The Fall of Bleach: 4 Years Later
super eyepatch wolf at it again
Quinneapolis
Quinneapolis
revisiting his 'the fall of bleach' video with more accurate information and more hindsight
Quinneapolis
and man
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his laying out all the Ishida fights in a row is really damning
★ тяу-нαя∂уи
oh shit i'll have to look at this later
Quinneapolis
Ishida's first solo fight he wins as a good guy is against Jirobo, the "I will give you ten seconds to despair" guy
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and he wins it by unveiling his new secret weapon, the Sanrei Glove
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next, he fights Captain Mayuri
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and he wins by unveiling his new secret weapon, Letzt Stil
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then, he fights the butterfly girl in the hueco mundo arc
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no wait
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first he fights the arrancar, Aisslinger
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and he wins by unveiling his new secret weapon, the new fancy bow that shoots 1200 shots per second
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THEN he fights butterfly girl
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and he wins by unveiling his new secret weapon, Seele Schneider
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and finally, at the end of the series, he teams up with Ichigo to fight Ywach
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and he wins by unveiling his new secret weapon, the silver arrowhead
Quinneapolis
in literally every one of Ishida's fights, he wins by using a previously-unmentioned new weapon
𝗕𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲
i fucking refuse to believe the fall of bleach video game out 4 years ago
★ тяу-нαя∂уи
i mean tbf i remember asspulls in general being kind of the word of the day across the board
Quinneapolis
it was one of SEW's first big successful videos
★ тяу-нαя∂уи
though i do recall ishida's being the most egregiously stupid
Quinneapolis
yeah bleach's fights are like
Quinneapolis
for the most part technically very simple
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and it's why they fall apart so fast when they stop having compelling emotional stakes
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you don't mind in soul society because the soul reapers are so well-developed both as antagonists and as characters in general
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but then after that you lose the emotional stakes and it really starts to feel like
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two people floating in the sky taking turns saying "actually, I'M stronger than YOU"
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I like SEW's terminology of "star fingers"
Quinneapolis
for when a shonen anime fight suddenly introduces a new ability for the hero that lets them cheat their way past having to overcome limitations and was never mentioned or alluded to until that moment
EsperBot
It’s wild that he paints a picture of a really fucking boring back half of the series without even once bringing up the pacing, which is the number one with a bullet issue
EsperBot
Like, he doesn’t even need to go there
EsperBot
Also I am a little mildly annoyed by SEW blowing off the backgrounds issue entirely like that
EsperBot
Like it’s not like drawing backgrounds in every panel would fix Bleach or anything but it’s very much connected to why the technical narratives in Bleach fights are so simple
EsperBot
All Bleach fights take place floating in a void
EsperBot
Which means there are no other tactical considerations besides ‘what can character A do’ and ‘what can character B do’.
EsperBot
So...there’s only so many directions Kubo could take a given fight in
Quinneapolis
my main thing I come back to is that a big part of why the first arc of bleach hits so strong is that it is, thematically, ABOUT something in a way that future arcs aren't really
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Hollows represent the process of grief
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Orihime's dead brother haunts her as she starts to move on with her life instead of just letting herself be consumed by his absence
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Grand Fisher is a living manifestation of Ichigo's inability to move past the death of his mother
Quinneapolis
soul society is a rock solid battle arc but it doesn't have that kind of emotional throughline to it