- Episodes: 17
- 213 – 229
- Original run: March 31, 2009 – July 21, 2009
The twelfth arc of Bleach starts off back in Karakura town where Kon has been left behind. Urahara puts together a defense team to defend the town from hollows while Ichigo and the rest are in Hueco Mundo. While the group work at defeating hollows Urahara is able to work in the shadows and complete his mission without the hollows discovering what he is up to. That all happens, within the first two episodes.
The third episode picks up where the tenth arc left off. From that point on it is revealed that the real Karahura town is in Soul Society so the Espada plan to destroy the pillars and bring back the real town. Fierce battles ensue as four strong shinigami, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Kira and Hisagi were chosen to protect the pillars. The four each participate in life and death battles against 4 challenging Arrancar.
With the destruction of one of the pillars Karakura town starts to come back. With the defense of the pillars done the rest of the arrancar and shinigami start their fights as well. The captains split along with their lieutenants and appear among the Espada and Arrancar. The three arrancar that were fighting against Rangiku Matsumoto, summon a giant beast once they were forced into releasing their forms.
This beast, Allon, quickly took out Rangiku and Hinamori who were fighting together forcing a few others to come help them. However the beast proves to be a formidable foe. Will anyone be able to take Allon Down? This arc is fight after fight. Where both sides have wins and losses.
The last three episodes are filler though.
- Epi 227: This takes place showing events both in Soul Society and the real world just before Rukia goes to Karakura town.
- Epi 228: The shinigami go to the beach.
- Epi 229: Ikkaku Madarame
Fights in this arc:
- Ikkaku Madarame vs. Choe Neng Poww
- Yumichika Ayasegawa vs. Charlotte Cuuhlhourne
- Kira Izuru vs. Avirama Redder
- Shuhei Hisagi vs. Yylfordt Granz
- Komamura vs. Choe Neng Poww
- Toshiro Hitsugaya vs. Tier Harribel
- Rangiku Matsumoto vs. Emilou + Cyan Sung-Sun +Franceska Mila Rose
- Marechiyo Omaeda vs. Nirgge Parduoc
- Sui-Feng vs. Ggio Vega
- Jushiro Ukitake vs. Lilunette Gingerbuck
- Shunsui Kyoraku vs. Coyote Starrk
- Sui-Feng + Marechiyo vs. Baraggan Louisenbairn
A massive total of 11 fights in this arc! Considering the first two and last three episodes don’t really count (in my own personal opinion) that is 11 fights in 12 episodes!
The episodes use four pieces of music. There are two opening songs and two closing songs. The first two episodes use “Velonica” by AquaTimez as the opening song. Then for the rest of the episodes in this arc the second opening song, “Shōjo S”by Scandal is used. The first ending song is, “Sky Chord” by Shion Tsuji is used for the first two episodes. The second end song is “Kimi o Mamotte, Kimi o Aishite” (I Will Protect You, I Love You) by Sambomaster, which is used for the remainder of the arc.
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