User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 562 - THE VILLAIN 2 (Mask De Masculine is a Mexican luchador in a German army)/@comment-4026406-20131221213450

Kubo mishandles the balance between main characters and side characters quite frequently. I really dislike how he had to curb-stomp Rose, Kensei, and Shuuhei just to show that Renji was strong. I think it would have been much more interesting to have the three of them somehow find a way to win, and then have Rukia and Renji show up after the battle was over. They could have taken them to Squad Four (or whatever is left of it), and on the way, another Stern Ritter could have showed up to stop them. Renji fights while Rukia continues onward to get them to safety. We assume that there are 26 of them, and of course, some of them are dead and/or busy fighting other characters, but surely there are a couple of Stern Ritter that haven't had any focus yet. This way, you can show the result of all this training without actually causing other characters to look bad in the process, and two of the Visored captains and Shuuhei get a chance to shine. What pisses me off now is that Kensei and Rose probably aren't going to get another chance to fight again.

A similar situation happened a few chapters back with Bambietta fighting Shinji, Momo, and Komamura. Shinji and Momo were defeated in order to show that Komamura had improved. I don't have a problem with this, however, because Komamura hasn't had the focus that Renji has had. I hope that Shinji and Momo show up again later, but I feel like this is the same situation of Kubo side-lining characters.