BLEACH: A Blind Review (Part 5) | Is the Arrancar Arc Good?
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- čas přidán 16. 10. 2022
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Bleach by Tite Kubo is a story unlike any I've ever covered. Over the years I've created a number of Blind Reviews for some of the most popular series to come out of Japan. And since completing both Naruto and One Piece, thousands of you have recommended I take a look at Bleach.
Bleach and I have a complicated relationship, made all the more complicated thanks to the current online situation regarding the series. 10 years ago I watched a small portion of the manga with my friends but never got into the series. However now that the anime is returning
I think now is the perfect time to not only make good on all those requests from all of you, but the perfect opportunity to give this series another chance in my preferred medium. Manga!
So, join me on this journey as I explore and experience Bleach's manga for the very first time and once and for all complete my review series of the Big 3! Covering the adventures of Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Uryu and Rukia won't be easy! But I'm sure it'll be worth it!
Next up on the chopping block is the final section, the second half of the "Arrancar" arc! Let's see what it has in store for us!
MUSIC USED
TURN BACK THE PENDULUM:
Main Menu (Bleach Brave Souls)
If I could Turn Back Time (Cover by SingitLive)
Lab 16 (Chrono Trigger)
Zeal Palace (Chrono Trigger)
Thornfelt Swamp (Ori)
Nothing Can Be Explained (Bleach)
Creeping Shadows (Bleach)
ARRANCAR CONCLUSION:
Ranbu No Melody (Cover by ROMI)
Ten Piedad (Blasphemous)
Fuerza (Bleach Brave Souls)
Usopp VS Luffy (Cover by SLSMusic)
Serious (Bleach Brave Souls)
Battle With Those We Must Face (Bravely Default II)
BATALLA BATALLA (Bleach)
DON'T LOSE YOUR WAAAAAY (Kill la Kill)
Ulquiorra Murcielago Theme (Bleach)
Dark Lord Fight (DOOM Eternal)
Godzilla (Cover by ArtificialFear)
Suite De Arrancar (Cover by IconiQ)
On The Precipice of Defeat (Bleach)
Arpegios en Ocre (Blasphemous)
Cave Crawl (My Friend Pedro)
Divulgation (VLR)
Demise (VLR)
Evil Morty Theme (Cover by Dancing Fishstick)
Baile de Violetas (Blasphemous)
Chokkaku: Final Getsuga Tensho (Cover by ABELL III)
Will of The Heart (Cover by IconiQ)
--------------------------------------------
MY PATREON: / totallynotmark
MY TWITTER: / totallynotmark
Edited by: Editor-San - Zábava
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Mark you should read Vagabond or Tokyo ghoul
Hey Mark, not sure if you will see this. I remember reading Bleach at the time. And the author, Kubo, coming out and saying he extended the Arancar arc. Primarily because the Arancar were, simply put, far more popular than Kubo had first predicted. And Shonen Jump saw an opportunity to market and merchandise new characters.
Grains of salt with this, I am working from memory. But it might be something exploring and considering.
Thanks and safety to ya as always mate! I hope after this you possibly end up tackling Yuyu Hakusho!! (Baki is also a great option!)
Please review hellsing mark
E Z
I think Ichigo wanted a fair fight because he has met this monster form. He refuses to acknowledge they are one and the same. Therefore when Ichigo says I have to win and his hollow side kills Ulquiorra, Ichigo didn't win. Ichigo lost. He lost his humanity, he lost to Ulquiorra and he lost to his hollow side. The equal battle was a desperate grasp at redemption for Ichigo.
Ichigo has always been like this imo. He still wanted to keep fighting against Byakuya whenever his hollow side got involved, and whenever he fought against Grimmjow he acknowledged his reasoning as to why he really came to Hueco Mundo as well.
I think it was in Ichigo's character to ask for a fair conclusion to that fight.
Pretty much my thoughts. Mark is acting like there was a conscious decision by Ichigo to give in to his hollow in order to save Orihime when in reality this is White's promise manifesting itself. In that moment Ichigo was to weak to do what needed to be done to survive, so as promised White took over as King and Ichigo became the Horse. That is why Ichigo shows no sign of caring about anything or anyone during the fight from that point on until the mask breaks, to the degree that it isn't clear if he actually understands what he is doing anymore his words being less a sign of his intent and more like an echo of his suppressed human self. Ulquiorra forcibly breaking his mask to bring Ichigo back is akin to the King being knocked of his Horse, the fact that it had to be done at all rather than Ichigo removing it himself as he had previously done shows how dire the situation actually was.
mark knows this, it is still weird to want something like this when he is in the first place to safe orihime and not have fair fights
@@JH-ph4qb And to complement your argument "White" said before...."what's the difference between a horse and a king?" "Instinct!", Ichigo at that moment was taken over by "White" because of his "instinct" to protect Orihime, it was not a concious decision to become a monster but it was driven by "instinct".
Was gonna make this comment, but you did the good work for us.
With Gin I always loved how he subverted the Shonen trope. He made a long detailed explanation of how his special power works to Ichigo. And then he went "yeah, that explanation? That was a lie. My sword does something different actually"
Can you even do that in Shonen?!
Also, it fits his snake motiff perfectly.
I'm so happy somebody else noticed this! It's one of the many reasons why gin's one of my favorite characters in bleach lol
"jk"
From what I remember of that scene, Gin spent a lot of time talking about the length of his released sword. Something like 13km or something, but then I think Ichigo calls him out on that not being the actual dangerous part of his ability, but the speed that it extents.
I might be remembering bits of that wrong due to time and fanfictions over the years.
That clap he does will always remain in my head though. Holy shit that looked cool.
@@GlassedGamer nope ur actually dead on with both the number and the reason Ichigo thinks his sword is dangerous
It's literally like fighting a dude with a gun. He points the tip at you, you're dead.
I always took the scene of Ichigo being willing to have his arm cut off as a way to show just how much he cares about his sense of agency. Feeling a lack of control makes him feel powerless just like how he felt when his mom died and just how it shocked him to his core when Aizen was telling him his whole life was under his supervision. Ichigo hates to be made to feel powerless and his inner Hollow taking over like that brings all those feelings back up
Also its exactly what he did against byakuya
I also think it's fair to say Ichigo deep down somewhat agrees with Kenpachi and Grimmjow.
He ENJOYS fighting. He just refuses to accept it. Combo effect of both I think.
@@Butteebean5775 nice point fellow brandon.
@@lol2693 ah another Brandon. Truly a fantastic human you are.
The reason ichigo was taller and had changed hair was because he was in the dengai for a long time. Remember when in the soul society arc they are running from “The cleaner” it’s stated that time passes more quickly there. And Aizen killed the cleaner. So think the hyperbolic time chamber
Kinda annoyed this needed to be explained to him.
@@UnifiedEntity especially seeing as how they explain it in the manga and anime
He forgor 💀
@@UnifiedEntity Seems like he isn't putting as much effort into this as his other reviews. Especially since this is literally said more than once and even by Isshin right before Ichigo fought in the Dangai.
@@thegamerfe8751 I think it's just more that he's been blasting through the Bleach manga at a faster pace so he isn't retaining as much information and is forgetting more stuff
Knowing Yumichika's personality, he would be so pissed to learn you can't remember his name.
for the life of me I can never remember his name even when I know his seat and division.
VERY true 😆
Which is kind of ironic when you consider that almost nobody knows the real name of Yumichika's sword, which in a certain way relfects his soul. And the spirit of the sword is also pissed that no knows his real name.
Who?😄
@@sarah2cold377 from the top of my head 4th or 5th seat 11th division?
(He’s always with Ikaku but he’s a bit below him in rank.)
I'm surprised, cause Mark usually doesn't miss things like this. Ichigo has never wanted to win by relying on his inner hollow. He hates that side of himself, and has never wanted to acknowledge it as a part of himself. We know this from as far as back as his fight with Byakuya, where he refused his inner hollow's aid back then. Ichigo's desire for a fair fight with Ulquiorra doesn't come from out of nowhere at all. He just wants to be the one in the driver's seat during a fight, rather than his inner hollow. I don't want to say Mark hasn't been paying attention because I know he does, so did he just forget that Ichigo was always like this? Even back when he fought Byakuya, it was to save Rukia and yet he still kept his pride.
I think Mark's reading is actually still solid, because while that's certainly a part of Ichigo, his suggestion of getting limbs cut off so the fight can be fair is something Kenpachi and not he would say, so it comes off as out of character.
Basically, him lamenting the "unearned" victory is completely in character but the words that come out of his mouth are a garbled mess writing wise.
@@alchemicpink2392 No he would still want that. Ichigo has always tried to hold himself back in fights were he sees he has the advantage.
He uses kiddy gloves with Ikkaku and he calls him out for it. He refuses to use his mask against Dordoni and he calls him out for it. Ichigo always held back againdt those he shouldn't so now that he got a huge advantage outside of his own powers he wants to balance the scales again.
Plus, trying to have a fair duel is very much against his hollow side which would instinctually tear his enemies appart no matter what. He is trying to get himself away from it in a moment where he was almost consumed by it.
@@alchemicpink2392 I don't entirely agree with this? I honestly agree it's something Ichigo normally wouldn't say, but to be frank I think that's cus he's panicking. He's desperately trying to take back the actions he undertook as a Vasto Lorde. Actions that... Can't be undone.
@@KashKey- Right, and that's something that I think Mark and Pink here both might have missed. What Ichigo did in his Vasto Lorde form goes so against how he sees himself that he felt something extreme was necessary to "balance the scales" so to speak.
@@jackmanleblanc2518 Yep. He was basically doing the equivalent of a Persona character screaming, "That's not me!" after their shadow does or says something they want to reject entirely in that moment.
I cant wait to see Mark's reaction to the next arc. Especially since it features someone who was clearly a part of all the important moments in the past. He's always been there, in your memories.
He recommended me Bleach so I am thankful to him lmao
I can't believe Mark has never mentioned our favorite cousin all this time
Weird how he never mentioned him in past videos. I mean, he was Ichigo’s best friend since chapter 1
@@rjai5003Yeah the only reason he beat aizen was because of him
I don't remember, is it made clear that it WAS NOT ichigo that brought that transformation out? Because Mark seems to think ichigo willingly transformed here. When it was actually his inner hollow/zangetsu refusing to let him die, and taking over. Before this fight there even was a point where hichigo threatened that if he were to die or almost die again he'd take over. I feel like it's an important plot point that ichigo, with all the power he has at this point in the story, is still actively having to fight against his inner self
You are correct. Its very clear that by his vasto lorde transformation ichigo doesnt know what hes doing. Which is made evident but ulquiorra asking ichigo “who are you?” As if ichigo is not there. Vasto lorde is his inner hollow coming out and taking revenge on ulquiorra for all the humiliation and pain he caused ichigo.
I think Mark forgot that the hollow form isn't simply udner Ichigo's control
I mean they are Ichigo, wether he accepts it or not
Ichigo wanted desperately to protect Orihime and I think that Hollow Zangetsu saw an opportunity in that moment of weakness and despiration. He may have assumed that because Ichigo was repeating "Protect her" in that form, but those were likely just remnants of Ichigo's last thoughts before Zangetsu fully took over.
I think Hyori was one of the vizards who took the longest to get her hollow under control. The green haired vizard (Mashiro?) was the quickest
You're right
Also she was the one that Hollowfied first out of all them
You spelling visoreds as vizards is funny
@@WolfXGamerful it is actually the way viz originally did the translation. So it kinda stuck with much of the community.
@@WolfXGamerful it's Vizards though
Mashiro can also (allegedly) keepnhers on the longest
Even I a speed reader remembered who Izuru was. Idk what y’all are on but he was such an important part of soul society. Him being torn between joining gin or siding with the soul society was such a pivotal moment!
What would either outcome have changed?
lol pivotal to whom? Hina? I swear she should just die along with Hitsugaya. Unpopular opinion, I know, but Hitsugaya is annoying af to me.
@@shorewall As long as he doesn't instantly die Izuru's ability is very strong. And it's 1 less ally and 1 more enemy. So yeah, it's important.
When the Captains fight Aizen leaving Ichigo at the sideline, and seemingly get Aizen in a bind, and then suddenly Ichigo yelling "What the hell are you doing?" revealing it was an illusion... that was probably the most chilling moment of the whole anime.
They were fuckin Momo up😂
Ichigo just watched too
@@untitled8415
You do know Aizen manipulates all senses including sight and Hearing
@@untitled8415 LMAO I totally forgot that he just stood there for a good while. It's like couldn't you have spoken up a little earlier so that they didn't like waste their power/stamina or something?
I honestly think Momo should have died then and there. I forgot... does she do anything of importance for the rest of the story anyway? It would have been a good moment to show how cruel Aizen is and to actually give us another permanent death on the good guy side besides Gin (which was kinda an exception since he was a secret doublecrosser MVP).
So people in the comments have been mentioning how Mark is making a mistake by not focusing on the side characters, and I just want to add to that by saying that Kubo himself has stated he cares more about the characters than the plot, and that he writes first and foremost for the character, even moreso than for himself or the readers.
So even if some of these fights don't advance the plot, they are tributes to the character and showcases their values (which can occasionally tie into the overall themes of Bleach). And I've always thought that you should judge a series for what it's trying to be, instead of what it's not. So I'm not going to lament plenty of fights without plot advancement if that's the author's intent when writing the story, and if it's done well obviously, which it is.
I think the issue is that Mark doesn't really care about these side characters and their fights, what would get him invested would be how it relates to the story.
It also doesn't help that he has stated that the fights itself in Bleach are boring and predictable (which I will agree on this the arrancar arc has some of the most boring fights in the whole series that literally only get saved by the reveal of a cool new ability).
So its kind of understandable why he wouldn't notice or skim over it, if you dont care about the characters, the way the fight is going and the fight has little to no meaning to the overall story then it just won't be fun to read.
Yep. bleach is not for everyone like any other manga. I had an inkling that this would happen seeing Mark didn't enjoy SS arc as much as people are expecting. Which is all about establishing Gotei 13 and the characters that gets their due in FKT arc. In SS arc, he mostly talked about 2-3 characters so I was kinda expecting it
I mean, it's definitely not obviously done well. The focus is on the fights and the Bankais in detriment of the plot. You can absolutely criticize the bad writing.
Disagree, intent of the author matters to a degree but ultimately what is in the text of the thing is key.
And therein, Bleach suffers under severe character overload and as a result artificial pacing. Not that this is Kubo's lone fault.
Like, Zaraki, Mayuri and Byakuya initially only got full on screen fights inbetween Ichigo fighting Grimmjow and later Ulquiorra due to editors insisting on it. And from there on a precedent had been said: When captains and similarly powerful characters fight, it's getting a spotlight.
Which then results in an increasingly sterile world, because when everyone gets character development even though their connection to the main cast/character is tennuous at best it starts to feel flat.
Example: Who the fuck cares about Kira. Or Yumichika. Or Hisagi. Or even Kyoraku, Ukitake, Yamamoto, Komamura or Soi Fon.
Answer? People who liked those characters the first time around and wanna learn more. Aka wiki divers, power scale debaters and other hardcore fans. But if you're not interested in them? You do what lots of people did: Drop Bleach, even if only temporarily.
Like at least with Hitsugaya and Rangiku they have been perspective characters before, but rather than getting explored in detail, maybe through stronger involvement in the main cast (and stronger involvement of the OG five man band), the pacing wouldn't feel nearly as clunky and ossified.
@@alchemicpink2392 Your logic is pretty bad, you're pretty much saying "only really specific people care for the non main characters/the popular ones" which is really stupid.
what i like about a lot of the “filler” fights in hueco mundo is that they force each character to either confront an internal conflict that Ichigo shares with them or demonstrate the difference between power and true strength. Each of the side characters have been changed through their relationships with Ichigo and it helps them win whereas Ichigo only feels he has himself to rely on as the strongest of his friends. The burden of being the strongest then comes back into play with the resolution of the Aizen fight you mentioned.
I mean the canon filler is the best filler you can get. Especially with a story like Bleach when most people are drawn to characters, what they do and how they react, whats their personality, what kind of power they have? those "filler fight" are very engaging but since Not Mark doesnt really care about the characters but a story overall those segments are boring to him
What about Mayuri who has nothing to do with Ichigo.
I feel like the best filler is the vampire filler arc, it actually slowed the bleach story in a good way, I'm shocked when I remember that was filler.
Weird how he didin't mention Tsukishima helping defeat Aizen
Who?
@@bsmith6784 You'll find out soon enough.
Lmaooo, good one.
This is such a Niche joke lmao
Tsukishima is such a great guy he came to help me when i'm at my lowest in life.
Komamura vs Tousen is certainly story worth telling. As all captain from Soul Society, Komamura and Tousen represents one motive to live own live for. In this cases representation went even into physical form, as Komamura representing loyalty does look like dog, Tousen representing justice is blind. Both once great friends, now destined to fight for their different outlooks, which has became both their credo and curse. Tousen essentially good guy himself, went against soul society specifically because their cruelty, corruption, profiteering and lack of justice. In irony Soul society was accepting those as colateral damage and necessary evil to achieve greater good. And now Tousen in essentially same fashion had become monster. Komamura is loyal Yamamoto and his subordinates, so he fight for them without question, even if there were some errors of morale on Soul society side. However, now he must face his old and most close friend in what may be fight to death. And no one can be sure who is right here.
Yea I love this fight it's great poetically and thematically
I was really disappointed when Mark didn't adress this. This fight was so poetic and emotional. Infact this might've been even better than some of ichigo's fights
Pissed me if so much when he just glanced over it way too many themes in that fight to skip
Then, later on Komamura falls on the same traps as Tousen, demanding power to enact his revenge, literally giving up his heart.
ps: Tousen gave up his heart by becoming a hollow.
@@MaxIronsThird I would not said, it was same. It was similar but, but it comes from his own theme. Still was loyalty main part of it. Which was continuing dillema of this fight. In the end nobody can be sure who was right here. Komamura or Tousen? Not even Komamura could be sure which one is in right. And in the end, his own way has lead him to similar problem. I personally believe neither was right or wrong. And I think it was shown in show by Hisagi and Tesai. Hisagi did stop Tousen in his path once he become monster. While Tesai come to Komamura after his fall to help and informed him, that he was not wrong. Both diagonally diferent answers in same situation and similar position (although Komamura didn´t betray).
Ichigo wanting a fair fight is not coming out of nowhere, he did the same thing with Byakuya.
Also yes, his main motivation is protecting his friends and family, but as the story progresses many characters notice that he likes fighting more and more.
His Hollow and Grimmjow for example.
Even Kenpachi noticed right away.
I think there's a subplot alot of people miss about Ichigo in many ways being driven by and enjoying the conflict. A couple characters note that he seems to enjoy the fights, or maybe more aptly he's sort of addicted to the power to overcome. It adds more nuance to his "not wanting to win like this". He's said similar things since early on. He sort of has a hero complex, and that's not to say he doesn't genuinely care, but I think because of losing his mother and other things he derive joy from conquering adversaries.
100%. Ichigo is obsessed with trying to save others to a childlike extreme similar to in Fate Stay Night and their main character wanting to be a hero. They both watched the death of a valued loved one and became so scarred by their inability back in their childhoods they have made it their personalities to gain strength to "save everyone" and their journeys is particularly finding out what a goal like that really entails. Especially when they both refuse any outward help and bare their burdens alone.
Kenpachi presents the idea of the joy of fighting to the death, his inner hollow forces him to look for and accept his killer instinct
And then finally, Grimmjow brings the words out of Ichigo, to admit
He liked fighting, he loved the conflict and he wanted to save Orihime as much as he wanted to defeat Grim, Ulquiorra and Aizen
This is also tackled in the Fullbring arc too and his literal inner self wears this on his sleeve.
Yes! This is a very good point!!!!
I dont think its easy to get that subplot on your first read, I certanly didnt but then we know very well that Not Mark will never pick up this story again thou I dont think its a hero complex but there are many ways to interpret this.
I always saw Yoruichi's reprimand to Urahara infront kf the other captains for speaking out as a cryptic way of telling him to remember what he learned from his time in the 2nd Div. They're suppoused to hide their intent and sneak around the conventions. She reprimands him again for not including her in his plan when she rescues them, making it obvious she was indeed down to circumvent the authority of the head captain in order to do the right play in the situation.
Just goes to show it was _too_ subtle. Should've been spelled out when they met back up.
@@bsmith6784 spelling things out is boring writing, leaving things to smart readers who paid attention is way more fun and rewarding to them
@@dredgenjinn Stop being pretentious. It was bad character development for Yoruichi. Kubo has similar problems throughout the Fullbring Arc. TYBW, however, is already looking better with episode 2 out.
@@SirPerfectful I don't think it's being pretentious, that scene in general was obvious.
@@bsmith6784 it's "show, don't tell".
Something most people don't get about Ichigo is that his desire to protect isn't some altruistic thing. It's an obsession, a way to cope with the trauma of losing his mother. Ichigo very much has a savior/hero complex. He doesn't just want to protect people, he wants to be *the one" to do it, and with a method he approves of.
Ichigo vs Ulquiorra wasn't that and that's why Ichigo reacts as badly as he did. It's not supposed to be seen as rational or a good decision by any stretch of the means. Those lines are something spoken out of panic, self-hatred and a deeply seated trauma.
Agreed
he puts this so called "savior complex" on the side during and after the full bring arc when he finally accepts orihime's help against the quincy king (something he didn't before, and there's also other examples like this)
I loved the part when Mark used the word "Espada" the very significant term in the Arrancar saga.
my personal favorite was when he talked about the tosen fight and referenced ichigo's months of training in the dangai.
@@4-U-CITYGIRL personally i loved when he mentions how Ichigo used Mugetsu to defeat Aizen
Not as good as when he covered Lilynette and Other One's fight against the one dude
The moment Ichigo said that he didn't want to win like this against Ulquiorra is directly related to him becoming more Hollow and losing himself. We can see that he is adopting Hollows behaviour by loving battle and following his fighting instinct. Ichigo is becoming more and more Hollow as we advance in this arc. Grimmjow told him that if he came to Hueco Mundo it's was to fight him because he had this instinct. Harribel said during the fight between Ichigo and Grimmjow that it was like a fight between 2 Espadas. Orihime also noticed the fact that he was changing to even think at a moment that it wasn't him anymore during the Grimmjow fight. And they weren't wrong, he began to behave strangely since he used his Hollow powers for the first time. And the fight against Ulquiorra is the embodiment of his change and his struggle with his powers. He came to save Orihime but his Hollow had a big influence on him and made him do things that he wouldn't do normally.
I'm surprised Mark forgot about Izuru, considering his role during the Soul Society Arc.
Yeah it's a bit cringe asking if he's supposed to remember these characters since each of those lieutenants/seats get plenty of screen time.
@@PlatypusYSL yeah I couldn't finish the video after the Ichigo and Ulquiorra fight and how he misunderstood and forgot about references and call backs from previous arcs that justify ichigoes actions. his biggest problem so far is that he forgets about other arcs quickly like they don't matter anymore. And since that seems to be the case the Thousand Year blood War is going to be his biggest enemy.
I forgot about that character, so many characters in soul society were forgotten besides renji and kenpachi.
@@justinarzola4584 that's completely fine but then you're just a casual which is understandable or you haven't caught up with the story in a while until these reviews which is also understandable to forget. but the thing is that his channel revolves around this that's his job to expertly understand what the story is and characters.not to mention that izuru was a prominent character the previous Arc
I'm not surprised tbh Mark shows he doesn't care for the Lts or the Capts much, unfortunately
I'm surprised Mark didn't delve into Aizen's character at all. Not even his rant while he was being sealed
It doesn't really get resolved later on so it doesn't matter too much
I just finished this arc and I still don’t fully get Aizen’s motivations. Was he this psychopath working and planning his way to accomplishing some goal to gain power like his actions say, or was he just this super strong guy who wanted someone to challenge him like Ichigo says?
@Donovan It's been a while since I watched but it's probably a combination of both
@@donovan4222 So without spoilers of the last arc in the series. Azien was testing and he also was trying to manipulate everything so he could be better than everyone. He has a superiority complex heavily and he’s earned it. When things end the way they do he wants to become god and change the statuesque. Not necessarily destroy everything but make it so this happens in the series because of him not with him.
@@millasboo I’m on episode 360 right now so almost done with the fullbring arc and neither Aizen or any soul reapers have show up yet but if they do (which I’m guessing they will) and explain any more about Aizens motivations I will come back to this
Hey Mark, I highly recommend reading the one chapter backstory for ulquiorra that came from one of the data books. Unfortunately it was never officially translated in English, but you can find a fan translation of it. It perfectly gives you full context of ulquiorra and why he is so nihilistic. Honestly, it is one of my favorite chapters Kubo has ever written.
Oh where can I find this?
@@SkylightCiel same here
@@SkylightCiel you can find it by "Bleach Unmasked" but most of the good videos that did it are removed off CZcams with the new wave of copyright strikes
This is a really weird ride for me. I really appreciate how Mark can point out and dissect things that most normal watchers don’t pick up on, but then I feel like he misses things that aren’t hard to notice that most casual watchers can notice then appreciate.
He doesn't talk about Bleach es story WHATSOEVER
@@FuzzyLogic325 I mean he does but he really does skip over a lot
-the heart ( Ulquiorra, Kaien, orihime)
-fear of the blade ( Tosen, hisagi, komamura)
-the aspects of the divisions
- aspects of death of the espada
-the mirror of the captains and espada (things like mayuri and szayelaporro)
-how aizen treated the espada, ( barragon and halibel)
-gins motive (this isn’t that super expanded but still)
-THE SOUL KING AND AIZENS GOAL
-toshiros immaturity (essentially aizen messing with people)
-stark at all
-nothing about how orihime treated her abusers
- shinji vs aizen
-aizen vs everyone
-TOSEN and aizen killing him
And honestly more
I’m not saying a review like this should cover everything and I don’t want to criticize someone who puts in so much effort into videos but like come on. He didn’t even mention KEY POINTS in the story.
One of his biggest problems is that he dislikes the story when ichigo isn’t there (most of the time) but maybe that wouldn’t be a problem if he payed attention to the other characters. It’s a very character driven story, so that’s kind of important. He said it himself that kubos strongest point is his characters but doesn’t pay attention to them.
@@klein8378 thats what im saying, he neglected all of those points...
Compere it to his other reviews of other series and you will see what I'm talking about
@@FuzzyLogic325 Shut up, fanboy. XD
@@klein8378 He refers to the number of fights as well as their importance in general in the story, that you didn't notice what Mark said, it's not his problem; it's yours.
I'm pretty sure Ichigo wanting a fair fight was hinted at when grimmjow says that ichigo wasn't there simply to save Orihime and he actually enjoyed fighting as much as grimmjow did
I thought it was because he didn’t want to win using his Hollow powers without any control over them
Also he was ashamed of how he won. He was disgusted with himself
@@PolyChromium yeah and he didn't want to win that way because he likes fighting
@@PolyChromium If the only way to win is to use his hollow ichigo’s vasto lorde form that confirms Ichigo doesn’t hold the power in their relationship. It’s not just that he can’t control his hollow powers but the fear that he isn’t strong enough to be a protector rather than just a killer.
@@maazamin7884 he was disgusted because he enjoys the fight the struggle and the opportunity to overcome it in his own way was taken
The fact that so many characters get fights is one of the things I love about this arc so much. So many times, we see fights get off screened or not given the attention they deserve and I love that this arc gives so many fights to the fans.
That happens because the fight doesn't fit the narrative or the details of the fight aren't important. I LOVE one piece and would have loved to see aokiji vs akainu, but the results of the fight are more important than the fight itself. A lot of the fights in bleach aren't important nor are the results important... from a narrative standpoint.
@@phlpcockrell not from an overall plot standpoint, but they're amazing for character building, development and themes which is the best part of Bleach.
This video made me think about this a lot and I genuinely can't decide where I stand or what the best course of action would've been here.
I've always loved Bleach because of how grand and real the world feels. It's well thought-through while leaving just enough to mystery, has established power structures in place and is inhabited by a lot of unique and interesting characters, many of whom we also get to spend quite a bit of time with so they don't just feel like generic background noise. All of it lends credibility to the setting and makes it feel lived-in, makes you care more about the fate of it.
I understand why some people prefer smaller casts of characters and more concise stories, but I often feel like that approach hurts the scope and immersion for me. We're sometimes just supposed to imagine the world a certain way, without actually getting to see and experience much of it, and personally that doesn't really work for me.
With that said however, this arc DEFINITELY did suffer from pacing issues (especially in the anime because of non-canon fillers in the middle too, making people feel more frustrated and impatient than normal). I remember quite regularly itching to "get back to the main story already" during a lot of these secondary fights. I'm glad they were there, appreciate and enjoy the world and character-building they provided, but it somehow just didn't feel right at the time. I think Mark was right in pointing out how the main plot really only moves forward when Ichigo is on-screen, and this is probably the main cause of the issue. Perhaps if the progression of the arc was written a bit differently, and some of the secondary fights condensed and characters utilized in more meaningful ways, contributing more to the outcome of the overall plot instead of just serving as padding or a "tournament ladder" while ultimately still leaving everything hanging on Ichigo (which is also known and pretty much explicitly stated to the viewer), things might've been a bit better. No story is perfect and I don't blame Kubo, but yeah.
@@phlpcockrell The fights might not be important for this current arc, but they will be important for later arcs. That's how Bleach is written. Stuff you may feel are "filler" now become important later.
@@phlpcockrell You could say that about so many fights though. in Ichigo vs Aizen all that is important is that Ichigo wins, if anything showing that fight had less going on in it than Kyouraku vs Starrk in terms of characterization, or rather I'll just say, us learning anything of any kind. I like the fight a ton I'm not denigrating it, I'm actually denigrating any thought that says only the results matter because it's stupid as all hell.
Bleach’s characters are its greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. Kubo’s very much a character focused writer. Whenever he has to move the story in a new direction, he tends to do so by creating another bunch of them. And, because he happens to be very good at that sort of thing, readers get as attached to them as he is, and want to see more. Which, because Kubo tends to keep all those characters relevant, leaves us with a situation where there are a myriad of them running around, each of which is someone’s favorite, and each of which has to get their own moment. The end result is a story that tends to use the plot to help build to its character moments, rather than use the character moments to advance the plot.
Exactly. It's so easy to see. And I love it
Which is why post Soul Society, which had a very intrique heavy plot with a variety of twists and turns, Bleach does sort of lack an objectively interesting plot per se. It definately is a series carried by strong personalities, interesting philsophies and creative fights with the most unique abilities I've seen in an anime. It's a different type of storytelling, but I can see why a lot of people may not prefer it. Especially since the og anime dragged stuff out a ton imo and made fights that really shouldn't have taken as long as they did.
After watching the TWO filler arcs that split this arc. . . The soul captains vs arrancar fights felt much more refreshing than they probs would have if I skipped filler. The emotional aspects of the Tosen fight and coolness of Stark really stood out after 60-70 episodes of down time in the filler
I dont think so personally, I watched the whole thing without watching filler (after I had 3 of those, I decided that was enough) yet Kyoraku's and Yamamoto's were fights i wanted to see since almost the beginning of the series, Stark picked my interest since very early too and he's the one I enjoyed the most after Ulquiorra
Ehh, at least the filler didn’t drag things out
About the ending of the ichigo vs ulquiorra fight, I'd like to draw a comparison with the ichigo vs byakuya fight.
In both fights ichigo loses control of himself, and in both fights he says he didn't wanna win "that way", the only difference is that with byakuya ichigo wrestles back control of himself in time, while he fails to do so against ulquiorra. I think that's why ichigo reacted that way, this is the first time he's won a fight in a way that doesn't satisfy him, and he doesn't know how to handle it. If nothing else I think it's pretty consistent with his character.
I agree with you. This was also the first time he was completely shut out. When he comes to he has no idea what's going on and even has to question if his sword sticking out of Ishida was his fault. He was in full-on panic mode.
@@druman890 "Panic mode" is right, and it's why he doesn't make sense in that moment: because _people don't make sense when they're panicked._
Aizen is a perfect antagonist because he’s every teen’s worst nightmare: he plans out your life for you. It contrasts so well with the rebellious teens against society vibe of Bleach and shonen, this guy who can plan and manipulate every detail to his benefit.
It's so dumb. His plan relies on so many contrivances having Ichigo's development happen because of one guy's plan is lame.
Honestly, never thought about it, but it makes sense why so many teenagers felt and still feel that he is such a good villain.
I feel like bleach is a story that really exemplify that shonen is first and foremost aimed to teenage readers, and can best fit in with their struggles and issues.
@@za-ir5ni you have to understand Aizen's character to get that scene imo. Aizen is not only super strong but he enjoys breaking his opponents mentally. Nothing he says in a fight should be taken super literally like 99% percent of the time. I always thought he was just saying the most unnerving thing he could to mess with Ichigo and as it turns out, he was lmao.
He observed him, sure, however at no point did Kubo make an effort to show Aizen messing with anything behind the scenes. Plus the TYBW contradicts his statement a few times
@@yoboi6965 Yeah, Aizen is contradicted because Kubo didn't think it through.
@@za-ir5ni he's contradicted because he was messing with Ichigo, can't be that hard to understand
Ichigo wants a "fair" fight with Ulquiorra means that he want to beat him as a human, as himself. He wants to show him the strenght of humanity. Also he wants to maintain control over his Hollow side. Remember Ichigos fight with Byakuya? He did the same thing. Completely in character.
Yeah i agree, but you would agree too that Ichigo is in the wrong here right? His desire to not feel powerless and win using his own strength is inherently selfish given the priority is to save Orihime not to win.
As a reader I'm confused (I haven't read further than Arancar yet) what I'm supposed to feel here. I understand what he's saying and feeling but Ichigo has always been very egoist and at this point I can't root for him anymore. And it doesn't feel like that is the intention of the story.
Maybe it is and Ichigo will get a complete arc realising it was never about saving his friends and he just wanted to fight and FIGHT as Kenpachi pointed out or maybe he will overcome his massive ego or maybe nothing will happen and all this will be brushed off as Ichigo going too far "to save his friends"
@@piggytripper3704 I would compare Ichigo to Goku. He knows whats good and what must be done but thrill of the fight clouds his judgement.
It was something special to watch Aizen's rise and buildup, his manipulations over the years and to finally see him get what was owed, and not in the typical hero struggles to overcome, but Ichigo just outclassing Aizen and humiliate him. It felt soooo good.
The scene where he just grabs his face mid monologue was GLORIOUS. It immediately paints a picture of where they stand
It felt good, however his power up was too ridiculous. That's what you get when you make your Villain too strong. Also it was stupid for Aizen, the master planner, to give up on his "Total Hypnosis" which there seemed to be no effective counters
@@paoloterranova2079 This, it’s why people call ichigo powerups an asspull because he went from literally weaker than espada #4 (who aizen is 100’s of times stronger than) to curb stomping aizen in just *3 months* it just feels very unnatural especially when the series has captains who’ve trained for literally hundreds of years and never got that op so quickly it’s jarring.
@@damarkomoore5236 They are not asspulls (the ichigo with bankai and hollow mask fighting against ulquiorra was weak and aizen even in base form teased him),ichigo is different from other captains as he is a special being consisting of all races in Bleach(which were shown).Zanpakto has 5 stages and ichigo with the help of his Quincy powers and hollow Zanpakto trained and achieved fusion state same as aizen(but on different power scale as aizen achieved it because of hogyoku,not properly through his Zanpakto).He also Transcended aizen when he showed final getsuga tenshou because he became one with his Zanpakto and aizen also has attained that in tybw where he is also fused with his Zanpakto as the hogyoku evolved him (on the same level as dangai ichigo).These powers are also not fraction of his true power which were shown in tybw.
@@paoloterranova2079 aizen wanted a fair fight between ichigo and him which is why he didn’t use his hypnosis
Also it wouldn’t have worked on ichigo as he could have just looked away if aizen tried
The fight between tousen komamora and hisagi is the second best fight in the arc. It’s so meaningful to all three characters
Very much agreed. I'm kind of sad Mark didn't touch on that one because I actually felt like it was a very good fight narratively that tied into some of the bigger problems of Soul Society as a whole and their corruption, as well as the moral gray lines that have been hinted at throughout the series.
exactly, I feel like he was too tunnel visioned on the “main plot” that he ignored moments like this
@@mohammedadelore8230 IKR!!!
@@joshuagroom7068 that one wasn't touched on because it went against his opinion on the fights doing nothing for the story unless Ichigo is involved.
@@TStizzle19 so true
Dude skipped a lot looking back on the vid. Like a lot of important stuff.
As much as I love Mark's manga reviews,, when it comes to this Bleach review series it kind of feel like he is not fully sucked into the material and that he is disregarding/missing a looot of stuff that is not even hidden between the lines. I feel like there is a huuuge difference between his Naruto reviews compared to these ones. Sometimes it looks like the reading wasn't done diligently and thoroughly enough similar to when people try to read the manga for the sake of cathcing up and just skipping bits and pieces and consuiming the action scenes. I cannot understand Marks gripe with the Ichigo's decision to ask Ulqiorra for a fair fight. That is litterally who Ichigo is throughout the whole story. It's a moment of madness that prepells to the front, what ichigo doesn't want to openly admit and he would never do that if he was calm and collected and not in this stressful situation. It's been pointed out a few times during this Hueco Mundo ordeal that he subconsiously came there because he craves the battle a lot and he wants to tests himself against others who are strong. He did this even back from the start of the soul society arc. And with every arc he showed it more and more.
Even at the start of the arrancar arc he really wanted to prove himself fighting Grimmjow after losing quite sorely twice. He straight up calls Grimmjow back because he hates the fact that he lost, which would mean straight up death. And has to be told by another person that he won because he is alive. The whole shtick with the Holllow Ichigo doing the horse/king speech was exactly about that. If Ichigo's instinct isn't to seek battles for himself then the Hollow inside him will take over because his instinct calling out for battles is stronger. While Orihime was healing Ichigo for the Grimmjow fight he specifically asked that Grimmjow has to be healed himself, otherwise it wouldn't satisfy Ichigo.
So Ichigo suddenly screaming to Ulqiorra that he wants to win on his terms fair and square is 100% in line. Especially that he just a couple moments ago was completely demolished by him and suddenly he wakes up with Ulqiorra being in pieces, Ishida being imapled by his sword and Orihime crying. At that moment instead of joy seeing that his biggest enemy yet whom he had no chance of beating in a million years without some magical power boost or training, the fact that he lost and who won was Hichigo instead overwhelmed him. He 100% felt cheated. And thats something Ichigo cannot stand more than anything else. It's almost similar to another character that Mark really likes (Goku ekhem), but with Ichigo being more discrete about it and usually finding a good coverup/excuse instead of openly saying that he just wants to duke it out with strong folk. Also by that point Orihime isn't in any immidiate danger, she is defacto quite safe by being able to actually try to escape if she wished with Ishida supporting her. Ofc it is important to get rid of Ulqiorra/ incapacitate him or whatever, because he is that quick and powerful that he probably would catch up to them running away. But that is one of the reasons Ichigo fights him, not the "only" reason.
Also come on Izuru and all of the other leautenants are not some random forgettable characters. They all got plenty of screen time in the soul society arc, to know who they are. They had a role to play in the protecting Karakura Town plan and that is alright by me. One thing that i will agree with is the fact that this arc has a LOT of battles, but i think that was partially done because Tite Kubo didn't want to just make a manga where the only characters fighting are the main character plus some odd supporting characters here and there. For the most part I really enjoyed even the smaller fights. The different unique zanpakutou and arrancar abilities are quite captivating. Some fights could have been cut of course, but I don't think it's such a big issue.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought this... He's treating bleach very differently from his other reviews and not in a good way. Sad too because I was so happy he started. He's too critical. Especially of small, almost irrelevant points while completely missing the bigger picture. idk it feels so different.
izuru is very forgettable, there is way too much characters to remember and if you just read the manga you barely see him
I think the main issue is that Mark has to keep consuming the story at a steady phase, causing the boring parts to spill over on the more interesting sections. And I can't blame him. I would probably also be in a way more nitpicky mood, if I was getting the story presented this way. Like, I had forgotten all the boring stuff from Bleach until this review, and I can recall actually taking longer breaks from the series because of stuff that felt like filler... These breaks helped me reflect on why I should continue, the motivation, the characters in the show etc. So it's not a shock to me that Mark misses some of Ichigo's traits and characteristics, because there is so much else filling up the space for thought. I like the way Mark reviews this, it gives me a different outlook on how this story is presented, and it's fair to put it up against the other big shonen series to drive this point across.
I love Bleach btw, I just wanted to give my five cents on this whole ordeal surrounding Marks review 😅
@@rimorix7552 fair point
I think mark has the issue of being too anxious about this series.
To begin with he stated that he didn't like it when he first saw it, and so he tried to be careful in what he said.
As things progressed, he seemed to be enjoying the story more and more, but also seem to be glossing over many small details and trying to give us his thoughts on the materials as best as he can.
Plus, the fact that his weirdest complaints so far comes for this arc, an arc that is notorious for being a Wesker stretch of bleach, may put him on the edge to say that he recognize.
Plus, it's possible that the glowing reviews he gave other stories so far might have made him think that he needs to be harsher.
In his more recent one piece reviews, he suddenly started to give more time in the video to complaints about the lay outs and the plot, something that, while warranted, was quite different from the way he criticized the series so far.
Him putting more pressure now on bleach and trying to explain how it's totally normal and fair for him to take so much time in the video to criticize the story makes me feel like he is not completely sure about this approach though, it seems like he is trying to justify being harsher than usual with this story.
I don't know if I missed you mention this, but the reason they only sealed Aizen away is because they couldn't actually kill him. He was essentially immortal and the only thing they could do to keep him at bay was to seal him.
I was about to make the same remark. He was made entirely immortal, therefore there was no other punishment than containment. Precisely why he withstood the final getsuga tenshou and why urahara placed a seal that triggers the moment his spiritual pressure dipped.
ain't no review perfect I guess
not only Aizen was 'deemed immortal', but killing him would also create an imbalance between the worlds due to his huge spiritual power.
Although many fights in the arrancar arc don't necessarily move the plot forward regarding Ichigo I like the characters and world enough that I enjoy them since we learn more about everyone involved. Also everyone fighting is because Aizen's goal which is stated multiple is to kill everyone in karakura town to create the oken so yes all the fighting actually does further the plot just not ichigo's. It also sucks how mark just ignores or doesn't care about most of the other characters despite them getting lots of screen time and their own stories even to the point of forgetting their names like bruh. Ichigo's honor in fights isn't out of character at all it's been shown multiple times throughout the story how he healed ikaku's wound despite literally fighting a battle to the death, how ichigo was reluctant to attack kenpachi when he wasn't defending himself, when ichigo refused to take advantage of the hollowfication in his battle against byakuya, or how ichigo told orihime to heal grimmjow for their final battle I honestly don't get how you didn't notice those things. Really is a shame Mark doesn't talk about the arrancar's themselves and their aspects of death or about the little drawings and poems kubo adds at the end of the chapters he's missing or not addressing a lot of narrative there but he could simply not care as he expressed how those arrancar fights don't move the plot forward.
To be fair, the _arrancars = aspects of death_ thing isn't always super obvious and _can_ be missed. AFAIR, the only one that was super blatant was #2.
exactly, well said. Mark has very insightful and intelligent things to add to his reviews sometimes, and other times he seems like he's not paying attention, or forgot about very important details lol
I get the sense, especially when he starts to sound irritated, that he feels rushed to meet his deadlines. That doesn’t necessarily invalidate his criticisms but it does make me wonder if this is an example of the dangers of making your hobby into your job.
@@bsmith6784 I know but it's just disappointing he doesn't talk about it and the thing is that I'm pretty sure baragan or one of the arrancar go out of their way to explain all their aspects so it isn't even subtle or hidden.
I actually really liked all the fights with the soul reapers and arancars. I love the characters and I love seeing all their unique/different abilities and the fights are cool asf. It also adds to their character.
I don’t like it when shows just focus on the main character and all the side characters are basically useless. I like how they almost every side character at least 1 or 2 really good fights.
Plus I disagree mark. All these fights DID have to do with the story and they did add to it. Aizen and the arancars are literally there to kill everyone in the town and steal 100000 souls to make that key. The soul reapers are the only ones standing in their way while Ichigo deals with all the shit with orihime and wakomundo.
Also Chad And Uriyu both have 2-3 major fights in wakomundo so they did have a good part in the story and contributed. Renji also gets a major fight too. So much better then Dragonball where 90 percent of the time it’s a goku and vegeta circle jerk and all the side characters can basically fuck themselves with how useless they are😂
This is the best arc in bleach outside of the soul society arc.
This is the first series you’ve reviewed where I genuinely feel like you are rushing through it. The vice captains fighting the arancars was meant to show you how Aizen’s subordinates (their former captains) leaving has affected them, and serves to give you a subtle insight into how said subordinates were as captains/mentors.
Also, your disregard for most of the things Urahara does is weird. You're the only reviewer I've seen that completely missed the point on him, and the duality he shares with Aizen.
@@Bask3tChase Wait, what? Well. That's also a problem many people who read Bleach for the first time face. The religious and spiritual symbolism seriously flies above their heads for the most part. So far, his criticism is really justified though. He did say it reveals the history and background of those characters as to why they are the way they are. The lore and history that Kubo has revealed about the world is much more interesting than following Ichigo's story or his involvement in its conflicts and chaos. 😅
@@Bask3tChase But, I hope he catches the subtle foreshadowing that Kubo's skillfully inserted into these arcs. Hmm.. let's see though what he has to say about the next arcs. TYBW is a legitimate masterpiece so I'm most excited for his review of that arc. 🤩
@@sanchalshrirame7168 I agree with most of his criticism, and have loved his reviews on other series, that's why i feel the need to point out that he comes across as rushed in this. From forgetting characters names, to not even remembering characters that have appeared already... This isn't the usual level of detail I'm used to from Mark, and since i know he isnt lazy, my only guess is that he is rushing this one.
@@Bask3tChase Bleach is my favorite series and I've not watched any of his reviews on other series so I'm a blind watcher of his reviews purely tagging on to him to see others' takes on my favorite series. Another principal reason is his reputation of being a really good reviewer and being one of the primary influences to DBZimran(a fairly known Bleach fan and reviewer) who praised his impeccability in reviewing things fairly and comprehensively. So, if you're saying he's rushing through it. Yeah, I'm also sensing and noticing it now that you mention it. Since, his usage of examples from Dragonball and OP to illustrate his issues with this arc point to the comprehensiveness of his reviews related to those two series. I hope his reviews of TYBW are on point and not rushed like this one. 😅
A couple issues I have with this video, most glaringly your take on Ichigo's reaction to Ulquiorra upon regaining his sanity. Ichigo became a Vasto Lorde involuntarily. The hollow inside him took over his body after he lost, as he promised during their last interaction. Ichigo also wasn't able to regain his sanity on his own, it was only when the Hollow was compromised by Ulquiorra. Ichigo doesn't accept the hollow inside him as an equal like he does Zangetsu. He views it as a monster he needs to conquer and use, much like Naruto and Kurama. A victory gained by losing control to said monster is tantamount to defeat for Ichigo. He wants to win with his own strength as shown and outright stated by Byakuya in their fight in the Soul Society arc.
The second issue I have is your take on the battles in Fake Karakura Town, but I believe it's because you're viewing the battles the wrong way. They don't progress the plot, sure. That was made obvious when the two main plot players, Ichigo and Aizen, are isolated immediately upon the start of the war for Karakura. The battles serve two purposes in my opinion. One is to give insight into the characters who are fighting. Their motivations for fighting or their personal strengths and weaknesses. The second is to show just how beneath Aizen everyone is. Aizen is so indifferent to being isolated that he tells Gin to do nothing to escape. Much like the readers, Aizen is waiting for Ichigo. Nothing else matters to him. Not even Head Captain Yamamoto. It allows the reader to enjoy the fights for what they are. A showcase of the captains', lieutenants', and Vizards' abilities.
And that is only interesting if you are in for that. To watch animated or drawn displays. Not everyone is surprised by powers dosplay, specially if so prominent
Yeah, but they frankly do nothing to progress the plot, they feel like filler.
There’s an audience for those things, but most people are more interested in proper storytelling.
@@sundowner4076 you say that but one piece also does this in every arc, literally all the straw hats fight individual enemies like the Gotei 13. Calling them filler is such a horrendous take through these fights the characters get emotional and physical development as they develop new techniques and show the readers more of their thought process and philosophies. Would you rather have Aizen slashing everyone right from the get-go?
@@egeozoran7719But again, does that at all matter, if it has no consequence to the actual plot.
Please, do tell me what there is to gain there minus just watching your favorite captain fight?
And yeah, that’s pretty much what he does regardless. At least it doesn’t waste time.
Kubo said it a number of times, he likes the most to explore and develope characters. You're talking only about pushing the plot along. Sure, that's fine if you're mostly interested in the plot, but Bleach has never been only about the plot.@@sundowner4076
I think marks problem is that he sees the story in a linear progression. That’s also why he may forget some characters names and why he might consider some fights filler. Everyone has a purpose to their fight either it is a fight to progress the arc to get to the final boss or it’s a self wanting fight. Ex: shuhei and dog man and tosen fight was for the battle of inner justice and friendship and shuheis inner conflict of loosing his master. It is more then what is seen at surface. Ofc if you don’t care who the side characters are then you won’t care about their fights either. The character he didnt know. Izuru had good screen time in soul society arc so I was surprised he didn’t know his name. Hence why he just glances over it for the plot and dosent focus deep enough to see the other things going on the story. It’s stories inside stories and I think that’s what makes bleach amazing. It’s not like dbz or naruto where side characters don’t matter tbh and no one cares about like krillins or Ten Tens background. We get too see these side characters and arrancars progress as well as the plot. Each with their own ideals, beliefs, and styles of fighting.
Exactly this 👆👆
Yeah, but if the plot doesn’t progress is effected by that fight,
It’s basically just canon filler.
@sundowner4076 No not really. These fights and moments are pieces of their stories. It isn't just filler to pad the story, it's multiple stories as a whole
@@mello9074If they don’t affect the plot in any meaningful way, it’s just there to pad out the runtime.
Making it filler.
You can do all these things while having it actually affect the plot.
Turn back the pendulum is my favorite part of Bleach. Kubo is so much better when he doesn't have to work with a cast that is too much for him to handle.
SO WORTHLESS
Same but I kinda wish it had happened sooner as where it was placed felt annoying like it was just getting to a good bit like maybe just after they arrived in Hueco Mundo it could've played or maybe even before the invasion arc before Ichigo even met Shinji it could have set up this arc itself.
But besides that a really interesting arc that helped flesh out important characters.
Right? It sure would be a shame if he introduced a dozen new characters every 50 chapters without doing anything with the characters that came before them. 😊
@@bookimatt legit too many characters in each group that gets introduced, not enough time to flesh everyone out.
@@dinogt8477 Your comment? Yes.
One of my fav arcs in bleach! its a blast. Also a couple things you may have missed:
- the black chain on ichigos arm was always part of tensa Zangetsu, it was just much shorter
- aizen was not killed because although the hogyoku starts to wither hes still pretty much immortal at this point
- Gins bankai name literally just means "God killing spear" which is nice foreshadowing
- the whole naming conventions of Zangetsu/ mugetsu and kyoka suigetsu is awesome, look it up
-i think it's obvious why Ichigo looks like that when he comes out of the dangai (since it's a hyperbolic time chamber and all that)
(Also just skipping out on tosen's fight and death like that? Damn bruh)
Was kinda sad how he didn't mention the small bit of irony of how Aizen destroying the Corridor eater gave Ichigo exactly what he needed to win.
@@Manganization i don't exactly blame him with some of these. Bleach is series of subtlety and nuance, so you can't always catch everything at first glance. Some things you gotta take your time with or look back at to catch on to them
36:02 HIGHLY DISAGREE, ichigo requesting ulquiorra to chop off his limbs to win fairly was my favorite in the fight, it shows ichigo is a moral character
I love Mark's reviews, but this one seems to have gotten the better of him. He seems to understand that they characters are the most important part of the story, and yet ignores most of them to the point of forgetting their existence. And then there is the weird hypocrisy of saying that nothing happens during the one on ones and that the plot doesn't happen when Ichigo is on screen. The plot may not jump whole steps, but it does progress... granted you don't strangely ignoring 80% of the cast like Mark does
Blud even forgot Kira the guy already had "two" fights beforehand
As someone who lands firmly in the "loves the extra fights because I love every one of Bleach's characters" camp, I think Kubo made the mistake of assuming all of the readers would be on board with the idea of "not everyone can be vital to the plot I've written, but I still want to give them their moments".
Which is ever so ironic considering people also use that as a negative on Kubo for "not focusing enough on other characters"
@@hachi7692 exactly
@@hachi7692 If Kubo gave Chad and Uryu all the fights and didn't focus on Soul Society characters those people would be screaming how useless the world building ended up being because these absolute nobodies showed up and did their job for them.
I love how the bleach fandom will make up theoretical enemies in their head and get mad at them such clasic toxic fandom move.
@@wiseman46237 WHAT fights for Chad and Uryu? Seriously. I wouldn’t have minded all the shinigami getting fights as well. But it feels like Chad and Uryu get NO important fights from Hueco Muendo, aka the last video to the end of the manga.
Gin's tragic, final moment was the highlight of the arc for me (yes, even more than Ichigo's transformation). This viper who we've known since his introduction to be cold, coy, and vicious was, in actuality, just a normal man who gave up everything: his standing in the eyes of his peers, his position, and finally his literal life all for the sake of the woman he loved. To see Rangiku fall apart as he died in her arms, realizing that all he had done was to kill Aizen, was legit heartbreaking. Especially when realizing that Ichigo had arrived just to late to save him after his actions resulted in the salvation of Ichigo's crew.
It's impossible to call Gin a "hero" since he was more than willing to sacrifice any number of lives, including but not limited to Rukia and Hiyori (which he would've without the timely arrival of Byakuya and Unohana respectively), to achieve his goal, but even so I still can't help but love the character after witnessing all he sacrificed for the sake of the one he loved most.
I 100% agree I don’t get how you can brush something so pivotal and influential to the story off too focus the main story and his “side character” and ignoring other characters storyline and development
Basically Gin was a lovable Fox had put upon a fake snake mask or persona.
Sacrifices have to be made; just like Eren from AoT, wipe out the enemy and protect what's important to them at any cost. Not everyone has the fortitude to bear that weight.
Of course, AoT ruined Eren's goals and motivations in that last chapter, but yeah.
@@Vulpas I haven't seen AoT yet so I have no idea what you're talking about.
Also his Bankai turning to dust. Similar to Rangiku's. Symbolizing where his heart and loyality truly lies.
if Mark is forgetting a lot of callbacks already, he is gonna have a lot of trouble enjoying the final Thousand Year Blood War arc.
Also considering how many sternritter fights there are, if he thought the amount of fights in Fake Karakura wait until TYBW
@@dankerbooper TYBW is pretty much 206 chapters but not as long as was the Arrancar Arc.
@@TheREALHugo4 Yes, but the fights are way more and opponents change a lot too.
I don't remember any of the Quincies watching the new anime has reminded me of that
It's genuinely hard to enjoy any arc in Bleach because they are all pretty bad tbh
Kira Izuru was the former assistant captain to Gin, and throughout the soul society arc was used and manipulated by Gin on multiple occasions, leaving him feeling helpless, worthless, and lost. I really loved his fight in this arc. Watching him overcome his own helplessness and trusting in himself was something I really loved to see. Also wabisuke is the best shikai no one can change my mind
No need to change your mind the meaning behind it’s name and design is enough
The way Kira used Wabisuke to finish off his opponent was absolutely brutal. Loved it.
Also has one of the coolest and most broken powers, everything hit by his sword gains more weight and it stacks with each hit.
@@TheKnizzine Countered by Rangiku's shikai and similar powers sadly.
Agreed, and after seeing his 'comeback' in the TYBW arc against Lile Barro, I'm now convinced that Kira is probably my favorite Lieutenant. He's gonna go CRAZY if Kubo decides to continue the Hell arc.
His Bleach reviews are getting addicting to watch
ITS SO BAD
It always does
As someone whose been on the fence with bleach ever since watching it yes, yes they are lol
@@expressiondestination6430 the first 20 volumes of bleach was probably the best manga experience I’ve ever had.
It’s a fun series, kinda like dbz.
ong
I understand the problems of too many fights, but I think that I love them because it shows us interesting characters and personalities. I will always love Izuri showing why his blade had that form, Hisagi saying that he doesn't like his sword, Stark and the loneliness he faced, this also show us the personality of Kyoraku, something very important.
I am not complaining but I feel that mark misses some of this aspects. Specially when bleach has this sistem of the swords conveying the true personality of the characters, so much can be said of it.
this bleach review in particular feels like someone playing witcher 3 and ignoring all the side quests asking where all the other content is, brother you ignored it because it didn't move the overarching plot, which some people actually prefer character arcs rather than the main plot, disappointing from my man Mark, seems he doesn't really vibe with the focus of the artist.
Ghe the fucking fullbring arc video got taken down in the middle of me watching it and I was enjoying the fuck out of it 😭😭😭
That's why it said unvailable
I saw that fullbring arc review you can't call me crazy
I was at 10 minutes, took a pause and now it''s gone
@@WasephWastar same here, i'm so sad its gone. Love the fullbringer arc
My guess was either it was unlisted for Patreon, or taken down for editing due to copyright striked.
It got copyright claimed you can check it out on his Twitter. Just learned this by the way
I agree that it sucks that some of the side fights don't drive the plot as much as some others but what I did like about them is that they show how strong different rankings are, new abilities, they further the plot lines of side characters, and create not only interesting interactions with opposing views but also well choreographed fights. These characters are integral to the world building, story, and an advantage of the anime is that you get more time with them to flesh them out
Side fights don't necessarily drive the plot but they're sure as hell drive the character development for future arcs. You actually see the growth on these characters.
And if all fights drove the plot further people would have been complaining about how quick things go in the story smh.
I know some of fights don't contribute to the arc as a whole, but they contribute to the individual character arcs in the entire show. A lot of fights involving the main characters are contributing to the character journeys each character goes on.
I feel like if these fights if were removed nothing would be lost, yes now we know they're developed but if they dont contribute anything for the story what's the point of it?
@@pardunmaster5776 Most of the characters of Bleach represent a perspective on a theme ir an idea. Its kinda realistic because Bleach is one main story with small side stories and plotlines that branch out and sometimes reconnect with the main plot. Not everything nessacarily has to impact the main story beats, as long as what is being said in the fights is worthwhile or provides some sort of commentary. A lot of these stories pay off later, rounding off characters like Sajin and the theme of revengance vs avengance, which does link back to the motivations of Ichigo later on. Or Rukia, a character that may not progress the main plot, but her arc is learning to accept herself as a true part of Byakuyas family as well as proving her worth, which is definetely not an aspect I would remove.
@@pardunmaster5776 the same could be said about the Sasuke Retrieval Arc yet no one would be able to agree what gets taken out
I mean without these fights we don't understand why some of these characters decide to get stronger down the road. Seeing Ichigo fight is nice and all, but towards the end of the Full Bringer arc these same characters end up showing some appreciation towards ichigo like there are there to have his back.
I bet Mark will say that when Byakuya ask for Ichigo's help later on is out of nowhere and forced.
Fights don't always need to move plots forward. A lot of what Kubo does is to expound upon side characters ideals, philosophies, frailties and reasons to live. In Bleach, Ichigo is important, but there are other characters to appreciate. Every character has a unique personality and ways of fighting. In the Soul Society Arc, we know how Soi Fon fights until she pulls out an RPG as her Bankai against the King of Hueco Mundo who actually hates Aizen too. Actually, nobody likes Aizen, but maybe Tozen. Also, the side fights are my favorite tings about Bleach because they don't push the plot, but puts personality behind each character. Yet, Kubo uses these side fights to show how important the will to protect is. Everyone is fighting to protect someone or something. Ichigo isn't acting out of character, Ichigo loss to Ulquiorra because Ichigo let his inner Hollow win. Remember Ichigo despises his inner hollow at this point. If you ever watch Yu Yu Hakusho, this is like when Raizen takes over Yuske and Yuske hates Raizen for this.
I will say one thing that kept bothering me during Arrancar arc was how much the formula "Person fights villain, we find out villain is way out of their league, all hope seems lost, stronger character we forgot about or Ichigo show up from off screen and smash villain" happens, and given how many fights there are it's a lot and in quick succession.
Yeah, and it doesn't move the dial. All of the fights don't matter, because Aizen could trick them into thinking they were fighting blocks of wood, or fight each other.
Kira's hangman gives me chills every time I see it, the whole notion of it sends shivers down my spine, the ending of that fight is no minor thing. And how have you not noticed him before now in either the manga or the anime x_X ?
I see plenty of people pointing out Ichigo's reason to "wanting a fair fight" so I won't go into that. But I feel like the interaction between Orihime and Ulqiorra is much more interesting at the end, she's the one who knows him best and has seen this "humanity" in him, his search and attempt at understanding, it's heartbreaking.
Nah, mark never covers the villains character or their personality, backstory and their mindset. This is universal in all his reviews but I still love his reviews.
@@feister2869 I lso loves his reviews, but simwtimes it feels that there is soo much he is missing or simply not saying, the fact that he didn't remember Kira and Hisage makes me think he doesn't really care about the Gotei 13. Maybe he though they would be a villian group first and never considered them as characters.
@@valordelink yea, I also got really annoyed when he didn’t cover the villains in naruto with detail. ESPECIALLY PAIN.
I just love when artist goes experimental and try different stuff, plays around and adds new flavors, to what otherwise would be too formulaic. So the extra fights and exploration of side characters is much welcomed by me.
I really don't think Kubo was experimenting with those fights. It really seems like padding to satisfy the manga publishers.
@@shorewall Why padding and not just Kubo drawing fights of characters that he happened to want to reveal more details about?
I feel like if I had to choose between a strong story and strong characters, I'd always choose strong characters, because a story is not something you can truly relate to or feel empathy about. A weak story with likeable characters can still be fun to watch (I mean this basically applies to every slice of life), but a strong story with unlikeable characters will almost always be boring.
That's just a false dichotomy. Nobody is forcing you choose between the two, and that's not at all what Mark is asking for.
In your haste to protect your fragile and pathetic ego because someone had the gall to offer a slightly negative tint on their review on a series you've tied your self worth to, you've gone on to insult Tite Kubo's ability to craft a narrative by infantilizing him, like he's some child incapable of telling a story and writing about characters at the same time.
He's not as incompetent as you are. Plenty of authors balance story and characters just fine, and Kubo can too. He just didn't, for reasons he's spoken about in his interviews.
Not surprised someone like you is making an argument so ridiculous and dishonest. Kubo doesn't need your nonsense defense.
Every slice of life has a weak story? Nah.
Mark's perspective on the excesive amounts of fight is because he is reading the arc straight. When it was in serialization, this excesive amount of fight generated hype, and I remember having conversations every week with my friends on what power does this character have and how will they overcome the opponent. So many speculations on what bankai will this captain have or what powers will Espada 1-3 have. Readers were even disappointed that Zaraki x Byakuya vs Yammy was mostly off screened. Thats when you know that the excessive amounts of fight was the driving force for readers. Bleach was not really about the big plot, it was there, but mostly it was about each character. Thats why in the next arc Bleach's popularity dropped, because in this arc it was concentrated mostly to Ichigo, and a lot of readers missed the other characters.
“Kubo gets in his own way” is the best way to articulate the frustration with the final quarter of the series for the fans. He couldn’t handle all the side characters, sub plots, etc. He does fantastic when it’s a straightforward, linear plot line, but once it gets complex, it very quickly starts to fall in quality
As a big bleach fan, yes. Its so true. I think his health problems really make this worse aswell. He has so many amazing concepts and creativity with his characters and story arcs but I can tell he gets overwhelmed with it. i feel like the tybw adaptation is going to fix alot of this though. It definitely wont fix all of it but definitely a good amount of stuff that kubo intended
@@jamrah8713 yeah he even said in interviews that he was gonna use the anime adaptation to clean up a lot of stuff left unfinished in the manga so I hope it’s true. One big thing I hated about TYBW is that Ichigo is barely in it. He shows up, cleans some fodder off screen, then gets bodied by Ywach 3 times in a row. You can tell Kubo wanted the whole soul king thing to hit a lot deeper but it went over everyone’s head. That and the fact that SQUAD ZERO WAS OFF SCREENED. Still though, I love bleach so hopefully it turn out well.
Super Eyepatch Wolf once said that Kubo really just likes to draw cool shit and he builds the story from there. I don't think that's completely true (there is too much crazy foreshadowing that goes on in this series for example) but I don't think it's completely wrong either. Kubo just loves to draw really cool shit. And it was one of his strengths as a mangaka.
It was like that for the Soul Society as well
I think part of your criticism is coming from your perspective of the plot, and not the plot itself. Your own breakdown of the "3 questions" were entirely Ichigo-centric, as he and his friends were the only ones you were invested in. You only cared about Ichigo's plot, but that doesn't mean Ichigo's story is the *only* story. There were several characters you weren't interested in that were having their story play out in those "filler" moments. And yes, they were introduced in the Soul Society arc and you didn't remember them because you didn't care at the time. The other characters had their own motivations, histories, and arcs playing out in those side battles too.
This
It's fine to care about characters that don't drive the plot, but ask yourself what do we lose by getting rid of the minor or background characters entirely. All I can answer is small moments in the overarching story.
@@nobafan7515 I can't say for everyone else but those small things really elevated Bleach for me. Ofc not everyone will like it and it's fine.
I think the problem just comes from the fact that they weren't incorporated into the story well enough to be invested in them. It is a pretty common complaint from Mark though and a valid one from his perspective. The fights don't really move the plot or have any significance outside of it which is 100% true. It's also just the fact that not everyone will be invested in every single fight Bleach has out of the dozens it had in this arc. And Bleach didn't do much of a good job allowing the audience to like the characters before throwing us into their fights that take up way more time than necessary before going into another fight with very little plot development
@@nobafan7515 Every small moment builds to the greater whole. Take them out and you have a massive cast of cardboard cut outs, not allowed to do or be anything more. The story would get even worse if it was continuously the same 4 people fighting. It would be the naruto issue all over again but somehow worse.
I do agree that some of the side fights are pointless, but a ton of them serve to deliver the philosophy of Bleach. Bleach is heavily influenced by Buddhist themes and values (inner meditation to gain strength, the different realms, etc.) and a lot of the fights demonstrate a character's philosophy or outlook on a specific aspect of life.
Hisagi's fight cleverly uses a fear of fighting as a strength while also establishing Tosen's influence on his past that he left behind, then leading to his fight against Tosen. His opponent, Findorr, is a representation of fearlessness of battle leading to arrogance and overestimation of one's abilities (growing his power as the fight goes on and "removing his mask", figuratively and literally, more and more and then finally stating he is captain level).
Kira's fight posits a subversion against most Bleach characters' love of fighting and instead establishes Squad 3's idea that battle is despair and is brutal and that battle should not be enjoyed, while his enemy is the foil of that, acting very similar to Ikkaku's and Kenpachi's love for battle (this fight is also the first time the anime talks about each of the 13 Squads having a different flower symbolizing its ideals)
Ikkaku and Yumichika both demonstrate pride and holding yourself back because of it, while both having opposite outcomes in their battles. Yumichika's also has some poetic irony related to his obsession of beauty and outwardly appearance while desperately hiding his Zanpakuto's true beauty and using it only when no outwardly eyes can see it
I enjoy these fights because they give some philosophical development to specific characters and its world. It's why Komamura vs Tosen is one of my favorites, as they are both fighting knowing that neither is really in the wrong.
IMO most of Bleach's fight dialogue is related to enemies having opposing philosophical ideas and they are often interesting to think about. It adds a layer to fights where battle shonen usually don't have and makes it enjoyable
Exacta! I can agree. And all of this is still connected to the main plot, albeit loosely. That these soul reapers are affected by Ichigo and/or Aizen in some way. And while fighting Espadas, we see that although they are on opposite side, both are "evil" as stated by Shunsui. Both Soul reapers and espadas/arrancars are not fighting for some grandiose goal but for their ideals, pride, sense of self. This is stated by SoiFon to Ichigo. And this distinction and commonness becomes more apparent with Ichigo and his inner hollow itself.
In all honesty, Kubo just took his usual subtle narrative approach from his previous arcs and reworked it within each fight in the arrancar saga. Almost all the fights tell a story. Quite genius on Kubos part in my opinion.
There’s a reason why Ulquiorra and Grimmjow are the most loved Espada. Both of them had the most dynamic with the main character of a relationship status that we actually care about when it comes to conflict and detail! 🗣
I really wish Ulqiorra survived.
Yo you’re forgetting nel
@@naiko8412 But she wasn’t a villain one
@@joelsasmad it literally would not make sense whatsoever for him to survive 🫤
@@THAGAMEKILLA I mean all that would have to change is having his regeneration actually work. At that point both he and Ichigo were done fighting.
In regards to ichgo wanting a fair fight, I feel that it's call back too : ichigo vs byakuya, specifically when ichigo refuses his hollow form interrupting his fight.
In that fight ichigo understands if he doesn't defeat byakuya, then byakuya will go and finish off rukia, the one ichigo wants to save in the arc. Yet he refuses his hollow form despite the strong power boost and the turn in the fight towards his favour. I feel that it's a small part of ichigo that whilst he wants to win, desperate for it at times, he wishes for it to be his power or one that he trusts/relies on that prevails, not another power taking over without his implicit approval.
Hopefully I'm remembering that right. I've come to really enjoy listening to your journey with bleach and the nostalgia I feel.
yeah, at this point ichigo sees the hollow as a foreign agent, when in reality the real stranger is "old man zangetsu", and hollow ichigo has only been trying to protect ichigo, but makes it sound malicious due to his nature as a hollow despite being the real zangetsu
It was great to hear your perspective on this arc Mark. I will concede that parts of this arc felt unnecessary (particularly with Barragan's underlings), but I can understand the struggle there must have been to portray a war without feeling like he (Kubo) was glossing over the character writing (Kubo's preferred focus of storytelling).
In particular I like the fight and contrast between Starrk and Kyoraku. On the surface they seem like the same kind of person (immensely powerful analytical slackers), but it quickly becomes apparent that Kyoraku's laziness is more misdirection than a lack of caring, and that Starrk's apathy is driven by not wanting to be there and a nihilistic dread of not wanting to be alone. As the fight goes on this contrast becomes even more apparent, leading to Kyoraku becoming increasingly underhanded and ultimately striking Starrk down out of duty, something that I doubt Starrk would have been able to bring himself to do.
Likewise there's a parallel that can be made between Starrk and Aizen, as it seems clear that both view their overwhelming strength as something that isolate themselves from others. It may have been for this reason Aizen sought out Starrk in the first place, whether it had been born from a sense of sympathy, or a because that shared sense of isolation made him easier to manipulate towards his own goals.
The whole “Ichigo vs Ulquiorra ending being misinterpreted” will probably be mentioned during the Fullbring Video as he reads comments or his editor does. He did this during his One Piece Videos if I remember correctly.
Okay, but why not talk about Tosen vs Komamura, that's one of the best fights in this section and it's giving an emotional pay off to their relationship and the end of the Soul Society Arc
Because it doesn't impact the rest of the story at all. It's a great character fight, although imo not as good as it should have been. But none of the characters involved move the needle of the story, beyond if you like them or not.
@@shorewall You mean it doesn't move Ichigo's personal story along. Which is just one story of many. He is the main character but often the story doesn't even use him as the perspective. He's only perspective like half the time. Stories can be about more than 1 lesson and Bleach has many.
Okay, but somehow Mark has missed the arrival of the most important character in whole series. And I know he must've saw them because he has shown that panel multiple times...
CHAIR-SAMA!
Ye no Mark, I did find it strange you were taking so long to post this video but apparently between this video and the Soul Society video you somehow only remembered Madarame from the 4 people defending the pillars then that's on you, they are all prominent characters introduced back in SS and WILL keep showing up and have their shining moments in the last arc.
I think Bleach is just not his type of story
Another comment mentioning the Fullbring video is down (didn't even get to watch any of it).
I think Ichigo offering to cut his arm is to prove to himself that he isn’t the monster. To beat him fairly. Right now ichigo is afraid of the monster and this is the first time he won solely because of it which probably signals to him that he is one.
Yep Ichigo lost that battle thematically and metaphorically. And we can see that in the future chapters.
i can understand not being a huge fan of the subordinates vs the arrancar subordinates, but i would have imagined at least stuff like the different captains vs espadas 1, 2, and 3 getting some more attention than the "oh yeah they just sorta happened, anyway". aside from the cool visuals, the different character beats for the captains and some of the vizards really stand out
regarding the "in canon filler" of having so many fights, i think the framing of the question is a little weird and puts yourself in a mindset where what the side characters are doing doesnt really matter. you say that in dragon ball it's "can the forces of earth stop vegeta and nappa" so for bleach why couldn't it be "can the soul society stop aizen and the arrancars", opposed to "can ichigo stop aizen"? if, for dragon ball, you framed the question as "can goku stop nappa and vegeta", i think the section of piccolo and everyone battling against them would come off as much more boring too since, in your head, you're putting yourself in a mindset that of course none of this matters until goku gets there. so for bleach, because you're waiting for ichigo to get back from hueco mundo since you've determined that's the most important thing, you kinda mentally checked yourself out from (nearly) everything else in the fake karakura town. and this is from someone who does think there are SLIGHTLY too many fights here as well, just not as many as you believe
you touched on the whole old generation holding off aizen for ichigo, but i think the lack of focus on urahara specifically and the depths of his scheming and intellect to try and take him down is a little strange, especially considering how prominent a character he had become up to this point (stuff like literally inventing new magic within the magic system and the gear yoruichi had on for the express purpose of trying to defeat aizen sticks out, for example). this kind of hits me as especially strange since he was ultimately the only reason why aizen was able to be sealed and dealt with anyway, since ichigo was completely tapped out at that point.
in the same way you would point out that your videos are reviews and analysis rather than summaries or read-alongs, and thus should be treated by what they are trying to do rather than what someone projects on to it, a series you are reading should be treated by what it is trying to do rather than what you believe it should be doing. bleach, generally, is more about the characters and the character writing, which you have praised a lot throughout your reviews, than it is about the plot. the plot is there and it's serviceable, but its not as much of a main focus as a story such as one piece
it's obviously impossible to cover every single detail in these types of videos nor do you want to, but even within the realm of reviewing and analysis that you strive for, and normally nail very well, it seems as though there is quite a bit that is either missing, barely mentioned, or misrepresented due to your tastes impacting your mindset, imo.
this isn't really organized at all but i hope this ramble makes some sense
From what Mark said about the final transformation for Ichigo, not Mugetsu, but when he first steps into Karakura town. It kind of felt like Mark either forgot or didn't read that the realm Ichigo trained in with Zangetsu was a Hypersonic Lion Tamer, so Ichigo trained for like 3 months with Zangetsu, explaining the long hair and the comments of Ichigo getting taller.
Shuhei is actually a big fan favorite lol. He got 3 part book series. CFYOW
While I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree that there's a TONE of fighth bloat in this section of BLEACH, I believe that KUBO is attempting to showcase that the World of BLEACH and Soul Reapers is just that, Bigger than Ichigo and the small group of close friends that he has around him.
From how Kubo designs his characters, 'Visuals first backstory second', its clear that while the former is the starting point he must spend a lifetime thinking about their personalities, their motives and their reasons why they are the people they are today. BLEACH after the Soul Society Arc most certainly evolves its base cast of the Original 4, to almost every single Captain and Lieutenant within the Sour Society itself, which is staggering in both its worldbuilding and conceptually, one of BLEACH's biggest strengths and weaknesses.
While to some, it's very much Bloat, 'Pointless' Filler, some see a wealth of extras that people yearn to learn more about, that there's always more to learn about, more to love about, and more to explore in the the vast abyss of characters and motives that the entire cast has. In recent years, Side Characters, such as Shūhei Hisagi, Tosen's former Lieutenant who became something of a favorite from the Anime's portrayal of him, have their own cannon light novels stories completely dedicated to them.
I completely understand how Mark feels like a lot of the FKKT arc fights are non-essential to the story of BLEACH, but for long time fans and from someone who watched BLEACH almost 15 years ago, I've come to enjoy and appreciate the vastness of BLEACH's cast and stories on subsequent viewings over the years. The Arrancar Arc is actually one of my favorite arcs and sets up lots of characters for pay-offs later on in the series.
wasn't kubo rushed during this section and that's why they feel bloated or was that the thousand year blood war arc?
Tybw arc
This comment is exactly on point bleach feels more non traditional storytelling where there are more then 1 main character and a bunch of useless filler characters, it hurts when individuals have there breaking points i still remember to this day how i felt during the tousen and komamura hisagi fight and the ending of him belittling komamura
Exactly, out of the Big Three i dont think anyone does side characters better than Bleach. Bleach fans love the captains and the liutenants almost as much as they love the main cast, i met many people who didnt like ichigo but would quiver seeing Byakuya fight. I myself have only started reading bleach after I saw a little montage of Kenpachi fighting Ichigo and then Nnoitorra. OP and Naruto's side characters have the habit of either dying or showing up for one arc and then vanishing but with Bleach you're always looking to see that captain you like fight again or use his power in a new and interesting way. My only problem with Bleach is that Kubo seemed to hold back a lot on actually killing his characters but TYBW makes it worth the wait
I feel like if kubo hadnt included the side character fights people would have complained about not seeing side characters fight
I highly respect your opinion and it made me realize that the arancar arc is not as perfect as I thought but I do feel like the reason it is so many chapters is that Juno dedicates a lot of pages to action which makes the page count artificially inflated. I personally also love each and every of the arancar fights because I just think the characters are awesome and want to see them battle. Thinking about it though you are right none of the those fights really profess the plot. They are just really cool to me
Yeah I agree with this. The fight with the skeleton (Barren?) was so much fun because how insane it was. Also the bankai being a “one hit kill” which makes so much sense for what her shikai ability is since it’s an upgrade but also not fitting at all for an assassin.
Even Yami vs Kenpachi and Byakuya?
55:49 that picture of Tatsuki being so in “horror?” about Kanonji showing up is peak humor on Kubo’s part and also absolutely peak editing power.
Mark you did Tousen, Shuhei and Komamura dirty in this video
I bet you Mark is gonna like the Fullbring arc
I know its the one that a lot of people dropped during, but it’s a really neat arc in retrospect
I think what happened for most people is they watched the anime only and that influenced their opinions, cause apparently there's filler even during the fullbring arc.
@@nobafan7515 ok yeah that makes more sense
I could definitely see that bringing down the arc
@@nobafan7515 As someone that was around when Fullbring was dropping weekly, I can tell you that people were hating it before the anime adapted it.
A lot of Bleach fans (at the time at least, I have no idea how the Bleach fanbase is today) mostly care about the Soul Society side of things, which is why I think Fullbring was hated on so much even back then.
@@SunderlandAlexis Yeah, it was hated. I liked the Fullbring arc in the manga (manga only here), because it focused on Ichigo and crew, and was toned down in stakes. Instead of Aizen, it's closer to the beginning of Bleach, and it involves all of Ichigo's human friends and family. And the climax is really touching.
Then the next arc started and I quit Bleach for good. :D
I can’t wait to see Mark’s reaction to the final arc considering how he views side characters and their fights.
I mean, there is a reason why this arc was the start of people beginning to grumble, especially on the week to week grind. The further arcs just go further down that road.
@@shorewall Understandable. I read it near the beginning of this year but yeah it had to be hard to read weekly
@@shorewall false
@@crammothy the fights in the final arc are different to this one
My biggest drawback from the whole impression is that need, for events to be part of something greater - I've never had a problem with smaller, conclusive stories, even mini-stories, within some arc, even if they are like "part of the background". I can't wrap my head around the problem, which it creates for Mark.
Great review, thank you, for sharing your another journey with us. Cheers Mark!
It's basically the problem a lot of people have with the MCU.
That Mark didn't know who Izuru or Hisagi were at THIS point in the story, along with some other things he missed in the previous videos, makes it clear he rushed through Bleach. Probably to capitalize on the hype for the TYBW anime
Facts didn't put the same amount of detail as Naruto and One Piece! It shows!
ye, he probably planned to have these out before the anime started, i am very disappointed in his approach with the series and focusing on the main plot is a thing even the author says he does not, it's all about the characters which he doesn't care at all about.
@@Myhaay ??? criticize the review if you want, but if he really wanted to have it out for the anime, why would he delay some videos or make them 2 parters to begin with????
@@BtFML1 because the review is still decent, mark has always been quality, i just don't enjoy his approach in this review, and it doesn't matter how many parts, the only thing that matters is the time-frame.
izuru and hisagi are really not important characters lol
Cool thing i didn't notice when I read it originally, Aizens Hollow form has it mask breaking through his face rather then being over it. Showing the monster was within him.
"This Bleach video is making me want to play through Chrono Trigger again," is not a phrase I thought I'd say today.
Edit: So I have a theory as to why Ichigo's hollow form evolves so much from the vizard training to here. We know as Ichigo ventured within Hueco Mundo, he got stronger as time went on. My theory is that before, when his form was more lizard-like, his hollow power ranked closer to that of an adjuchas, since we see adjuchas class Menos be more animal-like, and why the fight between him and Grimmjow was fairly even, Grimmjow also being an adjuchas. However, now Ichigo as a whole is more powerful, and my guess is at some point between then and now he tipped over the line into Vasto Lorde. Just my thought, tho!
Yeah his inner hollow during training even states that he learned Bankai when he did. It grows in power alongside Ichigo. There’s also another reason I think but that may be spoilers for the new arc being animatrd
The form he takes against Grimmjow is actually canonically called Vasto Lorde Ichigo, so I'd say you're on point chief
On point, the form is called Vasto Lorde Ichigo.
13:15 think you might be miss remembering that, Mashiro was the only one stated as being the fastest, so fast she didnt even need the training
Hiyori on the other hand was stated to be the slowest of the Visords the only only being slower was Ichigo himself.
Scrolled through too many comments to find this correction. Thumbed up
To Kubo's credit, a lot of the problems with the Arrancar arc weren't his fault. Not entirely. He was still the author, but there was a LOT of editorial interference during this arc. He wasn't allowed to write what he wanted. He was told to add more fights. He wasn't given time to focus on character arcs, his greatest strength. Even the similarities between the plots of this arc and the Soul Society arc are because editorial made him write it that way. This is why, unlike many, I actually really enjoyed the following Fullbring arc. It was far from perfect, especially the end, but it was focused on character interaction throughout, which was always Kubo's strength.
I strongly disagree with your criticism on the side character’s fights. The whole “not progressing the main plot” is nonsensical to me because they are for one thing SIDE CHARACTERS. Each of those fights were purposely done to show each character’s character progression; Shuhei’s philosophy on having fear in battles, Kira’s basis for what his squad represents; the captain’s pride in not letting Ichigo fight all by himself. None of those were intended to progress the main plot, it’s for each side character’s personal journey. It came across as you being tunnel visioned on the main plot and completely ignoring the side character’s personal storylines which you even said was a strong point of Kubo’s. If you’re looking for fights that progress the main plot, look for the main cast or the main villains, not the side characters. I really am disappointed at how you just ignored Shuhei and Kira’s big moments especially.
Tbh I kinda felt like Mark too. Kira etc deserved their big moments but it didn't have to come at a time when the spotlight should have been on the main players. In comparison to the prospect of the captains and aizen fighting the side carachter stuff seems unimportant. Not to mention that it was sandwiched between hueco Mundo and the final fights, so it looks even meeker in comparison. Overall I felt that it slowed down the tension for me.
@@mattiaserra1179 but the thing is he calls all these fights unnecessary to the point he forgets Kira’s name. He missed Mayuri’s perfection speech as well, chalking down major character peaks and progression to being ‘canon filler’. It’s severely disingenuous especially after he praised how Kubo wrote his characters. You don’t say something like that then say that all their fights that progress their character journeys are unnecessary and canon filler. Especially with how quick you can get through said fights. If it ruined the tension for you, fine, but calling them unnecessary and not even making note on the development of the characters in those fights is in bad taste.
Eh... Well... The problem is that a lot of those moments, while neat, add absolutely nothing to what's going on.
What does Mayuris perfection speech have to do with the current story arc?
It just explains why he doesn't like perfection
Coooool
That TOTALLY changes anything in regards to saving orihime , protecting the town, or stopping aizen
So uh, what did Mayuri do to aid ichigos journey, or influence any character but himself?
Iirc, isn't that speech to a person that just dies after? Nobody gains anything?
It's there to tell the reader about Mayuri, and nothing else, which is nice for character writing, but again, does not have anything to do with the task at hand
The only person who benefits from that speech is the reader, and even then, it's just more information about the character
A GOOD moment, mind you, but not important
@@DeitySkullKid yeah your point is absolutely moot because like totallynotmark, y’all are too bloody tunnel visioned on the main story, what ever happened to side character growth? development? philosophies and journeys? I get that some of you lower than average IQs may not care for that but to call it completely unnecessary and canon filler is again downright disingenuous. So you’re telling me that the role of perfection in bleach’s story doesn’t tie into the overall themes? how aizen wanted to be the perfect being that ruled over all of the bleach cosmos yet became emotional when he saw that Ichigo surpassed his power? how Yhwach himself wanted the perfect world with no fear of death yet couldnt see that that world will be full of stagnation? the whole premise is that perfection ties greatly into the bleach themes. but y’all are so fucking concerned with the main plot that you probably couldnt even mention any themes if it slapped you in the face. And you’re talking about influencing Ichigo’s journey but this is how both you and him miss the whole plot of bleach. Bleach isn’t just a small world that involves just Ichigo and his gang, it’s a much larger world that has a plethora of characters. Like FFS there’s a whole bloody novel on Shuhei Hisagi that is so good and doesn’t involve Ichigo whatsoever. So your point is fucking moot again
@@DeitySkullKid the perfection speech comes up again in the TYBW arc. So they do come back later, but it’s to further the characters story, not the main plot
"and Chad was there too, I guess" yeah that pretty much sums up his character after the 1st arc unfortunately. Great video overall Mark and I get where you and maybe others are coming from with Arrancar feeling bloated in the middle, even if I enjoy the world and characters enough that I prefer seeing too much of the secondary characters rather than too little making them feel useless or pointless. Can't wait for Fullbring video since I just rewatched the arc for the 1st time since the anime stopped back in 2012
The thing is you are not interested in secondary characters, only in Ichigo, that's why you think manga is lacking in parts without him. But if you read whole Bleach manga you will understand that this story is not about Ichigo only but about guys from Soul Society. And it's all connected.
In Soul Society arc you are introduced to different characters, in fake Karakura arc you see them in action and in TYBW you see their endgame. Unlike Naruto Bleach gives time to its secondary characters.
It's not one arc. There are at least five arcs. Like Arrancar invasion arc, Hueco Mundo arc, Fake Karakura arc, Pendulum Arc and Final Battle arc.
I genuinely appreciate the candid nature of these reviews. Bleach has become my favorite anime over the past couple years, and it’s great to see both the positives and negatives in it. Love seeing these reviews
This stretch of the Arrancar saga is what solidified it as my all time favorite arc in any manga or anime (it’s either this one, Fullbring, or TYBW). The first half set up everything beautifully, but in this second half everything comes together in harmony imo, from Turn Back the Pendulum, the dynamic between Ichigo and Ulquiorra leading up to their final climactic battle, Ulquiorra’s final moments, the Gotei 13 and the Visored’s versus the Espada, and of course, the epic climax involving Ichigo and Aizen. Dangai/Mugetsu Ichigo is still my favorite version of Ichigo we’ve ever seen, and his fight with Aizen is still my favorite fight in any anime/manga. It wasn’t a flashy fight, but you saw someone who messed with too many peoples lives get what was coming to him, and it was all too satisfying. 10/10 arc, and one of Shonen’s best imho :)
that's a low ceiling..
I agree this half is what made it my favorite arc in bleach hands down the best arc. The fights are amazing the character development is amazing all the plot threads get realized it's just amazing all the way around.
@@Unriven lmao people have their own taste bro
@@Unriven People call garbage like Chimera ant as the greatest Shounen arc so I doubt the ceiling is low
Read more stuff my man...
So yeah - one of Bleach's biggest problems, in my opinion, is how many characters it has. I believe that I read somewhere that one of the ways Kubo deals with writer's block is writing new characters, which...can cause problems when he feels he has to use all of them. Because in the Arrancar Arc we have 13 Captains, 13 Lieutenants, a few extra Soul Reapers, Aizen, his two lieutenants, the 10 Espada, their Fracciones, some more extra Arrancar, the 8 Vizards, Kisuke's group, Ichigo's group, and 90% of them end up getting screentime/battles. You can either look at this as 'Wow, he managed to fit all those characters in', or 'Jeez, he had to fit all those characters in and some STILL got left out'.
There are a couple ways this could have been dealt with - one is to limit the number of new characters created, or the number that actually matter. We don't need all these soul reapers, we just need the Captains and a few choice Lieutenants. We don't need all these Arrancar, we just need the 10 Espada. And as for the Vizard, either cut down their number, or utilize them more effectively - I can name the number of them that actually feels like characters and not one-dimensional cardboard cutouts on two fingers, and that's Shinji and Hiyori (the latter only being so because she gets a lot of focus in the flashback arc). One thing that could have been done is actually go all in on the early idea that the Vizards would have been a proper third side, that later got retconned so that they were just reinforcements for the good guys.
Now, don't get me wrong - I actually do love all these battle, and all these character designs. I'm loathe to actually cut these things out because without them, they don't feel like Bleach. For instance, the Captains don't feel complete without their Lieutenants, and the Espada don't feel complete without their Fracciones. Some of these minor fights are actually really awesome. But then, once again, we have the Vizards - four of which are captains but we only get to see ONE of their Bankai, and a couple of whom we don't even get to see their Shikai. Really, the problem is that Kubo seems to want to have his cake (have all these interesting different characters and flesh out the world) and eat it too (give them all enough screentime to matter), and...falls a bit short.
And yeah, there's also just how long and bloated the arc is overall - while I do love the uniqueness Bleach has among many other Shonen that it has a central antagonist it keeps for a while instead of trading it out each arc, it really just feels like it takes too long to get to the endpoint. One of this type of story's selling points is that you're supposed to be able to jump on at any arc, but Bleach...doesn't have a lot of good points like that, and this arc is the main reason. You only need to look at how weirdly placed the filler got in the anime to know that they were having trouble figuring out what to do with this arc at the time. If you thought the placement of the Turn Back the Pendulum arc was weird, well...
Bleach has never suffered from a problem of too much characters especially when comparing to it's counterpart Naruto which actually suffered severely from that one piece barely makes it at times oda realized this and is the reason why he started splitting up the characters over arcs wano is the first time since punk hazard that all the of the crew is in the same place Naruto on the other hand suffered severely from too much characters leaving other characters by the way side and forcing other characters to get screentime etc.
Bleach never really had this problem you talk about the all the captains fighting multiple enemies, but are you really evaluating the arc properly? the structure of the fake karakura town is perfect for all these characters to shine no character was forced into a scene, plotlines were resolved and new ones started we have multiple characters engaging one enemy to show the danger level of said threat everything was balanced and character's and story point bounced off each other . You speak of the vizards not showing their bankai that's actually not Kubo's fault all of that was is editor he actually wanted to show more bankai in the arc but was told not to, and if you know how shueisha treated him during the tybw then that's that.
For your last paragraph I suggest you read the manga the arc only feels bloated because of the filler if you understand how filler works you should know that it's unavoidable unless they took bleach off air, but other than maybe the slow start to the arrancar saga the saga isn't bloated at all it has 3 main parts the invasion of hueco Mundo, orihime's rescue, and the fake karakura town arc which is the finale the filler in the was placed right between the penultimate part of the second act and the start of the final act which definitely throws of the pacing but this is nonexistent in the manga and the arc is smooth your only argument for this as well seems to be the placement of the filler arc so I won't talk in anything else. So yeah I think you definitely aren't evaluating the arc the right way.
@@fable2830 …I’m not even sure how to respond to all that. The only things I will say is that I wasn’t saying the placement of filler was what made the arc bloated - it was that the arc’s bloated nature and lack of a good stopping point meant that the anime had to insert TWO WHOLE filler arcs plus change in the middle to avoid catching up. The filler didn’t cause the issues, the issues caused the filler.
Secondly, I will remind you I stated I LIKE the large amounts of characters and battles. Bleach was one of my first long-running shonens, and these tropes contributed to my love of the genre. But that doesn’t mean that looking back on it years later doesn’t cause a whole lot of issues to become apparent.
@@fable2830 also, I don’t believe I ever mentioned the other two of the big three shonen. Them having issues (which they do, I’ll admit) doesn’t mean that Bleach doesn’t.
@@iansynge7656 you do understand why filler is made right? it's not that the arc is too bloated hence they have to use filler to spread it out, it's simply because the anime is catching to the source material so in order to let the manga gain more chapters so that the cannon can continue in the anime they use filler as a place holder until they can return to cannon, you're saying this as if the reason they made the filler is because the arc is "bloated" and has no "stopping point",which I don't get this argument because a stopping point isn't needed the cannon is still going we are in the middle of an arc I think you're completely misunderstanding the nature of filler and because of that your saying that the arc was bloated the was definitely not bloated.
As I said except for maybe the very slow start with the privaron espada fights the arc is very concise you get from point A to point B fairly quickly and the plot progression is actually quite speedy while still being easy to understand. So when you say the "issues caused the filler" that's just your lack of understanding of why filler is made speaking there was no issue to begin with you're the one making said issue then are blaming it of the plot being bloated.
Also whether you liked the fights and the wide cast of characters isn't important my argument was that you are inaccurately evaluating the way the characters are used the arc and when use the excuse that bleach suffered from a problem of too much characters why comment was mainly disproving that argument.
@@iansynge7656 I used the other two members of the big 3 as a parallels.
I used Naruto to show what having too big of a cast looked like and how it suffered from it and that bleach never suffered that problem and I used one piece as another parallel to show a series that also suffers from having too big a cast and how it goes about avoiding complications with the storytelling I used both of these series to highlight the facts that bleach never had these problems by highlighting shows that did, one that failed to balance it and one that was forced to. I also went about explaining how you don't understand the arc structure and why fake karakura town was the perfect place to have all these characters and how they play off each other that along with the argument of the arc being bloated which I just disproved.
The phenomenal part of your reviews are the usage of visuals and audio to convey what's happening or what you felt in that moment. Don't get me wrong, the way you verbalize how you feel is amazing too. But you get to these parts that gave me goosebumps when originally experiencing special moments in a series and I get those goose bumps again, not because of that special moment but because of the way your editor conveys it along with the way that you verbalize it. Just phenomenal work.
But it wasnt ichigo's choice to go into that form,its a mix of him wanting to protect them and white ichigo fulfilling his promise to take over if ichigo ever gives him the tiniest chance to.......... and him wanting a fair fight is more of a situation of not wanting win knowing that he let out that horrific side of him on a rampage, he has no memory of it or even what his appearance was while doing so(as we learn at a later point in the story)........... Obviously he wants to save those close to him but he wanted to do so with his own power and not the power of the terrifying monstrosity inside of him that wants nothing but carnage, as we VERY CLEARLY see him do something similar in the byakuya fight where he was at least aware of what was going on and rather than just let white ichigo beat byakuya and then stop him he stopped him as quickly as he could and tore off the mask because thats not how he wanted to win which is clearly shown by him apologizing ..............so I dont think its fair to criticize ichigo so unfairly in this instance because this is shown very consistent with his previous actions the last time this exact situation occurred
So stoked for this, loving that you're nearing the end of Bleach right as a new season of anime is dropping 😁
Makes for a fantastic way of reliving the series without having to find the time for 360+ episodes in the run up to the TYBW 😅
It's all according to Keikaku.
When mark was talking about how ichigo was acting outlandish to ulqiorra I felt that so hard, for years I thought it was so out of place and weird and to a extent I still think it was written kinda funny but around a few weeks ago the scene finally clicked as to what I think kubo was trying to portray, ichigo wants to be strong enough to protect those he cares about but with ulqiorra he wasn’t and it got ishida literally got impelled by him losing control, and to another point, this arc has had many moments about ichigo needing to except he does like fighting/being strong so that’s also apart of it, but still it did take me a WHILE to digest that
The Arrancar arc is like if in Dragon Ball The Cell Games had EVERY character take a turn, from Yamucha to Trunks, and have a 2 month long fight for each character.
except they actually receive character development and introduce new abilities in each fight.
Sadly accurate