Bleach

Ichigo is weird as a protagonist in that he's not the central figure a lot of time. He's pretty reactionary as a protagonist, mostly finding himself in the middle of an even bigger conflict.

Bleach and FMA too both slowly transformed from stories with one protagonist to ensemble pieces over time, I felt like.

Protagonists in general tend to be reactive, which can be annoying.

In Ichigo's case, it's probably also because there are a lot of events that he's never around to react for.

Well with most protagonists, It's Personal for them in some way which might explain their reactionary state. Additionally, they're protectors by nature most of the time.

But for Ichigo, a lot of the times it's not really personal besides wanting to protect his friends, which is fine as a motivation but comparatively smaller compared to a lot of other fleshed out backgrounds of the Gotei 13.

They did alleviate some of it in the final arc though.

The difference mostly being Ed had a goal from the start, to get his and Al's bodies back, and even after they found themselves mixed up in a grand war, that goal never changed.

I've been watching old episodes of Bleach and I only just realized that Don Kanonji is actually just Mr. Satan.

Don Kanonji is neither a fake nor a coward.

Don Kanonji is always with you.

And the Karakura Superheros are legit strong. They don't hold a candle to Ichigo, but they do a good job of covering for him when he's away.

A few news about the anime. Mostly from Masashi Kudo's tweets. He is the lead animator for the Bleach anime and basically the number two.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Kudo_M_/s...71791920107520

https://twitter.com/Kudo_M_/status/897108969327542273

There won't be any before spring. There are two reasons for this.

1. Abe, the director of the Bleach anime is currently working on Boruto. Without him, it will be quite hard to continue the anime.

2. It's not up to the anime team or even Studio Pierrot. The decision to continue the anime lies currently with Kubo and Shuheisha. In terms of Bleach both are currently more preoccupied with the live-action movie.

From the way it looks like, the implication seems to be that if the movie does well, then the likelihood of the anime will skyrocket. Likewise if it fails, then we shouldn't expect an anime in the next few years. Of course how the Studio will handle Boruto will also influence things. Anyway, it seems Kudo is fond of the Femritter (or given their reputation in Japan, possibly just Giselle and Bambietta and maybe Liltotto with the rest just there because of association), as Kudo made an image of them.

https://twitter.com/Kudo_M_/status/898876147122884608

A little late, but part seven has been completely translated. http://missstormcaller.tumblr.com/post/165156414547/cant-fear-your-own-world-part-7-full-translation

The first part of the second novel should be released within the next weeks. The previous translation had a few errors, so I'm only posting what wasn't already mentioned.

- Urahara charges so much money from Hisagi, because many objects from world of the living need to be converted into Reishi first in order to work in Soul Society. It's probably still way too overpriced.

- The Omaeda family makes money in the gem mining business. For those who have not read the Rukia novel, that one reveals that Komamura's family is the one doing the mining.

- Tokinada has two "rivals" . One is Byakuya, because it seems there is some sort of animosity between the two noble families. The other is Shunsui, whom Tokinada considers his own personal rival. And indeed it is actually only towards these two Tokinada behaves like a complete asshole. Usually he is just a normal dick. He really doesn't like these two.

- The full name of Mashiro's lillte sister was Nico Kuna. For those who don't remember, she is the little science girl in Squad 12. Mashiro basically replaced Yachiru and her candy trips. Her position as super vice captain is completely made up. She doesn't actually hold any position.

- Hisagi wants interview Mayuri (probably about Pernida), but Mayuri rejected it.

- The Zanpakto Hikone stole can apparently give the user the core abilities and traits of all races (Hierro, Blut, opening Garganta, etc). It is also able to act on its own and possibly does damage on a cellular level. Possibly also to the wielder.

- It seems the Gotei may have actually a problem with employing children. For example Hitsugaya despite being physically a child, is actually at least a few decades old, hence why he is no problem.

- Ruddbonn, Loly and Menoly were almost killed by Hikone, but Rokka could heal them.

- Mila-Rose lampshades how Quincy and Shinigami come in and go out of Hueco Mundo like it's nothing. The Espada realize that they should not have let Hikone escape and are preparing for the worst.

- The hideout of the Femritter is in the ruins of a small country (probably the ruins of the Lichtreich). They wonder why Hikone had the properties of all races. Giselle speculates that Tokinada has the same goal as Aizen (which is true), while Liltotto believes that there is some kind of civil war going on between the Shinigami and wants to use the situation to her advantage and retrieve the bodies of her comrades.

- But little did they know that Mayuri had other plans. With Nemu gone he decided to fill the void with evil. He has dissected studied enough Quincy and Shinigami, so it's time for the Fullbringer.

- Ginjou and co are currently under something like witness protection under the order of Shunsui until the whole incident about Ginjou's rebellion is cleared up. But Mayuri really wants to [[strike:dissect] study them. So he decides to use Quincy for the job and bring them to him. It seems that Mayuri is going to reanimate every single Quincy who has left a body. The number of the corpses in the tubes are countless. Probably a few Sternritter will be among them (That would funnily reduce the number of Quincy causalities in the war to max 50).

- While Tokinada may be the new Aizen, Michibane Aura, the leader of the religious sect Xcution may shape up to be the new Yhwach.

- Tokinada is attacked by assassins. It's unclear if they were sent by himself or by someone else.

- His Zanpakto is Kuten-kyōkoku, the 9 heavens mirror valley and the release is "revere". It's a Zanpakto that gets inherited by the clan head. Similarities to Nanao's and Shunsui's Zanpakto have been drawn and there may be a connection to the former.

- The great noble families are not allowed to gather together all at once. Hence why only three (Tokinada, Byakuya and Yoruichi) appeared. C46 made that decision 1000 years ago.

- Tokinada's plan is to relieve Squad Zero of their position, because he thinks they are too incompetent (he is not that wrong) and have Soul King who is actually a living being who can give consent. He is actually criticizing that Squad Zero has no clue that world has changed and that their old ways don't fit anymore, which is ironic coming from a high noble.

- It seems only a select few know the current situation regarding the Soul King and Yhwach (by the time of the Rukia novel this has changed).

- Tokinada speculates that part of the reason C46 decided to take the status of the Shiba family was because they feared the great noble families might become too powerful.

- Tokinada wants the great noble families to govern the three worlds. It's speculated that Tokinada is referring to the real world, Soul Society and either Hell or Hueco Mundo.

Edit:

For those playing Brave Souls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA9QTymT7ug

edited 23rd Sep '17 6:34:57 AM by bandersnitch

they're using doggos for mining?

Not exactly. Komamura's family lives within a diamond mine or something like that. They are trading the diamonds with the Omaedas for money, goods and the occasional favor.

Also here the trailer for Bleach Paradise Lost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhtQ9UJJO8k

I like the song.

So, do you think we'll ever be given a name for Kenpachi's Bankai?

Big huge sword thing.

Just something I've been thinking about, how would you personally rank the Espada just on performance and abilities? Ignore that canonically they were ranked strictly on raw reiatsu power and nothing else.

Not sure; would either place Ulquiorra or Starrk at the top though. Ulquiorra had both his Segunda Etapa and had to be taken out by Hollow Ichigo, who probably outclassed a good 80% of the fighters in the Fake Karakura Town, and Starrk was able to deal with two Captain-level Visoreds at once, and had to be taken down by one of the most powerful Captains alive using a pretty hax skill from his Shikai.

edited 8th Oct '17 10:58:57 PM by Ssj3Gojira

Starrk, Baraggan and Ulquiorra came across as the biggest threats. Szayel was like a cockroach in that he wasn't that powerful but would be almost impossible for most people to kill.

Hallibel and Yammy didn't feel like they got good opportunities to show off.

Aaroniero and the intoxication guy seemed like they should have been more dangerous given their abilities but didn't use them well.

Grimmjow and especially Nnoitra didn't impress me much. All they had was pure power and no hax, but didn't come across as that strong despite having lots of chances to show off.

I mean, looking on it, Barragan is probably number 1 simply because I just don't see any of the other Espada getting past his Respira.

I think Starrk has the firepower to deal with him. It's difficult to say with Ulquiorra because his ranking is not indicative of his actual power, but we don't know how much stronger he is than Aizen thought nor do we have a good way of telling how hard he hits relative to pretty much anyone else.

Well if we're ignoring Reiatsu then Barragan's ability does make him seem strongest but presumably Starrk can resist it.

It definitely doesn't work on Aizen.

Aizen knew about Ichigo's battle with Ulq and his Second Release.

Presumably he was ranked just fine.

He very specifically did not know the details of that. He described what happened in all of Ichigo's battles, but in that one, he said along the lines of "yeah that seemed to have also improved your power" while clearly basing that off the reiatsu he was currently examining.

edited 9th Oct '17 6:03:04 AM by Saiga

For the record, I didn't mean discount reiatsu entirely, just don't make it the sole criteria.

Like, how Nnoitra was apparently the best fighter among them.

Ulquiorra > Baraggan > Starrk > Grimmjow > Tia > Szayelaporro > Nnoitra > Zommari > Yammy > Aaroniero.

edited 9th Oct '17 7:45:24 AM by VeryMelon

Nah, Lilinette confirmed Starrk was made Number 1 due to his actual power. Ulq's only showing in Segunda Etapa was smacking around an Ichigo far deficient to the captains.