first starting out. It kind of ruins the show a little.

[Niner4959]

Damn, they used the second movie's soundtrack like a hoe.

[DarthEnderX]

....

what the hell just happened?!

One minute, Ichigo is fighting Grimmjow and the next....fillers?!


I've heard of awkward filler placement before but jesus!

[yapchagi]

....

what the hell just happened?!

One minute, Ichigo is fighting Grimmjow and the next....fillers?!


I've heard of awkward filler placement before but jesus!

Exactly...
How will they connect the fillers and the story later ...right after Ichigo finished fighting Grimjow.

[Inazuma]

There's only one reaction that could fit 168 ...

" Wait, wat ? "

[Dark Dragon]

There is also the fact that they freaking threw this filler in right in the MIDDLE of renji / ishida vs no 8 fight. I have no idea how this is going to fit in and somehow teleport us back right into hueco mundo without looking extremely forced.

[Nintendo]

nice begining for a filler arc but i realy don't know where this arc fits in time does it happen between huco mondo arc and bounto arc or during huco mondo arc OR may be it's an arc which is like a long OVA (i'm with this more).
but it was nice to see more of the 13 squad captains coz we want to know more about them and their vice-captains

[Archangel]

Well i enjoyed this first episode but i'm confused about a couple of things:

- Just when does this happen? I originally thought it took place in soul society while the main cast fought in las nueches but it looks like it takes place somewhere between the bount arc and the arrancar arc since chad's arm is still in its second stage and ichigo doesn't seem to be able to use his mask just yet

- Does the captian have 2 zampaktous? Is that thing he used even a zampaktou? It looks weird and i didn't really get why he cleaned it with the napkins after using it...

- Is it me or does the third seat guy look like Szayel Apollo?

- If they could send the train looking thing to kill the menos why did they send the third squad instead? Or does that thing pop out randomly?

Well, if my time frame assumption is correct i hope we can see more of Hichigo and some inner fights to see who takes over ichigo's body.

Overall, i think i'm gonna enjoy this arc very much :D

[RyougaZell]

This filler arc doesn't seem so bad at first glance.
Also... see it as an 'alternate story' that will never fit on the main story. The new captain will probably die or quit at the end.
They themselves said it 2 times already... they are taking a PAUSE between the hueco mundo arc.

See the bright side. You won't see the filler characters again after the arc ends (contrary to the Soul Mods of the Bounto Arc)

[Uberbaka]

Did you guys not see the golden cup or whatever it's called at the end of the last episode?

They were pretty much admitting they were just sticking filler in the middle of the plot without any shame or implication on the story. They're blatantly just going to go right back as if this never happened.

And at this point it really is a matter of A) Screwing up the main storyline B) Putting the anime on hold for a year or C) Fillers.

Seeing as they can't put it on hold since it'll just get forgotten and replaced by the next (shonen is it?) anime, the fillers that don't screw up the story doesn't seem too bad. Although I'm not sure if I can be bothered watching it, I hate the filler characters that remained and I felt the bounto arc is a letdown compared to SS and HM ones.

[Jessper]

The people complaining make it seem as if it would be more reasonable to have them all suddenly escape Hueco Mundo and do the arc then come back, what a joke. This was the best way to go into fillers given their position.


Is it me or have menos just have been completely wussified in Bleach?

Ya, I agree with this. It was pretty silly how easily they went down. Such is fillers I suppose.

With an opening just for this arc we can be sure that we will be here for some time. I just hope it isn't like Naruto's filler break.

[Chiodos]

Not just fillers. The Menos have recently become dry cannon fodder in lack for other "strong" oppontents.

[Archangel]

Well duh? If you recall just regular hollows were badass in the first episodes but they don't look very tough now do they? Menos were great to show ichigo's power when he still had his sword released but they're pretty useless now

[Chiodos]

I do get it if it is quite hard to acutally come up with a sub type of Hollow wich has to be less in strength than a Arrancar or some sort.
Wich makes me ask! This new filler villian, the...uuh..ninja. I guess that theres someone above him but we all know that ninjas are all cannnon fodder ^^!

[Niner4959]

We've all heard of atomic episodes before, this is looking to be an atomic arc.

Oh, let's see, if they can shut down the Cleaners... then they should be able to TURN IT ON and let it sweep up the menos like it was during the episode. But nah, let's risk getting a whole bunch of shimi's killed for nothing.

I swear this filler material is like street sharks shit.

[obake]

Is it me or have menos just have been completely wussified in Bleach? Before it seemed like they were really really strong. Now that we know there are two classes above them, suddenly they are easy one-hitters. It really downplays when Ichigo managed to scare one off in the real world when he was first starting out. It kind of ruins the show a little.

They're forgotten a lot of stuff from the beginning.

First, as you mentioned, Menos were totally badass at the beginning. Now we've got 30 of them that are getting killed by a bunch of no-names? What the hell?

Second, it seems like everybody can fly now (at the beginning, they were just taking big jumps, weren't they?).

Third, at the beginning, didn't they have to cut a hollow's mask in half to destroy it? They certainly don't bother with that anymore.

[Y]

They're forgotten a lot of stuff from the beginning.

First, as you mentioned, Menos were totally badass at the beginning. Now we've got 30 of them that are getting killed by a bunch of no-names? What the hell?

Second, it seems like everybody can fly now (at the beginning, they were just taking big jumps, weren't they?).

Third, at the beginning, didn't they have to cut a hollow's mask in half to destroy it? They certainly don't bother with that anymore.

The entire idea of what a hollow is changed drastically from the beginning of the series to when we first meet Hollow Ichigo - namely the Hollowfication process switched from changing you into a hollow to you basically being possessed by one and taken over. The former would be way more interesting.

[Archangel]

First, there were like 50 shinigami and the menos were coming in separate groups so it was basically about 10 shinigami versus 1 menos, i'd say that still makes them pretty badass

Second, your guess is as good as mine i don't even remember when they started flying i guess it was just something they added for practical reasons

Third, the only reason they attacked the mask was because it was a clean and easy way to finish a hollow, yet going for a cero spitting head when your such a low level shinigami may prove to be a bad idea. However you may notice that the lieutenant does go for the mask since he has enough skill.

I hope this helped.

[Jessper]

First, there were like 50 shinigami and the menos were coming in separate groups so it was basically about 10 shinigami versus 1 menos, i'd say that still makes them pretty badass

Erm.. wow

There were 30 Menos, that is a little over one and a half shinigami to a menos if your claim of 50 is right (it makes more sense really to have much less than 50 in a squad) but they also said to split into groups of 4 so they would have 4 to each Menos (putting us at 120 shinigami) unless they were meaning like 4 menos would be attacked at a time.

The whole numbers game in this episode was off.

When they talked about Menos in the first bunch of episodes they said that a having a captain there to fight them was a good idea, now groups of 4 (some with all no-names) take them out almost with out a thought.

[Archangel]

Actually when it comes to menos it's been said that they pose no problem to a lieutenant level shinigami so it's not so far fetched that 5 regular shinigami could take one of them out specially if those had ranked seats. And although there were 30 menos they came separately what gave the shinigami a good chance to take them out fairly easily.

[obake]

The entire idea of what a hollow is changed drastically from the beginning of the series to when we first meet Hollow Ichigo - namely the Hollowfication process switched from changing you into a hollow to you basically being possessed by one and taken over. The former would be way more interesting.

Ichigo is a special case, though. He basically became a Hollow (IIRC, the chain dissolved completely), but forcibly interrupted the process due to his extreme will, becoming a shinigami. He's almost more of an arrancar than a vizard, at that: having lost his shinigami powers, he became a Hollow first, then became a shinigami, same as an arrancar, whereas a vizard is someone who already has shinigami powers and obtains Hollow powers.

Meanwhile, normal Hollows, as I gather, are still formed the same way in that they've always been: a soul gets too attached to the earth, its chain gets eaten and it becomes a Hollow. After that, they can freely travel between Earth and Hueco Mundo (as I gather), but the weaker ones can choose to just stay in Hueco Mundo as the ambient soul energy there is enough to sustain them.

I don't see any possession going around (again, Ichigo is a special case), but maybe I'm just missing something.

[obake]

Third, the only reason they attacked the mask was because it was a clean and easy way to finish a hollow, yet going for a cero spitting head when your such a low level shinigami may prove to be a bad idea. However you may notice that the lieutenant does go for the mask since he has enough skill.

I hope this helped.

Right, but I always thought that the only way to kill a Hollow, period, was to split its mask. I always thought attacks to other parts of the body would weaken a Hollow, but only splitting the mask would kill it. *shrugs*

I do agree, though: a low-level shinigami going straight into a Cero would be a decidedly bad idea!

[Archangel]

U must be confusing it with what rukia said on a earlier episode, that when killing a hollow you should go for the mask since its an instant death if you cut through it .


He's almost more of an arrancar than a vizard, at that: having lost his shinigami powers, he became a Hollow first, then became a shinigami, same as an arrancar, whereas a vizard is someone who already has shinigami powers and obtains Hollow powers.


Well according to the vaizards if it's not exact the process in which ichigo got his hollow powers is very similar to the one the rest of them went through to get theirs.

[Sam98034]

Ichigo and Ishida could not even damage the menos at all in the begining. Arrows and sword hits just kind of bounced off. When Ichigo finally unleashed that sword technique it finally backed off because it was slightly injured. Now these no names can apparently do more damage with one normal slash than Ichigo did when unleashing his sword. And btw, wasn't that first one a lot bigger too? Maybe it's just me, but have menos become smaller?

[itadakimasu]

There's only one reaction that could fit 168 ...

" Wait, wat ? "

exactly...

This is where its hard to not give out any spoilers.... are they completely breaking from the manga here? because i really don't see how they can redeem the story line now... wtf.

ok, enough bitching. I'm going to watch the ep now...

[Jessper]

exactly...

This is where its hard to not give out any spoilers.... are they completely breaking from the manga here? because i really don't see how they can redeem the story line now... wtf.

ok, enough bitching. I'm going to watch the ep now...

It will take you all of 5 minutes to see that they took care of that. The episode isn't great but they are keeping the manga story line in a spot that they can return to it easily.

[Chiodos]

exactly...

This is where its hard to not give out any spoilers.... are they completely breaking from the manga here? because i really don't see how they can redeem the story line now... wtf.

ok, enough bitching. I'm going to watch the ep now...

They could actually just pop in the manga storyline as they pop out of it.
No wait.. wtf? Exaclty how are they going to pop in?

[DarthEnderX]

Basically it seems like they're going "We're gonna stop telling you this story, and start telling you a story that happened some other time, then we'll come right back to this point."

It's be like if the Run, Idate arc aired right after Kimimaru died in Naruto.

[Chiodos]

Wich basicly is quite fine. An enourmus plus is that, if I did get it right, they left out all the extremly annoying comic relief characters. And not just the current ones.

To keep this filler arc interesting they could add some minor, minor spoilers to the upcomming future, like cock teasers, just to keep this in line.

OR do some badass, nonses battles but that seems to be to far fetched..

Edit

[redcat]

ever think this filler stuff could be going on while ichigo is in HM?

[Chiodos]

Not really. The OP is proof enough.

[Inazuma]

itadakimasu - Thank you kind sir.


Lately, Bleach has been easy on the eye, with some badass fights and was moving forward with plot dev and all ...

But ... 168 ... is just ...

Let's say you go to a fine restaurant ;
- You come in, it smells nice, everything looks good (Agent of the Shinigami arc)
- You get yourself a tasty entrée(Soul Society)
- Next the main course, but you gotta wait and because there's too many orders you get yourself bread that tastes like paper with salt for your wait( Bount Arc )
- Heres comes the great main course (Arrancar & HM Arc)

What you would expect next, is the desert, or some more tasty food ...

- The chef comes and farts in your face ( The New Captain Shuusuke Amagai arc )

According to Wikipedia it will last for 5 Eps.

[Archangel]

According to Wikipedia it will last for 5 Eps.

They said the exact same thing about naruto but isn't 5 episodes too short for a new opening and ending?

[sl00ke]

the soundtrack for this reminds me of melrose place.......

[Chiodos]

Maybe they meant the filler will remain for 5 years....

[Kraco]

According to Wikipedia it will last for 5 Eps.

What did wikipedia mention as the source of that information?

I'd check myself but I'll stay far away from those pages, because I'm not reading the manga. Who knows what kind of spoilers lurk there.

[Archangel]

I'd check myself but I'll stay far away from those pages, because I'm not reading the manga. Who knows what kind of spoilers lurk there.

U have no idea... Spoilers'r'us

Well if i'm not mistaken they believe it will be 5 eps long because that's the number of episodes that have been given a title in wikipedia

You can check here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bleach_episodes), don't worry it's spoiler free.

[Jessper]

If people are right and they have ~6 episodes of manga material before they catch up then 5 episodes really is not enough. Also, they only have the next 5 episode titles, if they had a 6th that sounded like it was going back to the regular story line it would make more sense.

[Archangel]

I've checked, they have about 34 chapters in advance right now. It's not much if you compare it to naruto ( they have like 100 chapters plus the filler right now...) but it isn't so bad. A good 3 month filler arc should be just about enough to give the creator the time he needs and besides this arc doesn't look too shabby :D

[DarthEnderX]

Well, this arc with the new captain seems pretty shabby, but the other obvious storyline that seems to be in the opening seems much better.

[Archangel]

Well, this arc with the new captain seems pretty shabby, but the other obvious storyline that seems to be in the opening seems much better.

Won't those two be related? I doubt we'll see more episodes of him getting drunk and fighting hollows so i'm guessing he'll co-star with ichigo in some kind of quest to save the chibi "princess" from some unknown evil.

[kmkze04]

As long as that one filler ghost king buhahahahaha dude doesn't ever ever show his face again... I'll be ok with the fillers.

[Chiodos]

Him, I'm fine with but it would be hundreds of more pain in the ..ash if The Dolls were to show up.

[DarthEnderX]

As long as that one filler ghost king buhahahahaha dude doesn't ever ever show his face again... I'll be ok with the fillers.I actually like those episodes. Mainly for gathering up all the "kids" and telling little stories about them. Especially since we know now that Ururu is freakishly powerful. Karakura Pink 4tw!

[Chiodos]

Oh yeah... Urahah's gang... I totally forgot about them! I actually do now wonder how they fit in the story, why they are so powerful.

And on top of it all, why the hell them?