User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 674 - Father 2/@comment-1351982-20160519121839/@comment-5398287-20160520232426

I wouldn't compare the Reigai arc to Hueco Mundo or FKT, or even put them in the same league. Know why? Because even with the various problems of those two arcs (namely pacing, fights being put on hold all too often, and EVERYONE having to get a turn to show off their powers), they excelled in the compartment that the Reigai arc most lacks in, and what Lemurs is complaining about to begin with - good and proper villains. Like them or not, the Espada fighting in those arcs were introduced way beforehand and had their own very individualized, memorable characters: many of them remain fan-favorites to this day. On top of that, their level of power and the abilities they displayed corresponded fairly well to what had been established prior - their rankings were based on their level of power, and with the fact that Ulquiorra was only #4 and yet handily kicked Ichigo's ass, we had a good idea of how powerful each one would be. Most of them met those expectations.

Let's compare that to Inaba, the Reigai, and of course Yushima. Inaba was the definition of OP - I'm pretty sure that every episode he appeared in involved him using a new technique of his seemingly infinitely versatile Zanpakuto, and that wouldn't be so bad if 1. some of the more egregrious ones, such as the cloning ability, received some sort of hinting or foreshadowing beforehand, and 2. if they actually felt like techniques of the same Zanpakuto. But they didn't, so pretty much every fight of his involved a tremendous butt pull/rectal extraction/etc. so he could magically come out on top. No sense of challenge or adversity when you know this bad guy's always gonna win. The Reigai weren't just OP because reasons, but also a cheap way for Pierrot to make villains without having to put effort into designing them. They looked just like their Shinigami counterparts with the exception of sometimes glowing eyes, they had all the same powers, and they had almost zero personality because all that mattered was the fanservice they put on display. Don't even get me started on the pretentious, completely out-of-nowhere "We were just trying to protect Soul Society in our own way the whole time" and "I guess the Reigai had their own sense of honor all along" crap in the second-to-last episode, that was an incredibly obnoxious and half-assed way of trying to justify their actions and make them "tragic". And Yushima, oh my lord Yushima, somehow he made Inaba look tame in comparison. His Zanpakuto combined the most OP parts of Inaba and Nozomi's Zanpakutos without the drawbacks so he could just spam attacks as much as he pleased, he was pretty much never threatened in battle until the very end, and because of his whole "friends are useless" personality trait (which, might I add, was basically his only personality trait), he literally ended up being defeated by the power of friendship - something that Bleach had set itself apart from One Piece and Naruto with by never using it as a basis for power-ups or defeat. I don't care about the original Yushima's plan to come back stronger or whatever by splitting his soul and then reforming, there's no way to justify him jumping from the power level of a seated officer to far above a captain, not to mention him suddenly having techniques strong enough to destroy Soul Society and being a Kido Master even better than Aizen because why not.

But putting aside the quality of the villains, let's examine the other flaws of the arc that put it oh so far below every other arc of the series, filler included.


 * 1) Nozomi wasn't a character. She was, at best and putting it very nicely, an amalgamation of Rukia and Orihime's characters, personalities, and plot relevance, to the point where those two got next to no screentime in favor of her being shoved in our faces for 30 episodes. Her "personality" was laughable, her Zanpakuto came out of nowhere so she could steal the spotlight even more, she managed to make Yamamoto lose a fight for her sake, she was patently useless for most of the arc, and even in death she defiled the canon of the series by violating the rules of how Mod-Souls like herself work (namely how their deaths proceed) just so everyone could weep and cry over how she was too good for this sinful earth and blah blah blah. I swear, Senna was the first and last good female character Pierrot ever made.
 * 2) In addition to his ever-growing powerset and general boring nature, Inaba somehow had a plan more complex and completely implausible in its flawless execution than Aizen, God-Emperor of all keikakus. Every time something came along to challenge or impede his progress toward his end-game, Inaba just revealed that he had the perfect counter for it or had predicted it long ago and just kept moving along. Even Urahara reverting to his sneaky, black-cloaked self from Turn Back the Pendulum, one of the very few interesting things that the arc did, ended up being pointless because of course Inaba knew about it and planned accordingly. God forbid he ever have to adapt to unexpected changes or abandon some phase of his plan, that'd be terrible.
 * 3) Kon. Just...Kon. Many people don't like his transition in the canon series from side-character with humor yet serious values to comic relief, but the Reigai arc decided to try and make him a serious and relevant character out of nowhere, and lordy did it not work. Rather than being insightful or funny or maybe even both as he was in the beginning of the manga, he was just annoying and useless.
 * 4) The fights amounted to one of two things: fanservice or BS. I'm positive that the Reigai were made just so the anime could show off a bunch of what-if matchups. Now, in small doses, that's not a bad thing (see Kenpachi vs. Byakuya from the Zanpakuto arc), but when most of your fights are like that with no sense of seriousness, it gets old and stale real fast. And as for the BS fights, look no further than the aforementioned Yamamoto scandal. The strongest Shinigami in the entire Gotei 13 and he gets wasted halfway through the arc without doing anything of note because of yet another rear-end excavation courtesy of Inaba and his ludicrous Zanpakuto. I can understand removing him early on for the sake of presenting a challenge to other characters, but even Kubo gave him an awesome Bankai fight before icing him in the manga.
 * 5) The plot was just...so dumb. Until it was too late, no one even suspected what Inaba was doing with the Reigai, and as mentioned before so much of it centered on Nozomi, who was incredibly weak and redundant character-wise. Just boring to watch week after week.

Rant over, Zanpakuto arc still reigns supreme among fillers. *drops mic*