Episodes 68-69 Discussion Thread

[Omniscient]

Screencaps and Summary

Spoiler for basically what happens:

-Ichigo and company get sucked through a giant gate.
-They fight, but Ichigo is unable to go ban kai. When everything seems most dire, it all stops and Sado is freed. Turns out that Urahara was behind it all.
-Yoruichi and Soi Fong are in pursuit of a woman who is consuming souls.
-Urahara assigns Ririn, Claude, and Nova to Ichigo, Inoue, and Sado respectively. All three get doll bodies (the same as the ones in the ED animation).
-The vampirish woman (whose type Yoruichi refers to as Baunt) is on the move and Ririn leads Ichigo to her. She pulls out a fire summon that starts wailing on Ichigo. He's about to get blown up when lightning comes out of the sky and saves him. That blast belongs to none other than Rukia, who has made her return.

Whoa, didn't expect Urahara to be the one behind those three. We finally figure out that three dancing dolls are indeed the same three who have been tormenting Ichigo and company these past few episodes. And now we have some new vampirish villains. Oh, did I mention Rukia's back?
Episode turned out to be really good, makes me feel a lot more positive about this arc.

Please do not discuss anything past episode 68, or else you risk a ban. Even [spoiler=manga] [/spoiler] tags are no defense.

[Bronwen Stx]

Spoiler:

OMG!!!! More Ukitate giving Hitsugaya plenty of food! And Soi Fong! And Urahara! O_O OMGDOUBLEOMG... Yep! I think it is safe to say that this chapter is rather good.

[physics223]

Mmm ... These episodes seem too delicious. Must resist, must go to school, must ... Bah. Anyway, it's still in RAW form, so no biggie! Ahahahaha ...

[ZGMF-X10A]

1 hour special woot!!

[hi no ken Jebus]

Wow so much to say but I don't have the time. Anyway first half was weird with bizarro art. The story actually became alot better and definately looking forward to the vampires now . The second half had more or less better animation and usual bleach style. The surprise at the end was extra nice and now those muppets in the ED make sense. Not as much comedy as I had hoped but the 2 extra bits at the end are golden. Ukitate using the oldest pedo trick in the book .

[Guido]

Now this is a surprise I didn't figure out or expect.

Spoiler:

Urahara after all was the employer of those three guests and behind devising all the games that our heroes had to endure.

But for what purpose?
To made them realize what kind of tactics the real, vampire antagonists employ?

or how to handle their own capabilities in extraordinarily, dire situations?

The dolls make now sense because Ririn, Cloud, and Nova are confirmed mod Souls.

This could prove that Urahara managed to either found or salvage them before SS scrapped the whole Mod Soul project.
Makes anyone to wonder if Urahara has other mod souls at his disposition?

Somehow some of SS has researched about the vampire enemies. Yoriuchi and Soi Fong likely are gathering information about them.

So the real enemies are the other fellas feature in the ED.

Those kinds of surprises may be enough to quench the dissatisfaction of the filler complainers.

So those little games did serve a purpose, after all.

But didn't anyone else, except for Omniscient, overlooked....

Spoiler:

Rukia's return.

The anime staff is quite stretching the filler's plot to better flesh out the characters and have them properly reintroduce into the Bleach storyline before the next manga arc starts in the anime.

[monir]

Quick post before I use the door.

Bleach is back for the most part of the episode. Bleach-standard animation is defined in the 2nd half of the episode. The character design, the pacing of the story, the art.. all of those are at a huge improvement compared to the last 3 episodes. All those petty delaying tactics were probably used to make the time to animate this episode. Most of the grand animation can be seen in the 2nd half of the episode, the kind of animation that was becoming such a norm before the filler arc started.

Finally, the story and it's pacing was like Bleach! The story actually evoked a sense of mystery in some part and NO CURSED, LAME REPETITIVENESS ( except for Ichigo trying the Bankai twice) and a bit of instant flashback scene in the 2nd half that was shown in the first half of the episode. The BGM in two parts was fantastic i.e.

Spoiler:

the melody of the Bount to lure her victims! They are not really vampires though they do suck.. reiatsu.. which in turn reminded me of Shakugan no Shana!

and another little score of the piano and the violin in sync.

And finally, Rukia is BACK!!! One can tell when she assumes that tone of speaking to Ichigo when they are in public! She uses that tone of conversation in the next episode preview

See you folks tomorrow. Btw, Bleach is back, or at least, for this episode.

[Thewanderer]

Yay, ppl can now STFU about this arc, unless they start suffering from withdrawal symptoms from lack of complaining

[Sety]

Okay just wondering.......but isn't this like going to completely screw up the story afterwards?

Spoiler:

-Nobody knows Ishida lost his powers in the manga but they do now in the anime.

-Theres now a gang of mod souls in the manga theres only Kon and one other.

-Rukia is back but without her mod soul?

[Guido]

By the way, the new foes call themselves....

Spoiler:

The Baunt

And as always both Urahara and SS had been knowledgeable about their existence for a long time.

Spoiler:

I don't know how Rukia makes her entrance back into the manga storyline, but her entrance into the anime was well executed.

[eMpTy265]

Originally Posted by Sety

Okay just wondering.......but isn't this like going to completely screw up the story afterwards?

Spoiler:

-Nobody knows Ishida lost his powers in the manga but they do now in the anime.

-Theres now a gang of mod souls in the manga theres only Kon and one other.

-Rukia is back but without her mod soul?

Well, there haven't been signifficant changes that will cause issues... since most of the revelations are pretty minor.

Spoiler for Cuz I like spoiler tags:

Ishida: Well, in the manga Ichigo finds out also, but not at this point... doesn't really matter in the long run though.
(Not really a manga spoiler, since the anime spoiled it already.)

Rukia: We don't know if Rukia has her mod soul with her, but since Renji got one when he came to earth, I assume Rukia would get at least the same treatment...

Mod souls: Urahara seems to have a spare stock for modded mod souls.... makes you wonder if the employees of his store are also modded...

[Itachi 216]

Well well...The voice actor of Tsunade in Naruto is in this episode too!

[wingdarkness]

Well I won't be watching the ep until tommorrow night but if monir is finally impressed with something I'll probably be blown away ...Can't wait...

[[DOT].L]

Geh! Rukia back this early? I'm kinda hoping this Rukia doesn't turn out to be the genuine article...

[Biswa]

Wow, this is getting more and more promising... maybe i should start watching these episodes soon (after my exams). I do find that fillers generally dub down the strength of characters and make it seem like everyone got like much weaker from the previous arc, but maybe this won't be too bad a case. Even though Ichigo can't do bankai, it's better than being able to do it and being beaten. I do wish that Shunpo would come much more into play... that's a cool move.

[physics223]

Do I observe some form of pederasty between Ukitake and Hitsugaya?

Joking aside, Ukitake really shines as a kind guy. (Is he gay?) I know he's among the most popular in his batch (as shown before) because of his devoted yet gentle heart, but doesn't anyone questions his inability to score a wife?

I mean, if people had a personality like Ukitake and had a face as great as him, (transposed into real life, of course) wouldn't a lot of girls run to him?

Just a queer thought ... maybe he IS pederastic - I don't know.

As can be seen in my avatar, I do like him as a person.

[Illuyankas]

Man, this is anime/manga. NO-ONE has, has had, or can have a normal relationship with another character. It's impossible. On the plus side, it's an episode of 'alternative story arc' which I definitately enjoyed.

[Bronwen Stx]

Originally Posted by Illuyankas

Man, this is anime/manga. NO-ONE has, has had, or can have a normal relationship with another character. It's impossible. On the plus side, it's an episode of 'alternative story arc' which I definitately enjoyed.

Not impossible really...but I definitely agree with no one can have a normal relationship. If you think about it, most of the relationships in Bleach could be all kinds of sick. With a few exceptions. (Although I hope I know what you are talking about because then...this post is beyond silly.)

That's why Bleach is one of the best kind of crack. It is funny as hell when you think about it...

Oh and Ukitate is NO phedopile. -_- Don't indulged me. What he does like is Hitsugaya. A lot. XDDD Mwhaha. Him on the kinks with one young person doesn't automatically make him a phedo right? Or am I confused again?

[Illuyankas]

Ukitake's probably thinking "Wow, he looks just like me at that age! Same impossibly white hair, same high spirit energy, same smooth peachy skin- *coughcough* er, I mean, I might as well make sure he's doing alright <_< >_>"

[physics223]

Pederasty was a classy act in Ancient Greece ... maybe it also is in Soul Society?

I mean, in exchange for sexual favors, the adolescent learns a lot from the old guy. Maybe Hitsugaya learnt how to do 'bankai' with him...