User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 675 - Blood for My Bone/@comment-26912075-20160526152113/@comment-5398287-20160526192457

The question is, what would have given Ichigo the impetus to undergo this transformation 2 years real-time ago? Theoretically this is gonna give him a huge power boost, and 2 years ago he was fighting regular ol' Sternritter and handling them just fine with his Shikai - no need to go above and beyond for them.