You know, the first season of Bleach, meaning before the painful fillers with the Bount, it was fun and very original. On a side note, the fillers continued from episode 65 to 108. Yes, 44 episodes including episode 65… Wow…

My point is, one explored Seireitei together with the characters as they travelled through the lands. The relationship between Rukia and Ichigo was deeper and at least Rukia got more airtime. The story turned out to be revolving around her in the first place. It was fun overall, and the audience learned something new with every episode.

Now, they’re working more on the half-Hollow nature of Ichigo and, of course, the newly introduced Arrancar are getting the main spotlight. It’s still fun, but there seems to be a cycle Bleach is entering into, fast…

What I’m talking about is the introduction of bigger, stronger powers with each passing episode. I mean, the seal of reiatsu (spirit pressure in Bleach, I think spirit power is called reiorku instead) and such, and the never ending “I’m very powerful, bwu ha ha ha” type dialogue that is seriously littering the series is getting on my nerves.

And a king of Soul Society? I mean, a king? What’s next, God?

Until the whole deal with the Arrancar and the Vaizard will come to an end, or when Aizen actually ascends to the halls of the king through unlocking the gates, I’m depicting that we are going to see a lot more upgrades of power throughout the series.

For example, Kuchiki Rukia, who got beat-up by a hollow, gains enough strength the next episode to actually defeat an Arrancar, even though the defeated one is among the weakest. It’s just becoming nonsensical, without any proper explanation and logic to support it. I admit that her newly presented special power is quite cool, and she looks awesome while using her technique, but how can one explain the plothole here?

I’m fearing that this series is becoming more like Dragonball Z, with never-ending battle scenes that take on a couple of episodes and an ever-increasing level of power, without a limit.

I think the story writers are having trouble finding interesting stuff to introduce to the series nowadays, and have come to a halt. Sure, it follows the manga, but don’t forget that the Bount introduced in the fillers were not in the manga and their influence is still present in the “return to the manga storyline” episodes, which I like to call the second season. There is a certain independence from the manga with the second season.

I don’t complain of the overinflation of characters in the series. I actually like it, gives more variety and lots of twists to the series. I only fear that they will start to have trouble managing the characters as time passes.

Why not just reintroduce these characters, starting soon enough, so that the story writers don’t have to resort to the classic tactic of introducing new, but nonsensical powers to the Shinigami?

As I said, I fear that if this cycle continues, the series will become unwatchable without thinking “wow, it’s becoming Cartoon Network material by the day”.

I hope my fear doesn’t come true.