Bleach

It creates a big pool of blood around her and her opponent which she can use to attack by shaping it into liquid blades or use to seal her own wounds with.

It is kinda simmilar to a Domain expansion from Jujutsu Kaisen.

That comparison helps me none percent, sorry

I mean the simple answer is yes, the anime did make it clear what the bankai does, and in a way that makes you go 'huh, the anime was trying to convey that all along'.

I wouldn't call it one of the stronger bankais, but surely we're past caring about that

Basically a domain you seal yourself and your opponent inside, where you have all the power. The definition of "Welcome to my world, bitch."

Like the psychic territories in yu yu hakusho, I understand everything now

Kenpachi vs Nnoitra bothers me. I used to really like this fight because Kenpachi is one of those Blood Knight characters who is really fun to follow. But

This is the sort of fight that works great in concept. Bloodthirsty guy with a sword fights another bloodthirtsy guy with a weird bladed scythe cudgel weapon.

The problem for me is that its boring AF. Once you get over Kenpachi's sadomasochistic gimmick its basically the same heavy swings and bravado over and over again. Half of this fight is Kenpachi figuring out he needs to strike harder to cut Nnoitra, and Nnoitra bragging that he can't be cut. Both fighters repeatedly "fight harder" and say that the other one isn't trying enough. When I was younger this sort of repetitive back and forth was entertaining, but now that I'm older I'm disappointed by the lack of actual tactics, ingenuity, or creativity in this fight. The voice-acting doesn't save it either. Compare to Ichigo's massive screams and declarations of independence, committment, or sheer refusal to die in his fights. Kenpachi is just laughing the whole time and lamenting that he's not picking up on things quickly. Nnoitra is the "yeller" in this battle, but he's a bad guy so most of his dialogue is just bluster and him being too much of an idiot to realize he should take this fight against a hulking masochist 100 percent seriously or he is going to die brutally.

The turning points in the battle mirror each other - Kenpachi loses his eyepatch and Nnoitra activates his "never before seen oh my god you should think this is so cool" sword release super mode that will only be shown one time before Kenpachi murders him. Then the resolution of the fight is Kenpachi going "oh wait, I might actually die, okay time to fight with two hands." There's comedic genius in one of the fighters realizing something so basic in the middle of a death match, but on rewatch its glaringly evident this fight lacks any creative tactics or shows of skill from either combatant.

This is one of those fights where the same actions keep happening over and over until one fighter reveals "lol, actually I'm tougher than that" or "oh, you think I was giving that full strength." It exemplifies the worst part of Bleach's usual fight formula: overly dramatic speeches, enemies explaining how their abilities work, overlong declarations of strength or pride in one's station, over the top demonstrations of strength that lack any real weight because the fight's been interrupted multiple times by artificial commentary from bystanders like Ichigo.

There's just nothing interesting in this fight and its way too long for its own good. Good on Kubo for making Kenpachi's next big fight a one and done. Against giant green Hulk man, its quickly established Kenpachi is so overwhelmingly strong he wastes no time hacking his enemy to pieces - there's no excessive sequence of swings, stabs, accidental misses, or neanderthal realizations that this fight has (oh I should use my full power now, oh I should swing with two hands).

Worst of all Kenpachi gains nothing from this. His character doesn't develop, his actions don't further the plot except to remove an obstacle from Ichigo's path. Kenpachi doesn't gain any significant emotional development from almost losing his life. This fight teaches him nothing. This was 15 minutes of a grown man in charge of existential law enforcement repeatedly bashing his head against a wall before realizing that the blood loss might eventually kill him.

I'd rank this with All For One vs All Might and Rock Lee vs Gaara as one of the worst anime fights to rewatch.

All For One vs All Might at least has an epic soundtrack and finishing move, and it does progress the story and makes for big plot development. Its bad for me because I don't like the franchise in general and find All For One underwhelming. Rock Lee vs Gaara looks great but doesn't do anything plot-wise and is a disappointing reminder of how shonen battles go through stages of both combatants not taking the fight seriously until the end - its awesome the first watch because you never expect Lee to be that awesome, but everything from his tactics to the battle's pacing gets really droll on rewatch. But both fights do better than Kenpachi vs Nnoitra because at least its not the same sword slice and the same masochistic enjoyment of injury that makes up the entirety of this battle.

tl,dr - Kenpachi vs Nnoitra f-cking sucks.

Now, Kenpachi vs Unohana on the other hand.

...I mean, I liked it.

You and everybody else. I hate Rock Lee vs Gaara and believe me that has won me a lot of friends in the Naruto fanbase /s.

In hindsight, Gaara vs Rock Lee is just to hype up Sasuke vs Gaara and then Naruto vs Gaara

It’s very Dragon Ball power scaling.

Lee punked Sasuke and then showed even more power and got wrecked by Gaara. Oh no, now Sasuke has to fight the guy that wrecked the guy that punked him.

The issue there is that was the most relvence Lee had in the series

Only other time he was important is the Kimmimaro fight

Edited by slimcoder on May 30th 2023 at 8:51:03 AM

Ain’t it sad, Lee

Hard work can’t overcome narrative importance

idk I still find kenpachis big powerup being using the sword as an actual sword by using two hands hilarious.

I remember back then people joked that was his bankai.

Volume 62!

Mayuri gets a call from Urahara, who claims he's figured out how they can regain Bankai. He points out that no Arrancar in Hueco Mundo had their Resureccion stolen, and reveals he's created a thing to prevent further Bankai theft. Basically, turning the Bankais into poison for the Quincies.

Hitsugaya continues getting his ass kicked by Bazz-B, until Bazz-B is interrupted by Cang Du. Cang Du is like "Dude, Yhwach said we gotta kill these guys with their own Bankai", and I guess Yhwach is just a dramatic bitch like that. Respect. But then Urahara's shit gets put into effect and Hitsugaya and Soi Fon get their Bankais back. Cang Du gets his ass kicked, so does BG 9.

Bambietta gets confronted by Komamura (who's wearing a mask again) and Shinji. Shinji messes with Bambietta's senses like he did back in the Aizen fight, but Bambietta decides to go all out with her Voll Stern Dich. Doesn't matter if her senses are messed up when she can BLOW THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING. And there's a tiny portion of Momo Hinamori trying to intervene before Komamura is like "Bitch get the fuck OUT of here", like...god, Momo just fucking sucks lmao.

Anyways, uh, KOMAMURA TURNED INTO A HUMAN?? Something about offering his heart to the old werewolf thing he visited a few chapters ago, and it's all to avenge Yamamoto. He's got a huge hole in his chest and is temporarily immortal??? I...am not gonna pretend I understand any of this, but dude is staking his life to avenge his old master, and Bambietta is understandably freaked out by the whole thing. She gets her ass kicked pretty quickly (I was enjoying the battle but it felt like it ended kinda fast) and then Komamura fully turns into a mindless animal. He's carried off and...well. That's depressing. Dude gave up his humanity for revenge. That's...sudden and REALLY dark? Ouch. And there's a weird ending shot of Bambietta, all fucked up and bruised after the fight, while her gal pals all look over her...and she's very panicked about whatever Giselle is gonna do to her.

Also, Nanao exists. Forgot about her. And she's apparently a mega-awesome Kido expert who creates a barrier to protect Shunsui from Jugram. There's a little something between them but then Jugram gets summoned back by Yhwach to handle executing some of the defeated Sternritter. Meanwhile, we get more of Mask de Masculine (I didn't mention him before but honestly, he's so WEIRD compared to the other Sternritter that he warps into being hilariously awesome) and he fights Kensei and Rose. He has a small dude who follows him around and cheers him on. The cheers give him strength!

...oh and uh, something else was going on, uh...ICHIGO, RUKIA, AND RENJI ARE COMING BACK AND THEY LOOK SO FUCKING AWESOME IN THESE ROBES I AM FUCKING LOVING THIS FUCK YEAH.

So uh, yeah, mostly it's just more fight scenes. Kind of surprised the stolen Bankai stuff didn't last too long, but I guess there wasn't a whole lot to do with it? I dunno. Komamura's fight started good but then that sudden dark turn Kubo did was...fuck, bro. Jeez. It feels so out of left field and painful for the sake of it, I dunno. Christ.

Yeah, Mask de Masculine is one of my faves as well, haha! Neat to see that you seem to be feeling a lot of the same highs and lows that my friends and I experienced as we read it when it was still ongoing. Now imagine the agony of waiting a week between chapters...

Komamura is him falling into the same trap as Tosen.

Blinded by revenge he ended up doing all the same shit his old friend did, sacrificing his own humanity just for a power boost. Tragic irony, Komamura followed the same path he criticized his friend from doing and whats worse is he should have known this but he was too driven by grief at Yama's death like how Tosen was when his friend died.

Depressing but there is an uplifting as while Tosen walked his path alone, Komamura at least left a path for those to walk further than he did so his sacrifice wasn't completely meaningless.

Edited by slimcoder on May 31st 2023 at 9:38:10 AM

Man, I cant believe that "Voll Stern Dich" is actually treated as the official spelling now. Vollständig made sense, since it is just German for "complete", Voll Stern Dich is just borderline word salad.

And it's not even consistent with how they spell/pronounce stern in Sternritter.

@Kenpachi vs Nnoitra: Nel vs Nnoitra was a lot more interesting to me even if it was a lot shorter and I wish she'd succeeded in utterly curb-stomping that creepy bastard.

But hey, this is Bleach, and women aren't allowed to curb-stomp anyone (unless you're a stepping stone for a man!), just barely scrape by by the skin of their teeth or lose instantly.

That being said I am biased because I find Kenpachi utterly boring.

Edited by PhiSat on Jun 1st 2023 at 10:56:23 AM

Eh, yeah, would've preferred Nel beat him tbh. But I like Kenpachi. He's psychotic. I dig the vibe.

Kubo likes Kenpachi in case you couldn't tell. So of course Nelliel had to fail.

In some fairness those Espada fights are resolved by the sudden appearance of a Captain

Renji and Uryu's fight got finished by Mayuri

It's nothing to do with liking Kenpachi

The Captains being sent to back up Ichigo (and revealing that SS did not turn their back on him) would have had no emotional weight if everyone was winning their fight before they arrived lmao

It can be both.

I don't think it applies when Kenpachi shows up alongside other captains who also save people