Bleach Club

[Xeim]

Alright, well I'll start with Lethal's question.

What division was Urahara Kisuke formally captain of?

Answering that will earn you from 1-3 points, depending how thorough your answer is. If you're not sure how to be 'thorough' with a question like that, start by explaining why he isn't captain anymore, or tell me what kind of things that division is in charge of.
To get more points, I'll also include an optional question. It's a slight bit harder than the first, but it still shouldn't be too bad.

Optional Question: List two of Urahara's inventions and describe one.

You can't earn more than 5 points. And really, even just giving a one point answer will get you in the club. So no pressure. I don't want these questions to be too hard.

Make sense? Tell me if I'm not clear on anything.

~~~
Also, I actually did a little research before I came up with the question, as I was pretty low on ideas as to what to do. Everything I came up with seemed either too obvious or too obscure. So I just jumped from wiki article to wiki article for a while, trying to find a word or phrase that would spark a question. Well, I took a little visit to Shinji's article. Shinji, as most of you know, is a vizard introduced after the bounto filler arc (soul society in the manga). The second or so line of the article said this:

An early design of Shinji can be seen in the first chapter's cover art, along with other future characters such as Yasutora Sado and Ury_ Ishida, making it clear he was planned well before his introduction

Ok wow. I double checked that with my copy of volume 1….and he's there. On the very right- the last character you get a full view of. >_> So tell me this: If Tite has his character and story pretty much planned out...why is he leaving so many loopholes? If you know where you're going, then you have more time to think, rethink and sort things through. And yet, it seems to me as if he's just moving through the whole thing on his rough draft. O_o

Ah well. Though, I still find it strange that Shinji's in volume 1. xD

[Andromeda]

Wow, its really dark and hard to see, but you are right that is Shinji the Vizard. That is just weird. But I have a feeling that Tite did not actually have him planned out, at least in that much detail. He was probably drawing up character designs for all of the ones that he knew that he needed. What Shinji looks like now is probably one of the many that he came up with in the course of preparation. The face probably did not have a name or story behind it for a while.

He probably knew that he was going to be making the Arrancar Arc since the beginning, but I doubt that he had all of the characters planned out in that detail from the beginning. It is possible that he did, but its highly unlikely. Most writers know where they are going even from the start, but they do not have all of the details until they get to the point and close to it.

I would be very amazed that he had 50 some odd story characters that well planned out from the on set. He had to create a ton of Shinigami first for the Soul Society Arc before even thinking that hard about the Arrancar and the 20 or 30 characters that were added just for that arc alone.

But on the subject of the manga, it is interesting seeing the popularity contest. Naturally, Ichigo and Rukia are number one and two, followed by Renji. But curiously Hanataro was in the top ten along with Byakuya, Hitsugaya and Uryu. Kon got knocked out of the ten top according to him Hanataro kicked him out, even though Hanataro was seventh and Hitsugaya was eighth and Byakuya was tenth. But hey, they're captains you don't argue with captains. This was the second popularity contest, by the way. I don't remember the first one too well other than Ichigo and most of the High School cast was in it. But not nearly as many characters were introduced at that point. By the time that the second came out Hanataro was and huge focus and strangely enough Hitsugaya had barely a few lines but grabbed eighth. I guess that has to say something about his stage presence. Oh right, Momo fell into ninth, but she was featured more due to Aizen and his death. Strangely enough Orihime and Chad were in at twelfth and fourteenth, but they were both reduced in appearances. Though Chad had a big scene with his fight with Captain Kyoraku. It was pretty interesting though to see who was popular.

[Lethal Seraphim]

Alright, well I'll start with Lethal's question.

What division was Urahara Kisuke formally captain of?

The 12th division. He was also the founder/head of the Technological Development Bureau or whatever it's called. As for why he isn't captain anymore, he was exiled because of some questionable inventions (like the Hogyoku).

Optional Question: List two of Urahara's inventions and describe one.

1) The Hogyoku (spelling?) which allows soul reapers to obtain the power of Hollows, and vice versa. More specifically,

Spoiler: it allows Aizen to create the Arrancar.

2) The modified souls: Cloud, Nova, and Ririn.

[Andromeda]

Well I found out yesterday that Adult Swim is stopping Bleach on Saturdays. I don't know what this means for Bleach as it is getting replaced by Death Note after episode 52 airs. Which is very annoying to me, because I don't know what they are planning. I know that Adult Swim has never stopped airing a show before it was finished, unlike Toonami. So I am hoping that they are going to be continuing at a later time or moving it a different day. I know that at least the end of October Bleach is running during the week. So I'm not sure if they are going to be showing new episodes then or something. But either way, this means no more new episodes for at least two uncounted for weeks where Death Note is airing in is place. They do not have anything beyond that on their schedule, so knows what they have planned for Bleach. But I'm going to have to summon some Hollows for my bidding if they stop airing Bleach for any extended period of time. Going for 52 episodes, or pretty much a whole year I don't know why they would stop now. It is not as though they are airing them all week. So they should be able to keep a slow enough pace for the dubbers. Hopefully, they will at least keep airing Bleach during the week so that I am not without my Bleach.

That aside, there was a new episode, but it was a filler. That was main reason I was not jumping on the boat to talk about it immediately. That and I was really busy Sunday and Monday. But with that done now, I can go over the episode or lack thereof. It was about Kon and Don Kanoji along with the Karakura Fighters or whatever they are called. Which pretty much involved embarrassing and torturing Kon as much as possible. He because the Karakura King, which makes a little sense in some of the things that I have seen. But otherwise Kon is just along for the ride.

Karen and Uzu along with Ururu and Jinta all tag along with Kanoji in the misadventures of training with Kon. And Uzu just believes that Kon is something else and surprisingly that he can walk and talk is not strange but amazing. Kon is subjected to a lot of torture until a Hollow appears. The Hollow seems to have taken an interest in Kon, in a creepy manner and wants him. Karen see that Uzu is in trouble and comes to the rescue fighting with Jinta as usual. They fight the Hollow and end up using Kon as a ball to kill the Hollow.

And Kanoji pretty much recorded it all on tape secretly and uses it to try to increase his ratings. Aside from that it was a forgetable episode that was entertaining enough knowing it did not continue past one episode. The one thing that just makes Bleach annoying is the mid-arc breaks to completely unnecessary random events unrelated to the arc that only stall the story. I don't really care about Kon right now, I'm interested in Renji and Ichigo. I'm interested in what Ukitake is going to do and what Gin and Hitsugaya will do. There are far more important things that I don't want be detoured by bothersome episodes with Kon. It works in the manga, because it is just a small picture on the corner of a page. Its meaningless, but is a cute little comment that makes you laugh even with you are feeling all of the drama from a to be continued. It does not endure and last longer than it welcome though.

On another topic, I went to the DiamondDust Rebellion site again, they have clips from the movie playing there in the splash screen. Most of it is just the anticipation of Ichigo and Hitsugaya facing off against each other. But it looks to be a fun fight, but I have a feeling that they are not going to fight with their hardest in the battle. And it looks like Hitsugaya is going around brown cloak wander for the movie, for those that like that look.

[Andromeda]

You do realize that is how a lot of action anime fights go right? Ichigo is the only one that does this and will not be the last one that does either. I think I relate it a little to the style of sword fighting that is a little more common in Japan. This is just me guessing as I am not completely sure. But the style of the Samurai is one hit, one kill sort of thing. So the whole stand off thing draws back to that. You put your all into one strike and you make it as clean and perfect as possible. The one with the better swing wins.

This happened in Yuyu Hakusho with Yusuke and Taguro. It happened in Cowboy Bebop with Spike and Vicious, a couple times. For them it was lets finish this and they hand over their weapons for the final strike. It does not always happen as a charge up and strike, but the final blow is fairly common. It is in samurai movies as well, which is where a lot of goes back to I would imagine. Both of you are at the end of your strength, all you have left in you is one more swing. It is decided by the strong will and determination. It is not purely about strength and being better than the other. It is about resolve, which is what every fighter gets at the end. The good guy finds that resolve that gives them that edge to win out.

And let's face it, Ichigo is always out classed by everyone that he goes up against. That final fight at the end of each arc or movie is going to be the hardest fight of his life. And the person at the end is going to be overwhelmingly stronger than him in every way. But they are doing something that makes Ichigo find the resolve to know that he must win because he has a stronger reason and purpose to keep living and survive than the enemy.

Ichigo is always going to get beat around by his opponent. They have years, centuries of experience and honing their abilities over him. All he has going in is guts and guts only get you so far. He can only get out with his resolve. It is going to end up being that way for all of his fights. Ichigo is eventually going to have to fight Aizen, and he is as strong as they come. He can beat even the most skilled captains without putting out an effort. You really thing Ichigo is going to fair any better than them. He is going to pull out of his massive spirit energy bag of tricks the resolve to win.

Spoiler: Aizen did take Orihime, that is resolve enough for Ichigo to bring down mountains if they are in his way. He went all the way to the Soul Society to bring back Rukia. And he has known Orihime for even longer. He is going all the way to Hueco Mondo and going to kill everything in his way to bring her back. That is going to be his resolve and it will elevate him to new heights of power as well as over come his 11 second time limit on using his mask. Its going to do a lot to change him. But even in the end they probably do a massive power up that rips apart the headquarters of the Espada and then charge at each other. And they'll look cool doing it. ^^;

[Andromeda]

Well I'll start things off with the new episode of Bleach tonight. Unless things change it will be the second the last episode shown for a while. I keep checking the schedule hoping that they update it and place Bleach back into the schedule. Otherwise we are just going to have reruns to watch until they remember that they taking off their best show.

It was episode 51 of Bleach and Rukia's flashback is over. In fact a lot of time apparently passed since that episode as it is another day a later now. And because it is everyone is gathering for the showdown that is going to happen. Rukia is getting taking to the execution grounds, which is probably going to take a long time. Hitsugaya and Ichimaru are walking somewhere unknown with their Vice-Captains. Byakuya decides to leave for the grounds revealing a picture of what looks like Rukia, but I'm pretty sure is her sister. Which is funny how the two look nearly identical.

The Vice-Captain Iba shows up and talks or rather listens to his Captain speaking before Tousen appears with his Vice-Captain. Those two then take off and go somewhere. And then we see Kenpachi along with his Vice-Captain and Ikkaku and the other two who's names I can't remember. And Orihime is riding on his back like Yaruchiru which was funny to see. They find Uryu, Ganju and Chad via the ceiling and take them with them. At which point Kenpachi is running with a lot of people now. It was funny though seeing Yaruchiru tickling Orhime for no reason, she is just completely random like that. The girl makes no sense one minute and then is serious the next.

Either way, Kenpachi comes to a dead end thanks to Yaruchiru's bad sense of direction. Though given that Tousen and the other three are there it makes you wander if she did not do it on purpose just so that Kenpachi had a fight. But they come out after Kenpachi tells them to stood hiding and the rest leave on his command. He wants to of course fight them all alone. They all agree except for Ikkaku and the other one that Ganju fought a while back. They show up as the two Vice-Captains are about to fight Kenpachi. The four then leave to fight elsewhere while Tousen and the other Captain fights Kenpachi.

Kenpachi takes a full hit from both of them and then laughs it off like his was with Ichigo aside from the fact that they can actually wound him. It is hard to know how much this is Kenpachi boasting, but he does seem like he can match them even though neither have pulled out their Bankai's yet. But given that Kenpachi is fighting with his power tied, he would be able to increase when they did pull out their Bankai. So it is going to be a real question, is Kenpachi that crazy powerful to take two Captains.

The episode ends with Renji apparently finished with his training and walking off. He asked Yoruichi if Ichigo will make it in time and complete his Bankai. She then goes off about instinct which eventually winds to her point that she believes that Ichigo knows he has it somewhere and will find it. It is just a matter of instinct. And then we get to see a really bloodied up Ichigo, who has apparently taken a beating from fighting Zangetsu. With all of the blood he looks pretty crazed and vicious at the moment. And he is handling multiple Zangetsu's on top of that. So Ichigo has changed quite a bit in the single day. And obviously, it is Ichigo so he'll make it in time. Though he'll need to get healed from all of the injuries that he has sustained from the fighting.

It is pretty much a standard in anime that you politely wait for someone to finish their long winded speech before you attack. Though Ichigo does not always follow that rule. And if you look at it Bleach does not always follow it. When Renji was boasting Ichigo took a swing at him while he was talking. Ichigo fights like a street fighter, there is no waiting or pausing. It is killed or be killed. So if you take the time to go talking you're going to get hurt. Ichigo makes frequent comments about it through the show how his enemy could have attacked him but waited. And Uryu interrupted that one Shinigami the Wind Scythe guy while he was talking by destroying all of his spinning blades. But it is also more so that people just talk before fighting or during their fight.

Oh at the end of the preview for the next episode Kon made a comment about how the Golden Soul Reaper book was going to start up next time. I don't know if it means anything, but I'm hoping that it is Golden Shinigami Cup. I don't know when they started it on Bleach, but it would be awesome if Viz kept them in the episodes. They are great clip at the end up the episodes. It is like reading the manga, having that footnote that is meaningless but leaves on a pleasant note.

[Andromeda]

Well this could be the last episode of Bleach that I go over for a while depending on how long it is before it returns to new episodes. I am still trying to figure out anything about it. Unfortunately, they have not said much of anything on TV about them dropping Bleach for Death Note. I only know because they publish their schedule online, if it was not for that no one would know about it. You'd think that they would advertise that they are getting Death Note even if they are not going to tell you that Bleach is taking a vacation or something. I think that is pretty rude of them to just drop without an explanation or notice to those watching on TV.

Well anyway, to the episode. It was a really enjoyable episode for me because it featured Renji and his new Bankai. It also showed more of Ichigo training. Oh and no Shinigami Golden Cup like I had hoped. But oh well, it was a long shot anyway, since I doubt that they would actually show it. I mean they cut out previews from Blood and never show the intro for Inuyasha. The things they do are just strange.

But this episode focused almost solely on Renji fighting Byakuya. It was pretty impressive watching the fight. Renji is nearly the speed that Ichigo is, so he made up for that in knowing his opponent. He has seen Byakuya fight and knows how he moves. It gave him an advantage to seeing the attack that apparently is common of him to do by attacking from behind. Which seems a little honorless for someone such as Byakuya. Though he also likes quick clean fights rather than drawing them out. So I guess it makes sense.

But Renji is able to see it and actually prevents Byakuya from releasing his Shikai which is interesting. It is rather funny that Byakuya's Shikai is so easily stopped that you just hit it. I don't know if that is stopping the concentration or just interrupting the release process. But he was able to do it. And then Renji fights Byakuya with his Bankai, which Byakuya handles calmly. Renji does keep some tricks up his sleeve with being able to separate the pieces at any time. So that makes Byakuya a little surprised, but not much.

But after that Byakuya uses a few Kidou spells because he is apparently just that good at Kidou and immobilizes Renji. After that Byakuya releases his Bankai and rips him apart with pretty blood everywhere. Renji is nearly killed by the attack, but with Ichigo determination stands up to fight again. Byakuya summons up some of his swords and stops Renji again. Renji gets up and again and Byakuya puts him down for good pretty much. Renji is out of the picture for the time being at least.

Rukia knows that Renji is either dead or very close to being dead. I think Ichigo knows a little, but he is focused on beating Zangetsu and gaining his Bankai in time for Rukia's execution. And Gin Ichimaru appears on the path as Rukia is being walked away leaving much uncertainty in the air about what he is planning on doing by approaching her.

It was an exciting episode for me being able to see Renji fight with his Bankai that I have seen so much of already. Plus they had the new intro as well, which was very nice to see as well. It is only unfortunate that it is only for one episode since they are going to start showing Death Note now. Bleach is still on during the week, but I don't know if that is going to last or not. They are on episode 17 I think with Ichigo starting his training to regain his Shinigami powers.

And since nearly everything was in spoiler tags I can't really comment on anything else.