#mimihagi

First off, I want to say that this is my favorite episode of this Cour so far. I had heard the spoilers that half the episode would be flashbacks so I thought I’d be bored out of my mind, but no, I LOVED THIS EPISODE.

The Mimihagi ritual was chilling. They did that so well, with the parents chanting and Ukitake getting sicker. It was so heartwarming to see Ukitake comforting his mother despite the fact that he was young and dying. And when he was finally confronted with Mimihagi I felt so unsettled. Everything regarding the Soul King unsettles me, he’s so mysterious.

They also displayed his illness very well in today’s episode. I had forgotten that Ukitake wasn’t originally born with white hair. That made his illness feel more real and made me sympathize more.

I feel like it’s a fandom consensus that Ukitake and Shunsui are life partners. They’ve always been presented as extremely close with amazing chemistry. Frankly, I liked their dynamic but I was never too focused on it because I wasn’t too attached to either of their characters but with these flashbacks I really felt my love for them sky rocket.

Ukitake admitting to staring at Shunsui in class? Shunsui not minding? Ukitake LITERALLY coughing blood on Shunsui’s face and Shunsui not caring? Shunsui meeting Ukitake’s family? Them going on dates? Ukitake trusting Shunsui with his secret about Mimihagi?

I love it all.

Unohana, Yamamoto and Sasakibe being in the flashback really makes me so curious about how the Soul Society was like back then. This was like a 1000 years ago, it’s so interesting to note the differences between then and now.

Seeing Unohana, Ukitake and Shunsui mourning Yamamoto was heartbreaking. I remember in Cour 1, there was a meeting among all of the captains. They were mostly yelling at each other and tensions were high. In this scene, It’s nice to see the oldest and closest captains to Yamamoto silently mourn him.

And there’s the scene where Unohana and Ukitake say goodbye and Ukitake says, “We’ll see each other soon.” Um, hell arc? That was so sad. Only Shunsui is left alive now.

We go back to the Soul Palace and wow. Thank you. THANK YOU. Ichigo’s sidekicks finally take action. They obviously wouldn’t be able to defeat Yhwach but seeing them finally take action was so satisfying. During their combo attack Orihime goes to heal the Soul King. They made it look like it was working for a second and then her shield exploded. I really like how it was animated cause it kind of gives the look of “this would’ve worked but the Soul King is a being beyond reason.”

Also, I really loved the little Orihime and Yoruichi moment.

Now Aizen…

Aizen, my guy. WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU? Wow, he kind of looked strange this episode…. He didn’t even seem like himself, in the manga he’s smirking, in the anime he looks sad.

I was looking forward to this moment but they kind of fumbled it:

It was so good in the manga cause he was all smiley and mocking, then suddenly the mask falls off and he’s dead serious. THEY FUMBLED THIS SCENE.

Also, I wasn’t feeling Shunsui and Aizen’s cat and mouse shtick in the anime as much as I felt it in the manga. They made Aizen look straight depressed.

But I like the scene showing his reiatsu barrier.

Genuine question for any Bleach fans: what happened to the Soul King's legs?

He was cut into pieces and locked into that crystal, fine.

His arms both gained sentience enough to have names, eyes, a mind more or less of their own and opinions on who to side with in a war between Shinigamis and Quincies.

In Pernida's case that even means going toe to toe with Kurotsuchi for a while during their battle, intelligence growing every second they fought and having an actual physical form.

Mimhagi seems to have stuck to a less physical form, but is still aware enough to choose to help young Ukitake and then take a stand against Yhwach.

But what about the legs?

They got cut of just the same, but we never see them? What, between Pernidas disembodied arm and the horrors that are Kurotsuchi's multiple Bankai forms, Kubo looked at the idea of sentient legs and went 'Naah, that's too wild?'

Are they just lying around in a room on one of the Squad 0 Islands? Did Ichibei cut them off and then lock them up or just forget about them?

This might just be signs of me still being a little sick and exhausted, but what if they're just chilling in Hueco Mundo?

Like, Aizen takes a walk through the Menos Forest and comes across a pair of inhumanly large legs with eyes halfway up their shins who just... stare at him, and decides his walk was long enough, and maybe he should just go back home and check whether or not Gin spiked his tea.

(This feels more and more like a shitpost but I can't help but laugh at that visual)

Or are they with the fifth Nobel Clan Kubo never came around to introducing? Do we not see any of those people because they're secretly all leg-people and ashamed of that?

okay listen. i might be on crack again. actually, i am definitely on crack. don't ask. but if you don't hear from me after this, just know the Gotei 13 hitmen got to me first because I AM EXPOSING THE TRUTH.

JUSHIRO UKITAKE WAS NEVER A SHINIGAMI. HE WAS A SENTIENT BIOLOGICAL SPY DRONE OPERATED BY THE SOUL KING. 🧵👇

BRO. THINK ABOUT IT. the "Kindest Captain" trope? A MASK. A CUSTODIAN OF THE SCRIPT. He wasn't living a life; he was running a program.

1. THE "BADGE" OF DECEIT 📛

Remember the Substitute Badge he gave Ichigo? We find out later it’s a high-tech surveillance and suppression bug. WHY WAS THE "NICEST GUY" IN CHARGE OF THE BLACK OPS SPY GEAR? Because he's Mimihagi’s vessel. Mimihagi is the god of "Stagnation" and "Governance." Ukitake wasn't being a bro; he was installing a cosmic GPS on the next potential God-Candidate. He was literally governing Ichigo's growth from day one.

2. THE SICKNESS IS A DAMN DATA LEAK 🩸

"Oh, he has lung problems." NO. His body was literally rejecting the sheer volume of FUTURE-SIGHT DATA being beamed into his brain by the Soul King's arm. He’s coughing up blood because his mortal hardware cannot handle the Divine Software. The "sickness" was just a limiter to keep him from exploding into a pillar of pure Reiatsu and spoiling the ending of the series for everyone.

3. THE WHITE HAIR (I’m losing it, stay with me) 🦳

Kubo says it turned white in 3 days due to "illness." In Shintoism, white hair = TOUCHED BY THE DIVINE. His hair wasn't graying; it was being bleached (pun intended) by the Soul King’s essence. He is a reanimated corpse being kept "stagnant" (unchanging) by a god just so the King has a set of eyes in the Seireitei.

4. THE MISSING BANKAI IS THE ULTIMATE SMOKING GUN 🗡️

He’s 1,000+ years old and we never see his Bankai? Why? Because his Bankai is likely "ENFORCEMENT OF THE DIVINE LAW." If he released it, the "script" would break. He didn't use it against Starrk because using it would reveal he’s a cosmic puppet. He wasn't holding back for honor; he was holding back because he wasn't authorized to use the "Administrator Privileges" yet.

5. THE HELL ARC REVEAL (I AM SCREAMING) ⛓️

In the "new" one-shot, his swords emerge from Hell and they are SIZE OF LITERAL SKYSCRAPERS(not literally but theyre huge). This is it. This is the proof. He was never "Captain-level." He was always COSMIC-LEVEL. His "sickly" body was just a container. Now that he’s in Hell, the container is gone, and he’s the Warden. He went from being the Soul King’s Eyes in Heaven to being the Soul King’s Fist in the Pit.

CONCLUSION:

Ukitake didn't "die" for the Soul Society. His mission as a sleeper agent was just complete, so he returned to the source. Everything he did—every smile, every cough, every "gift"—was a calculated move by the Soul King to make sure Ichigo ended up exactly where he needed to be.