A kick ass episode all around i thought. Ichigo's hollow voice is just freaking sweet, and i'd say 6:38 just may be his most bad ass moment in the series so far. Although he made sure to erase all that coolness later![]()
I don't know about anyone else, but i'm so Amped to see Urahara fight. Honestly, there is not a cooler character in the entire show. Just the way the guy talks and carries himslef, he exudes an aura of awesomeness. Apparently the brain damaged Arrancar has taken an intrest in him, so that should be an interesting fight.
One thing thats kind of pissing me off though, in the last episode they showed the soul society "command center" say that they had permission to release their seals, so why the hell haven't they done it? I mean they already know these guys can probably whip them outright at full strength so why wouldn't they do that right off the bat. I suppose it's just a plot mechanic to allow for Urahara's heroic entrance, but still bothersome none the less.
Finaly i must say i was surprised to see them snatch up Inoue so soon. Not a bad surprise mind you, actually rather pleasantly surprised. I just i figured the whole scenario would be a lot more cliche. I knew it would be within the episodes that these fights encompassed, but i figured she'd atleast make it to the battlefield, probably meet up with Ichigo who just finished his fight with Grimmjow likely badly injured, she'd start healing them, then here comes Ulquiorra to snatch her away from a once again powerless Ichigo. That further fuels his desire to get stronger etc.
In anycase, Ulquiorra's whole scene there at the end pretty much propelled him to my top bad guy spot, and i'm looking forward to next weeks episode more than i've looked forward to a Bleach ep. in quite a while.
I like how Ichigo says he can only do it for 11 seconds, but he shoots 3 Getsuga Tenshou's slashes a million times, and stands around some.
aside from the impossibly long eleven seconds, which I can tolerate, the only thing I didn't like was the sheer volume of recap and flashback we got. A full four minutes of recap to start off the episode...
I was totally wrong about Yumichika, I over-estimated him greatly, it seems. I'm so glad Hitsugaya got messed up. I never saw what was so special about him anyway. He couldn't even take ordinary Yammy (who was quite funny this episode, I thought) and then he tries way too late to use his Bankai against Luppi.
Luppi is going to star in many a tentacle themed hentai, yes he will. I was surprised that the guy with the pink scabbard and the rather feminine demeanor turned out to be so interested in Matsumoto. I'm looking forward to him fighting Urahara too (what Crash said was so true, and he's long been my favorite character), but I'm afraid it will be short-lived, once Inoue goes along with Ulqiorra he'll call them back...
I was impressed with Ichigo's Hollow form. Still, if you're banking on winning a fight in eleven seconds, with no back-up plan for if/when that fails, you're worm-food.... ... or you're the star of a shounen series and someone comes to save you at the last minute...
Ulqiorra at the end was awesome. The second those two faceless escort Shinigami showed up, it was obvious they were going to get whacked and Inoue finally abducted. I loved he was like "Silence. The next word out of your mouth is 'yes'." Badass for real.
Also, at crash: I thought Captain Useless Bishounen said something about his limiter already being off, but that he just wasn't taking the enemy seriously enough yet and had to step it up to Bankai if he wanted to do anything good, which he still failed on.
Humans are different from animals. We must die for a reason. Now is the time for us to regulate ourselves and reclaim our dignity. The one who holds endless potential and displays his strength and kindness to the world. Only mankind has God, a power that allows us to go above and beyond what we are now, a God that we call "possibility".
This episode was pure and unadulterated sex... once you looked past the annoying flashbacks, that is! Ulquiorra's speech towards the end is by far and wide my favorite moment so far in Bleach. He managed to effectively shut the overly naive heroine up and for that he is awesomeness incarnate.
Of course, I'm also absolutely enamored by the overly cute and oh so devious Luppi. I loved how he commented on Rangiku's beauty merely to display an evident desire to slice her sexy body into ribbons moments after. Do I smell a bit of jealousy from the adorable Luppi? I think I do! Sadly I fear he might be short lived as he has already exposed his unsheathed form. Then there's the fact that characters I love usually ends up dying all too quickly.
/ No, you warrant no villain's exposition from me.
Funny how the Wonderwice went for Urahara's hat
I was surprised that Ichigo's hollow powers just disappeared after the time was up. I thought that if he needed the powers he would have extended the time or something.. something that happens a lot in shounen series.
The time he had was really sweet, though.
Hitsugaya's defeat was really fast. Very surprising. I think it's only logical, since he didn't train at all since the fight with Shawlong. And he wasn't even an espada and he nearly kicked his ass.
This fight will show them how weak they are.
My Theory on what's going to happen.
Inoue gets captured (duh), and Ulquiorra orders the others to retreat. Ichigo is once again saved from getting killed by Grimmjow. The other shinigami as well. I think we won't see Urahara fight for now.
Somewhere in the future, Orihime has to heal Grimmjow's arm so next time he can fight Ichigo with full power.
Another thing that surprised me: No scenes from next week!
Truly an epic episode.
Hollow Ichigo is the shit.
So is U*. I noticed both him and the retard Arrancar have the same ability where a circle appears around their hand and then something just blows up.
One thing I wondered though, is that when Grimmjow was getting his shit beat around, why the hell didn't he release his Zanpaktou?
I noticed that too. He seemed to be genuinely worried when he barely blocked Ichigo's first attack, but he never transformed... Almost like he didn't have time... But, really, I think it's just to make the ultimate and final Ichigo v. Grimmjow fight that much more epic, and they won't show his release until then. I'd think it's a much closer fight if Grimmjow had released his Zanpaktou.Originally Posted by DarthEnder
Also, and this is something I'm waiting on-
since Arrancar are more or less Hollows with Shinigami ability (sword, release). Wouldn't it make sense for there to be an Arrancar equivalent of Bankai? the guy Ikkaku fought revealed that an Arrancar's Zanpaktou release simply unveils their true form and thus their true power... And I still don't see the benefit of having some of your power sealed away in some sword, no matter how cool it looks. So, I'm still wondering about an Arrancar going Bankai in the future...
I believe it was simply a very fast Cero attack, fast enough (or at least animated fast enough) so that you don't see the actual beam of the attack.So is U*. I noticed both him and the retard Arrancar have the same ability where a circle appears around their hand and then something just blows up.
Also, I agree almost fully with Harima Kenji, except I think Grimm is going to try to finish off Ichigo, until Rukia intervenes. I also doubt Inoue can restore Grimm's arm, as they sounded quite final about it being gone for good and he being a sub-Espada level rival of Ichigo mirrors his rivalry with Renji very well from the Save Rukia arc. Inoue also hasn't been able to heal things that were utterly destroyed. Though, with some Aizen Hougyoukyou (sp?) loving, who knows?
Humans are different from animals. We must die for a reason. Now is the time for us to regulate ourselves and reclaim our dignity. The one who holds endless potential and displays his strength and kindness to the world. Only mankind has God, a power that allows us to go above and beyond what we are now, a God that we call "possibility".
Arrancar Bankai is something i've also wondered about since we saw the first sword release. Like you said it makes sense and we'll likely see it in this arc, but i don't think it will be until the end. My guess is that Ulquiorra has/will probably achieve it and it will be a fight between him and fully mastered hollow ichigo. We'll see i suppose.Originally Posted by masamuneehs
I don't think there's such a thing as an Arrancar bankai. There doesn't need to be. The fact they do have a release at all is probably an artifact left behind by the process of combining a hollow with shinigami traits. Shinigami do have those two distinct releases so it could have been too much of a hassle for Urahara to get rid of the release requirement totally. So, a release was left behind. But in the end the Arrancars should be first and foremost hollows.
Just like the Vaizards seem to gain a power boost, but they aren't exactly growing new appendages or transforming into other grotesque forms.
That episode was kick ass!
It was all about Ulquiorra's speech at the end. It was to the point and pretty cold hearted. It's the kind of thing I expect some bad ass anti-hero to be saying whilst walking with the sun in the background towards his soonly doomed opponant.
Wasn't Chad's arm blown off by Yammi in the manga? I think she can heal everything, as long as there is someting of the source. In this case the source is Grimmjow. The reason she couldn't heal Tsubaki, was that he was destroyed completely.Originally Posted by masamuneehs
Ulquiorra's speech was badass but unnecessary for the most part. It's not like Orihime had any choice but follow. The images Ulquiorra showed were as well unnecessary, but I suppose they could have a psychological effect on a caring person like Orihime. Although even she should know better than to believe a single word from a person who belongs to a group whose aim is to destroy and decimate the whole town and all inhabitants within.
This episode was the the shit. At first I thought the 4 minute flashback was unnecessary, but this one actually did help build up the intense tempo that lasted for the rest of the episode. Packed with action and fast n furious, this is the way Bleach (and Naruto) should be.
I was surprised too that Grimmjow didn't release his zanpaktou, though it naturally makes sense that it will be a part of the epic fight between him and Ichigo. However does this mean that the main showdown with Aizen will be be with someone else? Kisuke? Ichigo's dad? Ishida's dad?
That's someone else that I can't wait to jump in, Ishida. I'm sure he's going to have a kick ass powerup himself, not to mention the power his dad will bring to the table.
I think Luppi is up for being bisexual right now, no longer gay.
As everyone is saying, U-Man's speech at the end was really good. The man acted like a total pimp.
I hope wonderwice becomes Espada 1... that'd equal Grimlock ruling the autobots in awesomeness!
I don't think Aizen is the "final boss" of this arc. Because they described all that stuff with the Court of the Soul King and the only way we'll see any of that is if Aizen succeeds in opening a doorway there. Which would be a whole different story arc.Originally Posted by DB_Hunter
I think the Espada are the primary villains of this arc.
Great episode. Luppi is awesome. I used to have him as my avatar on msn plus before the shit called msn live came out and ruined big avatars... (when Luppi was introduced in the manga).
But, even though Ichigo kicked ass, I hated his 11-second power. And people complained of Sakura's two minutes against Sasori in Naruto... heck...
I could understand that Grimmjow having his arm cut off for his behavior in a previous episode but how come he didn't heal it back?
I can't fully remember if it was just decapitated or "evaporated" but having great power and all, why not see the arrancar medic like yammy did and get it replaced?
sidenote- I'm in ditto with Harima Kenji's theory for what's to come but I don't think Aizen would go to such a length to take Orhime just for Grimmjow's recovery
Do you just watch the pictures go by or read the text in these epsidoes?Originally Posted by djblingsingh
When Yammy was getting his arm put back on Ulquiorra said that he was lucky that they still had the arm so it could be put back on UNLIKE Grimmjow, implying he could not so simply recover it.
The thing with Orhime healing Grimmjow seems probable to me. Obviously Aizen did not get her just for that but it will allow for a much more epic battle for Grimmjow's death.
The Vizard that she worked with said it was possible for her, this should mean that with more "training" she will be able to do it. That ability should be realized within this arc I'm sure.Inoue also hasn't been able to heal things that were utterly destroyed.