Arrancar: The Arrival arc

• Episodes: 22
• 110 – 131
• Original run: January 10, 2007 – June 27, 2007

The sixth arc of Bleach finally continues the story with Aizen.

The arc starts with the introduction  of Shinji and it is slowly revealed what the mysterious mask that Ichigo has is and what it means. During a sudden attack Chad and Orihime are injured leaving Ichigo feeling down and questioning his resolve.

Rukia comes back along with Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rangiku and Toushiro. They have come to protect the town and to do some research while thet are there. Rukia gets Ichigo’s moral back up while the danger of Aizen gathering allies. A fight break out where they all fight against a few of the Espada. Realizing that Ichigo can’t control the hollow inside himself he seeks out the Vizard hoping to get them to teach him how he can suppress the hollow inside of him.

Ichigo suddenly disappears during his training with the Vizard. Worried, Orihime goes looking for him only to find a barrier. Orihime and Chad(Sado) are also busy training to get stronger. Chad trains because he wants to try to keep up with Ichigo. Orihime trains so that she will not be left behind or be a hindrance in the battle against Aizen. Even Ishida is training to regain the abilities he had lost. However he has made a promise that he will not have anything to do with shinigami ever again in order to regain his Quincy power.

During the arc it is revealed just how strong the threat of unmasked hollows can be. In this arc everyone is training to become stronger. This arc holds a few big secrets that get revealed, which I don’t want to spoil for you. It is the introduction of new characters while revealing secrets of characters we already know.

The episodes use four pieces of music, two for opening themes and two for the ending themes. The first opening theme is Yui’s “Rolling Star”. This song is used for the first eleven episodes of the arc. The remainder of the episodes in the arc use “Alones” by Aqua Timez as the opening theme music. The two ending themes are Mai Hoshimura’s “Sakura Biyori”(Cherry Blossom Weather) which is used until episode 120 then it switches over to”Tsumasaki” (Tiptoe) by Ore Ska Band which is used in the remainder of the episodes.

Have you seen this arc? What did you think of it?