[noven]

Movie was about as good as any shounen movie can be i guess: plot was contrived and uninteresting, lots of examples of poor power level management (hollow mask on random snakes but not during final battle?), and saturated throughout by flashbacks of the first few arcs. Rukia's screaming also really got on my nerves, and i generally like her character. She can be drawn very beautifully if done correctly, sadly the animators chose to give her a lot of very abstract shots with distorted facial proportions that leaped from barely noticeable to obnoxious. No sode no shirayuki presence was kind of lame, but hisagi and urahara using their shikai was awesome so i guess it balances out. Overall i thought it was more watchable than the previous two movies, but certainly nothing groundbreaking. I also found it confusing why Japanese shippers were all in a fuss about this movie, i hardly noticed any IchiRuki moments that implied more than a nakama relationship. pretty much just the urahara question, which is ambiguous at best.