Questions/Mysteries you want answered.

[pumpkin13]

Here's a list of the stuff Kubo still has yet to explain to us. Please discuss and add to it!

- Who and what importance were the bodies Mayuri found in Szayal's secret lab in Las Noches? Kubo said in an interview that they were central to the main plot... and Mayuri when he found them made a comment that sounded like seeing them explained a lot or revealed some major information.

- ZERO DIVISION.

- Isshin's past, how and where it connects with everyone elses.

- All the bankai that we haven't seen notably Urahara, Shunsui, Ukitake, Unohana, Yamamoto + most of the vizards excpt Kensei. We MAY have seen Isshin's shikai, we haven't seen any zan info at all from Yoruichi and Nanao.

[legomaestro]

I'd love to see the Zero Division.

I remember those bodies, weren't they the ones of the arrancars that was killed?

And yeah, Urahara's bankai. That'd be something to see. Especially Shunsui's

I wonder if Ichigo's mother knew Isshin was a shiningami?

[Coryn]

yeh those kinda things are definitely weighing on the mind. i feel like they're going to come to a head with whatever is going to happen next though. i mean to me it's just kinda screaming "SOUL SOCIETY ARC" least that's what i'm guessing. cause he's mirroring the beginning of bleach. so yeh.

[legomaestro]

I'm suspicious about the seriousness though. I mean, Giriko and Jackie's back stories were pretty grim. And Ichigo did get some A-Grade bloodlust. I half want it and half dread it.

[pumpkin13]

That's another reason the Fullbringer arc seems jarring and not quite in sync with the rest of Bleach (just come from posting my list of reasons why im not impressed by it on the other thread). Their background stories were pretty grim... to the point that nothing else has been that grim in the series really, not even anything Aizen came up with.

As for the bodies in the lab: There were many who theorised that they were the bodies of Dordonii and Cirucci that the Exequias had executed and retrieved, but upon closer inspection the garments that are visible on the legs of the bodies don't match up with Dordonii and Cirucci.

Also, it was never explicitly stated in the manga exactly which of the Espada were Vasto Lordes. They were hyped up SO much. And Kubo's Modus Operandi in so many other situations was to have the arrancar announce their names, and mention their ranks or perhaps a glimpse of backstory during the fight. So you would have thought something as epic and badass as the Vasto Lorde would have got a big underlined, highlighted introduction point.

Even something as simple as a statement from Aizen... when they're in the fire prison for example and he says to Gin "We won't have to lift a finger." Something additional saying "Really, Gin, do you have so little faith in my Vasto Lorde?" <insert scary face>

I spoke of the importance of the good guys being overwhelmed in power and numbers in creating dramatic tension, which keeps the readers interested... quite frankly atm, with no further obvious badguys (both Tsukishima and Ginjou have been defeated, and Aizen is imprisoned) and a FURTHER higher tier of good guys yet to be revealed (Zero Divison, of which we definitely know of one Hikifune Kirio, prior 12th Div Captain to Urahara)... I just really have trouble imagining what epic evil force Kubo's going to come up with next, and whether it will fluidly gel in with the rest of Bleach or just seem like another tag on after the rounding up of Aizen (i.e. will we be able to look back at what came before and say "Oh actually this has been foreshadowed through Bleach the whole time, we just didn't know it... turns out Aizen was the pawn of some higher power..." etc etc).

[legomaestro]

"We won't have to lift a finger..." feels like a mistranslation. I think his comment was more towards the impossibility of them being able to do anything under Genryuusai's attack.

They were 20 Vasto Lordes. The Espada were all Vasto Lordes, including the Privarion Espada. Remember: Vasto Lordes are simply humanoid hollows, so we've seen plenty of those. 

Shounen manga all have the epic evil followed by the epic evil, so i really see no harm no foul there. And i find it a bit strange to look for interest in a story chiefly by the villains who appear. What about the characters themselves? I'm personally enamoured by them.

[Coryn]

well i think most of these issues come from the inherit problem that all jump manga have. which is that they're made up as they go. this is just how the business works 99% of the time. So you really can't blame kubo for trying to work what's already been laid down to run with a new idea he gets. i mean it happens all the time. look at DBZ for instance.

[pumpkin13]

"We won't have to lift a finger..." feels like a mistranslation. I think his comment was more towards the impossibility of them being able to do anything under Genryuusai's attack.

They were 20 Vasto Lordes. The Espada were all Vasto Lordes, including the Privarion Espada. Remember: Vasto Lordes are simply humanoid hollows, so we've seen plenty of those. 

Shounen manga all have the epic evil followed by the epic evil, so i really see no harm no foul there. And i find it a bit strange to look for interest in a story chiefly by the villains who appear. What about the characters themselves? I'm personally enamoured by them.

Arronierro was stated to be a Gillian.

Hitsuguya stated that if Aizen had 10 Vasto Lorde, Soul Society would be doomed. Implying that 1 Vasto Lorde is more than a match for 1 Captain + VC. Note how it was Vasto Lorde, not Vasto Lorde Arrancars. Of course we know that the Menos in question will get a boost when becoming an Arrancar. Meaning an Arrancarised Vasto Lorde should be much more than enough for a Captain and his VC.

And yet there wasn't one Captain that was REALLY troubled at all by their fights, with the exception of Soifon and Barragan who was defeated by a combination of Hacchi and his own hax.

To me it's just not adding up to say that 9 out of the 10 espada were VL, let alone to state that 20 arrancars were... (where the hell were the other 7 Privaron btw!?)

@ Coryn: Bleach only became made up as it went along after Aizen departed from Soukyouku hill. Initially Kubo had planned to end Bleach there but felt it wasn't proper to do so. After that he started to make things up on the fly, and most of the Bleach fans I know state outright that the SS arc was the best and it all started going down hill there, things stopped making (enough) sense and holes started appearing, as well as the pacing skipping and sliding.

Naruto suffers from none of this. You will probably find it odd considering how much I'm bashing Kubo, but I'm a Bleach fan first and foremost (perhaps precisely because of this I feel even more passionately that it's creator appears to be dragging it down and down). But yeah, Kishi's Naruto is just a masterclass in how a popular shounen should be executed. Pacing is perfect. Action is perfect. Perfect amount of dialogue and exposition (often WHILST action is occuring... just look at the amount of times Naruto characters have assessed/analysed or discussed something IN THE MIDST of being attacked or fighting, compared to Bleach characters).

We know Kubo is greatly inspired by DBZ, and yes DBZ was awesome, but Bleach has, of late suffered a lot from one of the things that really dragged DBZ down... lots of standing around doing nothing (even poor dialogue) followed by a couple of panels of action.

I'm not sure about One Piece having the same amount of PLOT as Bleach, but I know it has a hell of a lot more action, if you look at how much of a chapter is characters moving around/fighting compared to Bleach. Naruto has bagloads more plot (as well as bagloads more to explore in terms of background information) as well as bagloads more action.

Kishimoto gave us the "Winter War" that we were expecting to get in Bleach. Bleach's "Winter War" wasn't so much a war as a series of skirmishes. Kishi has full out war between tens of thousands of warriors, as well as dedicating sufficient time and pace to each of his main, not to mention vast cast of supporting characters (something else Kubo simply appears unable to do).

[legomaestro]

Necromancy on the original question, but it's interesting how so many of the questions have been answered now. I'm still wondering why Yoruichi has no zanpakutou though. And we haven't seen Isshin's bankai yet so that's still something.