Yeah, it's still the same old "Pull random new powers out of my ass as the plot demands, then explain them" type of combat.

 

I have a confused feelings about Bleach right now. On one hand Kubo avoids obvious one on one fights, on the other I want to learn all special powers of the Zero Division including their Bankai (these that have it) which will probably not happen. But that's fine as long as he reveals Big Four Bankai as I call them: Urahara's, Shunsui's, Ukitake's and Aizen's. Especially first two since they were hinted to be somehow special.

Additionally it would be nice to learn about Yoruichi's Zanpakuto, but with no information that it's something awesome, I don't expect her to ever use it.

 

The funny thing is even after Bach's men got revived. The same mother fucker who got 1 shot 4-5 chapters ago for running his mouth explaining how his ability works, is once again running his mouth explaining how his ability works.

I honestly am treating Bleach less like a shonen manga, and more like a comedy manga. Cause i can't take it seriously anymore. I literally can't. 50% of the time, what leads to someone getting defeated is they spell out word for word how their own abilities work to their enemies.

Edit: I just realized the pointlessness of Ichigo even leaving the Soul Palace. He accomplished absolute dick despite it taking him forever to get past snake way. He fought off some scrubs, didn't even finish any of them off, immediately was on his way back to the Soul Palace.

 

He saved the best character in the manga. That alone made it worth it.

 

Thoughts on the current fight?

 

Pretty badass. I still think YH is going to win. I'm not sure how though

 

I'm not sure how he's going to turn it around, since he just lost his powers.

 

Pretty cool. Yhw is still gonna win, would be horribly anticlimactic otherwise.

I'm actually a bit interested in the brush guy's backstory. Dark leader of the Shinigami, or what was it that the translation said?

 

I knew the Yamaji of the elite squad would end up being a beast. Better watching him fight then Renji. Anyway I'd like to see the background of all the 1000+ year old shinigami. I also seems quite odd that only a few shinigami seem to actually get old. Byakuga's grandfather and Yamaji are the only old shinigami I can think of.

 

They all get older, its just the ones who are old are fucking eons old. Like Yoroichi/most of the captains are over a thousand years old, but the people who actually look old are tens of thousands of years old and older.

We've seen Byakuya when he looked like a teen and he's clearly gotten older. Same for Yoroichi, we've seen her somewhat younger(but still an adult) and in present she definitely looks older.

Personally, the only reason i'm not into this fight all that much is its to "out there". No explanation why Juhabach can't steal his powers, no real explanation for how he's able to just cut fucking ideas or names. And the fact that it's just been pingponging "I got you, no i got you now!, Haha i got you! Ohohoh but what about now!" type of fight.

I will say its definitely been the best fight we've had in a loooong time for Bleach and it could be so much worse(Shinji vs Bambietta..*sigh*).

 

That doesn't really explain it at all, Yamamoto looked the same 2,000 and 1,000 years ago but then suddenly turned into an old man out of nowhere in the past thousand years.

 

It's like the Russian babuskha bomb... or whatever Conan O'Brien called it in that random episode I watched a dozen or so years ago. I suppose the same concept is supposedly supposed to apply to Asian women as well.

 

I don't think it's said that most of the captains are over a thousand. Yoroichi was only seen in the flashback 100 years ago. She's probably a few hundred years old along with most of the others. The thousand plus year old ones would be Yamaji, Zaraki, Retsu, Shunsui, Ukitake, and at least The Monk, Smith, and Healer from the Zero squad.

The explanation is that it's a power of his Zanpakutō. It's not the first time we've seen a reality altering ability. Doesn't make since to suddenly require explanations for how something is being done. This fight isn't even pingponging. It's the villain getting stomped and everything pulled out by him failing.

 

There should still be some basic explanation for what's happening. Every other obscure Zanpakuto's power was able to be either understood through visuals or explained in various ways(in the past at least). Now this, just some ability to cut someones power in half, brushing away a name, i mean thats some retardedly OP shit that's not even really being explained.

This is why I say it makes for a less than spectacular fight. Because so far, it seems like all Ichibei needs to do is brush out Juhabach's life force or some shit. Not to mention there's just no explanation for why Juhabach couldn't steal his powers, or rather he stole them but he couldn't make them his.

But I may be a little hypercritical of this particular fight from feeling salty from previous fights I was looking forward to, like Ichigo's fight against the 3 chicks and Kenpachi's fight were major let downs to me. And the Zero division fights have been straight up ping pong matches. And yes, that includes this particular fight.

First Ichibei being cocky and saying he'll defeat him in 3 paces or some shit and trying to crush his throat and punt him out of the palace, Juhabach having none of that, healed instantly, they go at it again. Ichibei cuts his arms essence and his power in half, Juhabach is laughing and restores himself back to normal. Ichibei went for a throat crush, Juhabach tried to fuck up his arm, both backed away, Juhabach healed himself again(i assume cause he could talk) and thats when Ichibei cuts/blots out his swords name which is pretty much where we're at right now.

Not sure how anyone equates this as to Juhabach getting stomped persay.

 

Look at Shunsui's powers. The color I decide will cause damage when I hit it depending on how much of it I'm wearing. Why? Because I said so. Ichibei is cutting people's reputation and abilities. I believe that he is stated to have named all the Zanpakuto or something. It seems to tie into his abilities to me.

That's Bach getting stomped since he hasn't done anything to take the advantage yet. Just defend himself.

 

That may be that he named all the Zanpakuto, and it would be understandable if Bach was a soul reaper, but he's a quincy.

And about that, what the fuck does he even need to know the name of his sword for anyway like he's some sort of soul reaper. I meant to bring that up before. It's almost like he was about to use shikai or some shit to undo Ichibei's shenanigans the way that scene was framed.

 

I'm pretty sure it's implied that Bach is a Shinigami and Quincy. He's the Shinigami that pioneered Quincy abilities.

That's clearly exactly what he was going to do.

 

...WUUUUT? 0_o How the heck did you come to that conclusion?

 

Well, why do you think all of these super old Shinigami know him? Then the scene that just happened with his sword was pretty telling. I'm not saying he was in the Gotei 13 or anything just that he has some shinigami powers.

 

That's the thing though. With a bombshell like that, there should be foreshadowing, of which there was none. You know the only foreshadowing we've had with Bach? Is that he's the soul king's son.

When it showed he was some kind of holy baby who was deaf/dumb/blind but if you touched him, he cured you and all that and when they died, a piece of them went back to him which eventually made him whole and able to function. That sounds like something you might expect "the next soul king" or the soul king's son to be like when they're born.

But the fact that he's a soul reaper himself? That hasn't been foreshadowed at -all-. Ichibei and him talking as if they known each other very well in the past just leads more credence to him possibly being the soul king's son or was next in line to be soul king at one point. But not that he was ever a soul reaper.

We've never seen any quincy use a sword beyond Uryuu which turned out he was just fighting with a sword-like arrow. And Juhabach is known as the father of all quincy. It's just to fucking weird to think he's really a shinigami at this point and its downright bad story telling if that turns out to be the case as there's been no foreshadowing to that end.