Bleach 119

[Animeniax]

@kraco: good points, maybe I'm just in a bad mood and had higher hopes for non-filler episodes. I can see validity in his reasons for not revealing bankai, but I'm not totally convinced. Losing to a ryoka is just too shameful.

Ikkaku is a slow starter. He doesn't have particularly insane reiatsu like Kenpachi, but he does have Kenpachi's passion for a good fight.

Ichigo didn't have an easy time with any of his fights in soul society. That's what made them exciting. If he just calmly demolished someone like Byakuya did to Ganju, it would be pretty dull. One-sided fights aren't particularly interesting.

Ikkaku was Ichigo's first fight against a ranked SS opponent and he was relatively weak when they fought, but Ichigo was still able to beat him even against Ikkaku's shikai. I can't say for sure if Ikkaku can sense his opponent's power level, but you might be right about him not taking his opponent seriously enough. I have to go back and watch, but the fight might have ended before Ikkaku even had a chance to consider revealing his bankai.

@mae: what made you think they joined not long after SS was founded? I didn't see anything to suggest that.

[Kraco]

I can see validity in his reasons for not revealing bankai, but I'm not totally convinced. Losing to a ryoka is just too shameful.

That's true. It's indeed a somewhat open point, unless Complich's theory is the truth.

Of course it could also be that Ikkaku held something back (like a bankai) at the end giving Kenpachi thus a chance to fight. But that doesn't sound like a very plausible theory at all...

[Testarossa Autodrive]

Having just watched the dubbed episode on Adult Swim, I've come to some conjecture (and agreement with some of you) that it might've been Ikkaku had simply underestimated his opponent. When you're in the mindset of enjoying the fight, I don't believe you're really focused on winning so much as having a good time doing it. I'm sure Ikkaku believed that Ichigo wasn't all that powerful, which would lead him to underestimate his opponent's skill/luck (whatever you wanna call it), but when they showed him running towards Ichigo and Ichigo imagined fighting/training with Urahara, there must have been some drawing in of that insane power resting inside.

Keep in mind that Ikkaku had been training for years before this, as were the rest of his colleagues. But Ichigo's power and skill shot through the roof in such a short time; way more than any Shinigami in Soul Society. This is also a plausible excuse for the reason he beat Ikkaku so easily.

[dragonrage]

Well I am glad that you all have found a new favorite character, I must say that you that you have all made a very good choice.

Bankai...... the first time i saw his bankai on a manga page (by accident, since i don't read the manga) I was very impressed, and I must say that I was not disappointed at all.

Well the next episode seems to be one filled with comic relief and lessened tension so well heres to episode 120, can't wait to see how Ichigo reacts (finally).

[Dark Dragon]

While this episode was very good, it made me worry. In the future, this might compromise any real background story that has something to do with Ikkaku, Yumichika, Kenpachi and Yachiru. I wonder if that mean Bleach might skip the last arc due to the anime and manga storyline conflicting.

[anime nomad]

excellent episode.

i dont think it out of character that renji acted so meek with ikkaku, in flash backs during the SS arc, Renji was very eager to please and seemed a bit of a clutz in classes. he developed confidence later on.
what i did find strange was that renji himself was not considered for captain seat, since at the time that he asked ikkaku to be captain, he also had his bankai. (although now that i think about it, i dont think byakyuya would have endorsed his captaincy, something about it being years too early for him to fight with bankai)

[itadakimasu]

seeing yachiru makes me think about how badly i want to see if she has any power at all, or if she is just kenpachi's companion...

[Munsu]

Yamichika, during the Soul Society arc, said that Ikkaku was the third strongest of the unit, so we can only assume that she indeed is strong.

[Kraco]

Yeah. And we have seen a few scenes with the lesser shinigami clearly even afraid of her (just like they are afraid of any the higher, named shinigami), so that's also an indication she has other considerable skills in addition to the head bite.

[DB_Hunter]

I think we saw some of her reiatsu just as the Ichigo vs Kenpachi fight was finishing. The part I'm referring to is when a messenger, sent by Yamamoto I think, wanted to deliver a message to Kenpachi. She told him to go away but when continued to insist she started to get angry.

[complich8]

Consider the analogy to DBZ's gravity training. Normally, people live in normal gravity, and tend to be fairly weak. But if you lived in 1.5x gravity, you'd naturally have a higher base strength.

Being in the presence of someone with a significant reiatsu is stressful. Even people with some reasonable amount of it (Nanao near the Yamamoto fight, Ganju around Kenpachi and Byakuya) are stressed by the presence of significantly stronger reiatsus. Not dissimilar to dumping a normal person into a significantly higher gravity environment ... the victim can barely move, barely breathe, barely think. They're just not strong enough to resist that pressure.

Now, Ichigo's friends generally have reiatsu unlike the average human (eg: Tatsuki and Keigo being able to see hollows and shinigami) just as a result of exposure to his pre-shinigami reiatsu leakage.

Now, you figure, Kenpachi's longtime companion is Yachiru. She's been either at his side or riding on his back for basically as long as she's existed. If Ichigo's baseline reiatsu leakage was a 1.5, the even with the eyepatch, Kenpachi's base leakage is like a 50 -- so high that post-shinigami, pre-bankai Ichigo had to focus all of his active reiatsu to be able to hurt him. Given that such a base strength is taxing to people near it, and using the gravity-training analogy, you might as well think of Yachiru as having lived in dbz-style 50x gravity for her entire life.

In other words, she's really, really strong. Strong enough that Kenpachi's uncontained bursts of reiatsu don't phase her in the least. In the whole series, ichigo and the hollow in him are a big wildcard, but I think Yachiru is just as much of one.

[Kraco]

A very good theory. However, I think it's not only because of the exposure to Zaraki's reiatsu. She must have had some latent powers to begin with, or I don't think Kenpachi would have paid her that much attention and went through the trouble of taking care of a baby.

But no doubt she was made stronger because of the situation you described. We know that happens, after all.

[NeoCybercoin]

I really wish to see that sometime. To see just how powerfull she really is. She is way younger then Hitsugaya but if you compare him to her at the same age you could say that she could become more powerfull then him at the end.

[Animeniax]

I'd imagine Yachiru is an incredible fighter as well. A large part of being in Kenpachi's 11th squad is having the ability to fight, and I mean with brute strength, not with demon magic or special Zanpaketou abilities. Remember way back when Yamichika was fighting Lieutenant Oba(sp?), and he said he would reveal his sword's abilities, but to keep it quiet since 11th squad hates flashy Zanpaketou techniques? So unless Kenpachi and the rest of 11th squad are lenient of having a weak lieutenant, then Yachiru is strong.

Plus what complich8 said .

I have a question though: how long will she continue to act like a little kid? I'd figure she's like the little girl from "Interview With a Vampire": child's body, adult's mind. Maybe she's perma-brain-damaged from all the violence she saw as a child.

[DB_Hunter]

I think there was a something Yachiru made Kenpachi realise, I can't remember what it was. I'll try and check up on the eps where they were telling Kenpachi's backstory to see what it was. I think thats why Yachiru always hangs around with Kenpachi.

Speaking of wildcards, I think there a lot of potential in most characters in Bleach. That said, the person I want to see fight seriously is Kisuke. If I had to pick a favourite character I would choose him... he just seems so chilled out and you don't really know what he can do as he never bigs himself up.

[Inazuma]

I Want to see Ise Nanao's Shikai Daaamnnnn

[masamuneehs]

as for Yachiru always being a child... I didn't see her as any more grown-up in the Soul Society arc than in this flashback. I mean, maybe she got a little more vocabulary, but that's just experience...

I always thought that whatever age you were when you died was your age in Soul Society, end of story. Otherwise Yachiru just doesn't make sense... The noted exception to this was seen with Soi Fong and her backstory, where she clearly grew up as time went on in Soul Society. So, now that I think about it, I'm just plain confused...

anyone have any ideas?

[DB_Hunter]

Yea, they just all age very, very slowly. I think it was said during a conversation to Ichigo during the SS arc that Rukia is like a couple of hundred years older than him.

[Kraco]

It has been a while, but wasn't Yachiru barely a toddler in the flashback of her and Zaraki's meeting? I don't think she even understood people had been slaughtered around her, and she had no idea what the blood all around was.

I don't think aging makes much sense at all in SS. I've a feeling it would be an issue that would leak like a sieve if studied more closely.

[RasenDori]

correct me if my wrong manga readers, but didnt renji teach ikkaku how to attain bankai in the manga? i thought this episode was a strange deviation from the original.