Bleach 236 – Release! The New Getsuga Tenshō

Summary:

So the episode begins with Kazeshini who goes for the final strike which Hisagi dodged at the last second to avoid dying, as Kazeshini goes in for the kill Kira stops his attack. However, the scene then switches over to Ichigo & Muramasa are talking eventually Ichigo has had enough of the idle chit-chat and decides to attack Muramasa, although before he can attack he is stopped by Zangetsu which Ichigo expected would happen. Ichigo is fully prepared to fight Zangetsu and asks him ‘why’ and Zangetsu only wants to know who is the stronger of the two. Before Ichigo and Zangetsu battle Ichigo’s inner Hollow knows that he won’t be able to fight normally while Zangetsu’s power resides outside of his zanpakutō, and offers his powers to help him but suggest that by using the hollows powers he isn’t allowed to use his mask, Ichigo agrees. Zangetsu as waited too long and initiates bankai.

Switching back to Renji’s fight with Zabimaru after Renji manages to activate his shikai form, the fight seems to be going in his favour. However, this change in Renji has intrigued the baboon version of Zabimaru and she begins to question Renji, Renji on the other hand is beginning to get annoyed and declares that he will beat both of them. Though Zabimaru instantly disagrees with him on that, they don’t believe his resolve will be strong enough to defeat them. Zabimaru decides to test out how strong Renji’s sword is.

Hisagi is surprised by Kira’s intrusion and begins to question why he is helping him, Kira just responds with the usual he doesn’t want to see a vice-captain die, before they have the chance to find out why the zanpakutō’s are rebelling against their wielder. Hisagi thanks him, then stumbles down the side of a nearby tree, and falls unconscious Kazeshini isn’t really bothered who he is and attacks Kira without any hesitation. Kira is successfully managing to hold off Kazeshini and then shunpo’s to a nearby tree, only for Kazeshini to attack him which Kira was counting on and use kidō to bind Kazeshini long enough for him and Hisagi to get out of there.

Back to Ichigo’s fight with Zangetsu, after Zangetsu successfully initiated bankai Zangetsu unleashes Getsuga Tenshō on Ichigo who manages to block it, but is a little worried he didn’t realise he was that powerful. Ichigo manages to stand on his feet and he then tries to unleash his bankai but is unsuccessful, Zangetsu simply states that Ichigo can’t use bankai while he refuses to offer his power to him; Zangetsu unleashes Getsuga Tenshō again and Ichigo manages to dodge it. Ichigo doesn’t think he stands a chance against his own bankai and he goes to put on his Vizard mask but his inner Hollow reminds Ichigo of their deal.

Meanwhile the battle between Renji and Zabimaru rages on, and it seems to be a draw Zabimaru compliments Renji’s fairly decent use of wielding them. Renji seems to be annoyed and retorts with stating that he has spent many decades he’s spent training with them to become stronger. Zabimaru then unleashes bankai and then says that according to them Renji looks surprised, they are zanpakutō and he should have anticipated them using bankai. Renji manages to successfully block Zabimaru. On the other hand, Ichigo pursues to wonder why Zangetsu wants to know which of them are stronger, Zangetsu replies that he wants to make Ichigo stronger and he’s given his all to achieve that and he’s got nothing left to teach him, and if Ichigo wants to surpass him it’s up to him. Finally Ichigo begins to understand and is ready to fight Zangetsu his inner hollow states it won’t be easy to use him, Ichigo already knows this.

Renji is finding it hard to fight against his bankai while only using his shikai form, however Renji was successfully hit by his bankai and landed on a buildings rooftop. Zabimaru taunts Renji for thinking that he could beat them only using his shikai which was impossible, eventually they say they know about all of Renji’s strengths and weaknesses and there’s no way he can beat him. Renji has an idea and uses his weakness in kidō to surprise Zabimaru as they go to attack him he manages to get them to use his sword and then uses a kidō spell to break it and disperse the shards of the sword into Zabimaru.

Ichigo is also having a hard time with Zangetsu who’s using his bankai and Ichigo who is merely using his shikai, unfortunately Zangetsu decides to use Getsuga Tenshō on Ichigo and he also uses a newly formed version og Getsuga Tenshō which combines his and the inner hollows reiatsu together which defeats Zangetsu, which surprises Muramasa though seems surprised by the outcome and he starts to vanish but before he goes he tells Ichigo he will remember this and vanishes. Zangetsu then comes to tell Ichigo that Muramasa awakens a zanpakutō’s instinct by using mind control, meanwhile Renji claims that even though he’s weak that he’ll get stronger, and then Zabimaru says he isn’t half bad and that its come to its senses.

Preview: Soi Fon, Surrounding the Zanpakutō

Personal Opinion:

Pretty decent episode I really enjoyed it, the anime quality wasn’t that bad either though there were a few instances where the animation quality dropped but it didn’t bother me too much. Although Ichigo’s new Getsuga Tenshō wasn’t relevantly new, but a more updated version and surprisingly a different colour to boot. Though I really liked the way that it had a weird yet devilish face in it which surprised me I thought it would have been his hollow self’s face but it wasn’t it was a very good twist. The opening five or so mins of the episode basically started where the last episode ended, with Hisagi who managed to dodge the fatal blow at the very last minute and Kira coming to save him was indeed a twist but at least there will be more episodes with Hisagi in the future (so looking forward to that).

However I must stress, that I thought it was awesome to see Zangetsu and both Ichigo’s fight again, even if it was pretty clean cut who would win the fight. Before I forget I thought it would be more difficult to defeat your zanpakutō with the zanpakutō’s shikai ability when the zanpakutō can initiate bankai that was another twist. Though Ichigo managed to win fairly decently, even though he had to use his hollows powers. The surprise was that when Hollow Ichigo offered to help Ichigo he made him the deal that in exchange for his powers he can not use his Vizard mask. I thought that was original how both halves managed to synchronise with each other perfectly without one being the more dominant, the way Ichigo achieved victory was much more original than the way Renji achieved victory in his fight (more about that later).

Now onto Renji’s fight with Zabimaru, I thought at first they were both evenly matched, though it all changed when Zabimaru activated his bankai and then Renji having to overcome the constant taunting from Zabimaru himself. However, having to make Renji use his weakest ability of all Kidō to overcome Zabimaru even though they had already disbanded there bankai was a little predictable, it made Renji look extremely weak. I did enjoy Renji’s declaration at the end though, when he admitted he was weak and that he knew he would be able to get stronger and he will do it without Zabimaru’s help, even though Zabimaru had already said that it came to its senses and wants to stay with Renji.

Surprisingly onto Muramasa, I noticed that he really looks a lot like Ulquiorra when his eyes were bleeding, but after that the fact that he started to phase out as if he was disappearing suggests that whenever a zanpakutō comes to its senses and goes back to its wielder that it affects Muramasa (hence why he was disappearing before Ichigo). However, it’s far too early for the Zanpakutō Unknown Tales Arc to finish yet I’ve already looked ahead at future episodes of Bleach and it seems to be focusing more on the higher-level shinigami and their own zanpakutō.

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5

I noticed that he looked kind of like Ulquiorra when his eyes were bleeding, but more importantly, he started to phase out as if he was disappearing. It’s too early for this arc to end though, so I doubt Muramasa’s going to leave anytime soon, and future episode titles seem to suggest that the focus will turn to each of the other high-level Shinigami and their respective Zanpakutou.