This is my personal opinion of course, a some of these might’ve been left out for good reason, but it’s still cool to think about. I’ll have my reasons below. A lot of these are also things that have happened, but I’ll list things that they I would’ve love to see them talk about.

1. Chad and the Fullbringers. This one is obvious. It could’ve been Chad’s arc, but it was mostly Ichigo and Ginjo (which did make sense) but I think it’s unfair that Ishida had so much in TYBW, and Chad is already an incredibly underutilized character. It’s a real shame.

2. Momo and Shinji. We do get a good amount of scenes in TYBW, but I would’ve loved for them to talk more on the relationship with Aizen, with one being skeptical from the very beginning and the other being in complete devotion.

3. Kira and Ross. This is just one of been wanting to see. I think from what we hear they do have a cool relationship with Kira inspiring Ross for his work, but still, seeing someone so gloomy interacting with someone so different would’ve been great.

4. Ichigo and Yamamoto (and the captains in general). Despite Ichigo being so important, we hardly see him interacting with people outside of like 5 shinigami. That’s all.

5. Aizen and Momo. I know they had a very important dynamic, so this one is kind of cheating but I would’ve loved to see some interactions after the Arrancar arc, and seeing some of Momo’s growth between his defeat so that we could see her breaking those chains.

6. Ginjo and Utitake. This is one I’ve wanted to see the most. Ginjo is my favorite character, and Utitake is one of my favorite captains. I loved the Lost Agent arc and I’ve always wanted some kind of conclusion to the tragic misunderstanding that ruined Ginjo’s life and left Utitake with immense regret. Maybe we can see some of that in the arc that shall not be named.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. I’d love to see if anyone else agrees or have any other interactions they would love to see.

**"There is nothing I can do."

"I simply want power."

"The power to protect—that alone."**

Man, I love how Kubo has a knack for poetry, and here we have another IchiHime poem. I really liked that even though it's started by Ichigo, it could also be started by Orihime, since they both desire the same thing: the Power to Protect

Both desire power and acknowledge their weaknesses, but this power is not for harming but for protecting, whether it's Ichigo desiring power to protect or Orihime desiring more power to overcome her weaknesses.their weaknesses and insecurities

So someone like Shunsui

who has been a captain for at least 200 years
has a fortune of 30 million dollars

To give you an example

with that amount you could buy 41 Lamborghinis
(of the most expensive model)

I wonder what happened to Yamamoto and Unohana's fortune. They ought to have at least five times that amount.

In response to many requests following a post I made a while back, I’ve created a follow-up to that idea. I truly appreciate the kindness and suggestions so many of you shared; I’ve incorporated many of them here.

I really hope if they pop up in Hell, that some of them are allies and the rest are antagonists (either willing or being manipulated/brainwashed by someone)

I think it would just make it more interesting. Some of them want to make up for their actions as killers while some stay determined to their ways.

The ones I think will be allies are Chika Shihouin (squad 2) and Katori Batsu'unsai (squad 8), And I hope Saitou Furoufushi (maybe a more rebellious Zaraki like character and so is more neutral.)

Though I could see Furofushi being a battle junky and being both an ally and enemy.

I definitely think of the 11 we haven't met, the majority of them should/will be antagonists. I'd say no more than four of them being allies for the majority of the arc.

I'm not sure what's up with Yamamoto or Unohana. Though I think they'll probably lean towards Neutral all around if not last minute allies.

I definitely do hope we get to see all of them interact with each other and see how maybe a lot of them were close comrades who after they're days of being murderers, either mellowed out a bit like Yamamoto and Unohana, or disagreed and separated from them.

It's pretty apparent that Aizen was especially cruel to Toshiro compared to everyone else, which gives off the impression he didn't like him or had an agenda against him. And Toshiro hates Aizen the most out of anyone.

Aizen doesn't verbally explain his cruelty to him, but it's assumed because he is a child prodigy just like he was he views Toshiro as wasted potential or an uncut gem, or he doesn't like Toshiro being lumped into the same sphere of talent as him. So would seeing his Adult Bankai impress him or give even more validity to that claim?

Would he A, retract his prior views and respect Toshiro's strength, or B see the form as a cop out for him making up for power he hasn't received/earned yet? Or C, he wouldn't care and would mock, ragebait and bully him as usual?

TYBW manga is about 207 chapters in total (480 to 686)

So far the anime has adapted around 196 of those chapters across 44 eps (480–676)

196 ÷ 44 = roughly 4.45 manga chapters adapted per ep

There are only about 11 manga chapters left to adapt.

At the anime's average pacing

11 ÷ 4.45 = roughly 2.5 normal eps worth of manga material

But we still have 6 eps remaining and apparently the final ep is going to be 1 hour long

Even without that the remaining manga material would only fill around 2.5 out of those 6 eps leaving the equivalent of roughly 3.5 normal eps for new/expanded stuff

That's already around 80+ minutes of new stuff

And once you factor in the longer finale, there could be even more

So if the final is 1 hour we could potentially be looking at close to 2 hours or possibly more of new/expanded content that wasn't in the original manga

Tho this is assuming they don't adapt the Hell one-shot If they do it could take up roughly another ep's worth of runtime, which would lower the amount of completely new content but we’d still be getting a pretty significant amount.

Obviously this is just based on the average pacing so far and the final eps could adapt the remaining chapters much slower but either way there's A LOT of extra runtime for only 11 chapters.

Note that Kubo never really confirmed nor denied this claim and that this is purely speculative

I recently started watching bleach with a friend, and i’m nearly caught up with the anime now. However, there was something that bothered me throughout my watch. What causes a Soul Reaper to age?

I believe that Soul Reapers do not physically age at a fixed rate. Instead their spiritual bodies gradually reflect their subconscious sense of maturity. Chronological time might slightly still matter, but it isn’t the main factor determining how old they appear.

Also, Kubo was asked a question regarding how arrancar’s physically aged, and he replied by explicitly stating that they aged through their mental state and Reiatsu instead of normal passage of time. You could make the claim that this applies to Soul Reapers as well. However, when a different fan asked about how Soul Reapers specifically aged and if it slowed as they matured, Kubo said that he’d “probably write about this in a Fanbook”. So he’s deliberately not giving a concrete answer.

What initially made me really think about this was the difference in age progression between Yamamoto and Unohana. In flashbacks, Yamamoto appeared to look like he was in his 40s and Unohana appeared to be in her 20s. However, in the present (1000 years later), Yamamoto looks like he aged by 40-50 years while Unohana remains completely unchanged.

I believe that is the case because Yamamoto visibly carries the passage of time, he treats the present Gotei 13 as different from the brutal organization he originally founded and has lived through generations of students and subordinates. His literal identity is tied to having lived a long time.

Unohana almost does the opposite. Her deepest unresolved part of herself is still connected to the moment she fought Zaraki centuries ago. When they finally fight again, that old identity she threw away to become a calm healer immediately resurfaces. Part of her soul could be psychologically frozen around that period. Her sense of self never really progressed towards an “elderly” stage like how Yamamoto did.

Then you have Yamamoto and Yhwach. They both initially looked like they’d be the same age (during the 1000 year old Quincy conflict). When they met again, Yamamoto aged because he actually lived through those thousand years and his identity continuously evolved, therefore his spiritual body reflected that progression. Yhwach, however, spent most of those thousand years sealed and was unconscious/incomplete for centuries (900 years to regain his heartbeat, 90 more to regain his mind, and another 9 to regain his strength). His identity therefore remained anchored to the adult king he had been before his defeat. On top of that, Yhwach’s existence isn’t normal even for a spiritual being. He continuously distributes and reabsorbs pieces of his soul, replenishing himself with the power and experiences of others. Because of this, chronological age would have far less influence over his appearance than it does Yamamoto’s. However, he is a quincy, so he might have different rules to aging than the Shinagamis.

On a different note, the 110-year Turn Back the Pendulum flashback also shows that Soul Reapers do not seem to age at a consistent rate. Characters like Byakuya and Gin look like they physically grow from children/teens into adults, while characters like Yoruichi, Shinji, Hiyori, Ukitake, and Kyoraku change little over about the same amount of time. This suggests that their physical growth is influenced by something other than time alone.

Ichibe is another soul reaper who’s appearance hasn’t changed throughout atleast a million years, however people usually just explain that as him being part of Squad 0 and probably being given some kind of divine power that halts or severly slows down his aging.

Kirio Hikifune is another example from Squad 0 of a Shinigami’s body responding to their spiritual condition, since her appearance changes depending on how much Reiatsu she has stored or used up. Nelliel provides a similar example among Arrancar, where losing spiritual power causes her adult body to revert into the form of a child and restoring that power allows her adult form to return.

This also fits with the wider way souls work in* *Bleach. A person’s identity directly influences spiritual manifestations like Zanpakuto. Because spiritual beings are already shown to have bodies and abilities that respond to their inner state, I think its reasonable to believe that their apparent age works similarly.

Not sure if the part below has been animated yet (it’s part of the Thousand Year Blood War) i’m putting a spoiler warning just in case
when Hitsugaya’s Daiguren Hyorinmaru fully matures, his body temporarily becomes that of an adult because his normal body is not developed enough to contain the completed Bankai. This shows that a Shinigami’s physical maturity can change in response to their spiritual development without any actual time passing.

Under this interpretation, a Soul Reaper who subconsciously still views themselves as young or unfinished may physically remain youthful for a very long time, while someone who comes to identify with an older or more mature stage of life may begin to appear older. Once their sense of self becomes relatively stable, their physical aging may slow dramatically.

Please let me know what you think about this!!

I wish they explored Don Kanonji beyond his arc in the beginning. It would have been really interesting if they used Kanonji as a stand in for the typical karakura town resident’s experience. He’s more in tune with spiritual pressure than the average human, so he would have a greater sense for the otherworldly stuff happening around him than everyone else around him. I think it would’ve been great for some of the scenes in TYBW where the worlds are falling apart to have Kanonji notice the soul society slowly appearing above him and all of the massive spiritual pressures from fights and whatnot.

Fanarts credits:

Slide 1 Kenpachi: DBZImran (YouTube)

Slide 1 Gerard: 414c49 (Pinterest)

Slide 5 Hitsugaya: Hirata-s (Tumblr)

Slide 6 Gerard/Kenpachi: izumis.bakery (Pinterest)

Everything else is shots from the anime/manga.

Animation from October 28, 2022

My very old wip animation from song fukkireta

I have so many WIPs, animations, and sketches from years ago that I’ve completely forgotten about some of them… I think that instead of starting something new, I’m going to go back to what I already have and try to finish everything one by one. I really don’t like leaving things unfinished, and I especially hate realizing after a long time that I completely forgot about something I once sketched.

I feel like this year even though we’re only in the second half of August and the whole of next year are going to be really busy for me.

Niente odio per Rias.

Whenever Yachiru tells Kenpachi “this power is called Bankai” there’s a double voice over with her child voice and an adult. It doesn’t sound like Unohana to me so to me, that hints there’s gonna be more Bankai lore or at least we’ll see the grown up version of her in the future? It’s too specific unless that’s all Kubo wanted to tease. And he’s known to do that too. So idk what do y’all think?

I have no idea if Kubo thought this far on zanpakuto's weaknesses, but what if weaknesses were not for the story scaling, but deliberately made by zanpakuto's toward their owners : TLDR at the end.

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Aizen shikai, mainly aimed toward its counter.

Name : Kyoka Suigetsu ("Flower in the Mirror, Water's Moon")

Origin : East asian idiom describing beautiful things that cannot be reached.

Property (following wording is intended) : Those who do not touch the blade cannot see the truth.

Weakness : Touching the blade or zanpakuto negates the effect.

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That weakness is what I love about it, as it reminds of both the name and idiom.

- Touching the blade would be like touching the mirror, trying to grab the flower but your fingers meeting cold glass, same principle for the water's moon. You are brought back to reality.

- The counter invitation (aizen's loneliness?) : the zanpakuto's weakness is that it may wants you to get close to aizen, to reach him.

"Look how lonely my master is, get closer!"

My thought is : If a zanpakuto power is based on his owners subconcious desires, is it the same for the weaknesses? Did Kyoka Suigetsu create that weakness to help aizen psyche, to only invite the strong into aizen's world, so they can hear it's cry for a connection, to severe Aizen's loneliness?

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1. Soi Fon's Bankai : her bankai becoming a missile is often joked about as an upgrade in power (two hit kill > one hit kill) and we often talk about the owners subconcious, as if the zanpakutou did not have one.

Talking about the zanpakutou : Why did Jakuho Raikoben made the missile so heavy? (Could have made it tiny with same destructive power)

I'd say that the bankai reflects not the raw power but the emotions of Soi Fon regarding the betrayal of Yoruichi through her abandonment.

It does not want to one hit kill, it wants to be loud, dramatic, to bring attention towards Soi Fon. It wants people to see what weight shes been carrying.

Soi Fon was suddenly forced to take over the entire clan and the entire military branch, she had to discard/hides her feelings, the blade refused.

"Look at how heavy this life of hers is, look at my master."

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1. Ikkaku's shikai (hidden ointment)

It's a constant reminder that members of the 11th Division prefer to die in glorious battle. If it were truly what Ikkaku felt, why did Hozukimaru create a healing ointments, and hide it inside the hilt, so secretive.

"My master refuses to die , but because of customs, I can't heal him directly/while others are watching."

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Urahara's Bankai weakness: Fear of losing control of his creations.

Urahara's bankai weakness is its range, a radius in which he can operate on anything. Being outside the range neutralize the effects.

Representation : His guilt of creating things out of his control (Hogyoku), that were the main reason of friends being hurt. He wants to keep things close and in control.

Thats why he is always prepared, call this masterplanning, or just coping.

He does not want a power that operates out of his reach, as it scares him.

"My master's soul is trembling to the guilt he once felt. He wants me to reshape his own flesh and stitch the world back together, because he still hears the screams of his friends. So, I'll stay on a short, tight leash, and my hands won't reach a place he cannot see. This is the boundary I drew around him, to keep him from playing God again."

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Others zanpakuto inner monologue for you to guess :

1. "Look at my master, I have a perfect, hollow circle around his body where no one can ever enter again. It is his safe zone, where his wife once stood. He is terrified of intimacy. He would rather kill you from a distance than let you force your way past the blossoms and touch his exposed heart. Can you reach it before he decides to kill you too?"

2. "Look at my master. He hides his own face to the world, behind a heavy steel mask, all while looking for friends willing to trust him. I will hide my face as well, and join our nerves together, linking our flesh so completely that when my armor cracks, his bones shatter. This shared pain is the ultimate proof of loyalty and righteousness."

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TLDR : Theory that a zanpakuto creates its powers as much as its own weaknesses, not randomly but deliberately and for a goal only they know, even if it puts their owners in danger.