Subculture Anime Blog

Yea, I’m blogging Bleach again….what? ………..What!?

Summary:

During the transport of an item known as the King’s Seal, the couriers of the item are attacked by mysterious masked individuals. Matsumoto and Hitsugaya confront these members, but the two quickly escape. Hitsugaya is soon impaled by a particularly powerful enemy soon after, who refuses to let him remove his mask. When the culprits escape with the King’s Seal, Hitsugaya chases after them. Matsumoto and the others, however, only watch as he disappears. Ichigo meanwhile finds a border somewhere in town, cutting it open and stepping into an alternate world. Ninjas quickly surround him, but he finds that these are members under Soi Fong. Ichigo questions what happened while looking around at the corpses laying in the area, but he is shocked at Soi Fong’s explanation, When Ichigo is forced back to his own world, he meets Ishida who had entered the area. To both of the boys’ surprise, Hitsugaya soon shows up to collapse in a weak state.

Back at Soul Society, Matsumoto is shocked to find that Hitsugaya has been labeled as a suspect due to his suspicious activities during the seal’s robbery. The 10th Division’s Zanpakuto are forcefully removed afterwards, concerning a passing Renji and Rukia. The two learn the situation from Matsumoto, but before seperating from her, she requests that they investigate something for her. Matsumoto believes that the masked man had some connection to Hitsugaya. Otherwise, he would not have taken such action. In the past, a boy named Kusaka Soujirou approached the supposedly genius Hitsugaya. The two quickly became friends, as they both worked hard to become shinigami. One day, however, Soujirou was seemingly killed before Hitsugaya’s eyes. When Hitsugaya wakes from this dream of the past, he finds himself in Ichigo’s room. Without giving any explanation to Ichigo, he only asks for more time to rest for his injuries.

Hitsugaya attempts to leave without Ichigo’s knowledge early the next morning, but he finds him waiting for him after traveling shortly down the street. Ichigo questions Hitsugaya’s true intentions, and even after he attacks him, Ichigo still only expresses his hopes for Hitsugaya’s well being. This conversation is interrupted by two of the individuals from the Seal’s stealing, Ying and Yang, demanding for Hitsugaya while sending attacks in the two Shinigami’s way. Hitsugaya surprisingly attacks Ichigo, but with a more subtle intention in mind. Ichigo is able to fend off his two attackers despite his damage, but after they disappear, he is only left to faint at the sight of Hitsugaya following. When Ichigo wakes, he sees Renji and Rukia attempting to wake him. Later arriving in his room, Ichigo explains what had just happened and Hitsugaya’s mention of the name “Kusaka.” Renji is sent back to Soul Society to investigate this name, and to give Matsumoto Hitsugaya’s robe.

When Urahara hears the news from Ichigo and the others, he volunteers to investigate the matter as well. Renji meanwhile gets permission to see Matsumoto with the help of a passing Kyoraku and Ise. None of these people know anything about Kusaka, but they soon decide to investigate the individual. In the past, Kusaka had called upon the power of Hyorinmaru. He was overjoyed upon receiving its power, but even more so after finding that Hitsugaya had obtained the same abilities at the exact moment. Seireitei did not believe that two Shinigami with the same power were needed, however, eventually leading to Kusaka’s demise. After quite a bit of research, Ise finds that there certainly was a Shinigami called Kusaka in the past. However, he had supposedly died. Kyoraku leaves Ise to walk outside, and when he does, he finds that he is being followed. Kyoraku confronts the masked individual that he finds, but after seeing the abilities from his Zanpakuto, he quickly looks to see who is under the mask.

After hiding for quite some time, Hitsugaya finds that he has been surrounded by Shinigami. He walks out to confront Shuhei and Izuru, and although they and the other Shinigami seem to be able to overtake him in his weakened state, he eventually escapes them with the use of his Bankai. Kyoraku is hospitalized in Soul Society, causing distress for Ise. Ukitake comforts her when he arrives at the medical center, but after hearing news of the recent events, he can only worry. Byakuya and Renji investigate the scene outside as well, with no mistake that the ice around had been caused by Hyorinmaru. Ichigo and the others are also alerted of the news, but they decide to return home before investigating further. The next morning, Rukia receives a call from Renji who describes that Hitsugaya’s situation has become more dire. He also reveals what he knows about Kusaka, but a large attack is sent in Ichigo and Rukia’s direction shortly afterwards.

Ukitake and Byakuya worry about the conditions of Kyoraku’s condition, seeking out Mayuri to research the possibilities of two possessors of the Hiyorinmaru. After a bit of investigation, Mayuri certainly finds that he is looking for. Ichigo meanwhile engages combat with Kusaka, seeing parts of his memory when his sword clashes with his. Kusaka and Hitsugaya were forced to fight when it was discovered that they possessed the same power. Despite Hitsugaya’s resistance, he became the one to defeated Kusaka. With this, several members of Seireitei surrounded and killed Kusaka. Ichigo is overtaken by Kusaka, then becoming encased in ice. He then meets Zangetsu, however, who then confirms that the visions he saw were real. Ichigo soon realizes that Kusaka is similar to his old self, and that Hitsugaya also had the same eyes that he did in the past. With this, he realizes what Hitsugaya’s true plans are.

Hitsugaya finally meets Kusaka, who reveals that he certainly has the King’s Seal. When Kusaka uses its power, he and Hitsugaya are transported to the Soul Society. Describing the Seal’s abilities to Hitsugaya, he asks for him to cut it. Before Hitsugaya can learn exactly what this would result in, members of the 11th squad and Renji confront the two. Meanwhile, Ichigo in his Tensa Zangetsu form battles against Ying and Yang. The two girls unleash a large amount of hollows against Ichigo and Rukia, but Ishida appears to take all of them out with his bow. When the girls continue to send a large attack towards the group, Chad appears to send a counter attack as well. With this, the group gives Ichigo and Rukia the chance to enter Soul Society and save Hitsugaya.

The majority of Seireitei surrounds Hitsugaya and Kusaka, but Ichigo and Rukia appear just in time to stop them from attacking the two. Although Ichigo is not able to convince Seireitei from stopping, Shigekuni’s appearance is more than enough to do so. With the him is Kyoraku, who had finally waken. Kusaka does not give the First Captain a chance to negotiate, quickly describing his wish to reform Soul Society as its king. Hitsugaya stops Kusaka by attacking him, however, expressing that it wasn’t his wish to help him at all. Rukia finally realizes that Hitsugaya had believed that it was his fault that Kusaka was killed, taking all of the current responsibility upon himself. Ichigo refuses to let Hitsugaya fight his battle alone, bringing up his own similar past. Though Ichigo had tried to hide his sadness when his mother died, his family wished that he would express his feelings more honestly to them. This is when he realized that, although he was trying to be strong, he was the weakest of all those who were suffering.

Hitsugaya is finally convinced, but his attention is still on the threat before he and the rest of Seireitei. With the Bankai that he wished to achieve with the King’s Seal, Kusaka takes the form of a large ice dragon. When an eager Kenpachi fails to do much damage to Kusaka, the Seireitei realize how powerful their opponent is. When a damaged Ying and Yang return to Kusaka, he absorbs them in a large casing of ice. The Seireitei all attack the growing Kusaka, but his Reiatsu continues to spread throughout Soul Society. In what has become Kusaka’s castle, the surrounding Shinigami are forced to decisively battle their way through hollow and what have become monstrosities of Ying and Yang. With a path made for them, Ichigo and Hitsugaya are able to fight their way up the tower that Kusaka has made for himself. Hitsugaya traps Kusaka with his own bankai, allowing Ichigo to send a direct attack to his core.

With his ice coating finally shattered, Kusaka is given the chance to have the deciding duel against Hitsugaya. In the past, it was actually Kusaka who had made the first move against Hitsugaya. Despite his desire for Hyorinmaru, it was Hitsugaya who was able to call on the power to defend himself. Hitsugaya is the one to finish off Kusaka, but as he fades away, Hitsugaya tells him that they would always be friends. With this, the King’s Seal is returned to its previous state. Ichigo takes the chance to suggest to Hitsugaya that Kusaka probably did not have any regrets. There are things that some people may not be able to achieve in their lives, but it isn’t decided unless they give it their all to find out. Kusaka had his final duel with Hitsugaya, not because of an order, but to find out for himself who was worthy. Hitsugaya gives Ichigo his thanks, then again reminding him that he should be calling him by his proper title. Afterwards, the two simply walk on.

ED: “Hikaru no Rock (光のロック; Rock of Light)” by Sambomaster - I was actually listening to this single quite a bit when it first came out. I probably like it better than the first movie’s Aqua Timez song, but Sambomaster is still not a band that I listen to on a regular basis. After the ending credits, there is a scene showing Hitsugaya and Matsumoto paying their respects at Kusaka’s grave. All is back to normal after that.

Impression:

I can’t blog Bleach? So, even though I’m constantly picking up and dropping the main series, I was actually anticipating this movie in the back of my head for quite awhile (Maybe those freaking OP advertisements made it harder to resist…). Some of you may even remember that I blogged the first movie when it came out almost exactly a year ago. As far as the second movie goes, I’m not sure if I can say I enjoyed it more than the first one. The animation was certainly more fluid this time around, which was something I complained about slightly in my past post, but the story wasn’t as appealing to me. It just seemed much more linear than the last one, which had a lot of other themes to go along with it besides searching for a new character to battle. Still, this movie wasn’t a letdown. The fights in particular, were very fun to watch.

Hitsugaya as the main focus of this movie was probably extremely appealing to the several fans of his character. I did enjoy the background story that was introduced for him, as it seemed to flesh out his character even more than the main series has. I loved the imagery of his casting aside his captain’s cloak in favor of a ragged cloth, as well as things like his bowing to show his gratitude towards Ichigo early in the episode. It’s small things like this that make a character really appealing. Kusaka wasn’t a bad character either, and I certainly liked him a lot more than the clowns who showed up in the first movie. His mirroring Zanpakuto was very interesting, though the fact that they constantly tried to hide that he was the masked culprit just made me laugh. Kusaka’s seiyu, Akira Ishida (Saburo in Keroro Gunsou, Kaworu in Evangelion), is definitely one of the more high profile male voice actors in the industry today. I can’t say he beat out my favorite Chiwa Saito from the previous film though. I liked Ying and Yang as well, but they were obviously made to be cast aside easily.

The worst part of the movie for me probably had to be the end, with Kusaka practically turning Soul Society into his own little “last stage of a video game”. His form of bankai honestly looked really silly, and I hated how Ying and Yang were degraded to statues who fired balls at Shinigami. Surely there could have been a better way to make a final battle without introducing throw-away hollow for the hundredth time. The writers obviously just wanted excuses to show off everyone’s favorite Shinigami go Bankai and wreck stuff. I won’t lie though, seeing Kenpachi rip down tall buildings will probably never get old.

In the end, despite the flaws that Bleach always has, this movie was a pretty fun one to spend three to four hours on (an hour and 30 minutes for the sane). Whenever things like Ichigo’s past show up in this movie though, I always remember how good Bleach really was when it first started. Ah, but I guess it’s far too late to complain about such things. Possibly surprising, or possibly not surprising at all, a third movie called “Bleach: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na o Yobu” has already been announced. Considering that I probably won’t be able to watch it for another year, I’m not sure if I will follow up and blog it as well. I guess only time will tell. For now, I guess I’ve had another return to Bleach fandom for at least a short while.