User blog comment:Godisme/The Edge/@comment-1268838-20130130154435/@comment-1351982-20130131024801

I agree with Xi on this. The "long fights" of the Arrancar arc was both its triumph and its downfall. There were epic cinematic battles, but by the time Kubo got to chapter 300, the formula was really obvious and Kubo just ran out of steam. Sure, there were still a few good ones in there (Shunsui and Starrk), but mostly we got fights in which everyone kept "one-upping" each other and/or incredibly OP; and dragged on horribly. Kubo admitted himself that the Arrancar arc did have issues, so I don't blame him for not doing "long fights" this early on.