Bleach

Bleach is centered around weapons, and in some occasions fist fights (Chad, Poww, Charlotte, etc) the Fullbringers had no weapons besides Ginjo and Tsukishima, and neither of them were "fighters" besides Jackie and Moe.

Fullbring powers come out more as gimmicks than fighting abilities in comparison to most other Bleach abilities.

Riruka was hot.

>>159828794
Yukio's ability seems pretty strong tho, sad he had to job to hitsugaya

Same as what happened in Yu Yu Hakusho right after the dark tournament but obviously handled way worse.

>>159828794
I wished Fullbring Arc happened in Mexico with Chad and Ichigo going there and focus on Inchigo moving past not having Shinigami powers and the Fullbring Arc was an epilogue arc.

>>159828794
I don't want to come in to a thread just to call you out for shit taste, but by god that's what I'm here to do.

While BLEACH was largely focused on weapons and their related powers, fullbrings ran the gambit of slightly quirky weapons to things more akin to Jojo-style stands or strange powers more popular in other manga (I dare say the dude with the bookmark gave me a bit of a Medaka Box impression).

The arc was refreshing because you had some very nontraditional fighters, people who manipulated the scenario and actually did some clever planning instead of just being overpowered badasses who executed their schemes off-page via brute force or fucking magic.

It was a very fun arc and honestly would have marked a return to form in BLEACH if Kubo didn't immediately retreat back to his goddamn magical 'no humans allowed' tree-house when he got the first opportunity.

You'll notice that for the tiniest moment, it looked like people like Chad and Tatsuki or Karin might have been important enough to stop literally disappearing from the plot. We couldn't have that apparently.

Anyways, I guess to be on point: They seem underwhelming because in a straight up numbers game they are. They're not magical spectre slaying transforming spirit swords, they're just special powers.

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>Rukia was the only one to "lose" to a fullbringer
Why was she so shit at fighting?

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>Fullbring powers come out more as gimmicks than fighting abilities in comparison to most other Bleach abilities.

I think this is more that the fullbring characters were just not that loved by the fans, at least not on the same level of shinigamis.

The sternritters mostly used gimmicks, and they still killed a shitload of shinigamis.

But that was the final arc after all, kubo could afford to kill characters to hype the sternritters, while in the fullbring arc he could not really do nothing much, the fullbringers jobbed instantly to shinigamis simply because kubo could not waste any shinigami character before the final arc, and the screaming of fans would have been a thousand times higher if any fan favorite shinigami jobbed to a fullbringer, imagine byakuya dying, but with much greater bitching by the fans.

The greatest power in Bleach is the Almighty, a gimmick, but a gimmick that can shatter every weapon in the setting and vaporize strong people like Ichibei, but since most fans did not care for fullbringers and were too busy dick riding shinigamis, kubo never cared about making the fullbringers strong enough to be a real threat and not just a total joke.

>>159828794
Fullbring is one of my favorite arcs which only shitted the bed in the end with the usual shinigami wank, the start was refreshing, the emotional beatdown that Ichigo got was well executed and there was a real sense of urgency, Ichigo was getting NTR'd in all aspects of his life to the point of actually wanting to kill Tsukishima, and the main cast had a big chance of getting the job done by themselves, but no, as soon as the gate opened and there were SS captains i knew everyone would get sidelined, also Riruka a cute

>>159828794
>skip Fullbringer arc
>start Quincy arc with Rukia restoring Ichigo's powers
>no help from Tsukishima in the final chapters
Would it work?

>>159830152
The arc was ruined by Soul Society. Garbage.

Happy Birthday, Ichigo

missstormcaller has translated another chapter of the novel.

>>159828794
Fullbring was an attempt to bring bleach back town to it's pre Souls Society tone and style. It then had to get cut short since everyone in Japan was bitching about not seeing shinigami captains everywhere.

>>159828794
Fullbring powers were pretty strong though, with most of them being reality warping type powers. It's just that the users themselves being weak humans and non-combatants that made Fullbring seem underwhelming.

Most likely Fullbring arc was made to set up Sternritter arc, with Ginjo's story showing that the shinigami may not be as good and righteous as they seem. Fullbring powers are also natural counters to Sternritters powers, as both are the same type of gimmicky conceptual powers, added to the fact that fullbring powers originate from hollows. The fullbringers were supposed to die and join the shinigami to fight the quincies, I think, with the fullbringers contributing with their powers and the shinigami bringing their combat expertise.

Unfortunately the Fullbring arc was cut short by the editor due to low ratings and the Sternritter arc was also given limited chapters.

Also,
>Aizen can change the present
>Tsukishima can change the past
>Yhwach can change the future

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>>159828794
It certainly didn't help that they fought fucking monsters and a demigod just the arc before that, after that humans with fancy powers are bound to look underhwelming

>>159831616
No because Ichigo wouldn't have had his cool new outfit and would be left behind in terms of power post-TS.

How many times was Ichigo's power stolen for no consequences?

blame kubos shitty tendons.

The issue with this entire series was it's focus on fighting, there was literally no contrast between the fights and the story segments along with having so many side school characters but nothing for them to do.

The same issue is why the fullbring arc was terrible, it was written like garbage and felt trite as the entire thing was about ichigo getting his powers back but through very uninteresting and boring methods. It should have been a return to the ghost buster slice of life case by case spirit detective kind of stuff like the beginning of bleach.

The reason soul society was such a good arc was because there was so much contrast between it and the beginning part of the story, it made the weight of them stepping into a new world feel legitimate.

The fullbring arc should have brought back this small town sense of spooky ghost in order to make the final arc not feel so much like hot garbage, not that it'd have helped since the quincy arc was just terrible.

It's literally the best arc in the series because it cut out all the garbage SS characters.

Of course the arc turned bad once the SS cavalry showed up.

>>159828794
They had OP abilities but were human and had jack all in terms of reiatsu. Just goes to show that in the Bleach world your ability means jack shit unless you have the reiatsu to back it up.
Yukio could force people into realities of his creation which should be one of the best powers in the entire manga, but he couldn't make anything close to a low-tier captain and just the reiatsu of Ichigo's bankai shattered his world
Time Tells No Lies was vaguely defined enough that it could conceivably do just about anything but lol Kenpachi
On the other hand Jacky's Dirty Boots was straight up garbage as an ability. A straight up power buff with a niche activation condition is an awful ability especially when it can't even boost you to fuckin shikai Renji's level.

>>159834811
>Just goes to show that in the Bleach world your ability means jack shit unless you have the reiatsu to back it up.
Something we had already seen time and time again with Aizen in general.

Kubo dug himself into a hole and wanted a cool way to restore ichigo powers

Say what you want, but fullbringers losing to captains made sense. Fighters with hundreds of years of experience losing to people who just achieved their power would have been much worse than what we got.

>>159835659
It did make sense. Which doesn't make it good.

>>159830152
>>159831687

It was an interesting arc but you felt how the editors told Kubo to put Shinigamis near the end. It had some dope ass moments but the conclusion was a rushed mess, in a way a sign of things to come.

>>159834811
>t. assblasted speedreader
The reiatsu being the centerforce of any battle was enstabilished since Ichigo's training at Urahara's and then further explained with each battle in the SS arc, so don't come with your "muh last minute asspull". The final nail in your weak bait argument is Aizen directly telling Soifon that no matter how great or peculiar the technique, if the opponent's reiatsu is much greater than theirs, the technique is rendered useless.

Am I to fucking believe that centuries old shinigami were meant to lose against some jump start Jojo-wannabe human? Please.
If Kenpachi were to receive a single scratch from loltimeHulk, now THAT would have been the asspull of the fucking millennia.
It's still ridiculous how Byakuya was pushed around by some fodder human like Tsukishima; even knowing each and every technique, the difference in reiatsu and battle experience should be colossal.

Forcing Kubo to use the shinigami was a complete mistake from the editor's part, just like diluting the HC arc with more Grimmykitty<3<3 and Ulquibore was.
Especially since the sales, while significantly lower, were still higher than most SJ titles at the time. Hell, even in the final arc where the sale took a nosedive, they were still outselling 90% of the SJ trash.

>>159833186
Terrible chapter.
The femritters are irredeemable trash, they're boring and trite. Plus, what the fuck are they even doing the HC, their motivation is completely retarded.
Then when there was hope for them to be rightfully butchered by the ex-Espada, there comes the Gary Stu Ex Machina. Through a garganta. Because of course Tokinada is the new Aizen. Right.
Then again, the whole Tokinada thing is retarded.
>steals a sealed sword from the RR
>RR being outside the reach of even the nobles, hence being accountable for their actions, for fucking once
>nothing happens
>Tokinada just goes on to a "muh keikaku" crusade
Bottom tier writing there.
They establish the jurisdiction of SS, nobles and RR, then do nothing with it.
And you're telling me that a kid with such unnatural reiatsu wasn't immediately spotted by any of the G13? Not even the goddamn 12th division and Mayuri which is literally always trying to find new unique specimen for his fetish experiments? Fail.

>>159835708
I feel like Rukia coming back like that was probably always going to happen if Fullbring wasn't going to be the ending arc. Rukia and Ichigo were the main characters.

>>159835708
This is literally no proof that Kubo was forced to bring them back. Renji, Rukia, and Byakuya all appear in ichigos dream in the beginning in the arc so it was obvious those three would appear later in the arc especially Rukia since she's a main character,

>>159830152
>call you out for shit taste
>The arc was refreshing
>It was a very fun arc

Some people are so mentally deficent they should be locked away in a psycho ward.

>>159828794
Who?

>>159835915
>It's still ridiculous how Byakuya was pushed around by some fodder human like Tsukishima; even knowing each and every technique, the difference in reiatsu and battle experience should be colossal.
That one actually (mostly) makes sense though. Tsukishima would have gained the battle experience from training with Byakuya as he had inserted. Which would have also increased his reiatsu, at least enough so he'd have a chance. Combine that with how he'd seen how Byakuya fights to the point that it was boring, it actually fits.

If Byakuya had just disposed of him immediately instead of playing it safe due to being apprehensive about his opponent's ability, he'd have won easily. Besides, the reiatsu gap was indeed at play. Tsukishima had a weapon that could cut through anything, yet could not cut through Byakuya zanpakto in one slice, it took multiple.

>>159830152
>people who manipulated the scenario and actually did some clever planning instead of just being overpowered badasses who executed their schemes off-page via brute force or fucking magic.

Yeah, like that bitch who got stronger the dirtier her boots were. Lot's of planning there.

You're delusional.

>>159828794
> a fucking filler arc in a manga

CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

>>159834113
Would he? Royal Guards would still help him achieve his full potential.

>>159834115
Only three times.

The point of the arc was to depower Ichigo and show that he's still a competent fighter even without his powers. Also, it laid the foundation for future reveals.

Tsukishima > Yukio > Ginjou > Giriko > Shishigawara >> Riruka >>>>> Jackie

Rukia a shit.

>>159841341
This reminded me of something. It might have been a comedy scene, but Ichigo and Rukia's reunion in fullbring arc is one of the most disturbing scene in this manga. I mean, they allowed Ichigo to b put through extrerme psychological terror, endangered his friends and family all in order to lure their old enemy out of his hiding, and after he breaks down once he looses everything and starts crying, Rukia kicks his face and calls him sissy. What the fuck? What kind of a friend does stuff like this?

>>159837881
>foxy vs the strawhats

>>159842382
As I said. Rukia a shit. Ukitake too.

>>159828794
Literally the only point was to get Ichigo his powers back and to finally explain Orihime and Chad's powers since he never got around to it.

It didn't matter at all outside of that.

>>159835708
>the editors were behind it all meme

>>159842441
>Zou arc
>Fishman Island arc
>Half of the Fourth Shinobi War
>All of Fairy Tail

I could go on actually.

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They're supposed to be underwhelming. They're outcasts; Ginjo gave them a rousing speech about rising past their limitations, and then the Soul Reapers come in and decimate them.

The arc is obviously about building back up to great heights after MUGETSU. The Fullbringers are Ichigo's parallel, specifically Ginjo, in having no one to nurture their powers the way he did. It's a frustrated revenge plot that goes horribly wrong, most obvious when Zaraki just cuts Kutsuzawa in half. It's also another example of the Seireitei being a broken system, and that ultimately luck was the difference in Ichigo's trajectory and Ginjo's.

I mean, the rest of the arc is just Bleach. Two people fight and argue philosophy and somebody wins through a ridiculous notion. Shit looks cool and your HEART pounds. Ikakku VS Moe and Byakuya VS Tsukishima are fantastic little stories.

Like all of Bleach, it reads better in archive binge than week to week. This arc lasted a year and change(11/1/2010 to 1/30/2012) and spans six volumes that can be read in a comfy weekend afternoon.

>>159828794
So Ichigo can go back to full power and Kubo doesn't know how to deal with writer's block without introducing a fuckload of useless characters.

>>159844150
Is your definition of filler "arc I didn't like"?

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>>159844227
I forgot to add to the point of lowering expectations; Ichigo was given Ginjo's Fullbring outfit purposefully to display how ill-fitting it is.

>>159844445
Is Bleach secretly kino?

>Introduce Fullbringers
>Have them train Ichigo to get his powers back
>Twist: Ginjo is a 'villain' and his group attack only to get one-shotted by Shinigami captains

It started as an interesting arc that introduced a new type of ability like the Vizard arc but the conclusion was a mess.

>>159828794
I got the impression Kubo wanted to copy Araki's brand of fighting that he uses in Jojo, but Kubo never quite had the imagination to make it a battle of witts. Ultimately, Ichigo still had beamspam and "slash real hard" as his basic skillset, so the fun of having to outthink his opponent never quite entered the equation. Also, the big bad had basically memory alteration as his skill, which is a rather frustrating reading experience whenever its used for a prolonged time. It's basically an arc of nonstop NTR, but without sex. Not very amusing to read. Last not least, the arc always came across as a roadblock, before we can get back to the actual plot. I guess Kubo realized that having Ichigo lose his shinigami powers was retarded, but instead of giving them back immediately and looking stupid, he tried to have this arc that felt like an anime only filler, akin to those Bount, or whatever they were called.

>>159844150
>Zou
>setups for two Yonko arcs and Raftel
>filler

>>159847229
It's pretty sad that Ichigo actually did analyze his opponents and even getting something out of it in some of his minor fights (like Gin in FKT), but he never did against any of his major rivals.

>>159830152
Problem was though, that the most important character, Ichigo, didn't get a quirky power. His final form was a fucking armor. Why not give him something where he would have been forced to use his brain. His opponents all had somewhat interesting reality warping abilities, yet Ichigo got some fighting attire + sword. GG Kubo.

>>159847428
Oh god, I know what you mean. The fight against Gin in FKT was 10/10. The swordfighting was but a pretext for both characters to figure one another out and outsmart the other. Imo those are the best kind of fights.

>>159830152
>>159835708
Sales were plummeting more than they ever did through the Fullbring arc. Kubo had to bring back the Shinigami to get momentum back. I don't blame him, though. It was like a canon Bount arc, it was just boring. It was unfortunate that the sudden tinkering to the arc insured that Tatsuki and the other humans would never get any powers nor become relevant from then on.

>>159847990
Exactly. You can see a clear decline in the sales. Sales were doing better during the final arc. Volume 55 sold over 720k in total, but that was the only volume of the last arc to sell that much.

>>159847990
Were there any plans to finally bring Tatsuki in on the party or is this just speculation on your part?

>>159848405
Tatsuki was basically a non-Shinigami Rukia, so probably not.

>>159848405
There weren't. Just a fan theory that got too out of control. Kubo had plenty of chances in earlier arcs to make the side humans more important, but didn't. Even in the beginning of the FB arc, the side humans were not important and completely forgotten about after their timeskip intros.

>>159848405
It's his spculation and it's baseless. The only know humans that received some spotlight in the arc wre Inoue, Sado and Ishida. There was nothing indicating someone else was going to have a bigger role. Maaaybe besiedes Karin.

The real question is why the fucking wasn't Ichigo allowed to keep his Fullbring powers?

Like seriously, that fucker got to keep Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy powers at the end of everything. They might as well have let him have it all. Would've been cooler, especially since Ichigo didn't get to do shit with his powers anyways.

>>159836060
It also referenced "Spirits Are Forever With You".

Honestly, you should take the crucial info dump as canon, not the exclusive characters and events.

>>159843536
What is this from?

>>159848556
Kubo really dropped the ball with Karin.

>>159829616
this

>>159849456
Not really. I thought that scene was just suppose to show us that she's also doing her best to help Ichigo in her way like Orihime/Chad/Uryu were doing ever since he became powerless.

>>159848571
He did keep them, at least a part of them on his Shinigami uniform, and they increased all of his base abilities in Shikai form. You have to consider that all of Ichigos 'powers' are actually just one power that overlap, just like his swords in the last arc.

>>159828794
Kubo needed a way for Ichigo to get his powers back before the final arc, so he wrote the Fullbring arc. Though this arc may have been better placed between the Soul Society and Mexico arcs.

>>159849529
But didn't Urahara utter some shady some shady line like "have you thought about we were talking last time" to which Karin answered kinda vaguely? Or was it a translation issue? It's also possible that Kubo had nothing in mind but just included this scene to have something for possible references in the future. Like Renji's question to Urahara or Ikumi's kid from the same arc.

>>159849806
There was a big point about Ichigo earning the trust of the Gotei for his role in defeating Aizen which subsequently led to all of them lending Ichigo some of their power to restore his Shinigami form. If the Xcution arc had come any earlier it would have been totally out of place and that sort of acknowledgement wouldn't have made sense since the Gotei didn't completely trust Ichigo at that time.

>>159849924
Or that scene at the end of the SS arc where Renji is about to talk to Byakuya about something serious but then Ichigo along with Orihime ruin the moment.

>>159849994
See this>>159842382

The shinigami were shit and then Rukia has the balls to kick him in the face calling him a wimp?

>>159830152
Ichigos power was nearly identical to his original.

>>159842382
They did all that to lure them out? I thought Rukia and co just arrived at the nick of time?

>>159849994
I mean that when Aizen starts attacking the human world with his Hollows the Fullbring people appear and help fight against the Hollows. Then Ichigo trains with them to become stronger, before leaving to go to Mexico. This would make more sense since Ichigo was weaker, so he would benefit more from training with people below the power level of a Shinigami captain.

Ichigo would get his Shinigami powers back after the Mexico arc in another way.

>>159850385
So Visords?

>>159850126
Because it was made off the reiatsu that was absorbed by the badge. Of course it'd be the same shit.

The characters and powers were nice but the whole arc was slow and felt rushed the end. The psychological stuff was interest though.