Bleach 118

[masamuneehs]

the legend of 11th Squad continues to grow! "Fearless" indeed... doesn't hurt that he's got bloodlust like woah!

Arrancars' having releases didn't seem likely to me at first, since I originally understood Shikai and Bankai as drawing upon the power of the Zanpaktou to aid the fighter. But it seems that there is no Zanpaktou-spirit-type entity connected with the Hollow's Zanpaktou's. Like Edmundo (sp?) said, they're more like limiters that let the Arrancar go to full power when released.

something tells me the Bankai equivalent for Arrancars is going to be something wicked...

I am still worried what Yumikichika meant about preparing for Ikkaku's funeral. I guess his Bankai release might use so much energy when used in the Real World that it winds up fatally wounding him or something. I'd hate to see baldy go...

(and it really looks like he will, since the preview for next episode seems to be all flashbacks about his past... When, amidst a crazy battle like I'm sure everyone's fighting, they focus on a minor character, at the height of his struggle, for a background episode... that just always seems to be a sign that they're about to kill the poor guy off...)

I realize they haven't killed a substantial Soul Society character yet (not even that hoe Hinamori), but something's nagging at me about Ikkaku's chances...

Rukia is down!

[Kensee]

the legend of 11th Squad continues to grow! "Fearless" indeed... doesn't hurt that he's got bloodlust like woah!

Arrancars' having releases didn't seem likely to me at first, since I originally understood Shikai and Bankai as drawing upon the power of the Zanpaktou to aid the fighter. But it seems that there is no Zanpaktou-spirit-type entity connected with the Hollow's Zanpaktou's. Like Edmundo (sp?) said, they're more like limiters that let the Arrancar go to full power when released.

something tells me the Bankai equivalent for Arrancars is going to be something wicked...

I am still worried what Yumikichika meant about preparing for Ikkaku's funeral. I guess his Bankai release might use so much energy when used in the Real World that it winds up fatally wounding him or something. I'd hate to see baldy go...

(and it really looks like he will, since the preview for next episode seems to be all flashbacks about his past... When, amidst a crazy battle like I'm sure everyone's fighting, they focus on a minor character, at the height of his struggle, for a background episode... that just always seems to be a sign that they're about to kill the poor guy off...)

I realize they haven't killed a substantial Soul Society character yet (not even that hoe Hinamori), but something's nagging at me about Ikkaku's chances...

Rukia is down!

Rukia pulled a Sakura ^.^

Haha, I can see what you mean by the flashbacks foreshadowing something, I hope this is just a flash back when the battle ends, Baldy just rocks =(.

Grimmjow just seems crazy, I wonder how Ichigo will respond, or if he'll go berserk after seeing Rukia get taken down.

Ikkaku wins best poses (really, the animation was pretty good):


Edit: PICTURE SPOILERS AHEAD! (though if you read every post up until now, you already got spoiled =P):


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Here goes:

Sexy

Bad-assed

Crazy

Epic

[itadakimasu]

Rukia pulled a Sakura ^.^

Haha, I can see what you mean by the flashbacks foreshadowing something, I hope this is just a flash back when the battle ends, Baldy just rocks =(.

Grimmjow just seems crazy, I wonder how Ichigo will respond, or if he'll go berserk after seeing Rukia get taken down.

Ikkaku wins best poses (really, the animation was pretty good):


Edit: PICTURE SPOILERS AHEAD! (though if you read every post up until now, you already got spoiled =P):


.
.
.
.
.
.



Here goes:

Sexy

Bad-assed


Crazy

Epic

Hehe, i really enjoyed this episode; especially when ikkaku landed on one of volcanicas arms and was cutting through it, had me so pumped. Although, now im wondering how many more episodes / weeks will it be until we see ichigo fighting w\ grimmjow... the preview at end of the ep made it look like next weeks will be a continuation of the ikkaku fight and then after that they may be showing renji or toushiro fighting.

BANKAI !! !!

[DDBen]

This episode was great easily my favorite post filler episode. I can't help but be excited about the rest of the battles in this Arc now.Ikkaku needs to get used more he is certainly one of the most flavorful characters and would be a welcome change over many that we have to see over and over due to popularity.

[darkshadow]

great ep, but im suprised nobody really paid attention to what yumichika said *wink* *wink*

[Conders]

great ep, but im suprised nobody really paid attention to what yumichika said *wink* *wink*

I agree. However I don't dare to comment on them in fear of spoiling since I've read the manga. Anyway this fight was just awesome to see animated, and I really liked the way they animated the Arrancar release, and made Ikkaku (if possible) even more badass than Kenpachi.

[Munsu]

When Yumi said prepare for the funeral, I don't think he was counting on Ikkaku using his Bankai, I think he thought Ikkaku would lose. For some reason Ikkaku wants to keep his bankai hidden from other Shinigami, at least that's what I infer by Ikkaku saying that "since everyone else is occupied, I don't think they'll notice" and then he used his bankai.

I wonder if Yumi can also do bankai, if I remember correctly he was suppose to be seat number 3 in the division, but Ikkaku, his friend, already had that posistion so he chose seat number 5 for some wierd reason.

Anyways, Ikkaku just became a very cool character and Kubo has to milk it for all its worth, so I can't see him killing him off just now.

What's cool also is that since Ikkaku is not a Vice-Captain or above, he probably has nothing restraining his reiatsu in the real world, so we'll probably going to see his full potential.

[Kensee]

When Yumi said prepare for the funeral, I don't think he was counting on Ikkaku using his Bankai, I think he thought Ikkaku would lose. For some reason Ikkaku wants to keep his bankai hidden from other Shinigami, at least that's what I infer by Ikkaku saying that "since everyone else is occupied, I don't think they'll notice" and then he used his bankai.

I wonder if Yumi can also do bankai, if I remember correctly he was suppose to be seat number 3 in the division, but Ikkaku, his friend, already had that posistion so he chose seat number 5 for some wierd reason.

Anyways, Ikkaku just became a very cool character and Kubo has to milk it for all its worth, so I can't see him killing him off just now.

I wouldn't be surprised if he could, he seem to know of Ikkaku's bankai and probably has one of his own that he keeps hidden.

[DeathscytheVII]

so he chose seat number 5 for some wierd reason.

I think in his own words, he chose five because four looked ugly and five's character was the closest that resembled a three haha.

Anyways, wow, 11th squad owns. If Ikkaku already has a bankai, i wonder what's stopping Kenpachi from releasing his soon

And Grimjow freaking owns! He's like a crazier, insane and psychotic grown up version of hitsugaya

[ForteCross]

kenpachi cant use bankai... he doesnt know his zanpaktou's name... so he cant even use shikai (i think that was the second form of their swords... cant remember...)

[StillAlive]

Hell yes! This is the best Bleach ep since ages! Ikkaku is just some really big badass. I hope he won't die because now he is definitely one of the greatest characters.

kenpachi cant use bankai... he doesnt know his zanpaktou's name... so he cant even use shikai (i think that was the second form of their swords... cant remember...)

Don't know about it but I always thought Zaraki's zanpakuto is constantly released 'cause of his high spirit pressure, just like Ichigo's. On the other hand he doesn't know its name so I could be wrong.

[Sporklover]

Is it just me or does Byakuya's smile is kinda scary? It sent chills down my back...

[RyougaZell]

I wouldn't be surprised if he could, he seem to know of Ikkaku's bankai and probably has one of his own that he keeps hidden.

Well... Yumichika's Shikai is also -secret-. Remeber how he defeated Isagi with it during the Soul Society arc. And Isagi is a Vice-Captain.

[RedX1z]

i've been thinking about it, and came up with only one conclusion. he didn't release his bankai form until now, because if everyone in soul society knew he had a bankai, he'd probably get recommendations to try out for the captain slot, but probably didn't want to, because he wanted to be loyal and stay near his captain. as weird and random that may sound.

anyways, the episode was pretty awesome. the concentration on the fight and the fight itself was crazily done. ikkaku has one huge ass bankai, though.

as for next weeks episode, it looks like a flash back which i'm not fond of, but then again, i'm probably wrong and looked at it the wrong way.

[DarthEnderX]

i've been thinking about it, and came up with only one conclusion. he didn't release his bankai form until now, because if everyone in soul society knew he had a bankai, he'd probably get recommendations to try out for the captain slot, but probably didn't want to, because he wanted to be loyal and stay near his captain. as weird and random that may sound..

This is exactly what I was thinking. If SS knew he had Bankai, they'd try and make him a Captain or Vice-Captain of some other squad. And it's obvious he'd rather stay in Kenpachi's squad. I'm not sure if it's out of loyalty or not, or if he just likes being in the psychotic fighter squad.

[DB_Hunter]

Wow what a badass ep. Totally in another league to fillers and probably one of the best non-filler eps too. I think this ep single handedly propels Bleach to the top of the anime battle between Bleach and Naruto for the moment.

I liked the way the fights wern't mixed/spliced together. It makes the action much more consistent and enjoyable this way. I think when the mixing method was used in Naruto just now with the Gaara fight and the Kakashi scenario spoilt things a bit.

Man Ikkaku's has officially become an insane cool dude, It would be interesting to know when he attained bankai, as for reasons already mentioned in this thread.

As impressive as his Bankai looks, one of the first things I thought was what the hell is Zaraki Kenpachi's release going to be like if he does it? I kind of thought that Zaraki was permanantly in Shikai like Ichigo, but come to think about it Ichigo only got to Shikai when he found out the name of his zanpaktou. So basically, damn.... Zaraki has yet to show even his Shikai yet, forget Bankai. Apart from Ichigo and with his potential, I think Zaraki is definitely a candidate for kicking Aizen's ass if he manages to release his zanpaktou.

[anime nomad]

OMG this episode was amazing!

1.

Arrancars' having releases didn't seem likely to me at first, since I originally understood Shikai and Bankai as drawing upon the power of the Zanpaktou to aid the fighter. But it seems that there is no Zanpaktou-spirit-type entity connected with the Hollow's Zanpaktou's. Like Edmundo (sp?) said, they're more like limiters that let the Arrancar go to full power when released.

not exactly true, if i remember correctly the zampakto is forged from the wielders soul, and is a manifestation of the souls desire to cut (zaraki mentioned some thing to this effect in his fight with ichigo, as well as byakuya in thier first fight when he cut ichigo's sword in half). the zampakto is part of the soul of the wielder and reflects the will of the wielder, a release of a zampakto is obtained by understanding your soul better. the closer you come to understanding/accepting your soul the more power you release from within your self. as ichigo said, the only person who can teach him to use zangetsu is zangetsu.
so if you belive what i've said so far, then the difference in a shinigami's zampakto and a arancar zampakto is moot. both are manifestations of the wielders souls, the manifestations differ, i think, because of the difference in souls of the arancar and shinigami, or really just the difference in souls of any two individuals.
i also believe it too early to say that there is no spirit-type entity for arancar, the fact that his zampakto has a name(volcania - *sounds like a chick to me*) implies an entity.
- my two cents on that issue
(sorry about the mystical-mumbo-jumbo post, as always feel free to disagree.)

2.
Madarame Ikaku ROCKS! his bankai looks weird (mainly cause i can't figure out where that 3rd blade floating behind him is attached to). makes you think though, if ikaku has bankai, and he is 3rd seat, how powerful is yachiru? zaraki doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would have yachiru as his lieutenant just cause they been together for long, i mean zaraki respects strength. yachiru is probably kiduo based, but she must be hella strong if ikaku can't beat her.
3. i'm really starting to dig yamichika(sp?), he seems pretty cool and he wasn't supprised by ikaku's bankai, seems he already knew about it. i look forward to seeing him fight, (if you guys remember he owned that lieutenant with the tatoo on his arm, although they didn't show much of that fight. (can't remember his name, he's the dog faced captatins lieutenant ).

sorry about the long post, this episode was so amazing, i feel like going out onto the street and telling random people all about it

[Mae]

Niiiiiiiiiice. I thought that Ikkaku was one of those all talk, no real power to back it up characters, so I was pretty surprised when he suddenly pulled THAT out of nowhere.

Now why do I feel suddenly feel kinship with Kanako Ohno?

[darkmetal505]

Excellent. Everything was done perfectly.

Only one thing: do Shinigami have the ability to fly in the real world?

[JaySee]

They don't fly. They walk on air.