The Substitute has left the building!

It's rather bitter-sweet to see such a long-lived series end.

Reinforcements Arrive | Bleach | Tite Kubo

I spent the last weekend catching up on (and subsequently finishing) Bleach, the long-running shonen manga and anime series I have an on and off again obsession for. I was really into this series about a year ago and devoured the first couple seasons with great relish--I had never seen such edgy and fiercely visceral art in an anime and fell in love with the uniquely refreshing mixture of beautifully choreographed and violent battle scenes tempered with moments of lighthearted humor.

Despite my initial excitement, I began to lose interest after the "Rescue Rukia" Canon-Arc ended, and even more so when the Arrancars became part of the central story. I know that Arrancar-characters like Grimmjow and Ulquiorra remain very popular, but they never appealed to me. I also didn't like when the story made darker turns towards the "hollowfication" (basically, the internal battle of wills against the good-self and the demon-self) of Ichigo, the grumpy, adorable and absolutely bad-ass protagonist of the series.

I would tune back in now and again when a particular battle looked interesting....and of course, I skipped who knows how many episodes to the final battle between Ichigo and the treacherous Aizen.

...which brings me back to why I spent the last weekend watching the most recent story Arc of Bleach. The story resumes after Ichigo's return to the human world and his normal high-school life after the defeat of Aizen and the loss of his incredible spiritual powers. Driven by the desire to continue protecting his family and friends, he enters into a cautious alliance with Xcution, a group of humans with weird "Hollow"* like powers who call themselves Fullbringers. The leader of the group, Ginjo Kugo, teaches Ichigo how to call on his own Fullbring, which (from what I was able to gather) was like gathering energy from one's surroundings.

I felt a little betrayed by this whole Arc. I wanted to see Ichigo's Soul Reaper powers returned--I really didn't care if he could use Fullbring. I also did not like any of the Xcution members. Not only were they obnoxious and uninteresting, I actually cared so little about them that I actually hoped someone would kill them off just so I would have to watch them anymore.

So to make a long-ish story short, Ichigo regains his power, Ginjo reveals his true intentions and absorbs Ichigo's newfound Fullbring powers for himself, Ichigo's "friends" (aka battle opponents, lol) from the Soul Society magically appear in a very deus ex machina twist and restore Ichigo's true Soul Reaper powers. Then the Soul Reapers fight the Fullbringers. Some die. Some don't. Ichigo kills Ginjo. Ichigo tells the Soul Society he intends to continue working in the human world as a Substitute Soul Reaper.

And then it ended. It was a lovely, open ending and gave a satisfying end to a series that looked like it would go on forever. It just seemed to happen out of the blue, especially since the manga will be ongoing. But I suppose it's good to end a series over drawing it out over seasons of Filler-Arcs and such. On top of that, this particular Arc as a whole felt very anti-climactic, especially since it followed the defeat of Aizen. Most fans of Bleach feel the series should have ended with the defeat of Aizen, the restoration of the Soul Society, the loss of Ichigo's power and his return to his normal life.

But, I cannot overlook the coolest thing about the Fullbring-Arc, and that is the epic costume changes! One of my favorite characters of the series is Byakuya Kuchiki, the aristocratic captain of Squad Six of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. However, I could never really get over his weird hair-things. Not to say he isn't handsome and awesome with them, but...they just seemed too silly!

Squad Six Captain Byauya Kuchiki (Version 1) | Bleach | Tite Kubo

But then, this. Holy Shi---nigami! :D I think I might just re-watch the series for him. I definitely have a thing for characters who wear cloaks. I loved the gold lining, tassels and the missing hair/head tiles. It accurately reflects his regal personality as does the Chinese-inspired design. Gah!! Love it! <3

Squad Six Captain Byauya Kuchiki (Version 2) | Bleach | Tite Kubo

I do hope that a "Final Season" of Bleach will be produced sometime in the future once the manga has officially ended, much like how InuYasha: The Final Act concluded that manga series ended after a 3+ year haitus. That said, I'm comfortable leaving the anime where it is. The final episode (366) is a wonderful masterpiece of character development and animation and it's episodes of this quality that remind me why I love Japanese storytelling and the medium of manga and anime.

And the story will never really end, because somewhere out there Ichigo Kurosaki is still maintaining his post as our world's Substitute Soul Reaper.

Viva Bleach!

* "Hollows" are bad/evil spirits of the Bleach canon