Fade To Black: Kimi no na o yobu
I watched this this morning. (Raw - I've heard there are Chinese fansubs out, don't know if the English ones are yet, perhaps not). And there are a number of things I have to mention/squee about/etc.
Spoilers beneath cuts. Click at own risk.
Overall I think this one worked fairly well. There were a few things that made me go "hang on a minute", though. Homura says "I'm going to erase your existence" to Rukia before Shizuku zaps her with the scythe thingy. That's erasing her memories and erasing the memories of those around her, too. Which is fine, since it means that nobody in SS knows who she is, Renji can't remember how to release Bankai because he can't remember saving Rukia, Byakuya can't remember who Hisana wanted to search for in Rukongai, etc etc. However, even though Ichigo initially forgets her, Kon does not. (Does that mean Kon has a stronger bond?) And Ichigo remembers her again quite quickly, but if her entire existence has been obliterated - should he be able to remember how to be a Shinigami at all? Is this because he's real world/alive or simply the 'kizuna' (bond) that the two of them share?
He goes to Urahara's shop and talks to him. Urahara is weird at this point, too. He can't remember Rukia, and he admits later that he can't remember Ichigo, either, yet he listens to him and helps him get through the Senkaimon into SS. Possibly, being Urahara, he wants to see what happens, but ...that was a bit wtf. I'm not sure how Ichigo remembers so easily how to do even as high as Bankai with Vaizard mask when Renji can't remember his Bankai. Especially since Zabimaru CAN remember it.
A few nice scenes that echoed past scenes, though. Injured Renji being nagged by Zabimaru, Urahara in the maggots' nest (?) with Mayuri...
Ah, and that brings me to another plot WTF.
Urahara. HOW did Urahara get so easily into SS? We know that Urahara in the anime/manga isn't able to break through that divide. Yet he appears in front of Mayuri robed as he is in the real world, as though he's taken his gigai through the divide. Even if you presume that he can get back if he loses the gigai - that doesn't quite add up. He later appears in front of the other shinigami robed in the attire of the Captain of Twelfth Squad and everyone kinda just accepts this. ALTHOUGH because Rukia's existence has been erased, none of the Captains should know about Aizen and Aizen's betrayal since it all ties in with Rukia and what happened to her. Urahara should still be seen as an exiled Shinigami and they should be trying to catch him, not listening to him babble about Ichigo and so on and so forth. Right? >< And for that matter, nobody seems to wonder why Aizen, Gin and Tousen aren't there. Do they remember a patchy version of events minus Rukia? This is not quite clear although one of Rukia's own memories to begin with seems to omit Renji when escaping from the water stall in Rukongai. Hrm. A little fuzzy here.
That said, I liked Urahara being there among them all as a Captain.
In case anyone is wondering, Mayuri starts this movie by being attacked by Homura and Shizuku and has his memories severed so he doesn't know who anyone is and gets scared out of his wits just by Nemu. He goes nuts, releases his sword and winds up in confinement. Yet he's not as badly affected as Rukia since for some reason he has his memories on backup. And also part of this ties in with him and his lab, since the snakeworm hollow creature thingy that's the root cause of all the memory wiping was originally somewhere in Twelfth Division.
Yamajii gets an opportunity to lose his shirt again. Actually, I think the monster looks like Yamajii's ancestor, but that's just me ><.
And there was this little fangirl moment of Juu and Shun releasing their zanpakutou and going into battle...together. Whether they needed to actually call the releases or not to do that I'm not sure, but I'm not complaining. For a brief two minutes, maybe, Juu and Shun got to team pwn the snake monster. Every little helps. I was happy ;).
Urahara and Benihime were also quite pwn too. Especially when he and Yoruichi saved Soi Fon. That was amusing...since Soi Fon really doesn't like him at all...
Erm, what else.
Renji. I liked Renji in this movie. I liked his being lost at the start with what's going on, his fleeting memories of Rukia, his being nagged by Zabimaru and his deciding to believe in Zabimaru rather than his own memory in terms of Ichigo and so on. I like that he remembered Rukia after seeing the water stall in Inazuri and that after that he remembered his Bankai because he was going to save Rukia again. It's a little bit kitsch but I liked it that way.
As for Byakuya - this was in a way my disappointment in the movie in that there wasn't more of Byakuya and Hisana. But it's worth noting that of all the Shinigami in SS, Byakuya is the only one who doesn't raise his sword against nor contest Ichigo in any particular way. When Ichigo is at the Kuchiki mansion, it's clear Byakuya doesn't remember him, but as Byakuya asks him how he knows about Hisana, they're interrupted by guards. Byakuya tells those guards to stand down, because - I presume - he wants to hear Ichigo's answer. After Ichigo beats Renji, Byakuya starts to call his sword release but stops and instead tells Ichigo where Hisana grew up in Rukongai. Even though he doesn't remember Ichigo, he still seems to believe him. The only flashback we see of Hisana is Byakuya remembering her saying that she had to go back to Rukongai to keep searching and he was trying to remember what it was she was searching for. But I think he could've been more involved. He does come back into it at the end, predictably, and in a good way - but still not quite enough for me.
Second squad is full of cowards worse than Oomaeda, since they all ran away before he did this time.
Komamura needs to learn to stop releasing his Bankai in enclosed spaces since he was doing way more harm than Ichigo was.
Hisagi needs to learn that using kidou is fine, but he has a zanpakutou and he really ought to use it more than for ten seconds or so. Not that I care about Hisagi, but I'm sure there are fans of his who will.
Matsumoto's seiyuu was obviously busy since she didn't turn up till after the hour mark and had about three lines, one being the release of Haineko.
I have no clue why Ikkaku didn't release Houzukimaru even to Shikai for the entirety of this film. I'm also not sure why neither he nor Yumichika are at all bothered that Kenpachi is missing (again, he appears somewhat dramatically in fan-pleasing style to do some butt kicking, basically because he has no actual relevance to the plot at all and to have him involved more would have been superfluous).
If Hitsugaya's kidou is weak enough that Renji can cut through it with a simple shikai blade, then he really needs to go back and practice.
Momo and Nanao did not make a single appearance. I was trying to work out where this might slip into the canon timeline if we were to consider it as such and I guess it's before Aizen attacks and after Ichigo gets his Vaizard powers sorted out, although he only uses the mask once and at a completely irrelevant moment. Where Momo and Nanao are is a mystery. Not important enough to feature, evidently. Kira also was absent. I'm going to amuse myself therefore in thinking Kira and Momo were playing hooky somewhere together...while Nanao was probably buried under Shunsui's huge piles of Division paperwork. It's ironic and strange since even Sasakibe had a speaking part. None of the VC except Renji had a major part, but Sasakibe's was probably one of the bigger...
So yeah. That's my overall random on this for now. Off to do something useful I guess...
Am leaving this unlocked in case anyone wants to link it out. I was trying to take screen captures but my PC will not cooperate ><
Spoilers beneath cuts. Click at own risk.
Overall I think this one worked fairly well. There were a few things that made me go "hang on a minute", though. Homura says "I'm going to erase your existence" to Rukia before Shizuku zaps her with the scythe thingy. That's erasing her memories and erasing the memories of those around her, too. Which is fine, since it means that nobody in SS knows who she is, Renji can't remember how to release Bankai because he can't remember saving Rukia, Byakuya can't remember who Hisana wanted to search for in Rukongai, etc etc. However, even though Ichigo initially forgets her, Kon does not. (Does that mean Kon has a stronger bond?) And Ichigo remembers her again quite quickly, but if her entire existence has been obliterated - should he be able to remember how to be a Shinigami at all? Is this because he's real world/alive or simply the 'kizuna' (bond) that the two of them share?
He goes to Urahara's shop and talks to him. Urahara is weird at this point, too. He can't remember Rukia, and he admits later that he can't remember Ichigo, either, yet he listens to him and helps him get through the Senkaimon into SS. Possibly, being Urahara, he wants to see what happens, but ...that was a bit wtf. I'm not sure how Ichigo remembers so easily how to do even as high as Bankai with Vaizard mask when Renji can't remember his Bankai. Especially since Zabimaru CAN remember it.
A few nice scenes that echoed past scenes, though. Injured Renji being nagged by Zabimaru, Urahara in the maggots' nest (?) with Mayuri...
Ah, and that brings me to another plot WTF.
Urahara. HOW did Urahara get so easily into SS? We know that Urahara in the anime/manga isn't able to break through that divide. Yet he appears in front of Mayuri robed as he is in the real world, as though he's taken his gigai through the divide. Even if you presume that he can get back if he loses the gigai - that doesn't quite add up. He later appears in front of the other shinigami robed in the attire of the Captain of Twelfth Squad and everyone kinda just accepts this. ALTHOUGH because Rukia's existence has been erased, none of the Captains should know about Aizen and Aizen's betrayal since it all ties in with Rukia and what happened to her. Urahara should still be seen as an exiled Shinigami and they should be trying to catch him, not listening to him babble about Ichigo and so on and so forth. Right? >< And for that matter, nobody seems to wonder why Aizen, Gin and Tousen aren't there. Do they remember a patchy version of events minus Rukia? This is not quite clear although one of Rukia's own memories to begin with seems to omit Renji when escaping from the water stall in Rukongai. Hrm. A little fuzzy here.
That said, I liked Urahara being there among them all as a Captain.
In case anyone is wondering, Mayuri starts this movie by being attacked by Homura and Shizuku and has his memories severed so he doesn't know who anyone is and gets scared out of his wits just by Nemu. He goes nuts, releases his sword and winds up in confinement. Yet he's not as badly affected as Rukia since for some reason he has his memories on backup. And also part of this ties in with him and his lab, since the snakeworm hollow creature thingy that's the root cause of all the memory wiping was originally somewhere in Twelfth Division.
Yamajii gets an opportunity to lose his shirt again. Actually, I think the monster looks like Yamajii's ancestor, but that's just me ><.
And there was this little fangirl moment of Juu and Shun releasing their zanpakutou and going into battle...together. Whether they needed to actually call the releases or not to do that I'm not sure, but I'm not complaining. For a brief two minutes, maybe, Juu and Shun got to team pwn the snake monster. Every little helps. I was happy ;).
Urahara and Benihime were also quite pwn too. Especially when he and Yoruichi saved Soi Fon. That was amusing...since Soi Fon really doesn't like him at all...
Erm, what else.
Renji. I liked Renji in this movie. I liked his being lost at the start with what's going on, his fleeting memories of Rukia, his being nagged by Zabimaru and his deciding to believe in Zabimaru rather than his own memory in terms of Ichigo and so on. I like that he remembered Rukia after seeing the water stall in Inazuri and that after that he remembered his Bankai because he was going to save Rukia again. It's a little bit kitsch but I liked it that way.
As for Byakuya - this was in a way my disappointment in the movie in that there wasn't more of Byakuya and Hisana. But it's worth noting that of all the Shinigami in SS, Byakuya is the only one who doesn't raise his sword against nor contest Ichigo in any particular way. When Ichigo is at the Kuchiki mansion, it's clear Byakuya doesn't remember him, but as Byakuya asks him how he knows about Hisana, they're interrupted by guards. Byakuya tells those guards to stand down, because - I presume - he wants to hear Ichigo's answer. After Ichigo beats Renji, Byakuya starts to call his sword release but stops and instead tells Ichigo where Hisana grew up in Rukongai. Even though he doesn't remember Ichigo, he still seems to believe him. The only flashback we see of Hisana is Byakuya remembering her saying that she had to go back to Rukongai to keep searching and he was trying to remember what it was she was searching for. But I think he could've been more involved. He does come back into it at the end, predictably, and in a good way - but still not quite enough for me.
Second squad is full of cowards worse than Oomaeda, since they all ran away before he did this time.
Komamura needs to learn to stop releasing his Bankai in enclosed spaces since he was doing way more harm than Ichigo was.
Hisagi needs to learn that using kidou is fine, but he has a zanpakutou and he really ought to use it more than for ten seconds or so. Not that I care about Hisagi, but I'm sure there are fans of his who will.
Matsumoto's seiyuu was obviously busy since she didn't turn up till after the hour mark and had about three lines, one being the release of Haineko.
I have no clue why Ikkaku didn't release Houzukimaru even to Shikai for the entirety of this film. I'm also not sure why neither he nor Yumichika are at all bothered that Kenpachi is missing (again, he appears somewhat dramatically in fan-pleasing style to do some butt kicking, basically because he has no actual relevance to the plot at all and to have him involved more would have been superfluous).
If Hitsugaya's kidou is weak enough that Renji can cut through it with a simple shikai blade, then he really needs to go back and practice.
Momo and Nanao did not make a single appearance. I was trying to work out where this might slip into the canon timeline if we were to consider it as such and I guess it's before Aizen attacks and after Ichigo gets his Vaizard powers sorted out, although he only uses the mask once and at a completely irrelevant moment. Where Momo and Nanao are is a mystery. Not important enough to feature, evidently. Kira also was absent. I'm going to amuse myself therefore in thinking Kira and Momo were playing hooky somewhere together...while Nanao was probably buried under Shunsui's huge piles of Division paperwork. It's ironic and strange since even Sasakibe had a speaking part. None of the VC except Renji had a major part, but Sasakibe's was probably one of the bigger...
So yeah. That's my overall random on this for now. Off to do something useful I guess...
Am leaving this unlocked in case anyone wants to link it out. I was trying to take screen captures but my PC will not cooperate ><