Unohana's Chat With Ichigo

This week's episode of Bleach was quite interesting. Kurotsuchi Mayuri opens up the Garganta with the assistance of Nemu. It looks like Unohana and Ichigo are headed to Karakura town for the real battle against Aizen! Along the way, Unohana asks Ichigo what he thought of Aizen's powers when he first confronted him in Soul Society. Fortunately, it turns out that Ichigo is the only one who has not seen Aizen's shikai.

Anyone who sees Sōsuke Aizen's shikai automatically falls under his "complete hypnosis", as he calls it. Aside from that, another important point gets established about Ichigo. He explains how his Shihakusho changes when he does bankai. Furthermore, his Shihakusho is an important part of his bankai and only a part of it was restored when Orihime healed him. It signifies the amount of spiritual pressure he has. Since it takes Orihime a while to heal spiritual pressure (reiatsu), he didn't stick around for it.

So the question is, how strong is Ichigo? Expect to see much-awaited action when these two arrive in Karakura town. Let's hope the animation team plans to finish up the arc before going into long-term fillers as always. Bleach Manga seems to be approximately 25 to 30 episodes ahead based on the current pacing. Stay tuned.