A Spiritual Invasion

The journey of Kurosaki Ichigo continues now. Today, we are looking at the next chapter in his story as we enter Bleach’s Soul Society arc. A bit after Rukia was kidnapped, we find Ichigo recovering from his encounter with the Soul Reapers. With no way to get to where she is, and no way to use his powers now that his sword is broken, he struggles to figure out what to do. Enter Urahara Kisuke, a mysterious candy shop owner who has helped Ichigo and Rukia in the past. He tells Ichigo that he knows of a way to get to Rukia before she is scheduled to be executed. However, he also tells him that in his current state he would be incapable of saving her. So he agrees to train Ichigo so that he’ll be strong enough to save her.

From here, we spend a few days seeing Ichigo recover his strength as well as learn more about the powers that he possesses. This culminates in him acquiring a powerful technique unique to Soul Reapers known as Shikai. With his training complete, Ichigo and his friends who also acquired powers of their own join together in order to go to Soul Society and stop Rukia’s execution. And in turn make all of Soul Society their enemy.

Throughout the arc we learn more about the world of Soul Society and its role. Acting as Bleach’s version of heaven, this world is guarded by 13 squads each led by their own captain. In order to stop the execution, Ichigo and his friends must defeat them as they come to stop them. However, while they have gotten stronger, the captains they face are on another level. Not only do they possess their own Shikai, they also have an even stronger technique known as Bankai.

While Ichigo was able to become stronger through his battle in Soul Society, Yoruichi, a friend of Urahara who was sent to look after them, determines that he’s still not strong enough to save Rukia. So, she decides to train Ichigo so that he could obtain his own Bankai. And after the harsh training, he finally manages to stop the execution and save Rukia. We then have our final battle between Ichigo and Rukia’s brother Byakuya. And after a long and difficult battle between the two and their Bankais, Ichigo manages to just barely come out on top. Thus ends our second arc.

Soul Society is typically regarded as the best arc of Bleach by a lot of people. This is likely due to the fact that it builds up a lot of the world and answers a lot of questions that people have about it. From here though, we start to go into the less liked arcs. This is mostly due to them being regarded as filler to help make sure the anime didn’t catch up to the manga. Even so, there are a few arcs that I feel you’ll regret skipping out on. So until next time.

Logan Floyd-Mcgee | Writer
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