「朽木家の誇り！白哉VS白哉！」 (Kuchiki ka no hokori! Byakuya VS Byakuya!)
“Pride of the Kuchiki Family! Byakuya vs. Byakuya!”

Kageroza says he is unable to create a Reigai out of Ichigo, and “erases” him after he arrives in Soul Society. Urahara deduces that he may have been swallowed by the Cleaner, causing Nozomi to become depressed. The others tell her that Ichigo will be fine and to trust in the captains.

Byakuya continues to fight his clone, and they both release Senbonzakura. Because of his wounds though, Byakuya begins to weaken, and finally both of them release their bankai at the same time. Komamura battles the fake Soifon, who uses uses multiple clones and shunko in conjunction with Nigeki Kessatsu in an attempt to kill him in two hits. He struggles against the power of shunko as well, and eventually they both collapse. Komamura finally manages to summon his bankai, as does Soifon, resulting in a massive explosion that knocks both of them out. Yamamoto also continues to fight the reigai Kyouraku and Ukitake, who are still unable to overpower him. Because the reigai Unohana also continues to heal them, they gradually wear down Yamamoto. However, he then uses Ennetsu Jigoku to trap them in a wall of fire.



This episode mostly just continued with the battles from last time, with bankai being thrown around in almost every one of them. If Yamamoto, Kyouraku, or Ukitake’s bankai had been shown in the manga, then theirs would have shown up here as well. Of course all the ultimate attacks make the fights more intense and exciting, but it’s really an artificial high, and the thinly threaded plot only serves as an excuse to showcase powers of the characters. But intense it really is, and Yamamoto’s fight is especially high-powered even with just shikai. I’ve always enjoyed watching the old master character archetype, and their sheer amounts of strength and experience are very satisfying. Komamura on the other hand just feels like a noob who just punches as hard as he can and hopes it works. He follows the fatal villain flaw of explaining his strategy to his opponents as well which is just unintelligent. I can’t help but feel that Soifon won that battle, and she fell only because of collateral damage from her own explosion.

Plot-wise nothing much progressed, but it looks like there will be an epic final battle next time involving most of the surviving characters. The fates of each character are all fairly predictable though, and the only thing interesting really will be how exactly the fights go down.


    1. Bleach has always been a highly detailed and deep plot… I am also sure within 4 months, you would acknowledge the foreseeing of Kubo sensei… Bleach has always been thrilling, Show Spoiler ▼

      It would be thrilling once again!


      1. putting deep or not aside, the manga is reaaaaally slow. and that is why the anime has to put in so many fillers into it. I’m sure after the studio will stpo doing this after they have done Aizen arc…

      2. MESSED UP AGAIN… i m sorry… I m a little personally disturbed… 🙁 But we have different opininons, I guess, Da5id…


        Manga tend to go slow… Fullmetal went through 10 yrs(Sorry for referring to fullmetal so often, but i think it is an ideal shounen)… we can’t oppose to that… they get 17 pages in a week… isn’t it a little less for that degree of development, without looking as though it has been rushed?
        Show Spoiler ▼

      3. I think The reason bleach’s quality has dropped -according to most people- is because Kubo is failing to follow his own formula.
        SS arc had a plot that could be resolved in 5 chapters.
        Old Kubo would stretched it out with tons of interesting characters, and we would have been entertained learning about them all through the arc.
        New Kubo would stretch it out with extra large panels, and death flash back after an overly long fight.

  1. Actually… I loved it!!! And I can’t wait for fight between the Byakuyas!!!!!!!!!


    As the Eds suggest, maybe Ishida is an imp. character in this filler? Because, he may turn out to be another unaccountable variable for Kageroza?

    1. Don’t you know? Abilities in Bleach have little impact on fight outcomes as long as it’s for the story. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but even though Ichigo’s bankai makes him fast, it’s often underplayed to emphasize the power of a new villain.

      Ichigo, who showed so much promise in the Byakuya fight, is now using simple hacks and slashes even with his Bankai. Not to mention wave spam.

  2. HOLY CRAP! I love this current arc it’s so damn pretty! Animation is like near movie quality I wonder how long they have been saving this art for! Seems wasted on this arc. However this is one of the more heavy combat themed ones! Soifon’s fight DAMN really nice I am happy to see someone kick her ass >.>;

    1. hells yeah! and the way konamura passed out was dope!!!! i think this is hands down the best ARC EVER!!!! this show has always had the crappiest “BAD GUYS” so bad in fact that the plot was irrelevant. but this arc just delivers on high quality animation action! and it only includes the Main characters! this can supersede the main plot for all i care.

      BROOKLYN otaku
  3. Yamamoto just lost some cred there. Given his experience, wouldn’t it have occured to him to seal off the medic (same tactic as vs Aizen) then take out the 2 pronto?

    Really interested to see how real Byakuya can win over fake Byakuya especially since it has been shown he’s outpowered and now he’s wounded pretty bad.

    Zaku Fan
  4. Bleach? DEEP?! It’s just the author extending arcs and the entire plot needlessly to keep a manga going. Does the story have any overall moral or storyline? NO. Character Development? Not much. Unless you count the main character getting more and more ridiculously powerful (what with his new power supposedly transcending the power of the shinigami), and thus the forceful inclusion of more and more characters (without developing any of the older characters) to balance him out. I’m not saying that Bleach doesnt have the potential to be an excellent manga/anime (like FMA, perhaps), but, for it to be one, the author seriously needs to wake up and stop writing a manga that purely rides on the powers of it’s characters.


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