The eleventh episode of Bleach, The Legendary Quincy, does not have any battles in it but it does have a really good introduction to a new character. We also have some fun scenes of seeing our cast just being normal students and getting to learn a little more about their day-to-day life and interactions. We also learn what month Ichigo became a soul reaper, which also helps provide a bit of a timeline for us. Ichigo has by this point, been a Soul Reaper/Shinigami for at least a month – so he is still new to it all.

In the previous episode breakdowns and such, I did not really include many images during the episode synopsis. For episode 11 I changed that a bit, I included a few screenshots – I have thousands, and I figured I should probably put them to use where I can. Please let me know if you like the inclusion of the screenshots from the episode, if they help clarify the write-up, or if they just severely impact the load time of the post, thanks!

Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc / Manga Chapter: 33-36

What happens in Bleach episode eleven

At school, Ichigo and his friends are being lectured and reprimanded due to Ichigo’s actions during the live broadcast. Tatsuki gets herself and Orihime out of the drama and leaves Ichigo to deal with it. Rukia puts on a tear-filled act which allows Ichigo and the others to slip out of the room, escaping the lecture. While the teacher was distracted, Rukia also escapes. While the group marvel at their getaway Rukia gets a hollow notification. This causes Ichigo and her to split from the group.  Dumfounded, the group look after them as the runoff. Orihime comments that the two of them like each other, but the others dismiss it. Sado notices that there is a student watching them from above.

When Ichigo and Rukia arrive where the hollow is there is a hollow, only a scared spirit. They ask the spirit about who killed the hollow but get he doesn’t know. They quickly send him off to the Soul Society by performing a Konsō, aka, a Soul Burial. Meanwhile, the pair are being watched from above by a mysterious character wearing glasses. Back at school, everyone is checking the rankings that have been posted. Orihime has placed 3rd in her class, with Ichigo placing 23rd which upsets Keigo since he figured none of them would make the top 50. After seeing Sado is in 11th place, which upsets both Keigo and Mizuiro. After their reaction, Ichigo wonders who has taken first place. After reading Uryū Ishida’s name wrong and saying that he has never even heard of him, Orihime corrects Ichigo and lets him know that the kid who placed first is in their class.

Rukia is trying to get ahold of Uruhara to find out if her soul page is broken or not. She gets another hollow notification and pulls Ichigo from his friends, who are now starting to wonder if Ichigo and Rukia are seeing each other. While running to deal with the problem and moaning that there had better be a hollow, Ichigo brushes past another student wearing glasses and apologises. The student wipes his shoulder where Ichigo had bumped him – as if brushing off dirt. Once again there is no hollow when the pair arrive. Rukia drags Ichigo’s body into sight and tells him to get back into his body as he complains about the fact that there is no hollow. Rukia explains that she can not control false alarms, if the notification goes off, she has to notify him. Ichigo gets back into his body while still bickering with Rukia when the unknown, glasses-wearing person approaches them. He addresses the pair by their names which makes them wonder who he is. The unknown person carries on talking to the pair and admits he knows that Ichigo can see spirits. This startles the pair. However, before the person can answer their questions, he senses something and then Rukia’s Soul pager goes off, announcing a hollow. He tells the pair which direction the hollow is before Rukia can check on the pager. The person is mocking when he asks the pair if ‘they can not sense such a simple thing? And you call yourself a soul reaper.’ Before Rukia and Ichigo can move, the person draws a bow and arrow of blue light (out of nowhere) and eliminates the hollow.

The unknown person then shoots the arrow in the direction he had pointed for the hollow. Rukia’s soul pager signal for the hollow vanishes. The person introduces himself as Uryū Ishida, a Quincy and goes on to say that soul reapers are his enemy. Then he goes on to declare Ichigo as his enemy. The next day, Ichigo is upset due to Uryū insulting him, however, he has difficulty remembering Uryū’s name. Once again, Orihime provides Ichigo with the correct name and lets Ichigo know more about him. Such as, that she is in the same handcrafts club as him and that he is really good at sewing. Ichigo is really surprised by this and is stunned by his ability, Ichigo concludes that he is insane. Orihime asks Ichigo if he and Uryū have some kind of problem which he confirms but says it is nothing he can’t handle. He then follows Uryū on his way home from school but is caught and confronted. Uryū chastises Ichigo for letting his spirit energy leak out making him really easy to notice and called Ichigo an amateur which angered Ichigo. Uryū continues and says that if Ichigo was any good he would have sensed his spirit energy when they both started at the school. Uryū even knows the day in mid-May when Ichigo became a soul reaper, knows that Rukia is one too, and to prove his point, he makes Ichigo’s spirit ribbon visible and shows it to him, pointing out that Ichigo’s is red, not white like the rest. A clear indication that he is a Shinigami. Uryū suggests that they have a duel to determine which of them is stronger, the Quincy or the soul reaper. Uryū wants to show that soul reapers are not needed.

At Urahara’s store Jinta and Ururu are playing to see who does which chores, or more like Jinta is teasing/bullying Ururu. She is saved by Tessai. Rukia arrives and throws her soul pager at Urahara. Rukia asks for urgent information. Ichigo and Uryū discuss the details of their duel which Uryū want to happen right away. Ichigo says the idea is ridiculous, and that it would be a waste of time. He starts to head away when Uryū successfully goads him. Urahara admits he has not heard the term Quincy in a long time and Tessai says it has been about 200 years. Urahara tells Rukia that the Quincy’s had gone extinct centuries ago but that they had been a clan scattered around the world who had killed hollows. He explains a brief history of the Quincy’s and that they had a fundamental difference in approach to dealing with hollows. Soul reapers cleanse the soul of the hollow while Quincy kills the hollow and destroys the soul. This led to a divide between soul reapers and Quincy’s and what ultimately led to the clan’s demise. Meanwhile, Ichigo accepts Uryū’s duel and takes Kon out of his bag and switches to his soul form. He claims he shall give Uryū some stitches to sew and asks Uryū how the duel will work.

Memorable moments of the episode:

All of my memorable moments from this particular Bleach episode revolve around Uryū. Such as him declaring that Ichigo is an enemy because all soul reapers are his enemy. Uryū makes spirit ribbons appear and shows Ichigo that his spirit ribbon is red and because of this, he knows who/what Rukia really is. Then there is also a very brief mention of Quincy’s history told by Urahara.