Bleach, Season 13: The Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc [Episodes 230-255]
And we're back with the good filler! It's really interesting that the Bount arc was a single filler arc stretched across two seasons', while this is two filler arcs squished into a single season. The Zanpakuto Rebellion arc takes place over the course of 25 episodes of a 35-episode season, and we'll talk about the 'Sword Beast' arc that takes place over the final 10 episodes of the season in a separate article.
And... yeah. The Bount arc and the Shunsui Amagai seasons have always felt like they could be interesting stories, but a combination of uninteresting anime-original characters and being stretched out way longer than they had any right to be. There are some nice moments for the secondary and tertiary characters in these fillers, but... nothing of value will really be lost if you skipped through all those episodes.
The Zanpakuto Rebellion arc, on the other hand, is a bit more fun because it does build up on an aspect of the story that feels so important to the setting, but isn't really touched upon by the story other than when it relates to Ichigo's own inner world... which is the Zanpakuto spirits. Sure, we've got some hints here and there with Renji, Hitsugaya and (somewhat) Yumichika dealing with their Zanpakuto Spirits prior to the introduction of Oetsu Nimaiya, the Asauchi and a whole lot of revelations in 'Everything But the Rain'.
But this filler arc, which is released during the height of the Arrancar arc... is a bit of an interesting one. Tite Kubo himself is responsible for drawing most (if not all) of the titular Zanpakuto Spirits, and there was a lot more of a
personal stake for the characters involved in this arc since many of them, like Yumichika, Shuhei and Renji, are forced to talk and meet with their Zanpakuto spirits. The writers build up on a
lot of character beats hinted upon in the source material (for example, Yumichika, Soi Fon and Shuhei's respective conflicts with their Zanpakutos) and knowing what we do know about the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, it's interesting just how much Tite Kubo probably told the staff what to do and what
not to do with the Zanpakuto. If you squint, you could see hints that the storylines that's about to take place with Kenpachi, Sasakibe and arguably Renji are
kind of foreshadowed here. The only really huge continuity snarl would be how Ichigo and his inner world works, but you honestly could just handwave everything there as Zangetsu-Juhabach talking shit and manipulating Ichigo to help him grow.
There is always the problem with these filler arcs about how a lot of captains just... never do anything. It's particularly glaring in the Amagai arc, but this one at least gives us a nice little way to handwave how most of the more powerful captains are indisposed -- the enemies this time around are, after all, their own sword-spirits, so obviously the more powerful captains have to deal with their own sword spirits, right? Even if their abilities are not used or showcased, I do like that captains like Kyoraku and Ukitake don't feel quite as impotent as they do in other filler arcs.
Only having 15 episodes to work with, this season also doesn't bullshit and build up side-characters with minimal relevance to the story, which I'm a fan of. Within the first episode, we're immediately introduced to our main villain Muramasa, who's kind of a ripoff Ulquiorra with super-long nails and he's constantly crying blood. In a hilariously similar scene to the upcoming Thousand-Year-Blood-War arc, the sequence opens up with poor, poor Chojiro Sasakibe showing up and falling unconscious and being taken out offscreen by their foes. Komamura is next to come up to bat to attack the new threat, but when he summons Kokujo Tenken Myo'o, he gets cut down by his own Bankai. Poor Komamura sits out basically the rest of the arc, but I do like this pre-emptive taking out of certain captains to weed out the cast to the ones to the characters that the anime writers wanted to focus on.
All the Zanpakuto spirits manifest at this point, going havoc under the stated motivation of refusing to be shackled under the Shinigami's rule as tools or slaves. It's really fun to try and figure out which design matches which Zanpakuto. I think almost all of the Zanpakuto spirits are done appropriately, matching up to their sword effects and users surprisingly well. I feel like the villains being the Zanpakuto spirits also solves a problem that the Amagai arc has, where basically all the 'goon' villains felt so boring and generic. Here, we get characters that are known quantities and known powers matched up against unexpected opponents.
There's also the surprise factor as our Shinigami are unable to initially release their Shikai, having to basically 'recover' their connection with their swords to properly re-utilize their abilities. Some of them default to the typical filler Hado, like Sokatsui, which is always kind of neat to see. Some of the more destructive elemental Zanpakuto like Kazeshini, Tobiume, and Sode no Shirayuki rampage in town, attacking generic Shinigami and causing some mayhem. Also worth noting that this is the first real reveal of Gonryomaru's abilities (beyond turning into a rapier), several years, I think, before the full abilities of Gonryomaru is explored in the Vandenreich arc.
Byakuya, who gets a huge chunk of importance later on near the end of the arc, gets to face off against Senbonzakura (interpreted as a masked samurai-man) and the two appear to disappear in a giant flood of petals. I'm actually not a huge fan initially of Byakuya's obviously-fake betrayal, but the reasons as to why he decided to take matters into his own hands actually makes sense for the character, and while it is a bit frustrating to see another 'don't get in my way, Byakuya' storyline, the arc goes by quick enough that it didn't stick around to grate the way it did in the Bount arc.
Of course, we follow Rukia as she stumbles into the human world, where she's pursued by Sode no Shirayuki, who takes the form of a ice-white princess not
too dissimilar to Rukia's future Bankai form. Sode no Shirayuki fights Ichigo, using Rukia's attacks a bit, but eventually retreats. This is basically the closest we'll really get to Ichigo fighting Rukia. Or at least Rukia with her ice powers without some wacky darkness-shadow powers like the third movie did, anyway. Ichigo holds back from finishing off Sode no Shirayuki for fear of breaking Rukia's powers, causing her to escape.
We get some information-exchange as Ichigo is brought up to speed, and interestingly enough we leave the human cast of Uryu, Chad and Orihime behind almost immediately. Rukia sneaks back to Soul Society on her own, causing Ichigo and Yoruichi to follow suit. All of this 'moving people from one place to the next' sequences are honestly done pretty quickly, which is one of the bigger frustrations I had particularly with the Amagai arc.
And the next couple of episodes are just... fighting against the Zanpakuto Spirits. Rukia fights against Sode no Shirayuki and we get an interesting monologue from Sode no Shirayuki about how she feels being used as a tool; while Rukia insists that she never sees her blade as a tool but an extension of her soul. There's some interesting plot threads that are never really followed-up upon since it all turns out to be mind control anyway... but these are some rather fun questions to ask. Sode no Shirayuki seems to realize that she wants to be with Rukia all along, briefly reaching out her hand to Rukia when she's about to do a double-suicide move with a Hado combination... but Muramasa arrives to annul this moment and save Sode no Shirayuki.
It really does help that the animation quality in the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc is pretty top-notch. Not all the fights are done equal, but the Rukia/Sode no Shirayuki one, and the later on Byakuya/Koga one are both pretty surprisingly pretty despite being filler arc fights. Rukia's ice powers are always something that could look really spectacular if given the animation budget, so it's certainly nice to see it done well.
Muramasa reveals himself to be a Zanpakuto Spirit, and gives the claim that he wants to release all Zanpakuto Spirits from the enslavement of the Shinigami. Muramasa then summons Zangetsu (the 'old man') from Ichigo's soul, causing the two to fight. This is... weird, of course, thanks to all the revelations we now know about the true nature of Zangetsu from the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. But, again, it could just be Muramasa affecting the wrong power thanks to how uniquely Juhabach and 'White'/Zangetsu are connected within Ichigo's inner realm.
Regardless, we get a very interesting fight as the Hollow powers take over Ichigo since he's outclassed by Old Man Zangetsu without the ability to go Bankai, leading to us the rather surprising return of Ichigo's brutish Hollow form that appeared during his Visored training. Ichigo manages to rip away the Hollow mask, but as he falls unconscious Muramasa follows Ichigo into his inner world, fighting against 'Hollow Ichigo'. Again, the anime is stil working under the assumption that 'Hollow Ichigo' is unexplained hollow powers that is still protective of Ichigo, but the moment of Ichigo realizing that Muramasa is trying to bind 'Hollow Ichigo' with invisible strings and then the two deciding to fight together out of spite against Muramasa to still be a nice moment of Ichigo accepting the aspects of power split apart within his body.
Of course I'm sitting here complaining about the non-canonicity of this fight, but it really would probably be a very cool sequence to acknowledge back in the day before we're truly aware of the true nature of Kurosaki Ichigo's powers. It's a quick little acknowledgement that Ichigo also has a Zanpakuto spirit, anyway, explaining what would happen to our main character when Muramasa draws out his Zanpakuto spirit.
Of course, all the talk about the Zanpakuto rebelling against their masters ends up coming off as rather hogwash because Old Man Zangetsu reveals that he was actually
mind-controlled by Muramasa, though there's a hint of the frustrations being expounded by some of the Zanpakuto spirits to be their true emotions that's amplified by Muramasa's powers.
Renji is the next to fight his own Zanpakuto Spirit, being confronted by his two-part Zanpakuto, Zabimaru... or 'Saru' (monkey) and 'Hebi' (snake), manifesting not as a strange nue beast as it did before, but as a huge buxom baboon-woman and a tiny floating gremlin snake-child tied to each other with a chain. Zabimaru has a unique ability to their fight in that both spirits are able to wield Zabimaru's Shikai form, but only one of it exists at any time so they keep teleporting the sword back and forth.
After some lampshade about how different Zabimaru looks compared to their previous appearance, Zabimaru expresses some frustration against Renji for being weak and finding no real reason to fight. Again, just like Rukia a bit earlier, Renji is confronted to think about
what makes him want to fight, and he thinks about his desire to surpass other powerful people in his life like Ichigo and Byakuya. This is enough resolve for Renji to
finally release his Shikai. The rules of the Zanpakuto spirit manifestation is a bit weird, but I'm going to assume this basically allows Renji to 'wrestle back' control of Zabimaru and manifest the sword's effects on his own blade? This fight is pretty fun, with Renji having to constantly punch upwards since Zabimaru's able to go into Bankai to fight against Renji's Shikai.
Ultimately, Renji manages to make use of a combination of his weakness -- his terrible Hado, which Zabimaru wouldn't expect -- and breaking his own Zabimaru in order to use the pieces to attack with Higa Zekko. This eventually breaks the mind-control on the Zabimaru spirits.
We also get a couple of shorter fights here and there, and one of the more interesting fight is when Shuhei Hisagi runs across his own Zanpakuto spirit, Kazeshini, taking the form of a black-and-red demon-man with a long, flowing head-tail. Kazeshini is an
utter lunatic who loves cutting people up, and this ties in with the established canon during the Fraccion fights where Shuhei expresses frustration that he
wants to his duty as a heroic Shinigami but Kazeshini goes into a psychotic torture device. The two have some
real unresolved conflict, unlike Ichigo, Rukia and Renji, and it's very fun to see the more subdued Shuhei get angrier and angrier as he listens to Kazeshini rant and rave about how fun violence is. Kazeshini ultimately bets Shuhei, and he has to be bailed out by Kira, who uses Bakudo to bamboozle Kazeshini.
As Team Ichigo meets up with the other captains, we get a fun sequence as Gegetsuburi and Hozukimaru show up in front of Omaeda and a bunch of generic Shinigami. Gegetsuburi is bacically shown to be a more ornate, more oafish version of Omaeda. We... we don't really get any huge character breakthrough between the two, other than Gegetsuburi being slightly frustrated that Omaeda's not using him to his full potential.
As usual, Omaeda ends up becoming the butt of a joke as he gets accidentally taken out by Ichigo's entry. Ichigo proceeds to fight (and quickly deal with) Gegetsuburi, while Madarame Ikkaku faces off against Hozukimaru, who takes the form of a gray-skinned, red-haired muscular man. We get an out-of-nowhere hilarious sequence as Hozukimaru proves his identity to Ikkaku by doing a silly dance. This is the realm of filler, so powers that are already revealed in the manga can get to be shown off at any time, so Hozukimaru goes into Bankai to face off against Ikkaku. However, this fight is interrupted by the arrival of Soi Fon and the Second Division, causing Hozukimaru to sulk, refuse to fight, and create a giant spinning whirlwind that covers his escape. Ichigo tries to chase down Hozukimaru, but he's stopped by Senbonzakura's blade petals, wielded by Kuchiki Byakuya... who disappears.
In pursuit, Ichigo is confronted and attacked by Haineko and Tobiume, but then their owners -- Rangiku and Momo -- show up to take over the fight instead. And the whole crux of this fight is that Tobiume and Haineko
always bicker with each other, with Tobiume disliking Haineko's more provocative style and Hainko talking down about Tobiume's traditional-woman qualities not hiding her terrible personality. It's to contrast how Momo and Rangiku are actually good friends... and I don't think this conflict piece work well at all. Rangiku and Haineko's "old woman" arguments are also extremely eye-rolling.
However, what really shines is the character analysis on Hinamori Momo, which lasts throughout the course of this arc and elevates Momo a fair bit compared to other secondary vice-captains! Honestly, I've always felt that Momo was lacking a huge character spotlight scene in the manga since she's always either being treated as someone for Hitsugaya to rescue, or as just one of the vice-captains. Here, Tobiume (who gets a much more interesting attack mechanism with her rope-and-bell weapons) confronts Momo about always being weak and being the victim, and later on this pays off at the end of this fight -- and in the big melee at the end of the arc -- with Momo showing some self-confidence as she takes charge and prepares to rescue people instead of being rescued and 'used' by people all the time.
The fight itself is also pretty fun. Haineko and especially Tobiume are two Zanpakuto that don't get that much spotlight in the canon material. It also ends with Rangiku and Momo tricking the two Zanpakuto spirits into being hit by their partners.
While all of this is going on, Hyorinmaru (a handsome long-haired man with a scar on his face) is just wandering around, having... lost his memories for... no real explained reason, other than to give Hitsugaya a bigger role? I feel like this really doesn't add up to much, and this might've been a B-plot that was truncated? It does give Hitsugaya a nice moment as he basically gets a flashback to his first meeting with Hyorinmaru from the source material, and the animation of Hitsugaya encasing himself and Hyorinmaru in ice is a nice one. Ultimately, though, this really doesn't serve to do much other than to take the two characters out of the fight for a while (Hitsugaya is knocked out by the effort, and Hyorinmaru goes to care for him).
Also, somewhere around this point, we get to see Muramasa wandering into locations with hollows and seemingly absorbing them, doubling over in pain and crying blood out of his eyes.
Byakuya then reveals his apparent betrayal, with Senbonzakura attacking Ichigo, while Byakuya frees Tobiume and Haineko. Again, the betrayal angle is... it's
kind of transparent. I can see why it's done, since it ties into Muramasa's backstory, but I felt like it was dragged on a bit longer than it should? We get Ichigo, Renji and Rukia all later angsting about this decision, and in the enigmatic untrackable cave that the Zanpakuto spirits are gathering, the other spirits challenge Byakuya's presence. Byakuya gives some excuse about fighting as per what his pride dictates, and this leads to Senbonzakura giving Byakuya the ultimatum of shattering Sode no Shirayuki. We get a
brief fight between the two, but Byakuya uses a Bakudo spell to bind Sode no Shirayuki then shatters her, snapping her into her sword form. Later on, we learn that this is
all just a sham act played by Byakuya and Senbonzakura (who came into his senses offscreen), but the drama is played up as a bit of an angsty moment, which I thought was done well, even if the sham was transparent.
I think somewhere around this point is also when Mayuri and Omaeda experiment a bit on the captured Gegetsuburi. It's more wacky joking on the expense of poor Omaeda, with Mayuri and Nemu forcing some experiments on Gegetsuburi and casually breaking it. Earlier there was a fair bit of drama about how breaking a Zanpakuto spirit would also cause the powers associated with the Shinigami to disappear, but... it's quickly handwaved as being a misunderstanding of how the Zanpakuto spirits work. Mayuri just finds that a spirit must fight and be defeated by its own owner for the brainwashing to fall off.
The next leg of the arc is also pretty fun, with a fair amount of great battles. Byakuya and Senbonzakura arrive to give Rukia back the pieces of her sword and... it's revealed that it's all a trick, but man, Byakuya, did you really need to traumatize your little sister so? Renji and Zabimaru team up to fight Byakuya and Senbonzakura. The animation of the fights at this point are rather fun. The fight itself isn't anything
super special that we haven't seen before, with both Renji and Byakuya just using their regular powers, but it's pretty well done and a nice little showcase of Renji attempting to surpass Byakuya -- a goal that was kind of shuffled to the wayside in the manga. Hihio Zabimaru and Sebonzakura Kageyoshi ultimately clash and Renji is still defeated, but it's some nice effort.
And then everyone arrives. A whole bunch of Shinigami and Zanpakuto Spirits all show up, and a lot of these scenes happen simultaneously so I'll just talk about the fights one by one. Ichigo fighting Senbonzakura is probably the most straightforward, and it's rather obvious that it's just a way to get Ichigo out of the way while the rest of the more emotionally-charged fights happen. It's not a bad fight, but it's clear that it's meant to be the side-attraction here.
I do like that the fights happen between some of the more prominent secondary characters that the manga, at this point, has already revealed that they have a certain type of dynamic with their Zanpakuto. Madarame Ikkaku and Hozukimaru's fight takes up a fair amount of screentime, but other than Hozukimaru's willingness to unleash Bankai, their dynamic feels like just a more hot-blooded version of Renji's fight. I've always been a big Ikkaku fan, so more Ikkaku content is nice. I do like how Ikkaku's hot-bloodedness means that he manages to subjugate Hozukimaru's Shikai, and still just keeps going up against his Zanpakuto spirit despite being outclassed. Ultimately I'm still not
quite sure how he and Hozukimaru managed that mutual-knockdown other than, well, this being less about power-scaling and more about subjugating a part of yourself.
Far, far more interesting, however, is the fight between Ayasegawa Yumichika and his spirit, Ruri'iro Kujaku. The two of them have probably the worst canon dynamic between a shinigami and his sword, with the reveal that the beauty-obsessed Yumichika is a bit of a contradiction. His personality is one of someone that's analytical, vain and beauty-seeking... but his heart wants to be in the strength-obsessed 11th Division. This is a conundrum, of course, because the true form of Ruri'iro Kujaku is kido-based, which is why Yumichika continually calls his sword by the wrong name -- Fuji Kujaku -- to piss it off and prevent it from going into its true shikai. It's all well and good when Ruri'iro Kujaku is just a sword, but it's now a vain peacock-man who's
pissed off at Yumichika.
There are a lot of discussions about beauty, about hiding one's true self and after some flamboyant talk about beauty and appearances, Ruri'iro Kujaku immediately unleashes the reiatsu-draining vines, saying that he's willing to unleash his power anywhere, anytime. He's easily able to overpower his master, and goes into a tirade about how aesthetics dictate both of their worldviews... and it's of Ruri'iro Kujaku's opinion that Yumichika's wasting time with the barbarians in the 11th Division. There's a lot of arguments to be make here about who is correct -- Yumichika or Ruri'iro Kujaku, and I'm really leaning more towards Ruri'iro Kujaku's points of view, to be honest! Yumichika, however, gets a badass double-panel yell alongside his captain Kenpachi; before he gets his comeback. To Yumichika, being part of the strongest division in the Gotei 13 is his pride, is his aesthetic, and this pride is something that he deems worth dying for.
I'm still not quite sure just
why Yumichika managed to defeat Ruri'iro Kujaku. He refuses to use the sword's power, he tricks Kujaku into using more of his power... and then one Bakudo spell and one zip behind Ruri'iro Kujaku and apparently Yumichika is able to take him out? There is some talk about how Yumichika would lose if Ruri'iro Kujaku 'fought normally', so I guess Ruri'iro Kujaku is just focusing on the reishi-draining power? Obviously this isn't a definitive conclusion for Yumichika and his sword's story arc, because this
is still filler, but it's a nice way of showcasing Yumichika subjugating and/or compromising his sword. Whatever the case, I really do love this battle. It's probably one of the highlights from the entire arc, alongside the unexpected focus for Momo a bit earlier.
Soi Fon, meanwhile, is the captain that hangs around the most in the battlefield at this point because most of the other captains that are allowed to rampage in filler arcs (Histugaya, Komamura, Byakuya) are otherwise indisposed. She gets to take on
three Zanpakuto spirits on her own. First up, Gonryomaru and Tenken show up to double-team her, and... we get a rather hilarious joke at people being confused whose sword Gonryomaru is. In an almost meta sense, Gonryomaru states his frustrations at his own user not standing out more. I do like, too, that there's a nice little friendship between Tenken and Gonryomaru. Tenken is silent and glowering, while Gonryomaru's a bit more talkative but skittish... and considering their two masters are the two biggest Yamamoto fanboys, it makes sense. This also marks the proper reveal of Gonryomaru's lightning powers, something people could assume from the kanji of his name but I bet it was pretty great to see this revealed in a tertiary material back in the day.
Soi Fon also has access to Shunko, which gives her a pretty great fight scene as she just envelops herself in wind and clashes with the gigantic, fire-breathing Tenken (who also uses fire bolas, making the fight dynamic) and Gonryomaru's lightning blats. Soi Fon almost effortlessly holds them back until her own sword spirit, Suzumebachi, starts stinging her.
And Suzumebachi is a fun little interpretation, a combination of both of Soi Fon's Shikai and Bankai. She has a gigantic appendage forming her right arm, like Jakuho Raikoben, but that giant appendage isn't a missile but rather the needle of Shikai-form Suzumebachi. This flows immediately to a 1v1 between Soi Fon and Suzumebachi. It's not as bad as Shuhei or Yumichika, but the anime also does hint that Soi Fon isn't quite the biggest fan of how her Bankai looks. This isn't brought up in this arc, but Suzumebachi does give Soi Fon a dressing-down for being such a fangirl dependent on Yoruichi. The fight against Suzumebachi itself isn't the most exciting thing in the world, mostly involving Suzumebachi flying around and stinging Soi Fon over and over, until Soi Fon tricks Suzumebachi into charging in onto an obvious spot, before blocking the strike with Shunko and slicing off Suzumebachi's blade.
While all of this is going on, Isane and Iba (neither of whom get their spirits unleashed for no real reason) encounter Ashisogi Jizo, and... the interpretation of Ashisogi Jizo as
just a baby-shaped baby with moth wings instead of the giant, hideous form is
adorable. Eventually, Tobiume, Haineko, Rangiku and Momo all get wrapped up in this fight as well, in kind of a mini-rematch. Again, maybe it's just me being happy that one of the ignored vice-captains got some personality here, but Momo does visibly look a fair bit more confident, impressing Tobiume. Ashisogi Jizo just butterflies around and uses some chest-knives to poison Isane. But their attempts to fight back against Ashisogi Jizo causes it to transform into its Bankai form, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo, and chase them around.
The last battle here that takes place before Kenpachi's epic arrival is Kira fighting against Kazeshini... an interesting setup. Kira did save Shuhei from Kazeshini earlier, but Shuhei's just... knocked out for the rest of the fight. Man, even in filler Mr. 69 can't catch a break! Kazeshini is just a lunatic and I really like how Kira basically just... uses his blase expression and delivery to freak Kazeshini into thinking that Kira has regained the ability of his Shikai. It's all a gigantic bluff, and Kira ultimately just attacks with Kido and some funky exploding bangles, and manages to take down Kazeshini. At the last second, however, Kira is sneak-attacked by his own spirit, Wabisuke, who takes the form of a wretched, crippled man weighed down by a gigantic slab on his back.
And then ZARAKI KENPACHI arrives. His arrival is epic, heralded by some
Dragon Ball Z levels of glowing yellow aura. Some really great moment of showing how the defeated Ikkaku and the then-struggling Yumichika are immediately revitalized a bit by the arrival of their captain into the battlefield.
Now obviously Kenpachi's Zanpakuto Spirit is... very special, and it's honestly rather fun to see the cheeky explanation. You can't very well have one of the most popular and prominent captains sit out this arc, but you can't have Kenpachi ever meet Muramasa, otherwise all the mysteries surrounding his blade would be revealed prematurely. So Kenpachi and Yachiru were apparently just out of the Soul Society hunting Hollows and got lost. Wabisuke attacks Kenpachi and immediately just gets shattered in one shot.
A lot of the conclusion of the fights listed above happen here, but of course we get the gigantic fanservice moment of
finally having Kenpachi fight Byakuya. It's... it's animated well, but it's also very... safe? Kenpachi says Kenpachi things, Byakuya says Byakuya things, and Kenpachi sure swings his sword a lot and Byakuya uses a whole lot of Senbonzakura attacks. There's a pretty cool moment where Kenpachi says that he'd rather die trying while fighting Byakuya, which is juxtaposed with Yumichika's own moment, but that's more of a moment for Yumichika's benefit, yeah? The fight itself is all right. It's well-animated, the music and voice-acting is neat, it's just... lacking that
oomph for me to get excited about this being a fight between two of the most popular and most powerful captains. That is the curse of filler, I suppose.
Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo would later charge and spill into the main battleground, his poison gas disabling Ichigo and allowing Senbonzakura to escape, and for Byakuya to retreat. Kenpachi grabs baby Jizo in by the head, but then Mayuri shows up, presses a self-destruct button that he somehow installed inside Ashisogi Jizo... because of course he has it... and then reclaims his broken sword, promising to 'discipline it'. Yeah, poor, poor Ashisogi Jizo. You're traumatized as shit, huh?
With that second act done, we get some revelations as Yoruichi has investigated certain matters. Yoruichi explains to Ichigo and the captains as the scene cuts back and forth between Muramasa and Byakuya hanging out at the magic unexplained cave of secret-hiding, and we see Genryusai Yamamoto stuck inside a green pyramid-shaped forcefield, seemingly sealed by the powers of three powerful Zanpakuto -- Kyoraku's Katen Kyokotsu, Ukitake's Sogyo-no-Kotowari and Unohana's Minazuki.
This, by the way, is a nice way to handwave the powers of four of the mightiest Gotei 13 captains without having them dominate the middle-tier fights. Remember that their abilities haven't been revealed in the manga and especially the anime at the time of this filler arc, and having these powerful Zanpakuto spirits work to seal the even-more-powerful Yamamoto is a fun narrative solution.
Ichigo, Kenpachi, Yoruichi, Kyoraku and Ukitake form a strike team to enter the mysterious unexplained cave of all-hiding. The duo of Haineko and Tobiume attack
again, in what's their third fight this arc, facing off against Yoruichi. There is some nice gag about Yoruichi lampshading that she and Haineko are both cats, and... this fight's actually pretty fun for how ultimately it's just a way to get Yoruichi separated from the group. Yoruichi trash-talks the two catty girls in a way that their masters didn't, ultimately managing to use a Bakudo spell to bind the two of them into the wall.
Kyoraku and Ukitake are both distracted into dealing with their own spirits. Sogyo no Kotowari, taking the form of a pair of young twin boys, just want to play with Ukitake, only that they keep using their scrolls and fans to launch lightning bolts and watery blasts at Ukitake. We barely see what Sogyo no Kotowari's real powers are, and I don't think these match the 'absorb energy, unleash energy' powers that Ukitake uses in the Fake Karakura Town battle, but I wouldn't put it past a captain like Ukitake to have a couple more powers up his sleeve.
Kyoraku's fight with Katen Kyokotsu (these spirit designs would actually appear in-canon!) is a bit more interesting because Kyoraku is just a much more entertaining character in general. Kyoraku notes that the two ladies are just seemingly holding back, and are unwilling to be truly hostile and deliver the killing blow.
Kenpachi, meanwhile, faces off against the remaining two spirits still left, Tenken and Gonryomaru. Kenpachi realizes that Tenken isn't fighting to his full strength, and targets Gonryomaru first, snapping the poor, poor abused and underused fool because he realizes that Tenken is holding back for the sake of his friend. We get some pretty great shots of Kenpachi fighting base-form Tenken, and ultimately Gonryomaru's destruction causes Tenken to rampage in his Bankai: Kokujo Tenken Myo'o form. It's a great spectacle as Kenpachi fights this giant, blocks the blade, cuts off a horn... and we cut away and never see the conclusion of this fight. BOO! What is it with Kenpachi's fight against giants always being narratively aborted?
Minazuki shows up before Ichigo and doesn't fight, just leads him on. Ichigo one-shots Kazeshini on his way, before encountering Yamamoto in his barrier. Muramasa faces off against Ichigo, and Ichigo dons his Hollow mask and unleashes a Getsuga Tensho. Yoruichi and Kyoraku arrive too late to warn Ichigo that this is
exactly what Muramasa wants, because the hollow-infused nature of Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho shatters the barrier. Turns out it isn't the Zanpakuto spirits capturing Yamamoto and sealing him, but rather Yamamoto sealed
himself in order to keep his immensely powerful Ryujin Jakka in check.
As Ryujin Jakka -- not even manifesting in a humanoid form, just taking the form of a giant, sentient wildfire -- rampages, Yamamoto informs the characters about Muramasa's backstory. There once was a man who married into the Kuchiki clan, called Kuchiki Koga, who had a very powerful blade called Muramasa that's able to cause other shinigami's Zanpakuto spirits to turn against their owners. Koga rose quickly among the ranks of the Gotei, but his father-in-law Kuchiki Ginrei isn't the most pleased with Koga's attitude. Things took a turn for the worse as Koga gets framed for killing some friendly shinigami with the power of Muramasa, which is framed as being
completely unfair. Ginrei tells Koga to wait and learn some patience while justice is doled out, but Muramasa manifests upon hearing Koga's call, and frees him from his prison.
And this is when Koga basically took a step over the line, when he confronts the jackasses that framed him and murders them in cold blood. Ginrei tells Koga in no uncertain means that this is him turning his back against the laws of Soul Society... at which point Koga snaps and leads his own revolution. He cuts off his ties with the Kuchiki Clan, and even gets into a huge argument into Muramasa, who he thinks is trying to 'control' him. Poor Muramasa just wants to help, and you really can't help but feel sorry for Muramasa. Ultimately, however, Yamamoto and Ginrei show up and seal Koga away, and in this final fight, Koga desperately tries to call for Muramasa, who's unable to hear his words.
After this flashback segment, we cut back to the present day, where... Muramasa apparently was able to access Yamamoto's inner world due to his power, and now know where Koga is kept, and leaves to free his master. It's... it's a
bit stretching the boundaries of disbelief that Yamamoto, Ukitake and Kyoraku would just let Koga go like that, but okay, sure. Ryujin Jakka is rampaging. Hitsugaya shows up with Hyorinmaru, freezes the flames of Ryujin Jakka long enough for Ichigo to get out, while the old captains hold back to subdue Ryjin Jakka. I mean, okay, sure? I think it's at around this point that I
kind of clocked out, because I just didn't find Koga all that engaging of a villain. As a 'surprise final villain' he's much better than Amagai, but we just go all-in on the Muramasa and Koga drama, and the original exciting parts of this arc, the Zanpakuto spirits, are kind of left behind. Thankfully unlike the Bount arc this only gets dragged for like three or four episodes, though.
Of course, the place where Koga is sealed is in some backwater swamp in Karakura Town. Muramasa arrives and collapses... and due to a hilarious case of mis-communication (or
no communication), Orihime stumbles upon this weakened emo man and heals him. Uryu and Chad show up, realize that the guy with demon nails and blood tears isn't good news, and they begin to fight. Rukia also shows up at this point. Koga unleashes a crapton of hollows for our Karakura gang to battle, and Muramasa finally releases his master Kuchiki Koga just as Ichigo makes his way into the battlefield...
...and Koga immediately stabs Muramasa in the stomach.
And then snaps him into two after Muramasa goes all wide-eyed in shock and confusion, because all he ever wanted to do was to resurrect his master. It's really a 'kick the dog' moment, and the voice-acting for Muramasa is really neat! I haven't really cared about Muramasa before this episode, if we're behind honest. He's neat as a ripoff Ulquiorra, but it's amazing what a really great final moment can give. Koga's been basically driven into insane and jerkassery with his grief and isolation, thinking that Muramasa has betrayed him and abandoned him, when it just took Muramasa a long time to get to where Koga is sealed. This is also supposed to kind of be a commentary on a non-healthy Zanpakuto/Shinigami relationship, because Koga has none of the warmth or connection that characters like Ichigo, Byakuya, Rukia or Renji have with what's essentially part of their soul.
And... again, I'm not the biggest fan of what comes up next, mostly because it's a bit straightforward and dragged on a bit longer than it should. Byakuya reveals that he's only hiding to prevent Koga's release because of the Kuchiki clan honour. Koga also just fights with one of the random weapons that was used to seal him and uses a combination of illusion and ice-based Kido, while Byakuya... goes all wild with Senbonzakura. Once it properly becomes a one-on-one, however, the Byakuya/Koga fight is surprisingly
amazingly animated, and I think the animation team devoted most of the budget for the finale for this fight as opposed to the next couple of fights. And... it's pretty cool! Lots of great glowing reiatsu moments for Koga and Byakuya, and that is a
beautiful Shukei: Hakuteiken that finishes off Koga.
It is an appropriately wretched defeat for Koga, too, who falls into the lake calling for Muramasa (who can't answer him because Koga shattered him), while Byakuya's supported by Senbonzakura, who proceeds to wax lyrical about how Byakuya exemplifies Soul Society honour and puts it above his own personal one, while Koga betrayed the Soul Society for the sake of his selfish desires.
The fight isn't
quite over yet, however, because Muramasa apparently isn't dead. Just... driven out of control. He's consumed a lot of Hollows to sustain himself (how does that work?) and morphs into a gigantic blob-dome not too dissimilar to a less-disgusting version of Aaroniero's Glotoneria. I can't really complain because this is just an excuse for all the Zanpakuto spirits and their owners, now free from the brainwashing, to show up and help to fight against the Gillians. It's pretty fun to see the shinigami and their spirits finally fight side-by-side, and, hey, Komamura wakes up long enough for the finale! This one is pretty fun, just showing off the abilities and attacks of everyone.
Meanwhile, Ichigo and Muramasa find themselves in the remnants of Koga's inner world, and we get a final fight between Ichigo and Muramasa. We get the explanation of the weird invisible tentacle ability that Muramasa used earlier against Hollow Ichigo -- that it actually works through water reflections. But compared to the Byakuya/Koga fight, this one just feels lacking. There's really not quite as much of a plot weight or a 'it would be so satisfying to see this guy taken down' feel as Koga's douchebaggery, it's just Ichigo dealing the final blow to essentially mercy-kill Muramasa.
And... and we just wrap up the arc after that. Our heroes defeat the Gillians, Muramasa and Koga are dead, and rain falls and all the manifested Zanpakuto spirits return to their swords. I do feel like the ending is probably one of the weaker parts of the storyline, but all in all due to the concept and the fights, as well as the excellent design of the Zanpakuto spirits, this has absolutely been the highlight of the filler arcs I've watched for Bleach so far.
Of course, it's not quite over yet, since we've still got around ten episodes of filler, as we go to the 'coda' of this arc, the Toju/Sword-Beast arc.
Random Notes:
- Like most fillers, based on the captain lineup, this season would take place after Aizen and company's defection, but probably before Ulquiorra and Yammy's arrival in the human world. If we want to force all the fillers to be canon, basically almost everything takes place in that time period.
- There are a lot of parallels to the TYBW arc's structure, huh? Chojiro falling in the opening stages of the arc, the Shinigami being unable to use their Zanpakuto abilities (just the Bankai in TYBW), some conflict with the two Zangetsu spirits, and one of Ichigo's allies going through a seeming betrayal that the audience can tell is bullshit (Byakuya/Uryu)?
- Out of the named captain/vice-captain Zanpakuto that were already revealed to the audience at this point, only Itegumo is conspicuously missing. Kubo would later reveal in an interview that the anime staff never asked him about Itegumo.
- I love the post-credits gags for this season! There are a lot of funny self-aware moments, like Iba yelling about subjugating his Zanpakuto (and no one knows what it's all about), and I even like just how little of an impact Chojiro Sasakibe has in the canon material leading up to this arc that it's even part of Gonryomaru's character.
- I really do find it interesting that Tenken and Tobiume both fight with completely different weapons than their owners. Tenken fights with some fiery chain-bolas when Komamura has never showcased any of those abilities before; while Tobiume is waaaaay cooler than Momo with those giant metal fire-bells connected with a long cloth.
- Taking into account that TYBW would reveal that Zabimaru has actually been hiding its ability from Renji, it would make sense, actually, that it would appear to Renji in different forms. It's also worth noting that when they use Bankai: Hihio Zabimaru, the baboon half of Zabimaru remains unchanged and only the snake changes into its giant serpent form.
- A fair amount of people get to see Ryumon Hozukimaru, namely Soi Fon and her Stealth Corps... but the TYBW arc would later reveal that the existence of Ryumon Hozukimaru is kind of an open secret among several captains anyway. Throwing Soi Fon into the mix of captains in the know wouldn't be that huge of a stretch.
- I actually wanted to see more of Hozukimaru being 'lazy' and a 'slow starter' as described by Ikkaku, but we don't really get to see that. In fact, Hozukimaru just feels like a clone of Ikkaku's own personality.
- It is rather interesting that Yachiru says absolutely nothing about the existence of Zanpakuto spirits running around her, but I suppose it's in her best interest to keep it all a secret, still... if she even understands her true nature at this point, even.
- I absolutely understand why Minazuki would take the form of a hooded figure, since we only ever saw its manta ray monster shikai form, but... it's surprisingly similar to a certain Sternritter "C" that we'll meet in the future, huh?
- I thought there was a pretty cool moment in the finale when Soi Fon just wants to charge in and just blow the shit out of the Muramasa dome, and everyone else freaks out because Ichigo's still inside. Ultimately Hitsugaya talks her out because of collateral damage reasons.
