I'm sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that I love anime, and Bleach is no exception. One of my favorite bits of animation comes from the intro to the fourth Bleach movie, Bleach: Hell Verse, or Hell Chapter.
Hell Verse was worked on very carefully by Tite Kubo, the author of the Bleach story-line and manga. Normally, the movie story-line of any particular anime (at least when the movie is stand-alone and doesn't progress the main story-line), so the author doesn't particularly care about the plot of the movie. Now this isn't always the case, such as this case. Tite Kubo was heavily involved with the story-line for this particular movie, and it shows in how the fights occur and the story progresses.
The first part of the clip above is of Ichigo, our main protagonist in his Hollow form fighting Ulquiorra Cifer, a special kind of Hollow called an Arrancar. Ichigo is a Death God (Shinigami) who helps lost souls to the afterlife, while simultaneously defending them from lost souls, or Hollows. In the beginning of the series, Ichigo (who'd borrowed his powers from another Shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki) loses them and nearly dies in the process. In his attempt to regain his lost powers, he uses an unorthodox method of a process called "Shinigamification." Though he succeeded, he also obtained a Hollow of his own.
Ichigo's Hollow has explicitly stated that he only protects Ichigo (in desperate times of need) so that he can consume Ichigo's soul and take over his body. In his fight with Ulquiorra, Ichigo is nearly killed, but his Hollow takes over and dominates Ulquiorra in response.
The memory of their fight reaches the flames of Hell, and we see a mysterious denizen of Hell staring into them. This skeletal being then slowly regenerates his body, using the garbage bodies he stands on.
This piece is very powerful to me, and after watching the whole movie I was intrigued by some of the ideas in the story. For instance, the people of Hell ar given powers, if only to feel as if they can use them to escape, even though its futile. Like giving someone a knife when you are standing twenty feet away with a gun; a type of psychological defeat.
If you want to watch the full movie, click the link below:
http://www.animeshi.tv/bleach-movie-4-hell-chapter
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